Few people in the climes of public radio exercise brain muscles in quite the same way as Michael Goldfarb. His thought pieces are little tours de force of brainpower, amplified by reason, informed by honest-to-god reporting.

And if the lucky PD salleys further into the piece, he/she will find here two bits for air as opposed to the usual one. The music -- singularly uninformative except as divisory material between the two pieces -- can easily be dropped.

The point here is that there are two really thoughtful think pieces in this posting that address questions about the Palestinean election and the current Iranian political mental state American audiences really should listen to, think about, and take with themselves to the ballot box.

Particularly nice here is the reminder that Western perceptions are not necessarily those of the people in the driver's seat.

Goldfarb's writing is wonderfully fluid as always. Between ME and ATC, there should be time enough on local stations to bring these works to the air -- just don't let the music get in your way.