I'm not sure that the interests of the producing, and for that matter (apparently), removal, industries are being adequately represented in this discussion. I defy any, um, consumer, to detect the difference in the, uh, artificially assisted erections of delivery systems. Nor, for example, say, HGH (no, me & Clemons never ever did that!) should mostly be seen as a packaging/marketing device with little effect on the, um, product at hand. On the other hand, anabolic steroids are likely to be, well, counter-productive as it were, given the shrinkage they impose on the, uh, manufacturing bases.

What I think most of the producers (and removers especially) would like to see is a totally open market with full and free competition and much product sampling, at least until a well informed consumer settles in for a long term contract, (preferably non-exclusive for the producer sort of like cell phone deals).

That and lots of hot monkey sex....

Aside from the poor woman, I'm taking this as another sign that the Kingdom is in increasing trouble. The reissuing of the sentence was a direct challenge to the government by the religious police, a sign that the uneasy bargain with the devil (as both sides see it) between the al Saud's and the tribal religious police is under increasing stress (as was the case of the rape victim sentenced to lashes, and a number of other cases that haven't made into the Western press).

The media doesn't report on it much, largely because the Saudis work pretty hard to keep a lid on it, but it was no accident that the majority of the 9/11 crew were Saudis, nor that bin Laden is. There are regular urban gun-battles these days between various islamicist insurgents and the security forces, the oppressed Shiite minority (a majority in the oil producing areas) is getting increasingly restive, and now the traditional religious leadership is flexing its muscles.

It's worrying actually, the downside to a collapse of the corrupt, despotic, vile regime is that a) it will be very nasty, as these cases demonstrate, b) very bloody, and c) almost certainly to result in a much worse and very unstable new government. With incalculable results for the region. Which is of course a card the regime plays again and again to retain the Western support that has propped it up since the 30s.

I posted this link before, but here it is again:

http://www.gwynnedyer.com/articles/Gwynne%20Dyer%20article_%20%20Islam%20and%20the%20Idiotic%20Autocrats_.txt

(Gwynne Dyer is just about my favourite commentator on international politics and strategic issues, take a look at all his other articles on his website at gwynnedyer.com, strongly recommended.) He actually spends part of his year in Turkey, and is VERY familiar with the issues.

From the article (written last November after the election that the AK won): "...(Turkey) was formally a democracy by the 1950s, but it was really still run by a modernising, secular elite who monopolised the officer corps, the judiciary and the higher ranks of the bureaucracy.

The old elite believed that if Islam were not rigidly confined to the private sphere, it would drag Turkey back into a Middle East that they saw as being run by "idiotic autocrats," but they were wrong. The problem is not Islam, but the people who use it to justify autocracy. And what has now happened in Turkey is that the Muslim democrats of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) party have won a key confrontation with the army and elected their man, Abdullah Gul, to the presidency.

When the leaders of the AK party say that they support the secular state, the old elite think they are lying, and fifteen years ago some of them probably were. But the leaders and the party have both matured, and now believe that the best way to protect Islam in a modern state is to have the state absolutely neutral, neither for religion nor against it. Kiniklioglu himself, like many of AK party's new stars, is a "not very religious" liberal who joined the party because he saw it as the best vehicle for completing the democratisation of Turkey.

... Turkey's value to (other Muslim states) is as living proof that economic success, democracy and freedom of religion are all fully compatible in an overwhelmingly Muslim country. "

The point of the story is that the controversy may have more to do with internal Turkish politics than the ostensible issues of female rights and freedoms and Islamic issues (though of course those are there too). By rough analogy, the debate in the US about say stem-cell research can be seen as being as much about political posturing and positioning as the actual ethics of the matter.

In Turkey, a lot of the protest is driven by an old rather undemocratic elite that has been pushed out of power by a much cleaner and generally more liberal government (really!), and wants it back.

Check your Diphtheria, Tetanus, Mumps, Measles, Rubella, and a host of other stats in a few years. A few years ago a bunch of American healthnazis decided that Thiomersal in many vaccines caused Autism and refused to vaccinate their children. This has been thoroughly and conclusively debunked now, though the insane lawsuits drag on of course.

Well, it will be a self-correcting problem, right? Have at it, pretty soon we will run out of American healthnazis, right?