"A study in contrasts Saudi Arabia is", Yoda would say, were he actually real and someone who studies or even occasionally reads about the middle eastern kingdom. Also, Yoda is diplomatic, while I have much harsher words for that dung heap in the middle east.

The King of Saudi Arabia wants to build the world's most expensive and advanced university. Its endowments will rival that of MIT. Sounds nice, right? Well, it does until you realize that in order to attend this university, you have to be in Saudi Arabia.

A few days I mentioned an article that said that the Saudi Arabian religious yahoo vice squad (the subject of the 80's spin-off series, "Saudi Vice") were playing the role of the hilariously stereotyped grumpy, crusty old man who gets hit in the face with a pie in any Three Stooges episode. They essentially were raiding flower shops to get rid of anything red. The reason for doing this? I quote, "Mahmoud will not share the monkey bars! I'm off to repress the masses!". Now, I get wind of a story that Saudi Arabia is all set to execute a woman for being... a witch. To top it all off, she's illiterate. No, this isn't some shitty sequel to 'Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grain'. Also, it's not 1200 AD. If it were, I could find a decent mug of mead.

Apparently, she's exhausted all her appeals and it's up the King to let her off the hook.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt. You want to make asses of yourself and declare jihad on roses, be my guest. I'll bring a camera. But when you pull shit like this... This is what we have to look forward to if the ever-fragile wall separating church and state is broken in this country.

I'm sure there are decent people in SA trying to improve their country for the better. I offer my best and would ask them to stop reading now. To everyone else... Kiss my atheist, lily-white, and freedom loving ass.