Dear friend
Thanks alo for the posting, I sent you the second clip as well, just one point about the number of people , the place was full, and there is 534 seats in that Auditorium, and we had people using extra chairs and standing, so I guess it was at least 600 people ...

Thanks again, Bahman

Joe:

Did you receive the e-maiil I sent inviting you to post on my site? Let me know.

You are so right that support for the Iranian Revolution should not be the province of the political right. Indeed, if the left believed what it claims to believe, it would be leading, not muttering. It's very disappointing, to put it mildly.

But then it was the same way when we fought the Soviet Empire, wasn't it?

I concur with both Mr. Katzman and Mr. Ledeen. There is absolutely no reason that everyone in the US, regardless of political persuasion, cannot stand up and uniformly support the Iranian students. The silence of the left on this should make me feel more virtuous about my right-wing tendencies, but instead I just feel sad, since it probably means Iran's struggle for freedom is going to be harder.

Since WOC contains the only left-of-center writers willing to support the students (that I've seen), I wonder if you guys would opine as to why the left hasn't stood up. The cynic in me feels that
1.) The first, most prominent supporters of the students were conservative bloggers like Andrew Sullivan;

2.) The mullahs' willingness to brutally crush protests mean peaceful protest will ultimately be ineffective.

3.) Force may be necessary.

4.) If Iran's tyrants fall, George Bush will receive much of the credit.

And 1-4 add up to 5, which is: Screw the Iranian students.

In any event, thank you for the position you've taken on this.

Gib

Gib, read up above and you'll see that Calpundit is part of our cited links. Yglesias has also weighed in on this topic, as has Amygdala. They ain't chopped liver.

Having said that, I'm not seeing Atrios, Kos, or other major names on the Left covering this, nor have I over the last few months. As for inbound links to this roundup, despite even promotion it's an off-the-scale disparity. Interest does seem to concentrate mch more intensely among the Iranian cultural blogosphere, and the right-wing/centrist blogosphere.

So, there is support on the Left, but it's limited to the left-centrists and often seems either grudging or opposed beyond (see the post above re: the BBC, for instance). It is disappointing, but rather than curse it I choose to cherish those who do stand up in the hope that they will produce more. Perhaps they will.

And yes, Michael, it was the same when we fought the Soviet Empire... the difference is that we're now the only side standing that seriously preaches revolutions for freedom, so the disparity in reactions within the West is thrown into much sharper relief.

As an aside, the fact that the neocons around me seem to be morphing into 60s type activists complete with T-shirts, e-broadsheets, rallies and guitars is deeply amusing, and presages a whole set of deeper shifts. More on that issue another day.

"...the fact that the neocons around me seem to be morphing into 60s type activists complete with T-shirts, e-broadsheets, rallies and guitars..."

Glad I'm not the only one who has noticed that!

Coverage of the New York Iran freedom rally on the Yale Free Press blog. http://yalefreepress.blogspot.com. Don't miss it!

Joe,

Thanks for the response. Drum & Yglesias are regular stops for me on my daily blog-tour, and while they've certainly touched on the issue, it seems to me neither has made any serious effort to whip up their readership the way they generally do on other issues. Still, they haven't ignored it, and it's not my place to set their priorites. Point taken. (I don't regularly read Amygdala. I'll give it a check after I'm done typing this.)

Posted a message of encouragement to the people of Iran on my blog:

TO THE PEOPLE OF IRAN

http://eclectchap.blogspot.com/2003_07_06_eclectchap_archive.html#105778348458255241

The Eclectic Chapbook
http://eclectchap.blogspot.com

What's frustrating is that there are still many of our friends and colleagues who don't understand the gravity of the situation in Iran - what a successful democratic revolution will mean for the Iranians themselves, the Near East as a region, and the entire world still in the clutches of totalitarians.

As part of my own meager show of solidarity with the reformers, I posted a graphic anthem today that I'd put together over a year ago. Sure, it's sentimentally arduous - but I meant what I said and I still do today.

A buddy of mine took one look at it and dismissed both the gesture and the idea of Western encouragement as "fanfare."

He's a good guy but he, like many today, chooses to remain impassive to the event - goodness knows why. Apathy in the free world is indeed enervative. We'll need to be twice as loud.

Under the criticism, though, I almost did feel like the "neocon" pseudo-radical that you described, Joe. A...progressive conservative.

Very well put, yes, at least this part of the post-modern world is coming into sharper definition.

You really stung me with that bit about tee shirts. Just today I bought one at the rally at the Capitol, which, by the way, was a wonderful event. So many people, Dems and Pubs, all working for freedom.

And guitars, Michael? Our rally had guitars....

rats. I didn't see a single one. Gotta get the RNC to work on it, I suppose :=)

Many of us agree that 'ideas' represents an anemic effort by theU.S. in dealing with Iran and other Middle East countries - and a few others. Pushing a concept of 'democracy' is rightly perceived as merely 'political,' not foundational, and thus unacceptable under their philosophical and religious criteria. It appears shallow compared to America's true potential offering to the world out of our unique founding and creative-growth values and inventive experience.
The definitive in human nature is the individual ability to make choices. (Is there any other kind of human? 'Groups' are verbal conveniences - not Reality.) ALL humans share in this true depic-tion of our nature. The human being is earth's choice-maker.
Such a valid assertion undercuts every man-made alien opinion andis verified everywhere on planet Earth - daily. Thus, nature itself has laid the foundation for every human relationship, institution,and social act. After all, the creative process is a choice-making process and functions best in an environment of opportunity - Freedom.
What are our leaders waiting for? Mr. Jefferson's statement, "all men are endowed by their Creator with...Liberty" says the same thing.(Liberty is internal - the ability to choose. Freedom is external - the opportunity to choose.)
In public, private, and Christian schools, I taught my 5th graders for over 30 years, it is as natural a requisite for Earth's choice-maker to need Freedom as for a gold-fish to require water.
My choicemaker-based civics workbook (Gr. 5-8) won numerous awards in the '60's and was placed in the Eisenhower Presiden-tial Library, Abilene, KS, by "Ike," himself.
Isn't it time for a universal "Season of Generation-Choice-maker" to flower world-wide and bear fruit? Cyrus the Great and Mr. Jefferson would both choose to agree. I trust you and others will also choose to agree. Please take part in placing this concept before our nations and before your neighbors for the youth of Iran.
Always Faithful,
Jim Baxter
Santa Maria, CA
For the complete statement, see:
"What is man...?" Earth's Choicemaker
Peace is not a Cause -- it is the Effect....
* * * *

Remember....
Your human Rights are NOT a grant of man or government. They are a gift, an
endowment from the Creator GOD, to His human Creation. Any person or system
which opposes your free-will Rights is opposing the God who gave them to you. ALL
tyrants are in opposition to GOD and nature! Humans, made in His definitive image,
must be free to fulfull GOD's purposes in making each one an agent of His Freedom.
DO NOT give any credit to any man-made system for what only the Creator GOD
has done.

The next time you see or hear a cleric of ANY religion wave a 'holy' book and
claim to speak for the GOD of your creation -- and opposes Individual human Rights
-- you will know that he is a FRAUD and does not deserve respect or obedience.
Thus, you were born to be Free! The creative process is a choice-making process.
Now, live it!

The complete article is at:
"What is man...?" God asks -- and answers: Earth's CHOICEMAKER
http://www.geocities.com/James-Baxter/

Always Faithful
Jim Baxter
Santa Maria, California USA

P.S. The way we define 'human' determines our view of self, others,
relationships, institutions, life, and future. Choose wisely....there will be
results.

* * * * *

CONTEMPORARY COMMENTS
"I should think that if there is one thing that man has
learned about himself it is that he is a creature of
choice." Richard M. Weaver

"Man is a being capable of subduing his emotions and
impulses; he can rationalize his behavior. He arranges
his wishes into a scale, he chooses; in short, he acts.
What distinguishes man from beasts is precisely that he
adjusts his behavior deliberately." Ludwig von Mises

"To make any sense of the idea of morality, it must be
presumed that the human being is responsible for his
actions and responsibility cannot be understood apart
from the presumption of freedom of choice."
John Chamberlain

"The advocate of liberty believes that it is complementary
of the orderly laws of cause and effect, of probability
and of chance, of which man is not completely informed.
It is complementary of them because it rests in part upon
the faith that each individual is endowed by his Creator
with the power of individual choice."
Wendell J. Brown

"Our Founding Fathers believed that we live in an ordered
universe. They believed themselves to be a part of the
universal order of things. Stated another way, they
believed in God. They believed that every man must find
his own place in a world where a place has been made for
him. They sought independence for their nation but, more
importantly, they sought freedom for individuals to think
and act for themselves. They established a republic
dedicated to one purpose above all others - the preserva-
tion of individual liberty..." Ralph W. Husted

"We have the gift of an inner liberty so far-reaching
that we can choose either to accept or reject the God
who gave it to us, and it would seem to follow that the
Author of a liberty so radical wills that we should be
equally free in our relationships with other men.
Spiritual liberty logically demands conditions of outer
and social freedom for its completion." Edmund A. Opitz

"Above all I see an ability to choose the better from the
worse that has made possible life's progress."
Charles Lindbergh

"Freedom is the Right to Choose, the Right to create for
oneself the alternatives of Choice. Without the possibil-
ity of Choice, and the exercise of Choice, a man is not
a man but a member, an instrument, a thing."
Thomas Jefferson

THE QUESTION AND THE ANSWER
Q: "What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son
of man that You visit him." Psalm 8:4
A: "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against
you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing
and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and
your descendants may live." Deuteronomy 30:19

Q: "Lord, what is man, that You take knowledge of him?
Or the son of man, that you are mindful of him?" Psalm
144:3
A: "And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose
for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the
gods which your fathers served that were on the other
side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose
land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15

Q: "What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is
born of a woman, that he could be righteous?" Job 15:14
A: "Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He
teach in the way he chooses." Psalm 25:12

Q: "What is man, that You should magnify him, that You
should set Your heart on him?" Job 7:17
A: "Do not envy the oppressor and choose none of his
ways." Proverbs 3:31

Q: "What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son
of man that You take care of him?" Hebrews 2:6
A: "I have chosen the way of truth; your judgments I have
laid before me." Psalm 119:30 "Let Your hand become my
help, for I have chosen Your precepts." Psalm 119:173

References:
Genesis 3:3,6 Deuteronomy 11:26-28; 30:19 Job 5:23
Isaiah 7:14-15; 13:12; 61:1 Amos 7:8 Joel 3:14
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 Psalm 119:1-176
DEDICATION

Sir Isaac Newton
The greatest scientist in human history
a Bible-Believing Christian
an authority on the Bible's Book of Daniel
committed to individual value
and individual liberty

Daniel 9:25-26 Habakkuk 2:2-3 KJV selah

"What is man...?" Earth's Choicemaker JOEL 3:14 KJV
http://www.geocities.com/James-Baxter/
Choice.maker@verizon.net

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