The Inquiring Manatee

South Carolina: The New California for Weirdness

     First it was the married Gov. Mark Sanford, caught "hiking the Appalachian Trail" -- translatable as visiting his Argentinian mistress, Maria Chapur Belen, in Buenos Aires -- on the South Carolina taxpayer's time.

     Next, Republican Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina bellowed "you lie!" at President Obama during a healthcare address to a joint session on Capitol Hill.
     So it comes as no surprise that it was a South Carolina man, Rodell Vereen, who was sentenced Wednesday to 3 years in prison for having sex with a horse. The conviction was on a charge of buggery.

    The horse was named Sugar, so presumably it was a mare. I'd hate to think of the alternative.   

    The horse's owner in Conway, S.C., videotaped Vereen in the act after, she said, she noticed her horse acting strangely. Turns out Vereen previously had been arrested in 2007 for sneaking into the stable for sex with the same horse. He was ordered to stay away from the stable, but apparently he had husbandly feelings. It's animal husbandry, if you ask me.

    Theatrical agents are descending on Vereen with offers for when he gets out of stir. Though he is said to have mental problems, he's a natural for the national touring company of "Who is Sylvia?", a play about a guy who's having sex with a goat. 

    Meanwhile, South Carolinians, those wonderful people who gave us Fort Sumter, are burying their heads in their manes -- uh, their hands. Migration to North Carolina is up by 20% this year.

Kill Your Kid for Your Culture

   Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, will be charged with murder in Peoria, Ariz., for running over his daughter with his Jeep in a parking lot because he thought the 20-year-old woman had become "too Westernized" and was bringing shame to the family -- presumably by dating a young man who was also of Arab background.

    Almaleki, an immigrant from Iraq, originally was charged with aggravated assault after the Oct. 20 attack on his daughter, Noor, put her in a coma. She died Monday and charges will be upped to murder, police say.    

     This type of "honor killing" is all too common abroad and also among the immigrants who import the concept when they come to the United States. To call it un-American is to understate the case. Killing your own children -- no matter what the reason -- should shock the conscience in those societies back home and doesn't belong even in those backward places, not to mention here.

   Almaleki himself apparently had become Westernized enough to flee to Britain after running down his daughter. If he was so proud of his "honor" crime, he should have stuck around and bragged about it. Instead, he showed up at Heathrow Airport, where authorities turned him around and put him on a plane to Atlanta. There he was arrested and brought back to Arizona.
    One point I want to make about this horrifying case is this: Here is a man who brought his family from Iraq to America -- to the West. Did he not expect Westernizing influences on his family here? If he was so hung up on Iraqi culture, why didn't he simply stay in Iraq? He should have known that America is a very different society from Iraq, especially when it comes to women's freedom.
    American consular officials who clear Iraqis for immigration here should sit them down at a seminar, teach them American mores and get them to sign pledges to abide by our laws and customs. If they don't agree, they don't get to come to America -- where parents are not legally considered to own their children to the extent of having life or death power over them.
     In short, Third Worlders from patriarchal cultures: If you don't like the West, stay in the East.