horse racing in Iran

[NYRA 792]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp=50087834&#50087834

[Louie Weedelbaum]

When they showed the betting windows I thought someone slipped in footage from Aqueduct.

[Earl Sande]

Thanks for sharing, great stuff.
Happy to know our economic sanctions haven't starved the horses or the patrons yet.
 

[honest & balanced terry]

Thanks for sharing, great stuff.
Happy to know our economic sanctions haven't starved the horses or the patrons yet.
 

Wow, those betting windows look just like Fairmount Park!

During Bill Clinton's bombing campaign on Serbia I carried on an email exchange with a Serbian racing fan, who told me they continued to go to the races at the Belgrade Hippodrome throughout the war. The bombed out bridges just made it a little tougher to get to the track. Apparently guys everywhere will stop at nothing to get down on horse racing.   

[Yimmy]

Clinton?  I thought that was NATO.

[User1015]

This is pretty interesting. Thanks for posting.

[HarnessFanDE]

That was cool....At the beginning I thought that was a shotgun barrel following the horses around....I was thinking thats one way to make sure the jockeys try their best

[honest & balanced terry]

Clinton?  I thought that was NATO.

Clinton was President and making the decisions for America then. Same as the Bush admin and the "international coalition" to topple Saddam.

[Yimmy]

Iraq was not invaded by NATO, but rather by a coalition of sovereign nations.  The bombing of Serbia was a NATO initiative... Clinton certainly had input, but Solana was calling the shots.

[honest & balanced terry]

Iraq was not invaded by NATO, but rather by a coalition of sovereign nations.  The bombing of Serbia was a NATO initiative... Clinton certainly had input, but Solana was calling the shots.

NATO would not have taken action if Clinton had not put pressure on them. All of Europe was sitting back doing nothing about the 2nd round of Serb-led ethnic cleansing in their own back yard, and Serbia was still defying the U.S. on conditions imposed after the Bosnian war.

Interesting perspective from Noam Chomsky:

http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20060425.htm

[Louie Weedelbaum]

Iraq was not invaded by NATO, but rather by a coalition of sovereign nations.  The bombing of Serbia was a NATO initiative... Clinton certainly had input, but Solana was calling the shots.

You're trying to talk sensibly to someone who thinks Noam Chamsky is a brilliant man.  It can't be done. 

[Yimmy]

He also thinks Israel is a theocracy.   

But he does know a lot about horse racing... it's just that no one can get him to talk about it, since he has some strange on *racetrack management,* an oxymoron if I ever heard one.

[honest & balanced terry]

He also thinks Israel is a theocracy.  

 

Read much?

I think it's as much a "theocracy" as any other nation the U.S. supports with billions of dollars (which is pretty much zero actual theocracies), as the original poster claimed. It just so happens that Israel is the prime beneficiary of all that pork barrel foreign aid spending the righties are constantly wailing about.  

But he does know a lot about horse racing... it's just that no one can get him to talk about it, since he has some strange on *racetrack management,* an oxymoron if I ever heard one.

Blah blah blah as usual more noise of nothing to do with the actual subject.  

But let me ask, if you're claiming that bombing of Serbia to end the Kosovo conflict was a NATO-led humanitarian effort that Clinton merely went along with, and not really a Clinton-led/instigated affair like I think, you're pretty much cutting the legs out from under all your fellow righties who claim that was merely an effort to deflect attention from the Lewinsky affair, aren't you?  

[Louie Weedelbaum]

Blah blah blah as usual more noise of nothing to do with the actual subject.  

 

That would describe you to a tee....at least 98% of your posts anyway.

[Yimmy]

Israel is a far more secular nation than this one is; no one is seeking to convert the 1.1 million Arabs who live (and flourish) in Israel proper to Judaism. Read Ynet/Yediot Ahronot if you doubt me... a terrific paper over there, and it's chockablock with attacks on the haredim, who while represented in the Knesset are just 1 or 2 of 18 parties in that body.

As for what my "fellow righties" think, I voted for Clinton, and I never thought the bombing of Serbia had anything to do with Monica Lewinsky.  The Sudanese aspirin factory bombing... that's another story.

[honest & balanced terry]

Israel is a far more secular nation than this one is; no one is seeking to convert the 1.1 million Arabs who live (and flourish) in Israel proper to Judaism.

Than what nation? And who is trying to convert whom?

The original (tangential) claim that I was skewering by pointing out the Israel aid was that the U.S. is giving all sorts of aid money to theocracies. It isn't giving ANY substantial aid to theocracies, if it's giving any at all.

Here's the damn list - point out the theocracies receiving the billions:

http://foreignassistance.gov/CountryIntro.aspx

[Yimmy]

Far more secular than the US... and if you think Jews proselytize among Gentiles, I've got a bridge to sell you. 

As for theocracies that get US billions, try Pakistan and Afghanistan. 

[honest & balanced terry]

Far more secular than the US... and if you think Jews proselytize among Gentiles, I've got a bridge to sell you.  

WTF? You somehow got to this nonsense from a comment about Bill Clinton bombing Serbia? So what are you claiming now, that the United States government proselytizes among Jews, or what? And the building of new settlements and claim on Jerusalem as the rightful capital ... that's all secular ?

As for theocracies that get US billions, try Pakistan and Afghanistan.

  Neither one of those are theocracies. Pakistan has an elected civilian representative government, and so does Afghanistan, after a fashion, if you can consider Karzai truly elected ... but in any case "theocracy" he is not.

[PURPLE LAVERN]

Wow, those betting windows look just like Fairmount Park!

During Bill Clinton's bombing campaign on Serbia I carried on an email exchange with a Serbian racing fan, who told me they continued to go to the races at the Belgrade Hippodrome throughout the war. The bombed out bridges just made it a little tougher to get to the track. Apparently guys everywhere will stop at nothing to get down on horse racing.   

A SHOT AT FAIRMOUNT PARK!!!

I am surprised at that Terry

coming from the office of tourism from Cicero/Hawthorne -well not going to go there  cough cough

[honest & balanced terry]

A SHOT AT FAIRMOUNT PARK!!!

I am surprised at that Terry

Private joke with Earl Sande; so sorry you're out of the loop.

[PURPLE LAVERN]

Just trying to get you back from boring political chit chat

[honest & balanced terry]

Just trying to get you back from boring political chit chat

Thanks for the lifeline, PL. 

I owe you one.

[Louie Weedelbaum]

Like Alan Jerkens always says: "You can't smarten up a dummy"

[Earl Sande]

Private joke with Earl Sande; so sorry you're out of the loop.

And I enjoyed it! The track in Iran also reminded me of a combination of various tracks on the Arizona fair circuit. I could almost hear Jim Martin calling the race.

[Yimmy]

Alnaz Ali won a race yesterday... is he perchance of Persian extraction? 

[PURPLE LAVERN]

Think he is Jewish

[cliffyy]

NO FIX RACES GOING ON THERE.   YOU FIX A RACE ,,, YOU GET SHOT 

[cliffyy]

CAN I ORDER A KNISH AT ONE OF THOSE WINDOWS   

[Yimmy]

Think he is Jewish

Yeah, he changed it from "Ariel Almelech" because that was Too Middle-Eastern Sounding. 

[the exactorman]

When they showed the betting windows I thought someone slipped in footage from Aqueduct.

 

Louie, I attend BigA 25+ X/year and you couldnt be more accurate.

[Yimmy]

Certainly a Farsi cry from racing as we knew it in its heyday, eh, e-man? 

[Mick]

Flock of Seagulls

Eye ran, Eye ran so far away

turns to a Clash

The shareef don't like it
 Rockin' the Casbah
 Rock the Casbah

He thinks it's not kosher
 Fundamentally he can't take it.
 You know he really hates it

Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah

[Yimmy]

Special tip of the cap to Dhimmi Carter for putting the skids under the Shah... great move!   

It would be pretty cool to be able to get a nice chicken fessenjon at the track.  But I don't see it happening in the near future.

[Mick]

[/Quote author=Yimmy link=topic=53554.msg606544#msg606544 date=1354997792]
It would be pretty cool to be able to get a nice chicken fessenjon at the track.  But I don't see it happening in the near future.
[/quote]
That would be like getting a Baba Ganoush at the track or a Baba O'Reilly.

Or a Bill O'liely as my buddy Al Franken says.

[Yimmy]

How many other rock standards, apart from the occasional 70s Kansas hit, had violin solos... much less good ones?   

[honest & balanced terry]

Special tip of the cap to Dhimmi Carter for putting the skids under the Shah... great move!   

Special tip of the cap to the CIA for putting him power in the first place by toppling a popular government.

Of course, it's always best for us freedom-loving Americans if foreigners continue to be ruled by strong-arm kings and dictators. Look at what's happening in the Middle East now after Bush shook things up by toppling Saddam to install democracy at the point of gun, and started the dominoes toppling. Country after country seeing that self-rule in Iraq and throwing off the yoke of their own dictators and strong men in the name of self-rule. But as it turns out the self-rule isn't always necessarily that friendly to the U.S. Where did we go wrong? Like Bush famously said, "I just can't understand why they don't like us!"

[honest & balanced terry]

How many other rock standards, apart from the occasional 70s Kansas hit, had violin solos... much less good ones?   

Charlie Daniels stuff?

[Yimmy]

Good point on Daniels.  Not so good on the history stuff.

Easy to look back and cluck one's tongue at Operation Ajax, but the Iranians couldn't operate their own oilfields once they chased out the Brits... the Russkies were going to move in there. 

As for the rest, I recommend Elaine Sciolino's Persian Mirrors , or Christiane Bird's Neither East Nor West .  Oddly enough, I seem to recall that Bird was or is the girlfriend of one of the TG machers.  Iran, of course, bounced badly under Khomeini. 

[honest & balanced terry]

Easy to look back and cluck one's tongue at Operation Ajax, but the Iranians couldn't operate their own oilfields once they chased out the Brits... the Russkies were going to move in there. 

So why didn't re-installation of the Shah endear America to the Iranians?

[Yimmy]

Yes, Iranians hate the US viscerally, which is why there are so few of them in Great Neck and Teherangeles.

Which Muslim nation had citizens holding a pro-US candlelight vigil in the immediate wake of 9/11?

a) Yemen;

b)  Saudia Arabia;

c)  Syria;

d)  Iran

[honest & balanced terry]

Yes, Iranians hate the US viscerally, which is why there are so few of them in Great Neck and Teherangeles.

Enough of them quite obviously do so.

[Yimmy]

Much of their middle class ran here after the Shah fell.  Rest assured, one hears more Farsi spoken on the streets of Great Neck than English. Here is one of the suffering Iranian victims of American oppression

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4FVFhHKMWw&playnext=1&list=PL94A4B24BDEBFCBFA&feature=results_video