Here come the Saudi Virtue Police

Saudi Arabia's "Muslim Kingdom's Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" is doing its annual Valentine's Day shtick again. CNN reports that commission officials are again hitting the florists and gift shops with orders "to remove red roses, red wrapping paper, gift boxes and teddy bears." The reason, according to a local scholar: The day "encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women."

Gosh, I didn't know that in the 1940's when we kids in Catholic grade school scooted around the classroom giving out little cards for St. Valentine's Day.

CNN adds that the "virtue and vice squad is a police force of several thousand charged with, among other things, enforcing dress codes and segregating the sexes. Saudi Arabia, which follows a strict interpretation of Islam called Wahhabism, punishes unrelated women and men who mingle in public."

I'm sure glad these virtue-and-vice cops weren't around in those old school days of ours. And no need to worry now, since Wahhabism surely must recognize a statute of limitations.