Yeah, but I still bear a grudge for that 1979 thing. Screw 'em. 
Amusement?
No really. It’s like when you have the drunk stranger at the bar who keeping talking gibberish at you and eventually you start goading him to see what he’ll say next. If someone’s that raging of an asshole, being the unwilling participant in a joke may be the best thing they can do for mankind.
How about doing the song to the tune of “I Get a Kick out of You” instead?
You may get to do that in a bar, but how do you justify inviting the asshole home, much less insulting him once he gets there? If he’s an asshole, what does that make you?
I must agree.
Yep. I am no big fan of Amambenenijad, in fact I’m not going to look up the spelling of his name (how’d I do?) but that rant seemed pointless and over the top, at the same time. How was a translator supposed to get through that? Did the whole audience need to sit through the translation so that the professor could get on Youtube?
This should have been broken up into several pointed questions about facts, and then the response from Amabenenijaad (How 'bout now?) could legitimately be used to impugn him.
It was the equivalent of “General Betray Us”. Instead of talking about the issues, there is too much talk about the dumb-ass move made by Bollinger.
I agree. Too much attention is being put on Bollinger. He could have just said that he disagreed with some of the things Ackmenajinabod has said and left it at that and then introduce Akminajenibad. Or said nothing at all and just introduce the guy.
I heard Tom Petty…
*He grew up in an Iranian town
Had a good lookin face and some oats that needed sown
But he grew up gay and it wasn’t right
To do Iranian boys in the fundamental sight
Well Mahmoud came to power and began opressing queens
Women, men and whatever’s inbetween
Ayatollas don’t like it when the boys are groovin
They can eat a holy bullet or they can keep on movin
…on, keep movin on
Last chance for gays in Iran
Look out if you’re into some man on man
They feel Mahmoud peekin in and they’re
Tired of what’s natch bein’ a sin
Well 50 were prisoner four hundred plus days
The Shaw went packin’ to escape the craze
With more oil than they could ever pump from way down
Now they’re gonna go nuclear on their own godly town
Oh my my, oh hell yes
Columbia put on that asshole’s address
Caused quite a stink, proved he’s a liar,
“Great Satan’s goin’ to hell cause his ass is on fire”
Last chance for gays in Iran
Look out if you’re into some man on man
They feel Mahmoud peekin in and they’re
Tired of what’s natch bein’ a sin
There’s men lookin’ down at the market square
Makin’ sure all the wimmins sportin’ burkawear
Arms shippin’ across by the light of the moon
Gonna fight by proxy on the orders of the goon
Oh my my, oh hell yes
You men got to put on that hetero dress
You better not be doin’ the nekkid hug
Don’t want no knees skinned on a Persian rug
Last chance for gays in Iran
Look out if you’re into some man on man
They feel Mahmoud peekin in and they’re
Tired of what’s natch bein’ a sin*
Huh. No gays in Iran, huh?
If nobody turns gay in Iran, why was this neccesary?:
What the photo doesn’t show is that the ropes are attached to an industrial crane. The victims (a more appropriate term than “the condemned”), who are being killed for having consensual sex, are lifted up to slowly die of strangulation, rather than dropping to a neck-breaking stop as was Washington State child-rapist & murderer Wesley Dodd.
(I don’t mean this post to be RO; if anyone is ignorant of Iran’s reaction to homosexuality, I wish to fight it in visceral detail)
Amakmebenijaad contends that filthy craneload of gays was being lowered into Iran from the neighboring dirty western nation of Kuwait.
Seems about the same to me. Add in that it’s politics and everyone’s supposed to pretend to like each other and you get this.
During his speech/debate at Columbia Mahmoud was often wrong, but I was embarrassed by Bollinger’s crassness. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was a guest, this isn’t a fucking Congressional Hearing or The Presidential Debates. He doesn’t have to answer to this punk. This was an opportunity to raise all these questions with intelligence, for us to at least appear to think with openmindedness and seek a solution. To start this off with, “Let’s then, be clear at the beginning — Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator. And, so, I ask you — and so I ask you, why have women, members of the Bahai faith, homosexuals and so many of our academic colleagues become targets of persecution in your country?” embarrassed this country.
And to think of all the other important things you could say are an embarrassment to your country yet you think telling off a nutjob dictator is one of them? I’d think that would be something to not be embarrassed about.
BTW, Ahmedenajad isn’t interested in an open debate to seek solutions. He is interested in promoting his agenda and if that agenda requires you to disappear in a nuclear cloud he wouldn’t hesitate to push the button if he had the ability to do so. What you should be embarrassed about is not recognizing this fact.
Perhaps I’m too polite. We’re the Good Guys. You don’t invite someone over and then be ugly to them. You don’t invite the asshole over at all.
I can’t imagine sharing a stage with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and thinking “I have a unique chance to speak truth to speak truth to power here, but I’d better be polite to this crazy fuck.” Good for Bollinger for having a little pride, and maybe some responsibility.
“There Are No Gays In Iran”
Sounds like an Eric Idle song.
Ahmadinejad’s attitude may be based in the fact that some Koranic and Hadithic verses condemn homosexuality, or at least are commonly interpreted that way. (As with the Bible, there are arguments on the other side.)
He’s not a dictator and you know it. No one person in the Iranian government has that kind of power, not since Khomeini passed on.