Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Mark Kleiman are both outraged at the free pass Saudi Arabia is getting from the U.S. government for both religious persecution and human rights abuses more generally. Meanwhile, President Bush tells reporters ‘I’m reading the Bible every day’. Mark nails the issue, noting that “Foreign workers get tossed into stinking prisons for practicing the faith our President so ostentatiously claims to share—I think the technical term for his behavior is ‘praying in the streetcorners, to be seen of men’”.

I’m reminded of a poem by Oliver Goldsmith that I learned at school.

bq. Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog

Good people all, of every sort, Give ear unto my song; And if you find it wondrous short, It cannot hold you long.

In Islington there lived a man, Of whom the world might say That still a godly race he ran, Whene’er he went to pray.

A kind and gentle heart he had, To comfort friends and foes; The naked every day he clad, When he put on his clothes.

And in that town a dog was found, As many dogs there be, Both mongrel, puppy, whelp and hound, And curs of low degree.

This dog and man at first were friends; But when a pique began, The dog, to gain some private ends, Went mad and bit the man.

Around from all the neighbouring streets The wondering neighbours ran, And swore the dog had lost his wits, To bite so good a man.

The wound it seemed both sore and sad To every Christian eye; And while they swore the dog was mad, They swore the man would die.

But soon a wonder came to light, That showed the rogues they lied: The man recovered of the bite, The dog it was that died.