My hunch is that our great right-wing pundits who advocate the virtues of tradition and subservience to the leader would just love to live in Swaziland:

Princess Sikhanyiso, 17, told the Times of Swaziland a palace official whipped girls, including beauty queen Miss Swaziland, at the party as a punishment after they refused to turn down the music. She was pictured showing her bruises.

Thousands of bare-breasted virgins will dance for Africa's last absolute monarch in Monday's Reed Dance ceremony, which King Mswati III has used to choose new brides.

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Thousands of girls, some swathed in drapes bearing the king's image and some in beaded mini skirts, streamed into the royal compound on Sunday singing songs and carrying towering reeds to present to the Queen Mother -- also known as the Great She Elephant.

The girls -- who must be virgins and older than 13 -- were flanked by male supervisors dressed in animal-skin loin cloths with traditional porcupine quills in their hair.

Mswati has courted controversy for his lavish lifestyle while two thirds of his subjects live in abject poverty. Critics say he sets a bad example by encouraging polygamy and teenage sex in a country where 40 percent of adults live with HIV.

But many Swazis say the young monarch has a right to do as he pleases, arguing ceremonies like the Reed Dance cement national identity.

Damn right! Can't let these whiny "single issue" women with their "pet causes" get in the way of patriotic tradition.

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