We (mother and daughter,) picked the rest of pumpkins today... I took these photos while Katrina's effects... are the new talk of town, the winds are blowing and the sky is hours shy of the heavy rain...
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...this afternoon while dressing the little girl to take her to the library... she says... but Maani... I am a princess.. I can't have trousers on... and I answer back... well even princess need warm cloths when it's cold and windy.
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At the doctor's office 1

Dad's physician is telling dad about the necessity of increasing the dose in the medication... between answering, questioning, translating for dad and his doctor, and telling the little girl not to touch the infectious walls and answering... her curiosity triggered question.. on why we have ears... my eye balls fall off my face!

  

 

... the little girl is cooking with her mama!

  

 

با ماضی بعید
سوی آینده می رویم

تف!

  

 

قرار

با من بیا...

به گورستانی خواهیم رفت
سنگها یی را برانداز می کنیم...
و... گورنوشته هایی را
خواهیم خواند

زیست روزهایی را می شماریم
و...
روز زیستهای خود را
تخمین
خواهیم زد

و در بازگشت...
طنابی بر گردنی گذارده
و برای دیکتاتورها
کف
خواهیم زد.

شیما کلباسی

  

 

در کانال ای بی سی آمریکا 20/20 برنامه ای درباره دراکولا ها داشت... وقت نکردم برنامه رو ببینیم که از محسنی اژه ای، وزیر اطلاعات جمهوری اسلامی هم... گذارشی تهیه کرده بودن یا نه! گفتم شاید جناب اژه ای... برای کسب اطلاعات ویژه به جای عیسی سحرخیز... اینبار مثلا گردن کلفت رفسنجانی رو گاز گرفته بوده باشه!

( لازم به تذکر است که اطلاعات مربوط به گاز گرفتنهای وزیر جدید جمهوری اسلامی ایران، برخلاف تصور آقای مسعود بهنود، کاملا بی نیاز از سفر اخیر و پربار خبری آقای حسین درخشان به ایران کسب شده است!)

  

 

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Had the world been conceived just to praise God, there would be no fervor in glorifying God. Equip man with a sword, remove his infirmities, and see what he will be: a brave knight or a devious thief?

-Rumi, "Mathnawi"

  

 

There is no edge to my vast desert;
There is no peace for my heart and my soul.
The world is taken, from end to end, by image and form;
Which of these images is mine?
If you see a severed head on the way
Rolling in the direction of the battlefied;
Ask him, ask him concerning my secrets
For, from him you hear my hidden mysteries.
What if one ear could be found;
Suited to understand the speech of my birds.
What if one bird could fly,
Who wore my ring of Solomon's secrets [around her neck].
What am I saying? when I know telling this tale
Is beyond my limits and my ability is.
How can I utter one word when each moment
My perplexity is more perplexing.

Rumi

  

 

"Akbar Ganji brought the world's attention to Iran's human right abuses."

Farideh Nicknazar

  

 

undefined

... remembering... an almost forgotten... 19 year old... "me"...

  

 

Manouchehr Mohammadi (still on hunger strike) has been taken to an unknown location.

منوچهر محمدی ...که هنوز در حال اعتصاب غذای خشک می باشد... به مکان نامعلومی منتقل شده است.

  

 

Good to know the space shuttle of His Excellency Kofi Annan Secretary-General of the United Nations has landed on the planet earth and is now asking for the release of Akbar Ganji.

  

 

When a person wakes up in the early hours of dawn, an angel proclaims, "Glorify the Lord, Most Holy!"

-The Prophet Muhammad

So... I wake up at three in the morning... to drive my hubby to the airport... with the little girl and my dad... dazing in and out and snoring in the backseat. After 20 minutes of driving... I ask P if he has his Green Card with him and he answers no! We drive back to take the GC... incase the airport security mistakes him for some one else! After all with such dark eyes and beautiful olive skin... we don't look like the Caucasian we officially are.... My father-in-law is in intensive care and our days have been full of anxiety, exhaustion and worries...

"Though a man live a thousand years, yet at his demise it seems to him as though he had lived but an hour."

- Zohar

... and for us too it seems those we love and lose have lived just an hour...

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"Since beginning his hunger strike on June 11, Mr. Ganji has emerged as a symbol for Iran's increasingly restless democratic opposition. In recent weeks, Kurdish leaders - currently engaged in their own uprisings in Iran's western provinces - have expressed solidarity with the jailed writer. Indeed, representatives of Iran's student organizations have told the Sun that Mr. Ganji's defiance and open letters calling for the supreme leader to step down have inspired the fight in many of Iran's activists who were demoralized after the ascendancy of former revolutionary guard intelligence commander, Mahmoud Amadinejad, to the presidency in June."

Eli Lake

  

 

The Hardliners in Iran are out of luck with the world and what they have come up with is exporting their software engineers... For the past few months I have been browsing/reading and studying the articles and blogs... those are dedicated to Reformists (Mosharekat Party.) Their fruit mart appears to be selling a lot of sweet-honey-taste-watermelons in the name of democracy... The reasons can be... one: the hardware engineers are not in demand... two: Regime's software engineers with the clean shaved faces and honey-love-me looks... spread the words of Clergies regime... much better! After all who doesn't want to blow kisses to the handsome Masoud Behnoud or drink coffee with Ebrahim Nabavi now that the moustache is gone... or even go fishing with the Paris Hilton of Iranian bloggers, Hossein Derakhshan! Even Moin and Khatami are more desirable than Ahmadinejad! Alas! A murderer Mullah is a murderer mullah and a representative and supporter of the Iranian government... is defending a fascist regime!

  

 

"چند وقت پیش که برای انجام یه کار اداری به اهواز میرفتم . توی قطار با یه خونواده ی عرب همسفر شدم . یه مادر و پنج تا دختر ... یه عالمه راجع به حقوق زنان و سنت های عشیره ای و قتلهای ناموسی با هم بحث کردیم ، آخرش یکی از دخترا که بیست و پنج ساله بود و دو تا بچه داشت نتونست دوام بیاره و گفت که توی سال پنچاه و چهار چی به سر خالش اومده بود . توی اون سالها زمانیکه دخترک چهارده سال بیشتر نداشته به خاطر نگاه کردن و یا شایدم حرف زدن با پسر همسایه بالای پشت بوم به وسیله ی دستان مبارک پدر بزرگ با تبر قطعه قطعه میشه اون توی ماجرای دیگه شرح زن همسایشونو گفت و اینکه مردک بعد از بریدن سرش اونو خونین ومالین روی تلویزیون میذاره و بعد از خونه میاد بیرون همسایه ها رو خبر میکنه تا مردم جمع بشن و سر بریده ی زنش رو تماشا کنن . دختر از فجیع بودنه صحنه ی قتل میگفت... دختر هنوز بیست و پنج سالو تموم نکرده بود که سلاخی شدنه دو تا زن رو باچشم خودش دیده بود."

برگرفته شده از وبلاگ دختران بی‌نقاب
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

روزی حکیمی به شاگردش گفت ...هرگاه به دیدن بیماری رفتی... چشم بینداز و بیبین که چه در گوشه و کنار خانه افتاده است تا مرض را نتیجه خوردن آن بدانی... شاگرد...برای معالجه بیماری رفت که درگوشه خانه اش...پوست خربزه افتاده بود... پس به بیمار گفت... چه نشسته ای در بستر بیماری ...که همانا بیماری تو از خوردن خر است... حال حکایات تحلیلی ... نازک قلمان مشارکتیست که یک جناح را از جناح دیگر تحت رژیم مردمکش ایران... جدا و حتی قابل اصلاح می دانند... اگر مسایل امنیتی اجازه می داد تا من هم حساب بانکی داشته باشم... شاید من هم به صف توابین می پیوستم... و از قول آیت العظمی هم ابیاتی اشگکی می نوشتم و خاتمی را متین الدوله فی العالم ایرانیه می خواندم!

  

 

"A classified analysis by the U.S. intelligence community warned top Bush administration officials last spring that the theocratic reign of Iranian mullahs could be entrenched for years to come, NEWSWEEK has learned. This National Intelligence Estimate, issued by a unit of the new National Intelligence Director's office, reported that Iran is NOT in a prerevolutionary state and that near-term regime change appeared unlikely, say U.S. officials familiar with the report who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the material. (The National Intelligence Council, a committee of top analysts, produced the document at the same time that it sent out a second classified report about Iran's nuclear program.) The analysts also noted that Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was Tehran's mayor and a dark-horse presidential candidate at the time of the NIE's publication, might have a surprisingly strong following among poorer Iranians because of his reputation as an anticorruption campaigner. The office of intel czar John Negroponte had no comment on the top-secret document."

Newsweek

  

 

"There used to be a time when, you could just say a rhyme... And wouldn't have to worry about one of your people dyin"

Eminem

  

 

Jailed Women's Rights Activist Needs Your Help

Dr. Roya Toloui, a champion of the rights of Iran's Kurdish minority and of women was detained from her home in Sanandaj on August 2. She is reported to be facing charges of "disturbing the peace" and "acting against national security." Human Rights First is calling for her immediate and unconditional release from detention.
Toloui's detention is consistent with a pattern of harassment and persecution that she and other human rights activists in Iran's Kurdish region have suffered in recent months in reprisal for their legitimate, peaceful activities in support of basic rights and freedoms.

There has been mounting unrest in Iran's Kurdish region since the presidential elections in late June, which saw the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a candidate closely identified with Iran's ruling clerical establishment. President Ahmadinejad is viewed as hostile to Kurdish aspirations for greater equality and respect for their distinct cultural and religious traditions. Roya Toloui is an outspoken critic of the policies of the Islamic Republic and its negative impact on the rights of women and religious and ethnic minorities. She and other human rights activists in Kordestan and West Azerbaijan provinces have been vocal in protesting a wave of repression unleashed on the region in recent weeks that has resulted in more than twenty deaths and hundreds of arrests of protesters. Regional magazines that reported on the unrest have been closed by the authorities, but information about continuing disturbances in the region continues to reach the outside world.

At this time of tension in Iran the role of independent human rights monitors is vital. Don't let the Iranian government commit human rights violations behind a cloak of secrecy. Please join Human Rights First in calling for the immediate release of Dr. Toloui and her colleagues.

Human Rights First

Click Here to Take Action
---------------------------

Everything and anything is concealable and conceivable in Iran!

A recent poll on Iranian Times shows 56% of voters want Iran to produce nuclear fuel. As I wrote on October 12,2003, the key point in this debate is that we are dealing with an irresponsible government in Iran. The international community and the Iranian people have every right to be concerned about nuclear ambitions of the regime. This includes not only military use of nuclear technology but also peaceful use such as power production. Personally I don't want to be living anywhere near nuclear power plants should it ever become operational because I seriously doubt that safety concerns keep mullahs and their contractors awake at night! And God help us if these people ever get their hands on nuclear trigger. In the event of air strikes, I don't think Mullahs can do much other than making some noise and throwing more people in jail to consolidate their rule.

Sheema Kalbasi
-----------------------------

In A dying man's cry for freedom in Iran...
Max Boot writes: "Ganji deserves to become as famous as Nelson Mandela, Andrei Sakharov, Vaclav Havel, Aung San Suu Kyi and other dissidents who put their lives on the line against injustice. Yet, while Ganji's mistreatment has been protested by the U.S. and by every major international human rights organization, the only U.S. newspaper regularly covering his ordeal is the tiny New York Sun. According to LexisNexis, there have been more than 1,000 media mentions in the last month of Natalee Holloway, the teenager who disappeared in Aruba, and fewer than 400 of Ganji."

  

 

On September 10th... I will be in LA for an event cosponsored by PEN USA and UCLA (in the words of god's blogger shadow on earth: if you want to meet me contact me and I maybe generous enough to show you my broccoli covered teeth!)... now... I can't fit into any of my cloths and I can't stop munching... I am thinking... if there isn't a dress code... maybe I could attend in my baggy pants? Life is good but I am not! I am running out of tolerance budget toward insincerity... examples? The Iranian Reform Party (Mosharekat) and their representatives and supporters who repeatedly attempt to mislead and deceive by talking nonsense.

  

 

A Sufi master: "Which is better, courage or generosity?" The Sufi master replied, "Those who are generous, have no need for courage."

From the Gulistan of Sadi (the Persian poet)

  

 

The PBS poll shows 72% have said NO and only 27% have said yes to a re-establish diplomatic relations between U.S. and Iran.

  

 

Roya Tolooi, who heads the Association of Kurdish Women for Peace, was arrested yesterday.

  

 

In Youngbloods... Rachel Zabarkes Friedman writes: "Batebi believes the Bush administration has some good instincts when it comes to supporting Iran's political prisoners and the aspirations of the Iranian people generally. "President Bush has started this positive war, combating terrorism and theocracy and fanaticism. It is greatly appreciated by all the people inside the country, because of the repression we face." But he also has words of criticism for the administration, suggesting the U.S. hasn't been consistent enough in its policy toward Tehran. "Whenever the Iranian people or the government hears that the U.S. doesn’t have a plan or doesn't have a policy regarding regime change in Iran, this is like fresh blood in the veins of these mullahs." Tehran's support for the violence in Iraq, enabled by high oil prices, seems to have achieved its aim, he says, distracting Americans from the problems in Iran. And the ongoing nuclear negotiations between Europe and the Islamic republic have in his view been a boon to the mullahs, allowing them to buy time in power."

from National Review

  

 

دختر کوچولو... کله سحر ... بیدار می کنه که بریم پایین. روی مبل پهلوی هم دراز می کشیم و اون کمی کارتون .. که خدا عمرشون بده ساعت چهار صبح هم هست... نگاه می کنه...

دختر: مانی؟ برام از اون چاجا که سیج داره می خری؟
من: چی؟
دختر: چاجا که سیج داره... بزرگشو برام می خری؟
من: مانی! فارسی حرف بزن من نمی فهمم چی میگی!
دختر: چاج سیج می خوام.
من: چاج سیج چیه دیگه!
دختر: از اینا که اینجوری روی سرش میذارن. سیج داره ...تو مدرسه میاد.
من: تاج؟ تاج که داری مانی ( کاشف به عمل میاد که سیج هم اسم همکلاسی تازه دختر کوچولو هست.)
دختر: نه من مث سیج میخوام. مال من می افته!

یک ساعت بعد من... هنوز در حال چرت نسیه زدنم و اون تاج مقوایی به سر با لباس مهمونی-به قول خودش پرنسسی- وسط چمنها درحال شلنگ تخته انداختن و دنبال خیس کردن پدر بزرگ!

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The judge in the trial of journalist Akbar Ganji, has been shot dead.
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Ganji's Wife appeals to the World, to the United Nations, human rights groups, and other nations to pressure the government to release her husband.

Eli Lake