bitter sanity

Wake up and smell the grjklbrxwg, earth beings.

Wednesday, June 26, 2002

[posted by jaed at 12:16 PM]
The Arab Onion
Our friends at the Arab News have outdone themselves. It seems there's a new threat to Arabs: terrorist reporters!
A number of Western cells are presently operating in Saudi Arabia, both overtly and covertly, and have launched periodic assaults [...] The Westerners who make up these cells are experts in psychological terrorism. [...] the lost cause of breathing life into a profession dying a quiet death in their home countries: serious, objective journalism. [...] a Saudi teenage girl was found in tears after falling victim to a psychological terror attack by a foreign reporter, who had been walking around under cover of looking like a total and utter idiot [...]
Yes, you're reading that right. Clueless reporters are united in a terrorist attack on Saudi Arabia.

One hesitates in these cases to know how to respond? Are they, perhaps, actually serious? Is this satire? Or is a British or American freelance writer perhaps having a little fun with the editors?

Monday, June 24, 2002

[posted by jaed at 11:08 PM]
Ahhhh, how refreshing...
It is unusual for me to react this way to anonymous statements made by government departments, but this week, the Pentagon outdid itself in the plain-speaking-of-truth department. It seems the Pentagon was asked about the "controvery" over the French best-seller "The Horrifying Fraud" by Thierry Meyssan, who contends that no airplane crashed into the Pentagon - instead, a Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy fired a missile at it - and that, while planes did hit the WTC, they were actually flown by, yes, the same VWRC. To quote:
A Pentagon spokesman said, "There was no official reaction because we figured it was so stupid."

Do you think we could fire a whole lot of government spokespeople and clone this person from the Pentagon?

Friday, June 21, 2002

[posted by jaed at 12:01 AM]
Marriages to Saudi men: the State Department speaks
Or, well, it did speak until a protest from the Saudi government caused it to remove from its web site a compendium of advice for American women contemplating marrying Saudi men. Fortunately, ABC news has preserved a mirror of the advice for us to read. It begins with a general word of advice:

Survivors of dual-national marriages


Quite a phrase.

provide a checklist for American women to consider prior to making a commitment to living in the Kingdom. The stories of those whose marriages have failed underline the necessity of looking before leaping into the cultural chasm that separates Saudi husbands from their American wives.


The tone of the document is matter-of-fact. There are no horror stories here. But the picture it paints of the socially isolated American wife, at the mercy (quite literally) of her husband and his family, is chilling. So is this little tidbit, which helps explain the stories of kidnapping and detention of wives and their children:

Most American wives believe that the U.S. Embassy can issue exit visas in a pinch. This is not the case. The U.S. Embassy cannot obtain exit visas for American citizens. Passports issued by the Embassy are worthless as travel documents without the mandatory Saudi exit visa.


And why, you ask, is there no such document for American men contemplating marriage to Saudi women? The document helpfully explains:

Saudi women are prohibited from marrying non-Arabs except with a special dispensation from the King.


(Has anyone notified Noam Chomsky that the Saudis have miscegenation laws?)


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