Mahmoud Amadinejad is officially approved as president of Iran and they're shooting gay people in Israel. Good golly, I sure wish I lived in a country run by religion.
FIRST, IRAN. Today, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei endorsed Amadinejad as the country's president (Globe And Mail). This of course follows an election widely viewed as a sham, which led to massive protests, and arrests and lethal crackdowns by the regime. Obviously, this all kind of sucks.
On the bright side, much of Iran's "establishment" boycotted the endorsement ceremony. Two former presidents and two presidential candidates were no-shows, once again demonstrating the country's political elite is badly, badly divided. And that's a good sign for everyone who likes ordinary Iranians and is rooting for them to throw off the shackles of superstition, hatred, fear and repression you always get with theocracies.
The way I see it: the reason Iran's power elite is split because the illegitimate election has undermined the legitimacy of Iran's entire ruling class. It's not just Khamenei and Amadinejad whose political careers/influence is at risk--their idiot shenanigans have undermined the whole system and that's no good for the (naturally, all-male) fancy-pantses who benefit from that system.
By over-reaching their power, which they did when they (probably) faked the results of the June 12 election, Iran's rulers pissed off a country full of people well-known for their tyrant-tossing skills. Maybe nothing will happen this month or this year, but Iran's religious regime has revealed itself to be phony and hypocritical--and Iran is one country where people won't put up with that shit.
Amadinejad will be sworn in as president on Wednesday. Iranians aren't gonna like it. If you're in Iran that day, wear a helmet.
(By the way, I love the photo with the Globe And Mail article I linked to--Amadinejad has that same smug yet slightly puzzled expression George Bush always had when he was having some poor country bombed. What a fucker.)
ISRAELI GAY SHAME I don't know what to say about the masked and/or helmeted lunatic/sissy who's afraid of gay people who walked into a youth centre and shot 15 people, killing two, this weekend. But Israeli's gay community is, quite reasonably, blaming religious bigotry and smears for inciting violence. You can read the basic story here and a commentary here (Aljazeera, Guardian). Religion and righteousness inspiring violent behaviour in Israel? Wouldn't be the first time.
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