current events | The Gad About Town

Hating Hate

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Mark Aldrich

I detest Pamela Geller and I expect that she spent her Monday morning traveling from news appearance to news appearance chortling over her seemingly successful baiting last night of a couple of insane gun-toters who apparently were going to use a particular religion as justification to shoot up an event she had created for just the purpose of baiting any and all insane gun-toters who might want to use that particular religion as justification for violence. I detest her and all she claims to stand for.
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#RaifBadawi: ‘We want life’

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Mark Aldrich

“I didn’t think there could be anything worse than watching a shaky cellphone video of my husband being publicly beaten in front of a mosque thousands of miles away,” Raif Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, wrote in yesterday’s Washington Post.

Ensaf continues that Badawi’s family is currently experiencing something worse than that: It appears that he is once again facing a trial on a charge of apostasy, renouncing one’s religion, a crime that comes with an ultimate punishment—beheading—if a person is found guilty.

No flogging took place today for the Saudi Arabian blogger, activist, father of three:

.@KingSalman @MOISaudiArabia Thank you for not flogging #RaifBadawi today. He does not deserve that punishment, nor imprisonment. #FreeRaif

— Vera Scott (@VeraSScott) April 3, 2015

1000 Days

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Mark Aldrich

For the sixth week in a row, Saudi writer, blogger, and activist Raif Badawi was not publicly flogged today for insulting his home country’s state religion. Amnesty International broke the news as soon as the organization could confirm it:

Raif Badawi has not been flogged for the 6th consecutive week. We must keep up pressure on Saudi Arabia to #FreeRaif pic.twitter.com/EkQ8Z95Nxc

— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) February 20, 2015

No one is breathing a sigh of relief that this counts as sparing him, or that he is about to be freed. The 31-year-old husband and father has now spent 1000 days in jail with little to no contact with the outside world. According to news reports, there was no reason given by Saudi officials for the delay.
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