Jahanshah Rashidian

I understand What you mean

I understand What you mean JR. You're outraged that for the past 30 years Iran's political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Khomeini, who singlehandedly committed unspeakable crimes against millions of our youths and our brightest of minds. Monsters like Khatami, Khamnei, Ahmadinejad , who every single day push Iran furhter into a swamp of corruption and inhumanity. No one seems to care.

I know it's hard to pretended that the supporters of these monsters are reasonable, respectable people.

It is not politically correct among the reformers on this site to point out that the monsters are, in fact, monsters. You're immediately accused of being shahi, neocon, mko, or whatever other accusations.

By the same token, these people represent a powerful group inside Iran that any future secular government in Iran should deal with. This group is not going to relinquish power and all the fringe benefits that they have grown accustomed to. We need to convince this extremely greedy group they are wrong and their opportunistic existence does not benefit Iran in the long run. We need to reason with them as Obama did with some greedy republicans....

Mr Rashidian

I know you are now in the bed and sleeping peacefully :O) while we are still arguing about your blog.

Just another question still keep my mind busy : What's all this fuss about the Front Page ? Some of the readers, like yourself, are too much concerned about having their articles posted in the front page.

I don't get it. If you are talking about the main page, it is obvious that all content posted here as an ARTICLE go to the front page and all those which are posted as BLOGS go to the blog's section (which can be the second page) I am not sure if I did understand your point, here ?

Now, if you are talking about a blog being featured in the first page, this is really nothing of so much importance. I, personally see this, as a personal taste of the owner, like any design or a decoration.

After all JJ is the owner of the site. Let give him a little room to express his own feeling about what he likes more or at least he sees more important. 

To be honest, I don't see anything wrong with JJ's selection for the feathered list of the blogs. Most of the beautiful poems, are usually feathered, regardless of how many readers they get. You may know JJ's great taste for Art and beauty. He likes this the most and he feather them always. See? You don't have any objection to that.

You only get irritated when you see a " az ma behtaroon" as you said, is feathered. But, why not ?

As JJ just said: Diversity is diversity. Anything that can be attractive to the readers, positively or negatively, could and should be posted in the first page.

I, personally had posted some poems from well known poets which always got feathered. He liked them and feathered them even if I am not the author of those poems and even if he knows well, that by my own popularity :O) I never get that many readers.

I am thankful to JJ for choosing some of my content to be posted in the front page, but honestly, if he won't do it , I won't get irritated and mad at him. Please do keep up doing your own work here, regardless of the position yours/or other's articles get in the pages.

As the old Persian proverb says :

Moshk aan ast ke khod bebouyad    

Na aan ke attaar begouyad 

Good luck.

Honar Beyneh Iranian-assto-Bass

We all have to use the gold-fish avatar as we change our minds as fast as just can fishes do in dangerous water!

Yes, we Iranians are very good in navigating in dirty water. When we meet an obstacle instead of saying oupps, or ok I was wrong we always say no, that wasn’t what I meant, you didn’t catch what I said... :)

Dear JR.

I think you're being unfair toward JJ.

It is the strength (and the beauty) of this site to publish any good article with any kind of opinion and we should appreciate this space of communication offered to Iranian-American community in Diaspora.

Plus, I wouldn't personally read everything which is posted,  so I wouldn't get frustrated or angry...and it is my choice!

I am mostly thankful to JJ for this choice! Azarin

JJ only feature MY articles on the 1st page!!!

"This discrimination ..ongoing articles of pro- regime authors on the front page..."

emmmmm..Mr. Rashidian..your articles and blogs are always, ALWAYS featured and published on the first page,too.

JJ vs JR!

My attempt to mediate against censoring

Two Jahanshahs and two different philosophies!
Here is my two cent's  worth as a possible mediator who is most probably older than either one:

When in second grade in Iran our teacher read us a story to prove the power of persuasion when a person is energized by by real conviction and teaches by example rather than rhetoric.

The story went like this. A parent took his child to Hazrateh Ali(not me!) to teach him not to eat too many dates. Hazrat told the parent to come tomorrow when he can do a better job of it. The parent brought the child the next day and Ali gave him a good lecture that later proved to be effective. The curious parent asked Ali the reason for postponing the lecture. Ali said that he could not have done a good job of convincing the child because Ali himself had consumed a lot of date that day and he had to go through some preparation and purify himself before effectively teaching the child.

True or not, there is a psychological reason behind the story that was recognized long time ago in almost all religions and cultures. It is amazing that in our modern world ideas such as this are still overlooked by a lot of people. Here in America, that used to be the leader of the free world we notice the violates these principles and many of us fail to associate the simple facts with historical events.  We fail to notice that making mockery of simple principles has brought about the defeat of many individuals and empires and is still doing that.

When JR asks JJ to deny the chance to the opposition to express themselves we are reminded how little attention so many of us we pay to the principles such as these. The bottom line is that if JJ censors the writings of the opposition by being selective as to what to publish how can he serve his readers who find this site as an outlet for their views in search of democracy regardless of  content?

Aside from these how can we not learn from the contemporary history that is going on in America?
Is it not the hatred for Bush and cohorts the main reason for what can be called a quiet revolution that swept through America four days ago? Wasn't the failed and and anti-democratic policies of Bush that gave rise to the opposition to shove him in the trash bins of history? If Bush had not violated the American Ideals such as respect for human rights and not suppressing the opposition by myriad of tricks and still call it defense of freedom and democracy America would not be in the mess it is now. In other words when the people were denied the freedom of expression by undemocratic measure such as wiretapping, torturing, surveillance and revival of the archaic Patriot Act they imploded in search of  change for better. Only time will tell whether this was a change most Americans want or another reason for them to make another attempt to get what they want. The good news is that the power of We the People is still alive and hopefully will never die.

ذبح اسلامی قلم و عقیده و بیان

سر چشمه باید گرفتن به بیل

چو پر شد نشاید گرفتن به پیل

حدود دو یا سه ماه بعد از انقلاب بود که خمینی گفت " من دیگر آیندگان نمیخوانم " و این اولین قدم در راه ذبح اسلامی قلم و عقیده و بیان  بود !

 عقلمون یا زورمون نرسید که بیل رو ور داریم و سر این چشمه منحوس قفل زدن به هر چی‌ که مخالف نظرات " رهبر "هست رو بگیریم.

آقای رشیدیان، اجازه بدید از این گذشته لعنتی مون یه چیزی یاد بگیریم، اگر نه این دور تسلسل تا قیامت ولمون نمی‌کنه !

To all

Sorry for the delay. I wrote the piece at my work this afternoon, then  needed a couple of hours to get home, having dinner, hearing my wife's nagging for being late! Now it is about the time just before I go to bed, so let's have a quick flashback on your anger.

A number of commentators bluntly followed Mr. Javid's feedback"Agents"--who said the word "Agent" in my piece...!?-- and then wrongly passed a generalised judgment over my several-points-piece. A few were gentlemen / nice ladies so that I must thank them first. 

Once more, Mr. javid did not answer the main problems I mentioned, neither did some of his followers: in fact, I was talking about the discrimination that some "Better-than-us" deserve--" the advantages like front page priority, copy / paste of own articles by the site, and insulting/ slandering others in the comment section".

This discrimination has been always pointed out by me and some others and if newly irritated it is because of the recent and ongoing articles of pro- regime authors on the front page who now campaign for IRI presidential elections on this site. Furthermore, what I said about fishing pro-IRI materials from other sources--from Hoder, Parsi, Ommani,(...) is another  flagrant discrimination to those who do not get their articles posted on the front page.

I know this is a popular site with rather a tabloid look than political platform. I do not expect a site like New Secularism from Noorial, what I expect is the site not to be in the favour of some pro-IRI of different calibers.

BTW, I think these people are not deserved to abuse a democratic and secular site to express their support for a totalitarian regime--Nazi, Apartheid, or the IRI. But I do not expect and did not want the site to delete their accounts. Did I? Some of you just exaggerated to make jj happier!

Goodnight to all of you!

Pleae do not make a mountain out of a mole hill

Dear Mr. Rashiian;

The future of Iran is not going to be determined by this site, the writers or their so called articles published in it.

Yes I admit a lot of things you said in your letter made sense but please do not blow things way out of proportion when it comes to the importance of this particular Website and the articles in it.

My very best,

JR, please make a list of all IRI agents

so we all know who they are and ignore them.

Mr Rashidian

? I just want to know, what did you make writing this blog today

Just kindly provide more explanation about your main anxieties in this website. Sorry, but I don't see anything new, since a long while. What did happen here recently which caused you so much disappointment and disgust. You said 

جهانشاه جان، اکر قصوری پیش امده و سیاست سایت نیازبه تجدید نظر دارد ، هنوز دیر نشده

As long as I remember dear JR, this site has always been ruled the same way. Of course the  comment section are added since a year or so, but the trend stayed the same as before

You don't like Hoder, neither do I. But again, this is not something new to see him posting articles here. Would you please enlighten us a bit more about your main concern 

Thanks

Just out of Curiosity

Mr. Rashidian, do you have any reply or comments about what people have said so far or you have chosen to remain silent? Just wondering!

So Interesting!

PEACE

‫آقای رشیدیان

‫بنده خودم مخالف سر سخت ج.ا. و افکار اصولگرایه این رژیم هستم ولی مخالف این مسأله هم هستم که نظر کسانیکه طرفد‫ار این رژیم هستند را باید سانسور کرد. چرا که نظرزنی در جوی که چند ماهیتیست بسیار مفیدتر است تا صحبت کردن در یک جامعه ایکه همه هم نظرند. همه میدانیم که این هم نظری و یا هم خونی عواقبش چیست. در ضمن، شاید اصلاً معجزه ای رُخ داد و حتی یکی از این کسانیکه که شما نام بردید چشمانش به حقیقت باز شد.

‫من شخصاً از آقایه جاوید بخاطر زحماتشون و قلب بزرگشون قدر دانی میکنم.

Fantastic blog

“Sahmi dar vaza’a feh melli be ohdeh begirad?”

Let’s be realistic. We have immigrated. Almost none of us will go back to Iran. So our national responsibilities are to our local communities.

This site has no national responsibility toward Iran. It’s a community of Iranians and we come to share our thoughts: political and artistic ones as well as depraved and comical ones.

There are plenty of places for us to share our vision for Iran’s future and to fight over a platform for democratic change. Those interested already submit plenty of these articles. And the comments they get is probably a good representation of what Joesephollah Seex Pack is thinking!

JJ censors too much already. Even for the most lame and inconsequential things get eliminated. Harmless Haji Agha isn’t here anymore because he drew one too many doodool talaas and said that he wish he’d never left Iran. 

You are right in saying the politics of the site could be revised. Everything evolves over time. It’s just too bad that the rules here are enforced haphazardly. For example, Party girl just called you ignorant, disrespectful and indirectly, a liar. Try leaving that remark for some of the teacher's pets here and it won't survive an hour.

After Obama’s win, perhaps you are getting emotional and trying to force JJ to become the Iranian Obama?

The guy has a fish tatoo on his arm, has taken pictures of himself in a dress, admitted to not being able to perform (midooni chi migam), and is off to Mexico! I wish i was an agent too.

Promoting censorship

This site is unique and popular just because of its "Nothing is sacred" motto. It is a magnet to so many. You are asking for something that is the trend of all the medias including the Western media to bend, break, exaggerate, redefine the truth to their or their special interest group's liking.
JJ is awesome and inimitable just like his site.

Dear JR

We need to appreciate the beauty of allowing everyone to speak their mind, whether we agree with them or not. You're free to argue their point if you do not agree too. Tolerance is key. Maybe those other sites you're speaking of are not as popular of this one simply for their intolerance. 

This type of request is exactly why some people cannot trust the current IRI opposition to be anything different from the IRI, once they're in power.

IRANdokht

Say What?!!!

What a heartbreaker your piece was! 

To receive and use the privilege of freedom of expression on a medium and then to turn around and expect censorship for opposing and differing points of view,

To express and say and question whatever your heart desires and to accuse others of being agents when they express theirs,

To slander and disrespect the man and the medium which has given us all a voice regardless of our opinions,

To call yourself a "Straight Shooter," Rok-goo, when you just committed a flagrant act of libel against a group of site users....

Mr. Rashidian, tell me why I should read your material henceforth and respect your opinions again?  Tell me that in trashing other fellow Iranians, JJ, and this site, your objective was to be constructive and not to destroy the budding efforts of Iranians at expressing themselves so that they can gain understanding and heal their wounds before they can go forward. 

You are so wrong, Sir, and I find your ignorance unforgivable.

Mr. Rashidian, you are soooo wrong

I am amazed to hear that anyone thinks JJ is pro IRI.  Iranian.com is one of the most neutral and bitaraf sites on the internet. Especially for an Iranian site. 

God bless you JJ for doing what you are doing and Mr. Rashidian you could not be more wrong in your assumption and assertions.

Iva

I am sorry Iva but I DO!! For the simple reason that I do not beleive the leaders of IRI deserve any respect. They lost the little respect they had when they started killing, raping, torturing and robbing the people of Iran.

But censorship does exist

in this site, regardless of its slogan ... JJ does "cut" pieces off or refuses to put out the post entirely. I really do not know what JJ base his "cuttting" decisions on, well, in one case I do: DO NOT bad mouth the leader of islamic revolution, that has been a no no .. Anyhow, I am not sure I understand what exactly JR is talking about.

Dear Jahanshah

With all due respect ,what is wrong with the site willingness to publish

anyone's point of view? I think, it is healthy and constructive.

We all should be aware by now that the site get visitors who are IRI's agents or from different agencies or just common people who have

absolute freedom to express themselves .It is a personal duty of

indivdual to avoid insulting and offensive language toward ,race,religon,leaders of countries .

I think ,it is absolutely necessary to listen andbe willing to hear what other people have to say and then use it as a corrective measure to find the right path.

Mr. Rashidian

With all due respect, dhat exactly do you excpect JJ to do? Block these people from the free platform? What kind of a free platform is that going to be then?

Don't get me wrong. I hate the IRI and it's lowlives supporters as much as the next person. I do not beleive anyone with an ounce of decency or an ounce of brain can possibly ever support this demonic regime. The supporters of IRI are nothing but a bunch of hired paracites and prostitues..

having said that, I do not think anyone, including these lowlives, should be censored from the site. The more they regurgitate their disggusting views, the better people will know them and laugh at them. Let them reveal themselves even more. It is like someone supporting slavery in this day and age, Or some idiot neo natzi starts supporting Hitler. Let them bark as much as they want. who cares? This is the beauty of democracy. 

To censor them, is to give them lgitimacy and an excuse to cry and complain and say that this site is  afraid of the truth behind their satanic views. Yeah right?!! Censorship will only open a platform for another demonic monster like that Indian Bastard Khomeini.   

Agents?

Diversity MEANS diversity. It means different views. It means the views of the people you don't like. Accusing people of being agents of this or that will get you nowhere. These people you call agents are ordinary Iranians.

Start your own site

This site is the way it is and that's why it's popular. You may go to the political sites for your specific information, as I do, but this site is amazingly entertaining and at many times informative based on its openness and accessibility to all.

You can't promote democracy, bash totalitarian and dictate your own ideas to others in the same sentence. there is something wrong with that!
But again you bash those who insult others by insulting them in the same sentence.

I find your ideas and blog contradictory.