Around the ‘sphere (Thursday open thread)
Keepin’ you up to date:
—- Le big news: As counterpart to having added Markos “Daily Kos” Moulitsas as a contributor to their 2008 election coverage, Newsweek announced today that Karl Rove will be joining them as a contributor as well. Lefty heads are already spinning a la Linda Blair’s character in “The Excorcist.”
—- Brian Faughnan at The Weekly Standard blog reports on the latest attempts from Congressional Democrats at breaking their promise on transparency in government. In other news, dog bites man.
—- Michelle Malkin has the latest on the anarchy taking place in Olympia, WA by anti-war thugs who have, among other things, used children as human shields to block military shipments coming from and going to Iraq.
—- Political correctness gone ho-, er, haywire in Australia: A recruitment firm which has “provided quality caring Santas for over 40 years” is advising their Santas to drop the traditional “ho, ho, ho” in favor of “ha, ha, ha” because the former might “frighten” children – and offend women. Jeff Goldstein quips:
Next up: “Silent Night” is banned because it expresses a wistful desire for the return of the feudal order and a code of Chivalry that treated women as frail beings in need of protection from men in chainmail and heavy heavy boots.
Heh. I wouldn’t put it past ’em 
—- On a related note, Lowe’s won’t be calling Christmas trees “family trees” anymore, thanks to outraged customers (h/t: Allahpundit).
—- They are “allies” in the WOT, but certainly not “friends”: Marc Moore at The Van Der Galiën Gazette writes today about another appalling case where a Saudi woman who was gang- raped was punished by a local court in SA for being alone in a car with a man who was not her husband prior to the gang rape, and sentenced to six months in prison and 200 lashes. B*stards.
—- My friend and fellow North Carolinian Patrick O’Hannigan tries to keep a Raleigh News and Observer essayist honest on the issue of who should control the Internet. Good luck!
—- Weasel Zippers blogs today about election officials in Cambridge, MA and their idiotic decision to take down Boy Scout donation boxes – meant for our troops – on election day last week, after a complaint from a resident who thought the boxes, placed in polling stations, implied a “pro-war” message (via Instapundit). Jay at Stop The ACLU has video. In response to this story, Laughing Wolf at Blackfive isn’t laughing.
—- Speaking of Massachusetts, happy 1st blogiversary to one of the few defenders of freedom left there (along with WZ): Jules Crittenden, who puts the “man” in “manly blogging” daily.
—- Jules also posted today about Iraq the Model’s 4th blogiversary, and I’d like to extend my warmest wishes to them as well for continued success. Their on-the-scene coverage of the situation on the ground in Iraq is always a must-read.
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A couple of misc. notes: I’ve rearranged my blogroll a bit to reflect on the growing number of awesome international blogs I’ve added to it. If you look on the right side column, underneath the “US blogs” blogroll there is now one labelled “International Flavor.” Also, in case you haven’t done it yet, please make sure to check out the fine blogs of regular readers and commenters to this blog. You’ll see the links to their blogs on the left side column, underneath the military blogs section. I deleted a few of them for not being updated in a few months, so if you’re one of the ones who used to see their link there but no longer did, let me know when/if you update your blog again, and I’ll add it back.
Also, a couple of weeks ago I put out a call for people to email me some pictures of what the fall foliage looks like in their part of the country. So far, only one reader has graciously responded to my request. I’d like to post a cross-section of fall pix before Thanksgiving next week, so if you’d like to send me some of yours, please do so by Monday the 19th. And in case you missed the link the first time around, here is the link to some of the pictures I took of the fall foliage I saw when I went to the mountains last month.