The Law

Death for Adultery

The human rights community is up in arms over the recent stoning to death of an Iranian man in punishment for the crime of adultery. The woman involved in the crime is also scheduled to be stoned to death but activists are scrambling to head-off the execution.

Everybody Must Get Stoned

Stoning as a sentence is some old school punishment that dates back to the wonderfully harsh Old Testament. The actual procedure involves burying the victim to their waist in the sand and then pelting them with stones that are picked to be small enough that they will not immediately render the victim unconscious or dead but large enough to cause damage and death over time. An incredibly lingering and painful death is thus ensured. Stoning as a sentence is typically meted out for the charge of adultery. They take their extramarital nookie very seriously over their in parts of the Middle East.

Death for Accepting Bribes

Zheng Xiayu, the head of China’s food and drug watchdog group was executed last Tuesday for taking bribes to approve a series of bad antibiotics that resulted in the death of many Chinese citizens. China is in the midst of a very interesting period right now. They have become a viable world economic power almost overnight and as a result a society that was once very closed and a government that is still very top-heavy and not exactly democratic by Canadian standards is being forced to adjust on the fly. Personally I think Xiayu was more or less caught in the lurch. Ten years ago a government official taking bribes at the expense of the lives of Chinese citizens would probably not have raised an eyebrow. Today the people are demanding greater accountability from their government officials and Xiayu has become an example of this phenomenon.

Good News From the Middle East

What? No way. Yeah really. BBC reporter Alan Jonhston has been released after being held for 114 days in the Gaza strip.

Israeli cabinet agrees to Prisoner Release

In a move designed to bolster support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the Israeli government has agreed to release 250 Palestinian prisoners. This only makes sense. I mean, come on, governments can’t just grab people off the streets and inter them indefinitely without any charges being filed or granting the prisoners access to legal representation and a fair trial. Right? They can’t, can they? I mean, what civilized nation in the year 2007 would do such a thing?

Meanwhile Back in the U.K.

Metallica front-man/hellion James Hetfield was detained by airport security for wearing a “Taliban-esque” beard. Reminds me of a column Maxim once ran called “Bum or Rock-Star” in which photographs of famous rock musicians were juxtaposed with photographs of homeless people.

Meanwhile Back in America

Well if you didn’t already know it Alberto Gonzalez, the U.S. Attorney General and George W. Bush’s favorite bed-buddy, is a liar. In the latest blow to his already shaky (maybe non-existent is a better word) credibility it has been revealed that only days before testifying that there had been no verified civil rights violations Gonzales had indeed reviewed memos detailing abuses. The highest attorney in the land has again utilized the slippery double-speak of the Bush administration to try and worm out from under the charges. And these guys accused Clinton of being slippery. At least Bill was better at it.

The Law Comes to Chico

And right here in our own sleepy little berg it’s been decided that we need more law in order to regulate, of all things, mosh pits and parties. A new ordinance has already been passed giving police more authority to quell aggressive parties and an ordinance regulating slam-dancing is being considered by the council.

Death of an Anarchist

I used to fancy myself a bit of an anarchist but lately I have to admit I’ve changed my tune. Over the course of the past year I have been exposed to a portion of that minor percentage of the population for which the bulk of laws are created - assholes. I’ve simply run across too many assholes who, were there no laws, would wreck it for the rest of us. Thanks a lot jerks.