Iranian of the Day

 AO: Good catch....ba in

 AO: Good catch....ba in vaz ma 30 sal digeh bayad montazer beshinim ke IRI (hardliner+reformers) tashrifeshoono bebaran...Vaghan jaye taasofeh.

Reform requires the consent of the corrupt

Now this is why you're a liar Mr. Talebi

Your only problem was with flag waving?  No green flags either?  Really? Why don't you take a look at minute 0:53 of the video?  There's an Iranian tri-colored flag minus the shir-o-khorshid waving.  Then minutes 0:57-1:04, green flag is waving in the background.  Did you call the cops on those people too?

And what's wrong if these people showed up with a flag?  they were chanting "unity for Iran" and "democracy for Iran."  Couldn't you sympathize with the message and tolerate the flag for the sake of unity and support of Iranian people that you pretended to advocate?

Let's face it.  You didn't have a problem with the flag waving.  You had a problem with a shir-o-khorshid flag being there. You and the likes of you have a visceral reaction to that flag and people who advocate it.  I mean, what can one expect from a guy who was acting as Ahmadinejad's de facto PR representative in the U.S.?  Trita Parsi would have flogged you if you had allowed shir-o-khorshid flag bearers in your little party without a fight.  The tempestuous look on your face as you will going from cop to cop trying to get these people arrested and / or tossed out showed the deep trepidation within you.  Who were you so afraid of?! 

PS- did you disclose to the protesters who had gathered in the park that you had, in the past, tried to spin, correct and polish off Ahmadinejad's utterances?  I'm ure that would have gone over well. :-))  

@ Shazde

I responded to your irrelevant and quite irrational set of points in your own thread.

Mr. Talebi: now that this has tied with NIAC discussions ...

Would you comment about your published email regarding the "handling and managing" of AhmadiNejad's quotation and confirmation of Khomeini's edict that: "Israel must be destroyed"?

Link: //iranian.com/main/blog/shazde-asdola-mirza/anti-semitic-iri-and-ahmadinejad-white-washing-niac

@ Faramarz and Ari

@ Faramarz - LOL.  Not having been in Ghazvin myself, I'll have to take your word for it =P  

Thankfully, my generation is a bit less hung-up over the gay-overtones of such things. For me, the key was that my trainer was experienced and knowledgeable and was able to land me on the ground safely.  For all i cared he could have been a gay, transgender, illegal Mexican, Marxist, fascist, alien... or even a Republican - I'm just thankful he knew what he was doing ;)  haha

@ Ari - I was waiving at the 2nd parachuter (my friend in the yellow shirt on the plane) who had just opened up his chute too. Funny thing - he almost lost his shoe mid-flight!  it was literally half off his foot and he had to put it back on in the air!

@ Anonymous I'm so very

@ Anonymous

I'm so very happy for you that you are able to hold such congatively dissonant viewpoints without a second thought. Lets see how much sense your analysis makes: The person who is helping organize the event (me) is the "disruptive" one in your eyes.  How did my feelbe mind not understand this!  thank you for enlightening me.

For your information, that police officer recieved a repremand for not following the rules of the Park Police. Our permit, which we worked for 20 days to secure, explicitly stated that "NO FLAGS" were to be allwed in our permit area (that meant no Islamic Republic flags, No green flags, NO shir-o-khorshid flags - no flags of any kind). The reason, though it obviously escapes you, is so that people with differing opinions and ideals could come together in solidarity for a unified cause. United for Iran.  

In fact, within our own 20+ person organizing committes, we had 2 constitutional monarchists and 2 former communists among the many many other personal opinions...  The point being that 4900 people that day were willing to put down their personal flags and personal beliefs so they could show solidarity with the kids in iran who were committing the actual sacrifice of fighting for their freedom.

The folks who organized the 100-person flag counter protesters HAD their own permit for 2 blocks away. but they realized how outnumbered they were - so instead they decided to not only disrespect, insult, and disrupt the bigger event, but to then call us "basiji", "sabzollahi", and pro-regime because we don't agree with THEIR specific perspective.

Dariush himself, who performed at our event, said it best... 'har kodam az oon parchamhaye shoma, mesl-e yek sar neizei meemooneh keh be ghalb javoonaye iran zadeh mishe'.  

As for your repeated lie that I tried to get anyone arrested, once more you show your lack of intrest in basic facts and logic. Our request was for the park police to separate the counter-protesters from the main protest just as they would at any other event - AND just as the DC city police had done at the earlier rally @ the UN office. The Park officer in charge made two eggregious errors and did not follow their own rules that day and he was later repremanded for it by his superiors. We have this apology in writing.

But this is all in the past. We, who supported the Iranian Green Movement (who your friend SamSam III calls "Sabzollahi"), tried our best to show we supported the the movement in Iran. We did our job and the Western media covered it. The Iranian community in DC saw us do our job and I have thousands of voices of thanks for what I helped do that summer. so yes, I am very proud of my work and my record and i stand by it. Of course in politics, there will always be those who disagree, and that is healthy. But just as we see with extremists in the Tea Party or in Iran or elsewhere, some folks prefer to make up their own facts and live in their own reality. You are welcome to do the same.

@ seannewyork. thank you for your enlightening comment about the skydiving video. glad you found the thread to add your constructive sentiments.

Highly cool, Babak!

Who are you waving at around 5:37? I'm guessing the plane cricled for a airplane-view video of you guys.  

"...and nothing else compares."

Tandem Skydiving is Popular in Ghazvin!

As I understand, Tandem Skydiving where you are attached to a professional sky diver is very popular in Ghazvin (ehem)!

As I hear, the crew is very professional and get you there without any physical harm! You are also told to keep your mouth open and scream as you will, to ease the pain!

Not my cup of tea!

@ Arj, glad you liked it.

@ Arj, glad you liked it. yes, the moment of truth was when the plane door opened. quite a moment. 

@ divaneh, why not both!  I did scuba diving a long time ago, need to do it again to refreshen the memory!  that was also a wonderful experience.

@ Nahzi jan - thank you so much for the kind words and the sweet poem. I had no clue JJ would post this when I sent out the email and I had no clue so many would be interested in seeing the video. I'm glad JJ has his finger on th pulse of his site and knows what will be of interest to folks ;)  Thanks again for sharing the poem - I am very touched.

@ amirparvizforsecularmonarch - lol! that's the selling point though isn't it?  its a 4 to 5 minute descent but a whole day's worth of adrenaline and a lifetime of memories. 

FYI about Talebi: AN IRI Supporter/NIAC

This person is one who talked down to many people in protests thought him and NIAC run things.  They tried in every way to shut people up.  Him and NIAC are shameful.

There are videos of him telling people not to bring sings or say things against  the regime in Iran.  Regime change was not what people of Iran wanted he said.  85% of the people want this regime with slight changes he said.  FOOL.

 What a fool.  Him and NIAC look so stupid for their stance.  Shameful stance.

Down with IRI and any people who help in slowing their toppling.

 Long live a free iran.

Hey that's a coincidence.

I went to Orlando, not far from there and did it one time too.  Never again though its too scary, crazy.

It takes you an afternoon to lose the adrenaline from it.

A Poem for the World Famous Babak....

Bobby jaan,

When I sent you the poem this afternoon, I didn't know your skydiving video is being broadcasted to the four corners of the world.  Now that it has, perhaps I should re-post the poem here.  With much love, Nahzi

Come to the edge.
We can't. We're afraid.
Come to the edge.
We can't. We will fall!
Come to the edge.

And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.

Whatever the guy in the back is doing ...

.... it seems to be hurting BT like hell ;-)

AO jaan, migan, kabootar baa kabootar, baaz baa baaz

Do you think your hamshahri webmaster would showcase my aerobic fligh video  on the first page as a non-sabzollahi,::)) ...?. not that i ever would give him the honor but nevertheless..  Thanks for the heads up pal.

Cheers pilgrim!!!

"disrupt"....yeah....

the 12 year old girl in white shorts waving a shir-o-khorshid flag was really "disruptive!"  

The only disruptive person in that crowd was the bully who was screaming on top of his lungs on stage and chasing the DC police like an attention starved puppy trying to get people who disagreed with him out of a public park. 

And yeah...I can't understand all the stuff that you mentioned.  Perhaps it's because of my crappy education.  Or perhaps it was that car accident where I hit my head against the windshield.  The doctor said that one of the side effects can be loss of emotions.  I  didn't take him seriously.  But now I  know better...

Actually, I may not be beyond hope after all.  There was a moment  in the park video that I did feel something resembling joy.  It was the moment when that DC cop taught you a lesson in free speech!  That was pretty, pretty cool.  Kudos to him!

Anyway, gotta go walk my dog.  Nice blow horn by the way.   You should take a still photo of the video with the horn slung over your shoulder and make it your avatar for this site. :-)

Thanks Babak

I was thinking of skydiving, but having seen your ordeal have now decided to go scuba diving :)

Nice clip!

Especially the change of music from free fall to parachuting! Thanks for posting. Nevertheless, it's sad to see the L.A. subculture of bickering over stuff that does not matter the least to the folks back home!

AO - funny? really?

Do you find it funny that I helped organize over 20 protests in DC after the 2009 elections? Do you find it funny that when offered to discuss and talk about differences in strategy, your 'shir-o-khorshid' friends yell "Basiji boro gom sho"?  Do you find it funny that when someone helps put together an event for 5000 people, less than 100 come in with the intent to disrespect, disrupt, and abuse the rest?

You are entitled to your opinion Mr. Anonymous. I have done all my work under my name and I'm proud to have done my small part to help the Iranian community in the US and to show my support to the brave kids in Iran who were getting beat up by the real basijis...

To me, what is funny is that the same shir-o-khorshid crowd with the same abusive tactics that have produce ZERO gains in over 30 years for the people of Iran or those living abroad, find it within their right to abuse, insult, and denigrate the heartfelt and effective efforts of others who are making an ACTUAL difference. 

To me, what is funny is that you are not able to separate a thread about skydiving from politics and even if you disagree with my politics or hate my tactics and strategy in opposing the regime, you can't share in the human emotion of sympathy, joy, fear, or exhileration that others express - even if you disagree with someone politically.

Maybe its not so much 'funny' as it is sad.

Was about to comment on this cheerful video

But after the AO's link, I think I'll restrain from. Rather sad.

An even funnier video of Mr. Talebi!

Here he is calling the DC police on his fellow Iranians who are carrying the shir-o-khorshid flag:

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=och26QdEEF8&feature=player_embedded

That is you, right, Mr. Talebi? 

should not be posted!!!

Bahram... lol.  wow. if I did that, I would not post my video!!!  specially the end hahaa

Faramarz - no flies. I'm

Faramarz - no flies. I'm guessing they don't make up past a few dozen feet, nevermind 11,000 haha.

There was a flock of geese or some kind of bird that worried me for a bit, but the guy said he's never had an incident - they steer clear. 

Bahram - I'm guessing there is more interest in mani & pedi's where you're living =P  for me down in FL, I'm getting lots of good deals - today I saw one for $90 parasailing for TWO (with video) that's like 70% off the usual price. 

Great clip Babak

Great Job Babak!

Did you catch any flies in your mouth?

hahaha ;)

I've heard that "why jump out of a perfectly good plane" line so many times in the last week hahaha ;)

As for the jump - all I know is that the intensity of the adrenaline rush is one thing... the view of earth from that far up is just far too mesmerizing not to do it.

I wish I could 'like' your comments!

Esfand, you must be a mind reader

I don't mean about JJ not doing it but your comment about rollercoasters is how I feel about them. Last time, I tried any adventurous roller coaster, I was in my late thirties and I did not have the stomach for it. As far as skydiving, I believe the same as a coworker of mine who is interested in aviation noted:"why jump out of a perfectly good plane". I don't see myself skydiving but then never say never.

JJJ you'll never do it!

The time to do these things is when you're younger.  Before you try skydiving go on a rollercoaster again and see if you have the stomach for it, or less if you even enjoy it again.  

I used to like rollercoasters but the last time I tried it few years ago I was like WTF!  I don't need this!  I was just perfectly happy having fun doing other stuff and didn't need my stomach churned for this! 

Everything is sacred

will do!

Babak, hopefully my clip will come out to your screen in 2012. Thank you for the virtual nudge!

I should add

I should add that these guys I jumped with were so professional.  Their operation seemed kind of low-budget at first, but they really were great.

The Video quality/editing speaks for itself (obviously their production), their attention to safety details, and of course the two two guys who jumped with us were friendly and knowledgable, so we felt safe in that respect.

woooooohoo

oh what magnificent fun! i've always dreamed about doing it. i'm scared as hell, but will do it too one day. thank you for the added inspiration :)