no time for love, doctor jones...

iran moves to execute porn stars. at least that's the headline on cnn. iran's parliament voted in favor of a bill that would lead to the death penalty for persons convicted of working in the production of pornographic movies. this includes producers, directors, cameramen and actors involved in the making of said porn. apparently pornography violates morality laws within that country, and anyone found to be involved in porn are sentenced to punishment as "corruptor of the world," which is a term taken from the quran, the muslims' holy book, and ranks as the highest on the scale of an individual's criminal offenses. under iran's islamic penal code, it carries a death penalty, though in this case, the bill envisages convictions from one year imprisonment to a death sentence for the main distributors of the movies and also producers of web sites in which the pornographic works appear. to become law, the bill requires an approval by the guardian council, a constitutional watchdog in iran.

it is widely believed that the drafting of the bill came about as a reaction to a scandal last year, when a private videotape, apparently belonging to iranian actress zahra amirebrahimi, allegedly showing her having intercourse with a man, became available across Iran. ebrahimi later came under an official investigation, which is still ongoing. she faces fines, whip lashing or worse for her violation of iran's morality laws.

now culture is culture, and to a degree cultures must be respected. the tricky thing about morality is that it's such a subjective thing. there are no absolutes when it comes to morality, even killing; morality can be changed or redefined. and there can be exceptions to morality. in most instances, killing is not allowed, but it appears that in some cases, killing someone is perfectly fine. the problem with legislating morality and condemning people to death, is that those doing the condemning and executing had better not have any skeletons in their own closets. but that shouldn't be a problem, because they themselves are so perfect and without temptation, and they themselves are omniscient, right? because only an omniscient being could possibly know whether a person is 100% guilty of a crime in order to condemn them to death. and it's a good thing that omniscient beings never make mistakes either!

i know it's not politically correct to say that one culture is inferior to another, but i'm just gonna say it: western society is better. the individual freedom that are allowed, and the amount of benefit of the doubt given to responsible adults is unparalleled. the respect for women and religious beliefs and personal predilections is amazing. all in all, i'd rather live here than anywhere else. personally, i like the idea of being able to burn a flag while guzzling absinthe and masturbating to girl on girl midget bondage porn in the comfort of my own home. not that i'd do it, of course, but at least i have that option to. and that's what matters.