The streets are covered with pictures of Khomeini for the 14th and 15th of Khordad holidays. I remember the book "Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television" well, it is one of my favourites and I refer to it all the time. In the book, the author Jerry Mander (his real name) quotes a Hopi Indian theory that whatever you look at the most or meditate upon, you become like. In fact the idea is present in many world cultures and religions. He uses this and other ideas about how light enters in the top of your head to argue against TV. If you see Khomeini's unsmiling face everywhere and keep seeing it all the time, it will probably have a bad effect on you. Another word to describe the Iranian government is "necrocracy", government in the name of the dead (I read this in some Khomeini biography). In every country there is a dictator, you see his picture everywhere... in Iran, you see the dead dictator everywhere. It might be the same in Syria, with Hafez and Bashar al-Assad pictures everywhere, but I don't know.

The most important point for me, however, is that if the government spent on traffic a fraction of the time they spend on signs, Iranians wouldn't be treated worse than Swiss dog shit. The rule of law would be enforced and many of the problems of Iranian society would disappear at once.

Some links on how the US helped Iran with their nuclear program before the revolution. Dilip Hiro probably has a good book about this.

Slashdot has an article advising you to buy a bad computer for US college, because you won't be able to play games and if you work it out you're probably spending $1 a minute on classes!