Irascible old conservative!

A day of remembrance and parades here today on this Army Day. . We all love and adore parades. A few hours of impressive orderly marches punctuating an otherwise chaotic existence.

I've wanted to look at some of the unrest in the football stadiums and the spillover aftereffects on the outside which I promised to do a while back. But as I looked at what was on my blog one day I was suddenly filled with that absolute dread which comes with realizing I am sounding progressively more like an old, irascible conservative.

I am getting slightly antiquated for sure, but not that old yet. Then I cut down my daily news intake.

And so the question I have been trying to resolve is how I should "comprehend" various moments of "unruliness" (put mildly) living in a society for which order technically does not meaningfully translate into lawfulness in any "normal" sense of the term.

Hence the scramble to put things in (a more satisfying) context. That's why Carl Schmitt (pdf) and Agamben have become progressively more important for me fully blooming into another one of my many obsessions. I'll tell you all about it just as soon as I figure out a few more significant riddles confounding me.

Anyhow, speaking of unrest, have you followed what's been happening in our Arab-Iranian region of Khuzestan? Something about a forged letter! The Right has been accusing the Al-Jazeera, sort of. Go figure.

Make sure you find an English text of this week's Friday prayer sermon delivered by the esteemed Ayatollah Janati, the head of our famed Guardian Council. The heartwarming news of the existence of multiple secret files in the Ministry of Justice on those deemed to have sown discord (Nefagh) in our Republic.

The gentleman made it clear that the any judge will have no difficulty imposing the death penalty after examining the files and the only thing which separates many from their inevitable doom has been the considerations of expediency. (Maslehateh- Nezam)

And while we are on the subject of discontent and minorities, make sure you read this and this.