I watched footage of Muqtada As-Sadr yesterday on Middle East TV stations. Again, I am really astonished at his arrogance and rudeness. He would be walking through a crowd and people would try to touch him or greet him, and he would actually give them dirty looks, or wave them off. What is with that? So my message to you all is this: when you walk through the masses, and the masses are trying to greet you or salute you, be nice to the masses. Wave to the masses, and throw candy in their directions, ok? And then he gave his Friday sermon, reading it, as usual, as he is not capable of improvising it. The message he was sending was inescapable: he seems to be denying press reports to the effect that he has accepted the mediation of the governing puppet council, or the dissolution of his Mahdi Army. He stood by his earlier known positions, and railed against the governing council. I also notice one change in his attitude to the religious leadership in Najaf. Gone are the days when he would refer to them as "the Silent Seminary" in contrast to his "Speaking Seminary" in a sharp rebuke to what he perceives as the passivity of As-Sistani's leadership. His relationship with Iran is not as easy to understand. One representative of his in fact was quoted in an Arabic newspaper warning of a US-British-Iranian conspiracy, and Arabic press reports talked about Iranian anger over As-Sadr in the wake of the assassination of the Iranian diplomat in Iraq. I do not know whether they were accusing As-Sadr's people of responsibility for the assassination. I do not think that As-Sadr would do well if he was a contestant on the Apprentice.