The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, feared by many Saudis, is made up of several thousand religious policemen charged with duties such as enforcing dress codes, prayer times and segregation of the sexes. Under Saudi law, women face many restrictions, including a strict dress code and a ban on driving. Women also need to have a man’s permission to travel.

From a CNN article, in this century, on a Saudi court that has sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to 40 lashes, four month imprisonment and deportation for the crime of having two unrelated men in her home.

Big Government has the incriminating video:

Earlier today I posted a video – also courtesy of Andrew Breitbart – of disturbing remarks made by this same official, Shirley Sherrod. Those remarks, however horrifying, pale in comparison to what is shown in the above video. Here we have a high-ranking federal employee admitting to discriminatory treatment of an American citizen. How is this remotely tolerable in America? Opponents of such racist practices in government, and the expansion of governmental power in general, are frequently branded as fanatics (such as the Tea Party). But what, exactly, is the appropriate response to our current government? Humans tend not to question the status quo, but consider how our Founding Fathers would react to today’s events. Americans possess not only the right, but the duty to absolutely and unequivocally reject the abusive and collectivist policies and actions of our government. Government officials from Barack Obama, to Ben Bernanke, to Shirley Sherrod should be reminded that their positions exist by the will and consent of the American people. And shame on any American who does not feel a visceral gut reaction to the video above.

Via Alex Tabarrok:

Number of birds killed by the BP oil spill: at least 2,188 and counting.

Number of birds killed by wind farms: 10,000-40,000 annually.

Number of birds killed by cars: 80 million annually.

Number of birds killed by cats: Hundreds of millions to 1 billion annually.

Don’t worry there is some good news.

Number of birds killed by fisheries: tens to hundreds of thousands annually (fortunately for the birds, some of these fisheries are now shut down).

It appears possible that ecstasy, the popular and very illegal party drug, could have beneficial effects for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD). From The Slatest:

A new study suggests that MDMA, the active ingredient in the illegal drug ecstasy, could become a potent tool in the treatment of traumatized soldiers and other people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. A dozen patients who had suffered from PTSD for an average of 19 years were dosed with ecstasy while undergoing an eight-hour psychotherapy session, and all but two patients showed a marked improvement in their symptoms. Researchers cautioned that the small scale of the study meant it was impossible to draw definite conclusions, but said the drug apparently blocked an emotional “numbing” process that sometimes interferes with therapeutic techniques. “MDMA seems to bring people into the optimal zone for therapy,” said the study’s lead researcher.

Though the group has been given permission to conduct a large-scale study involving U.S. veterans, some academics question the wisdom of using drugs to treat a group of people already highly prone to drug addiction.

Getting paid by unions to demonstrate:

Billy Raye, a 51-year-old unemployed bike courier, is looking for work.

Fortunately for him, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking paid demonstrators to march and chant in its current picket line outside the McPherson Building, an office complex here where the council says work is being done with nonunion labor.

“For a lot of our members, it’s really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else,” explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.

So instead, the union hires unemployed people at the minimum wage—$8.25 an hour—to walk picket lines. Mr. Raye says he’s grateful for the work, even though he’s not sure why he’s doing it. “I could care less,” he says. “I am being paid to march around and sound off.”

Breitbart.tv has a short video that explains so much of what is wrong with our government:

So let’s break this down. The federal government, through its devastating economic intervention (from the housing bubble to ObamaCare), takes the lion’s share of the blame for the current recession. But federal employees don’t lose their jobs, private employees do. It would appear that we are currently living in a time when American citizens are being victimized by their own government. Every move that the Obama administration has made strengthens government and weakens the American people. Our government should exist to serve our needs. Instead, American citizens seem to be living in service to our government.