Good Start

1. During the inauguration day (!), Obama ordered a freeze on all pending Bush regulations for a legal and policy review. Way to waste no time in cleaning that filth out of the system, buddy.

2. A midnight legal filing ordering a halt to the Guantanamo military tribunals with an eye to closing the detention center and, yknow, no longer pissing on the constitution and the geneva conventions.

3. And, in more of a symbolic than substantive move, the traditional prayer service at the National Cathedral was conducted by a female preacher for the first time ever. It also included more than 20 representatives of different faiths, including woman leaders of Islam and Hinduism. Stick that in your "big tent" and smoke it, GOP!

I await the forthcoming "series of announcements both on domestic and on foreign policy that I think will be critical for us to act swiftly on."

Rock out with your Barack out, America!


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Eye for an Eye

Four years ago Ameneh Bahrami was blinded after a man she had refused to marry poured sulfuric acid over her head. Now, an Iranian court has ruled that five drops of the acid be put in each of her attacker's eyes. Bahrami emotionally stated, "At an age where I should be putting on a wedding dress, I am asking for someone's eyes to be dripped with acid. I am doing that because I don't want this to happen to any other women." I understand her reaction, I understand the desire to show people that there are consequences for such horrible examples of social violence. But...


An eye for an eye? Really? Hammurabi's code was created in 1760 BC- hasn't the idea of justice evolved at all since then? Isn't part of the reason for a modern legal system to ameliorate individual desire for revenge? Retribution is not justice. Torture is not justice. The best thing that can be said about this (and it is a very good thing) is that the crime is being taken seriously by the courts. After all, this is a region where honor killings, disfugurements, stoning and myriad other forms of social violence go ignored, unreported and unprosecuted. I hope that other victims of such violence take courage from Ameneh's example and demand justice. But I also hope they remember that women's rights cannot be separated from human rights. One cannot be achieved at the expense of the other- that is a dangerous road that leads toward no rights at all.

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