Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying

One year ago today I started blogging at the urging of my friend and colleague Aaron. My first test post (which was later defaced by a Michelle Malkin follower on a rampage through my blog) was entitled "Hello world!" because I am a geek at heart. My first real post was entitled "A good place to start" and it began with the Bill of Rights followed by these words of mine:

I am an American, an immigrant and a muslim. To me, The Bill of Rights represents the promise of America. It is these protections that people in a large part of the world lack, and yearn for. The argument America has to win with the world in general, and the muslim world in particular, is one about the rights of people to live freely. It is an argument that America can and should win easily if it simply showcases The Bill of Rights.

One year on, that argument has not yet won the day.

When I first started blogging, I did not expect that anyone other than friends and family would visit. However, slowly but steadily the hits started to add up. As I look at the hit counter today, there have been 331,844 visits to this blog in the past year. I am amazed and humbled by the experience.

I have been privileged over the past year to discover some fascinating bloggers and have had the benefit of the wisdom of the readers and commenters here. Thank you all for allowing me a small place in this great community.

Thank you Ingrid for your humanity and for being my conscience on the blogosphere. Thank you Robbie for your support from the very beginning.

Thank you to the always interesting commenters. Thank you Group Captain Mandrake, Mr. Bill, Alfredo, doro, odanny, dude, Navin, Rivkeleh, PrchrLady and others.

Thank you elendil for Bloggers Against Torture.

Thank you Heathlander, Cyberotter, Kel, Aunty Ism, zazou and Paul for your passion.

Thank you Avila for being Unbossed.

Thank you Polimom, Yohay and Zeb for your sanity.

Thank you tree hugging sister for making me laugh.

Thank you Jon Swift for being a reasonable conservative. I know you don’t mean to be funny, but us liberals can’t help think that you may be the funniest man on the Internet.

Thank you Jeremiah for being the second funniest man on the Internet, but definitely the funniest right-wing ninja on the planet.

Thank you Miraj for being my friend in Baghdad.

Thank you John Aravosis for taking up the cause of Mirza Tahir Hussain.

Thank you Taylor Marsh for giving me the opportunity to guest blog.

Thank you to all the Bangladeshi bloggers who I have had the opportunity to read. Thank you especially to Rezwan, the dean of Bangladeshi bloggers. Thank you Zafa for introducing me to Drishtipat (and thank you for your good humor and for bossing me around!). Thank you to Sid for the Serious Golmal and Sunny for adding pickles to my politics. Thank you Bengali Fob for explaining to me what a Fob is.

Thank you Neha and Rezwan for introducing me to Global Voices Online.

Thank you everyone for a personally rewarding year of blogging. I look forward to sharing another year of dialogue and discovery with you. I look forward to a future that is safer and a world that awakens to the possibilities of peace over the senselessness of war. I look forward to another year of joining together with you to give voice to those who must be heard.

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of the web…the thrill of victory…and the agony of defeat…the human drama of athletic blogging…this is Mash’s Wide World of Blogs!

While the world watches Iraq fall apart and Lebanon being bombed back 20 years, bloggers keep the beat with poignant prose and sometimes even humor. This week’s worthy reads are:

Jon Swift

Jon reached a milestone this week. His blog surpassed 100,000 visitors. To mark the occasion, he takes a walk down memory lane to bring us a wonderful selection of comments and emails that he has received since he started blogging. To fully appreciate Jon Swift you must read not just his posts but also the comments associated with them. Congratulations Jon on hitting the big six figure mark in blogging. Don’t forget us little people. (Oh wait, I also crossed 100,000 this week thanks to the Commander-in-Chief’s rear guard offensive against the German Chancellor!)

Jon also tells us this week why World War III is not such a bad idea. I must admit that after reading his post I too am looking forward to World War III. Just like him, I say "Bring it on!" and bring some butter for the popcorn.

Blogger Round Table

Ingrid has a list of peace rallies that are taking place this week against the violence in the Middle East. Eventually with voices of peace multiplying this madness will stop. But in the meantime we will have needlessly lost too many innocent lives.

Things and stuff

Yohay Elam writes from Tel Aviv. He has a very interesting post about his evolving feelings about the current war with Lebanon. I believe many in Israel and Lebanon share his feelings and his mixed emotions about this war. His justified outrage at Hezbollah’s brazen kidnapping is balanced with his concern about civilian deaths in Lebanon. Ultimately his is a triumph of reason over fear. Voices like his will need to win the day if there is to be peace in the Middle East.

Beirut Spring

Thanks to Ingrid for introducing me to this blog. Mustapha blogs from Tripoli, Lebanon. His blog is a must read for some sane commentary on the situation in Lebanon. In particular, he wrote two posts, a day apart, that I find the most revealing. His posts illustrate the folly of the current Israeli campaign against Lebanon. in the first of the two posts, dated July 12th, he chastised Hezbollah for the capture of the Israeli soldiers and writes that the Lebanese hate Hezbollah more than ever. In the second post however, dated July 13th, he calls for the Lebanese to rally around Hezbollah to resist the Israeli onslaught. He writes that there will be an accounting for Hezbollah at some point, but not while Lebanon is under attack. It is a remarkable turn around, and yet, quite predictable.

The Heathlander

Jamie writes about Israel’s escalation and America’s moral culpability. His post is aptly titled "Smart bombs, dumb leader". Succinct and to the point.

Inside Zebster

I am not sure I want to be inside Zebster, but I sure do like his blog. Zebster does a Pink Floyd tribute by quoting from The Final Cut. He makes it quite clear that our leaders today have learned nothing from the past. With overgrown infants in charge is it any wonder that they are throwing shit at each other? As my daughter would say, "poo poo diaper heads", the whole lot of them.

Ask A Ninja

I have been suffering withdrawal since I haven’t seen a post from my favorite ninja, Jeremiah Bullfrog, in more than three weeks! So, I have had to seek out other ninjas to feed my ninja addiction. I must confess that I have been consulting with the ninja advice columnist at Ask A Ninja. He gives sound advice for everyday people from a ninja point of view. This week the ninja answers a viewer’s question about the number 3. Beware though, because ninja math can kill you. Go on over to Ask A Ninja and feel free to seek advice on whatever ails you.

Enjoy the journey!

[This post should be read while listening to Also Sprach Zarathustra, op. 30 by Richard Strauss]

The blog has been migrated to a dedicated server. If I did everything correctly things should work pretty much like before. You should notice faster page downloads during peak loads. Hopefully no one will receive a "Service Temporarily Unavailable" message anymore due to lack of capacity. I made one minor change to the comments to streamline page loading - I got rid of the avatars that used to accompany each comment. The avatars were slowing things down under heavy load so I decided to kill the avatars in favor of performance

Thanks everyone for your patience during the last few days while we experienced some growing pains.

"I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I’ve still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you." - HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey

I have good news, bad news and more good news. The good news is that many people who normally do not visit this blog visited here in the last 24 hours since I posted about President Bush’s Blitz-Massaging of the German Head of State. The bad news is that I suspect a large percentage of those who attempted to visit received a "Service Temporarily Unavailable" message. My shared web server at my ISP reached its maximum concurrent user limit and started rejecting requests. In the last 24 hours, this blog successfully received over 20,000 hits due to Mr. Bush’s G-8 antics. I apologize to the rest of you who were not able to receive content and to those who got through and were subjected to extremely slow performance.

The lesson I learned is that the blogosphere is a powerful message machine and can get a story out as fast if not faster than the traditional media. When bloggers big and small link to a story you post, you better make sure your server has the horsepower to handle the traffic that will be visited upon you. As soon as Taylor Marsh and John Aravosis posted links to my blog, all hell broke loose. Soon other blogs big and small linked to this blog. In response, my web server failed miserably.

So, in a long overdue move, I have decided to swallow the financial pill and upgrade to a dedicated server to host my blog. Sometime tomorrow evening, I will migrate my blog to its new home. Hopefully if things go well, there should be a seamless transition sometime tomorrow. The only difference you the reader should see is increased performance. If instead you see ugly HTTP error codes, you will know that I did a boo-boo.

So, next time President Bush massages a foreign Head of State, I will be ready with a bigger server to bring the massage fest to you the reader!

And, finally to my German friend, who wants to remain anonymous (I have dubbed her DDT for Deutsche Deep Throat), thanks for the tip on the story. I hold you responsible for bringing my server down. :d

I am pleased to announce that I will be guest blogging at Taylor Marsh’s blog every Sunday. I am very thankful that Taylor has given me this opportunity to reach a larger audience. I will be adding my perspective on foreign policy and torture issues to her regular posts. My first post on North Korea went up today. Please head on over to Taylor Marsh’s blog when you get a chance.

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of the web…the thrill of victory…and the agony of defeat…the human drama of athletic blogging…this is Mash’s Wide World of Blogs!

After a long absence the blog reviews are back with a vengeance. Here are this week’s worthy reads:

Independent Opinions

Robbie from San Diego has started a new blog specifically covering politics. His other blog, Greetings From America’s Finest City, will now focus exclusively on sports. Check out his latest post on the Hamdan decision of the Supreme Court at his new blog.

Great Power Is A Blunt Object

Calling all Muslims! Musclemouth has a clip of a video entitled Girls Gone Wild Baghdad posted on his blog. He wants to know if Muslims find this clip offensive. His question is a sincere one and if you are a Muslim please view the clip and offer your feedback in the comments section of his post. I have already left my comments on the clip. Please don’t read the comments before posting your views so that he can capture your first impression. So, if you are a Muslim, or know a Muslim, check out the post or refer others to it. I am looking forward to reading everyone’s feedback - it will be an interesting cultural experiment!

Sabbah’s Blog

As Israel’s "Operation Summer Rain" continues to rain down on the people of Gaza, Sabbah asks "What can they do, kill us?" Read the side of the story we rarely get in the United States. We also learn today that Israel has bombed the Palestinian Prime Minister’s office. I am not sure why the American press thinks this is a surprise after completely failing to cover the story that Israel had notified Mahmoud Abbas by letter that they would assassinate the Palestinian Prime Minister if the kidnapped Israeli soldier was not handed over.

Goddamn I Love America!

Jeremiah Bullfrog not only loves America, he also loves the environment. He shows off his scientific side by debunking the Global Warming myth and keeping the world safe to breathe in. For those of you waiting to exhale, this is just the post for you.

Jon Swift

Jon is still quite upset by this week’s Supreme Court decision in the Hamdan case. He think he knows how the Bush Administration can get around this nuisance of a decision. He recommends that the President declare the Supreme Court justices "Enemy Combatants". It’s a novel and out-of-the-box approach to solving this bump in the road to Guantanamo.

Enjoy the journey!

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of the web…the thrill of victory…and the agony of defeat…the human drama of athletic blogging…this is Mash’s Wide World of Blogs!

Ok, since I have yet to get any complaints, I feel like I have a mandate to carry on. This week’s worthy reads are:

Donkephant

To kick off Torture Awareness Month, Donkephant offers a refresher course to the Bush Administration on good manners (as adopted by the United Nations in its Convention Against Torture). This post is a good place to start for all of us. I would especially recommend the post to Mr. Gonzales at the Justice Department.

Blogger Round Table

Ingrid discusses the effect torture has on the torturer. She recalls Stanley Milgram’s obedience experiments and how they showed how easy it is to slide incrementally into cruelty and lose one’s own moral compass. It is a glimpse into what our leaders are doing to our men and women on the front lines by their tortured and legalistic justifications of torture.

Thoughts From A Flyover State Refugee

I don’t know what they are doing over there in Kansas! They have decided to dress Keith Olbermann up in tights. Now, don’t get me wrong - I like Keith and I watch him every night, but one has to draw the line somewhere. Go check out the ghastly sight. And while you are there you can also read about how Keith filleted the Big Giant Head over some "fair and balanced" reporting on the atrocities at Malmedy. (And, guys, Olbermann has two N’s)

Life from the trenches….literally

Paul has a video message for the President accompanied by the music of Pink. It is poignant and powerful, as are all his videos. Watch and listen to it in quiet surroundings - it will make quite an impact.

The Bengali Fob Says…

The Fob has World Cup Fever and so do I. Go to her blog and watch Nike’s Juga Bonito video for five minutes of fun. As most of the humans on this planet know the FIFA World Cup begins on June 9th in Germany. If you don’t already love The Beautiful Game (Football or Soccer, if you prefer), here’s your chance to catch the fever. For those who are still not converted, I give you the Antonin Scalia greeting. I am a soccer Fanatic, with a capital F. All through the next month, I will be soccer crazed. So be forewarned that more than once a soccer post may appear on this blog.

That’s it for now. The astute observer will note that I have not highlighted Jon Swift’s latest post this week about the big brains at DHS. That is because I don’t want to become too predictable

Enjoy the journey!

June is Torture Awareness Month. June 26th is the date that the United Nations has marked as the International Day in Support of Survivors and Victims of Torture.

This blog has joined Bloggers Against Torture to spread awareness of American torture policy. The United States has increasingly used torture as a weapon in the "War on Terror". Throughout this month I will post articles that call attention to this abhorrent practice.

Here is what you can do to help:

• Visit the Torture Awareness Month website for more information on US torture policies and how you can help end these policies through community action, lobbying and other activities.
• If you are a blogger, please join Bloggers Against Torture.
• Please spread the word to your friends and neighbors by referring them to the Torture Awareness Month website.

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of the web…the thrill of victory…and the agony of defeat…the human drama of athletic blogging…this is Mash’s Wide World of Blogs!

Ok, so the Wide World Of Blogs did not die an ugly death last time. It’s back with another installment and getting stronger. Here are today’s worthy reads:

Bloggers Against Torture

I joined Bloggers Against Torture this week in support of Torture Awareness Month. Elendil of Rummy’s Diaries started this growing alliance of bloggers to help focus attention on one of mankind’s ugliest sides. This is a worthy endeavor that I ask all who visit to consider joining.

Grad Student Madness

I discovered this blog through Bloggers Against Torture. Apart from offering insights on Presocratic philosophers (that is, standup comedians), this blog offers some very well written and thought provoking posts. One post I would like to call attention to is a post that discusses the politics of torture. This post is a must read for anyone concerned about the state of affairs these days. I am certain that you will not only be rereading this post many times but you will be referring this post to others. It is a good place to start to spread Torture Awareness.

Goddamn I love America!!

On the other side of the torture debate is Jeremiah Bullfrog of Goddam I love America. Jeremiah loves George W Bush and he loves torture. He is also uniquely skilled in the way of the Ninja. He has declined an invitation from Elendil to join Bloggers Against Torture and has in fact labeled the alliance a bunch of terrorist lovers. He has strong opinions that he inherited from his daddy and he is not afraid of sharing them. He also has uncovered an insidious plot by suicide torturees that must be stopped at all costs. Jeremiah’s torturous ways extend to the (ab)use of the English language, but nonetheless he is worth a read.

Serious Golmal

"Golmal" means "trouble" in Bengali. This is another worthy blog from across the pond spiced with a South Asian accent. He has found what may very well be the secret weapon in the War on Terror - music. Not just any music but music from opposite sides of the religious/political divide. If these guys can rock than the rest of us should be able to roll. (Note, one of the songs is not in English, but I’m not sure it matters. The title of the song translates to "I’m busted" and he is singing among other things about his wandering eyes.)

Jon Swift

Yes, I know he was here last week too. But I can’t help it because this week Jon has whipped out the Race Card and he is not afraid to use it. I also should mention that before you read another book you should read Jon’s book reviews. I have stopped reading books since I started to read Jon’s book reviews and I am sure the reviews will have the same effect on you too.

Enjoy the journey!

June is Torture Awareness Month. To spread awareness Elendil of Rummy’s Diaries has launched Bloggers Against Torture. If you are a blogger, please consider joining the alliance. If you are a reader, visit the alliance web site and help spread the word. Torture can only survive in the shadows - help shine a light on this scourge upon humanity.

"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed." - Stephen Biko (1946-1977)