Just a quick observation:
Self-appointed arbiters of truth and justice have been (correctly) apoplectic about the Saudi woman who is being punished for being gang-raped. (And now, about her lawyer, who is being punished for defending her.)
This proves, they say, what insane bastards the Saudis are. What kind of crazy assholes would punish the VICTIM for the crime? It is called (rightly) 'barbaric.'
Jeepers: Osama bin Laden (allegedly*) attacked the USA on September 11, 2001.
[* Note, this link is for 'thinking outside the box' purposes only. No endorsement is implied or intended.]
And for every one of the 2,279 days since, American citizens have been punished for bin Laden's crime.
We have been spied on. We have been wiretapped. Our internet communications have been monitored. We are subject to secret searches, from search warrants issued by the very agencies making the searches.
We have lost our rights to habeas corpus. We have been denied our rights to a hearing in a court of law (national security, you know). We have seen our collective knowledge REclassified or classified as suddenly secret. We have lost our right to travel to Canada, Mexico and the Carribbean without holding an increasingly expensive and difficult to obtain passport.
We have been forced to begin the construction of the longest and greatest boondoggle since the Great Wall of China on our border with Mexico. We have been thrown under suspicion in our own land: guilty until proven innocent. Xenophobia and McCarthyesque accusations of being unpatriotic and unAmerican if we protest this treatment are commonplace.
We have been bankrupted by a war having nothing to do with 9-11; our sons and daughters have been killed in the thousands, every American who has tried to fly on an airplane, take a train, or ride a bus has been subjected to "increased security" often involving extremely painful and humiliating practices, such as "cavity searches," not to mention confiscation of such "weapons" as nail files, shampoo and toenail clippers.
Every time bin Laden misbehaves, we Americans are punished.
So, ask not what crazy asshole countries punish their own citizens for being victims of horrific crimes.
Ask instead, why Osama bin Laden is sitting, fat and happy and we aren't even looking for him (because we might offend a dictator in Pakistan).
Courage.
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crossposted from his vorpal sword