Kuwait Sentences Two Men To Jail For Tweets Criticizing Ruler 91
New submitter Oxide writes "A Kuwaiti court sentenced a man to two years in prison on Monday for insulting the country's ruler on Twitter, his lawyer said, the second person to be jailed for the offense in as many days. The Gulf state has clamped down in recent months on political activists who have been using social media websites to criticize the government and the ruling family. What's interesting is that the tweets in question did not mention the ruler directly but just indicated it might be him it is referring to."
Re:Dont talk shit about people... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I don't blame them (Score:3, Insightful)
I still remember with bitter disappointment the day I discovered that the 30cm on one edge of my ruler didn't exactly line up with the 15" on the other side after all.
Why would you be disappointed? They should be out by approximately three inches!
Good Thing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Damned Tyrants! (Score:4, Insightful)
What these tyrants fail to realize, is that nobody takes anything anyone states on social media seriously. The Internet is a community of screwballs, nitwits and the outright bat-shit crazy.
On the Internet, folks will say to you stuff like, "Your mother's muff is astroturf!" and "Heidi Klum is actually an investment-grade Lego Mindstorms collectors' edition set!"
So what? "Twits and stones will break your bones . . . ?"
Re:Damned Tyrants! (Score:5, Insightful)
> nobody takes anything anyone states on social media seriously
Until you put them in jail.
And we defended this country from Iraq? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think we should have let it become part of Iraq and then taken Iraq.
Sometimes, most of the time, I say we should stay the hell out of the middle east. It's not the "American peoples' business." Sure, there are some people in the US who have business there and so be it. Let THEM pay for their armed assistance defending their business. Why should US tax payers pay for the armed defense of their business? Do we get tax breaks or rebates? Sure, we get cheaper prices at the pump, but cheaper compared to what? I think the result of higher gas prices are well known... higher cost of employees and a shortage of the ones employers want. That would lead to more use of public transportation and/or telecommuting and all the things the oil industry dreads because it's all a reduction in the use and dependency on big oil. It all serves big oil's business interests which are:
1. Maintain everyone's dependence on big oil
Short list of interests right?
Re:Damned Tyrants! (Score:5, Insightful)
Cripes, reading this makes the US sound like the Land of the Free.
It sure does, doesn't it? That's why I yell so loudly about every little infringement of our freedoms. We'll miss them when they're gone, even the ones we didn't think we were interested in.
Liberated (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm so glad we liberated Kuwait, so that they could get their tyrannical regime back.
Re:Damned Tyrants! (Score:5, Insightful)
Let's review the Arab Spring just for giggles. Tunisia: moderate government but the Islamists are grinding their teeth and threatening people. Egypt: elected an Islamist who appears to be governing by decree...admittedly attempting to lead a failed state. Libya: warring clans, no central government. Syria: civil war. Saudi Arabia: Arab What? Yemen: weak central government, Islamists wandering the hills in search of victims...errr...followers. Kuwaiti: still ruled by the fat boys in robes. The rest of the Gulf States: see Saudi Arabia. Algeria: still fighting the Islamists, central government has heard of democracy but is having none of it. Morocco: still has monarchy which is fighting tooth and nail to remain relevant, Islamists don't yet have a significant foothold. The other African countries have Islamists cutting off heads, arms, legs, etc....gotta wonder what they have against those limbs.
Some spring. Allah-forbid summer should come, the Islamists won't rest until every Arab is under their boot.
Re:I think I remember (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't true. For instance, the Taliban banned the education of women, but education of women was allowed before that. Schools had to close down--why would they have to close down something which according to you never could have existed?
The Taliban were also known for destroying some historical Buddhist statues for religious reasons. If what you were saying is true, and the people of the area have the same beliefs as the Taliban, those statues would have been destroyed already by the locals.
It's true that the people of Afghanistan want what would by Western standards still be a dictatorship, but some dictatorships are bad, and some are really bad.