Serpent logics: simple incongruities

[ by Charles Cameron — religious law enforcement, therapy incarcerated, and a quick blast of Johnny Cash ]

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As you know, I collect instances of various patterns I see recurring in my twitterstream and elsewhere — here, I’d like to introduce a new pattern that I’ll simply call “simple incongruities”.

My first example, which I ran across several days ago, was this one from Saudi Arabia:

Apparently, "religious police chase" is a thing in Saudi Arabia. http://t.co/96cW0AnqDZ

— Tim Mathews (@timmathews) September 24, 2013

From the [Lebanese] Daily Star news report:

A Saudi motorist died and a passenger was injured on Tuesday when a religious police vehicle crashed into their car during a hot pursuit in Riyadh, a newspaper reported. A patrol of the notorious police, known unofficially as Mutawaa, chased two young men travelling in a sedan before crashing into their vehicle, forcing it off an overpass and onto a lower-level road, Al-Hayat daily said. The patrol vehicle fled the scene instantly, the daily said. “We pray to Allah to forgive the dead,” said Mohammed al-Shraimi, assistant spokesman of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the official name of the Mutawaa.

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It’s my second example — from nearer home — which I only ran across today that inspired me to make a separate post about these incongruities. The image of caged prisoners in a group therapy session at San Quentin (see above) was just too remarkable for me to pass over. The tweet that brought it to my attention is below:

Astonishing picture of a group therapy session in a California prison; http://t.co/pirlQYqHG4

— Olivia Solon (@olivia_solon) September 25, 2013

Here’s a comment from Johnny Cash — to give you added San Quentin context: