A quote from Joseph Reed, George Washington’s secretary during 1776 American revolution while resisting in New York:
When I look down, and see the prodigious fleet they have collected, I cannot help but be astonished that a people should come 3000 miles at such risk trouble and expense to rob, plunder and destroy another people because they will not lay their lives and fortune at their feet.
I was in west Texas the other week and needed gas in the middle of nowhere. Twice; There is nothing in west Texas but desert. I had to pump gas out of the two gas pumps below. I hadn’t seen these since I moved from Iran 10 or so years ago.
Last post (Persian Constitutional Revolution 1/3) was on how the revolution got started. In this article I want to talk about the new constitution itself and its implications.
In August 1906, Mozaffareddin Shah agreed to allow a parliament. In fall of 1906 (1285 in Iran’s calendar), the first elections were held where 156 members were elected. This is an extremely important event in Iran’s history as it marks the first Iranian parliament of the country until then. The new constitution had three articles which are as follow.
The official religion of Persia is Islam, according to the Já’farí – Ithna ‘Ashariyya doctrine, which faith the Shah of Iran must profess and promote.
Persian constitutional revolution (Enghelab Mashrute) took place in 1905 to 1907 and led to establishment of Iran’s first parliament. Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar, king of Iran at the time, was forced to sign into law the new constitution and creation of an elected parliament on August 5, 1906. The royal power became limited and a new parliamentary system was established.
Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar (1853 – 1907) was irresponsible in state matters, enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle at the cost of people, and was quick at signing concessions to foreign powers (England and Russia) to give up control of various industries in Iran in return for large amounts of loans mostly for personal pleasure.
Abilene, Texas is a city in west Texas with a little over 117,000 population and three universities. It is the highest ranked city in Texas in public education systems.
I got to Abilene on a Monday afternoon, checked into my hotel, and went to the local Starbucks to work on my computer. An hour or so into working there I started talking to the guy, Sam, sitting at the table next to me. He was a local business owner and a former U.S. military intelligent officer. He was very nice, respectful, and respectable. I enjoyed our discussions.
We talked about most current affairs related to United States and the world including Iran and Iraq war as well as current political and economical situation in United States. Here is a summary of it: [click to continue…]
