The Cheney/Bush School of Intimidation:The Art of Character Assassination, 101

Here's a story about something which would be hilarious, or at least amusing, if it were not so dangerous.

Iran's Supreme Leader, a so-called man of the clothe and religious leader, calls those reformers who are calling for annulling the disputed election results "bullies".

Shades of Cheney/Bush. It seems that this guy went to their school of obfuscation which advocated and used against their opposition the very same accusations of which they were accused and of which they were guilty.

Last time I checked, those who made my list, 'Bullies I Have Known', were those who used physically abusive, life threatening and frightening force to intimidate those who want to live in a time and place in which fair competition prevails to insure justice and fairness as a way of living peaceably, though not necessarily peacefully.

That is not a small difference and should not be dismissed as "simply semantics". Peaceably includes acceptance of competition and differences, and open and tolerated discussion of differences of opinion, without having to be violent.


Peacefully is not a sustainable condition to be experienced in this world. The documented evidence of survival of the fittest attests to that.

Peaceably might be a sustainable condition, but is dependent on people making choices about what they support and resisting violence as a way of promoting it.

Sports competition is a pretty good example of how that might work. The Olympics of old Athens reminds us today that rational people can "fight it out" to be a winner, and without the physical death of the opponent as a requirement to confirm it. The Romans didn't buy it though. They wanted blood, and so do tyrants everywhere.

There's a topic and story for another time and place about how "sports" has not yet let go the sick excitement about the possibility that physical violence between combatants, euphemistically called competitors, can result in death.

The so-called sport called Boxing comes to mind. It's a less purposely designed and arranged deadly competition, yet still a violent vestige of the "sporting" events held in the Roman Colosseum.

Leanderthal