Monday night

I think this strange weather we're having has shocked my system and caused me to come down with some kind of a cold. Not feeling so great. Coughing and sneezing and blowing my nose. Using Cepacol.

Was bored with Obermann and Rachel Maddow. Mostly about Iran, and we shouldn't be involved in that (i.e., supporting one candidate over another). According to what I heard tonight (including I think from two Iranian scholars living in the U.S.), if the Iranians detect that we are meddling in their affairs, the conservatives there will prevail and nothing will change. Iranians want democracy, but they won't countenance meddling from outside. They've had that from us already and rejected it. That's how they got the anti-American government they have now. Obama's done everything right on this.

Spent time reading up on the Persian language. I studied Sanskrit in college (among other languages). As an Indo-European language somewhat remote from English, modern Persian seems relatively uncomplicated (except that it's written backwards in a modified Arabic script with missing vowels). There is no declining the noun except in the accusative (they have a short particle for that). And apparently they don't have articles (as we have in English, and which in German, e.g., are declined in four cases, and in Greek, I think five). There are no genders (German, Latin, Sanskrit, e.g., have three) (French and Spanish, two). I did see what looked like some cognates with English and other Indo-European languages I've studied.

"Hardball" on now. Obama has to concentrate on health care now. As Chuck Todd said, a large majority of people want a public option as a "safety net." Obama's got to get back on top of it. (He will tomorrow.) Some recalcitrant Democratic Senators have to stop grandstanding and get in tune with the American people and get with the program. This is the single most important thing that Obama and the Democrats in both houses of Congress can get accomplished at this time. (And they'll get the other important stuff done too, like doing something about climate change.)

Tired.