Cuckolded Husband Narcs on Wife: She Goes to Prison

The husband of a woman who had an affair while living in Dubai, tipped the local police off to her indiscretion and she and her lover were sentenced to two months in prison for adultry.

The cases highlight the conservative legal code that governs Dubai, a city-state that has advertised itself as a tourist and business mecca in the heart of the Middle East. It caters heavily to Western tastes and lifestyles for its international allure, but its legal code is based on Islamic laws and tribal rules.

Sally Antia and her lover, Mark Hawkins, were arrested May 2 after leaving a Dubai luxury hotel in the early morning hours, according to court documents. Antia's husband, Vince, alerted the police to his wife's infidelity.

The couple should be happy they were only sentenced to prison. Here is what could have happened under a strict enforcement of Islamic law:

Adultery is the most serious of crimes. If the guilty party is married, he or she is sentenced to death by stoning, beheading, or shooting. Stoning is the usual method of punishment. Proof of this crime must be established by confession or by four witnesses to the act.

Debtor's Prisons Repackaged

I first learned of the concept of a debtor's prison from reading Charles Dickens in my youth. At the time I couldn't see the logic behind the concept because how could someone pay their debt if they were locked up?

At the federal level, the United States did away with this practice in the 1830's. The UK followed suit in 1869. Supposedly, no one can be jailed for failure to pay a debt, right? Sorry, Charlie, that ain't so.

Now this is an extreme case and may have merit, but check this out from AJC.com:

A former employee of Global Destiny Church has asked a Gwinnett judge to put Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III in jail for contempt of court because he failed to repay a debt to her.

A petition for contempt was filed Tuesday by Suzanne Ellis. The petition says that Weeks, and his church empire Global Destiny Inc. and TWIII Ministries Inc., never reimbursed Ellis for about $90,000 worth of items she was asked to buy as an employee.

Bishop Weeks might be going to jail for failing to pay a debt, but the justice system will call it contempt of court, kind of a repackaged debtor's prison.

A legacy of suicide

Nicholas Hughes, son of poet Sylvia Plath, committed suicide at the age of 47 last week at his home in Fairbanks, Alaska. Plath, killed herself in 1963.

Here is something I did not know:

Ted Hughes [father of Nicholas] relived the tragedy not only through the constant reminders of Plath, but also through the suicide of Wevill, his second wife, who in March 1969 killed herself and their 4-year-old daughter.

Since Nicholas was unmarried and had not children, this sad legacy of suicide will end with him.

What Goes Around, Comes Around

Oh, the poor Bushies. Dubya's approval rating is around 20 percent and sadness surrounds the White House.

ADMINISTRATION -- WITH RECORD LOW APPROVAL, 'REAL SADNESS' HANGS OVER BUSH WHITE HOUSE: A new CBS News poll finds that President Bush's approval rating is now at just 20 percent -- the "lowest ever recorded for a president." The President's "disapproval rating of 72 percent matches his all-time high, first reached last month." Yesterday, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino complained about about Bush's abysmal approval ratings, claiming that they are like a high school popularity contest. "Everybody would like to be popular. You can all remember that back in high school, everyone really wanted to be popular. Some of us just weren't," she lamented. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that loyal Bushies are engaging in upbeat talk to mask "disappointment and frustration among many White House staffers," who see their boss as "a good and steadfast man who has gotten a bad rap." The Post quoted a "prominent Republican who regularly talks with senior White House officials," who reportedly said, "There is a real sadness there."

McCain Involved in Car Crash?

Ordinarily we don't hold with conspiracy theories (yeah, right) like the one involving George W. Bush and his National Guard service, or lack thereof, but this article caught our attention:

News Orgs Investigate Possibly Fatal McCain '64 Car Crash

For the past two months, a major American magazine and an allied news service have been engaged in a legal battle with the United States Navy over records that they believe show that John McCain once was involved in an automobile accident that injured or, perhaps, killed another individual.

Vanity Fair magazine and the National Security News Service claim to have knowledge "developed from first-hand sources" of a car crash that involved then-Lt. McCain at the main gate of a Virginia naval base in 1964, according to legal filings. The incident has been largely, if not entirely, kept from the public. And in documents suing the Navy to release pertinent information, lawyers for the NS News Service allege that a cover-up may be at play.

Georgia Ordered to Allow Voting

Federal judges have ordered the state of Georgia to allow voting by any citizen "flagged" by the state's voter ID law.

The court also ordered Secretary of State Karen Handel to “make diligent and immediate efforts to notify, in a uniform manner, every person whose voter registration presently remains flagged.” Those voters must be told that they can vote by a “challenged ballot,” if necessary, and that there is a discrepancy in the voters’ registration information, the court said.

McCain's Mortgage Buyout Plan

Remember when John McCain sprung his mortgage buyout plan during his debate with Barak Obama earlier this month? No? We're not surprised.

Not only has it been termed "risky" by Obama and many others, within two days, McCain modified his plan. It is not even mentioned now.

Mike Colpitts of HousingPredictor.com had the best description we have seen of McCain's plan in a recent interview:

This [McCain's Plan] is seen as putting a tourniquet on the crisis, but the hemorrhaging will continue. Only 15-17 percent of all mortgages are subprime. The majority of the problem is with homeowners who have adjustable rate mortgages. These people are unable to refinance because their homes don't have the value they did when the original mortgage was taken out.

Is there any hope for these people? Time will tell, but don't count on it.