Iranian porn stars? (Updated)

"Meanwhile, in Iran, they're executing porn stars actors," (see below) finger-wags one of my favorite internet bedbugs Ann Althouse over at her site, apropos (if any associations Althouse makes actually qualify as "apropos"—she's largely a one-woman non-sequitur generator) that Obama-loving music vid over on YouTube. Instapundit Glenn Reynolds also links to the AP report on CNN.com headlined "Iran moves to execute porn stars."

I guess they didn't read much below the headline, via which one might infer that there are actually porn stars in Iran to execute. There aren't. For reasons that I imagine should be obvious, there is no above-ground pornographic film industry in the country. There's not much of a film industry, period, and the best filmmakers working in Iran—Abbas Kiarostami and Jafar Panahi, to name two—can barely get their own (extremely chaste, incidentally) movies shown in their own country. The AP hed suggests that the mullahs are going to sweep the country and off its erotica celebs, and that if Jenna Jameson's doing a USO tour and makes a wrong turn at Al Amarah, she'd better watch her, um, ass. Again, not the case.

What seems to be the real impetus behind the new law is, I think, actually more awful and gruesome than what that headline evokes. Last year a videotape that appeared to feature the popular Iranian television actress Zahra Amir Ebrahimi having sex with a male partner surfaced in the public arena. She says the tape's a fake, her alleged partner in the tape has fled to Armenia, and the matter is still officially "under investigation." Ebrahami's punishment under the standing Iranian morality laws would be bad enough; under this particular law, she could be executed. The law, then, under the pretext of attacking what is more or less a chimera, will exact particular punishment on this individual, no doubt to make something of an example of her. As I said, awful. But for the likes of Althouse and Reynolds, I suppose, not quite as, um, sexy as the notion that they're "executing porn stars" over there.

UPDATE: Ms. Althouse appears below in comments, to say I glaringly misquote her, and I do misquote her—and, as it happens, I've done so before. Maybe there is something to that Althouse vortex thing she occasionally goes on about. In any case, it's true—she says "porn actors," not "porn stars," and I should probably just apologize and not point out that Zahra Amir Ebrahimi is not a "porn actor" as the tape in which she appeared (and which she insists is a fake) was a private one, not intended for public consumption.

So here I am. Apologizing. Because apparently I really "got to her." Sorry to get to you, Ann Althouse. I'm sorry you maybe don't think I deserve to be Premiere's film critic. Would you like me any better if I told you I was also the editor of an essay that appears in in a book that's in your favorite-books-list in your Blogger profile? No? Guess I'll have to live with that.

In any case, um, welcome Althouse readers? And since Instapundit didn't bother to link to me and instead just made a smirky traffic joke, screw him and his readers? (Except Jim Meigs. Jim Meigs, you can hang out.) Is that how it works?

I don't know. But I do regret the error.

FURTHER UPDATE:And my wife just told me that this sort of thing is precisely why she generally insists that I let her review all my posts before posting. Thus endeth the lesson. Back to irrelevance...

Also, I see that Ann Althouse and I have one thing in common—we have people impersonating ourselves in comments. In case anyone's curious, I am not behind that "Mom" bit.

Comments

[Ann Althouse]

Glenn: You quote me saying "Meanwhile, in Iran, they're executing porn stars." That is a misquote that you need to correct. I did not use the word "stars," for exactly the reason that you go on to discuss. Since you're trying to smear me here, you should take special care to be accurate. Your whole riff is screwed up because it's based on the notion that I used that word. I demand a correction and an apology.

[Bemo]

We-e-e-ellll. You do include a link to an article with the 'stars' headline, rather than the 'actors' that you provide in your blog.

I'm no Kenny apologist, although I must say that I'm more inclined to forgive him because he amuses me so, and you don't. Sorry!

[Bemo]

Or is that "Sorry"!

I can never quite figure out what to say to someone who doesn't, uh, amuse me.

[Glenn Kenny]

MOM!

I told you not to post here. I can defend myself, thank you.

GK

[Jacques A.]

"You do include a link to an article with the 'stars' headline"

Well I guess that's just the same thing as saying 'stars' and no apology necessary!

Case closed!!!!

[Tex Lovera]

Bemo-

You prove Ann's point. She INTENTIONALLY used the word "actors" rather than the word "stars" from the original headline; she was being thoughtful. As opposed to Glenn Kenny, who was too fixated on his own perceived "truth", and thus too LAZY to check the facts right in front of his face in black and white.

[Ixman]

Sorry, gotta give this one to Ann. The word she actually used was indeed "actors."

As GK was trying to make a "smarter than thou" sass, and as he needed Ann to be using the "stars" word to bolster his point, his point falls apart with actual reading of what was written.

[RW]

Embrace the fifteen minutes that Instapundit has granted you....you'll return to irrelevance shortly.

[roy edroso]

Althouse is right that you got a single word wrong.

You're right that Althouse is a one-woman non-sequitur generator. At best.

Odd, BTW, that Ole Perfesser Reynolds says your number of commenters equals your number of readers. By that standard, I guess he has no readers.

Keep up the good work, and don't mind the typos OR the psychos.

[DJ]

When you learn how to apologize graciously, you'll deserve to be taken more seriously.

You misquoted AA, while slamming her. Your slam crucially involved the misquote. Your fans who point out that you only got one word wrong in your bogus quotation need to consider how that "defense" generalizes -- or doesn't.

Lame.

[Paul S.]

roy edroso -

I am former left. I'm one of the 10-20% or so of the left or former left who find the current left distasteful and depressing. (Ann A is one of us, too.) One of the things that causes those feelings is when the left steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the meaning of its own transgressions like this. The meaning of each example, that is, and the accumulated meaning of the meanings over time.

fyi and all.

[Richard Blaine]

Can't say I'd ever heard of Glenn Kenny until I followed Reynold's link then Althouse's link.

Mr. Kenny: you are indeed a small, small person.

[Aaron Hillis]

Y'all excited for Fantastic Four? I'm gonna buy a jumbo popcorn.

[WP]

Of course GK shouldn't have misquoted Ms. Althouse, and scrupulous accuracy should be the goal when mounting an argument; however, I fail to see how the correction of this particular mistake changes the argument even a little bit. There can be neither flashy porn stars nor plain old journeyman porn actors (dreaming of that big break!) in a country that, as Kenny points out, has no porn industry to speak of. So this seems like a bit of a hollow victory for Althouse.

[Marko]

"Would you like me any better if I told you I was also the editor of an essay that appears in in a book that's in your favorite-books-list in your Blogger profile?"

Powerful stuff. You really pwned!!1! with that one.

Here's your Internet Learners Permit . . . remember, you can only use it while accompanied by an experienced poster above the age of 12.

[Ann Althouse]

Thanks for the correction. I'll note it in my post.

[Aaron Aradillas]

Actually, Mr. Kenny is quite large. The man towers over me. He looms.

[roy edroso]

I see one of your termites is attempting to communicate with me through you. (I imagine "I am former left" sung by Flo & Eddie a la Zappa's "I am Bwana Dick.") Please hold all my calls!

As one who has been winger-bombed myself, I can say that their responses here so far are typical, especially in their puffed-up, fake-aristo "you are indeed a small, small person" lingo. I'm surprised none of them has invented emoticons to indicate the flourishing of a lace hanky, or the taking of snuff.

WP's right about the picayune nature of Althouse's complaint. Her inflation of same by shit-fit is also typical -- see her Vlog freakout with Garance Franke-Ruta.

Give it a day. Presently they'll all go back to peering through their venetian blinds at Mexicans and grumbling.

[Kazinski]

I guess Kenny missed the fact that the reason there are no porn actors or porn stars in Iran is because they would be executed as soon as they cropped up.

[roy edroso]

Mr. Kazinski:

I guess they didn't read much below the headline, via which one might infer that there are actually porn stars in Iran to execute. There aren't. For reasons that I imagine should be obvious, there is no above-ground pornographic film industry in the country.

Still think he "missed" it?

[roy edroso]

(second graf above from Kenny's original post)

[jblog]

"I guess they didn't read much below the headline..."

Why should they, or anyone else for that matter?

If you can't get the headline right, why should anyone have any confidence in anything else you have to say?

You screwed up. Apologize and move on.

[Paul S.]

Ann's little original reference to the Iranian law was entirely accurate, and made accurate by use of the word "actor" rather than "star."

The Iranian parliament passed a law leading to the death penalty for anyone involved in making what they deem to be porn. Including, there is every reason to assume, anyone appearing in what the CNN article refers to as private videos in the black market - including at least some private videos made in Iran by Iranians, is the meaning I take from the article.

Mr. Kenny mentions that the law is suspected have been at least partly in response to the one instance; the CNN article also states that these other black market products have been angering fundamentalists for years.

So there isn't any basis for assuming that these other products were not also targets of the law. And whether they were or not - they're included in the law.

In the context of Iran and this law, those private Iranians having sex on tape would be porn actors. In fact even in the context of this county, it would not be much of a stretch at all to call the many people taping themselves for distribution of any sort "porn actors."

One opinion that would be ridiculous, on this tiny terminology question, would be that it's utterly, 100% absurd to use the term "porn actor" in discusssing the situation.

Mr. Kenny's originaly posting, that is. Just to ground us.

Today's left is the 1950's anti-Commie, pro-interventionist, what pollution-problem political right: arrogant and stupid at the same time.

It's the sort of stupid cemented in place by never, ever seriously entertaining the notion that they are in fact stupid or even occasionally seriously mistaken (not to mention morally misguided).

[Paul S.]

That is, to correct myself: the one obviously absurd opinion would be a *defense* of Mr. Kenny's original post, with the defense based on the premise that use of the word "actor" as opposed to "star" changes nothing.

It would be absurd because: the law plainly targets people appearing in porn films, i.e., porn actors; and there are people engaged in such activity in Iran.

So that would be, for example, roy edroso's opinion, I take it.

The only reason this is worth anyone's time - even for the sake of amusement - is because of the odd, heated reaction to Ms. Althouse in Mr. Kenny's original post, a reaction based on less than zero.

It is sometimes just tempting to run an experiment and see if it's possible to get a leftist or liberal to acknowledge in plain language: "Yes, you're right, I had my head up my ass here." Or even to go further and say "And perhaps the frenzied manner in which I went so quickly to inserting my head into my ass would give me pause on the emotional and intellectual balance of my reactions to and opinions on any number of things."

Dream on.

[roy edroso]

It is sometimes just tempting to run an experiment and see if it's possible to get a leftist or liberal to acknowledge in plain language: "Yes, you're right, I had my head up my ass here."

I guess I could run my own experiment, asking if you would agree that you are a tendentious asshole. But I doubt it would be any more useful than yours.