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Total number of comments: 13 (since 2013-11-28 16:33:28)

Ahmad

Showing comments 13 - 1
Page: 1

  • Iran's Khamenei blames Early English Learning for Unrest, Bans Classes
    • Ahmad 01/10/2018 at 3:58 pm

      How many foreign languages are we teaching our kids in primary schools?

  • Trump on Islam: Neo-Orientalism and anti-Shi'ism
    • Ahmad 05/23/2017 at 11:55 pm

      Look for a new executive order next week that might actually be constitutional. The loser ban executive order!

  • No, America, it wasn't Russia: You did it to Yourself
    • Ahmad 12/11/2016 at 11:36 am

      Hillary got more votes than any white man that has ever been elected. The election came down to 3 upset wins for Trump. In those 3 state, if two out of every 100 people decided the last second based on accumulation of misinformation, hacking to tip the scale, or politically driven bogus investigations then the election was affected and it is silly to rule Russia, Comey, or any other bad actor out just so we can make the political observation that we want to make. A last second TD was awarded to the Trump team and the question is did it cross the line or did the instant replay people reviewing a doctored replay. The question is not why did the Hillary team not run a bunch of plays in their game plan.

  • Dragon & Phoenix: Khamenei Lauds New Sino-Iranian 'Strategic Partnership'
    • Ahmad Shadman 01/24/2016 at 9:48 am

      I guess the Chinese president is not worried about needing to get a visa to come to the States.

  • The Letter: Top 5 Similarities of GOP and Iran Hard Liners
    • Ahmad 03/10/2015 at 1:31 pm

      What an insane move by these senators. Talk about handing Iran everything it wants. A collapse of the sanctions caused by US government’s inability to get its act together, and no further restrictions imposed on its nuclear program.

  • Iranian President Rouhani acknowledges Holocaust as Crime against Jewish People
    • Ahmad 09/25/2013 at 2:42 pm with 3 replies

      As a naturalized Iranian American I was happy to see a person speak for Iran who is more direct and does not spend 80% of their time on meaningless analogies. I listened to the speech once in English and once in Farsi. The speech sounded a lot more confrontational in English. I do not know why they did not ask an American to read the English translation. The guy was not Iranian so he had no feel for the flow of the speech and was struggling with his reading and sounded angry. I knew he was reading it when he said camel flagged when he came across the word “camelflage”.
      Rouhani sounded confident. You will have to excuse him for the morality lessons but that is very typical Farsi speech to espouse to what humans should aspire to be. I mean there is like 3,000 years of poetry about this stuff. Anyway, Mr. US President who believes Americans are exceptional meet the Iranian President who believes Iranian are exceptional.

      I was also caught up in the hype of seeing the handshake (also hyped up by the Iranian side) and was wondering why it did not happen. There must have been something in the Obama speech that came as a surprise to them. The best explanation that I have heard is that the President declaring resolving the Iranian Nuclear issue as his top priority even more urgent than solving the Israel Palestinian conflict must have come across as unexpected. First it sounds like something the Israeli prime minster would have written. And second, it is a juxtaposition of who gets credit. I think the Iranians would prefer to treat this as not the #1 international crisis on the planet, and they certainly do not want it to be on the fast track.

      Hey, it is good that they are talking. Maybe fewer people get killed in their proxy wars.

  • An Outbreak of Reasonableness in Tehran: Top Ten Conclusions from Iran's Early Election Returns
    • Ahmad 06/16/2013 at 8:09 pm

      I think the real significance of this election is that over the next 8 years Khamenai, Rafasanji, and many of old guard clerics will kick the bucket. The real fight is for the future of the country after these guys are out of the picture. Certainly, the sitting president will have an important say and a strong win in a seemingly democratic election gives him an even bigger role.

  • "Argo" as Orientalism and why it Upsets Iranians
    • Ahmad 02/26/2013 at 12:29 pm

      I liked the scene where the guy hangs up the phone and decides to run across the airport to warn the guards at the gate. Then they do not have keys to the gates they are guarding so they have to run to the control tower. These stupid guys apparently did not know they could also make local calls. 350 Stooges!!! It is just a movie folks. Right after the revolution they came out with a movie about an Iranian guy who was beating his American wife in Tehran and how she ran away with her daughter. People used to ask me if that movie was a good depiction of the Iranian people and I would say only if you are willing to accept "Deliverance" as a good depiction of the Americans. Is there an Iranian guy who has beaten up his American wife? I am sure the answer is more than one and less than all.

  • UN to look into US Drone Program, but the Biggest Victim is Democracy
    • Ahmad 01/25/2013 at 11:50 am

      "To call these Unlawful Enemy Combatants “criminals,” as if they had just knocked off a Seven-Eleven convenience store, is ludicrous. They are non-state enemies who have made it clear their target is the United States."

      Talk about ludicrous. Calling people who are not even guilty of shop lifting at a Seven-Eleven non-state enemies cause they happen to be in the vicinity of a suspect or have come to rescue the injured. We are only a few years away from these drones (ours or someone else's) ruling the skies and threatening to destroy anyone at anytime or at anyplace. It is time to establish some rules for conduct.

  • Top Ten Wish List Progressives should Press on President Obama
    • Ahmad 11/08/2012 at 1:31 pm

      During the campaign, President Obama was fond of claiming that Romney wants to take us back to the policies of the past that have tried and failed. That he supposedly turned the ship around and the economy is coming back and we should move forward. As hard as I’ve tried I could not figure what he was talking about since I could not put my finger on anything that he had done to break with the policies of the past. After all, the Bush tax cuts are still in place. He has tried some small experiments on renewable energy and healthcare reform that have had negligible impact on economy.

      I am concerned that we have two bad moves that he can try as his own major policy change. Increase taxes on anyone which pretty much all economists agree is likely to be counter-productive. Or, try austerity which according to progressives will send us into a worse economic position. Combine the two, and you still get the fiscal cliff.

      As long as the Chinese are willing to give us free money, we are forced to take it. In the meantime, I wish our presidents would concentrate on their own jobs and eliminate wasteful spending and concentrate on the big picture items such as peace, energy, education, and research. Let congress and the fed take the lead on budget and tax issues. Play the honest broker rather than the party leader when it comes to these fiscal issues.

  • Arabs and the Olympics (Majid)
    • Ahmad 08/15/2012 at 10:40 am with 1 replies

      Mr. Majid has done a very poor job of presenting an idea that has some merit.

      To begin with I have a problem with equating Olympic success and medal count with some kind of advancement in society. However, if that is the standard we are going to apply then there is no doubt that the exclusion of women pretty much proves his point and there is no breaking the bridge between the faith and that one.

      As for Iran doing well, yes we did well in sports that are considered faith appropriate like wrestling and weight lifting and the Iranian government coverage of those event was heavily combined with religious pre match and post match propaganda. After one gold medal ceremony they cut right to some weird coverage of people visiting shrines in Karbala and discussion of the first Imam who was pretty athletic being murdered while he was praying.

      There is nothing in the Islamic faith that is anti sports but there is no doubt that in practice, religious leaders have defined a lifetime in pursuit of sports excellence as frivolous, not quite as bad as music or entertainment but still definitely discouraged.

  • Free Syrian Army Controls Border Areas
    • Ahmad 07/21/2012 at 12:14 am with 1 replies

      Russian arms are available on the free market and Qatar helped the rebels in Libya. You mean those paragraphs. Or the one where Saudis may have American arms they may be sharing. Not exactly narrowing it down is it?

    • Ahmad 07/20/2012 at 1:00 pm with 3 replies

      Juan, I look to your daily updates to find information that is hard to come by. I must say though, in your excitement to see this regime fall, your news coverage is falling short. Stating that they are taking and holding territory much to your surprise does not provide any information on how they are being organized and who is organizing them. Who are these people? Who is funding and arming them?

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