Congrats

[UPDATE] This story is true, but having gotten the news from some other blog (I don't remember, it was early) there's a very relevant fact that I missed when I posted the story. It's six years old. It's stupid but I missed that fact when I posted it in the a.m. Totally my carelessness.

Myanmar (who we hate) & Saudi Arabia (who we love) let us know we are not, even under Bush, anywhere near the worst governed people on earth.

USA! USA! USA!

Saudi Arabia's religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers.

In a rare criticism of the kingdom's powerful "mutaween" police, the Saudi media has accused them of hindering attempts to save 15 girls who died in the fire on Monday.

About 800 pupils were inside the school in the holy city of Mecca when the tragedy occurred...

One witness said he saw three policemen "beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya" [ed. head scarf].

The Saudi Gazette quoted witnesses as saying that the police - known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice - had stopped men who tried to help the girls and warned "it is a sinful to approach them".

The father of one of the dead girls said that the school watchman even refused to open the gates to let the girls out.

Relatives of the girls are understandably incredibly pissed off.

We spend a LOT of time talking about Iran's mullahs, but as bad as they are -- and they are quite bad -- the have more than a match in Saudi Arabia's Mutaween.