=Dennis Junior=

0053 on July 9, Winstone.

you: “..proud of your defence of Iran’s dictatorship.” and “Your love of Iran..”

me: “please do not put words into my mouth.”

you: “I am not putting words in your mouth, I am judging you by what you say..”

drivel. please show where I have expressed a “love” for Iran or where I have “defended” the Iranian leadership.

yes, you are judgemental and, I feel, presumptious. quite offensive, that.

end of.

You: “please do not put words into my mouth. I neither condone nor condemn the leaders of Iran, or any other country; the very concept of the nation state is deeply flawed.”

Response: I am not putting words in your mouth, I am judging you by what you say and now you are qualifying what you originally said. However you now sound indifferent to the situation by your present stance of “neither … nor”.

You: “I did qualify this by saying “appear to”; rather like Thatcher, you know what they stand for. The same cannot be said for the current crop of British politicians.”

Response: I cannot help feeling how foolish you are and feel terribly condescending towards you. None of the elected political institutions in the UK, except for the BNP, pose a personal threat to any individual citizen holding a “valid” or “invalid” opinion and pray, what precisely do Khamenei and Ahmadinejad stand for.

You: “yes, in the UK you may “..verbally attack..” or “..insult..” or “..ridicule..”, provided you do not fall foul of libel/slander legislation. what good does it do? what difference does it make?”

Response: All the difference in the world, or hadn’t you noticed? Live in a dictatorship and then you will realise how important it is to be able to verbally abuse those who “know what’s good for you” or “how you should think” or “what you should wear” etc. In Iran, one of us would be in dead trouble, and I wonder which of us it would be.

“Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself.” “What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.”
- Salman Rushdie

“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
- John F. Kennedy

You: “re. “threadbare”. propaganda is kind of one-dimensional. crucial information is withheld or misrepresented, as I said above, it offends me.”

Response: I really do believe you are hurt by what has happened in Iran and find it extremely difficult to believe the criticism whether or not it comes from outside or inside Iran and throw in words like “threadbare”, which you did not find offensive in your original comment.

You: ““..your patriotism.” ?? to quote Samuel Johnson: ‘patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel’.”

Response: I prefer Edith Cavell before her execution: “But this I would say, standing as I do in view of God and eternity, I realize that patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness toward any one.

You: “..it might be that you believe God is on your side.” LOL. no, belief in the Abrahamic god (or any other gods) is, IMO, tantamount to declaring intellectual bankruptcy.”

Response: I declare to you that I am intellectually bankrupt and leave you with this from Psalm 14.1

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.

Love to you JR and all whom you love. I wish you a good life!

Winstone Perrotton – Tufnell Park

“You talk disparagingly about the British Press, which you say controls our Government: “foolish, blind foolishness” are the only words I can think of.”

did you watch BBC2 Newsnight tonight?

“..proud of your defence of Iran’s dictatorship.” and “Your love of Iran..”

please do not put words into my mouth. I neither condone nor condemn the leaders of Iran, or any other country; the very concept of the nation state is deeply flawed.

“Integrity is the last word you could possibly use in describing the Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.”

I did qualify this by saying “appear to”; rather like Thatcher, you know what they stand for. the same cannot be said for the current crop of British politicians.

yes, in the UK you may “..verbally attack..” or “..insult..” or “..ridicule..”, provided you do not fall foul of libel/slander legislation. what good does it do? what difference does it make?

re. “threadbare”. propaganda is kind of one-dimensional. crucial information is withheld or misrepresented, as I said above, it offends me.

“..your patriotism.” ?? to quote Samuel Johnson: ‘patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel’.

“..it might be that you believe God is on your side.” LOL. no, belief in the Abrahamic god (or any other gods) is, IMO, tantamount to declaring intellectual bankruptcy.

Hitler, Stalin, Franco from the past but Omar al-Bashir – Sudan, Kim Jong-il, North Korea, Sayyid Ali KhamEnei, Iran, Ho Juntao – China, King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia, Than Shwe, Burma – all alive and kicking today would be proud of your defence of Iran’s dictatorship.

You talk disparagingly about the British Press, which you say controls our Government: “foolish, blind foolishness” are the only words I can think of. In the UK I may openly verbally attack the Queen without fear of arrest; I may insult the Prime Minister of this country without fear of MI5 knocking on my door and dragging me away; I may ridicule the Pope of Rome or the Archbishop of Canterbury and no one is going to torture me or execute me for this. That is, in your words, “the parallel universe” I live in. The people of Iran definitely do not.

If the stories reported were “threadbare” -your words again, why interrupt the Internet service, mobile phones and of course the “evil BBC”, which were to keep the ‘Free World’ from seeing and hearing the truth from inside Iran; the “threadbare” false journalism would have dissolved immediately. You’re on a loser mate!

Your love of Iran is highly commendable but again I say don’t be blinded by your patriotism. Integrity is the last word you could possibly use in describing the Khamenei and Ahmadinejad. If they were men of integrity then the society would be an open book and Iran a place where freedom soars like an eagle and people live without fear.

Finally, it might be that you believe God is on your side. Poor old God!

Love to you
Winstone Perrotton – Tufnell Park

“Do you really believe that to express an independent view, political or religious, would stand a chance of a fair trial in Iran.”

as much, or as little, as in this country — seriously; independent thinking isn’t welcomed here either.

“At least in the UK the press would independently report ..”

which parallel universe do you live in??

“JR don’t be so blind to the poor, offended dictators of the Islamic Dictatorship (they call it a republic – what an insult to the word “republic”).”

not blind. offended by a government and a media who want me to believe their thread-bare stories; as to ‘insult’ and ‘republic’ — a bit rich coming from a democrat who (looking into his passport) finds he’s a ’subject’.

“The UK Government, with all its faults, does not control the Press..”

quite right. the press corporations and other interests control the government.

as for Khamenei and Ahmadinejad — whatever their faults, when compared to current western politicians (and church leaders) they appear to have one advantage: integrity.

Winstone Perrotton – Tufnell Park, London

I was going to post a link to a BBC article on this (which I read a few days ago, in the Middle-East section) but it has been removed already. telling.