Horrific video emerges of Taliban fighters stoning couple to death for adultery (via The Daily Mail)
Instead of a content warning, I suggest that you watch and GET SQUEAMISH.
Horrific video footage has emerged of Taliban insurgents stoning a couple to death for alleged adultery in northern Afghanistan.
Hundreds of villagers can be seen on the video standing around as the woman, Siddqa, is buried up to her waist in a four foot hole in the ground.
Two mullahs pass sentence before the crowd begins to throw rocks at her head and body as she desperately tries to crawl free.
You can hear the rocks crack against her skull. You can see blood stain the shroud that covers her head.
But the 19 (25?)-year-old collapses to the ground, covered in blood – but miraculously still alive.
At this point a Taliban fighter shoots her three times in the head with an AK-47. The crowd can be heard shouting allahu akbar as she is killed.
Her lover, Khayyam, is then marched in front of the crowd with his hands tied behind his back.
He is blindfolded with his own tunic and crouches down close to the ground as he tried to protect his body from the stones.
But he is battered to the floor by a barrage of rocks. He can be heard sobbing before eventually falling silent.
The stoning – the first to be documented on film since the Taliban were ousted from power – took place in the district of Dashte Archi, in Kunduz, last August.
Officials said that Siddqa had run away after being sold into an arranged marriage for $9,000 against her will.
Response on the incident from Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid:
“Anyone who knows about Islam knows that stoning is in the Koran, and that it is Islamic law. There are people who call it inhuman - but in doing so they insult the Prophet. They want to bring foreign thinking to this country.”
Just For Reference™
More on the incident from the BBC here.
Related:
Curious: Is this terrorism? I’d like to see an addendum question to this survey.
Tavis Smiley versus Bill Maher and Ayaan Hirsi Ali
And from Ibn Warraq:
A culture that gave the world the novel; the music of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert; and the paintings of Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Rembrandt does not need lessons from societies whose idea of heaven, peopled with female virgins, resembles a cosmic brothel. Nor does the West need lectures on the superior virtue of societies in which women are kept in subjection under sharia, endure genital mutilation, are stoned to death for alleged adultery, and are married off against their will at the age of nine; societies that deny the rights of supposedly lower castes; societies that execute homosexuals and apostates. The West has no use for sanctimonious homilies from societies that cannot provide clean drinking water or sewage systems, that make no provisions for the handicapped, and that leave 40 to 50 percent of their citizens illiterate.
I really don’t care for moral and cultural relativism.
And closing question:
Would you feel an ounce of remorse if that crowd of murderers was turned to dust by a drone strike?
RE: Here are my own recommendations for Election Day…
Delayed post.
Regarding:
Here are my own recommendations for Election Day. First of all, vote! Second, vote Democratic, wherever you are. Maybe there are some thoughtful Republicans running in your area, but this is not the year to give them a boost. In New York, that means:
- Tom DiNapoli, Comptroller. DiNapoli is a political hack who was installed as Comptroller in a backroom deal by the legislature after the corrupt Alan Hevesi was forced to resign. His Republican opponent, Harry Wilson, is considered a basically competent, effective fiscal manager of the sort who rarely runs for office, and many people think we’d be lucky to get someone with his talents to straighten out the fiscal mess in Albany. Still, this is no year to vote Republican. Support the hack Democrat, Tom DiNapoli.
You the least bit sheepish about this one?
The national races, sure. The Dems were playing defense against the GOP wave and voting down the party line was survival strategy (Well, not in New York and California, for the most part, but everywhere else).
The results of this local race, however, given the clusterfuck that is dealing with the state budget, will likely have a greater effect on most New Yorkers in the coming years than any decision the likes of a Schumer or a Weiner (aka, the most appropriately named Rep in Congress!*) will make in this current term.
* - with apologies to my roommate.
Kim Kardashian came out as the number one search this year on Bing. The number two search? ‘What’s Bing?’
Conan, November 29, 2010
What’s the difference between California and the Titanic?
The passengers on the Titanic didn’t vote to hit the iceberg.
In spite of his supporters’ excitement, his election did not signify a permanent national shift to the left. His attempt to govern from the left accordingly brought a predictable result: The public took away his ability to legislate on domestic affairs. Instead, they moved the country to a position where no one can legislate anything beyond the most carefully negotiated and neutral legislation.
STRATFOR’s George Friedman on how The World Looks at Obama After the U.S. Midterm Election.
His is always rather sobering commentary, and often impossible to disagree with.
More:
Obama comes out of this election severely weakened domestically. If he continues his trajectory, the rest of the world will perceive him as a crippled president, something he needn’t be in foreign policy matters. Obama can no longer control Congress, but he still controls foreign policy. He could emerge from this defeat as a powerful foreign policy president, acting decisively in Afghanistan and beyond. It’s not a question of what he should do, but whether he will choose to act in a significant way at all.
Read the full piece here.
And check out last week’s piece for a flesh-out on what he thinks might be Obama’s strategy for the next two years.
About STRATFOR:
STRATFOR’s global team of intelligence professionals provides an audience of decision-makers and sophisticated news consumers in the U.S. and around the world with unique insights into political, economic, and military developments. The company uses human intelligence and other sources combined with powerful analysis based on geopolitics to produce penetrating explanations of world events. This independent, non-ideological content enables users not only to better understand international events, but also to reduce risks and identify opportunities in every region of the globe.
STRATFOR’s chief executive officer, Dr. George Friedman, is a widely recognized international affairs expert and author of numerous books, including The Next 100 Years (Doubleday, 2009), America’s Secret War (Doubleday, 2005), and The Future of War (Crown, 1996).
STRATFOR members include individuals, FORTUNE 100 corporations, government agencies and other organizations around the world.
History suggests Obama can choose Truman’s ‘48 path: dig in & blame Congress, or Clinton’s ‘96 path of cooperation. Both won.
Tweet via @WestWingReport
Related:
Obama to Al Sharpton: Yeah, this midterm’s a referendum on my agenda
From last week:
He says in this interview that a massive Republican win would mean that he would have to fight the GOP “day and night” for the next two years. That’s another admission against interests, it seems. If the GOP wins and nothing gets done, Republicans can point to this pledge to block the mandate of the midterms and assign blame accordingly. This isn’t exactly the move of a master strategist.
Listen to the interview here. (via Hot Air)
Gamble.
We’ll see…
I’m not suggesting every future President should take a shellacking like I did last night. There are easier ways to learn those lessons.
Barack Obama, November 3, 2010
Edit: Undo Change
So, the Democrats lost the House. Everyone else in America lost theirs. Why shouldn’t the Democrats lose theirs, too?
Jimmy Kimmel
It’s not the fad anymore…It’s not the fad to be politically knowledgeable and active.
Jessica Kirsner, 21, a junior from Houston and vice president of the College Democrats at the University of Miami on the eve of the 2010 Midterm Elections.
Related:
Can we agree not to let 20-year-olds decide who gets to be President next time around? Cool?
“I guess I just didn’t dive deep enough into the facts.”
Ironic “18-to-34-year-olds showed the biggest support for a public option of any age group” (Click through for the ironic part).
The Candidate: “What Do We Do Now?”
