Los Angeles Times - Opinion

Misreading Iran's unrest

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

What the West is seeing as an uprising for regime change is really just a power struggle between factions of the 'Old Guard' clergy.

The troubles that have followed the Iranian presidential elections have been generally misread by the Western media and policymakers. What we are witnessing is not a frustrated East European-style "color revolution"; nor is presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi's movement an uprising of liberal, Westernized sympathizers against the principles of the Iranian Revolution -- although there are surely some who are hostile to the revolution among his supporters.

China's ill-considered response to the H1N1 virus

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Quarantining foreigners under difficult conditions runs counter to public health norms and hints of xenophobia.

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The end of Obamania

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

On his overseas trip, the president was met with a lot less cheering and a lot more tough talk.

Barack Obama has fallen back to Earth.

Iran's prisons: where protest turns into rage

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Tortured and humiliated, I felt the power of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's regime -- and the 'fearsome resource' of the dissidents.

As an Iranian citizen of voting age, I was entitled to cast my ballot in the June 12 national election. I didn't do so. It was with good reason I have placed 10,000 miles of safety between myself and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

'Bruno' doesn't help gays

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The movie is intended to satirize homophobia, but too often it misses the mark.

It's not that we don't get it. The makers of the film "Bruno," Sacha Baron Cohen's just-released follow-up to "Borat," have said that they intend to satirize and expose homophobia. But even when filmmakers have the best of intentions, there can be a disconnect between the concept and the execution. In "Bruno," the satire often loses sight of the way gay people are treated in real life.

Wind power stalls

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A number of factors have combined to make wind farms less attractive.

Ayear ago the Oracle of Oil, T. Boone Pickens, reinvented himself as the Wizard of Wind, launching a $58-million ad campaign to boost alternative energy and vowing to spend $10 billion to build the world's largest wind farm in the Texas Panhandle. It was a startling move from a staunch conservative who had made a fortune in the Texas oil fields, raising hopes that both ends of the political spectrum were coming around to the same point of view about weaning the country from its reliance on oil.

Ambassadorships for sale

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Fifteen of Obama's 62 ambassador nominees were campaign money 'bundlers.' Appointments should be based on merit, not fundraising.

When candidate Barack Obama spoke of change, we thought he meant a new way of doing business, but apparently he also meant coinage. Because President Obama has kept the unsavory tradition of doling out some of the cushiest ambassadorial posts to fundraisers who brought in some of the biggest chunks of change to his campaign. Fifteen of the 62 ambassadors nominated so far were money "bundlers" for the campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, among them Pittsburgh Steelers owner Daniel M. Rooney, retired Chicago investment banker Louis B. Susman and Los Angeles entertainment executive Charles H. Rivkin.

Honduras' non-coup

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Under the country's Constitution, the ouster of President Manuel Zelaya was legal.

Honduras, the tiny Central American nation, had a change of leaders on June 28. The country's military arrested President Manuel Zelaya -- in his pajamas, he says -- and put him on a plane bound for Costa Rica. A new president, Roberto Micheletti, was appointed. Led by Cuba and Venezuela (Sudan and North Korea were not immediately available), the international community swiftly condemned this "coup."

How did California get into this mess?

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

There's plenty of blame to go around in the budget crisis. Fingers can be pointed at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Democrats, Republicans -- and you and me.

I was recently hospitalized with a life-threatening illness that it took doctors several days to accurately diagnose. Until they fully understood the problem -- which turned out to be an antibiotic-resistant staph infection -- they couldn't prescribe the medication that would cure me.

Global warming: The heat is on the U.S.

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

A climate-change bill in the Senate is a test of this country's commitment to deal with the problem.

This week's Group of 8 summit has pretty much lived down to the low expectations it generated from the outset, yet it did produce a long-overdue agreement to fight climate change.