What Caught My Eye Today

Iraq - An 8-foot fiberglass sculpture of a shoe--a monument to Muntazar al-Zaidi, the reporter who nearly hit President Bush with his shoe last year--was taken down in Tikrit just a day after it was erected. The sculptor made the shoe for a Tikriti orphanage as a reminder of al-Zaidi's courage. Um, I think dude is confusing anger with courage. After Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki heard of the sculpture, he ordered it destroyed. Where is your sense of humor, Prime Minister? It's not like this thing was in a place of national prominence. Besides, Bush is no longer in office, so you don't have to keep sucking up to him anymore.

Saudi Arabia - The Saudi king dismissed the chief of the religious police and a cleric who condoned killing the owners of TV networks that broadcast "immoral" content, signaling an effort to weaken the country's hard-line Sunni establishment. Okay, there are times when I've felt like killing the idiots who put head scratchers like "Moment of Truth" on the air in the first place, but that was more of a metaphorical reaction (besides we all know the executives at Fox are nuts anyway). Usually I just flipped to a different station. This dude is harsh. The king also changed the makeup of an influential body of religious scholars, for the first time giving more moderate Sunnis representation to the group whose duties include issuing the religious edicts known as fatwas. The religious establishment has come under persistent criticism, in particular because of the actions of the judiciary and the religious police. Agents of the moral police are responsible for ensuring women are covered and men go to mosques for prayer, among other things, but many Saudis say they exploit their broad mandate to interfere in people's lives. Well yeah. If a TV show could lead to you getting your head chopped off, I'd say that constitutes a bit of interference. The changes came on Valentine's Day, a busy time for the religious police, who are entrusted with ensuring that no one marks the banned holiday. Agents target shops selling gifts for the occasion, and items that are red or suggest the holiday are removed from the shelves. Some salesmen have been detained for days for infractions. Valentine's Day is banned because of its origins as a celebration of the 3rd century Christian martyr. The day is also targeted because unmarried men and women cannot be alone together. Oh for goodness sake. You people have got to lighten up a bit.

Malaysia - Malaysian identical twin brothers have escaped hanging for drug trafficking as a court failed to decide which brother was the criminal, and cleared both. Talk about your dumb luck. A judge said the case was unique and she could not send the wrong person to his death. The brothers cried in court when they heard the judge say that the prosecution had failed to prove which twin had been arrested first with a car containing 166kg of cannabis and almost 2kg of raw opium. Execution is mandatory for convicted drugs traffickers in Malaysia. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a proponent of the death penalty, but seriously, there was no way to determine which brother was guilty? Two words -- DNA testing.

Sex - In honor of Valentine's Day, I give you sex. 20% of sexually active adults say they have missed work to make time for sex. 13% say they've missed out on time with the kids for sex. 9% have canceled a doctor's appointment for sex. 80% of respondents say they have put off sex because they were too tired or sick. 78% say that the current economic crisis has not affected their sex lives. So...was it good for you?

Cycling - Lance is back, my friends. After kicking off his comeback in Australia last month, Lance Armstrong returned to competitive cycling in his native country with a smooth 10th-place finish in the prologue of the Tour of California. The seven-time Tour de France winner finished the 2.4-mile course around California’s Capitol building in 4 minutes, 37.17 seconds, coming in just 4.3 seconds off the pace set moments later by Switzerland’s Fabian Cancellara. Levi Leipheimer, Armstrong’s Astana teammate and the race’s two-time defending champion, finished second at 4:34.11 in the day’s final ride. Floyd Landis, who’s beginning his comeback from a two-year doping ban, came in 90th amid warm cheers on the next-to-last start. Yeah, yeah whatever. Good for you, Levi, and welcome back Floyd (dude, you are a bit rusty, aren't you). I'm pretty sure the vast majority of the crowd was cheering on Armstrong. I certainly was.