Two Indonesian Women Beheaded in Saudi Arabia Early April.

As international attention has been focused on Indonesia's execution of convicted drug smugglers, Saudi Arabia's execution of two Indonesian women earlier this month has gone under the radar.

From a story dated April 15, 2015;

"Efforts by President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo to secure reprieves for hundreds of Indonesians on death row in overseas prisons met a sudden setback on Tuesday with the unexpected execution of a mentally ill Indonesian worker in Saudi Arabia."

While turning a deaf ear to pleas for clemency from foreign governments regarding executions of foreign nationals by Indonesia, President Widoto is not too embarrassed to request clemency from Saudi Arabia regarding Indonesians on death row there. The Indonesian government has gone as far as offering diyat [blood money] - Rp 2 billion [US$154,410] in one incident, in attempts to save Indonesians from the death penalty in Saudi Arabia.

The Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry has said that 36 nationals are currently undergoing legal proceedings in Saudi courts, and are threatened with the death penalty.

It added that they have been charged with criminal cases, such as witchcraft, adultery and murder.

Recruiter's Surrender Instrumental in Mary Jane's Reprieve.

Maria Kristina P. Sergio, aka Mary Christine Gulles Pasadilla, the alleged recruiter of Mary Jane Veloso, has surrendered to authorities in Nueva Ecija. According to philstar.com,"Sergio said she surrendered as she fears for her life after receiving death threats. She maintained, however, that she was not responsible for deceiving Veloso but she is willing to undergo investigation".

The National Bureau of Investigation-Anti Human Trafficking Division (NBI-AHRAD) alleges that Veloso is a victim of deception and human trafficking.

abs-cbnnews.com is reporting that Sergio's being in custody was instrumental in the Indonesian government's grant of reprieve that spared Veloso from being executed at midnight on Wednesday.

Sergio, along with her live-in partner Julius Lacanilao and an African man identified as "Ike" have been charged with human trafficking, illegal recruitment and estafa.

Rappler.com has done an excellent job covering all the aspects of Mary Jane Veloso's case.

Pacquiao Pleads for Mary Jane Veloso's Life.

From Sydney Morning Herald:

World boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao took time out from preparing for Sunday's megafight fight with Floyd Mayweather to join a massive outpouring of support in the Philippines for a Filipina mother of two whose execution appears imminent alongside Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.

"I am begging and knocking on your kind heart that your excellency will grant executive clemency to her," Pacquiao, a national hero in the Philippines, said in a televised appeal to Mr Widodo.

Writer Wants All Ten Year Old Boys Castrated.

It's funny, sometimes, how we get from point A to point B. The route we take isn't always the most direct.

This morning a found a spamish email in my inbox from the speroforum. I don't know why I've suddenly become the recipient of Speronews; to the best of my knowledge, I didn't intentionally subscribe to it. Be that as it may, thanks to the email, I learned of an open letter to Pope Francis being circulated by a group calling itself The Cornwall Alliance.

The group describes itself as,
"A coalition of theologians, pastors, ministry leaders, scientists, economists, policy experts, and committed laymen, the Cornwall Alliance is an evangelical voice promoting environmental stewardship and economic development built on Biblical principles."

I've read their open letter, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. The letter, however, isn't the point of this post. The Cornwall Alliance website posts articles, originally posted elsewhere, which reference global warming - or climate change.

One such article is one written by Megan Toombs ,originally published on Townhall.com. In the article, Toombs rightly criticizes an article by Katie Herzog, Why I’ll never have kids, and why you shouldn’t either. As Toombs explains, Herzog's basic argument "is that Earth’s climate is in danger, it’s our fault, and something must be done—something drastic."

Herzog's solution?

"Ritualistically castrate all males at age ten, and destroy dams and other infrastructure, 'preparing the earth for the end of people' ".

Besides her view that reproducing human offspring is destroying the planet, another reason why she will never have babies is because she is "a tote-bag-carrying-nature-loving-gun-hating-child-free-atheist" Lesbian who has no maternal instinct.

Offhand, I can think of another reason why Herzog will never reproduce.

Catholic Vulgarians.

In a recent article for  The National Catholic Register, Mark Shea attempts to take a middle of the road approach to swearing and vulgarity.

On the one hand he admits,

"That’s not say vulgarity is no big deal. We live in a culture awash in vulgarity and adding to the river of sewage in the world is not a big help. Christian homeschoolers do well, as a general rule, not to instruct their kids in what the 60’s tediously called “keepin’ it real”. 
Keeping it clean is much more to the point in a culture that has a mouth like a toilet. We have a surfeit of raunchy comedians and superfluous sleaze. We do not have a glut of people who can carry on an articulate, thoughtful and funny conversation without recourse to the F word as a sort of placeholder for actual thought".

He then goes on to let us know, however, that using "four-letter Anglo-Saxon words having to do with reproduction and excretion" isn't the same as blasphemy; whereas there is not excuse for blasphemy, the occasional use of vulgar Anglo-Saxon words isn't nearly as bad.

I thought, at first, he may have been preparing a defense for his friend Simcha Fischer, and her use of "the F word" in all it's glory, in a column of hers which he encouraged us to read.

Now, another "Catholic" writer at patheos.com wants to join in. In her latest post. The Crescat feels the need to express herself with a few three, four and seven letter Anglo-Saxon words which were once considered too vulgar to use in a family publication.

I confess; I'm guilty of using vulgar words from time to time. But, when writing, like Jonah Goldberg I prefer creative euphemisms (such as "bovine-scatological colloquialism").