perfidy

For the week ending 18Oct04

Spotlight Belarus: In keeping with recent refreshing changes in the public discourse of international diplomacy, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko has determined the American Congress not only to be "stupid", but, "dumb-asses [who] don’t know what they’re doing". The remarks followed Congress' passage of economic sanctions against his "tyrannical" regime. As of this writing, Lukashenko has made no effort to distance himself from the outburst and has not blamed it on being taken out of context or on his Chernobyl-irradiated brainstem.

Spotlight Iraq: Two more men were beheaded in the cradle of civilization, this time two Iraqis. The victims confessed to being intelligence agents and warned their countrymen to eschew collaborating with the Americans. Personally, I would confess to being a whole lot of things if I thought it might keep me my head.

Spotlight Louisiana: A physics professor at the U of LA-Lafayette went buck-nutty on his class, exploding into obscenities, weird drawings on the board, screaming, and even slapping one student, all for no readily apparent reason. Students explained that when he's done this sort of thing before (!), they would just wait and it would pass. This time it didn't pass.

Note to prospective undergraduates: it is absolutely normal for faculty to rant and rave, particularly when denigrating Republicans, certain presidents, national agencies, capitalism, and combat leaders. Had this occurred in a humanities course, I'm not sure anyone would have noticed anything amiss.

Spotlight New York, yo: Former rapper and Boogie Down Productions founder KRS-One declared that he and other black Americans cheered when 9-11 happened. Mr. One tied his remarks to a sense of injustice associated with, as best I can understand his explanation, not being allowed into the Trade Center at some point, which also fed into being oppressed by RCA, BMG, and quite probably The Man himself. He went on to explain that "suicide" is the only answer to America's woes, although what that actually means is left to the reader to wrestle with. As is the question of why anyone would care what KRS-One has to say about much of anything.

Spotlight Massachusesss: Two 14-year-old girls invented a kidnapping story to cover their being out all night. The claim sparked an energetic search for the fabricated scoundrels, which nearly resulted in two arrests. The girls ultimately admitted to the lie and were charged for filing a false police report. Kids, if you're gonna sneak out, have a plan for sneaking back in. I'm thinking more along the lines of a copied key and being aware of the squeaky stair, not a plan that involves the local police, state police, and a regional manhunt.