Iranian of the Day

Thank you JJ

It happens, Thanks for explainations and correction.

Enjoy your trip and  happy holidays .

Thanks to punctuation mark,

but you see the problem is I only know Rashidian based on his writings and his constant claims that he was never affiliated with the MKO or with separatist movements.  And actually I HAVEN'T defended him, all I've asked is that his ATTACKERS substantiate their claims and they NEVER do, they never even document them ANECDOTALLY, saying I remember back in 1983 or so and so told me...

they just start cursing while restating the same CLAIM and then they CLAIM I and JJ are in some kind of plot with him...so WHAT CONCLUSIONS CAN I COME TO ABOUT THEIR CLAIMS?  The only thing THOSE two have in common is the name Jahanshah...they're not exactly dancing in a flower garden together..trust me on this one....and their politics are VERY different...me and them two embroiled in some PLOT together...I mean it's RIDICULOUS> I ask for some kind of documentation....and I NEVER NOT ONCE HAVE GOTTEN ANYTHING BETTERTHAN THIS.

 I've gotten that I'm a whore, that I need to get laid, that I need to address the attackers as royalty, that Hitler never killed children, that JJ and I are in the CIA, that Rashidian should die along with Ali Mahin Torabi, but I've never gotten ONE SINGLE reply documenting ANYTHING and yours is the FIRST ONE, the FIRST ONE I can remember, that is actually in civil language.  And the post below is NOT the first long post I've written in response either. I've written similar things and STILL gotten told I'm a Zionist agent who should get laid...

So tell me, WHAT AM I, AS AN OBJECTIVE OUTSIDER, SUPPOSED TO THINK ABOUT THESE ATTACKS?

See the problem?

Thanks so much for your reply,
Robin

To Rosie T (Re: Anatr ...)

Rosie
You have an interesting life story. I commend you for your effort and belief. My suggestion is however, that before you get yourself involved in defending questionable characters like Rashidian, if you don't know all the facts and where he is coming from, then don't defend. It will back fire on you as apparently did in this case. This chartacter is suspecious, not because he is anti-IRI, that is fine to be, but his past history. In spite of our "pranaiodness" as iranians have learned the lesson that we should not trust just anyone. We can easily find out who is who and their background, history, and objectives.

Thanks fo ryour heart-felt sotry.

To Anatr from the Belly of the Beast: The Rabid Zionist Speaks

I just wrote this to Anatr and it's long and I'm going to edit and blog it later.  In the meantime, my reply (and my apologies to the physicist who is deservedly Iranian of the Day and warm congratulations both to him and his students for their journeys into the nature of reality...) 

Anatr accuses me of being a Zionist woman deleting anti-Zionist articles.

Anatri, I don't flag any articles based on ideology. I flagged a comment for deletion on this blog which began with the question "Who the f-k Dude, why the fuck do you think any one wants to hear what you have to say?"  I don't remember who wrote it and I don't know what it said or what its ideology was. I don't know if the person who wrote it was an ultra-Shahi or an ultra-Khomeinist or a Zionist or a membber of Al-Qaeda or the German Green Party. I don't know  because I didn't read past the first sentence.  I flagged it because it used violent language to deny someone their right to speak. If you read up the thread on Jahanshah Rashidian's recent article on Justice my views on moderation as well as on my ideological stance and  view of my role in the discussion on this board are very clearly articulated in response to comments made to me--some quite offensive, which I did not flag but responded to, just like yours.. So there is really no reason for me to repeat myself here since these things were very time-consuming to write and you must have seen them since Rashidian's blog is the only place where you could possibly have concluded that I am a moderator.

Nevertheless I will address your claim that I am a Zionist:

I was born and raised an Eastern European Conservative Jew in New York City and attended Hebrerw School after public school for eight years with a full Zionist indoctrination.  My parents were liberals who fought for civil rights and school integration. During my university education I became drawn to socialist ideolgoies further left than my parents but not inconsistent with Zionism since Israel at that time was in the flower of the "kibbutz" movement.

However in graduate school my best friend was an Egyptian socialist and after the massacres of Palestinian  Refugees at Sabra and Shatilah in 1982 I became involved with her in the Arab Students Organization which had loose ties with the PLO.  I did so at the cost of serious problems with my family as well as with the majority of my undergraduate students and my colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania who had backgrounds similar to my own.

I am not and have not been a Zionist since the day those massacres were revealed to me in 1982. I believe in a one-state solution as did Edward Said, through Truth and Reconciliation Commissions along the lines of South Africa.  I am thoroughly opposed to the alliance of ANY government with ANY religion, and this includes BOTH Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran.  However I see many shades of gray and have stated here publicly that I would MUCH MUCH rather live in an Islamic Republic ruled by the likes of Khatami and Shirin Ebadi than in a supposedly secular one ruled by the likes of Cheney and Bush if they were able to have all the control they liked. I am POSITIVE of this and my mind will never change on it because I know these "hamvatans" of mine...

I am against the prosecution of so-called Holocaust Deniers and believe the term Holocaust Denial itself to be propaganda as I have visited the websites of these people and most of them to not deny the Holocaust but question its extent. As such I was neutral regarding Ahmadinejad's discourse and convention on the Holocaust as I believe he did it as a politcal ploy and I am aware that he very early on invited Tony Blair to speak there. I believe Blair failed us all by refusing to go and had he gone, the discourse would have had a completely different shape and outcome.

Despite being  graduate of Columbia University (1981) where I received an excellent education, and despite my history of having been involved in the gay rights movement, I was thoroughly appalled by Bollnger's speech and choice of questions when Ahmadinejad spoke there.  During last year's invasion of Lebanon by Israel I wrote to the New York Times decrying both this invasion and Bush's expedition of weapons to harm civilians. I consider my government as responsible as Israel for the decimation of the Lebanese infrastructure and I will never forgive them. At that time I participated in a protest in downtown New York organized mostly by Arab groups and I held a sign saying "Never Again is for Everyone."  It was a boiling hot day and I wore a halter top while many women wore hijab. I was ostracized by them and I stood alone and this is where I often stand and it is a sometimes lonely but always rewarding place to be.  At that protest I refused to take part in a chant initiated by a hard left American Jew: "We are all Hezbollah."

I am not Hezbollah and I am not a Zionist.  I am Robin Jayne Goldsmith, a 48 year old woman living in New York City who writes on this website and teaches immigrants and inner city youth how to read and write English. My background is in theater, poetry and Hispanic Studies.  You can go to my blog space and my comments on my thread on the first blog I wrote and find all my personal contacts.  You may e-mail me privately if you like, you can even send me Christmas cookies or a letter bomb.  I am completely transparent.

It is perhaps because of this very transparency that some people see in me any reflection they wish to.  I am variously accused on this website of being a Zionist AND a Hezbollah agent.  This is an oxymoron. I have never taken sides in any issue on this website concerning specific plans of action for Iran and my role has only been to mediate in discussions to try to help the participants find common ground.  I have repeated stated: ANYONE WHO WANTS A SECULAR PARLIAMENTARY DEMOCRACY FOR IRAN IS ON THE SAME SIDE. 

I don't take sides but I do have strong beliefs about certain things which I have repeatedly voiced here: I am anti-Bush, anti-Khamenei, anti-colonialist, anti-war, anti-torture, anti-capital punishment, anti-human rights violations in ANY country ANYwhere, and I am a "soft" socialist, meaning I believe in mixed economies, especially in developing countries, where I believe major industries should be nationalized in healthy coexistence with flourishing competitive capitalism ,regulated by s state, freely elected by the people and by international law spearheaded by a United Nations freed from coersion by the World Bank, IMF, G8  and similar organizations. I am against the current structure of the Security Council with its veto power for five countries, and also the Criminal Court at the Hague allowing the likes of George Bush to decide who has committed "crimes against humanity."

That is my "Zionism."  That is my "Hezbollah" agenda.  And if you continue to label me a Zionist after this, Anatr, just because I was born Jewish, all I can say is you are ani-Semitic and that's your problem not mine. I don't take it personally.  I don't believe the Jewish people have any monopoly over suffering in recent history nor do I consider myself, by the facts of my birth, to be particularly allied with the Jews as a group. However my personal background does allow me to clarify to "my" camp, the left, that the nature of the discourse regarding Israel must be changed if progress is to be made.  Their crimes against the Palestians must be languaged in a way that acknowledges their traumatization due to recent history, otherwise THEY WILL NEVER HEAR US.

You're wasting time, Anatr.  YOU'RE WASTING TIME.  Recent UN reports predict massive droughts, extinction of species and flooding of major coastal cities within 20 YEARS due to the excesses of unchained insane industrialization, both capitalist and "communist" (state-capitalist in China).  UN efforts by majority of member nations to abolish capital punishment and finally overcome a worldview of violence and retribution that is BABYLONIAN and OLD TESTAMENT in favor of a new way in this global village ,which has the technology to annihilate EVERYTHING in the blink of an eye, are continually thwarted by a coalition of SHARIAH countries spearheaded by the unholy alliance which I have termed on this website the People's Repugnance of China, the Islamic Repugnance of Iran and the United States of a Murderer under George W. Bush.

STOP WASTING TIME, Anatr.  Stop wasting time on Rosie T.'s "Zionism."  It's just a way for you to keep your head in the sand like an ostrich because you don't want to face the direness of the precipice humanity is facing, and that a new way is the ONLY way. Because you're afraid... and because you suffer unfortunately from the Iranian disease of paranoia, a disease at least as old as the Mongols and Tatars.../

Natars... Anatr...NATARS, all you ANATRS.

The second coming really IS coming, it has already come, and we still have a little time to choose its outcome.  Get your head out of the sand.  Ostriches can't fly.  STOP WASTING TIME!

Mani

Hi Mani,

I don't know who deleted your comment and I don't know what you wrote exactly. But I will take your word that you were not trying to be offensive. I invite you to re-post your comment on the same page. The editors are mostly volunteers with little or no journalism experience. So you have to bear with us. We are trying to do our best to have a healthy environment but we will also make mistakes along the way.

Majid

Hi Majid,

The photo was submitted by Majid Boroumand. I mistakenly attributed it to you because of the same first name.

Have a wonderful new year

Mani432

Mani Jan, jj is right now in either Brussels or Amsterdam, having a great time; probably in one of those coffee shops with plenty of "weed". Please give him a break :)

How in the world...?

Majid is this not "YOU"?
How is that possible?
If that is the case JJ, what is going on?
Please look into this.

JJ ?? WHAT'S GOING ON

Did I post this article when I was sleep walking?

Would you let me know how someone can use my "registered name" and post something ?

First I thought it might be a case of having 2 people under same name, but clicking on the name takes me to my own info page !!

Could you please explain? 

To: Mani432 (RE: JJ's censor police ....)

You are one among many of us with teh same concerns of JJ or his "moderators" deleting comments and posts that they disagree with. You would think IRI is a great "moderator" since somethings sip in.
At any event send you concerns to JJ directly at: jj@iranian.com

I haven't seen a reasonable response from him, but may be yours will be different. Can you imagine a zionist woman by the name "Rosie T" being among JJ's moderators who delete anti-zionist articles? What a life. I assume JJ is getting paid by "someone" and he has to "behave".

Anatr

JJ, Your sensor police is going too far.

JJ,
I recently posted a comment, on the posting titled the "Pourkesali Family", where I noted my position against Iranian Muslims celebrating Christmass more fervently than thier own Shabe Yalda or NoRooz. My original comment and the subsequent discussions were deleted (sensored) by your editors. I posted a similar comment again and again it was deleted.
I fully understand and appreciate deleting comments that are vile, use foul language or attack specific individuals just for the sake of it. But upon reviewing my comments, you'll note that THIS WAS NOT THE CASE in my posting. Instead, your editors simply disagreed with my position and as such deleted my comments. This is where editing crosses the line into sensorship.
I would truly appreciate you taking a moment to look into this case and provide me with a response to my query.
Best Regards,
Mani432

Your are making me feel old ....

I also got my PhD in the 70s (to be exact in 78). After reading his short bio, I congratulate and thank him for doing what he has done and glad that apparently he does not have to work (i am not sure, just a guess). May be that is one of the advantages of spending one's youth in Iran and being able to early retire. That is not possible if you work in Europe as I do. I still have to work, but I know scientific work recognizes no age!