Around the Blogosphere

Just a quick note to call everyone's attention to some other blogs....

The Dhivestan Report gives us a look at Islam in the Maldives and from the Maldives. Good, thought-provoking posts from the bloggers there really offer a perspective!

One of the bloggers there offered this link for more blogs about the Maldives.


Death and the Maiden is a blog that addresses torture.

Despite what Bush says ("Either you're with us, or you're with the terrorists."), you can be anti-terror and still disapprove of misconduct by US Government officials.

First of all, Bin Laden and his Khawarij thoughts are too similar to that statement: their whole idea is that even devout Muslims are either with the Khawarij, or they're with the infidels.

It's a lie.

Both Bin Laden and Bush believe that they represent a good cause. Consequently, for Bin Laden, the ends justify the means, and there are no limits on criminality. Bush seems determined to stretch the limits of decency, legality and common sense, and even erode them.

Anyway, this comes up because these aggressive interrogation techniques that the Bush Administration advocates and permits are contrary to everything that America stands for; only an arbitrary line separates them from "torture". Psychological torture, which is what this aggressive interrogation is, is torture, plain and simple.

By the way, some of the people we have detained in this "War on Terror" are flat out bad people (and some of them are people that a neighbor in Afghanistan or somewhere held a grudge against, and so were sold to the US for a bounty). The trouble is that our troops are very much endangered guarding these hard-core terrorists, who seek to kill infidels even in prison, and who, failing that, may wish to martyr themselves to score a propaganda victory. Dealing with these people, and separating the innocent from the terrorists, is a difficult and dangerous job. It doesn't help when the Commander-in-Chief is perhaps incompetent, and perhaps flat-out corrupt.

So, there's my thoughts on why I link to a blog about torture.


GalliaWatch is a thoughtful blog about politics and issues in France -- it's worth a read.


Angel's blog, Woman Honor Thyself, is always good for some researched and humorous articles. Some of her articles are quite refreshing. Check her out to see what I mean.


UP Pompeii has a (kind of) new location (it was new to me, anyway).


Lukery has various blogs. They're well-researched and thought-provoking. I have read Let Sibel Edmonds Speak and Wot Is It Good For?, although this latter blog is now inactive. (It still has good archived data.) It will be interesting to see where Luke goes from here. "Use the Force, Luke!"


There's more out there that I'll get to later.