Blogging from all over

I've been out of the blogging loop for a week, but (fortunately) my blog friends have not. So here, in no particular order, is what's going on in my corner of cyberspace: Curt, at Flopping Aces, gives us the good news follow-up to a sad story. In 2002, Armando Garcia killed Deputy David March. The mills of the law ground slow but sure in the intervening years, and Armando Garcia, who fled to Mexico, is being extradited to the U.S. It's an interesting story, especially since it touches up death penalty issues. And, since this is Curt's blog, there's a whole lot of other interesting stuff. John O, at Brain Droppings, tackles one of my favorite subjects -- getting rid of the U.N. John also keeps us up to date about fairly bizarre Illinois politics, and all the guys throw in some great images (including some clever photoshopping). While I was away (and unaware), the story broke about the horrific way in which French Muslims gleefully, and in a true community spirit, tortured Ilan Halimi to death. Unsurprisingly, Gail, at Crossing the Rubicon, is all over this story, as she is on so many essential matters concerning the Middle East, and way its pathology spills out into other parts of the world. If you want to think about personal growth, not in a self-centered, "it's all about me" California way, but in the meaningful way of being a mature, rational, kind person, you've got to check out the posts at PalmTree Pundit. You'll especially want to read about the staggeringly limited lawyer who opined that stay-at-home Moms lead meaningless, simplistic lives. Okay, I have to admit that there is a lot at CDR Salamander that I simply don't get -- it's military insider stuff, written using military language. However, when I do get it, there's no one better. Phibian's latest postings include ways to get relatively unfiltered news from Iraq; news about the anti-American, anti-Semitic movie that's all the rage in Turkey; and a wonderful attack on NPR's Daniel Schorr, one of those "journalists" who makes my skin crawl. If you go to Out of the Binjo Ditch, you get the most amazing, eclectic information about all kinds of things. My jaw is still gaping from this story about a penis and a microwave. Since Steve is working his way through law school, you'll also get some pure legal principles, expressed with a clarity that bodes very well for Steve's future as a lawyer. (Or maybe I'm wrong. Aren't lawyers supposed to obfuscate? Anyway, I like it.) Here's a Catch-22 -- I learned from Ron, at Ron Down Under, that a mosque in LA has concluded that infidels cannot touch the Koran. Yet I was under the impression that serious Muslims believe the world needs to be converted to Islam. It's unclear how they imagination the conversion taking place without access to the book, but I suspect it probably has something to do with fire and sword.... Ol' Man River has been away from Scott's Conservative News and Commentary for awhile, but he's come back with a bang to blog about ending America's dependence on OPEC oil as a way to deplete terrorism's coffers. Turkeyhead gives us hope with a very funny commercial, and Scott picks up on CNN's sins of omission and South Korea's troubles. At Done With Mirrors, Callimachus shares with us how hybrids will change the road; blogs about how Britain, in its effort to silence loud-mouth idiots, is destroying freedom of speech; and reminds us that there is nothing new about the ongoing war between Sunnis and Shias -- and that's just the first three posts when I checked over tonight. Keep scrolling down and you'll keep learning something new. Using a Brent Bozell article about sex, culture and college, Mike, at The Deep Freeze, yearns for a simpler time, when sexuality didn't dominate all discourse. He also notes the irony in the fact that the same parents who want their kids to enjoy an utterly free sex life, are going to any lengths to control their kids' diets at schools. Go figure. Heather, at From the Word Go, is another one who covers a wonderfully broad range of topics. Visit her site and you can read about Turkish skaters (nice picture, too), prescient cartoonists, and the problems middle-class parents face in picking schools for their children. At the Paragraph Farmer, Patrick delves deeply into matters of faith, popular culture, and politics. He touches on the hypocrisy behind those college professors who attack the church as a rigid, hierarchical instititution, without looking at their own doctrinal Ivory Towers. Patrick has also launched a great running series of posts about aspects of our Western culture that are worth defending, and has started with music. As a musical simpleton myself, I especially appreciate this effort, as it expands my very limited horizons. I truly don't know where Kathryn, at Suitable for Mixed Company, finds the time to track down the wide variety of information she offers at her blog. In just the last two days, she's talked about Alan Dershowitz's new book, Larry Summer's firing (the faculty is thrilled, the students less so), George Washington's heroic refusal to be king (which probably saved this nation from Day One), and the last recovery of an F-14 Tomcat from a combat mission. Wow! Laer, at Cheat-Seeking Missiles, is another one who never seems to sleep, because everything of interest shows up at his blog. As did Callimachus, he talks about British attacks on free speech, the port lease kerfuffle, oil issues, etc. My favorite post from the last few days, though, is the one in which Laer withdraws a post because it contained errors. In an era when the MSM will fight to the last breath to defend articles that are blatantly false (while hiding or distorting actual news), I think this was an incredible graceful act, showing the kind of integrity we used to expect from our media. Jack, at News Snipet 'Blog, aims his intellectual weapons at Hillary's voucher rant; points out the nexus between the NEA and the AFL-CIO; notes that the silly book, Why Mommy is a Democrat, is an important part of the free speech we value, and a good idea; and shares a long post from a friend about how Judeo-Christian doctrines celebrate life. If you wander over to A Rose By Any Other Name, you'll be lucky enough to find a post about a truly American school concert and a long post about having children recognizing that life is not fair and that they need to take responsibility for themselves. I especially liked that last one, since it's been a real struggle for my daughter to take responsibility for herself. Whenever she gets in trouble, it's her brother's fault -- no matter the impossibility of laying the blame on him. I wish she was old enough to read and understand Anna's post. By the way, not all my blogfriends tack to the conservative side. At Out of the Binjo Ditch, which I mentioned above, Steve strikes me as an intriguing Democratic libertarian -- in other words, some might characterize him as an old-fashioned liberal (correct me if I'm wrong there, Steve) . The same is true at The Galactic Patrol and A Place to Talk About War. Both of those blogs defy easy political characterization, which is what makes them such interesting places to visit. Intelligent people who can sidestep a particular doctrine seem to bring true objectivity to analyzing the news of the day.