Iranian Whacko Roundup!

by shamanic

No, Tuesday is here and the world is still crazy.

I'm going to kick off this round-up by visiting a post at Northman's Fury from a couple of days ago. Yes, I'm vain: BJ Bjornson links my own earlier post on the Columbia U. controversy, but he makes a statement that particularly caught my eye:

Considered as a whole, what strikes me, is that given most of Ahmadinejad's views, if he were an American, most of the critics and defenders would have their roles reversed.

The notion that Ahmadinejad has hordes of 'defenders' here in the West strikes me as a little off. Has anyone seen these defenders anywhere? All over the lefty blogosphere, I see Iran's esteemed president referred to in very realistic terms: lunatic, nutty, theocrat, crazy.

Yes, there's always the stray Kos diarist, doing for the interwebs what 10,000 reasoned analyses never will: coming to the conclusion that a murderer of gays, an oppressor of women, a true theocratic nutjob, is cute & cuddly & le sigh--he stands up to Bush!

Okay, actually, once you get past the intro, Sally Kohn makes a more coherent post, even if I strongly disagree with the content. She says, absurdly, "Ahmadinejad, it would appear, cares more about American troops than President Bush," and I just feel a little bit of pity when she writes, "It['s] striking when a leader with an abysmal human rights record is the one championing the rights of the poor and oppressed to the president of the United States who proclaims to be the world’s savior. Dangerous, indeed --- certainly to the status quo he critiques."

Right, because world leaders - especially in despotic regions like the Middle East - never deflect blame by changing the subject.

Ah well, if it weren't for DKos, I'm not sure what Little Green Footballs would be about. Boogers, perhaps?

Speaking of LGF (and I promise I'll move on momentarily), I thought my eyes might blow up when I saw the following line at Cox & Forkum:

UPDATE II: Little Green Footballs has posted a Canadian documentary about homosexuals in Iran: Out in Iran

What??? LGF... Canadian documentary... homosexuals... WOW!

Over at Pajamas Media (I read it so you don't have to), GayPatriotWest writes a long and belabored indictment of... let's see... Ahmadinejad, liberals, gay groups, American gays, Kos diarists (duh!), and of course kicking some tepid support to the Bush administration because, after all, it doesn't execute people for being gay. Woohoo! It's like I'm an equal citizen 'n' stuff now!!! Guess I can quit pointing to that 14th amendment and asking my country to, you know, act like my country.

And finally, we return to planet Earth, with an utterly pointless post from The Astute Bloggers, obsessed as righties always are with "state control of the blah blah blah." Summary: Ahmadinejad is a liberal because the state controls industries. Counterpoint: Ahmadinejad is a conservative because his government is utterly obsessed with controlling the lives of individuals and punishing them for moral misbehavior. Just like conservatives everywhere. Hey Reliapundit, let's split the difference and say Ahmadinejad is a total asshole, shall we?

So, in summary: nobody anywhere on the political spectrum - even the Kos diarists - like Ahmadinejad or the government he represents. I haven't seen a single analysis from anyone suggesting that the people of Iran deserve the midget with the mouth. I haven't seen anyone suggest that we're being too tough by confronting the little jackass when he speaks to American audiences.

No one likes him, his beliefs, or his government's policies. But that - and listen closely, friends on the right - does not mean the United States should go bombing the people of Iran.