Worldwide

Saudi Arabia is no softie when it comes to ‘crime fighting’ so why I ask would it decide now is the time to take the kinder, gentler approach to punishment? I mean, this is a country that still believes in the good ole death penalty via stoning, hanging and/or firing squad. It’s a bizarrely warped place where raped women must fear being punished as adulterers and face stoning death rather than receiving accurate recognition as VICTIMS and treated rightfully to needed medical care while being assured the justice system will punish their attackers. Nah, that’s not how things work in Saudi Arabia. Victims are punished and criminals – at least criminals in the eyes of most logical people – either go free or in the case of admitted al Qaeda supporters, are treated to a stay at the Saudi prison system equivalent of Club Med.

Last week, I heard some local morning radio show personalities interviewing a U.S. Army official about the U.S. Army’s 233th birthday. Interjected into the discussion about the ongoing local celebratory events was the usual stream of military propaganda painting the U.S. military as the world’s savior.

Mr. Army Official bragged about the 170,000 new recruits that voluntarily signed up despite the general public’s disapproval for the war in Iraq as some sort of sorry attempt to sweeten our sour image of the world-class fakin ongoing fiasco since the illegal invasion many years and many senseless casualties ago.

My fellow readers,

I think it is time to go forward together and face the challenges ahead. Our doors are always open on these issues and it is important to cascade down and inseminate our information. We should all be great product evangelists and increase the limited bandwidth for all the platform atheists in this competitive blogging environment.

For this, Antigone and myself are inviting you to an idea shower session where we will be looking under the bonnet for a holistic, cradle-to-grave approach. We are confident that we will eventually be able to sprinkle our site's magic across the internet through leveraging our great talents. And also, in addition, we will finally be getting our fingers down the throat of the organizations which fail to live our values.

Isn’t this lovely? According to a University of Washington report, every year more and more bloggers are being arrested and prosecuted for committing the felonious ‘crime’ of freedom of speech. More than half the arrests since 2003 occurred in some of our favorite countries like China, Iran, and Egypt where you could be sentenced to jail time for daring to say: WHAT THE FAK especially regarding the naughty topics like human rights abuses and government corruption. Gee, if these governments aren’t guilty of such things, then why are they punishing those who expose them? I think we’re seeing a great exhibit of the old saying: The more they deny it, the more you know it to be true. Just think Bush administration folks. Every time W or his boys assure us something is more definitely not true, what do we find to be absolutely wholeheartedly true? That which he denied the most vehemently of course!

First of all, I would like to apologise to all of our regular readers (are there any?) about the luck of action from our part. We haven't written anything for quite some time now. I personally blame the weather. After a long, cold and miserable winter, spring is finally here. That means that it is time to get out, try to have some fun, feel like a normal human being.

However, I am still watching and reading the news. Perhaps not as much but I am aware of what is going on around me and around the world. I am aware of the Austrian monster-'father' who imprisoned his daughter and had seven kids with her. People never seize to amaze me. We are capable of so many miracles and so many atrocities.

So unless you live in isolation or just returned from an expedition to the Amazon, you must know what is currently going on in Tibet. To put in mildly, Tibetans had enough of their Chinese oppressors and demand independent. Apparently, China invaded Tibet 50 years ago and claim it as part of China.

It seems that Chinese always thought that Tibet is part of their country. However, Tibetans for some bizarre and unexplained reason never quite agreed with that claim. They must be bonkers. I mean why wouldn't somebody want to be part of the great People's Republic of China? After all, China is such a democratic place where human rights take uppermost priority, NOT.

I am sure you are wondering what do two far-away countries have in common between each other and Valentine's Day. Perhaps they regular readers of this blog (if there are any) already know the answer because they can understand how I think. For all the others keep reading until it becomes apparent to you that, indeed, Valentine's Day, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines do have something in common.

I could try to give you a hint but it would have helped if you were a regular visitor of the BBC web site. Anyhow, I am sure that just by looking at the tags of this story you could get the basis of the story. It is about consumerism, religion and health. If you are still wondering then just keep reading. I hope that it will become clear to you.

Religious bigots found yet another way to release their venom against the atheists and agnostics.

Apparently, social networking site, MySpace.com, deleted the Atheists and Agnostic Group which had 35,000 members. This deletion, due mainly to complains from religious people marks the second time MySpace has removed the Group since November 2007.

Needless to say that the company refuses to re-instate the group using their back ups. They even refuse to comment on what happened. Apparently the Group has been hacked by religious vigilantes. Then, MySpace decided to permanently remove the Group.

First of all let me wish Happy New Year and all the best for the future to our reader(s). We haven't abandoned this site but the Xmas vacation gave us an awesome opportunity to have a break from many things including blogging and thinking about the stupidity around us.

I spent my vacation in Greece doing the things I wanted including celebrating my birthday. However I had to attend a funeral. For my emotions and thoughts on that, read the rest of this post.