Veritas et Venustas

The Revolution Will Be Televised - but will it succeed?

 

IN THE FIRST VIDEO the crowd disarms the Basij - but did they allow themselves to be disarmed? In the second video, government forces use SUVs to run over Iranian citizens. I don't think anyone knows how far the government forces will go (or not go), and what the outcome will be.

How is this not all over the media as well as YouTube? In any case, Andrew Sullivan continues with many links and videos.

My Apps

THE REST ARE @ http://bit.ly/VVapps What am I missing?

Tonight Is Said To Be The Loudest Night Of Chants

TEN PROTESTERS WERE KILLED TODAY, on a Shia holy day, by a regime that is supposed to be upholding Shia rule. It would be wonderful if this could be the end of the current government.

One of the ten killed is the nephew of the man most consider to be the rightfully elected President.

The New York Times reports:

The government crackdowns on mourning ceremonies in the past week provoked many people in the more traditional neighborhoods of south Tehran as earlier clashes have not, some residents said.

“People in my neighborhood have been going to the Ashura rituals every night with green fabric for the first time,” said Hamid, 33, a laborer who lives in the southern Tehran neighborhood of Shahreh-Ray and declined to give his last name. “They have been politicized recently, because of the suppression this month.”

Yet few protesters expected the scale of the bloodshed that broke out on Sunday. The memory of Hussein is so potent among Shiites that killing for any reason is strictly forbidden on Ashura, and Iranian rulers have always tried to avoid violence or even state executions during a two-month period surrounding the holiday.

“Ashura is a very symbolic day in our culture and it revives the notion that the innocents were killed by a villain,” said Fatemah Haghighhatjoo, a former member of the Iranian Parliament who is a visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. “Killing people on Ashura shows how far Khamenei is willing to go to suppress the protests.”

Good coverage here

For Unto Us A Child Is Born

And to all a good night

from the Cooper Square Hotel

LIVE ONLINE NOW: King's College Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols

For unto us a child was born, the King of Kings.
Click here for a video on YouTube

What I'm Reading (Holiday Edition)

LOOK UP ANY AILMENT, and Soignez-vous par le vin will tell you what wine to drink to feel better.

WARNING: May bring une crise de foie.

Après le saut - c'est magnifique!

Last night, after reading a Wall Street Journal article on grower Champagnes, I bought a bottle of Pierre Gimonnet 1er Cru Blanc de Blancs at Chambers Street Wines - another wine store specializing in small vineyards where I think it's impossible to buy a bad bottle of wine.

And this particular Champagne wasn't even mentioned in the WSJ article - those were all sold out.