It goes both ways

[Brunhidden]

Paranoia, its an infectious disease these days. you thought the USA couldn't sink lower then when it arrested an old granny trying to enter airport security with a nail clippers, well think again.

Recently Iran arrested a 67 year old grandmother, accusing her of trying to bring down their regime.

you heard me, an elderly woman was accused of trying to overthrow the government.

Haleh Esfandiari, a scholar and dual US/Iranian citizen was visiting her 93 year old mother in Tehran when three large men wearing masks and brandishing knives from the Iranian Intelligence Ministry took her in, stole her belongings, and spirited her passports away. The following six weeks were spent in Intermittent Questioning, after which she was charged with "Endangering National Security through Propaganda Against 'The System' and Espionage for Foreigners".

what does anyone else think of this? even the mega paranoid US inspectors let people go after discovering they are no thereat, and occasionally let people who are threats go on the basis of not being 100% sure. this is just insane, presumed experts claim most of this is status- by hating the US and its actions Iran gains positive relations with other countries that hate the US, the way Cuba gained favor earlier. other experts claim this kind of action is in an attempt to stop people talking between Iran and outside, knowing full well that the government is despised by many and needs a combination scapegoat/rebellion squash kind of thing going.... but i ask, is a little old lady visiting her ancient mother a rebellion?

i seriously hope that the united states never get this crazy, and just in case they are i'm learning Norwegian and applying for a passport

desto  aksent gjøre vondt min kjeve

No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I know some people who live in Norway.

Want company learning? :-/

[rabid_fox]

We're great over here on the Isle of Man. We can still give people the birch.

[superluser]

I get kinda paranoid when I see stories like this without links to reputable news sources.  So here's one from the Voice of America.

Sounds like diplomatic brinksmanship.  Also, Iran is afraid of a velvet revolution?  It's afraid of nonviolently ending communism in Czechoslovakia?

[Brunhidden]

I get kinda paranoid when I see stories like this without links to reputable news sources. 

unlike most of the rest of you i do not get my news from the web, and i do not even own a working TV if i wanted to listen to the biased sensationalist reports they give.

i get all my news from the milwaukee journal sentinel- where i work and read the entire damned thing (except the sports, i do not want to have my few remaining brains dribble through my nose yet) and find an amazing number of compelling stories compressed to teeny tiny articles somewhere around page 14 that have nothing to do with the front page news.

this was one of them, the entire article was about three square inches, had no pictures, and did not even bother to list who wrote it. other similar articles ive seen in the past were "man lights firecracker in own ass" on guy fawks day, a drunken man in Germany and his horse slept in a bank lobby one night- the horse left a deposit, and another dealt with a man who stole cordless saws in the new york subway and pressed them into the chest of an elderly postal worker who said "it felt like he was trying to saw me in half"....no shit, being sawed in half tends to feel like that.

also i would much prefer that when i post a thread, it has content other then a link and a note saying "read this"

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

[Gareeku]

From he way your post was worded, it sounds like an effort to be superior to the other members of the forum on your part there, Brun.

And yes, the whole business is disturbingly retarded. But then again, considering the current relations between Iran and the USA, I'm not all that surprised anymore.

[Brunhidden]

From he way your post was worded, it sounds like an effort to be superior to the other members of the forum on your part there, Brun.

no, i just hate it when someone starts a threat "hey, check this out *link*" not realizing that it is invariably one of 3 things-
1. any news site older then a day or even a few hours has a chance that the link is no longer even connected to the same story
2. a massive three page text dump and your reffering to only two paragraphs of it 
3. for some unknown reason the link does not work.

i hate that almost as much as i hate it when i ask a question someone says "yoo eediot, chek owt gooble befo axeing stewped qustun", not realizing that many things out there on google will bring up a few thousand results, while searching for a needle in a haystack is doable with search engines searching for a needle in a needle stack is pointless if someone already knows it.

It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Generally speaking, it's easier to search for a specific needle in a needle stack if you use better search terms. :-]

Perhaps I just happen to pick better terms. :-/

[Netrogo]

Meh, granny had it coming.

[Aridas]

Um, this is a real person we're talking about.

[Netrogo]

I'm aware of that, however making jokes about the most horrible things in our world happens all the time. Taking it dead seriously solves nothing unless you're planning to do something about it rather then just discussing how horrible it is. Everyone laughs at other people's misfortunes. Case in point, the funniest and usually most popular videos on clip sites are stuff of people getting hurt. Like the guy who goes to cross a street and get's hit by a car, that bounces him into another lane where he get's hit by another car. People laugh it up about the clip, hell you'd probably laugh if you saw it. The way he bounces is priceless. However, not alot of people probably think about the fact that the guy's either dead or severely crippled after an accident like that.

Go look at a humor site and count just how many of the funny things are mocking the less fortunate. I feel sorry that that woman had to go through that, but I stand by my making light of the situation and refuse to take back my joke.

So as I said, Granny had it coming.

[Aridas]

Then go laugh over there.

[Caswin]

you heard me, an elderly woman was accused of trying to overthrow the government.

Is this supposed to sound unbelievably far-fetched or something?  It's not like I'd put making up such charges past the Iranian government, but I can buy it...

[Netrogo]

Alrighty then.

[superluser]

unlike most of the rest of you i do not get my news from the web, and i do not even own a working TV if i wanted to listen to the biased sensationalist reports they give.

Yeah, I've just been burned a few times on stories like this, and so I like to find the original source.  Plus, it helps me to make sense out of the seemingly nonsensical actions of the people involved.

Didn't mean any slight to you, Brun.

P.S. Aridas, Tragedy is when I cut my finger.  Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.

[Valynth]

So why should we care?  This is a Iran internal affair and the U.S. really can't do much about it.  Seriously, all we can do is 1)  invade, 2)  economic sanction, 3) talk to Iran, and 4)  nuke the hell out of it.  We've done 2 and tried 3, but Iran doesn't want to talk.  We want to avoid 4 at all costs, but if we do 1 we'll be called "Savage cowboys" by the rest of the international community.

It's a no-win scenario.

[bill]

So why should we care?  This is a Iran internal affair and the U.S. really can't do much about it.  Seriously, all we can do is 1)  invade, 2)  economic sanction, 3) talk to Iran, and 4)  nuke the hell out of it.  We've done 2 and tried 4, but Iran doesn't want to talk.  We want to avoid 3 at all costs, but if we do 1 we'll be called "Savage cowboys" by the rest of the international community.

It's a no-win scenario.

I think you may have mixed up 3 and 4 there. Interesting results. 

[techmaster-glitch]

I think you may have mixed up 3 and 4 there. Interesting results.   

Yeah, valynth, are you saying that we have already tried to nuke Iran, and we want to avoid talking to them at all costs?   

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Well, it makes a pleasant change from the usual diplomacy...

[Reese Tora]

This doesn't particularly surprise me, all things considered.  Certain governments have a strong hold, but they generally feel that they can't back down for fear that it will make them (the officials or the government as a whole) look weak.  They pursue things to ridiculous lengths in order to appear strong, though they often come off as looking pretty stupid to people who are in a position to get the larger picture. (Iraqi foreign minister, anyone?)

I think taht this kind of action is one of the halmarks of an oppressive government, where the agencies or officials are more interested in looking strong or appealing to the masses than they are of doing the right thing.  Most governments ahve officials or agencies that are like this, though, and I would consider it to be more of a spectrum of oppresivemness or corruption rather than a hard and fast rule for determining a bad government.  Iran happens to be one of the countries on the far end of the scale.

[Valynth]

ya, ya, I made a mistake, like you guys can't claim the same 

You guys just fix it before anyone notices.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

We still like you, Val. :-]