Sunday, September 27, 2009

iran, i was tired

sorry for the lame joke in the headline.

I saw Peter Broukaert speak at the Ferry Building about Iran, and other atrocity-doing regimes in the world. Iranians from the Iranian American Bar Association showed up in numbers, so it was a nice, spirited crowd. Unfortunately lefties used most of the Q&A to ask about US politics, mainly. The speaker had a European accent, being born in Belgium. It made it all the more startling when he quoted political activists raped in Iranian prisons, who said their rapists told them something to the effect of "You can't even protect your own ass, so how can you save Iran?"

Broukaert warned of a "deal with the devil," whereby the US would turn a blind eye on internal Iranian human rights and political abuses in return for international regulation of their nuclear program.

Closer to home, he said certain Silicon Valley companies, without naming names, are very involved in the sophisticated Internet monitoring by governments in Asia, specifically Burma/Myanmar.
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On a lighter note, I watched Pi. The soundtrack was a nostalgia-inducing step back into the late 90s, with Orbital, Massive Attack, Autechre and other broken beat artists. The grainy B+W was fun, different, but the story was fairly run of the mill. Independent computer programmer resists the offers of money and religious celebrity, as well as female companionship, preferring to remain true to his pursuit of knowledge.
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Britt's still gone. Boo hoo. I should try to be nicer to people even though I'm heartbroken.
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Yesterday, I ran all over town, from West Portal to the Ferry Building, to Menlo Park. We saw Stanford whoop up on the Huskies in football. Dort scolded me for only scalping my extra ticket for $10 instead of $15. Le sigh. It was my dad's birthday so I think he appreciated our coming down. It's crazy to see an actual running game at the Farm. Go Card!

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