The Tease of Things I Don't Need

But, hey, they're our buddies so they must be Good Guys, right?

    I happened to see this CBC piece on human rights abuses against foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, and thought it was a good idea to pass it along.  The sentencing for "illegal pregnancies" was a new twist to me, though I suppose it shouldn't surprise me in a country where public executions by beheading are part of the system.
 
   Side-rant: Kingdoms and other theocratic systems - anywhere that someone ultimately lays claim to holding a position of power or a set of laws because it's God's Will - should be something humankind is acting to outgrow. The first step to bettering our lot is to take responsibility for our actions, laws and government, which we should always recognize are human institutions. The misery that ultimately arises from people claiming a Divine source for law or leadership should be painfully obvious to mankind by now, shouldn't it? That, more than anything, is what makes me so fearful of the likes of Dubya and John Ashcroft. There's little that's more dangerous than someone in a position of power who's dead sure that God's on his side.