Rants, Raves, and Rhetoric v4

Tag: Iran

  • Why do we restrict the use of nuclear technology?

    The Flynn pushed to share nuclear tech with Saudis story seems like something people are likely to overlook. The story is about: Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns that Saudi Arabia could develop nuclear weapons if the U.S. technology were transferred without proper safeguards. But, why? The Middle East turmoil is in part over…

  • US – Iran Like Worst Exes

    Iran and the United States managed to swap prisoners and make some positive steps in the nuclear deal while taking a step back with sanctions on a nuclear test. Listening to the news this morning, they were talking about the “relationship” the these two have at the moment. My thoughts were, “This is no relationship. This…

  • DDoS of Social Media

    Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal and other sites all admitted to suffering from a DDoS attack. It seem to me the purpose of a Denial-of-Service attack (DoS) against a web site is to flood it with so much traffic the site becomes unusable. The DDoS is where multiple other computers are coordinated into launching the attack. All…

  • The Bahá’í Seven

    In only hours the government of Iran plans to put on trial seven Bahá’í leaders for “spying for Israel, spreading propaganda against the Islamic Republic and religious offenses”. Yesterday the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom called for the release of these Bahá’ís. Similarly the German parlimentary groups have produced similar condemnations. For over 160 years…

  • Voting Rights Act

    The Voting Rights Act of 1965 protects people from malicious actions by state and local governments to prevent people from voting. Yes, we have a president of African-American descent. Yes, the United States Supreme Court took no action. However, the majority opinion statement that, “We are a very different nation,” suggests it could be repealed.…

  • TED Talk: Clay Shirky: How cellphones, Twitter, Facebook can make history

    The tumult in Iran is huge news of late. As a Baha’i, news of the persecution of Baha’s in Iran has stepped up because of the Internet. Stories crossed the ocean through email. News agencies almost never picked up these stories. As fast as the Iran government could shut down CNN and NYT and BBC…

  • Abandoning Pidgin for (Back to) Trillian

    Back in mid August I switched to Pidgin as my IM client. I even found plugins like Guifications and Encryption to add back functionality. Starting now, I am going back to Trillian. The painful behavior I cannot stand is Pidgin removing my accounts without any visual notice. What is the use of an IM client…

  • Prayers

    My heartfelt prayers go out to the Baha’is in Iran who are undergoing the latest wave of persecutions. Iran’s Bahai Religious Minority Says It Faces Raids and Arrests – New York Times Members of the Bahai religious minority in Iran said this week that the government had recently intensified a campaign of arrests, raids and…