Tim Blair

Obviously none of this would have happened without the unilateral destabilization introduced into the area by the Bush administration.

Uh, have you forgotten ILLEGAL?

Given the extent to which the Iranian government controls media operating in Iran, I wouldn't put it past the Iranian government making this story up as an excuse for deficiencies in responding to the earthquake.

Unfortunate choice of words:

"This is the first operation in a series of retaliations. We swear to make an earthquake in the Zionist entity," a PFLP statement said

Once again, culturally insensitive US troops have failed to protect a Hertiage of Humanity site from looting. When will this oppression of Islam end?! When will Western troops learn not to allow Muslims to loot Islam's treasures ? . . . Oh, never mind . . . . as long as the oil is safe so we can steal it and give it to Israel.

I'm sure this disaster had something to do with Bush's unilateral rejection of the Kyoto Treaty. Oh, wait, he *didn't* unilaterally reject it. My bad. Well, he did *something* to cause it, I'm sure, as any thinking person just *knows* that Bush wields the power of the Anti-Christ with the conscience of his master, the almighty Beelzebub. Or something like that -- I'm still trying to get up to speed on LLLSpeak, bear with me.

Hang in there, Tongue Boy, you're getting close on LeftSpeak. The main thing to remember is that Bush is a moronic chimp who is brilliantly fooling the entire world.

One has to wonder why the towns of Bing, to the west of Bam, and Boom, to the east of Bam were spared.

Well, the DU types already have a lengthy thread on the subject that Bush somehow caused the earthquake, although admittedly there are also a lot on there pointing out how foolish such a claim is. It's very entertaining to watch them battle it out.

Wait, is he Hitler, Gary Cooper in High Noon, or an evil, clever but moronic chimp who causes earthquakes?

The earthquake was clearly a byproduct of Halliburton drilling operations in neighbouring Iraq.

As the Greenpeace activist in Perth told me (after I gave a detailed answer to her question, "What is your impression of Greenpeace?") - "Step out of the Matrix, man".

I guess I've become too insular. My first reaction on reading about the earthquake was "how horrible!" and "surely the UN and everybody else will rush aid to Iran."

Then I read that things aren't that bad -- the mullahs apparently can afford to sneer at aid from the Mogen David Adom.

So, now, my only reaction is, roughly, "After Bam, what's going to happen to the Iranian cities of Kapow, Zock, and Kerplooeee?"

Bobby Fisk heard that there was a lot of loose rubble lying around on the ground, and ran a mile the other way.

Hey I got your BAM, right here...stop stealin' my line you mullah f...ahh never mind.

Aha, the plan is working perfectly now. This is in part 3(c) of Section 5 of the Project for the New American Century handbook.

"[C]reate havoc in Iran after engineering massive earthquake with super-secret weapons. . . ."

Hope Soros doesn't read this. If he does, there goes another $50 million to the "non-partisan" MoveOn organization.

SMG

Hey, Soros, if you DO read this, slip me $10 million and I can give you a copy of my handbook.

Hey guys! Way to make light of an awful situation. Turning a tragedy an order of magnitude greater then 9/11 into an attack on liberals is pretty impressive. You've become what you hate, but that's no big deal.

There's certainly deaths of an order of magnitude greater than 9/11, but is that the standard that one must accept?

Actually, there is, in the classical sense, very little tragedy in this. Despite the contempt, hostility, and terrorism that Iran has visited upon the West, there's been an immediate outpouring of aid -- some of if from the military warehouses supporting the Iraqi campaign that the mad mullahs of Iran so condemned.

But, at least arguably, it's not as bad as it sounds. After all, it was not bad enough for the Iranian government to accept the Israeli offer of help with a simple, decent "thank you."

Alexander:
Who's attacking liberals with "hate?" We're ridiculing the hate attacks directed at the Bush Administration by some - repeat some - liberals/leftists.

As a poster noted, some - repeat some - on the left at DU are blaming the Bush Administration for somehow causing the earthquake. How can one respond except with ridicule?

We're not laughing at the terrible earthquake in Iran; we're laughing at the terrible ideas that some - repeat some - on the liberal/left have been promoting these past three years.

SMG

Local religious leader praised for his relief efforts. Headline reads, "Bam Whammed! ( Thank you, Imam )"

So Hillary hasn't yet publicly condemned the Bush administration with faint praise, telling SOCOM that while we support its earthquake-creating operations in the Middle East, that thanks to the current Administration's lack of political clarity, the road to victory is far from assured...?

Oh, and that reminds me: has anyone checked to see how many shares of Haliburton are held in Hillary's blind trust these days?

And let's not forget the burrow (ahem) of Bada - just north of Bing and its sister town, Baatha,further east of Boom.

Hey, Alexander. No one deliberately drove an airplane into the city of Bam starting the earthquake.

The Iranians need to ask why people hate them so much as to wreak this havoc upon them.

The Iranians need to ask why people hate them so much as to wreak this havoc upon them.

25000 deaths in another country, and the reaction seems to be utter indifference, with a some dumb wordplay thrown in. Contrast this with the reaction to 9/11. Tells me something (blanket generalization follows) about Americans.

Hey, Soros, if you DO read this, slip me $10 million and I can give you a copy of my handbook.

Hey Soros, if you DO read this, slip me $10 million and I'll lose this election far more cost effectively. I'll give you back a full $9 million Canadian after my efforts are up.

You'll be $9M CAD richer after the whole exercise in any case :)

-Vic

Mother Nature failed to plan for this looting! Damn her unilateralism. Also, the secret Zionist/Imperialist war of aggression against the earth's crust will be avenged by Allah. And finally, only an end to the illegal occupation will bring about the end of all looting.

How much more head spinning inanity from the mullahs and islamofascists will the people of the Persians and Arabs accept before finally having their fill and rising up?

Maybe Lilecks will turn out to be right when he suggested in a recent post that the Bam earthquake may be to the Mullah Empire what Chernobyl was to the Soviet Empire: the final bell.

On being cold over the quake:

My God, I've talked to a number of Iranian ex-pats here to ask whether their family is safe. And while it's not, right at this minute, foremost in their minds, let me tell you from our talks in past, this sort of travesty is another in a line of inditements in their minds of the place they left.

Stupid religious zealot mullahs pronouncing from the mountain about "Great Satans" and "Little Satans." Death to Jews and to the USA! Well, "Great Satan" managed to sustain a similar quake 2 weeks ago with a death toll of 2.

2!

And the mullahs have managed to lose over 20,000 of their citizens. But don't forget, they're still pretty clear on the "Great Satan/Little Satan" taxonomy!

You know what sort of "jihad" that a lot of sensible Muslims would like to see? It's a jihad against primitive tribalism, against violent anti-modernism, against all of the fossils that would rather legislate against Barbie-dolls than put money into infrastucture of the country to avoid a natural disaster like this one.

For all of the talk of great conspiracy theories, it's evident - and you can see it too if you read some free Arab blogs like Zayed's, Omar's, Ali's and Mohammed's - that the greatest impediments to Arab freedom have been Arabs themselves - thugs, both religious and secular, who live off of the blood of their fellow man.

-Vic

D'Oh - rant mix alert - add: and to Persians, rabid Persian Islamists who also live off of the blood of their fellow man.

All of these ideas, proven time and time again to be wrong, at the cost of thousands, and they'd still rather go on about greater- and lesser-Satans...

-Vic

Arvind, Vic has a good handle on the real situation...

It IS a tragedy that so many people died... needlessly? Perhaps not, if their deaths spark the energy needed to OUST the Mullahs!

Mullahs (clergy, controlling elite) continue to feed the people 'Great Satan/Little Satan' song-and-dance mind-control, while imprisoning and flogging and killing people who want to treat their mother as an equal, or their wife as their equal...

The Mullah-elite ALSO want to use "if it is the will of God' (Insh'Allah...) to mean 'we'll know it is the will of God IF and ONLY IF God does it all Himself, no help from us' instead of 'We'll do all we can to bring your plans to fruition, BECAUSE it IS the will of God unless and until He makes it impossible for you to move forward...'

Because of these antiquated ideas, more and more people suffer the indignities and painful sorrow that comes with incomplete, inappropriate infrastructure; that comes with hanging 12-year-old girls for holding homeschool classes for children...

Briefly: Iranians suffer not directly because of the earthquake, but because of their clergy's insistence on forcing a 12th-century world-view on 21st century humankind!

Vic,

In today's Guardian, David Aaronovitch has a column that pretty much says the same things. I know, I know, the freakin' Guardian!! What can you say but sanity does kick in every once in awhile in that rag.

Why did so many have to die in Bam?.

David,

In my experience, Aaronovitch is generally pretty reasonable. I haven't read a huge amount of his stuff, but what I have read over the years has been close to spot on, as far as I am concerned.

The editorial line and general news bias of the Guardian is totally sick-making but both it and its stable-mate, the Observer, regularly run comment pieces from the other side of the political spectrum. Some of these articles are excellent, too, which can often make (parts of) the Guardian a surprisingly good read.

Worth Reading:

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/ts20031230.shtml

Just finished David Aaronovitch's column. Quite brilliant. A compulsory read. Having polished off the ayatollahs he goes straight for the Bishop of Durham.

David:

Yow! Great article, and in the Guraidan no less. I must have been channeling Aaronovitch or something :)

-Vic

Interesting that a nation that can afford to spend billions on nuclear energy and a WMD weapons program requires foreign disaster aid in order to deal with an earthquake. Even more interesting is that the leaders of Iran evidently are hoping for more foreign aid to come in rather than handling the situation on their own.

Curious.

ed

Check this out. Gave me quite a shock, I can tell you (it being Christmas Day and all), but no damage in my area. Funny how it didn't make the headlines, despite being the same magnitude as the Bam earthquake. That's probably because only two people died. But then in this part of the world people don't make their houses out of mud because some bearded IslamoNazi fruitcake has stolen all the money.

Bam was off limits under Shah before Khomeini because of major fault. After Mullah's in power they went on take to allow "development." Saw reference earlier - can' remember where. Also, Iran's big nuke power plant is built right on the fault line. No one seems to care. If Allah's protection for it is anything like for Bam, then its bada bing boom bam for that area.

Bam was off limits under Shah before Khomeini because of major fault. After Mullah's in power they went on take to allow "development." Saw reference earlier - can' remember where. Also, Iran's big nuke power plant is built right on the fault line. No one seems to care. If Allah's protection for it is anything like for Bam, then its bada bing boom bam for that area.

Bam was off limits during Shah before Khomeini because of major earthquake fault. After Mullah's in power they went on take to allow "development." Saw reference earlier - can' remember where. Also, Iran's big nuke power plant is built right on the fault line. No one seems to care. If Allah's protection for it is anything like for Bam, then its bada bing boom bam for that area.

P.S. Your clock is off. Its 10:27 am, 1-1-04