Apparently, a lot of men in this world really hate women.

[grinninfoole]

Some guys in Jordan murder their sisters because they don't approve how one of them married, and in India, the Supreme Court has ordered the enforcement of a law against determining fetal sex because parents are aborting females. I've lambasted India for its sexist culture before, but I'm especially boggled by the men in Jordan: I don't like your husband, so I'm going to kill you, the sister I have loved for years?? Why not kill him if it's that far up your ass? Locking these guys up sounds like a good idea, as I wouldn't trust them to run around loose, but they won't have to get rehabilitated, and they'll serve six months at the most, because the powers that be in Jordan basically think that murder is OK in these circumstances. Assholes.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3097728.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3097604.stm

(In local news, some asshole I never heard of before (but who lives perhaps two blocks from me) has pleaded guilty to ripping off a lot of elderly people. I dearly wish that there was something better to be done than send him to prison for awhile and get back as much money as possible. It's just such a waste.)
http://www.gazettenet.com/09102003/news/8931.htm

Comments

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

They kill the sister because she has dishonored the family. That's the logic (which, I hasten to add, I do not agree with.) It's common throughout the Islamic world, and there have been incidents of it in Islamic communities abroad. (The UK has had a few grisly murders along these lines, though the victims have usually committed the dishonor of being raped by someone.) The Jordanian government has gone abotu as far as they can: honor killings are popular. At least they actually prosecute for it. Pakistan (to name one place) doesn't even bother.

India has some similar attitudes, which, unfortunately, were all too common until fairly recently. (India once had the charming custom of burning widows alive called suttee {although rich and powerful widows, like the Rani (http://www.bhagatsingh.com/rani_lakshmi_bai.htm), never seemed to end up in flames} ..which was ended by the British in the 1850s. Some of the more out there Hindu extremists want to bring it back.) Female infanticide is a huge problem throughout Asia: China, due to the mandatory one child policy, has more men than women, and the trend shows no sign of decreasing.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

I do try to avoid buying into the idea that the USA is the nation that needs to teach the rest of the world how to behave, because we have a lot to learn from the rest of the world. But stories like this make it really clear that we have a lot to teach--and much of the rest of the world desperately needs to learn it.`

[crouchback.livejournal.com]

I have to admit that I am a firm believer in natural rights theory. Where we in the US can speak well, I think it's because we don't interfere with natural rights..not because we have ideas that are good simply because we are Americans. (Although I think that we've eroded our rights over the last century for a lot of silly reasons).

I like to joke that the US is the worst country in the world except for all the other ones. I think it's important to keep persepctive: IMHO, a lot of things could be changed, but it still beats the heck out of a huge chunk of the globe.

Stil, one of the problems we have is the gap between what we say and what we do. There is broad support for values that most Americans consider important around the world. The problem we have is that we need to adhere to them better.

[grinninfoole.livejournal.com]

Amen. And again, amen. I like to say that if values are what makes an American, then there are billions of Americans the world over. But I'm not sure how many American politicians qualify.