Visalia, California resident Shamci Rafani is worried about the effect of sex scandals on our society. So she wrote a letter to her local newspaper, the Gannett-owned Visalia Times-Delta, to offer a solution:

Coming from a different country and culture, and specially being a victim of betrayal and infidelity, I will allow myself to put my head where it does not belong.

But the woman who had been aware of her wrongdoing, and yet had done it without any shame or fear, must be punished severely. Yes, in many countries, the public will stone that woman to death. Believe me, that might be the right answer to the behavior of these kind of loose women, who want to blame it all on men.

These slut women do not know how to say no. To my judgment, these women who freely sleep with married men must be severely punished and put to death. If the lawmakers do something about it, you will find less stories like Arnold's.

Did this actually happen in a non-satirical newspaper, based in an actual city in California, and edited by rational humans who should be able to tell the difference between "cultural relativity" and "psychopathic utterances"? Did the editor call in sick, and send a Fox Nation comment moderator to edit the newspaper in her stead?

The Visalia Times-Delta didn't respond to our inquiry. By phone, 77-year-old Shamci Rafani assured us that she is a real person. The "different country" she refers to is Iran. Shamci says her husband left her thirty years ago for another woman, and since then she has been dedicated herself to speaking out against "sluts" in letters to the editor and a self-published book.

Don't worry, tomorrow someone will publish a policy paper about burning witches at the stake, and we'll forget this even happened. [Visalia Times-Delta, image via Shutterstock]