It sounds like a lot of folks haven't read the original op-ed. Please do! If not for more details of the incident so you don't create a totally pointless thread (ahem BananaStandby), then for her amazing articulation of the frustration of being a brown/Muslim "other" in post-9/11 America:

Yes, but when the lower classes eat McDonald's it suddenly defines their whole existence and is a loathsome symbol of sloth and vice.

I was wondering about that myself. The guy who found them had also just been eating McDonald's. So?

redacted.

"For the next half hour, they watched as I frantically called my husband but was unable to reach him." - from the original linked article

The security guys were NOT Secret Service. According to the original piece, they were externally contracted.

;)

Can we talk about Sue? I LOVE SUE.

Ah, that is a really good point. Meher's post and most of the comments, including mine, assume that the committee's decision was based on the idea that the women attendees' sexuality could not be controlled, which is interesting because sexual appetite is typically only ascribed to men. However, as you point out, the…

I was hoping Jez would cover the study in the article linked below. Here's the conclusion, which solidly refutes the idiotic basis of the Good Men piece:

Um Doug Barry doesn't speak for all feminists/feminism. Obviously he is trying really hard to be snarky and failing. Every single commenter has called him out on that already.

If the moon were made of cheese would you eat it?

She should send Kalteen bars. They burn up all your carbs! Muahahaha

We can worry about issues that relate to Men and issues that relate to Women at the same time because they have the same cause

would it not also be indicative of a larger issue in the US that must be taken seriously?

Well first of all, these guys were delegates from the UAE visiting Saudi for this event, so I wouldn't say their lives were uprooted.

Ah, I was wondering if that was the case but couldn't tell from the post. I erred on the side of Admiral Ackbar. Thanks for the clarification.

The law is actually abbreviated TRAP?! How appropriate!

I think paid surrogacy is inherently exploitative, no matter the conditions. It is illegal to buy organs, for example, under any conditions. You can donate a kidney, but you cannot be compensated for it. In certain markets, exploitation and coercion are unavoidable, and I think that applies here. If a woman wants to…

There needs to be a line somewhere. I draw it at getting a fucking discount because you're using a third world woman's body as your personal baby incubator. Either pay them what surrogacy demands in the U.S. (right, then they wouldn't bother using an Indian woman), adopt, or move on with your life. Your desire for a…