November 02, 2007

• The Imperial March is funny. I wonder who set that up? I read a startling statistic recently in Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower: Saudi Arabia represents about 1% of the planet's Muslims but supports about 90% of the costs of the faith through publications and the building of mosques, schools, and colleges.
• Holy shit. They should play this for the arrival of all Bush allies.
• Holy Shit. They should play this for the arrival of all Bush's allies. Especially when they turn up in not-the-USA places without him.
• The power of the force caused that. Or maybe sockpuppets.
• Sounds like the video was taken out of context. A news report says, "“Before, they played light music, one of which was the theme from Star Wars,” confirmed a spokesman for the Army’s London district. “But as soon as [King Abdullah] stepped out of the vehicle then the Saudi Arabian national anthem was played.”"
• It's not the theme from Star Wars though; it's the imperial march and is mostly associated with Darth Vader.
• I giggled at the clip. But during the subsequent interview, I'd have been interested in hearing more of what the Muslim Council guy had to say. Kind of weird that he sounded more reasonable than the secularist, who wouldn't let him get a word in edgewise and thus came across as kind of an arsehole.
• Bunglawala is a bit of a slick, two-faced shite if half of what I've read is anything to go by though. One cosy message for the liberal media, then back to the homophobia, anti-Semitism and misogyny amongst friends.
• Hm. I didn't know that-- can well believe it, but it would still have been nice if he'd been given enough rope to hang himself. I expected better moderation from Snow, who's usually the prince of anchors.
• Raising the bar another notch. Victim of gang-rape has her punishment increased to 6 months in prison and 200 lashes after appeal.
• Mrs roryk told me about this yesterday. What a fucked up country. A complete waste of extraordinary natural resource wealth on a boderline stupid family that uses religious extremism as a way to maintain power.
• Bush administration fails to condemn Saudi rape case
• A young woman has been sentenced to 200 lashes after being gang-raped. The Western world has expressed outrage – which has, in turn, provoked anger among the Saudi establishment. Now, for the first time, the woman tells her story.
• Bush On Saudi Rape Case: I ‘Don’t Remember’ If I Brought It Up With King Abdullah
• How ironic that the Republican Party's official symbol should be an animal which "never forgets," while their unofficial motto is, "I don't recall." Of course, "don't recall" and "can't recall" are two different things, I suppose. Thet should change it to "I choose not to recall."
• Saudis Confirm Detention of Blogger
• Bush does a sword dance
• He looks eerily like my three-year old cousin did when I let him stir the Christmas cookies,
• The Growing Power of Petro-Islam: In Saudi Arabia, Bush encounters a force more powerful than democracy.
• Human Rights Watch has appealed to Saudi Arabia to halt the execution of a woman convicted of witchcraft.