(Facebook) Criminals Brought To Justice

There are, I suppose, good reasons to avoid sarcasm as a rhetorical device. It is not useful in bringing those who disagree around to your point of view. There also exists the practical difficulty of sarcasm being hard to impart with the written word. However, let me point out that it has been 1,069 days since the murder of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, and it is unlikely that today will be the day his killers are brought to justice. The same can be said regarding the cases of, for example, Gebran Tueni, Samir Kassir, Pierre Gemayel, Walid Eido, Antoine Ghanem, the victims of this week's attack in Dawra-Karantina, and the other politicians and civilians targeted in recent years. Despite all this, you will be happy to know that the rule of law has finally returned to Lebanon:

"Four Lebanese university students have been jailed for a week for making crude remarks on the Facebook social networking site about the singing talents of a woman they met at a party, media reports said on Thursday.

...

The four were charged with slander and 'violating public morality' and were ordered to be held in preventive detention despite objections by human-rights groups."

Free speech includes the right to criticize others. It even includes the right to make stupid, petty attacks on one's classmates. In societies which do not treat its citizens like infants, the authorities assume that people can judge minor gossip for what it is, and draw their own conclusions about those who spread it. They also assume that those on the receiving end have thick enough skin to respond with a comment of their own, rather than requiring the protection of rifle-wielding policemen. Forgive me if, at the moment, the only feeling I can conjure up towards the Lebanese justice system is one of contempt.