360 Lashes in Saudi for OAP

[Fidel_Castronaut]

The point was that the cultural relativism of the 'crime' is equally insane as the punishment for the crime itself (hence the argument belonging in the bin). It should not be a crime, and even if we bracket out that, the punishment is ridiculous.
Nobody insinuated that it wasn't a crime in Saudi. What is being argued is that it shouldn't be a crime at all. In that respect, it is indeed not a crime.

It is cultural relativism to acknowledge that sovereign countries set their own laws?
Last I heard SA wasn't a protectorate, You want to promote cultural imperialism, that's your problem.

I'm sorry but that's just not the point I'm making at all. No strawmannin' gonna happen in this here thread you hear? ^_^

This is an argument from basic human decency and empathy. It's an argument that says that effectively killing someone for nothing ain't got a place (or ought not to have a place) in the 21st century, regardless of what area or indeed 'culture' you're from.

Standing up to cruel and barbaric forms of punishment is not a vice. Pointing out a state's insane (and hypocritical) use of corporal punishment is not 'cultural imperialism' or whatever lame excuse for political discourse that implies, regardless of whether the state is sovereign.

Again, to keep on fucking reiterating because it seems only a couple of people seem to get this fucking easy to understand point. My issue is not the fact that the 'crime' was committed. I understand there are these things called states, and these things have this idea of 'law', and this law thing generally has a thing called 'punishment' if one should break them. Now we've got the primary school colouring book shit out of the fucking way, the point is the barbarism of making something as mundane as carrying a bottle of alcohol around in a car not just a crime, but a crime punishable by death, flying in the face of modern discourses on ethics and human rights, not to mention ignoring the various instances where Saudi's themselves commit the same crime (and worse) with no punishments, both in SA and abroad (notably in cities like London). Do I think the guy was stupid for doing it? Yes, but ultimately that's got nothing to do with the OP or this post.

Now can we please move past the point nobody was making and actually start talking about the issue being repeatedly iterated and yet repeatedly ignored? Let me paste a link to something that makes my point much more succinctly:

http://atheistforums.org/thread-37261-po...pid1092764

EDIT: You know what, I fucking give up. If people respond saying "yeah but it's a crime in Saudi, he should know better" or "you don't get to dictate the laws in other states" or whatever irrelevant horseshit, I'm just going to disregard it and not reply. Ain't got time to waste defending a point I wasn't even making. Fuck sake. Napo, if you're out there reading this, I understand you pain!