I am 100% certain my foreign travel and experience has exceeded and continues to exceed yours. Have you ever been in Pakistan? I have, and at least 15 other countries and I mean for years at a time.

I don't think the long standing U.S. involvement in Pakistan is going to end any time soon just because you think it ought to. Obviously somebody thinks the region has some strategic value and they are higher placed than yourself.

I don't care about the big geopolitical game myself, and you are not really talking about the ongoing challenge to Musharaff that is taking place at the lal masajid. I am only pointing out that just because you know less than squat about Pakistan or its culture doesn't mean that Pakistani culture can't be understood by any American. How can you make such a blanket statement?

Everybody in the world has a stake in the radicalization of a nuclear armed country. To pretend otherwise is irresponsible and a form of arrogance in its own right. Now do you understand that?

Now if you have something to say that has to do with the post about Nillofur Bakhtiar and the fatwa against her (a very weird and unusual ruling by Pakistani standards by the way as evidenced by the fact that this was apparently a little too much even for the deobandi to swallow) then please post it, if you're only hear to start trouble please go make it elsewhere.

that women have some particular aversion to authoritarianism

Apparently there's a big music scene in Pakistan these days. I'd love to see some tough Pakistani rocker chicks smash these self-hating bitches.

if you think it is all so irrelevant, why have you made several posts on the subject? Something we don't know about?

thank you for being so abundantly gracious with your comment, but may I point out that it is because I DO know something about what Pakistanis think about it that the whole culture-is-all-relative position appalls me. Most Pakistanis are very worried about the mad mullahs taking over and we are saying, in our infinite wisdom, "well, it's their culture...we musn't be judgemental". How helpful, especially if you are a reform minded person living in Pakistan!

We are all human beings, are we not, and as such require a modicum of control over our lives and some ability to make choices, whatever our culture may be. To refuse to agree with at least this much means we are operating with no moral standard.

Taking our cue from this we can say objectively whether a country's practices are oppressive or not. And we must include women in that. That's not "judging", that's just using your brain.

I have always been uncomfortable with the way anthropologists dehumanize their subjects (something their subjects are also notably uncomfortable with), and I have always been uncomfortable with the way Trekkies can't seem to remember it's all just a damn television show.

that should have been "not terribly newsworthy"

that random muslim cleric says stupid hateful thing is about worthy of mention as random commenter at feministing says stupid hateful thing. Except that the feministing commenter said it in an article very recently mentioned by and approved of by Broadsheet, so maybe the stupid hateful commenter at feministing is more relevant to us here in the states than the stupid hateful random muslim cleric.

We know people all over are stupid and hateful. Does that make it worthy of a post? Is Broadsheet's post just a way to inflame anger between the various people of the planet, or is there some nugget of wisdom in there that we should all be considering?

If you ask me, it seems that the cleric's statement was terribly newsworthy unless Broadsheet wants to post some context that hasn't been posted so far. Seems like just a knee-jerk cry of "help! help! I am being repressed, come and see the misogyny inherent in the patriarchy!"

Thanks for pointing it out, ガガ ガガ ガガ . I guess in reading all the many comments by readers of Feministing, I glazed over it.

Now let me see if I got this right: Broadsheet includes Feministing in their list of feminist blogs. A *comment* posted to Feminisiting made a crack about castrating a judge. Therefore we can attribute the desire to castrate a judge for simply being "different" in his opinions to both Feministing and Broadsheet.

I think you are really stretching things in your attempts to "prove" that all feminists (well, Feministing and Broadsheet both, and presumably any blog that includes either or both of them in its blogroll) are as bad as religious extremists in their approach to anybody who doesn't behave in accordance with their arbitrary standards. But if that's what you want to spend your time doing, I won't stand in your way.

Broadsheet refuses to discuss their posts or the comments made about them.

Since the new moderation policy, I can't think of a single time in which Broadsheet acknowledged some of the many interesting and relevant points brought up in the comments.

In the article about the judge and the pedophile there were some comments that would have been interesting to discuss made both here and at feministing.

The sentiment at feministing towards castration may have been explicit, but it was not a far off reading of the sentiments there. And so presumably it was not a far off reading of the sentiments of Broadsheet.

As a former Anthropology student and Trekkie, I actually agree with Mr. Dover -- we should be careful about judging other cultures. And so to me, the Fatwa on a hug for when some random Muslim cleric makes an ignorant violent statement is about as relevant as when some random commenter in a recently linked article makes an ignorant violent statement.

And I am not sure who you are calling troll? I find that when people call "troll" they are most often looking to suppress dialogue and argument.

Haven't we been over this before? A deep comment buried in feministing does not implicate Salon's (or even Feministing's) position on the issue.