What the cool kids are saying

Bean over at Alas, A Blog has info about an Indian woman named Nisha Sharma, who had her husband-to-be arrested for trying to milk her family for cash.

"He wanted material things - not me," Ms Sharma, a 21-year-old software- engineering student, said, her hands and feet still painted with intricate henna designs, the traditional hallmark of an Indian bride.

Police arrested the groom under the country’s anti-dowry act - passed more than four decades ago to combat the ancient practice in which a groom’s family demands cash, consumer goods and gold as part of a marriage settlement - but which is still widely flouted.

Yay for her! This is very encoraging news. Things like this tend to happen when society is starting to make a change for the better.

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Hesiod has a comment on what might happen if suicide bombings on par with the recent bombings in Morocco were to happen in the U.S.

This will result in two things:

1) Massive panic, and fear in the U.S., along with a number of dead Americans.
2) A major clamp down on our civil liberties that will make the Patriot Act look like the Declaration of Independence.

It is disturbing, even after September 11th, 2001, to think that things like this are possible in the United States.

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Rittenhouse tells the sad story of Ashleigh Moore in a series of heartbreaking posts. Here's the first one, the second, third, fourth, and the unfortunate final post.

What I really don't want to think about is if there could have possibly been a different outcome if African-American Ashleigh's disappearance had been given the same early 5-alarm treatment as that of the blonde Elizabeth Smart.

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On a much lighter note, Michael McInnis entertains with this story of a strange encounter during the lunar eclipse.

When I finally entered my house, my cat waiting on the porch, I realized that these guys would do anything to get a photo-op. It looked like they were about to sacrifice a virgin to appease the angry gods that had turned the moon blood red. They will stop at nothing to win election. If Clinton had tried a stunt like this there would have been an uproar in the media. But then the last lunar eclipse I saw was just before the '96 elections. So maybe Clinton did sacrifice a virgin, except it was not orchestrated like this event. Perhaps it was a quiet family affiar in the Rose Garden.

Made me laugh out loud, at work even. The person in the cubicle next to mine stopped what they were doing and stared at me.