Word.

I second that, and I'm glad you said it.

I just started reading your blog. I readily agree with your plan to ban hate speech from the site. But I'm also dismayed you link to sites like 'Instapundit' who is well known in the right-wing media machine known as the Mighty Wurlitzer. Instapundit likes 'Death Squads' and proudly announced the return of 'Little Green Footballs' blog. If you haven't heard or read that blog I kindly request you to go there and check it out for yourself.

http://instapundit.com/archives/020431.php - Death Squads
http://instapundit.com/archives/020399.php _Link to LGF

Karthik,
We are not a politically "leftist" blog any more than we are politically on the "right." The bloggers who write on this site, span the spectrum. All of us read Instapundit (I think)because there is a lot of good knowledge there. For us to close our eyes to ideas that we don't agree with would be a disservice to our readers. I hope people that read Sepia Mutiny read us because they like our eclectic mix of viewpoints and the stories we point them to. This would not be possible unless we were all voracious readers...of everything.

Abhi,
Point noted. It's your blog. You can link to whomever you want to. I just thought there was a disconnect between what instapundit professes and what anna said in her(his?) post.

I'm a lefty and so most of my opinions are diametrically opposite to instapundit's. But the very fact that he announces the return of LGF should tell you something.

Other than that, I like what I've read here so far. Keep up the good work.

Karthik,
Some of us were discussing the "death squads" you are speaking of and their possible introduction into Iraq earlier this week. Insurgencies and counterinsurgencies are actually very predictable things. They almost always follow a pattern (in my opinion) which has often included some version of death squads. As a disclaimer I would like to point out that according to some opinions I would be considered a "rabid" liberal. Nonetheless, although I don't condone death squads I do recognize the importance of understanding why they sprout up an what use, if any, they serve. There are a lot of very intelligent arguments out there (doesn't mean I have to agree with them) that point to the necessity of death squads in an environment like Iraq. I obviously can't speak for Instapundit, but its his "job" to be a "pundit" and pick up on trends or developments before the general public. Neither of the two links that you included involve and endorsement of Death Squads by Instapundit. He is pointing to others who are dissecting the parallels between El Salvador and Iraq with respect to death squads. If I was a betting man I would put money on the fact that Allawi, once elected, will run a counterinsurgency by including death squads of some sort.

I just thought there was a disconnect between what instapundit professes and what anna said in her(his?) post.

Anna said what "he" said in his post because SM was suddenly inundated with rhetoric and inflammatory language that this blog had never experienced, before this controversy. The hatred was out of control. It was also threatening telesis.

We created our uber-inclusive blogroll based on the links that each individual mutineer already had on their respective blog, it's that simple and unscientific. We didn't "vote" or discuss any of them. Since SM does have conservative bloggers, it is natural that they'd feature links to people like Instapundit.

Having said all of that, A N N A has fallopian tubes, if his picture on the sidebar didn't already clue you in to that. ;)

On a lighter vein..

Whats a tube between friends...

A fallopian tube is merely the end result of a utopian testicle manafactured in a fallible factory...Ergo...Fallopian tube...:-)

Anna,
Noticed the picture only after I posted the comment.

Anna,
Noticed the picture only after I posted the comment.

karthik, i was totally kidding. :)

no worries. i figured as much, but couldn't resist... ;)

Well said Anna. Delete hate speech. Do not tolerate hate speech. Make SepiaMutiny a righteous site with righteous campaigning.

"Delete hate speech. Do not tolerate hate speech."

Don't you just hate that?

I would recommend to the reader, that they not read censored blogs. You don't know what people call "hate."

It has become a code word, for the simpletons with simple views, on the Left. See Tammy Bruce, The New Thought Police, etc.

I would recommend to the reader, that they not read censored blogs.

It's all very nice in abstraction until your blog gets hit. The choice then: either you delete blatantly offensive, racist crap or you turn off the comments.

Nobody's going to transmit bare-teethed, proto-human racism on my dollar.

Anna,

Very good.

People who run blogs set rules for the conversation, and turn off people who cross that boundary. Every serious blog I know deletes overtly racist messages.

It would be just the same if you said offensive things to someone you met at a cocktail party. They have the right not to talk to you. It's not censorship; you can always go find someone else to spew your nastiness to.

"Censorship" doesn't really apply in this weird, noisy, sometimes nasty place called the internet.