HTML Tags Of Evil

Yesterday, it was brought to my attention that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad now has his own blog. No, really.

This is a big development. Even those who heretofore downplayed the importance of blogs must admit the medium has come a long way in just a few short years. I believe President Ahmadinejad is the first government leader to share his thoughts in a widely available personal journal since Joseph Stalin in the late 1940's.



Now, unlike a lot of people, I haven't been a strong critic of Iran's new leader. In fact, I've always admired his personal style, which is kinda mod Sonny Bono. People call him a "madman", but to me, the jury is still out; for instance, he's yet to claim responsibility for the death of Jon-Benet Ramsey. When I first heard about his blog, I was completely ready to say, "Congrats, Mahmoud, and welcome to the mullahsphere."

But after having perused his site, well...let's just say that smoke you see is coming from my ears, not my laptop.

Ahmadinejad.jr - or as it shows up in my browser, ???????? - is an almost 100% rip-off of Lomblog. As they say on the Net, let's go to the screen capture:



Check it out. You have a sidebar, a poll, some links, and a photo of Mahmoud. Now, look closely at that photo: let's see.....he's sitting in a chair, he's casually dressed, he's sporting tres contemporary - and very rakish - facial hair.

Come now, who does that remind you of? Hint: scroll up. Scroll...keep scrolling, and look at the left-hand side of your screen.

Ok, I'm going to assume there's something wrong with your neck, or your mouse, and you can't do that. So here's a side-by-side comparison:



Yes, I couldn't believe it at first either. But faster than you could say "enriched uranium", there it was.

And a web poll too! Who's been doing polls on his site for more than two years? Hint again: the guy who's not being watched by the UN.

Mahmoud, I know what you're up to. Don't play the unsophisticated tyrannical rube with me. There's nothing wrong with paying homage to an earlier, greater peer. But thievery without credit or at least a place on the links list violates all the rules of blogging.

Sure, I might profit if I copied a few things from you. My traffic would surely spike if I dubbed the US "the Great Satan", called for the destruction of Israel or said the Holocaust was a "myth". But, in the parlance of today's youth, that's not the way I "roll". Unlike some who do what I do, I have a code of ethics embedded in my moral template. It's a code that reads "script=thou shalt/not steal".

Unfortunately, Ahmadinejad's blog has no e-mail link. I don't blame him; I'm sure he's tired of getting that "72 Virgins Want To Meet You In Heaven Now!!!" spam. But he does have a comments section. So if you could, please follow this link and tell the president of Iran to stop ripping me off.

The Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate, the One, the Only,

LF