Manifesto

Iran's so-called green movement is not yet a counterrevolution, but recent developments make clear it is heading in that direction. Seven months after the uprising began, an opposition manifesto is finally taking shape, and its sweeping demands would change the face of Iran. Three bold statements calling for reform have been issued since Friday, one by opposition presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, one by a group of exiled religious intellectuals and the third by university professors.

I expected fireworks in South Los Angeles this week, when LAPD Chief Charlie Beck showed up at a community meeting to talk about Christopher Dorner, the ex-cop turned killer whose manifesto cast the department in an ugly light, resurrecting decades of buried wrongs. The crowd at the Vermont Avenue community center was small, about 100 people. But the line to speak stretched from the stage to the back of the room. Some came for answers, some just to vent. There were stories of ugly street stops and police harassment.

Dear Occupy Wall Street: We get it — you're mad as hell and you're not going to take it anymore. You wanted change, it hasn't come and now you're demanding it. But the thing is, you haven't been all that clear about what changes you'd like to see, and that makes it less likely you'll produce any. So we've decided to write your manifesto. We realize that the Occupy movement is a diverse group united by anger rather than ideas, and many of you will disagree with anything written by a corporate-owned, capitalist newspaper, especially those in your more anarchistic wing.

CNN newsman Anderson Cooper received a package thought to be from the ex-Los Angeles police officer-turned fugitive Christopher Dorner a week before the massive manhunt that has gripped Southern California. "Learned today suspect Christopher Dorner sent me a parcel at CNN. Inside was a note, DVD, and a coin shot thru with bullet holes," Cooper said in a Twitter message Thursday. Cooper was one of several news personalities praised in the lengthy manifesto that authorities said was published on what they believe is Dorner's Facebook page.

Anders Behring Breivik, the chief suspect in Friday's twin terrorist attacks in Norway, copied passages from infamous American Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski's manifesto and used them in his own writings, according to a Norwegian website that publishes political commentary, analysis and essays. Hans Rustad, editor of the website Document.no, writes that Breivik's 1,500-page political manifesto, titled "A European Declaration of Independence" and posted on the website (link in Norwegian)

Reality Hunger A Manifesto David Shields Alfred A. Knopf: 240 pp., $24.95 On the one hand: Who does this guy think he is? On the other: It's about time someone said something this honest in print. On the other: Oh, wait, we get only two. "Reality Hunger" is a manifesto, a closed fist. A manifesto says enough is enough, it's time to change things. A manifesto is fueled by varying degrees of anger. David Shields believes that literature has come to a critical point.

I expected fireworks in South Los Angeles this week, when LAPD Chief Charlie Beck showed up at a community meeting to talk about Christopher Dorner, the ex-cop turned killer whose manifesto cast the department in an ugly light, resurrecting decades of buried wrongs. The crowd at the Vermont Avenue community center was small, about 100 people. But the line to speak stretched from the stage to the back of the room. Some came for answers, some just to vent. There were stories of ugly street stops and police harassment.

A group of prominent U.S. evangelical Christians is urging other evangelicals to step back from partisan politics and avoid becoming "useful idiots" for any political party. In an often strongly worded statement released this week, more than 70 pastors, scholars and business leaders said faith and politics have become too closely intertwined and that evangelicals err when they use their religious beliefs for political purposes. About a quarter of U.S. adults call themselves evangelical Christians, polls show, and for the last 30 years, the "religious right" has been a reliable base of support for the Republican Party.

Rep. Paul D. Ryan's wonky manifesto "A Roadmap for America's Future" is not what most would call thrilling reading. It makes one want to shout, "Nobody told me there would be math!" Charts battle tables for supremacy over bullet points. But it is an exciting document nonetheless, because it offers something many of us yearn for: a do-over. The Wisconsin Republican's Roadmap is not a "reactionary" document, as the left usually describes most anything that involves substantially reducing the size, scope and cost of government.

On the day Christopher Dorner was fired from the Los Angeles Police Department, officials took the unusual step of summoning armed guards to stand watch at his disciplinary hearing downtown. Those present were nervous that Dorner might do something rash when he learned that he was being stripped of his badge. He was a hulking, muscled man and his body language left no doubt about the anger seething out of him. "It was clear… that he was wound way too tight," said a police official who attended Dorner's termination hearing and requested anonymity because of safety concerns.

On the day Christopher Dorner was fired from the Los Angeles Police Department, officials took the unusual step of summoning armed guards to stand watch at his disciplinary hearing downtown. Those present were nervous that Dorner might do something rash when he learned that he was being stripped of his badge. He was a hulking, muscled man and his body language left no doubt about the anger seething out of him. "It was clear… that he was wound way too tight," said a police official who attended Dorner's termination hearing and requested anonymity because of safety concerns.

"We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit. " Those were the opening words of the Port Huron Statement, which I helped draft 50 years ago this summer as the founding document of Students for a Democratic Society. The statement, written in the idealistic early days of the New Left, laid out a vision for a nation in which racial equality would be finally achieved, disarmament embraced and true participatory democracy would become the norm.

Dear Occupy Wall Street: We get it — you're mad as hell and you're not going to take it anymore. You wanted change, it hasn't come and now you're demanding it. But the thing is, you haven't been all that clear about what changes you'd like to see, and that makes it less likely you'll produce any. So we've decided to write your manifesto. We realize that the Occupy movement is a diverse group united by anger rather than ideas, and many of you will disagree with anything written by a corporate-owned, capitalist newspaper, especially those in your more anarchistic wing.

In a country whose most famous billionaire-slash-politician has languished for years in prison camps, it might seem rash for another tycoon to publicly vow to break the ruling party's monopoly on power and ill conceal his presidential ambitions. But Mikhail Prokhorov, one of the richest men in Russia, not to mention the owner of the New Jersey Nets, didn't seem haunted by the specter of Mikhail Khodorkovsky when he declared this year that he was abandoning big business to head the comatose Right Cause party and released a party manifesto calling the state "hostile to its own people.

It was supposed to be a defining moment for Norwegian terrorism suspect Anders Behring Breivik. He had hoped that Monday's hearing into last week's twin attacks would be televised live by the world's media, authorities say. He wanted to dress in uniform to defend his actions as part of a bid to trigger an anti-Islamic revolution in Europe. But to his disappointment, Breivik's much-anticipated first court appearance was neither seen nor heard by the public. A Norwegian judge ruled that the proceedings should be held behind closed doors, siding with prosecutors who are increasingly nervous about giving the suspect a forum to espouse his radical views.

In the photographs now circulating around the world, Anders Behring Breivik looks almost preppy. Neatly parted blond hair frames a boyishly handsome face. The upturned collar of a peach-colored polo shirt pokes through a dark Izod sweater. It's hard to reconcile the softly smiling young man in these professional studio shots with the monster who witnesses say donned a police uniform and ruthlessly hunted down scores of young Norwegians, firing at those who jumped into freezing water in a desperate bid to escape.

I find the essay by Fred Leonard most disturbing ("The Logbook," April 24). At first glance it seems to be a benign essay from a concerned physician. Upon closer scrutiny it becomes clear that his piece resembles a racial manifesto. It appears as though Leonard is suggesting that the well-being of Tohono O'odham Indians is far more important than that of undocumented immigrants. Doctors should be concerned with preserving human life first and foremost and worry about whether the patients are Tohono O'odham Indians or undocumented immigrants later.

Having just read the excerpts from Catholic bishops' letter "Economic Justice for All," the repetitive theme throughout the entire manifesto is clearly one that ardently advocates nothing less than socialism. BERTON A. PURDY Hemet

Anders Behring Breivik, the chief suspect in Friday's twin terrorist attacks in Norway, copied passages from infamous American Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski's manifesto and used them in his own writings, according to a Norwegian website that publishes political commentary, analysis and essays. Hans Rustad, editor of the website Document.no, writes that Breivik's 1,500-page political manifesto, titled "A European Declaration of Independence" and posted on the website (link in Norwegian)

The Chairs Are Where the People Go How to Live, Work, and Play in the City Misha Glouberman with Sheila Heti Faber and Faber:: 175 pp., $13 paper Sheila Heti wanted to write about her friend Misha Glouberman. The Canadian performance artists had collaborated on a few projects; not only did she find that he was a "force of reason in any situation," she felt the "world should have a book about everything he knows. " The result is this glorious collection of essays, all in Glouberman's words, shaped by Heti.