--- Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > I seem to remember that the grandfather of Nathaniel > Hawthorne sentenced a Quaker woman to be whipped in > the streets of Boston, which is mentioned in one of > his stories. What could this tell us about the > American society ? * Actually, I withdraw this remark - it is not pertinent here. I was really reacting to this: (The treatment awarded to the Bahai has been worse than the treatment awarded to the Iranian Jews, since the Moslems consider the Jews to be a "People of the Book" and therefore to be tolerated as long as they regularly pay their special Jew tax -- whereas the Bahai are considered to be apostate Moslems, and are executed with the same freedom as homosexuals.) *I agree that Iran's policies with regard to homosexuals, Jews etc. are a matter of concern. It is not clear whether the executions of homosexuals are still occurring in Iran, and there are indications that the general atmosphere has grown more tolerant: http://www.qrd.org/qrd/world/asia/iran/sensational.iran.account-08-15-96 But still, it is a matter of serious concern. Only, it does not bear on the question of whether Iran should be permitted to have nuclear weapons. Still less does it bear on the question of whether other states in the region, hostile to Iran for reasons quite unrelated to human rights, and with an ample record of human rights violations of their own, should be allowed to have nuclear weapons. That is the point I ought to have emphasized from the beginning. I should not have let myself be drawn into discussing human rights issues with those who obviously raise such issues to support their political agendas. O.K. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html