Iran, among other things

TEHRAN, Iran - In a sign of endurance for Iran's protest movement, demonstrators clashed with police Friday as one of the nation's most powerful clerics challenged the supreme leader during Muslim prayers, saying country was in crisis in the wake of a disputed election.

The turnout of tens of thousands of worshippers for former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's sermon at Tehran University and the battles with police outside represented the biggest opposition show of strength in weeks. Protesters faced fierce government suppression and hundreds were arrested following the disputed June 12 presidential election.

Read the rest by clicking on the tile of this post.

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And now to things of concern on the home front.

Why Obamacare can't work.

In his speech to the AMA in Chicago June 15, 2009, Obama shared his diagnosis, solutions, and justification for healthcare reform: health costs are spiraling out of control and are a threat to the economy, families, businesses, and the federal government. The current system is unsustainable. Costs are increasing faster than they should because we spend money on things that don't make us healthier. We equate expensive care with better care. We overuse and reimburse for treatments that are not needed and we pay for quantity instead of quality.

Click on the link in the title of this part of my post for the full treatment.

Consider this; Social Security is going to run out in 2023, or so they tell us. The truth is, it has already run out, there is no social security trust fund, the number of people retiring is increasing and our working population is decreasing.

Common sense should tell us that adding more debt to the Federal Budget for healthcare in teh face of a crisis in the whole Social Security Program is just plain insane, for lack of a better definition, at least one I can publish in common decency.

This probably helps explain the eagerness of both parties in DC to grant amnesty, yes, that its what it is, to illegal immigrants who are here in violation of the laws of our nation. They need someone to take the place of our declining work force.

Meanwhile, they are busy destroying our economy, and may not be able to provide jobs for those they grant amnesty in the very near future. Obama contradicts himself on how well the economy is doing; telling us one day it is looking good, and a day or two later that it is going to be a long haul to recovery.

Listen here to Obama vs Obama. This man is a walking contradiction and has change course in hte wording of his speaches over and over, whichever way the polls blow.

This is Gadfly, the annoying pest, out for the night.

Iran protesters take to the streets.

CAIRO — Thousands of Iranians poured into the streets of Tehran on Thursday, clapping, chanting, almost mocking the authorities as they once again turned out in large numbers in defiance of the government’s threat to crush their protests with violence.

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Photographs

Protests Resume in Iran

Related

The Lede: July 9: Updates on the Protests in Iran (July 9, 2009)

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Associated Press

In Tehran, police officers fired tear gas, and they and militia members reportedly beat protesters. More Photos »

As tear gas canisters cracked and hissed in the middle of crowds, and baton-wielding police officers chased protesters up and down sidewalks, young people, some bloodied, ran for cover, but there was an almost festive feeling on the streets of Tehran, witnesses reported in e-mail exchanges.

A young woman, her clothing covered in blood, ran up Kargar Street, paused for a moment and said, “I am not scared, because we are in this together.”

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TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's supreme leader has imposed his will on the streets with security forces that crushed mass protests over the country's disputed election. But he faces an unprecedented level of behind-the-scenes political discontent among the Muslim clerics who form the theological bedrock of the Islamic Republic.

The bitterness could represent a deeper, long-term challenge to the rule of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The outright rejection by some clerics of election results that Khamenei ruled valid breaks a basic taboo against criticizing the man who in the philosophy of the Islamic Revolution literally represents God's rule on earth.

The Iranian people are fed up with the repressive regime, not with Islam, but wish to have a secular government. We can hop and pray that a secular Iran will be an Iran that will not execute those of other religions for proselytizing.

We also would like to see an end to the brutality towards women by the religious enforcers of Iran. How about an end to honor killings and hanging women for adultery who were raped, not adulterers. Homosexuals? I believe they have a right to live, work, have a place to live. I don't hate them, thought some will claim I do, because I believe that practicing homosexuality is a sin against God. The homosexuals who know me as a friend or acquaintance know that I love them, and pray for them.

We don't hang homosexuals in the United States. I don't deny that some people show them hate, like the Phelps group, the Ayatollahs of American Christianity. In Iran, they are hung, sometimes after being raped by men as a punishment. How sick is that.

God's love and peace.
Gadfly