Freedom of Speech

For once, a post with no attempt at humor. A link to a Wired story about a blogger who's crusading for greater freedom of expression, a basic human right, in Iran, where he and other bloggers who express their political opinions are punished and sometimes imprisoned for simply blogging.

But last June the Iranian judiciary put in place a more sophisticated filtering system that blocks Iranian access to political Web sites and blogs. (Derakhshan's traffic immediately dropped by half.) Then in September, officials got serious, arresting, interrogating, and even jailing some of the country's bloggers, according to human rights groups. Two of those writers, Mojtaba Saminejad and Mohammad Reza Nasab Abdolahi, remain in prison.

I probably don't even realize the full value of the freedoms I enjoy, even as I enjoy them.

Also, it is frightening to think that a country has nuclear capability and the desire to oppress public opinion at the same time.