Today's New York Post

The Oldest Story In The World

By now you've likely heard that the world's most famous anti-Semite, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had Jewish parents.

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots. A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver. The short note scrawled on the card suggests his family changed its name to Ahmadinejad when they converted to embrace Islam after his birth. The Sabourjians traditionally hail from Aradan, Mr Ahmadinejad's birthplace, and the name derives from "weaver of the Sabour", the name for the Jewish Tallit shawl in Persia. The name is even on the list of reserved names for Iranian Jews compiled by Iran's Ministry of the Interior. Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad's track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.

"An overcompensation to hide his past." Now where have we seen that kind of behavior? Answer: In the actions, lies, and insults of virtually every hate-filled homophobe in the history of the world. The rest of the planet may be shocked to learn of Ahmadinejad's Jewish heritage. But for us on this here website thingy, it's just a slightly different version of the same old story.

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted

As Andrew Sullivan has exhaustively documented over the last few days, the most fascinating aspect of the brewing revolution in Iran is the way that internet social media, particularly Twitter, has worked to unite, inform, and inspire the rebels.

Twitter, the online service designed to tell the world - in 140 characters or fewer - how your day is going or your date went last night, has unwittingly become the most trusted name in news in the micro-blogosphere. The often-mocked social networking Web site has provided some of the most riveting real-time coverage of the uprising in Iran, where supporters of pro-reform presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi took to the streets again Monday. Iranian activists circumvented the regime's attempts to block Twitter, flooding the site with their accounts of the day's violence. Supporters of defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi protest Monday in Tehran. The Iranian government has tried to block Twitter. "It's 2:25am and I can hear gunshots and people shouting in Kaveh Blvd, It's nightmarish!... no, It is really a nightmare!" posted one Twitter user identifying herself as ****** in Tehran.

Late Monday afternoon, it became impossible to keep up with the stream of "tweets." Sympathetic computer experts from around the world tweeted back, offering solidarity in the form of help in evading government censorship. In many cases, people outside Iran provided the Internet addresses of uncensored computers that allowed protesters to bypass the Twitter filter. But the Iranian government caught on and began blocking the addresses as soon as they were posted, Twitterers reported. "They are screening Twitter!" one Iranian wrote Monday afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon Twitter temporarily canceled a planned maintenance downtime after Sullivan and numerous others pointed out that the interruption could affect the events in Iran.

Ahmadinejad: Like Traffic Offenders, Laws Against Gays Must Be Enforced

Iran President Ahmadinejad was interviewed by Larry King last night, where he said he didn't think the US or Israel would make the "big mistake" of attacking. Then King steered the conversation to gays and human rights. (Around the 1:40 mark.)

AHMADINEJAD (through translator): What do you mean by human rights problems?

KING: People protesting that they don't have the same rights as other people? Homosexuals -- you said last year, you denied there were homosexuals. There's homosexuals everywhere.

AHMADINEJAD (through translator): I said it is not the way it is here. In Iran this is considered a very -- obviously most people dislike it. And we have actually a law regarding it and the law is enforced. It is a law that was passed. It was legislated. And it is an act that is against human principles. A lot of things can happen. It can cause psychological problems, social problems that affect the whole society. Remember that God rules are to improve human life. In our religion, this act is forbidden and the Parliament has legislated about it. Not now, 70 years ago. This is something that happened 70 years ago, before the Islamic Republic became --

KING: So what happens to gay people?

AHMADINEJAD (through translator): Let me -- well, of course, nobody has held protests. You are -- are you concerned for 70 million Iranian people or a few homosexuals? Let's assume in Iran -- let's assume in the United States that 200 million people drive cars and a million violators are rounded up and they just basically violate driving laws. Should we be worried for the 199 million people whose safety you must be concerned about or the one million violators? The law is the law. It's law. And it must be enforced, of course. Of course we do pay attention that in Iran nobody interferes in the private lives of individuals. We have nothing to do with the private realm of people. This is at the not private, public morality. In their own house, nobody ever interferes.

"In their own house, nobody even interferes." Yes, when gays are publicly hanged, nobody interferes.

(Via - Towleroad)