A Two-fer

Two of my favorite TownHall.com logical ladies have wonderful columns up today. First, Mona Charen challenges the presses insistence at glamorizing mass murderers like the young man who shot up the Omaha mall this week.

The same dangerous pattern has been repeated again and again. The disturbed man who took hostages at Sen. Clinton's headquarters in New Hampshire told loved ones to "watch the news tonight." The shooter who terrorized an Omaha shopping mall by mowing down total strangers has achieved his goal (and I will not add to the problem by publishing his name). He left a suicide note in which he predicted "at least now I'll be famous." His picture is featured in every newspaper and is flashed on television hourly. His miseries are being dissected and analyzed. An unhappy and rejected young man is finally getting, posthumously, the attention he clearly sought but could not secure in life.

Maybe if this young man had gotten some positive attention in his short life things would have turned out differently. We don't know this for sure, but maybe if SOMEONE had reached out to him this could have been averted.

The other column is from Linda Chavez, whom I don't always agree with. This time, she hits a home run.

President Bush seemed at a loss for words this week when he was asked during a press conference if he would use his influence to help a Saudi rape victim who has drawn international attention. The young woman was raped 14 times by seven men and now faces her own imprisonment and 200 lashes in a sentence imposed by a Saudi court. So what was the victim's "crime"? She happened to be in the company of a man who was not a close relative when she was attacked.
The president hemmed and hawed...When the reporter pressed him on whether he had raised the issue with Saudi King Abdullah in the last few weeks, the president demurred. "We'll have plenty of time. [King Abdullah] knows our position loud and clear."

One of my biggest frustrations with President Bush (aside from amnesty for illegal immigrants) has been his enormous blind spot toward Islam. In the days following 9/11 he (rightly) made the extra effort to remind the American people that not all Arab looking people were terrorists. I applauded that effort and still do. However, he insists that Islam is a "religion of Peace" when every critical thinker who has ever read the Koran (and yes I too have read the Holy Book of Islam) will tell you that there is little about the Koran and the Hadith (the life and teachings of Mohammed) are peaceful! Couple that with the actions of the followers of Islam and one certainly gets the impression that they practice a rather barbaric religion. The brutality that women, gays, Jews and anyone who does not practice their version of Islam is on display daily. Yet this President hems and haws and hesitates to tell our "dear friends" the Saudis the things that they need to be told.....that this is simply NOT DONE in civilized society and if you want to be a part of civilized society you must stop these practices!

Ms. Chavez' main point is this.

The abuse of the rape victim, known only as the "Girl of Qatif," should shame the Saudi government. But it will only do so if the Saudi Royal Family is forced by the civilized world to account for the brutal society the House of Saud has created and rules. President Bush missed his opportunity to do so publicly this week. But it is not too late to do so quietly but directly. The fate of the Girl of Qatif could well turn on the president's intervention.

She is spot on - the President MUST intervene on this girl's behave. As the most powerful leader in the civilized world it is a political and MORAL imperative. Please Mr. President....do the right thing here and tell the House of Saud that this can not stand. For your daughters and grand-daughters sake - do it today!