From the Christian Science Monitor -
In Thailand, three years in jail for ‘insulting’ royalty
Not long ago, Harry Nicolaides was another aspiring novelist toiling in obscurity. His self-published debut “Verisimilitude” sold only seven copies.
Today, he got his 15 minutes of fame. But it wasn’t exactly the publicity he might have craved.
A Thai court sentenced Mr. Nicolaides, an Australian, to three years in jail for offending the monarchy, a criminal offense in the Kingdom of Thailand.
His book, which was virtually unknown, was, interestingly enough, contained in the collections of Thailand's National Library until recently.
It took me a few minutes to find, but here is the "offensive" passage, from the English blog 'Late Night Bohemians' -
“From King Rama to the Crown Prince, the nobility was renowned for their romantic entanglements and intrigues. The Crown Prince had many wives “major and minor “with a coterie of concubines for entertainment. One of his recent wives was exiled with her entire family, including a son they conceived together, for an undisclosed indiscretion. He subsequently remarried with another woman and fathered another child. It was rumoured that if the prince fell in love with one of his minor wives and she betrayed him, she and her family would disappear with their name, familial lineage and all vestiges of their existence expunged forever.”
Ummm..."Lese majeste" is definitely not a concept that fits with the American psyche (that pesky 'freedom of speech' thing :) ), but there was a period early in this decade when some might have accepted such a law in a "trading freedom for security" sort of way.
So just imagine if Bush and his "Justice" Department (with the enthusiastic aid of the lapdogs in Congress) had been able to put similar provisions into American law (like say, the USA PATRIOT Act)...
...Every non-Faux News commentator and pundit would be in jail...
...Thousands of bloggers and letter-to-the-editor writers would have joined them (including me)...
...The hundreds of thousands of readers of those blogs and letters would be in prison, too...
...As would the nearly 51 million people who voted for Al Gore in 2000...
...And so would the more than 59 million who voted for John Kerry in 2004...
...Or simply the 73 percent of the country who disapprove of the job Bush has done as president.
On a positive note, with that many people imprisoned, the unemployment rate would be nearly zero.
Everybody who wasn't a prisoner would find work as a Bush Administration guard/torturer.
1 comment:
I am no fan of George W. Bush but I have no sympathy or interest in imaginary portrayals of an even worse (but fictional) President Bush.
President Bush was bad enough. He deserves every speck of contempt that he earned as an Imperial Ruler instead of filling the position of American President he was elected to.
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