I am at work and there is a giant crowd of people coming down Wilshire, turning south on Westwood Blvd. Quite a sight...thousands of people chanting for human rights and democracy in Iran...yelling and waving signs and flags. Police out in force. Very peaceful but loud.

We should all be glad that in the USA, you can have such a march (or any march, including marching against our own government) with no fear of being shot or beaten for your views. Occasionally, marchers are handled roughly or worse by police, but that's almost always because of the hooliganism of a small number of marchers, not because of the viewpoint of the marchers.

Interesting difference in tactics here between these folks today and the pro-gay marriage folks, who have recently been shutting down streets in this neighborhood (e.g., sitting in middle of the busiest intersection at rush hour). Today's marchers apparently got some sort of permission, or at least notified the authorities of their march because the police and traffic people were out hours ago setting up barricades to divert traffic and such.

It much easier to be sympathetic to a cause when the marchers are out on a Sunday afternoon, and not blocking your way home to see your family after a hard day of work.