The Hamed Haddadi controversy: Are you kidding me?

I was checking out the headlines on Yahoo, when I saw a link to a story about two Los Angeles Clippers announcers who made some offensive remarks about Vancouver Grizzlies Center Hamed Haddadi. I hadn’t heard about this controversy, so I read the article to see what it was about. The story went on at length about how sorry announcers Ralph Lawler and Michael Smith were over their offensive remarks, how they apologized on-air, and directly to Hamed Haddadi before a Vancouver/L.A. game in the presence of three members of the Alliance of Iranian Americans.

It seemed like a serious situation, and as I read on, a transcript of the offensive exchange was at the end. Here it is:

Smith: “Look who’s in.”

Lawler: “Hamed Haddadi. Where’s he from?”

Smith: “He’s the first Iranian to play in the NBA.” (Smith pronounced Iranian as “Eye-ranian,” a pronunciation that offended a viewer who complained.)

Lawler: “There aren’t any Iranian players in the NBA,” repeating Smith’s mispronunciation.

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Iran to build 10 more Uranium enrichment plants

It looks like Iran is planning on building 10 more uranium enrichment plants that will equal the size of its largest facility in Natanz. Iran wants their rights as a sovereign nation respected, which is understandable, but they should realize that a certain level of responsibility (and sanity) is expected from their leaders.

Iran’s lawmakers claim that their supposedly unfair treatment is politically motivated. Isn’t this the same country that allegedly sent weapons to Iraq that were used against U.S. soldiers, threatened to “wipe Israel off the map,” and denied that the Holocaust occurred?