Honestly, I thought it was bad when irony got lit on fire after the guy Cheney shot apologized to him. I thought it was really bad when somebody rolled over irony in a steamroller after Randall Tobias was busted with hookers.

Please, please world, irony is dead already! Let it rest in peace!

On an unrelated topic, but something I've wanted to mention to Ms. Walsh: is there any possibility of a "reply to" function on the letters/comments pages? It would be nice to group all of the responses to one letter in one place, rather than making readers dig through.

Just a thought.

R.I.P. Irony.

Esfandiari and her husband, Shaul Bakhash, have been involved in anti-regime emigre politics since arriving in the U.S. Bakhash has been a darling of the neocons who advocate a U.S. invasion of Iran for years. It's patent that they thought U.S. dual citizenship would protect her as she pursued her anti-regime activities inside Iran. They were wrong. It's a non-story story. It's not about Soros or women's rights. It's about a very long-term opponent of the Islamic Republic thinking that a U.S.passport would protect her if she tried to subvert the regime on a visit to Iran. Iranian emigre politics as usual.

Although it's also hard not to notice another thing Iranian and American right-wing fundamentalists have in common: They don't like George Soros, and they don't like women's rights advocates, either.

Does anyone hate Soros more than Vladimir Putin? Look at what's been happening to Open Society groups in Russia.

But I think with Putin, feminists are more or less okay. It's the medical marijuana activists and gay activists who have been attacked and detained by the Moscow police during peaceful demonstrations.

I would love to see an article on Shirin Ebadi at some point. Her book "Iran Awakening" was truly an eye-opener. I do believe there needs to be more coverage of moderate Muslims like her. "Iran Awakening" not only gave me a more in-depth knowledge of the political structure of Iran but also presented the viewpoint that Islam and democratic values can be compatible.

I think Bush knows full well what he's doing.

Iraq was always supposed to become a terrorist factory. They needed some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy so they could catch a few real terrorists trying to attack us, instead of those nut jobs that they turn into media celebrities every 6 months or so.

Iran is more likely to go Democratic on its own if we don't intervene -- but that would keep us from having an excuse to steal their oil, so obviously we can't have that. Demonizing them vigorously just gives them reason to want nuclear power and defensive weaponry more than ever, which plays right back into our rationale for why we have to invade them.

What a great scam!

Don't get me started on NAFTA/CAFTA and how they are pitting the average folks of north american nations against each other by destroying jobs and forcing migrations, and refusing to prosecute the corporations who are profiting from all stages of the process.