Following world condemnation, Iran is said to be “reviewing” the stoning-to- death sentence of a 43-year-old widow convicted of – not premeditated murder- but the unforgivable crime of adultery.

If the human rights outcry is successful, the mother of two will just be hanged, instead.

This is the mindset of certain, stuck-in-the- Middle Ages countries the civilized world thinks they can deal with.  It wouldn’t be surprising if these same countries next instituted burning at the stake.

To comprehend just how utterly barbaric a stoning is, I suggest readers view the recently released movie, “The Stoning of Soraya M.”   Based on a true account, the film tells the story of Soraya, a young housewife and mother, who in 1986 was buried to her waist in her Iranian hometown square and stoned to death by her fellow villagers.

A word of advice: don’t buy any popcorn to munch while watching this film.

Without going into the gory details, suffice to say that in most stoning cases, the woman is buried up to her neck, and onlookers are invited to pelt the poor soul with rocks until she’s dead.  However, there’s game rules.  You mustn’t use a large enough stone that would knock her unconscious or kill her outright – no, you must only use a stone large enough to knock out teeth, eyes, break the nose and pulverize her head into a bloody mass.  The sinner must suffer mercilessly, and for many hours before she’s allowed to die.

Where is the women’s rights movement?  They should be taking to the streets, worldwide, in a relentless mass movement to put an end to this barbarity.

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Is anyone else wondering if there’s somebody at the helm of our Ship of State?

Here we are more than 70 days after the BP oil disaster and it appears little has been done to halt the 50,000 barrels a day gushing from the ocean floor. More disturbing is that even less is being done to clean up the devastating spill poisoning the water and beaches and killing wildlife along the Gulf Coast.

Are all the Feds up in Washington ‘stuck on stupid?’

Neither BP nor our government is showing anything close to leadership, or even competence, in dealing with this national emergency.  As I follow developments on CNN’s Anderson Cooper’s nightly news program, I hear local officials and residents – even Louisiana’s governor Bobby Jindal, beg the federal government to get its act together and do something productive about the catastrophe.  Apparently, pleas fall on deaf ears.

Obviously, since BP continues to screw up, and shows a total lack of motivation, it can’t be counted on for anything constructive.  So the big question is why our government continues to let them run the show – and there’s no doubt that BP is the one in charge.

Now the spill has reached Florida’s Panhandle, and will invade the beaches of South Florida before the summer is out.  Let’s hope Gov. Crist will have better luck getting Washington to act.

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Can you believe it?  I sure can’t.  And I must admit I’m having serious trouble digesting this one. 

Apparently, plans are currently underway to build a 14-story, Islamic cultural center and mosque just two, short blocks from Ground Zero.

Some people’s chutzpah know no bounds!  Forget about words like ‘insensitive’ –  that’s too weak a term for this unbelievable development.  This absurd proposal is nothing short of unmitigated gall.

As a native New Yorker who sat riveted to the TV on 9-11, watching the heartbreaking tragedy and shocking destruction of the World Trade Center unfold with tears running down my face,  all at the hands of wacko Muslim religious fanatics, this tactless proposal is just too much to swallow.

Muslim proponents say they are building the center  to show the community “that we have peace in our hearts.”   

Well, if they’re really sincere about that, why don’t they collectively put some pressure on the likes of Osama bin-Laden, al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, and the other fanatical terrorist groups, to put a little ‘peace’ in their hearts.  If that could happen – overnight,  all the Muslim-rooted trouble spots around the globe would also find some peace.

But, until we see some real peace moves coming from the Muslim world, I sure don’t want to see a tribute to the 9-11 terrorists anywhere near Ground Zero.

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Right off the bat, I want to state that I definitely am not a fan of ‘political correctness.’  In fact, I despise it.  If ever there was a real threat to free speech, it’s this stupid PC thing, which is nothing more than a thinly veiled gag to control your right to say what you want.

If you don’t like what someone says, tell them so – and why.  If something offends you on TV or radio, switch the channel or turn the darn thing off.  I mean, the PC  police are everywhere these days. You have to watch every thing you say and just about walk around on eggshells, least you offend anybody.

With that said, let’s tackle Helen Thomas’ recent remark – and why she deserved to get fired for what she said. 

Thomas didn’t make those offensive remarks while a guest on the Jay Leno show – or even The Daily Show, where you’d expect to hear something outrageous or insulting.  No, her comments came following a White House briefing, which she had attended in the capacity of a journalist. 

And while it’s true that most journalists don’t pretend not to have a personal viewpoint on a given issue - I believe we do try our best to remain objective in our reporting, and keep our personal opinions out of our copy.

So, for me,  Helen Thomas’ biggest sin wasn’t what she said (although, I did find her remarks blatantly anti-Semitic and reprehensible).  No, in my book, her unforgivable offense was that her nasty comments showed an outright bias and a total lack of objectivity that any Journalism 101 student would recognize.

After all her years as a noted journalist, she should have known better.  And she paid the price for her big, biased mouth.  She has ended a long and distinguished career in disgrace.

How sad.

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North Korea torpedoes a South Korean ship, killing 46 sailors.

Where’s the world outrage?

Iran thumbs its nose at threatened U.N. sanctions , and vows to continues its nuclear weapons (oh, I mean ‘nuclear energy’) program.

Where’s the world outrage?

A greed-driven, foreign oil company devastates the Gulf states in the worst ecological catastrophe this country has ever experienced – with the worst yet to come.

Where’s the world outrage?

Israel attempts to search a  ‘peace’ ship heading to Hamas-controlled Gaza  (the same Gaza from which thousands of rockets have been launched against Israel almost on a daily basis), and  ‘peaceniks’ beat the outnumbered soldiers with lead pipes, stab them with knives and toss them overboard – leading to the deaths of 9 ‘innocent victims.’

Boy, did that get world outrage! 

But,  just who is the real victim and who is the perpetrator?    Israel is suffering world condemnation for killing 9 pipe-wielding ‘peaceniks’ in self-defense.  If someone was bashing my head in with a lead pipe, you can bet I’d shoot them too.  (Incidentally, how come Israeli soldiers didn’t threaten or shoot people on the other 5 ships in the flotilla?  Maybe that’s because the other ships went peacefully to be searched for contraband.)

As the facts behind this incident come to light, it turns out that this was no ‘love boat,’ as Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu so aptly put it.  Background checks on some of the dead ‘victims’ are revealing the same old club members with the same old ties to terrorist organizations.  But the world doesn’t want to see that or acknowledge the truth.  The other hapless and misguided do-gooders on the ship should get a life and stop making a bad situation worse.

Let’s wait for the results of a  full investigation before pointing fingers.

 

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