Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader seems to be reading a lot about goings-on in Asia today. First it was Burma moving its capital. Now it is Pakistanis killing their children to protect their honor. According to press reports, Nazir Ahmed has killed his three daughters and his stepdaughter to preserve his family honor. It is alleged, by Ahmed, that his stepdaughter (aged 25) committed adultery. Although the woman’s alleged lover has not been found, Ahmed slit her throat to preserve his family honor. Then Ahmed went and killed his three daughters (aged 8, 7, and 4) so that they wouldn’t grow up and follow their stepsister’s bad example.

When the police investigation is completed Ahmed may be sentanced to die by hanging. Then again, he might get 10 years in prison. One can only hope that he is hanged.

The most startling portion of the article, in an article that is pretty horrifying to begin with, is the information on how many honor killings there may be in Pakistan each year. There may have been 267 this year (2005). There were over 500 reported last year. Some may claim, as the article does, that this is due to increased penalties, more policing, and a stricter stand against such horrible crimes. What the article doesn’t claim, and your Maximum Leader is sure it would claim if the article were written about crime in the US, is that perhaps some honor killings aren’t being reported as such and are hidden. One wants to be optimistic, but it is hard to when a nation (and in some cases a religion) has a bad track record.

Carry on.