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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- A top Iranian judiciary official warned Monday against the ''destructive'' cultural and social consequences of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys.

Yes this is the same society that sports men so macho that their women have little or no say in their upbringing, marriage, dress or legal voice. And they're afraid of a doll. These big tough guys have been kicked in the nads with a little pink, plastic slipper on the end of a well tanned, if somewhat rubbery foot.

Authorities launched a campaign of confiscating Barbies from toy shops in 2002, denouncing the un-Islamic sensibilities of the iconic American doll. But the campaign was eventually dropped.

It can only be hilarious, in a sad way, that these specimens of masculinity have been reduced to chasing down toys and declaring them a "threat". Is your culture so fucking weak that you can't even let little girls play their dolls?

The Times recently posted an article that propelled itself to the top and has more or less bobbed about the top-five most popular ever since. I'm sure this was in part due to its prominence for two days on the front page with the leader asking why gay men are opting for "marriage".

In a brilliant array of 50's-esque knockoff photos (the wife 'cleaning' under her husband's feet, the husband proudly encircling the wife as she clutches her well done roast) the reader is treated to the inner dialogs of young twenty-something gays as they ponder nuptials.

Frankly I couldn't give a crap about gay marriage one way or another. If people want it, fine. If they hate it, fine. I don't really have any great opinion one way or another. What annoys me about the article, however, is the pretense of mystery.

Gosh, gee, golly, why oh why do young gay men, the types who love to kiss in public, throw lavish parties, and dress in fancy spats, getting married? Who the hell knows, right....?