It happened in England in the late eighteenth century:
It would seem that the same thing is happening in Saudi Arabia – Power Grab in Riyadh Likely After Saudi King ‘Hospitalized for Dementia’.
I have the impression that historic events are taking place these days. I cannot forget the Feast of our Lady of the Rosary and the Battle of Lepanto. Then I consider how Russia is getting on with the job of flushing the terrorists and jihadists out of Syria, Irak and Afghanistan. Let us be careful of the temptation of hero-worshipping, but from what I read, I can only admire Putin and his courage in the face of the liberal west.
Now it is Saudi Arabia, that country that pretends to be modern, yet tortures and executes people like we Europeans stopped doing in the eighteenth century in the name of humanity and decency.
Now it seems that the governments of Afghanistan and Irak are asking help from Russia.
May divine grace illuminate and console us, bringing us to hope in a better future.
The Blue Flower 
Mr Putin is a very admirable man and I say God bless him, and Holy Russia for its sheer courage, which Western nations so obviously lack. I watched Mr Cameron deliver his speech at the Conservative Party Conference this morning and felt sick at his talk about celebrating multi-racial Britain and not a word about Christianity.
Were you going to say something about “humanity and decency,” father? You left that paragraph with an asterisk. It’s an interesting parallel, isn’t it? The more humane we have become, the weaker we have become, the less Christian we have become. I don’t like the Saudis one bit and cannot condone cruel and unusual punishments, as our Bill of Rights says, but there is a lot to be said for real punishment in prisons, which should be austere places, and for restoring the death penalty for particularly heinous crimes.
I’m not too “romantic” about Russia. It was a mafia-run shit hole from 1989 throughout the 1990’s, but I admire the gradual revival of Orthodoxy and a less sleazy image than what was portrayed in the James Bond films of the mid to late 1990’s. Who knows where all this is going to end. Putin has been asked to go in an clean up the town in Irak and Afghanistan. The latter seems incredible, like France asking for the British Empire or the German Reich! The Saudi king has gone ga-ga, and that’s going to be interesting for that load of head-choppers.
The asterisk was not intentional and is now removed. I am very reticent about capital punishment, but could conceive of the use of the guillotine or English style long-drop hanging for war criminals, terrorists, child rapist-murderers, etc. But, the judiciary system would have to be a lot better than the present-day American system that executes too many innocent people. I am more in favour of a penal colony system where the inmates (those sentenced to life for “capital” crimes) are given the deal that they work if they want to eat – and get severely flogged with the knout or cat o’ nine tails for serious breaches of discipline. Prisons do need to make a clear distinction between vindictive and medicinal punishment, giving credit to those who show signs of repentance and amendment. For that you need a society based on Christian principles.
Dear Father, Years ago, one of the tenets of the BBC was that news had to be verified before it was reported: the ‘news’ of King Salman which comes from an admittedly biased site has not been reported in any major news service in Europe or North America. Is this so that the Putin/Iran message which is in opposition to the form of Islamic observance in Saudi Arabia might become more credible? It seems odd…
A few relevant articles:
I would agree that this may be biased from the Shiite point of view.
Iran – Shiite http://en.abna24.com/service/middle-east-west-asia/archive/2015/10/06/713917/story.html
Some discussion – https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/3nqbel/saudi_king_hospitalized_for_dementia/
I don’t have much sympathy for the Ayatollahs and their public executions by strangling people slowly from cranes! Putin, I have to agree, seems to be in bed with some very nasty people!
Mainstream sources:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article4571396.ece (paywall)
He was already demented when he acceded to the Saudi throne in January 2015, according to a number of fairly mainstream sources.