You see, the thing is I've been around far too many protests, starting back when I first went to college. If you've ever seen PCU, that movie hit kind of close to home for me. I've seen too many stupid protesters, psuedo-intellectuals, and just plain old (putting on my Red Forman pants here) dumbasses.
I remember when my fellow students wanted to protest Coca-Cola because of Apartheid, or at least their flawed understanding of Coca-Cola's role in South Africa. The students were just about a decade late on their information and the administration basically told them to sod off because a decade or two earlier a similar protest against Pepsi caused Pepsi products to be permabanned from campus and they weren't going to lose the only other soft-drink investor.
Anyway....today is supposed to be a day of protest for the women of Saudi Arabia. Today women across that country are taking to the streets.....behind the wheel of the family car. Technically it is not illegal for women to drive in Saudi Arabia, it is just that they aren't allowed to be issues Driver's Licenses. A quick wikipedia search (not that you should trust that as a resource) says that the penalty for driving without a license is 10 lashes.
10 lashes.....
That's how many lashes Johnny Rico gets for killing a dude in Starship Troopers! Heck, in the book, the maximum administrative penalty is only 5 lashes, which Juan Rico gets for a "simulated" friendly-fire incident.
In Saudi Arabia driving without a license is just as bad as killing someone in training in our movies!
I'm not trying to make light of the punishment, just trying to give an average reader a basis of comparison.
Today, courtesy of Jezebel, I came across this awesome (for several reasons) protest song:
No Woman, No Drive
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