have nothing, absolutely nothing, in their arsenal except hatred of women. There is NOTHING else in their religion, philsophy, and "culture" (which did not exist until wealthy Saudis started Western-style evangelical activities in the Muslim world based on their own version of Islam, whose only distinguishing characteristic is its gender apartheid).

Their system of "law" is nothing except a laundry list of pornographically violent punishments for--you guessed it--women. It is unrecognizable as law by the standards of modern, or even medieval Islamic, jurisprudence.

"Government" consists of creating a pervasive secret police to bring charges against women and carry out the execution of women and any man who might dare help a woman. That´s it: there is nothing else on offer, not tax collection, public services, legislation, or anything else that has anything to do with governing. Not surprisingly, the Islamists are responsible for Somalia as well as Afghanistan.

We have seen this before in terms of genocides of other races and ethnic groups. This is femicide, a word you better get used to hearing. This is even more beastly than other genocides because the victims are members of the perpetrators own families and are uniquely defenseless.

And the rest of the world cares not a whit.

Taliban and Saudi Wahabists: Worst. Humans. Ever.

Oppression of women is not a side effect of what´s going in the whacked out fundie Muslim world. It´s a feature, the main feature and the raison d étre. Sure there´s some other stuff mumbled, about how unfair the post-colonial world still is, blah blah blah (although one can´t really argue that the post colonial world has been particularly unfair to Saudis). Make no mistake--these people are trying to hold on to their slave class, and are willing to die to keep their slaves, just like white Southerners were in the Civil War.

So, let´s grant their wish. I´m all in favour. I wasn´t at first, but I´ve slowly come round. As a woman who has frequently traveled and lived in the region, I´m tired of this.

Randall Terry´s daughter is, in fact, a fundamentalist Muslim by conversion. His son is openly gay.

Converting to the more stringent forms of Islam is, in my experience, something that kids of fundie Baptists frequently do. It´s where radical Muslims get most of their American converts.

I guess you have to have been taught, from childhood, to accept one kind of crazy in order to convert to the other kind. But the fact is these two creeds are much closer to each other than either of their adherents cares to think.

used to be a staple of the fur industry, especially for collars, and skunks were killed for their fur much like mink, otter and beaver.

Nothing uncommon about a skunk coat, but extraordinary that she made it herself. Creating a fur coat is closer to leathercrafting than sewing, and she must have been a talented woman to pull it off.

I´m willing to bet it looked great, and probably didn´t smell too bad at the worst of times :)

Clearly, English is your second language....just out of curiosity, what nationality are you?

Secondly, what would you say about a black man refusing a route into Johannesburg, say, about thirty years ago? Would you tell him to quit imposing his stupid ideas about being free and equal on the people of South Africa, who are just looking after their "culture"?

it´s not xenophobic to not want to go to Saudi Arabia as a woman...it´s just common sense.

The more Western women and men who refuse to set foot in that evil psychotic hellhole the better....let´s make it logically impossible for our governments to do business there.

Kate, this employee walks the walk for women´s equal rights, to the extent of losing her job, and you bash her for it? Where´s your head? This lady is a real feminist, and deserves our applause.

Even Saudi Arabia´s Gulf neighbors think the Kingdom is a sick place...I ought to know, I´ve been in the Gulf awhile. You couldn´t drag me kicking and screaming into Saudi under any pretenses, I´ve heard too many stories. Including one in which a British Airlines stewardess got raped and strangled by nine men there.

This stewardess refusing to go there is hopefully the start of a trend. Saudi makes North Korea´s weirdness look sane. It´s time we quit ignoring that just because of oil.

you might want to admit to yourself, all political correctness aside, that the abortion still bothers you in some way.

I´m sure its occurred to you from time to time that you could be raising his child right now.

It´s also possible you were chemically fused, yes, but to your future baby, not to him. I know this is not what pro´-choice people like to hear (and I´m pro-choice). But keeping abortion safe and legal doesn´t mean we don´t have to recognize that it can be difficult and traumatic and puts women through hormonal hell and has lasting reprecussions. We are very sympathetic to women after miscarriage, but not after abortion, because we have the political side to think about. If you act like you want to mourn or harbor regrets, you feel like the pro-lifers feed off that and will make a propaganda film about you.

When you talk to somebody, you may want to explore this idea. I believe what we miss after an abortion is the same thing we miss after a messy breakup: the potential, the possibilities of a road not taken. You got a double whammy, both in a short span of time. I´m sorry, but while you work this out, don´t dismiss the abortion so lightly just because you think you should.