Iran Government Legitimacy

Two quotes from this article give a fair comparison of the relative positions of the EU and Iran.

"Obviously the regime is trying to preserve its position by very harsh repression," said Carl Bildt, Sweden's foreign minister, whose country takes over the EU's rotating presidency on 1 July. "But that cannot hide the fact that this is a weakened regime. It has lost legitimacy both internally and externally."

and

On Friday a senior cleric, Ahmed Khatami, lashed out at Britain in a televised sermon. "In this unrest, Britons have behaved very mischievously and it is fair to add the slogan of 'down with England' to the slogan of 'down with USA,'" he said. He also called for the execution of what he called "rioters' leaders". The previous week Khamenei had criticised Britain as the "most evil" country.

Taking prisoners from hospitals

The Basaji - the Iranian military secret police are taking prisoners of protesters following their treatment in hospitals.

We have heard on Twitter that PersianKiwi has been taken prisoner by the Government.

More here - article continued with the most disturbing Tweet stream from PersianKiwi...

North Korea

Is North Korea so insecure that it believes that it needs to threaten the United States in order to maintain its independence? The answer is most probably yes.

Read more...

Iran Demonstrations

Live Feed (or video of a live feed) from the Iran Election demostrations. Also see: Article: The Dictator

The above article contains predictions. It was published 12 hours before this appeared (on my screen at least): UPDATE NY Times

The demonstrations in Iran show the Iranian people have an emerging confidence. The corrupt establishment has shaken the illusion that they have the interests of the people at stake.

Fair democratic election must be internally perceived as such, and when it isn’t - economic health becomes impossible.

Regardless of what the West thinks could or should happen - Iran’s government is now perceived by it’s own people as cheating and lying and committing acts of sinful cowardice.

It has damaged the theocratic authenticity it relies upon.

New Zealand Most Peaceful Country

New Zealand has been voted the Most Peaceful Country in the world on Vision of Humanity by an Australian think tank, the Institute for Economics and Peace.

Last week, thousands of Aucklanders marched in a 100% peaceful demonstration of political unity with the Maori people who retain a seat of sovereignty over this nation, undivided but cooperating.

Link

Vision of Humanity site

Images of Maori Hikoi (march) in Auckland

State of Denial

Irate passengers disagree with being held on board ship in quarantine claiming "this is not what we paid for" and calling it some kind of disgrace. They were let ashore and then the motel they were staying in asked them to move as they were "not a quarantine facility".

If the swine flu had mutated into a more deadly form already and not spread over most of America (far far worse), this kind of behaviour would be deadly and very unpatriotic. No human has the right to infect others therefore a maritime state of quarantine is not something that a mere tourists commercial or even freedom can trump and letting these passengers ashore abrogates everyone else's human right.

Stupid idiots.