From Al Jazeera : A Saudi scholar has issued a religious decree saying it is permissible to kill the owners of television networks broadcasting "depravation and debauchery". "It is lawful to kill ... the apostles of depravation ... if their evil cannot be easily removed through simple sanctions," Saleh al-Luhaidan, chief justice of the supreme judicial council, was quoted by the Saudi-owned al-Arabiya news channel as saying. "The situation is serious ... the degradation of morals is a form of perversion on Earth," al-Luhaidan said. The 79-year-old scholar, who holds the highest judicial authority in the kingdom, made the comments during a recent radio show in which he was asked by a caller for his opinions on immoral programmes being broadcast on Arab televisions during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The shows depict lifestyles and values deemed offensive by many Saudi religious leaders and judges. Many of the most popular Arab satellite network...

This one that Becky has (which, she found out after publication actually took place in 2002) is about the consequences of a fire breaking out in a Saudi elementary school near Mecca . It first made me want to cry, then it made me angry. If I excerpted enough to give you the gist, I'd have to give you the entire post. So go read it now , and then (hopefully) come back. I am actually more angry at my government for propping up these a-holes than I am at the people still living in the Seventh Century. We justified toppling the Taliban in part because of its atrocious human rights record, and we retroactively justified our invasion of Iraq with Saddam Hussein's rape rooms and mass graves. If either of those have any merit, let me know what the justification for NOT toppling the Saudis.