Divorce Court Saudi-Style

A Saudi man divorced his wife for watching alone a television programme presented by a male, an act he deemed immoral ... The man ended his marriage on the grounds his wife was effectively alone with an unrelated man ... Men in Saudi Arabia have the authority to divorce their wives without resort to the courts.

-Breitbart.com

Even easier than Vegas.

McDumb-Ass

The Phoenixville Police Department is investigating a freak accident in which a borough woman ran over both of her legs in the drive-through lane at McDonald’s ... What police are trying to determine is how the woman exited her vehicle and how her vehicle rolled over both legs.

One witness said that it looked like the woman had placed an order, and her vehicle was slowly moving forward. The witness said that the next thing they knew, the woman had somehow fallen out of the Blazer and landed partially in the lane, and her legs went underneath her vehicle.

-Phoenixville News

Turtlenecks

(Photo : Matt Rourke, AP)
Here's a photo from my recent trip to Chernobyl ... Ha ha! Just kidding. Actually, I was at a chef's convention in Pennsylvania. Guess which booth was selling this fellow : "Twice the Soup, Half the Upkeep"

Burmese Jungle

(Photo: Free Burma)

See You In Hell

Do you ever wonder if members of the Catholic Church consider the fate of their own souls? Stories like this one put the answer squarely in the "No" camp.

The head of the Catholic Church in Mozambique has told the BBC he believes some European-made condoms are infected with HIV deliberately. The Catholic Church formally opposes any use of condoms, advising fidelity within marriage or sexual abstinence.

-BBC

Three's A Charm

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysian doctors have reattached a man's nearly severed penis after his first wife, enraged by his comparison of her sex skills with those of his younger second wife, decided to chop it off with a kitchen knife.

The man, a 43-year-old Indonesian worker in southern Johor state, was lying in bed with his 48-year-old wife talking about his newly wed second wife, who is in her 30s, when the incident happened, the New Straits Times newspaper reported.

There's a lot of that going around. And around.

Grass Is Always Greener... On The Inside

This has to be one of the most asinine displays of police brutality and legal incompetence EVER. But then again, I've never been to Utah so perhaps it's just my own ignorance shining through.

OREM, Utah (AP) -- A 70-year-old woman arrested in a dispute over her brown lawn pleaded not guilty Tuesday. "Let's bring sanity back to law enforcement," attorney Gloria Allred said.

Betty Perry is charged with resisting arrest and failing to maintain her landscaping, both misdemeanors. She was arrested July 6 after failing to give her name to a police officer who visited her home.

Oh, but it gets better. There was "a struggle" during which Perry fell and was injured. "The mayor and City Council apologized, and the police department said the situation could have been handled differently," according to the Associated Press. So the charges are being dropped, you ask. Yeah right. And of course, what would a story like this be without a coup de grâce?

Perry's water had been turned off for about nine months, at her request, although she was living at the house at the time of the arrest. Orem has a shut-off policy for people who are away for extended periods.

In other words Orem knew (the elderly) Mrs. Perry had no water for her lawn. It was the city that shut it off.

Litigious, Religious... Uhh, Foxhole Atheist

Following up on a previous post, the American Department of Defense has been slapped with a lawsuit. According to the Associated Press :

A soldier whose superior prevented him from holding a meeting for atheists and other non-Christians is suing the Defense Department, claiming it violated his right to religious freedom.

According to the filing, Spec. Jeremy Hall, a soldier assigned to Fort Riley's 97th Military Police Battalion, received permission to distribute fliers around his base in Iraq for a meeting of atheists and non-Christians. When he tried to convene the meeting, Hall claims, Welborne stepped in, threatening to file military charges against Hall and block his reenlistment.

The lawsuit claims Hall was forced to "submit to a religious test as a qualification to his post as a soldier."

It should also be noted the lawsuit was filed on September 17, precisely 220 years after the signing of the American Constitution.

Straighten Up And Fly Right

Got a relative you'd like to straighten out? Well, have we got some good news for you.

Focus on the Family, the Colorado Springs-based Christian media ministry, on Monday endorsed a recent study finding that it is possible, through religious mediation, to change one's sexual orientation.

Study findings were first released last week in a book, "Ex—Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation."

The researchers Stanton L. Jones of Wheaton College and Mark A. Yarhouse of Regent University tracked men and women who had undergone a program of group discussions, counseling, journal writing, Scripture reading and prayer to change their gender orientation.

-Denver Post

And if that "funny" relative happens to be Mexican or Polish, and thus has trouble comprehending that epic narrative of insanity fronting as a book title, not to worry : Focus on the Family works with 26 languages. Which is good, because Uncle Julio will need all the help he can get with terms like "change their gender orientation." Yikes!

French Flings

English may be the international language of business, and French the language of love, but don't let anybody ever tell you that the English are better at conducting business than the French. Check it out :

PARIS (AP) -- Looking to get away for a weekend fling without getting caught? A new French company provides would-be adulterers with custom-made excuses that help take the danger of discovery out of cheating.

Founded six months ago by former private eye Regine Mourizard, Web-based Ibila can cook up invites to phony weekend seminars, fake emergency phone calls from work, invitations to nonexistent weddings - anything to justify cheating spouses' absence.

She and her co-worker, a computer specialist, draw up fake restaurant and hotel bills, receipts and other documents to help shore up what Mourizard calls her "little white lies."

Mourizard insisted her business is completely above board because she concocts fake bills from invented companies, hotels and restaurants and does not doctor or forge real documents. She also requires clients to sign a document pledging not to use her materials to swindle their employers or the French government.

Most of her clients - about 60 percent - are men, Mourizard said. They range in age from 25-60, but most are in their mid-forties.

Building Bridges

Speaking of religious mania...

India's culture minister has offered to resign in a row over whether Hindu gods are mythological figures. Officials had presented the argument in court to support construction plans for an area devotees believe has remnants of a bridge built by the Hindu god Ram.

Hindu devotees believe the area between India and Sri Lanka - now known as Adam's Bridge - was built millions of years ago by Lord Ram, supported by an army of monkeys. But scientists and archaeologists say Adam's Bridge, or Ram Setu, is a natural formation of sand and stones.

On Wednesday the Archaeological Survey of India told the Supreme Court that the religious texts were not evidence that Lord Ram ever existed. Hardline Hindu opponents of the government accused the administration of blasphemy and protesters carried out demonstrations in the area and in Delhi, Bhopal, and on a number of key highways.

The next day the report was withdrawn.

Stay Put Or Else

One of the Church of England's most senior bishops is warning that people will die unless Muslim leaders in Britain speak out in defence of the right to change faith.

Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, whose father converted from Islam to Christianity in Pakistan, says he is looking to Muslim leaders in Britain to 'uphold basic civil liberties, including the right for people to believe what they wish to believe and to even change their beliefs if they wish to do so'.

Ali, who some see as a potential Archbishop of Canterbury, has told Channel 4's Dispatches programme of his fears about the safety of the estimated 3,000 Muslims who have converted to other faiths in Britain.

The bishop warns that Muslims who switch faiths in Britain could be killed if the current climate continues. 'We have seen honour killings have happened, and there is no reason why this kind of thing cannot happen.'

In 2004, Prince Charles asked British Muslim leaders to renounce laws of apostasy and the death sentence for converts in Islamic countries, but no public statement was ever made.

Dispatches obtained Islamic texts sold in Britain that say the punishment for apostasy is death - according to all four schools of Islamic jurisprudence. One text called for Muslims to cut off the head of those who reject Islam.

A poll of more than 1,000 British Muslims, conducted by the Policy Exchange think-tank this year, found that 36 per cent of Muslims aged between 16 and 24 believe those who convert to another faith should be punished by death.

-Guardian UK

If it's true Islam is the perfection of monotheism, as Muslims believe it to be, one has to wonder why it can't prevent 100 per cent of Muslims from leaving or how it hasn't attracted all believing infidels by now. Sounds like somebody's not telling us the whole story...

Laïcité et accommodement raisonnable

Lundi le Québec a commencé son dialogue public sur la question des "accommodements raisonnables", ou autrement dit la laïcité.

La Commission Bouchard-Taylor est une commission de consultation et va visiter une dizaine de villes autour la province pour se faire entendre les citoyens et citoyennes québécois sur ce sujet émotif. Comment accueillir des habitudes religieuses qu'on fasse publiquement ailleurs mais qui sont opposés au principe de la séparation de l'Église et de l'Etat? Quelles sont les responsabilités des citoyens et citoyennes, récents ou anciens, envers cette façon de vivre où la religion reste dans l'éspace privé et n'a aucune (ou presqu'aucune) influence sur l'éspace public. Les québécois et québécoises se souviennent l'âge avant la Révolution tranquille, c'est à dire la théocratie, et ça me semble qu'ils ne veulent pas de tout y revenir.

Voila les émmissions qui sont diffusées par la chaine RDI.


mardi le 11 septembre : La laïcité contre-attaque...

La religion est une liberté, pas un droit.
-Denise Forget

mercredi le 12 septembre : ... à Rouyn-Noranda.

Des citoyens qui ont connu la Révolution tranquille dans les années 1960 étaient présents pour partager leur crainte de voir revenir la religion dans la sphère publique avec les accommodements religieux.

Sweet Revenge

The Arab-European League (AEL), a pro-Hezbollah organization of Arab immigrants in Belgium and the Netherlands, is rallying its members to march in Brussels on 11 September “against Islamophobia and racism in Europe.” The AEL demonstration is a response to the request by the Danish-British-German organization Stop the Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) for permission to demonstrate on 9/11 in front of the European Union’s buildings in Brussels against the introduction of Sharia laws in Europe.

The AEL was founded in Belgium in 2000. Its founder, Lebanese-born Hezbollah-member Dyab Abu Jahjah, has called the 9/11/2001 attacks "sweet revenge."

What's an anniversary without revenge?

[Update]

But that's not all. Here's a story reported in late August :

"Islamophobia" and the defamation of Islam are the most conspicuous forms of racism and intolerance today, and a global U.N. conference on racism planned for 2009 should come up with practical solutions to deal with them, an Islamic bloc representative told a preparatory meeting in Geneva.... Iran's delegate, Seyed Mohammad Kazem Sajjadpour, referred in his speech to "new forms of racism" after 9/11, "under the pretext of so-called war against terror."

...which is following up on this statement from February 2006 :

"The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), a Saudi-based grouping of the world's 57 Muslim states, wants the resolution's draft text to include a reference to "actions against religions, prophets and beliefs" and to state that "defamation of religions and prophets is inconsistent with the right to freedom of expression."


I know the logic is kind of convoluted, but let's follow it anyways and see where it leads.

1.... 2005/2006, Cartoons of Muhammad inspire Muslims to protest. To the death.
2.... 2006, Muslims respond by cartooning the Holocaust. At the behest of a Holocaust denier.
3.... 2007, More cartoons ; not bombs, mind you, but ink on a page cartoons. More riots.

So what simple conclusion can we draw from all this, dear reader? That's right : If it's in the name of Islam it's all good and if not it's all bad. Nothing new here.

[/Update]

Stunned ... ?!

(Photo: John McConnico/AP)

The Arctic ice cap has collapsed at an unprecedented rate this summer and levels of sea ice in the region now stand at record lows, scientists have announced. Experts say they are "stunned" by the loss of ice, with an area almost twice as big as the UK disappearing in the last week alone.

-Guardian UK

The planet is fine. The people are fucked.

Mechanical Failure

Officials at Nepal's state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said on Tuesday.

The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft on Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said.

-Reuters

Sounds like Icarus is doing the repairs.

It's Cut Off

Note to the police in Bangkok, who are looking for Ploeng Plaekratoke's penis : a man in Salamanca, Spain is playing a serious game of upmanship. He "cut off his own penis and threw it in a toilet ‘so he would stop sinning’."

Sweet Lord Jesus!

Man is many things, Oscar Wilde once wrote, but he is not rational. Truer words were never spoken.

(Reuters) Did Pontius Pilate commit a human rights abuse when he ordered the crucifixion of Jesus Christ more than 2,000 years ago? That is the question facing Kenya's High Court. A case filed by a group called "Friends of Jesus" calls on the court to interpret the Law of Moses to determine whether Jesus received a fair trial for blasphemy.

The case has raised a novel set of legal quandaries - not the least of which involves the statute of limitations and whether the high court has jurisdiction over the Son of God [and] has attracted public attention. The Friends of Jesus or FOJ is a world group that includes lawyers and wealthy businessmen who view their worldly fortune as a gift from God. But some regard the group as a cult.

According to Agence France Presse, "Little is known about FOJ, which does not proselytize... The group wants "the court to declare Jesus' trial null and void ... because the [ancient] court that convicted Him was not properly constituted, the prosecutors violated the law of the time and the trial was a sham," high court spokesman Dola Indindis said.

Oh, The Halcyon Days Of Youth

Police have been given the go-ahead to use Taser stun guns against children. Until now, Tasers - which emit a 50,000-volt electric shock - have been used only by specialist officers as a "non lethal" alternative to firearms.

But...the Defence Scientific Advisory Council medical committee, which is made up of independent scientists and doctors, said that limited research suggested there was a risk children could suffer "a serious cardiac event". The Government scientists were also asked to test whether the weapons could cause a miscarriage if used on a pregnant woman.

Taser International, the American firm that makes the device, said tests on pigs suggested the weapons were safe.

-Daily Mail

Pig-tested? Why didn't you say so in the first place?! It doesn't get more reliable than pig-tested. After all, we're talking about taking down lazy teenagers and pregnant women here, not hardened criminals or AWOL soldiers.

You're Cut Off

Bangkok resident "Pornbun Sinthusin, 35 ... gave her 34-year-old husband Ploeng Plaekratoke ... several beers" when she "came home yesterday."

That was mighty dignified of her since, you know, she found him in bed with another woman. Unfortunately for Ploeng, he's a cheap drunk.

"We suspect she took both her weapon and her husband's penis because we cannot find the penis in their apartment. We even checked a toilet but she did not dump it there,'' Lt-Col Kornwat Hunpradit said.

Maybe it's just that the Bangkok police aren't dedicating enough resources to the search, because despite the fact that "a Thai woman is at large with her husband's penis," sometimes those needles do turn up in the haystack of life.