Remember Iran?

With Michael Jackson sufficiently dead, his family's memorial tribute singles, and petty squabbling over the corpse not nearly interesting enough, it's time to reluctantly turn America's eye back to Iran, which is still having a little disagreement about the meaning of the words "democratic", "elected", and "Supreme Leader". It seems the people still want to be free and be partially ruled by the man they voted for, while the Ayatollah still would prefer his word to be law and that his security forces continue to Whack-a-Mole any protester who pops his head up. He's still pretty serious about it.

Iran's supreme leader told politicians Monday not to disturb the country's security in a strong warning to the opposition to back down after one of its top figures called for a referendum on the government.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei addressed "Iran's elite" and warned them to be cautious in the positions they take on the turmoil that has shaken the country since the disputed presidential election on June 12.

He said that hurting Iran's security was "the biggest vice," adding that "anybody who drives the society toward insecurity and disorder is a hated person in the view of the Iranian nation, whoever he is."

Remember "brazenly rigging an election": not hurting Iran's security. Saying "maybe we should let the guy the people voted for run things": hurting Iran's security. It's so nice being the conduit for God's word. Maybe I just don't understand Him or the way He communicates through His vessels, but why is the first thing God seems to tell all His earthy dictators to do is "be a total hypocrite" followed by "grasp onto power as hard as humanly possible"? You think God would have learned that's not a great plan by now.

Still, it seems Mousavi and his fellow reformist supporters didn't get Khamenei's oh so subtle message, as they were out begging to be imprisoned demanding a referendum and the release of detained protesters. I'm sure demanding stuff will really make a difference. We saw how things went when Mousavi politely asked for these things, I'm sure the new forceful tone will convince the Supreme Leader that absolute power isn't as great as he thinks it is.

As an addendum, if you're interested in a more in depth look at how things in Iran got to where they were, the BBC is starting a 3-part series called Iran and the West: From Khomeni to Ahmedinejad, the first part of which is up now. Spoiler alert: it doesn't have a feel good beginning or ending. The middle is kind of a downer too.