SOME WILL BE MORE SHOCKED THAN OTHERS:

Kabuli, who blogs in English as Afghan Lord under a pseudonym in order to protect himself, has received numerous threats posted to his blog from the same IP address which belongs – shockingly – to the BBC. One of them, which Kabuli emailed to Global Voices, asks: “Do you think I do not know you?” Then it continues on to threaten: “There were a number of people like you, who did not remain alive. They were all buried in graves. You have to be taken off from this land so that better human beings could take your place. For, you are dirty.”

I’m not shocked at all.

UPDATE: The BBC’s response can be found here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: David Ferrer emails that we should give the BBC the benefit of the doubt here, as email, etc., is easy to fake. He should know, having been the victim of something similar himself.

IN THE MAIL: Joel Silbey’s Storm over Texas: The Annexation Controversy And The Road To Civil War. Looks pretty interesting.

FRIST BREAKS WITH BUSH over stem cells:

In a break with President Bush, the Senate Republican leader, Bill Frist, has decided to support a bill to expand federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, a move that could push it closer to passage and force a confrontation with the White House, which is threatening to veto the measure. . . .

“While human embryonic stem cell research is still at a very early stage, the limitations put in place in 2001 will, over time, slow our ability to bring potential new treatments for certain diseases,” Mr. Frist says, according to a text of the speech provided by his office Thursday evening. “Therefore, I believe the president’s policy should be modified.”

I’m with Frist.

SHAKEUPS AT THE GUARDIAN over the Aslam affair.

UPDATE: Melanie Phillips has further thoughts:

Whatever may or may not have been known about Aslam’s membership of HuT, it remains the case that someone subscribing to its wholly unacceptable platform could find a berth at the Guardian which was perfectly comfortable about publishing his views — because they fitted into its own general view of the world. The horror when it discovered that these views emanated from a HuT member was undoubtedly genuine, because they are genuinely horrified by HuT. And what that surely tells us is that the Guardian really doesn’t grasp that its view of the world is as extreme and unacceptable as it is.

Indeed.

BLACKFIVE and Greyhawk and LT Smash were all deeply unimpressed by Stanford Prof. David Kennedy’s likening of today’s military to “Hessians.”

It’s a double-bind for the military. When there’s a draft, it’s evil. When there’s not a draft, they’re mercenaries. It’s almost like the game is rigged so that the military is always wrong . . . .

Kennedy’s idea of mandatory national service seems pointless, even on his terms. It’s been done in Europe, and certainly hasn’t produced the results he seeks.

I do agree that the “distance” of the military from American society is really a distance from left-leaning American society. Perhaps we should bring back mandatory ROTC at universities. . . .

UPDATE: A Navy Chief analyzes the rhetoric of press discussion on military structure.

VIRGINIA POSTREL: “Just in case there are any students who still read books, the Apple Store wants them to know that paper technology is obsolete. After all, if it’s not online, it’s not important. Right?”

Er, no.

GLOBAL VOICES looks at anti-Korean sentiment and historical revisionism in the Japanese blogosphere.

WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY, and he is not us.

SO I’M READING AN ADVANCE COPY OF RAY KURZWEIL’S NEW BOOK, The Singularity Is Near : When Humans Transcend Biology. and when I turn on the TV it’s showing Will Smith’s butchery of I, Robot.

Kurzweil’s vision is more persuasive.

TOM MAGUIRE: “The NY Times finally discovers Walter Pincus of the WaPo, a mere three weeks after we were hollering about him. And eventually, the Times will discover Google, or Lexis-Nexis, which will introduce more certainty to their reporting.”

RADLEY BALKO HAS THOUGHTS ON JURY NULLIFICATION:

A common question I get from people disturbed by these kinds of cases is, “What can we do?” Well, here’s one thing the average citizen can do: Serve when you’re called to jury duty, and while there, refuse to enforce unjust laws. If a defendant is guilty of harming someone else, certainly, throw the book at him. But if he’s guilty of violating a bad law, or if you feel the law has been unjustly applied to him, by all means, come back with “not guilty,” no matter what the judge, the prosecutor, or the evidence says.

Not only is this your right as a juror, some would say it’s your obligation.

He references Clay Conrad’s book, Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine — here’s my Review Essay based on Conrad’s book, from the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.

SIGNS OF PROGRESS in the Muslim world, over at GlennReynolds.com.

COULD THE LONDON BOMBINGS HAVE BEEN PREVENTED?

It turns out that a month ago, the United States tried to apprehend Haroon Rashid Aswat, the terrorist suspected of involvement in the London bombings and just arrested in Zambia, only to have the British Government say no.

More here.

DESPITE (BECAUSE OF?) LINKING a bunch of other carnivals this week, I forgot to link the latest Carnival of the Vanities.

RON COLEMAN has thoughts on blogocracy.

JIM HOFT OF GATEWAY PUNDIT notes that it’s a big terrorist arrest day, with the arrest of an accomplice in Daniel Pearl’s murder, a foiled Moscow terror plot, and the arrest of more London bombers.

IT’S A FIFTH-ANNIVERSARY RETROSPECTIVE from Best of the Web. Congratulations!

JUDITH APTER KLINGHOFFER is guestblogging over at AndrewSullivan.com, and she’s listing quite a few signs of progress. Just follow the link and scroll up for more.

THERE WILL BE A CANDLELIGHT VIGIL IN CAIRO TOMORROW, sponsored by Egyptian bloggers in opposition to terrorism.

More information here and here. I’m sure the various Egyptian bloggers will post photos, but I hope that there will be more media coverage this time.

IN THE MAIL: Rabbi David Dalin’s revisionist account, The Myth of Hitler’s Pope: How Pope Pius XII Rescued Jews from the Nazis, Michael Novak calls it “stunning,” and it certainly goes against the grain of everything I’ve heard.

PREMATURE WITHDRAWAL? David Adesnik rains scorn on claims that the Bush Administration is planning a cut-and-run in Iraq. He’s right to do so, of course.

I suspect that there’s a rather complicated dance going on, with the U.S. reassuring various Iraqi factions that we’ll be there long enough, while also reassuring them that we won’t be there forever — and making clear to them that they shouldn’t plan on us being there forever.

One question is where U.S. troops will go from there: Syria? Iran? Saudi Arabia? Or elsewhere? I suspect we want to keep people guessing about that, too.

MORE LONDON BOMBING ARRESTS:

LONDON – Anti-terrorist officers arrested nine men in dawn raids Thursday in connection with the botched July 21 attacks on London’s transit system, bringing to 20 the number of people police have in custody, including one of the alleged bombers. . . .

Blair said the botched attacks, in which four bombs only partially detonated on three subway trains and a central London bus, was not a sign the terrorists had been weakened in any way.

“This is not the B team. These weren’t the amateurs. They made a mistake. They only made one mistake, and we’re very, very lucky,” he said.

Blair said he was confident that police would find the bombers — as well as whoever backed them.

“The carnage that would have occurred had those bombs gone off would have at least been equivalent of those on July 7, and therefore it is absolutely imperative that we find those responsible,” Blair said.

Residents in Tooting said police had arrested three Turkish men who worked at and lived above a fast food restaurant selling halal burgers — made with meat slaughtered according to Islamic dietary laws.

Stay tuned.

A BLOGGER is asking for help finding a missing girl.

INTERESTING NEWS FROM INDONESIA:

The government continues to investigate, arrest and prosecute Islamic terrorists. But religious conflicts continue as well. More moderate Moslem leaders, while helping the government by preaching against the Islamic radicals, also want government help to stem the growth of Christianity. Missionaries, both Indonesian and foreign, have been successful in converting an increasing number of Moslem Indonesians. The Islamic clergy want the government to intervene. By law, only five religions are allowed in Indonesia, and the government has a tradition of getting involved in religious affairs. While 85 percent of Indonesians are Moslem, most of the remainder are Christian. On some islands, the population is half, or more, Christian. On those islands, many Moslems see Christianity as a more “modern” religion. Christian clergy and missionaries are generally better educated than their Moslem counterparts, and the Christians tend to be more successful economically as well.

Plus there’s the lack of exhortations to suicide bombing, which many probably see as a plus. Those “more moderate” leaders might want to work with that.

MEDIENKRITIK REPORTS that Der Spiegel is being rather selective in what it translates into its English edition: “On the whole, SPIEGEL’s ‘English Site’ is noticeably less strident in terms of its anti-American, anti-British tone when compared to its German-language counterpart. Few of the magazine’s harshest articles, (the sort that we frequently post about here on Davids Medienkritik), ever make it onto the ‘English Site.’ Now why might that be? Is SPON afraid to tell English-language readers what it really thinks of them?”

UPDATE: Link was bad before. Fixed now. Sorry!