The new Iraqi constitution looks like the rules from Fight Club

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/pickett/cst-nws-pickett26.html

Lack of detail bedevils Iraq's new constitution

<snip>Guaranteed, unless it isn't

Things just get more complicated from there, as the constitution goes on to list some of the rights and freedoms that are "guaranteed" to Iraqi citizens.

Article 17 says that each person has the right to privacy "as long as it does not violate the rights of others or general morality."

And, similarly, Article 36 guarantees freedom of expression, assembly, protest and the press, "as long as {this freedom} does not violate public order and morality."

There's no mention of how morality should be defined, but, if you check out the writings of the senior Shia cleric in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, it becomes clear that, for many of our, ahem, democratic allies in Iraq, morality has a certain know-it-when-I-see-it quality. According to Sistani, chess and backgammon are unquestionably sinful, as is playing the lottery and maintaining a friendship with a member of the opposite sex, while birth control, betting on horses and drinking nonalcoholic beer are all totally OK, as is plastic surgery.

Open, unless they're secret

Article 19 says that Iraqi court sessions will be open "unless the court decides to make them secret." Which, when you get down to it, is not exactly ironclad protection against a tyrannical regime of secret laws and secret courts.

[pointblank]

1. The first rule of the Iraqi constitution...

IS YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE IRAQI CONSTITUTION!!!!


(someone had to do it)

[Dogmudgeon]

2. At least the Prime Minister isn't called "The Dude"

And The Dude Abides -- unless he doesn't.

--p!

[BlueEyedSon]

3. LMFAO!!!

[BlueEyedSon]

4. If this is your first night at the Iraqi Constitution, you HAVE to ....

(fill in the blank!)

[Generic Other]

5. I am so glad our founders didn't include a plastic surgery clause!!

:)

[Roland99]

6. Full Text of Iraqi Constitution (with a few key parts bolded)

http://www.conjur.com/blog/2005/08/26/full-text-of-proposed-iraqi-constitution/

[wli]

7. chess is inherently sinful?

Sounds like I'd better not go to Iraq.