Letters to the Editor
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Take note, C-Bob
The new drone is trolling at War Room this afternoon as well. I think it best to ignore it.
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Well if you prefer to compare Don Imus's crusade against vaccinations
With the actual beheading of women in the streets, and somehow you manage to defend the latter in the name of the former, then have it. All we can tell you is, Bully for the polio carriers. We hope it all works out for them wallowing in superstition, disease and ignorance. While you're cheering that they stone people, hang people, cut off their hands and feet and generally ignore the last 1300 years of civilization in the name of multicultural diversity, again, good luck with that. Burning witches at the stake or however they do it, is merely a symptom of a wider and deeper problem and if you can't see that then perhaps you should spend some time with them.
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@A Billion Angry Bees
I don't think that CanuckistanBob was defending the killing of women for witchcraft, just pointing out that there are people in this country (and Europe) that see vaccinations as a plot, a money making scheme for the evil pharmaceutical companies, dangerous, etc. that may eventually cause some problems in this part of the world, too. I've heard a number of these otherwise intelligent people argue earnestly that HIV does not cause AIDS, hygeine does, thought they don't manage to somehow blame the Jews. Earnest "belief" does not make it a fact.
As for belief in witchcraft, an engineer I know was explaining to me why I was naive not to believe in the powers of witchcraft. He knew a man that left his wife of 20 years and their 3 children for a hot young 21 year old. A couple of years later he went back to his wife and everyone in his church was relieved that his "bewitchment" by the "evil" woman was over. She was blamed for the whole thing, he was not held accountable at all.
Again, this case is about a man with an impotence problem, someone NEEDS to be blamed for this, the strange single woman is an easy as target as any, especially if she's widowed (or worse, never married) and doesn't come from a "good" family.
I find it disgusting and sad.
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A medieval country with all that power is scary.
What a sad state of affairs that our nation is so beholden to a country with a medieval mentality. Were it not for oil, Saudi Arabia would be nothing but the equivalent of a cruel child who pulls the wings off of flies.
But before we get too smug, a majority of Americans do not believe in evolution but do believe in angels. Good thing we're past our own witch burning stage, but really...
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Polio vaccine fear among Muslims is spreading
The polio vaccine fear has made its way into Pakistan and Afghanistan in a big way, and a doctor attempting to give polio shots to children was shot dead in NWFP recently. None of the news is good.
It's not only, according to the fundies, a Zionist plot to make Muslims infertile, the other story that has been making the rounds is that the vaccine is made with pork by-products. Thus, it's better that your kid die of polio and get to Paradise sooner, than get the polio vaccine and go to Hell later.
The biggest diva in this whole drama, who has condemned who knows how many children to be exposed to this deadly disease? He is a mullah from NWFP who is himself a polio cripple. Savor the irony, or ponder the twisted psychology.
The doctors in Pakistan have a big fight ahead of them now. And people came so close to actually eliminating this disease completely. Humans are strange.
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On the absurdity of witchcraft
Belief in witchcraft is as reasonable as belief in other forms of the supernatural. It makes as much sense as the virgin birth, and corporeal ascention to heaven of Jesus. Or the idea that a child might find golden tablets in the woods, writtent with the word of God that only he could read, but have since convienently gone absent. Or that a congregation might feel the presense of the holy spirit when the preacher invokes it. Bronze age religions are pretty old-school themselves, yet you don't have a chance getting elected president in this country unless you say you believe in one.
Some might say "but I FELT the spirit". Yeah, and I SAW her cast that spell at him, and a week later he had a cold.
I don't know Catherine's views on these things, but for many of you living in glass houses, I recommend caution when throwing stones.
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United States accepts trillions of dollars of investment money from the Saudis
Catherine Price,
How come you and your colleagues who are outraged with Saudi Arabia's treatment of women not demanding that the United States stop accepting trillions of dollars in investment money from them?
Why do you have nothing to say about the billions of dollars the United States makes selling sophisticated weaponry to the Saudis? The Saudis do not even have the qualified personnel to operate the weapons. Saudi Arabia is just a storage place for weapons that the United States uses in its military interventions in the Middle East.
You have nothing to say about how while the United States preaches human rights and democracy, it goes around engaging in regime change, supporting brutal dictators and kings who do their bidding?
Talk is cheap, put your money where your mouth is and demand that the United States stop exploiting third world countries for its financial gains. The United States does this not only in the Middle East, but also in Africa, Asia, and South America.
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Tell me again
Greetings
Tell me again how empowering it is to wear a headscarve or a burka. Tell me again about the joys of the religion of islam for all I see is evil.
But what is the difference between this theocrasy gone crazy and our own Religious Right?
Merely isolation and Burkas!
Both have chillingly similar goals - thought control and political power
Fear the cross more than the crecent, for it is nearer and like a rattlesnake the more dangerous for it.
Enjoy the journey
WarLord
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Saudi Legal Systems
I'm living in Saudi right now. Men also get sentenced for witchcraft. I've not followed this particular case in the papers. Usually the ones you see covered are folks that are making money selling false cures. Sometimes "healing elixirs" that make folks pretty sick. Unlike say, Salem two hundred years ago, the witchcraft accusations tend to be based on actual public misbehavior.
The laws may sound bizarre to a foreigner, but they are the laws of the land, and are neither bizarre or a surprise to the people being prosecuted. They knew they were engaged in something illegal.
Which, since you tied it in to the article. The unfortunate woman who was raped being sentenced to lashing. She was not sentenced for being a victim, she was sentenced for having committed a crime before hand. As bizarre and unfair as that crime may be by our standards, it was against local law and she knew she was violating the law.
Under reported, the man she was with was also raped, and also sentenced. It is all sad and an ugly side of a society. No one here accepts that what went on was fair, proper or decent. But, in trying to make sure justice was served, they examined the incident and applied the law.
To sum up, maybe you know the phrase, "...first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.