Save Me From Those Who Would Save Me

Here’s advice for all you adults reading this: Never trust anybody who forces you to act a certain way and tells you it’s for your own good. The latest illustration of this principle is the country of Malaysia, which wants to protect women from the evil scary world by making it illegal for them to leave the country without written permission from an employer or male relative:

Women's groups in Malaysia have reacted angrily to proposed government restrictions on women travelling abroad on their own.

State media say the plan would require women to obtain written consent from their families or employers.

The Malaysian foreign minister said the move would prevent single women being used by gangs to smuggle drugs.

The proposal follows a review of criminal cases where women had been jailed abroad.

Foreign Minister Rais Yatim said 90% of cases where Malaysian women had been jailed by foreign courts involved drugs.

He told the New Sunday Times newspaper that a compulsory letter of consent to travel alone would enable women's families to make sure they were not being tricked by drug smuggling gangs.

Note that the story does nothing to put these statistics in context: what percentage of women traveling abroad are jailed? What percentage of men? Among Malaysian men jailed overseas, what percentage of them were arrested on drug charges? No matter. It’s the women who need to have their freedom infringed, for their own good of course.

Meanwhile, you’ve no doubt heard the story of the creepy Austrian man who locked his daughter in the basement for 24 years, raped her repeatedly and forced her to bear seven of his children. The father said he locked her in the basement “to prevent her having access to the local drug scene.”

Ah, glorious drugs. Is there any act of evil your detractors won’t embrace? Nope.