If you needed further evidence that Iran is deadly serious about total control of its people and the world:
TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves," state media reported Saturday.
The presidential decree, issued earlier this week, orders all governmental agencies, newspapers and publications to use words deemed more appropriate by the official language watchdog, the Farhangestan Zaban e Farsi, or Persian Academy, the Irna official news agency reported.
. . . .
Among other changes, a "chat" will become a "short talk" and a "cabin" will be renamed a "small room," according to official Web site of the academy.
What kind of country won't even let its people use their own words?
And here's another Orwellian press release from the same Iranian official news agency. Apparently there are only two government-approved dolls in Iran -- but don't worry, the government agency in charge of planning children and young adults' leisure time is working on it:
An official of the entertainment department of the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults has said that the body was working to design new dolls in addition to the present national 'Dara' and 'Sara' dolls, an Iranian daily said here Saturday.
The English-Language daily 'Iran Daily,' quoted Majid Qaderi as saying that the present Dara-Sara dolls failed to meet the needs of children in various age groups.
He added that the body, in charge of, among other things, planning children and young adults leisure time, decided to introduce new dolls that would be smaller in size.
The objective behind designing new dolls are not merely countering the Western-made Barbie dolls, but to consider religious and national features which are the distinctions between Western toys and their Iranian counterparts, Qaderi said.
An expert survey shown that girls aged between six months to 11 years need dolls, the paper quoted Qaderi as saying.
It may come as a shock to Iran, but all around the free civilized world, we actually plan our own leisure time and pick our own dolls for our children.
It's chilling to realize that the Iranian people and their children live under this kind of control every day.
Iran's press releases announcing the exciting news about new government-approved dolls and elastic loaves are published at Iran's official news agency alongside chilling headlines like these: "President: Zionists triggered their extinction by Lebanon attack."
See, it's not enough for Iran to exert total control over its own people. With Iran's nuclear program moving forward very nicely, thank you, while the U.N. continues to sit on its hands, Iran is convinced that its total control will someday extend to the rest of the world.
And if that doesn't make you choke on your elastic loaves, I don't know what will.
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Update 7/29/06: More at Blogcritics, The Jawa Report, The Moderate Voice and PoliBlog
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