Those dumb Arab governments

This picture was taken in Abu Dhabi airport - incidentally, a truly awful airport - while browsing the MSN website. I was trying to read a very innocuous article, something about relationships, you know the kind of silly article that is pure fluff but nevertheless catches your attention with a provocative title. And it has been a long flight, and I wanted to be entertained. So despite the fact that I knew better, I clicked on it, and instead of loading up on my computer in its glorious silliness, I was confronted with... this.

The warning reads: "We apologize the site you have been attempting to visit has been blocked due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates."

It's truly absurd that governments censor what their citizens can see. But what's really ridiculous about this particular experience is the kind of content that the UAE government was censoring, I had just finished reading the New York Times, BBC News, and Dawn, and had no problems at all. So the idiots in Abu Dhabi don't realize that all sorts of bad press coverage about worker revolts and mistreatment of labor and lack of development planning are being consumed happily by their population. But yes, they're being prevented from reading about anything of a romantic nature. Way to go, UAE. I have always believed that the dumbest government officials are Pakistani, but I think you UAE folks have us beat.