A 'blog' goes silent, and world holds its breath

San Jose Mercury News ^ | Thursday, March 27, 2003 | Beth Gillin - The Philadelphia Inquirer

[Angelus Errare]

My understanding was that all of the speculation about Salam Pax being gay was just that, speculation, based on some comments he had made.

[seams2me]

Give Pax a chance.

[Illbay]

A 'blog' goes silent, and world holds its breath

Whew! That scared me for a second, but I checked and my blog is okay!

[1 spark]

Just yesterday someone sent me a link to the blog website. I've not had time to read much of yet...but what i have read sounds real. Here's the link if anyone is interested:
http://dear_raed.blogspot.com/

[isthisnickcool]

My understanding was that all of the speculation about Salam Pax being gay was just that, speculation, based on some comments he had made.

It appears that one could speculate on a lot more than just on "his" sexual preferences. Pretty amusing to see all the angst over a "ghost".

[AUsome Joy]

This reminds me of the site called Under the Gun from Yugoslavia during the bombing there. The person that was writing it suddenly quit writing it in the middle of the war, yet his site is still up. You have to wonder what happened to him. Does anyone else remember reading that one?

Under the Gun
http://members.tripod.com/CodeMage/frames.htm

[tuckrdout]

Sorry, but what does "blog" mean?

[Fester Chugabrew]

Looks like the chit hit the fan in his world.

[1 spark]

After skimming through some of it very quickly (trying to figure out what this site was really about), i came across the following regarding the human shields. Found it rather entertaining.

"One of the latest group to arrive in Baghdad, mostly Europeans, were welcomed to the Rasheed hotel , which is like the Waldorf Astoria of Baghdad, no other hotel is more expensive and exclusive. All of them were wearing T-shirts with what was supposed to be "Human Shields" in Arabic, but they had it all wrong it said "Adra'a Basharia" instead of "Duru'u Basharia" which got them a few giggles and a new name; they are now the "Adra'a" just to show how clueless they are. A lot of funny Arabic these days with all these HS's running around, a van with a foreign number plate standing near the ministry of information has "No War" written all over it in many languages the biggest in Arabic. All over the front of it is says "La Harba" which is wrong and sounds like a night club, my cousin thought that was cute. Anyway, what really got my goat this time was finding out that they get food coupons worth 15,000 dinars per meal, 3 for every day.fifteen thousan.
Do you know how much the monthly food ration for a 4 person family is worth, for a whole month not per meal (real cost, not subsidized) ? 30,000 dinars, if you get someone to buy the bad rice they give you for a decent price. 15,000. What are they eating? A whole lamb every meal? Let's put this within context. Today in the morning Raed, our friend G. and I went for a late big breakfast we had 2 tishreeb bagilas (can't explain that, you have to be an Iraqi to get it otherwise it sounds inedible) and a makhlama (which is an omelet with minced meat), tea, fizzy drinks and argila afterwards (the water-pipe-thingy) all for 4,750 dinars, and we were not going super cheap. A lunch in any above-average restaurant will not be more than 8,000 dinars and that includes everything. 15,000 thousand is a meal in a super expensive restaurant in Arasat Street, in one of those places that really almost have an "only foreigners allowed, no Iraqis welcome unless you are UN staff" sign on it. I will stop calling them tourist when they stop taking all this pampering from the Iraqi government. Did I tell you about the tours? Today was Babylon day. You are really missing it, the cheapest way to do the Iraq trip you have wanted to do but were too scared.
And I have a tip for all freelance journalists who are not getting their Visas. Join your colleagues. It's the best way to get past the visa thing, every third one of these "shields" will be writing an article somewhere. Hurry contact your local "war tourism" travel agent.
Sorry, I just don't get it. What are they doing here?
So, that should get me enough hate mail for the next couple of days."

[wi jd]

Web log.

[tuckrdout]

thank you!

[Rummyfan]

WeB Log... thus BLOG....... hosts and hosts of 'bloggers' out there on the net...... to name a few:

www.instapundit.com

www.timblair.blogspot.com
www.juangato.com
www.vodkapundit.com

Start with Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit... he has lots of links!

[MattAMiller]

His comments were pretty clear. He's never directly said "I am gay" but it's obvious from what he's said that he is.

[Helms]

My humble offer of replacement:

http://www.monkeytime.org/

[Willie Green]

All of them were wearing T-shirts with what was supposed to be "Human Shields" in Arabic, but they had it all wrong it said "Adra'a Basharia" instead of "Duru'u Basharia" which got them a few giggles and a new name; they are now the "Adra'a" just to show how clueless they are.

Sounds like it could be a good joke -- if I knew what an "Adra'a" was.

[El Sordo]

He's been laid off.

[FourtySeven]

Whew! That scared me for a second, but I checked and my blog is okay!

LOL......gave me a chuckle at least.

[Iris7]

Let us take it, for the sake of argument, as a given that the writer of "Raed" is exactly as he seems.

When the heavy media coverage started about the "Raed" blog site last Sunday the Iraqi security forces could not possibly have missed it. What is on the blog is certainly enough to have him arrested along with family and guests. It is therefore most likely he is dead. The people who got him noticed are responsible.

[Paladin2b]

Don't worry! Evebn if Ba'athist thugs offed Salam Pax, there IS still a functioning Blog coming from inside Iraq. Check it out:

http://www.saddamhussein.blogspot.com