Thanks for a brief voice of sanity in an otherwise uniform world of screaming and yelling.

By naming Iran as a state we can deal with, if maybe not get right into bed with, you've exposed yourself to abuse from crazies on many sides.

As in;

"Do you remember how they blew up the Buddhas? There is no free press there. There is no freedom of association there. You are presumed guilty until proven innocent. There are no jury trials. You get beaten on the street if they don't think you're covered enough. Etc. Etc. Etc."

Right, dude. Iran blew up the Buddhas. NOT. Actually, that was the Taliban, also known as the Wahabi or Takifiri. They're centered in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, all 'allies' of ours. Sworn Arab enemies of the Shiite Persians in Iran. Osama bin Laden is one of them. He hates Iran too.

Also the innumerable AIPAC clones who will take every quote out of context and put it in its worst light. "Iran denies the Holocaust, Iran has sworn to nuke Israel, Iran wants to get your sister pregnant and dump her."

Iran is a democratic theocracy. People elect their secular leaders, who run day-to-day government, but those secular leaders have to follow the general dictates of a religious heirarchy. Pretty much the same thing all the Republicon Preznitdental candidates are proposing for the United States.

In Iran, one of those religious dictates is the decision whether or not to go to war. And guess what? Iran hasn't attacked another country in a very, very, long time. How many times has Israel attacked one of its neighbors in the last 50 years? Or how about the United States? Oops, better change the subject.

Iran has a vibrant jewish community that is represented in the Iranian parliment. Their rep was not shy about lambasting Ahmadinejad when he hosted the Holocaust Revisionist/Zionism Opponents conference, which, amusingly enough, included Rabbis who opposed the formation of the State of Israel. Ahmadinejad made sure he was photographed hugging those Rabbis. I didn't see any pictures of him hugging any Holocaust deniers. As Gary said, Ahmadinejad still caught flack in Iran for that little exercise in "free speech".

Iranian women are indeed forced to wear headscarves outdoors and can be accosted for what is considered provocative dress (here it would be considered fashionable and figure flattering, but still quite modest). However, they can also hold jobs, positions in government, and associate with men in public.

Very different from the legal condition of women in our ally of Saudi Arabia.

To sum up, no, we don't like everything about how Iran orders its affairs. And they have some very strong differences with how we do things.

But there are no pressing strategic or moral reasons for us to be threatening war against them (which I regard as a crime all by itself), or doing anything covert to try to destabilize or subvert their government (another crime, IMHO).

The world would be a far safer and more peaceful place if we stopped trying to threaten Iran, and offered them some inducement to work with us on areas of common interest, like regional peace and stablity. A solemn promise that we will not fire the first shot against them, and that we will try to restrain Israeli attacks would be even better. Then we might be able to look to Iran for some aid in stabilizing Iraq, and Ahmadinejad would lose his best distraction from his economic screwups domestically. Iranians could work to reform their country from within withi less chance of being condemned as stooges of the U.S.

And oil prices would drop about $20 a barrel. Bummer.

Ummm, Kansas?

When you're a secret agent impersonating a reporter for Agrarian Times, or whatever that weird magazine was called, is it really a good idea to tell the King you have a flying car?

Does everybody in Kansas O'F land have a flying car? I doubt it. Especially not reporters for farming magazines.

Might make you seem a lot less like a simple supposedly seductive scribe, and a lot more like a seriously stupid secret sneak. Aliterally.

What's next--telling him about your penthouse?

I'm seriously amazed I even bothered to notice--this strip is so off the wall.

Best wishes for you and the wife for a healthy, happy baby.

But I wish you some extra poopy diapers, and at least one messy spit-up for scaring me so much until the last panel!

Why?

Not because he's good.

Because he sucks less than the others.

McCain is the only candidate out there that the Republicans wouldn't have to be actively ashamed of afterwards.

And that will be enough.

Bob Dole, move over!

This is a sophmoric internet trick.

Goatse is an extremely disgusting picture of a naked man spreading his anus with his hands. It is quite disturbing, and certainly would get you in trouble if you had it on your computer screen at work.

People try to trick others into seeing it. Unless you're into that sort of thing, I advise you to avoid it.

Yippee! I don't suck! Somebody noticed me! Blah,blah, blah.

Anyhoo, my original post was a little too earthy and anglo-saxon for the general public. Hey, I understand.

But if you want the sweaty, rude, original--follow the link in my signature.

Or, sign up for Salon Premium, and use your Table Talk priviledges to keep up to the minute on all my rudeness, along with the rest.

The Fray is for pussies!