There Then Gone

Funny thing about this blogging. You search around, struggle though a lot of complete crap, stumble onto a few gems, grow attached to them and feel like you know their authors even though you'll never meet them.

And -- poof! -- they disappear. Not even leaving a puff of smoke.

It happened to one of my favorite reads recently. "Only Tempted" was written by a 31-year-old New Yorker who called herself "Sammie." I'd share the link but it's dead so what good would it do? She wrote honestly and expressively about her feelings, her relationships and her body. The occasional pictures were a pleasant bonus. She openly detailed her love of sex and her love of the New York Yankees and how they compared.

She wrote about living with a man she loved while longing for another she craved and eventually how she resisted her temptation and chose to stay faithful to "BF." She shared the joy of her engagement and wrote of how deeply she loved her hubby to be and knew she had made the right choice. It was great stuff.

And then it was gone.

She wrote that she feared that someone would discover her blog. Maybe someone did. Maybe it caused terrible hurt and pain and embarrassment and the end of her engagement. Maybe she simply got tired of it and decided to move on.

Either way it leaves a few devoted readers grabbing at air, still clicking her blog's title in their bookmarks, wondering why she left us so suddenly and so finally.

She's gone forever. Oh, Sammie! I never met you but I miss you, Sweetie. I hope you're OK. Take care.

Please Explain WWIII

And we thought political correctness had run amok here? Worldwide riots erupt because of a cartoon. A cartoon!

Now there is much headscratching and throatclearing among the media over whether to include images of the offending caricature of Mohammed in stories about the violence it inspired.

How softly must we walk to avoid breaking the eggshells that these people want to live inside? If the idea that killing non-believers by suicide bombing will win you virgins in heaven is not kooky enough for you, is the fact that drawing a mere picture of your prophet is a grievous sin not a sign that there is something wrong with your religion?

Here's some trivia for you. The Danish paper Jyullands-Posten originally published the cartoons in question last September.

So why no outrage until now?

NPR reported this morning that, after getting no satisfaction from the Danish prime minister, Islamic clerics in Denmark who had sought an official apology circulated the cartoons -- including even more inflammatory ones not published -- deliberately to rouse the rabble.

Well, congratu-freaking-lations! You did it!

Yeah, I know. I don't understand the Muslim culture or the other factors involved. It's complex and layered and ... OH BALONEY! You know what? I don't want to understand. What I want is to see some spine. I want to see the media in free countries around the world stand up to this kind of intellectual tyranny by publishing the cartoon as a symbol of our willingness to tolerate unpopular thought.

You know, the idea behind democracy?