An insight into how many Arab men appreciate rotund women and are force-feeding them into obesity. They start at the age of eight. Money quote about one of these victims:
Ms. Ethmane says she was required to consume four liters of milk in the morning, plus couscous. She ate milk and porridge for lunch. She was awoken at midnight and given several more pints of milk, followed by a prebreakfast feeding at 6 a.m. If she threw up, she says, her mother forced her to eat the vomit. Stretch marks appeared on her body, and the skin on her upper arms and thighs tore under the pressure. If she balked at the feedings, her mother squeezed her toes between two wooden sticks until the pain was unbearable. “I would devour as much as possible,” says Ms. Ethmane. “I resembled a mattress.” …
Force-feeding is usually done by girls’ mothers or grandmothers; men play little direct role. The girls’ stomachs are sometimes vigorously massaged in order to loosen the skin and make it easier to consume even greater quantities of food. … Local officials say some women are so fat they can barely move. In [a Mauritanian] survey, 15% of the women said their skin split as a result of overeating. One-fifth of women said one of their toes or fingers were broken to make them eat.
Kudos for Daniel Pipes and the WSJ for bringing attention to this problem. Where, one wonders, are Western feminists?
EUPHEMISM WATCH: “Mitt Romney is going to have a hard time connecting with the social sonservative base of the party given his Mormon faith–just a fact of life. For what it’s worth…” – a GOP insider as reported by Rich Lowry in NRO. Lowry clarified with another less pronounced euphemism: “Yes, the point that insider I cited earlier was making was that a Mormon would have trouble connecting with the evangelical Christian base of the party.” It’s not a big deal, but it is interesting as an indicator of what the GOP now is: a sectarian base with political outreach. “Trouble connecting …?” Translation: a Mormon would not be accepted by the evangelical Christian base of the GOP because he’s a … Mormon. When your base is sectarian, it’s not surprising they have sectarian preferences. A simple question: will someone not “born again” be able to be a Republican candidate for president in the near future? The answer isn’t obvious.
The Dish 