NO GAYS IN IRAN? Daniel Blatt is unpersuaded by Ahmadinejad’s claims.
Heck, I don’t even believe him when he says they don’t have nukes.
UPDATE: I’m going with the stones thing: “Obvious follow-up question: Is this a scientific anomaly based on some sort of Persian resistance to chemical differences in the brain? Or were, like, stones involved?”
ANOTHER UPDATE: Ouch: “Speaking of ridiculous, does Ahmadinejad think he’s fooling anybody with that combover? Mahmoud, baby, even Rudy gave his up back in the ’90s”
MORE: Reuters reports: Outrage turns to laughter at Ahmadinejad NY speech:
Vilified as a Holocaust denier, a supporter of terrorism and a backer of Iraqi insurgents, the president of Iran was actually able to make New Yorkers burst into laughter — but not at a joke.
“In Iran we don’t have homosexuals like in your country,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at Columbia University on Monday in response to a question about the recent execution of two gay men there.
“In Iran we do not have this phenomenon,” he continued. “I do not know who has told you we have it.”
Loud laughs and boos broke from the audience of about 700 people, mostly students at the Ivy League school whose garb included “Stop Ahmadinejad’s Evil” T-shirts.
Plus this:
As many as 25,000 people from around the metro area and the country flocked to the U.N. to protest Ahmadinejad’s visit.
Many are demanding an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.
I’d be happy to see that. And more here:
The president of Iran was booed yesterday when he told an audience at one of America’s leading universities that the Holocaust required “further research”, amid noisy protests against the decision to grant him a platform. . . .
He was at times taken aback and appeared distinctly uncomfortable at the hostile reaction to his views, no more so than when he said scientists should be able to re-examine the extermination of six million Jews by the Nazis.
I hope he has an unpleasant visit. This won’t help his mood: Schwarzenegger will sign Iran divestiture bill. “‘California has a long history of leadership and doing what’s right with our investment portfolio. Last year, I was proud to sign legislation to divest from the Sudan to take a powerful stand against genocide. I look forward to signing legislation to divest from Iran to take an equally powerful stand against terrorism.’ AB 221 by Assemblymember Joel Anderson (R- La Mesa) creates the California Public Divest from Iran Act which prohibits CalPERS and CalSTRS from investing public employee retirement funds in a company with business operations in Iran.”
Further thoughts here.