Iran's Political Machinery

Here's a great analysis of the political situation in Iran by Pepe Escobar of the Asia Times from December 19. He notes that if Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi - the gray eminence and spiritual leader of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad - is among the 16 clerics representing Tehran in the Council of Experts, the political situation in Iran may be more volatile than we know.

Note this excerpt -

Yazdi and his followers have always stressed they want to implement "real Islam". They view the Rafsanjani camp as a bunch of filthy rich, morally and legally corrupt decadents, totally oblivious to the concerns of "ordinary people", whose self-styled key symbol happens to be Ahmadinejad.

Yazdi is also the spiritual mentor of the Hojjatieh, a sort of ultra-fundamentalist sect whose literal interpretation of Shi'ite tradition holds that chaos in mankind is a necessary precondition for the imminent arrival of the Mahdi - the 12th hidden (since AD 941) Shi'ite imam who will come to save the world from injustice and widespread corruption. Ahmadinejad may not be a Hojjatieh himself, but he understands where they are coming from.

Yazdi's "real Islam" has nothing to do with Western democracy. He wants a kelafat - a caliphate. Ayatollahs like Yazdi are simply not concerned with worldly matters, foreign policy, geopolitical games or Iran's nuclear program; the only thing that matters is work for the arrival of the Mahdi. Yazdi is on record as saying that he could convert all of America to Shi'ism. But some in Tehran accuse him of claiming a direct link to the Mahdi, which in the Shi'ite tradition would qualify him as a false prophet.

Read the whole thing and get to know the political machinery of our enemy a little better.

The Hypocrisy Of The Left

Zombietime has a great expose' of the hypocrisy of the left and how the nutroots say one thing but do another. Check out Zombie's cavalcade of gas-guzzling contemporary automobiles with hypocritical bumper stickers. On one hand its hilarious, on the other hand its pretty sad.

Here's my favorite:



Complete with this sticker.



Problem is, this 2002 Honda CR-V averages only 23 mpg and puts out 8.0 tons of greenhouse gas emissions every year. WOW! Go look at all the vehicles. Wonderful nutroot hypocrisy.

Images courtesy of Zombietime.com. Thanks Zombie!