Dear Matthew S, in what context is public beheading of women anything but abhorrent?

As for Daphne, my main gripe with her is that she doesn’t see Islam as much more malevolent than Christianity (numerous posts testify). I find this reasoning incredible.

Let me give you one final example before I quit the argument: did you hear about the girls’ boarding school in Saudi which caught fire? Yes, the firemen wouldn’t rescue the girls because according to Islam it was more important that they didn’t dishonour them by entering their bedrooms.

[Daphne – Don’t confuse religion with interpretation of religion by some secular authorities for their own ends. And don’t forget for one minute that Roman Catholicism has routinely put women in second place after men, reflecting society that’s true, but the barring of women from the priesthood, the administration and the higher echelons of the Catholic Church is not a reflection of society today. The Catholic marriage rite? The woman vows to obey the man.]

I was being ‘very’ sarcastic and was expressing my disdain at (1) this servile puppet who is not only ridiculous, but clearly also a PL boot-licker (the arts serving a regime…nothing new there!) (2) the Maltese people’s parochialism and navel gazing.

Malta had potential, after all, it shares a lot of natural features with Israel and Sicily, but the brainless twits have transformed it into a dump. Sod your Sole Mio, Joseph Calleja!

I am not going into a long anti-US diatribe, however things in the States are very far from rosy.

Police have a right to do all sort of things (including taking any large amounts of money they may find in your car – take care Manuel Mallia:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/holder-ends-seized-asset-sharing-process-that-split-billions-with-local-state-police/2015/01/16/0e7ca058-99d4-11e4-bcfb-059ec7a93ddc_story.html) has the largest non-violent prison population http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Trends_in_Corrections_Fact_sheet.pdf

As to free and fair elections, it’s not just women who don’t get a right to vote:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/10/voting-rights-november-voter-suppression-states

Not to mention the fact that most elected representatives are in the pockets of the major corporations. And please let us not talk about painful executions:

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/30/us/oklahoma-botched-execution/

And which country is Saudi Arabia’s closest ally? You guessed it: the US of A. So perhaps you are right – the two are not morally equivalent; the US may be worse because of its hypocritical stance.

This after a committee of several doctors carried out a series of tests on Raif Badawi at a Jeddah hospital on Wednesday and recommended against a new session of caning.

http://news.sky.com/story/1412836/saudi-arabia-holds-off-flogging-raif-badawi

“Don’t just consume. Create.”

That’s what Obama told high-school pupils a few weeks ago.

Saudi Arabia is the ultimate expression of a consumer-not-creator economy. Oil was first discovered there in 1938. After 77 years, the oil industry accounts for 90% of the economy.

Now Europe was a creator before it was a consumer. Shall we let the Americans beat us at our own game?

Oh and by the way, the US has just overtaken China as the best investment destination, according to a survey among the world’s top CEOs.

Create. Don’t just consume. Touché.

This is what I meant when I said that history is leaving us behind.

“Ir-rizorsa umana.” Yes, right.

No, the same statement could not be made.

The USA may not be perfect (capital punishment is particularly odious) – but to suggest its human rights records is in anyway comparable to Saudi Arabia’s is frankly, dumb.

Firstly the US doesn’t lock up its citizens for criticising the government (or flog them) – and it has a series of basic constitutional rights which are policed by an independent judiciary.

It has free elections, doesn’t stop women from driving and.. well…..the list really goes on and on and on and on.

Even on capital punishment (which I reiterate, I deplore) – whereas this occurs in Saudi Arabia via a sword, the US at least attempts to exclude especially painful executions.

The idea that the two are morally equivalent is just plain wrong.

That the President of Malta, on the advice of the prime minister, chose to decorate a Wahhabi prince from the House of Saud with a fancy gong is an abomination.

The fundamentalism of the Wahhabi House of Saud is a blasphemy in the eyes of Allah Himself because the House happens to be the custodian of the holiest shrines of Islam where millions travel every year for the obligatory once-in-a-lifetime Hajj.

The USA has become (maybe always was) a pseudo democracy.

I’d go for both that and its contemporary American craze for riveted polished aluminium.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/8c/5c/e2/8c5ce23db0b89ea41c83a47a1dcd5e4f.jpg

Bling and silicone passe’. Back to the original Betty Page.

Below is Confederate Motorcycles’s official pin up; she built the bike.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/81/65/b1/8165b193b7810c57d31036052aa412f7.jpg

The European equivalent.

http://preview.netcarshow.com/Morgan-3_Wheeler-2012-1600-0a.jpg

The Jap version.

http://www.superdry.com/blog/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/single-images/morgan-superdry-3-wheeler-goodwood-festival-of-speed-side.jpg

Italians meantime, rediscover the electric bicycle.

http://pandacycles.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/marco_craig_02i.jpg

Who needs Saudi oil to express a freedom?

Do you remember the DIG FOR VICTORY campaign in Britain during World War II?

[Daphne – Jozef is not that old, though he may have found out about it more recently.]

How about DIG FOR SHALE OIL AGAINST ISIS? (MLP/PN leaders please note, especially the latter who seems to have an antipathy for shale oil.)