Speak up about Iran

Roxana Saberi, the journalist jailed for 100 days last year by the government of Iran, calls on people to continue to pay attention to people executed by Iran for political activities: "If the international community fails to condemn such atrocities, Iran’s regime will continue to trample on the basic rights of individuals, many of whom have been detained simply for peacefully standing up for universal human rights."

Speaking of human rights, I was struck yesterday by one of the responses to my Chinese vampire item that seemed to dismiss the situation as simply right wingers against the Chinese government. I am not a right winger, and I don’t see human rights as an issue of right or left. I am for people having the right to speak out. This doesn’t mean I am automatically for sanctions. I think sunlight is the best disinfectant.

And while we are in the neighborhood, someone kidnapped and killed a young Kurdish reporter recently in Irbil. Protestors blame the authorities. They wonder how a car with a dead body in it made it through 11 checkpoints to where the body was dumped in Mosul.