You think Barack Obama’s got problems – what with Sen. Judd Gregg pulling out of his Commerce cabinet seat because he can’t see eye-to-eye with the president over the “stimulus plan” and the Census? What if Barack had to stimulate Valentine’s Day sales in Saudi Arabia?
Just days before Valentine’s Day, a young Saudi woman desperately searched for a red teddy bear to buy for her boyfriend. But all Nof Faisal could find were blue and white ones, minus the “I love you” she wanted hers to declare.
It’s not because the store couldn’t keep up with demand. It is because fear of the religious police forced the store’s owner to strip the shelves of all red items, including the hottest-selling item: heart-festooned red plastic handcuffs inscribed, “Take me, I’m yours.”
As Feb. 14 approaches, the police begin inspecting gift shops for items that are red or are intended as gifts to mark the holiday—a celebration of St. Valentine, a 3rd century Christian martyr—which is banned in Saudi Arabia. Such items are legal at other times of the year, but as Valentine’s Day nears they become contraband.
Oh, those kooky Religious Police – pretty funny, huh? Well, yes and no. Yes, because, well, it was funny watching Slim Pickens ride the atom bomb to extinction. No, because this is crazy pathological stuff and it’s being sanctioned by the state in the name of religion in Saudi Arabia, Iran and other similar destinations.
It’s kind of a grim reminder – in the midst of this economic meltdown that no one, least of all our new president, seems to be able to get a grip on – that another, possibly more insoluble, problem still is lurking out their like a gorilla the size of Alpha Centauri. You think we got it bad now? Wait till next week.
Here we don’t even say Saint Valentine’s Day anymore, as in Capone’s St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. It is secular celebration.
p.s. If Senator Gregg has reservations, then our doubts about the spending bill are affirmed.
Sen. Judd Gregg was being crapped on by the Obama administration. Ironically, however, the Messiah and his top officials have no idea what I’m talking about! They would look upon me as if I’m stark raving crazy. After all, they perceive themselves as fair minded and objective human beings. What could possibly compel Gregg to go off the deep end? Sigh, what does this tell us concerning the newly elected president? We are quickly learning that Obama is way over his head. He is literally the worst prepared national leader in minimally the last one hundred years.
I am 76 years old and I only wish Pres. Obama the best, however, he is not equiped to have taken over this country, being in the peril it has been in for
these past years. I truly think he cares, but his knowledge of what it takes to bring both political parties plus the independents and other party’s to a joint solution for securing our way of life is way out of his ability. The White House is not a play or doll house to learn and grow up in, it is the foundation of our survival as a democratic society and we are all beginning to have the same reservations that Sen. Gregg has stated. The Washington employee elected by us are secure for four years, the workers of American jobs are not secured but for one day at a time, the spending bill is beyond their imagination and still gives them no personal security. Is there any reason we should not doubt that both the Pres. and his cabinate will come up with another problem as mr. Simon states, I personaly think we all need to question what is going to be the game play next week and the week after etc.
Crazy as the religious police are, Canada has its similar “police” at the HRCs.
tehag
It’s OK. Obama is going to talk to them. That will fix it.
I was distressed to see Gregg make such an error in judgement in the first place. He is a very solid guy and a lot of people wondered if he just was tired of the re-election thing. The census thing is ominous and he saw the implications. That has to be the reason.
Since he is from Chicago, Obama has a different interpretation when he thinks of ‘St Valentine’s Day’.
While I wouldn’t mind a little St. Valentine’s Day Massacre of the Religious Police, I am encouraged by the fact that Saudi gift shops carry red plastic handcuffs and Teddy Bears.
The Catholic church removed St. Valentine’s Day from the church calendar in 1969 (due to the existence of several Valentines, all martyred but not sure which one is the guy or something like that). I’ve always liked Valentine’s Day, because it is my birthday.
The Saudis are almost as bad as some western guys on Valentine’s Day. A women’s clothier put out a request for women to email them what their worst Valentine’s gifts were. Apparently they got flooded with emails, including such goodies as nose hair trimmers and cemetery plots. Love is never easy.
The state of affairs in this country and the world are the worst I have experienced in my adult life. (I am 50). And they are going to get worse. The Congress — or should I say Poliburo — are going to approve an 800 billion dollar spending bill and they won’t even tell us what’s in it. I hear 4 Billion goes to Acorn, the voter fraud outfit. How many jobs does that create? You could buy four Navy cruisers for 4Billion! They’re not interested in creating jobs — they are interested in cementing their political power. I just moved my 401K fund –50% of what it was — to bonds, and am decreasing the amount to only cover the employer matching contribution. You think the stock market is low? It wasn’t so long ago that reaching 1000 was a big deal. Things can, and will get much worse. Hunker down folks, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
They won’t tell us what’s in it, because they don’t even know what’s in it. The only people who do know are the Dem Congressional staffers and the K street lobbyists.
Guess which side wins when a civilization whose motto is my way or the highway clashes with a civilization whose motto is tolerance above all?
Well, that’s not so bad. So long as they don’t ban green things, four leaf clovers, and beer around March 17th.
/oh wait…
If the dreaded Saudi Religious Police can’t even stop Valentine’s Day, then we have WON. Would the Taliban have or the old KGB (Stalin’s) put up with this? No these guy’s are rank amateurs in suppression. Anyway it sounds like we are winning the culture war and that is the only one that counts. The war we are in is a culture war. It is a war to convert people of different cultures (Muslim, Tribal and Clan) to our own Western Culture of Nationalism, Capitalism, Consumerism and all the other “ism” that make up Western Culture. Remember in World War I one of Germany’s war aims was the defense of German Kultur. In the modern world it is almost always about culture, so if the Saudi’s can’t even stop Valentine’s Day their culture must adapt and so become more like us and less dangerous or disappear, either way we win.
So don’t worry be happy these Saudi’s will be a bunch of fat McDonald’s eaters riding around in their powered wheelchairs like all the rest of us soon enough.
There’s also some resistence to Valentine’s Day in India. The infiltration of American culture or some such rot.
The best part about Obama not being able to get a grip on the economy is that, ungripped, he economy will manage on its own.
von Bismark said “God protects fools, drunks, and the United States of America”, and the more we see of Obama’s lack of competence and inflexibility of mind, the more I think we’re seeing it proven again. Contrary to the doomsayers on the Right, $800 billion isn’t going to bust us; contrary to the doomsayers on the Left, we’re talking about a regular old recession that is already showing signs of turning. And thanks to the wisdom of the Founders, and a bit of luck, it appears more and more unlikely that even a D Congress with a D President will be able to overcome the machinery to do anything too drastic.
Charlie:
It may not be $800. But we’ve already have an existing trillion for the first TARP, and upwards of 3 tillion for TARP II…Not to mention “Stimulus II” which will be needed by year-end 2009 once it’s admitted that ‘Stim I’ didn’t and wouldn’t work.
“The best part about Obama not being able to get a grip on the economy is that, ungripped, he economy will manage on its own.”
Well, this is definitely the silver lining I was waiting to hear.
“it appears more and more unlikely that even a D Congress with a D President will be able to overcome the machinery to do anything too drastic.”
Well, some more good news. I guess I shouldn’t fret over todays actions over there in Congress.
Now I feel much better and will shift my worries to the state of the State Of California.
‘all Nof Faisal could find were blue and white’ teddy bears.
Blue and white in Saudi Arabia? Isn’t that a subtle introduction of the Israeli flag?
Good thing AP writers Nancy Benac and Calvin Woodward live in America and have unfettered access to those “Take me, I’m yours” handcuffs. They go perfectly with the pom-poms they shake about with religious fervor in this embarrassing love letter to The One:
http://tinyurl.com/casgax
Hail, hail, for he’s a jolly good savior. Shock and awe!