Arabic again this morning (well, 4 days a week, so that’s hardly news). I’m rather slow to pick up names, but I think I’ve got a few now in my class. Except for the fact that I was advised to attend the later section instead (fewer people in it). More time to sleep and do homework before class is always nice of course, but I guess I’ll have to start all over again with this name thingy.

For the afternoon, I accomplished surprisingly little, except resurrecting my notes from earlier Arabic classes. Reviewing something about the nominative, accusative and genitive case endings seemed appropriate.

My Middle Eastern history class in the evening put me in a rather rotten mood. It’s an odd bit of students, but it seemed like we had a nice mix: the clueless ones, who don’t really know what they’re talking about, the inarticulate ones who may or may not know, but can’t express themselves coherently, and the rest of us. Lordy, I hope it isn’t like this all semester. The prof. seemed okay, but I’m really not sure how a split lecture seminar class is going to work out. Better to just do one or the other, I’d say.

Meanwhile, all the news sites and punditry are awash with prognostications about the Bush ‘surge’ proposal for Iraq. What really irks me is this idea that everytime Bush opens his mouth and says something about Iraq, people have to pay attention and talk about it for the next few weeks. Let’s face it: Bush will do whatever he wants on Iraq, and Congress is too lily-livered to do a damned thing about it. Heck, they can’t even get a higher minimum wage passed. More to the point, Bush could send the Messiah and the 4 Horseman of the Apocalypse to Iraq, and it wouldn’t make a damned bit of difference, good or bad. WE DON’T CONTROL WHAT’S GOING ON IN IRAQ. At best, we’re making a modest contribution to that country’s misery. So please assorted newsfolk and pundits, save your breath for something that’s at least slightly consequential.