Bad Boy, Mahmoud!

Let's see if we all agree on this one, first, shall we? Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, is not to be described as a liberal type. If you disagree with that, stop reading now. If you agree that the man is a conservative, and you feel like a giggle, read on.
It seems that on May 1st, the day before Iranian Teachers' Day, Mr. Ahmadinejad met one of his former teachers, now an old woman, at a ceremony attended by state media. The unnamed woman was wearing thick gloves, a headscarf and a long, black coat at the ceremony. It's important that these details be known because of what Ahmadinejad did. In a gesture of respect and perhaps even some affection for his teacher, he stooped to kiss her hand and then clasped her arms. The way she was wrapped up ruled out all possibility of skin contact but that didn't stop the Hezbollah newspaper, an ultra-conservative rag, from screeching criticism of the action on their front page. "This type of indecency (emphasis my own) has grave consequences, like violating religious and sacred values.", they declared.
Thank the Almighty for such diligent guardians of public morality. Who knows where such gestures of gentle recognition and respect could lead? Next thing you know, the fundamentalists might start playing nice and suicide bombings could drop off drastically. What kind of wild, chaos-loving insurgent would ever countenance such a state of affairs?
Ahmadinejad should give his head a good shake and get back to membership in the Iranian good ol' boys club by pleading momentary insanity and bashing the next female teacher he meets over the head. He'll just need to be sure someone from the media is there with a camera at the ready.