Thomas Paine, Meet the 20th Century

Despots thrive when information doesn't, which is why they work so hard to keep tight controls on information. That is exactly why we remember Thomas Paine as a hero of our revolution today: He got a new language before the people, and they responded.

How, then, are the despots doing today? Not so well, given this passage in an interesting LATimes story about spying, speculating and intrigue in Irangeles, the large Iranian community in LA:

If one thing unites them, it is that many have a foot in both countries. When the Iranian soccer team wins a match in Tehran, people in Encino stand up and cheer. Students in Tehran use cellphones and e-mail to provide people in Los Angeles eyewitness accounts of protests.

People in Tehran call satellite television shows in the Valley to sound off — and are heard by viewers in Iran. Jewish Iranians re-create their Tehran communities at ballroom bar mitzvahs in Beverly Hills — and pressure Tehran to release Jews jailed as spies half a world away.