A 13 year old girl was stoned to death in Somalia recently and now I can’t get it out of my head.  I’m sitting here bitching about shitty fabric stores and complaining about my sister smashing my car and this poor girl…

I read the original report about this a couple of days ago which stated that it was a 23 year old woman who had been raped by three men and subequently convicted of adultery and condemned to death by stoning under Sharia law.  In that report they claimed the woman had confessed to the adultery and had requested to be prosecuted under Sharia law and it was further claimed that she felt her ”punishment’ was justice for the adultery she had confessed to.

This more recent article claims that it was not a 23 year old woman confessing to adultery that had been stoned but rather a 13 year old girl whose father had attempted to report the rape in an attempt to have the perpetrators held accountable.  Instead of the attackers being bought to trial this poor father has indavertently signed his own daughter’s death warrant when she was detained and charged with adultery.

A 13 year old girl.  I can’t even put into words how horrific it must have been for this poor girl to be subjected to this entire ordeal.  First she suffers through a rape from multiple attackers and then when she should be protected and nutured by her family, her community and the justice system she suffers even further at their hands.  Reading the details on how the stoning proceeeded made me sick to my stomach. 

1000 onlookers, 50 men hurling stones and one petrified 13 year old girl burried up to her neck.
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Is anyone really surprised when a bunch of priviledged schoolboys from a toffy private school go on a bit of a bender at the end of their Year 12 exams?  I’m not.  Not even a little surprised.  It’s been going on for years.  It’s the same old shit every year… just a slightly different colour really.

My Dad and his mates (raging hoons that they were) went off on Schoolies when he finished his senior studies must have been about ’65 or so and back then they used to go round toilet papering people’s lawns/trees and putting penny bungers in people’s letter boxes.  Ooer… rebels without a cause!  When I was finishing Senior in ’88, in our last week there was a gaggle of boys from our ‘Brother school’ that came creeping though the park behind our school armed with water bombs and flour bombs.  They struck at lunch time for maximum damage and plenty of girls copped a water bomb quickly followed by a random flouring.  I have a vague recollection there were dozens of rotten eggs being thrown around the quad that day too….

A few years after I finished high school I heard that kids from same ‘Brother school’ had some very expensive damage bills from end of year hijinks when some of their Senior students pulled a couple of rather stupid pranks.  The first one involved placing some firehoses running full bore through smashing windows into the school library and the second prank saw every loo in three of the schools toilet blocks filled with quick setting cement.

So are we surprised at school leavers racing around being half drunk, half nekkid and acting half witted in 2008?  Nup.  I am a little surprised at some of the reactions though… talk about one extreme to t’other.

What ever happened to a good wallop across the head! That’s what these boys are lacking! When I went to Catholic School (graduate of 1995) we were taught respect, and were disciplined accordingly if having stepped out of line. The problem is these little rich kids have never learnt respect for others, never learnt how to take responsibility for their actions and certainly have no idea on social etiquette. Bring back the cane! 🙂
CR, Melbourne, Australia

Glad to see not much has changed since my departure from Xavier in 1968. Now, if only the Jesuits would bring back the 15-inch strap (with the two inlaid Aussie pennies at one end), all would be right with life. Well done boys . . . you’ve made some of us old timers proud.
TL, Los Angeles, CA USA
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How bizarre. 

Why would any man in their right mind want to marry 86 women…. unless of course they came with hefty dowries in which case the situation becomes perfectly understandable and down right enviable!  What I can’t get my head around is…. how on earth is is he going to choose which four  he’s going to keep? 

Ummm… I’m going to keep You because you’re the mother of my favourite (of 150 kids) son…. and I’ll keep You around cos I love that lamb and cous cous thing you make… and well… You can stay because you can suck a golf ball through a garden hose… but as for the rest of you lot?  Ummm…. think of a number between 1 and 83…      :S

Nigerian man to divorce 82 wives

A Nigerian religious leader with 86 wives has accepted an Islamic decree ordering him to divorce all but four of them, local authorities say.

A spokesman for the emir of Bida told the BBC that Mohammadu Bello Abubakar, 84, agreed on Saturday to comply with the decree. Last week one of Nigeria’s top Islamic bodies, the Jamatu Nasril Islam, sentenced him to death. The sentence was lifted but he was threatened with eviction from his home.

Mr Bello Abubakar challenged Muslim
scholars two weeks ago

Earlier, Mr Abubakar had challenged Islamic scholars, saying there was no punishment stated in the Koran for having more than four wives. "I have not contravened any established law that would warrant my being banished from the land… There is no law that says one must not marry more than four wives," the AFP news agency reported him as saying.

"All my wives are with children and some of these are people I have married and stayed with for over 30 years. How can they expect me to leave them within two days?" he reportedly told local newspapers. The former teacher and Islamic preacher lives in Niger State with his wives and at least 170 children.
Niger is one of the Muslim majority states to have reintroduced Sharia punishments since 2000. Several people have been sentenced to death for adultery by Sharia courts but none of these sentences have been carried out.

Many of the wives live three to a room,
some have seven children

The mind boggles!!!

What sort of crazy arse people offer a free gun with purchase?  I guess the rest of we should take solace in the fact that the dealer appears to be taking the sensible measure of ensuring that the relevant background checks are being carried out before handing over free handguns to lord only knows who.   What’s next?  Collect ten pizza tokens for free hand grenades?

Makes ya proud it does….  makes ya proud to be an Australian that is.

US car dealer in free gun offer

A car dealership in the United States is offering a free handgun with every vehicle sold.

Max Motors in Butler, Missouri, says sales have quadrupled since the start of the offer. Customers can choose between a gun or a $250 (£125) gas card, but most so far have chosen the gun. Owner Mark Muller said: “We’re just damn glad to live in a free country where you can have a gun if you want to.”   The dealership sells new and old vehicles, including General Motors and Ford cars and trucks, and its logo shows a cowboy holding a pistol. It has sold more than 30 cars and trucks in the past three days, an increase which the owners put down to their promotional offer.

Inspiration from Obama

Mr Muller said that every buyer so far “except one guy from Canada and one old guy” chose the gun, rather than the gas card. He recommends a Kel-Tec .380 pistol, which he describes as “a nice little handgun that fits in your pocket”.   He added that the promotion was inspired by recent comments from one of the Democratic nominees for the presidential election, saying: “We did it because of Barack Obama.

“He said all those people in the Midwest, you’ve got to have compassion for them because they’re clinging to their guns and their Bibles. I found that quite offensive. We all go to church on Sunday and we all carry guns.” 

The website advertisement for the offer, which continues until the end of the month, mentions that an approved background check on gun ownership is required.

Reminds me of the time I went and bought little stuffed koalas for some friends visiting from Canada…. made in Taiwan  :S

‘Free Tibet’ flags made in China

Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.

The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.  Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.  But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper.

Made in China? Police believe some flags may have already been shipped

Tibet independence

The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an independent Tibet.  Workers who had grown suspicious checked the meaning of the flag by going online.  Thousands of flags had already been packed for shipping.  Police believe that some may already have been sent overseas, and could appear in Hong Kong during the Olympic torch relay there this week.

The authorities have now stepped up the inspection of cars heading to the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and onwards to Hong Kong.

Known as the Snow Lion Flag
Introduced in 1912
Banned in mainland China

The Olympic torch is due to tour Hong Kong on Friday. It will then travel to a series of cities in mainland China before reaching Beijing for the start of the Olympic Games in August. Its progress around the world has been marked by pro-Tibet demonstrations in several cities – including Paris, London and San Francisco. Rallies began in the main Tibetan city of Lhasa on 10 March, led by Buddhist monks.

Over the following week protests spread and became violent – particularly in Lhasa, where ethnic Chinese were targeted and shops were burnt down. Beijing cracked down on the protesters with force, sending in hundreds of troops to regain control of the restive areas.  But it has since agreed to resume talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama.

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