Month: December 2009

The latest from Iran:

Iranian security forces clashed with supporters of dead dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in the northwestern city of Zanjan on Thursday, a reformist website said. The authorities have banned memorial gatherings for Montazeri in most parts of Iran, reformist websites said, days ahead of an emotive Shi'ite ritual that may draw more opposition protests.

The Jaras website said some people were injured and arrests made when the security services intervened to enforce the ban in Zanjan. There was no immediate comment from the authorities. On Wednesday, an Iranian official denied reports by opposition websites of clashes between mourners and police in the central city of Isfahan, one of Iran's biggest cities. There were also reports of scuffles in his nearby hometown, Najafabad…

On Thursday Jaras quoted an eyewitness as saying mourners held a memorial service in the street because the mosque was locked. It said a number of people were "severely wounded" and a "large number" were arrested among the crowd who chanted anti-government slogans such as "Oh Hossein, Mirhossein" in reference to opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi, "Montazeri congratulations on your freedom," and "Down with the dictator."

Najafabad was Montazeri's home town. To give you a brief glimpse into the extent of the fraud in last June's rigged elections, the coup regime argued that 70 percent of Najafabad's voters backed Ahmadinejad. And yet the entire town is convulsed in anti-Khamenei demonstrations.

(Photo: Iranians hold portraits of Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri during his funeral procession in the holy city of Qom on December 21, 2009. Hundreds of thousands of mourners turned out in Iran's holy city of Qom for the funeral of the top dissident cleric, opposition websites reported. Montazeri, 87, a fierce critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who was once tapped to become Iran's undisputed number one, died of an illness on December 19, his office said. AFP/Getty Images)

For all of you actually working today, a reader offers Harvey Danger's "Sometimes You Have To Work On Christmas."

A studio apartment in a dull part of seattle
A strand of light suspended by a thumbtack in the drywall
The restaurants are closed
So are the record shops, the banks, and bars, and bartel drugs,
And so's the half price bookstore
But the movies are always open
And I always have to open
A repertory movie house
Well life is not so wonderful
For 15 soggy patrons who have no better place to be
Not to mention me
I'm working for a holiday wage
My family is two time zones away,
I'm supposed to call them
My vodka and snow is melting
The alcohol isn't helping
Sometimes you have to work on christmas, sometimes
You have to work on christmas, sometimes
You gotta work on christmas,
I doubt I'll miss this
There's an artificial tree blinking in the lobby,
Sitting on the coffee table, yea
Strangers and spare changers stand in line like poor relations
At some kind of sad reunion
And I'm selling the tickets
They come in out of the weather
For christmas alone together
Sometimes you have to work on christmas, sometimes
You have to work on christmas, sometimes
You have to work on christmas,
I doubt I'll miss this next year
Sometimes you have to work on christmas, sometimes
You gotta work on christmas, sometimes
You have to work on christmas,

I doubt I'll miss this at all

A reader writes:

I just opened my book tonight.  It's cold and snowing outside, and I'm surrounded by boxes and half-packed items.  I'm moving in a few days, into a new home–my first.  But the hustle and bustle of the moment means I'm having to forgo traveling to family, and for the first time in my life I am alone on Christmas Eve.

As I leaf through the book in an empty place, there's one deep, constant feeling.  I've never felt  so at home in the world.  We're all here, looking out windows and hoping and working through the day.  And the way Chris put it all together–we're waking up together, going to bed together, reading together.  We're experiencing together, and we're all connected by the Dish.  I'm reading along with people in 80 countries!  How amazing to know that?  And I don't think I really knew it till now.

You mention in the prologue that you started up the windows to give us insight into ourselves, your readership, to hold up a mirror.  For me (a 10 time daily reader) the windows were usually only a passing fancy, breaking up the meat of the day.

Not so anymore.  Brilliant job.  And you just made my Christmas Eve way warmer than outside.  Thanks.

It really is much more than the sum of its parts. You can buy it here.

Washington, DC, 1.49 pm. 

Merry Christmas from Patrick, Chris and me.

A reader writes:

Perhaps because I'm a church musician, I find it interesting that many of these "depressing Christmas songs" have nothing to do with Christmas whatsoever.  They're straight up pop songs stuffed onto a Christmas album because the lyricist managed to find a way to put the word Christmas in there somewhere.  Believe me, there are plenty related to the season that top these if you really think about it.  Peter Warlock's "Bethlehem Down" comes to mind. The message?  All is sweet for now, but you know soon enough the babe is going to be crucified.  If you don't fully buy the notion of the resurrection, what could be more maudlin?

Lyrics after the jump:

When he is King we will give him the Kings’ gifts,
Myrrh for its sweetness, and gold for a crown,
Beautiful robes,” said the young girl to Joseph,
Fair with her first-born on Bethlehem Down.

Bethlehem Down is full of the starlight —
Winds for the spices, and stars for the gold,
Mary for sleep, and for lullaby music
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.

When he is King they will clothe him in grave-sheets,
Myrrh for embalming, and wood for a crown,
He that lies now in the white arms of Mary,
Sleeping so lightly on Bethlehem Down.

Here he has peace and a short while for dreaming,
Close-huddled oxen to keep him from cold,
Mary for love, and for lullaby music
Songs of a shepherd by Bethlehem fold.

Another of my constant correspondents. The energy this must take. He has penned hundreds this year and many before. A flavor of the usual themes (mainly about my AIDS dementia):

I understand that David Bradley has put you on suicide watch as a result of this poll. Even your arch nemesis, Dick Cheney, is approaching Obama approval levels. I wonder when the calls for impeachment will begin since you and Gleenwald will be just about the only supporters left.

And again:

The above single sentence excerpt from your post, reads as if written by a drugged and/or drunken fool. As far as one can determine, the folks at The National Review are not, as is your particular case, fucking idiots and dementia-driven fools. Stronger views to follow.

And again:

Your initial post and your response to this reader represent a new low in your dementia-infested mind.

And again:

I do visit your site with a fair degree of regularity when I’m not otherwise busy with my other life. I must say, however, that the continued decline in your mental state makes continuation of that highly problematic. I have offered in the past, and I continue to offer, the names and recommendations of several highly acclaimed medical professionals who could perhaps be of assistance to you in this phase of your life. In fact, perhaps the leading such authority in the world is among my neighbors in Gstaad.

By the way, I notice that you have totally ducked the basic thrust of my e-mail, which had to do with the fact that you have largely relied on whack jobs and perverts for much of your defamatory comments on Governor Palin.

Oh tidings of comfort and joy!

Many readers spluttered at my belief that Al Gore would have gone to war against Saddam if he'd been inaugurated in 2000 instead of Bush. As someone who has known Gore for years, and edited TNR with which he was closely associated, and worked for Marty Peretz, one of his closest friends and mentors, I base my assessment on what I know of the guy, and his record. Jeff Weintraub basically agrees, although he argues that the way Gore would have gone to war would have been markedly different than Bush's, a sentiment which I tend to agree with as well. Here's a passage of a speech Gore gave in 2002:

Even if we give first priority to the destruction of terrorist networks, and even if we succeed, there are still governments that could bring us great harm. And there is a clear case that one of these governments in particular represents a virulent threat in a class by

itself: Iraq.

As far as I am concerned, a final reckoning with that government should be on the table.

To my way of thinking, the real question is not the principle of the thing, but of making sure that this time we will finish the matter on our terms. But finishing it on our terms means more than a change of regime in Iraq. It means thinking through the consequences of action there on our other vital interests, including the survival in office of Pakistan's leader; avoiding a huge escalation of violence in the Middle East; provision for the security and interests of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Gulf States; having a workable plan for preventing the disintegration of Iraq into chaos; and sustaining critically important support within the present coalition.

In 1991, I crossed party lines and supported the use of force against Saddam Hussein, but he was allowed to survive his defeat as the result of a calculation we all had reason to deeply regret for the ensuing decade. And we still do. So this time, if we resort to force, we must absolutely get it right. It must be an action set up carefully and on the basis of the most realistic concepts. Failure cannot be an option, which means that we must be prepared to go the limit. And wishful thinking based on best-case scenarios or excessively literal transfers of recent experience to different conditions would be a recipe for disaster.

One wonders, of course, if a war under genuine international auspices, without resorting to institutionalized torture and abuse of prisoners, with serious post-war planning, and more integrated nation-building could have made the invasion and occupation a success. I have to say I doubt it now, and doubt also if it would have made sense given other priorities. 

But I also wonder what the impact of a successful Iraq regime change under a Democrat might have been on American politics. But that's history for you. It's done now. And we'll never truly know.

Puppy and ice cube engage in mortal combat (and a nice palliative to all those depressing Christmas songs):

(Hat tip: TDW)