Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
Psyops about Iran
Hat-tip to Juan Cole: the neocon-slanted National Post has an article about a new law in Iran mandating "that all Iranians wear 'standard Islamic garments' designed to remove ethnic and class distinctions reflected in clothing... It also envisages separate dress codes for religious minorities, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, who will have to adopt distinct colour schemes to make them identifiable in public."
It's a very revolting, very condemning story. Only it's not true. Iran's sole Jewish member of Parliament said that "It is a lie, and the people who invented it wanted to make political gain." Even the National Post published an official redaction.
In related news, Iraqi troops ransacked Kuwaiti hospitals, looting incubators and leaving babies to die. After all, someone with a vested interest in an American war on Iraq said so, so it must be true. Also, the CIA has never engaged in psyops, and no media outlet is ever slanted to the right.
Bookmark/Search this post with:
It sometimes baffles me that
It sometimes baffles me that people feel the need to make up propaganda about such already-nasty leaders. This is similar to people on Fox in 2003 making up nonsense about Saddam feeding people feet-first into wood chippers - as if the gassing of the Kurds wasn't evil enough. Next they'll be telling me Hitler only had one testicle.
Relying on expats
As I understand it, the rumor was started by Iranian expats living in Canada. It's usually a mistake to rely on expats for information about current events in their home country if it doesn't come from media sources in that country.
The fact is, they will probably have less access to reliable information than, say, Reuters.
And now we've got another report from expats, this one from Saudi Arabians living in Alabama who told the Center for Religious Freedom that the Saudis have not reformed their chauvenist school curricula. That may or may not be true, but I'd like to see the textbooks they refer to independently translated before I run around saying that Saudi schools are teaching kids to hate Jews and Christians.