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Iranian Government Cuts Off Internet Access Again
AlbionTourgee writes "It is reported that Gmail and Yahoo mail at least have been blocked in Iran, along with many English-language sites. While news of demonstrations seems to be getting out of the country, the government appears to be trying to prevent people within Iran from communicating and from learning what's happening. It remains to be seen whether TOR and Freenets can be effective to combat this sort of effort to block communications, and whether the general circulation of information about the protests around the world will help."
They have internet in Iran?!
Why is this tagged nukem? Lots of Iranians are extremely hot, like princess Princess Jasmine from Aladdin - they are largely Persian. We have one at our lab and she says about 70% of Iranians hate their government but are being oppressed (people disappearing in the middle of the night kind of thing). They need liberating more than Iraq did (though that's not too hard) and they probably would WELCOME a liberation instead of blowing up! In fact that's what they're scared of most - not being liberated by America but being blown up by America because their government is an asshole.
No, sorry, I disagree. The USA was founded on the premise that human beings have some inalienable rights endowed by their creator. Whether you believe your creator is God, Mother Nature, your Mom & Dad, I believe this in this idea with all of my heart. For hundreds of years it has inspired oppressed people everywhere that their rights are independent of the capricious whims of the current dictator in charge. The Iranian people have a natural right to communicate with one another even if their current turd of a leader does not respect it at this time.
This is true, but there's also a thing called "personal responsibility". The United States has gotten itself into a massive debt (weakening its status in the world in the process), in no small part because of our propensity to try to protect those inalienable rights for people who aren't even our own citizens.
I wish the people of Iran the best in this situation, but it's really THEIR fight to fight. If there's a small way people in other countries can assist with technology (hosting Tor servers or proxies or what-not), that's great! But individual rights and freedoms are only as "valid" as one's willingness to fight for and demand them. (Even United States law recognizes that people typically have the opportunity to "sign a right away", if they wish to waive it.)
They are the Government of that country, whether or not we happen to agree with their policies. If they want to ban automobiles and have everyone ride around on horses, it is their perogative.
If we follow that logic, then it would have been wrong for Germany's neighbors to make a fuss about how it treated Jews during WWII.
Are you sure that your policy is a good one?
Sorry, no. Moral relativism is complete bullshit. Some things are morally wrong ABSOLUTELY. One of them is supressing your populace's ability to communicate. I'm sick and tired of people justifying morally corrupt behavior just because it's state-sanctioned. Sorry, forcing women they have to wear a head-dress is absolutely not acceptable. Denying them basic human rights is absolutely not acceptable. Persecution of homosexuality is absolutely not acceptable. EVEN IF ALL THESE THINGS ARE STATE SANCTIONED. I'll take that one step further and say that it is even absolutely morally unacceptable for a radical state to possess nuclear weaponry, even more absolutely morally unacceptable for such a regime to have such unabashed hatred based on another people's religion.
The difference between a state and a mob is that one controls the military and one does not. Simply being a group does not magically grant anyone moral superiority or the ability to redefine basic human rights. Saying that its ok for ANYONE to do that is fucking retarded, and something that is continued by apologists. Your moral 'relativism' is the reason why atrocities like this are allowed to perpetrate.
My handful of quarters as an atheist who studied these two religions:
You're wrong. I've studied both the bible (several versions of it) as well as the Qur'an. Islam differs from christianity in a very important and fundamental way; it literally and bluntly, with no room for reasoning, divides humanity into two camps: the good (the muslims) and the bad (the 'kafir'; the non-muslims); and literally, page after page, calls for the shedding of the blood of the kafir in the form of "conversion, 'by free will' or 'by sword'". Christianity differs here in the fact that nowhere in its holy scriptures does it divide humanity into camps, and nowhere in its holy scripture does it call for bloodshed of non-christians. What it does, however, is call for the bloodshed of those who DISGRACE and VIOLATE christianity - which is a very important difference to make note of - whereas the Qur'an calls for bloodshed of ANYONE simply not being muslim, regardless the person. (and, no, the christian crusades were not called upon by the bible or the religion itself; the crusades were ages of abuse of the religion, in its own name.)
End rant.
And if Iran was the USA, you'd have a point.
What part of "inalienable rights" is so hard to understand?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Actually a lot of population of Iran is well educated and some what more liberal than a lot of Arab nations.
You might have seen the protests on the streets a while back. I think you may be under estimating the actually people. Now the current government is lower than what I scrape off my shoe but I think the people are better than you believe.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
- War and Peace
Iran? The fundamentalist run Islamic republic has banned Yahoo and Google?
Try this, a NATO member, EU member designate, secular (still!) neighbor of Europe and having actual part in Europe country, Turkey has banned Myspace in addition to Youtube today. Yes, Myspace, that "personal blog" or more like "music demo" site.
Keep watching Iran and China though...
Sadly, no. I was raised Jewish, but I was never let in on this supposed conspiracy.
You just need to write to Chief Bloomenbergansteinenthal of the Jewish Justice League in NYC. That or make aliyah to Israel. Everyone here just gets welfare checks from the proceeds of the Zionist media conspiracy (remember, it's "Zionist" now instead of "Jewish") to make a living! After all, what else can be done with nothing powering the economy but agriculture, tourism, and hi-tech?
These endless conflicts also are not ours.
You might want to read up a little before making such blanket statements. These Wikipedia articles should get you started:
Rights, inalienable or otherwise, really don't mean a lot to the person holding all of the guns.
That's why the civilian population should be armed.
You can parrot on about your rights as much as you want, but they'll just shoot you in the head.
Yeah, they can shoot me. They can shoot my neighbor and his neighbor as well. Eventually though the population will start shooting back -- provided we are talking about a country where the population has already been disarmed in the name of "safety" or some other such nonsense.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
People who preach unquestioning submission would *never* tolerate becoming prisoners. Riiight...
Just look at the events in Iran this entire year! So many young students have died protesting. People as young as 12 and 13 have been killed by the government-backed militia. It's sickening that anyone that young has to die for their rights, but much like any country that wants a democracy, there needs to be dissent, revolution, and bloodshed. You can't have freedom handed to you on a silver platter.
No matter how you get there, there will be lives lost. This theocracy has been going on in Iran for only 30 years, and it has quickly reached a boiling point with the people. Yes, this theocracy is a relatively new thing in Iran. Here was Iran in the 1970s, before the Islamic takeover. The last picture shows you what Iran looks like today in contrast to the previous pictures, which were all taken before the 1979 Islamic revolution.
In any other nation where people simply preach submission, they would have rolled over and played dead the minute Ahmadinejad was announced as the winner. The people of Iran have stood up for their rights and have been protesting non-stop since the elections. We need to give them at least that much credit.
Keep in mind, all forms of weapons are banned in Iran, thus the people have no way of fighting back. They are simply too scared. The Government-backed militia has weapons and numbers on their side and they're pretty ruthless when it comes to killing people. This isn't some stereotypical Hollywood-made Middle Eastern nation where every house comes equipped with an AK-47 to shoot at infidels. Simply owning a weapon can get you into hot water over there, let alone actually using it against the Government.
Best "String" Ever!
- War and Peace
The irony inherent in this being quoted here is incredible.
1984 mentioned the very concept of endless war which America's government has always sought to implement; and which now, with the War on Terror, it has finally succeeded in implementing. That book, which you are quoting from here, also laid bare the consequences of such a doctrine of endless war, at least in political terms.
Yet none of you see it. All of you defend the belief in interventionism that you have simply been raised with, and do so with a kind of smug self-righteousness that blatantly ignores American history, and the grotesque acts of tyranny and mass murder which have been commited within that country's own history. (When the speaker is American, at least)
The replies that I have received here would be laughable, if the implications, for a scenario where people actually believe said replies, were not so distressing.
It doesn't matter how many of your own people are killed, Americans. It doesn't matter how much your own economy is gutted, or how much your own civil liberties are progressively destroyed. Every single time your government and/or military/industrial complex produces the usual lies about why interventionism is necessary, you take the bait as enthusiastically as possible. In the case of Iran, you're apparently doing it even without the Ministry of Propaganda's (sorry, Fox News') encouragement that you do so.
I am tired of your support for interventionism advancing the cause of fascism, Americans. The problem, you see, is the fact that when you continue to support interventionism, the fascist consequences which occur in your own country, do not occur only in your own country. They occur in mine as well.
I also haven't even bothered trying to address the insoluble nature of the Middle East's problems, either. There are two related ethnic groups there, (the Jews and the Arabs) who are determined to exterminate each other, and with whom said determination goes back close to six thousand years. If you really think that animosity which is that deeply entrenched, is going to be resolved in any of our lifetimes, then there is no appeal to logic that I can make.