Yeetle Box - Iowa's Shotgun Geniez Moves Into Theatrical Performances

According to Fremont County Judge Timothy O'Grady, nude dancing remains an art in Des Moines, Iowa.

Judge O'Grady ruled in favor of a nude dancing club owner charged with violating Iowa's indecent exposure law. Judge O'Grady, a frequent patron of the club, said prosecutors failed to prove the club was not a theater.

In his ruling, Judge O'Grady stated, "Unlike that filthy theater which Pee Wee Herman frequented, and subsequently exposed himself in the most un-Pee Wee manner, this club allows free expression in the form of dance."

Iowa law allows nudity at theaters, museums and other venues devoted to the arts or theatrical performances. Many famous nude performers flock to Iowa to express their artistic visions, including so many none come to mind.

The county's attorney, Margaret Johnson, charged club owner Clarence Judy after a 17-year-old girl climbed on stage at Shotgun Geniez in the tiny town of Hamburg and stripped off her clothing.

"I think it's a little scary," said Johnson, who emphasized that the girl was still a minor. "She is way too young to understand art or theatrical performance. Her performance was flawed and not the least bit professional. Performers takes years to perfect their acts. She took five minutes."

The club was sold Monday to Terry Rutledge who expressed confidence that nude dancing would remain legal, referring to a 1998 case in Davenport that found it an art.

"In all actuality, you don't have to be a theater hall, concert hall or anything. You can be a strip club that has nude dance," Rutledge said. "Even a strip mall or a foyer of a commercial building or the street itself meets the definition, as I understand the law."

The state attorney general's office will decide whether to appeal the case after viewing in person the club's activities. In the meantime, the arts are alive and well in Iowa.

The Yeetle Box

Yeetle Box - Alabama Beer Run

Grady "Skip" Wilburn Dollar, 64, was accused of stabbing Mickey Joe Hill, 37, during a dispute, said Sgt. Mark Richard of Alabama's Lawrence County Sheriff's Department.

Richard said the two men had been drinking together when Dollar gave Hill $10 and told him to go to the store for more. Richard said Hill brought back only four cans of Natural Light, a low-cost brand, and Dollar got mad that he didn't get more for his money.

"He said, 'For $10 you could have gotten a half case,'" said Richard. "Four cans of Natural Light only cost $3 or $4."

(This means Hill kept $6 - $7 for himself.)

The victim then asked for one of the four beers and pushed the older man when he refused to hand one over, the investigator said.

"Then the suspect went to the kitchen, got a big butcher knife and came back and stabbed him," Richard said.

Hill remained hospitalized with a wound to the lower abdomen but was expected to recover fully since the blade missed all major organs still in tact.

Dollar was free on $5,000 bond. Richard said records did not reflect that he had hired an attorney, and there was no telephone listing in Dollar's name.

"Funny thing," said Richard. "$5,000 could buy a lot of really good beer. Go figure."

Funny thing: How does Richard know all of this?

The Yeetle Box

Yeetle Box - Saudi's Report Low Divorce Rate

A Saudi appeals court upheld a jail and flogging (J & F) verdict against a biochemist and his female student whose research contact was ruled to be a front for a telephone affair that led her to divorce her husband. In other words.

Zahrani was sentenced last year to eight months in prison and 600 lashes and his student to four months in prison and 350 lashes for establishing a telephone relationship that the court said led her to divorce her husband. Laws designed to protect the sanctity of marriage have long been among Saudi's successful low divorce rate.

The man said the only recourse left to him was the Supreme Judicial Council, a court of cassation that only views cases if requested by the king - who was not available for comment. He also hopes for intervention from the government's Human Rights Commission - which meets about every so often.

It was not possible to verify the appeals court ruling and a Commission spokesman was not available for comment, much to the chagrin of Zahrani.

The woman obtained a divorce seven months after she was married in 2004. Her husband then raised the court case, saying the supervisor's telephone calls led to the break-up - a tactic dating back to the beginning of all time in Saudi Arabia.

Rights groups and Saudi reformers have criticized what they say is an arbitrary justice system, based on uncodified Islamic sharia law, unsuited to the needs of a country of 25 million people. There are less than 1,000 judges, all of them religious scholars. Reformers have long looked to overturn the 600/350 lashes / eight / six months ratios as discriminatory against women and have argued that too many judges result in frivolous law suits.

The government says the system ensures justice for Muslims and non-Muslims but is in the process of overhauling the organization of courts and putting a formal penal code in writing - a task they estimate will reach completion sometime in the far, far future.

In a related story...

In a remarkable show of compassion, King Abdullah pardoned a Saudi Arabian rape victim sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail for adultery.

The married 19-year-old woman was with a male friend when they were abducted at knifepoint and sexually assaulted by a gang of seven men.

Despite her ordeal, she was charged and convicted of having an affair with the man.

Critics complained the king had breached the rules of his religion to appease the West. Prosecutors insisted the woman, from Qatif, was on an adulterous liaison when she was attacked. She said she was meeting an old friend to retrieve a photograph he had of her from their schooldays - a sure sign of adultery in Saudi Arabia.

It was unclear last night whether the sentence of 90 lashes doled out to the male friend was commuted.

The Yeetle Box