One giant leap for mankind

Good news. The liberalization of 21st-century Saudi Arabia under its enlightened crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, is proceeding apace, what with its stunning announcement today that the 9th century is no more. In this gentle authoritarian Islamic theocracy of brutality, flogging has been abolished!

For the princely kingdom, friend of Trumpian autocracy and model of religious oppressiveness that causes right-wing Christians to wet their pants in envy, the abolition of flogging is a "major step forward" in social and legal reform. Yes it is. Because the kingdom's human rights commission says it is.

After all, it was only a few years ago that a Saudi blogger was sentenced to a decade in prison and 1,000 lashes for having "insulted" Islam. Today in tolerant, civilized Saudi Arabia, the blogger would merely be sentenced to years in prison for having liabled a medieval, illiterate merchant who heard voices in his head.

Some Saudi traditions are simply too precious to let go of, though, such as the hacking to death of conscientious, liberty-loving journalists while visiting foreign consulates. That, and executions in general — for example the number of Saudi prisoners put to death last year was three times the number of counties in Alabama.

When it comes to letting God sort them out, this kingdom has other ideas.

Comments

[shsavage]

Baby step, PM. Baby steps...

[pm]

Yes, perhaps in a 100 years, they'll move from beheadings to hangings.

[Peter G]

I apologize for putting this here since it completely off topic. But this is a good place to put it and I am going to link to it. With permission of course. It is titled Andrew Sullivan is a Giant Asshole.

Andrew Sullivan is a giant asshole. If you have read his latest at the NYMag you will find his latest piece on the terrible waste of money that the CDC and the WHO represents because they did not stop Covid. He makes much of the paltry billions in the annual budget and the 450 million or so that the US annually contributed to the WHO. Now if you were just to state the obvious and, say, divide the number of the diseases the CDC might be expected to deal with, including new ones you might conclude that Andrew is just being his usual ignorant douchbag. That much should be clear to anyone who can do grade two math. It would be just garden variety stupid.

Alas Andrew does not stop there. It was all a waste because government did not stop Covid from spreading in the US. He cites a plethora of bureau acronyms but nowhere mentions who is running the show. To fully appreciate the full dimensions of his shiftiness you have to have followed his plaintive bleating about the aids epidemic back in the day. I am sure we all remember that horrible time and especially the fact that social distancing that would have prevented transmission was somehow illegal or something. But I remember much with crystal clarity.

One thing I remember with clarity was the press conference where funding for Aids research was announced. I remember the Aids activists hurling abuse at the assembled officials for the delay in securing funding for this research. But there was a moment when you could have heard a pin drop. That was the moment when one of the scientist/officials charged with these official duties stepped to the microphone and started explaining some things. He explained that virtually none of the funding for Aids research was new. That almost all of it had been reallocated from research into other serious and often fatal diseases many affecting children. That man was instantly accused of being anti-gay.

Because that, of course, is what conservatives like Andrew Sullivan demand, fiscal conservatism does not allow you to do both. It must serve his needs or it is worthless. Now you have to wonder but will never know what that foregone research might have done or what lives were sacrificed. It is unknowable. But it happened and it happened because Andrew Sullivan and people like him could not tolerate social distancing by keeping their pants zipped.

And that is why Andrew Sullivan is an asshole.

Thanks.