Stop Me Before I Vote Again

Lovely folks, some of these Iranian ex-Marxists. Heck, General Edwin Walker—who was the inspiration behind General Jack D. Ripper—seems straight as a corkscrew next to these cultists.

Just curious, Smiff -- I know this may be kind of a dumb question, but because the wording of your post seemed a bit ambiguous I have to ask: were you OK or not OK with US dissidents appearing in "enemy" media to criticize US policy?

I only ask because I've entered the Fars News Agency's International Wall Street Downfall Cartoon Festival. I've entered seven of my best Occupy Wall Street cartoons, including those two you guys really liked, of Obama pepper-spraying protesters and that one about the unions -- and also because as some of you may or may not recall, I caused many a pro-Israel US media outlet to drop a huge pantload by my being one of the few American cartoonists to enter that notorious Holocaust Cartoon Exhibit that the Hamshahri Daily put on six or seven years ago, with this little gem.

I recall not even caring that I didn't win any of the prizes, as it was prize enough for me that I helped cause some of the worst US media pants-crapping since Jane Fonda appeared on Radio Hanoi.

Since you seem to be connecting this to the weird relationship that US Pwogs have -- or don't have -- with The Ron, my own "official" position is that while I think The Ron is a hypocritical, reactionary little racist crank, there's still a part of me rooting for him because his openly putting war and the police state on the table -- along with his surprising showing in the polls -- is making my nipples explode with delight as I watch the US political establishment respond by going into total freakout mode.

were you OK or not OK with US dissidents appearing in "enemy" media to criticize US policy?

I'd move there and convert to Islam.

I'm sure your convert's zeal will impress even this tough crowd.

Fadduh Smiff sez on 01.07.12 @12:08:
If Radio Tehran wanted to give me a daily Tokyo Rose show, I'd move there and convert to Islam.

Well, I don't know about Tehran... being an atheist, the whole Islam conversion thing would be right out. It'd also be a big pain in the ass trying to get back to the States when I want to visit my old buds. Then, there's the issue of dependable Internet access, so I can download DJ Pyro's Intoxica podcast and Grateful Dead bootlegs and my MST3K episodes. Laugh if you want, but that shit's important to me.

I'd have to settle for Al Jazeera; they're a bit more "liberal" -- hey, David Frost has a show on there now, and they've even interviewed Roger Waters, and not to mention that they're also considered "enemy media" -- and besides, all the "cool kids" watch Al Jazeera these days.

Still, if I ever did make it to Tehran, I'd immediately try and look up that one chick who was in that foto of the demostrations there, that foto that was blasted all over the place -- you know the one, that one smiling and holding a flag up over her shoulders. God damn, what a hottie. I'd totally ask her out. Rrrowrr, rrrowwrrr. Allahu Akbar, baby!

Just keep in mind, many a tame cat from the "Left" will morph into an enraged 450lb. tiger if anyone so much as thinks of fraternizing with the the less than "secular, feminist, democratic, nonviolent" enemy in his lair. Foucault's name is ritually dragged through the mud still for showing curiosity and questioning cherished shibboleths when "charlatans" (as Norman Finkelstein calls him) like Camus not only get a free pass but are positively lionized even at places like Counterpunch a couple of weeks ago for their moral clarity. (Incidentally, 50 years ago today Sartre's mother was almost killed by a bomb placed at his apartment by French right wingers when he was in hiding. As Ronald Aronson put it "Camus had worried publicly about FLN violence against his mother, but it was Sartre’s mother who came within a hair’s breadth of being murdered by OAS violence." Not surprisingly, as Corey Robin noted recently that by the early 2000s, Sartre's "name had become non-grata" in polite academic company until Aronson's book came out).

I would definitely apply for a flagellation dispensation, on account of age and general physical decay.

Here is another murder the OAS failed to pull off and here is why Sartre was despised by the same types who bombed his apartment on January 7, 1962.

Well, I don't know about Tehran... being an atheist, the whole Islam conversion thing would be right out. It'd also be a big pain in the ass trying to get back to the States when I want to visit my old buds. Then, there's the issue of dependable Internet access, so I can download DJ Pyro's Intoxica podcast and Grateful Dead bootlegs and my MST3K episodes. Laugh if you want, but that shit's important to me.

I think Iran ofter gets confused with Saudi Arabia. At any rate my uncle was there a few years ago and his story made it sound the totalitarian/theocratic elements are mostly token efforts. It's Saudi where they really take the shit seriously.

It's Saudi where they really take the shit seriously.

That's why US and Saudi have been bosom buddies ever since FDR made a courtesy call on the Saudi King in the spring of '45 and that's why the biggest arms deal in history was finalized between the two allies last year. Heck, even the "lessons of history" chanting Germans agreed to sell 200 Leopard tanks after Saudi armored vehicles crushed the Bahraini pro-democracy movement (Saudis had been asking for these tanks since the 80s and apparently the Germans were just waiting for a live fire demo on unarmed demonstrators before signing off on the deal). Heck, even Prius driving academics are sympathetic toward the monarchy where women cannot drive. But, you're right, it can all get a bit confusing:

I think it's only in a crisis that Americans see other people. It has to be an American crisis, of course. If two countries fight that do not supply the Americans with some precious commodity, then the education of the public does not take place. But when the dictator falls, when the oil is threatened, then you turn on the television and they tell you where the country is, what the language is, how to pronounce the names of the leaders, what the religion is all about, and maybe you can cut out recipes in the newspapers of Persian dishes. I will tell you. The whole world takes an interest in this curious way Americans educate themselves. TV. Look, this is Iran, this is Iraq. Let us pronounce the word correctly. E-ron. E-ronians. This is a Sunni, this is a Shi'ite. Very good. Next year we do the Philippine islands, okay?

Father never specified what brand of Islam
If some form of theistic pledge
Will be required of me by my Tehran handlers
I'd opt for Judaism

Moses and Marx those are my prophets

Guy of the book all the way but no Jesus and no mr mohamiddd
Those guys are not on my list of prophets