Father and Son Saved From Beheading by ISIS By Tampon-Free Marathon Runner and SAS Sniper But Mostly the SAS Sniper

The feel-good headshot story of the day.

The brave British marksman saved the terrified eight-year-old and his father after taking out the crazed jihadi with a head shot from 1,000 metres away.

The special forces crack shot then killed two other members of the hated terror group, who were also taking part in the sick planned execution.

ISIS militants had decreed that the little boy and his father must die after branding them "infidels" because they refused to denounce their faith.

They were just seconds from death when the hero sniper intervened to stop the barbaric killing in the Syrian desert. The pair were part of the minority Shia sect of Islam which ISIS considers to be heretical....

Definitely read the article; I wanted to quote it all, because it's just so dramatic and powerful, but I can't. So you'll have to go over to the link.

By the way, an update on that Tampon-Free Marathon Runner: If you didn't know this, and I, personally, did not, she actually has a point.

Apparently in some parts of the world, women are too ashamed of menstruation to properly disinfect their cloth, reusable pads. Thus they get infections. Meanwhile, sanitary pads -- disposable ones -- are too expensive.

So this one guy is on a campaign to deliver a machine that cranks out cheap sanitary pads to the poorer quarters of the world.

A school dropout from a poor family in southern India has revolutionised menstrual health for rural women in developing countries by inventing a simple machine they can use to make cheap sanitary pads.

Arunachalam Muruganantham's invention came at great personal cost - he nearly lost his family, his money and his place in society. But he kept his sense of humour.

"It all started with my wife," he says.

Stop what you're thinking. You just stop that right now, you weisenheimer.

In 1998 he was newly married and his world revolved around his wife, Shanthi, and his widowed mother. One day he saw Shanthi was hiding something from him. He was shocked to discover what it was - rags, "nasty cloths" which she used during menstruation.

"I will be honest," says Muruganantham. "I would not even use it to clean my scooter." When he asked her why she didn't use sanitary pads, she pointed out that if she bought them for the women in the family, she wouldn't be able to afford to buy milk or run the household...

When Muruganantham looked into it further, he discovered that hardly any women in the surrounding villages used sanitary pads - fewer than one in 10...

Women who do use cloths are often too embarrassed to dry them in the sun, which means they don't get disinfected. Approximately 70% of all reproductive diseases in India are caused by poor menstrual hygiene - it can also affect maternal mortality.

I won't quote anymore; it's an interesting article. He's out there doing good stuff with his invention.

And honestly, now that I think back, okay, that Tampon-Free Marathon Runner did bring this to my attention, in a round-about sort of way, as this was Tweeted to me by someone annoyed with her tactics, presenting this as an effective action.

True that -- yet, I still learned something, indirectly, due to this young Social Justice Warrior's still-mostly-about-attention stunt. So her stunt was not without effect.

So, one could draw the conclusion that she did some marginal good with her attempt to de-stigmatize menstruation.

Of course, some people might draw other conclusions.

I denounce that tweet and condemn it with every atom of my being.

posted by Ace at 07:41 PM

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