Some very quick notes:
1) Have you noticed how just about every other part of the world, from the American South to the Levant to Latin America or the Far East prides themselves on their virtue of hospitality? That is a nice virtue. We were embarassingly bad hosts.
2) Some editorials, as with the local daily here, actually thought this was America's finest hour, because Mr. A was actually able to speak. Let's get over ourselves. We don't have a monopoly over free speech. The fact that we grudgingly offer a hostile forum is not so exemplary.
3) Most of the people calling Mr. A and idiot are themselves idiots. Joe Lieberman said he "literally" had blood on his hands. So, let the man use a washroom, and your problem is solved.
4) Remember when Chavez spoke at the UN last year and insulted Bush? The Democrats rushed to condemn him as a bad guest, and all you heard all over was how Bush may be a bad president, but an insult against him by a foreigner was nevertheless a disrespectful gesture to the whole nation (despite questionable elections). So guess how Iranians will see this?
5) Mr. A loves the press. The only thing that gets more press than efforts to censor are ineffective efforts to censor.
6) Mr. A is not the supreme leader and does not set the policies, so most of the attacks on him that presume otherwise are deeply flawed and, when coming from people who should know better, mostly fraudulent.
7) One cartoon I saw had Mr. A dressed as a Nazi but with sharp jutting teeth, as though to say, Hitler was at least a civilized European gentelman who happened to be evil, while you, Mr. A are a mere animal of the feral third world and not worthy of that comparison.
8) Hitler comparisons were also all over the place. Why? Because we blame Hitler too much for anti-Semitism, and not enough for aggressive war and genocide. That is why it is so wrong to compare Bush to Hitler -- he may have killed his first million now in Iraq, but he likes Jews, so it's okay.
9) Mr. A makes lots of sense in some of his arguments. He's also effed up on other stuff, which makes him bad company and an embarassment for those who would otherwise like to support him, or at least his rights and the good things he says. Nevertheless, outside of the US, these points are often uncontroversial, and even within the US outside of its dominant political class, these arguments would carry some resonance if they reached people. Instead, from the papers you'd think Mr. A's entire speech was about the absence of gays in Iran.
10) Since when have visitors to Ground Zero been vetted for their perceived moral character, and why? If we let Karamov go lay a wreath, we should let almost anyone do so. And what about Giuliani's license to appropriate 9/11 as an omnipresent political backdrop? Can we revoke that? I think secular, public memorials should be treated as neutral ground and not politicized -- anyone who is willing to display the proper decorum should be free to go.
11) Iran's place in the Axis of evil has been promoted by most of the Democrats, who show their distaste for the cruelty of war by constantly lamenting that war prevents America from redirecting its resources to more important and humane matters, like some other war. Iran is currently the most popular other war.
That's all for now.
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