DULM, 4 April 2007 — Police at a checkpoint didn’t buy the excuse that three men gave for why their vehicle shouldn’t be searched at a checkpoint on the way to the holy city of Makkah: They were in a hurry to perform the Umrah pilgrimage. According to a local Arabic newspaper yesterday, the police didn’t buy the excuse because the three men were clearly under the influence of something. That something turned out to be booze: The cops found two bottles of it in the back seat. It’s one thing to drink. It’s another thing to drink and drive. But to drink, drive and try to hide it by claiming to be in a hurry to fulfill religious piety? No comment necessary.
Cyber-Bullying Turns Into Real Bullying
MANAMA, 4 April 2007 — A “flame war” is a term that describes the utterly pointless, self-gratifying arguments among anonymous strangers that are known to appear on Internet forums or blogs that are often characterized by a lot of personal insults. Flame wars are often started by “trolls”, a term for people who scour online forums and blogs looking for people with whom to argue — the topic of the argument is rarely as important as the argument itself. Anyone who spends five minutes reading the comments left on Internet forums or blogs knows that otherwise-decent human beings turn into “flaming trolls” when given an anonymous identity and endless space to spew their views and insults. Recently, two Saudis got into a discussion that degraded into an argument and then a flame war recently. One of them turned into a troll and said something very demeaning about the other guy’s mother. The other guy responded by daring the troll to insult him to his face. The troll gave his adversary his home address. Sure enough, the Saudi hunted down his troll and physically assaulted him. Moral of the story: When you behave like a troll, it’s best to remain hidden.
