Iran may 'attack' our toys, but it's not playing around

W hy must Iran continue to provoke us? They're working on nukes, they're supporting deadly attacks against Americans in Iraq and our Israeli allies, and now, they insult our toys? This is madness.

[bob]

I can't believe the Chicago Tribune actually supports this crap. FYI John Krass most American women DON'T look like barbie. This article does nothing but heighten tensions between the east and west. This peice is trash, period.

[Kaveh Blacksmither]

You said in your article: "It is clear that the Iranian prosecutor knows little about American culture"

What american culture???
Are you talking about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nakasaki?
Are you talking about american filthy crimes in Vietnam?
Are you talking about american dirty crimes in Afganistan and Iraq?
Are you talking about american vicious policies in African and other poor countries around the world?
Or
Are you talking about american business frontiers such as junk mcdonal food, unhealthy and harmful coke and pepsi softdrinks?
Or
Are you talking about american culture of spreading sexual diseases, gay and lesbian normalisation into healthy societies, drug dealing and celebrities culture around the world?
Or
Are you talking about america is the whole world and the whole world is america? what a crap!!!

Come on, lets first learn what to write as an editor and then try to write an article. Are you simply being an american journalist/editor who has not seen what your sick-minded filthy business people and politicians are doing around the world? So naive you are.
No wonder, this is just an american news-writer.

[Habib]

The madness you show in this article is exactly the same as people like you showed in renaming French fries when they opposed to Iraq war!

I found the article and more than that its author having no clue on what this is all about. Its a difficult time as whatever comments people make in Iran is out on the news the next minute and the author seem to be reading too much in these news. Toy is a toy, don't get too excited about Barbie gentlemen. Good for you!

The fact that you have Barbie in the shops in every corner of Iran means that after 30 years of being harassed by the US and others in every possible way still there is sufficient freedom and acceptance of others culture and ways of living with the society. If the gov wanted to ban such toys it wouldn't be available so widely so there is an element of tolerance even if they don't like it.

[Dariosh]

What about Hanne Mountana ? Do we want to export her dolls to Iran and other countries? How you would say 90 percent of American women are like her? It is a shame? I dont know how to explain my 10 years old dogter that she should not be like her?
The writer at least does not recognize cultural differences among socities. I can say also that he is little connection to the cultural side of life.

[George]

Wow- I guess a lot of people missed the point, as well as the humor, in this column! And, Blacksmither, that comment is just what I would expect from some pu$$y in the cowardly UK (Oh yeah- Wasn't that YOUR navy, the "Royal" navy, who stood off and waved to their sailors as the mighty Iranians kidnapped them? So, Englishman, shut the F*** up.
Good column Kass. Some people get the point.

[Bubba]

Glad to see the idiots are out in force this morning. Iran is a wonderful place with freedom for everyone, except those who don't agree with the ayatollahs. These are the same people who deny the Holocaust, support Hamas, Hezbollah, and al-Sadr, and can't run an economy even with oil prices at $120/bbl.

[Tom]

This column is satire folks. The author is over stating and exagerating things to make his points. I've heard sarcasm and satire are some of the hardest things to recognize when your reading a different language or in a different culture.

One little bit though, look up everything surrounding the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki before you start judging that action. By most accounts at the time, many, many more people would have died if the Americans had been forced to mount a conventional invasion to end the war.

[alex]

I believe Mr. Kass was writing tongue-in-cheek, poking a little fun at the idea that American dolls are that important in the issues between Iran and the U.S.

Since he works in Chicago, and sees American women walking down its streets every day, I am quite sure he was making fun of the idea that all American women end up looking just like Barbie.

[JMB]

Could it be that these angry posters have fooled us with their own brand of satire? They are so earnest, I can't tell.

[Stevo]

Typical brainwashing, in this article the author starts to say that Iran is developing nukes when that is not true, they have no proof of it but already the war machine propaganda changes this and states that they are developing nukes. When we, the world get some proof by the IAEA then you should use that term "developing nukes"

[Jane]

I don't know why, but I am always surprised at the hatred and anger that is out there - and can be unleashed by a silly column. Very scary.

[Tammy]

If I remeber there our people out there that said to make friends with Iran go against Israel. Any one recall that?Wake up America!

[JohnP]

Kaveh Blacksmither wrote:

You said in your article: "It is clear that the Iranian prosecutor knows little about American culture"
What american culture???
Are you talking about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nakasaki?
Are you talking about american filthy crimes in Vietnam?
Are you talking about american dirty crimes in Afganistan and Iraq?
Are you talking about american vicious policies in African and other poor countries around the world?
Or
Are you talking about american business frontiers such as junk mcdonal food, unhealthy and harmful coke and pepsi softdrinks?
Or
Are you talking about american culture of spreading sexual diseases, gay and lesbian normalisation into healthy societies, drug dealing and celebrities culture around the world?
Or
Are you talking about america is the whole world and the whole world is america? what a crap!!!
Come on, lets first learn what to write as an editor and then try to write an article. Are you simply being an american journalist/editor who has not seen what your sick-minded filthy business people and politicians are doing around the world? So naive you are.
No wonder, this is just an american news-writer.

I knew Rev. Wright would turn up here, eventually!

[syj]

"The irregular importation of such toys, which unfortunately arrive through unofficial sources and smuggling, is destructive culturally and a social danger," Iranian Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi whined to his government in a letter about our subversive toys, according to news reports.

"The display of personalities such as Barbie, Batman, Spider-Man and Harry Potter ... as well as ... unsanctioned computer games and movies are all warning bells to the officials in the cultural arena,"

Exactly, Kass!! They're conservatives just like you. And just like many of your conservative heroes, they probably also believe that Tele-Tubbies and SpongeBob send homosexual messages.

[Ali Husseini]

None sense. GET A LIFE dude.

[Scott Free]

Tom wrote:

This column is satire folks.

Trouble is, it's not very well-done satire. Kass needs to brush up on his Swift before he tries this again.

[The whackos are here]

Sheees, the responses to this column makes me wonder if the inhabitants of Bedlam have escaped (hint, Blacksmiter). What a bunch of nutters.....

[Tracy]

Mr. Kass is stealing his ideas from Stephen Colbert, I see.

http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/vi...

[FatSean]

Who's provoking who? Iran, which just wants nuclear parity with the USA? Or the USA which invaded a neighbor to Iran on false pretenses and has since then fucked everything up?

Well, I'm not in the military...so if you conservative pant-filling types are so scared that you want ANOTHER 'war' to fight...be my guest.

I won't be paying attention to this one. I'll just let you war-mongers suffer and die for your own damn stupidity. Did you learn nothing from Afghanistan and Iraq?

Deepest condolences for the soldiers who signed up to 'protect' the USA. They're being grossly misused. Bring them home.

[jhamm]

Oh...Shut....Up.

Aside from buying hook, line, and sinker into the Bush administration's over-hyped panic button about an impending "nukular" arms program on the horizon, you actually have enough gall to insult our collective intelligence with dyslexic assertions about how Iran is apparently attempting to provoke us. Clearly, in the case of being branded as part of the "axis of evil" with one's neighbor having been subject to an unprovoked invasion under false pretenses, one could hardly even blame Iran for having supposedly developing such a deterrent as Bush has all but declared his impending incentives to invade with or without cause. With an adminstration which has undermined the actual intelligence data about the progress of Iran's nuclear developments, trumpeted misrepresentations about the Tehran government's supposed support for al-Qaeda operatives, and a vast naval build-up within dangerous proximity to Iran's terrirtorial waters which all too clearly conveys the administration's incentive to ignite a modern day equivalent of the "Gulf of Tonkin" incident, it's pretty obvious who is trying to provoke whom.