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       Hitori Dake no Renga - Are You Actually Surprised? (74)
        
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       I realize that I've been focusing inordinately on current events
       in recent panels, but I can't help it: we've had an abortionist
       shot and journalists jailed, and now we have the Iranian
       elections.
        
       As protests rage on the news (although curiously lightly covered,
       strangely, by CNN), the chief question in my mind is how anyone
       is surprised by the outcome. If you live in a nation run by the
       Supreme Leader (that's still Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, kids), and
       you didn't elect said Supreme Leader, then you don't actually
       live in a democracy and everything else follows. Including not
       the least of which being your elections are almost certainly
       elabourate ruses, and you shouldn't be in any way shocked that
       the institutional candidate (in this case Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)
       wins in an asserted landslide.
        
       Make no mistake about his primary opponent, Mir Hossein Mousavi
       -- he was no reformer. Indeed, anyone with serious ideas about
       governmental reformation in Iran would never have been allowed on
       the ballot, because the Supreme Leader through his puppet
       Guardian Council vets all candidates (and over 450 candidates
       were rejected), so even if the outcome had been different it
       would have been unlikely to have made much difference. The real
       shame here is that anyone in the West, least of all our
       Presidential administration, seriously believed that any
       opposition candidate actually had a shot at it.
        
       The next person I hear complaining about the American political
       system gets a free ticket to Tehran. I'll buy. I mean it.
        
       Something lighter on Wednesday, I promise. This has been a
       depressing couple weeks.
        
       Copyright 2009 Cameron Kaiser except noted. All rights reserved.
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