Action: saving a Saudi Arabian activist, and getting the Associated Press to stop using the term "child prostitute."

First things first. Saudi Arabia plans to execute 21-year-old Ali Mohammed Baqir al-Nimr -- for participating in the Arab Spring protests, naturally -- and after they behead and crucify him, they'll display his body in public for three days. I'm not exactly sure where to start with all of that. I could start with "who crucifies people anymore?" or "who displays dead bodies in public for three days anymore?" or "who thinks demonstrating against the government is a crime, let alone a crime warranting death, anymore?" I could also start with Mr. al-Nimr being a mere 17 when sentenced to death, thus contravening the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Saudi Arabia ratified in 1996, or with Mr. al-Nimr's two appeals of his conviction being heard in secret. Mr. al-Nimr could be executed at any moment -- the King still needs to sign off -- so we're left with hoping that the Saudi Arabian government is as afraid of world opinion as they obviously are of their own people. Hence Avaaz helps you tell the governments of the world to pressure Saudi Arabia into stopping this barbaric execution.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Project for Girls has started a petition on Change.org which helps you tell the Associated Press to stop using the term "child prostitute" in its stories about child sex trafficking. Why? Because a prostitute is, at the very least, an adult who has consented to have sex for money. Can a child consent to such a thing? No, a child cannot, by legal definition -- there is no wiggle room possible under the law, no "but she was old for her age!" possible under the law. A child who is forced to work the sex trade isn't "finding her way in the world," she's being kidnapped, raped and molested, and almost certainly beaten, not to mention being manipulated and controlled by evil adults who are, again by legal definition, old enough to know better. I suppose "child prostitute" was probably a more shocking term back in the day, but for better or worse, it isn't now -- it's a term that actually helps obscure the horror of child sex trafficking. We're a sick, immoral, and decadent society because we've all but forgotten what "consent" is. Forgive me for thinking we can change that.