Friday, January 16, 2004 :::
 
Ye Olde Campus Internet Connection was down for most of the day, friends, so here a few random thoughts as you head out to the weekend.

Boys Will Be Idiots.

In case you missed it, DC is cold right now, undergoing the coldest January, perhaps, in 100 years. It rivals January, 1985, when the second inaugural of Ronald Reagan was, in essence, canceled. The President took the oath of office before Congress, as in the old days, in the Capital Rotunda, and then later that evening went to a concert put on by a few of the High School bands that had flown out for it. It was out of concern for them--most specifically--out of concern that they might leave part of their lips stuck to their mouth pieces--that led to the cancellation.

A Mind That Suits went home late last night, after working on that never-ending translation of his. It was 0 degrees--ZERO--windchill. Standing on the open-air Metro platform he was surrounded by college kids--in jeans jackets and sweat shirts. It was ZERO. One kid was on a date. The young lady at least had on a few layers, but the guy had on a windbreaker. He was visibly shaking. Another young lady had on a knee length sweater-jacket with gaps in the weaving so big you could see her clothes underneath, but at least it was wool. She also had the brains to stand behind one of the windshelters, though they do not shelter much.

This is why the expression "he has his head up his (@#" was invented.

Several years ago, when the high was 19 and the wind was blowing mightily as he was waiting for the light to change so he could cross the street to a Metro station, A Mind The Suits suddenly saw that he was standing next to a boy of about 13 or 14 summers who was wearing shorts and a tee-shirt. The lad was shaking. He allowed as it was a little cold. And A Mind That Suits was glad that he had passed beyond that age.

B-O-N-E-H-E-A-D-S.

He does remember that, as a young man just launched upon the world, he heard a boss say that "sometimes it's too cold to be cool," and thinking that that was something of a revelation.

The Best of the Web (see link at right) carried the story of three boys who learned the hard way that they should dress properly in the cold.

And in the not so funny news, the indispensable Wall Street Journal today carried a quote from a "supporter" of the Ayatollah Sistani, who is making such noise about demanding snap elections. Said "supporter," one suspects, is actually a rival who is just playing it smart. Remember all those confident assertions about how the Shi'ites of Iraq could be trusted because they have "traditionall supported a separation of government and religion." This writer doubts that that can strictly be true in Islam, which is in and of itself a governmental program, and he always wondered if that meant that they would let the government do what it wanted--even grant rights to other religions--or simply that they would allow the government to decide how they would enforce Shari'a, the Muslim law. It always had carried the ring of "magic fact," something that everybody read once somewhere and just repeated, as if it ended all discussion.

This writer wondered how likely it would be that people who had been oppressed exactly for being Shi'ites would not at least look loonging across the border where Shi'ites called the shots, literally.

He was reminded of that when he read the quote from this "supporter" of Ayatollah Sistani. His name as Sheikh Abu Akhbar, and he is identified as a "top official" in a "large Shiite political party." And the name of that party? "The Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq."

Worth thinking about.

::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 5:06 PM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.