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Saudi Cleric Pummeled On Twitter For Claiming Driving Damages Women's Ovaries
An anonymous reader writes "CNN reports, "Sheikh Saleh Al-Loheidan's widely derided remarks have gone viral ... 'If a woman drives a car,' Al-Loheidan told Saudi news website sabq.org. 'it could have a negative physiological impact. It would automatically affect a woman's ovaries and that it pushes the pelvis upward.' ... 'We find that for women who continuously drive cars, their children are born with varying degrees of clinical problems.' The controversial comments were widely interpreted throughout Saudi Arabia as an attempt to discourage women in the country from joining a popular online movement urging them to stage a demonstration by driving cars on October 26. 'This is his answer to the campaign,' Saudi women's rights activist Aziza Yousef told CNN. 'He's making a fool of himself. He shouldn't touch this field at all.' Al-Loheidan's words have been ridiculed mercilessly via social media. An Arabic Twitter hashtag called '#WomensDrivingAffectsOvariesAndPelvises' was quickly created to make fun of Al-Loheidan — underscoring just how widely the call for Saudi women to defy the driving ban has resonated thus far. And while numerous conservative voices have supported Al-Loheidan, many Saudis believe this was an extremely clumsy way of trying to counter the popularity of the October 26 campaign.'"
And driving is bad as opposed to sitting when: reading? eating? watching TV? listening to the radio? any of the other myriad of activities done while seated? What an idiot.
..."In other news, a fatwah has been issued against tweeting."
Oh, I'm sorry sir, I thought you were referring to me, Mr. Wensleydale.
Fear and Freedom don't mix well. Let's all be a little more brave and learn to tell all the batshit religious crazies to fuck off. I don't care if they do raise hell and blow stuff up - eventually there won't be enough left of them to matter.
Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
As crazy and wrong as this guy is, his claim isn't completely out of left field. One of my physics teachers in high school (who had worked as an engineer at Bell Helicopter) related the story that, apparently, some of the helicopters initially used in the Viet Nam conflict happened to vibrate at the resonant frequency of the human kidney, causing pilots to experience organ damage. They had to add material to the seats to cancel out the vibrations. Here's a page from the Canadian equivalent of the U.S.'s OSHA:
http://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/phys_agents/vibration/vibration_intro.html
Women are not allowed to ride on camels. Camels are too precious for that. In fact women are supposed to carry the camel when it gets tired.
This. The Middle East has no monopoly on ridiculous ideas about female physiology. Some American politicians, pundits, and religious leaders are downright scary in this regard.
Koans and fables for the software engineer
When you actually look at the demographics, the Tea Party crew are actually more educated than the average American. They aren't lacking in logical abilities, but the impression that they do comes from televised news, which in its frenzy for ever-more-senationalist stories to generate ad revenue likes to focus on the fringe that staple tea bags to their foreheads and carry around signs reading "GIT LARNED SUM ANGLISH FUR YALL COME TO DIS COUNTRY" (hint: the more mainstream Tea Party members concern themselves with economic issues like taxation, not so much immigration).
This one Saudi cleric, however, is clearly on the fringe of even Saudi religious authority. So, you're right if you want to compare this guy to the kind of looney fringe of the Tea Party that you'll see on TV, but not if you want to compare him to the average Tea Party member.
This is news for nerds because of Twitter! Twitter is all technical and stuff, with the computers and the social media buzz.
Seriously, WTF? What's next? Baseball scores?
Dude, it's football season.
Be seeing you...
Isn't it about time that this guy and Todd Akin just get a room, already, and make out.
I am not a crackpot.
of course not, because the issue is not really about driving it's about independance.
These comments are my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the other voices in my head.
You might be able to say that women who drive a car get damaged ovaries, but you missing the intermediate step where the woman is dragged from the car and beaten.
If Sarah Silverman had said it, we would be laughing at her joke because that's a stupid thing to say.
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I've had numerous bad driving experience with:
- Women in general
- Asians
- College students
- Old people
- Teenagers
- Men in general
- Animals
- Bicyclists
- Prius drivers
- Lexus drivers
- BMW drivers
- Chevy drivers
- And one helicopter on the Thruway
It ain't just one demographic that makes driving a bad experience in general.
This is the Kardashian model of what makes news worthy. Any idiot saying or doing anything shocking to most of us becomes a media sensation. Just because it was on Twitter doesn't make it relevant to this audience. I'm hoping this trend of dumping crap here skimmed off TMZ headlines doesn't continue.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Until not that long ago women were not supposed to run marathons either... because their uterus might fall out (among other stupid assertions).
Uh, whut?
Akin didn't say that getting pregnances due to rape were uncommon. He said that rapes rarely result in pregnancy, because the female body has a way to "shut down" pregnancies in such circumstances.
So no, there was never a germ of truth in what he said, especially as, for reasons yet to be explained, there is actually statistically a higher chance of getting pregnant if you've been raped than if you've had normal sex.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
When you actually look at the demographics [nytimes.com], the Tea Party crew are actually more educated than the average American
Let's make sure we know what educated means in this context: more degrees than a similar population of average Americans would have. To some extent, this matches my experience: tea partiers - or those who espouse the libertarian aspect of the Tea Party - have more money than average, and have at least a Bachelor Degree, if not a Master. No PhDs among the ones I know though.
However, there's one area where they are spectacularly ignorant, to the point where I'm starting to think that there's some specific cognitive effect at work: they all think that they made it on their own in the world, think that Government should be run like a business and think that the purpose of Society is to make their life better. Keep in mind though that they the vast majority come from wealthy families, have businesses that fail, are full of cronies and family members, experience how shoddy and shady businesses can be, and live in one of the most stable environments in the world.
Even the mainstream Tea Partiers that I know - or at least those who profess no ideological attachment, but pretty much recite Tea Party and Republican political platforms verbatim - indulge in a massive misunderstanding of how society operates, what the role of government is or even what made their own success possible. Top that off with a complete lack of understanding what the debt ceiling is (a badly set up part of the budget process), and even the "moderate" Tea Partiers can come across as complete lunatics. For my friends who are part of this group, I treat them like the crazy uncle - they're always welcome, but certain topics are forbidden, unless everyone consents to "lively" debates until 4 AM.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
Perhaps you could enumerate these statements so that they can be chiseled onto stone tablets?
Where is moderation: -1 False?
First sentence says "Saudi Cleric" claims something is so. Why would anyone with any sense read any further? What are you guys, masochists? Do you intentionally look for things to irritate you? Surely you were aware than nothing beneficial or insightful can follow in anything beginning with "Saudi Cleric claims..."
Stop intentionally finding things to piss yourself off. You'll live a healthier, and probably longer, life.
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
Over the centuries, science has continually reaffirmed that women's health is severely impacted by such stressful activities as reading, writing, voting, driving, owning property, having a job, leaving the kitchen, or thinking.