Breaking Mahmoud news — too hot for Slashdot
If you hadn’t been reading the comments on my last post, you might not know that my old chum Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had launched his own blog on Sunday. Along with a rambling autobiography, this exciting new blog (which I’ve added to my linklog on the right) also includes a poll:
Do you think that the US and Israeli intention and goal by attacking Lebanon is pulling the trigger for another word [sic] war?
When I first visited, only 5% had voted “yes”, though it’s now up to 50%.
But wait, it gets better: if Mahmoud’s site identifies your IP address as coming from Israel, then it tries to install a virus on your computer by exploiting an Internet Explorer vulnerability. (Thanks to an anonymous commenter for bringing this to my attention.)
I suppose we should grateful that, at least for now, defending oneself against the modern-day Hitler is as simple as installing Firefox.
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Comment #1 August 15th, 2006 at 11:33 am
Even worse, he launched a mental virus that takes attention away from computer science.
Comment #2 August 15th, 2006 at 1:29 pm
Much as I’d like to, I don’t think I can pin that one on Mahmoud — if not for him, I’d find some other way to procrastinate.
Comment #3 August 15th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
and do you understand arabic or farsi or whatever this blog is written in (I cannot recognize it)?
Comment #4 August 15th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
I think it would help a bit if you’d tone down references to WW2. From many different perspectives, also Bush=Hitler. (Both knew very well how to use fear to achieve their goals.) It does not help to live in the past.
Comment #5 August 15th, 2006 at 5:52 pm
and do you understand arabic or farsi or whatever this blog is written in (I cannot recognize it)?
Yes, of course he does! What do you think they teach in complexity theory courses?
Seriously: click on the appropriate flag in the top-right corner of the page
Comment #6 August 15th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
I think it would help a bit if you’d tone down references to WW2.
I propose the following rules of thumb: reserve WW2 references to catastrophes of equal or greater expected magnitude (in terms of lives lost, etc.); reserve Hitler references to those who openly support his policies.
Comment #7 August 15th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
Yes, of course he does! What do you think they teach in complexity theory courses?
They teach you what might be intractible. Instead of learning Farsi, you learn that there is an oracle that separates Farsi from English.
Comment #8 August 15th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
I suppose we should grateful that, at least for now, defending oneself against the modern-day Hitler is as simple as installing Firefox.
Still, at the very least you should consider adding a warning to that link. Knowingly linking to a site that spreads viruses is not ethical.
Manor
Comment #9 August 15th, 2006 at 10:35 pm
Done.
Comment #10 August 16th, 2006 at 4:35 am
Scott, it seems to me that his name is a bit different. A sort of Zelig? Try this one: http://www.nic.ir/whois/ (it is safe!) and then go for ‘ahmadinejad’.
Comment #11 August 16th, 2006 at 7:14 am
well, so can somebody tell me, what should that parody of the american flag really represent? is this the way how they draw it in Iran?
Comment #12 August 16th, 2006 at 8:25 am
Scott: Why the “too hot for slashdot” in the title?
Comment #13 August 16th, 2006 at 10:51 am
Because, on learning about this new “military” use of IE vulnerabilities, I immediately went to Slashdot expecting to find a whole discussion of it there, but there was nuthin’.
Comment #14 August 17th, 2006 at 1:32 am
I’d also suggest to tone down on comparison to hitler. Let’s reserve this to leaders that actually killed more than a million people.
BTW Ahmedijan calls for the anhiliation of the state of israel, not for the killing of all jews (he does not even call for killing all those there).
Comment #15 August 17th, 2006 at 2:26 am
BTW Ahmedijan calls for the anhiliation of the state of israel, not for the killing of all jews
And here everyone is, worried over nothing. 🙂
Look, if we want to engage in genocidal hermeutics, Hitler himself never “called for” killing all Jews — he merely “prophesied” it would happen.
And one more thing I would like now to state on this day memorable perhaps not only for us Germans. I have often been a prophet in my life and was generally laughed at. During my struggle for power, the Jews primarily received with laughter my prophecies that I would someday assume the leadership of the state and thereby of the entire nation and then, among many other things, achieve a solution of the Jewish problem. I suppose that meanwhile the laughter of Jewry in Germany that resounded then is probably already choking in their throats. [applause; Hitler coughs]
Today I want to be a prophet again. If international finance Jewry within Europe and abroad should succeed once more in plunging the peoples into a world war, then the consequence will be not the Bolshevization of the world and therewith a victory of Jewry, but on the contrary, the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe. [applause]
Comment #16 August 19th, 2006 at 5:43 am
Nice post, Scott.
“I’d also suggest to tone down on comparison to Hitler. Let’s reserve this to leaders that actually killed more than a million people.”
I would suggest reserving this comparison to leaders who actively plan to kill more than a million people.
Ahmadinejad is certainly one of those leaders.
“BTW Ahmedijan calls for the annihilation of the state of Israel, not for the killing of all Jews (he does not even call for killing all those there.”
This is plain wrong.
Ahmadinejad calls for the annihilation of the state of Israel; this is his formal end purpose. In order to achieve this he justifies the killing of all Jews in Israel. Since this is also the simplest way to achieve his end goal, we can reasonably say that he supports and promotes genocide. Any other way for interpreting his statements is somewhat not honest.