Political Correctness Inc

What can I say about political correctness?





Not for me.

Culture clash

“RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A Saudi court on Saturday convicted a female journalist for her involvement in a TV show, in which a Saudi man publicly talked about sex, and sentenced her to 60 lashes. Rozanna al-Yami is believed to be the first Saudi woman journalist to be given such a punishment. In the program, which aired in July on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, Mazen Abdul-Jawad appears to describe an active sex life. The same court sentenced Abdul-Jawad earlier this month to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes. The case has scandalized this ultraconservative country where such public talk about sex is taboo and the sexes are strictly segregated. The government moved swiftly in the wake of the case, shutting down LBC's two offices in the kingdom and arresting Abdul-Jawad, who works for the national airline.” This case illustrates perfectly the differences between western culture and Middle Eastern values. Actually, the west used to hold these same conservative values back in the 1700s – now, however, this topless woman can legally walk down a New York City sidewalk without fear of arrest. Figure that one out.

Guns

If you've read the news lately, you know that some people showed up at political rallies displaying guns - one person had an assault rifle. That is downright barbaric. It is within the law, but that does not make it morally right. The only purpose a gun in plain sight might serve is to intimidate someone. Intimidation and coercion are wrong. Thugs do that. Control freaks do that. We have (more than enough) other problems to deal with. Please.

Protests in Moscow

People in Paris might riot but Russians can only protest - if they riot they'll probably be shot on sight. Anyway, thousands showed up in a Moscow demonstration on Saturday to show their anxiety over the global economic crisis. As far as I know, nobody was hurt, though police kept a watchful eye on everybody. What good is a demonstration anyway? Will that create jobs? Are Russians allowed to own guns? I do not know. On January 19, two people were shot while walking near the Kremlin - Anastasia Baburova, a reporter for Novaya Gazeta (New Gazette), and Stanislav Markelov, a human rights attorney. Both were very young. Many thought the murders were orchestrated by conservative political fringe groups. I had recently heard a story on NPR about the Russian Orthodox Church getting cozy with the Kremlin. Is that really so? In the eyes of a lot of people, a re-uniting of church and state is probably overdue. Imagine the power that can emanate from such an entity.

Privacy

From a news story on the net: I had not heard about this wild idea: "PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregon is among a growing number of states exploring ways to tax drivers based on the number of miles they drive instead of how much gas they use, even going so far as to install GPS monitoring devices in 300 vehicles. The idea first emerged nearly 10 years ago as Oregon lawmakers worried that fuel-efficient cars such as gas-electric hybrids could pose a threat to road upkeep, which is paid for largely with gasoline taxes." Raising gas taxes is just too simple a way out of this dilemma. Everyone knows that cars cause most of the world's pollution. The real reason behind this lame idea must be to reduce the number of cars. Maybe soon, we'll hear someone say that people over a certain age shouldn't drive at all. The words "monitoring devices" scares the unholy sweat out of me.