Today's Cultural Warfare Update

US government tells Texas court to give immunity to Pope Benedict XVI regarding sexual abuse cover-ups in the Catholic church;

Don Feder, mid-level fundamentalist leader, tosses in his two cents: Katrina was God's Punishment for evacuations of Jewish settlements in Gaza, queers, and a few other things;

National Review argues that John Roberts is setting up to rule against Roe v. Wade;

New ruling from the Pope is that gayfolk (particularly men) are inherently psychologically disordered and incapable of celibacy, and therefore must be kept out of all church seminary (and related) positions, regardless of actual behaviour;

Kennedy rails against Federal relief funds going to religious schools; I'm just continuing to watch these so-called conservatives not to say word one against this so-called conservative president who has increased discretionary spending by more than LBJ;

Missouri judge blocks anti-abortion law pending outcome of lawsuit;

National Center for Health Statistics showing more youth engaging in "alternative" sex (FotF's word) - teenage women in particular; FotF wonk claims that the study is being released to discredit abstinence-only education;

FotF applauds major new Justice Department push against "obscenity";

FotF pleased at outcome of UN goals; "sexual and reproductive rights" removed from final language;

FotF prints Concerned Women for America wonk Warren Throckmorton's gleeful column about how after only six years, one of "America's leading gay couples," a pair of NY Central Park Zoo penguins, have "broken up"; for what it's worth, 85% of penguin pairings last one year only, so six years is extraorindary, but the whole thing is so fucking stupid and just downright mean that I guess that's kind of pointless;

FotF ACTION ITEM to exempt religious Head Start money receivers from anti-discrimination law in hiring - they want religious receivers of federal money to be able to be able to engage in currently-illegal religious hiring discrimination;

FotF protects anti-marriage-rights rally in Massachusetts, part of collecting signatures for an anti-marriage state amendment - the previous one failed in the legislature this year;

Maine refuses Federal money over abstinence-only education requirements; FotF calls it an "anomaly";

Brazilian Episcopal Bishop defrocked; FotF claims it was over his opposition to ordaining a gay bishop in the US church and make dark implications about coercion and money;

FotF encourages fundamentalists to use the Human Rights Campaign's list of GBLT-friendly businesses to form a personal boycott list;

FotF ACTION ITEM to continue pressuring Governor Schwarzenegger to veto the California marriage rights bill while simultaneously complaining about about pressure from GBLT groups to not veto it;

Puerto Rico may pass bill allowing same-sex marriages performed in other states to be recognised there, while not allowing them locally; FotF urges against, of course;

One of two CWA "take that, fags" articles about NY Central Park Zoo's gay penguin couple breaking up; also plugs the "March of the Penguins" documentary movie as evidence of creationism;

Concerned Women for America ACTION ITEM against anti-job-discrimination protections for GBLT Federal employees;

Georgia legislator trying to make it harder for Gay-Straight Alliance clubs to get members;

Traditional Values Coalition scare story about QUEERS CONTROLLING THE MEDIA;

Washington State's Faith and Freedom network: education is useless without the Bible, must be based on it in all areas.

( Transcriptions, articles, and excerpts )

Okay, so hold on a second, I've just had this thought...

Okay, so here's the deal: Saudi Arabia's population has quadrupled since about 1975. A huge, huge majority of the population is under 30, which is to say, "prime fighting age." They don't have jobs and the per capita wealth has been falling, not rising, because the country's finances have been lousy for the last couple of decades, except for the last couple of years when oil prices have been spiking.

(There're like 22M people where there used to be 6M circa 1975, and 2M of those were guest workers. The citizen population is more than four times what it used to be.)

And except for oil and a significant natural-gas based petrochemicals industry, their attempts to make a diversified economy have largely failed, and neither oil nor petrochemicals provides a lot of jobs.

So you have a bunch of prime-fighting-age men in a brutalist and hyper-aggressive male-owned society dominated by extremist fundamentalism thrown up against poor employment prospects and a declining economy, and a population that is still growing dramatically. (Remember, where women are essentially chattel, reproduction rates tend to be high. The average woman in Saudi Arabia has over six children and they've got a lot of women at peak childbearing age. Some estimates point the Saudi population at 40 to 50 million in a disturbingly small number of years.)

What if the so-called "flypaper strategy" isn't about getting Al Quada to Iraq, or more generally, getting networked terrorists to Iraq, at all? What if it's to get violence-inclined young men out of Saudi Arabia, where they're a threat to the Saudi government in general, the Saud family in particular, and, most importantly from an American national interests standpoint, the oil supplies both support?

What if Iraq is specifically about keeping Saudi Arabia politically stable by leeching off its most violent impulses next door?

I mean, I have no idea if this is actually going on, and if it is, whether it's actually one of the internal reasons, a prime reason, is considered bonus points, or is, as far as they're concerned, just stated text thrown in under the "fighting terrorists there so we don't have to fight them here" rubric. But it's consistent with conditions on the ground, and it could kind of solve a few problems for several key groups all at once, if it worked.

Of course, the "if it worked" part is where it gets all tricky.

Anyway, this is popping into my head after re-reading the Saudi history chapters in the book I'm re-reading now. I might have more ideas based on the rest of the book. But for now, bedtime!