A ≠ B

So apparently Saddam Hussein is going to be hanged (unless he wins his appeal, which I find unlikely). The New York Times reports:

Spontaneous celebrations broke out across Iraq in spite of an around-the-clock curfew imposed on the capital and other regions. People fired pistols and assault rifles into the air in a common gesture of jubilation.…Even some Shiite police officers joined in the revelry, firing their weapons in the air.

So shooting guns in the air = happiness. All right. A little dangerous, perhaps, but it kind of makes sense. Three paragraphs later, however:

In the Sunni Arab city of Samarra, a stronghold of support for the Sunni-led insurgency, hundreds of demonstrators marched through the streets in violation of the curfew. They carried photographs of Mr. Hussein, who was born in the same region, and fired guns in the air in anger.

Lesson: when you see Iraqis firing guns in the air, do not automatically get your iPod out and your freakum dress on. It is possible that they are in anger. Proceed with caution.

Sidenote: the #2 definition for "freakum dress" on UrbanDictionary.com is at pains to point out that "This was thought of by Martin Lawrence, not Beyonce." The definition is tagged with the phrase "fuck-him dress," but if you click that, you're immediately taken to one of the 22 definitions of "orlando bloom." Seriously.