I just don't get it.

If a bunch of people sat in a room with the task of imagining the most f***ed-up thing they could think of, it couldn't be much worse than this:

A 13-year-old girl is raped by three men, and when her father complains to the authorities, they accuse her of adultery and sentence her to be stoned to death. She is taken to a football stadium where 1,000 people watch as she is placed in a hole in the ground and buried to her neck. Fifty men stone her, and at one point nurses are sent to check whether she is still alive. She is, so they put her back in the hole until she dies. Then a story is fabricated for the press in which she is 23 and pleads guilty to "adultery," accepting her fate, rather than pleading for her life, as she did in reality -- as if these changes of detail makes the hideous spectacle somehow excusable. Later, Amnesty International learned the factual details from witnesses to the execution. One boy was shot in a crossfire as members of the crowd attempted to assist the girl.

So, yes, this is what is happening on the mainland in Somalia.

After reading that horrible, enraging story, I needed to search for organizations that are helping women in places that hold little hope for them -- although, in the case of the organization below, not specifically Somalia, but perhaps they will include that country in the future. But it is helping women in Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo, Sudan, etc. It looks like a wonderful organization. I have been looking for something like this to support.

Women for Women International

Stephen Says: Let's Celebrate the "Democralypse"

... by voting for Barack or Hillary at DonorsChoose.org, and meanwhile help fund teacher-requested projects for schools in Pennsylvania, the current locus of the impending Democralypse. As seen on The Colbert Report.

I'm not gonna say who I "voted" for, but she (or at least some of her people) would probably rather the money went into her campaign. But hey, she kinda needed some help there...

Seriously, though, this is a great model for a charitable organization; I wish there were more like it... donors want to know that their money isn't just going for salaries or falling into a black hole.

A good website...

... never hurts a good cause.

I was impressed with Amnesty International's anti-Guantanamo site

Tearitdown.org

Check it out; sign; pass it on, if you please.

Cool Thing of the Day: FreeRice.com

It's a fun, addictive little word game that improves your vocabulary, and for every word you get right, 20 grains of rice are donated through the United Nations to help end world hunger.

It's simple. It's tangible. If people are going to slack at their desks, (and people always will, as long as there are desks at which to slack) it may as well be for a good cause.

Check it out.

Speaking of The Colbert Report, on Thursday's show...

... Stephen had Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist, as a guest, and Newmark (or let's just call him Craig) mentioned a really cool thing: DonorsChoose.org, which allows donors to choose the precise amount of their donation to students and classrooms in need, as well as the specific project they would like to fund.