Imagine a whole national holiday dedicated to storming the U.S. Embassy and taking 52 Americans hostage for a mind-numbing 444 days! That’s how Iran is officially marking America’s Election Day — they call their anti-U.S. government-staged protests National Day Against Global Arrogance, a tradition since the bloody 1979 Islamic Revolution that saw dissidents killed or exiled, teachers purged from universities, and anyone or anything deemed too “Western” mercilessly targeted. You may be asking what’s not arrogant about the theocratic thugocracy that rules Iran with an iron fist, but I’m not going to hold my breath for the pot ayatollahs to stop calling kettles black.

The Islamic Republic News Agency showed a picture of what appeared to be all men with an English-language “Down with U.S.A.” sign. IRNA’s carefully crafted copy towed the government line:

“People from all walks of life converged at the site of the former US embassy in Tehran, better known in Iranian history as the ‘Den of Spies.’ Ralliers, including groups of school and university students, shouted slogans against the United States as they marched through Tehran’s streets.


By chanting slogans such as ‘nuclear energy, is the legitimate right of the Iranian nation,’ the ralliers underscored the need for producing nuclear energy to generate electricity.”

Everybody must be in the mood to celebrate Arrogance Day, too, since the AP is leading with the headline “World hopes for a ‘less arrogant America,’” even though that’s quoted nowhere in the story.