The first random thought is that we are making some sort of progress in terms of imagining supernatural creatures sending storms and hurricanes to disrupt our lives.  At the moment those of us on the east coast of the United States are preparing to deal with Hurricane Irene.  It threatens to uproot our trees, blow the roofs off our houses, and de-shingle our structures.  Like everyone else, I hope that the storm goes out to sea and dies there.  But that is not for me to say.  But at least I am not blaming some supernatural creature who sent the terrible destruction my way.
A few years ago – or many years ago – there would be prayer meetings to make the storm go away.  I always wondered about those prayer meetings that would make the storm go away because if it did not loose its treachery on us, then it would be on some other poor souls.  But the fact of the matter is that as we await the destructive storm, there are no prayer meetings here on the east coast and we are simply battening down the hatches.  I view this as a fairly positive development in that we are showing some independence of supernatural creatures.  And as a non-believer, I thoroughly applaud this development.
 
The second random thought has to do with the promotion possibilities in the Libyan army.  Some 42 years ago, the Libyans were introduced to Colonel Muammar Qaddafi who would be their ruler for the next 42 years.  It has been a turbulent era for the Westerners to put up with Colonel Qaddafi.  You may remember the destruction of the Pan Am plane that killed something in excess of 200 people.  One of the great triumphs of the Bush administration was to cause Colonel Qaddafi to give up his nuclear ambitions.
But now I have a further thought about Colonel Qaddafi.  When he took over after the coup, he introduced himself as Colonel Qaddafi.  I have no idea whether in the Libyan army they have such ranks as full colonel and lieutenant colonel.  So I am assuming that he was a full colonel.  But now, 42 years later, we are pursuing Colonel Qaddafi and his sons and he still has the rank of colonel in the Libyan army.  For all of those years he was in power, you would have thought that Colonel Qaddafi would have promoted himself.
I might suggest that he would promote himself to rear admiral.  That has not been the case here.  Colonel Qaddafi has kept his own rank and has not pursued a higher rank in the Libyan military.  On the other hand, it should be pointed out that he ran the country and, I suppose, that was enough for him to do.  But I must say that if I were a Libyan mother, I would not encourage my sons to join the Libyan army because of the limited promotion possibilities as they don’t seem to exist.
Well, there are two random thoughts.  They are totally and thoroughly unrelated to each other.  One has to do with praying the hurricane around us; the second has to do with the Libyan army.  I would defy anyone to come up with two more disparate thoughts.  But on this Thursday morning as we await the arrival of Hurricane Irene, that is the state of the record.  I hope that the storm goes out to sea and dies, and secondly, I hope that Colonel Qaddafi is brought to justice and that we will have to worry about him no longer.  But as I say there are two thoroughly disparate thoughts that I hope will enliven your day as the hurricane approaches.
 
E. E. CARR
August 25, 2011
Essay 578
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Kevin’s commentary: … and we’re back! This has been the longest haitus of essays yet.  And though it was random, I do have to wonder why he elected to stay as a colonel instead of a general, or why he didn’t just make up some rank like North Korea does.
Also, hurricanes are obviously just a function of having lots of gay people here in the US. If we were more like Iran, that wouldn’t happen.