The Good Thing About Blogs

They're such a useful shortcut for gaining insight into someone's thought processes. I've known who Eric Raymond was for years -- hell, I used to hang out with the guy at cons -- but I never would have gotten a good feel for him if it wasn't for his weblog. (And who names a blog "Armed and Dangerous"? Isn't that a bit self-aggrandizing?)

"Diplomatic lies notwithstanding, Islam is anything but a `religion of peace'. Any honest scholar will tell you that Islam is a religion of violence, martyrdom, and conversion by the sword. The duty to wage war for the propagation of the faith is plainly written in the Koran; Osama bin Laden's suicide bombers are part of a tradition that springs from Islam's warlike origins and has been re-affirmed in every generations by ghazis, hashishim, and numerous other varieties of holy warrior."

(From his post "The Mirage of Moderate Islam".)

Much finely flawed logic within. I find it particularly telling that he claims that the Koran has such authority over Muslims that nothing may supplant it, and then in the next breath notes that the veil and purdah aren't Koranic. Someone's skipping the all-important "thought" step.