Quote of the day for 24 December 2009

Today's quote of the day comes from here and has to do with Iran, and this incident in particular where a crowd forcibly stopped the public execution of two people convicted of theft. So what happened after that? Well, the two people that were freed were recaptured a few hours later and those that aided them are now going to be punished. Here's where today's quote comes in.

The caveat at the beginning is very important though - if the will is there then governments can completely squelch out dissent, but this usually requires a virtual closing of all borders and a severing of relationships with all but a few countries (North Korea).

On a related note, here's a nice article from last year from BBC featuring an interview with the recently deceased Ayatollah Montazeri. "Welcome to your house", he greeted the reporters as they arrived at his residence.

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