Posts I should have linked to earlier

Saudi Jeans, one of the Kingdom's finest blogs, reflects on a set of guidelines set by the official Saudi bloggers community: "The first one reads: 'The blog must not insult Islam at any level, and therefore it must not call to liberalism and secularism.' It seems like OCSAB believe liberalism equals secularism, and therefore it ...

Saudi Jeans, one of the Kingdom's finest blogs, reflects on a set of guidelines set by the official Saudi bloggers community: "The first one reads: 'The blog must not insult Islam at any level, and therefore it must not call to liberalism and secularism.' It seems like OCSAB believe liberalism equals secularism, and therefore it is against Islam. Well, I don't think that being a liberal contradicts with being a Muslim. I'm a liberal, and I'm damn proud of it. In the same time, I try to be a devoted Muslim, and I don't feel any contradictions between the two." 

Saudi Jeans, one of the Kingdom's finest blogs, reflects on a set of guidelines set by the official Saudi bloggers community: "The first one reads: 'The blog must not insult Islam at any level, and therefore it must not call to liberalism and secularism.' It seems like OCSAB believe liberalism equals secularism, and therefore it is against Islam. Well, I don't think that being a liberal contradicts with being a Muslim. I'm a liberal, and I'm damn proud of it. In the same time, I try to be a devoted Muslim, and I don't feel any contradictions between the two." 

Speaking of Saudi, John Robb explains why we can expect more effective attacks on the country's vital oil infrastructure:"If the Saudi open source war proceeds according to form, it will inevitably move towards the disruption of coupled systems that support the oil system."

Arms Control Wonk on the China uranium deal with Australia: "This deal does not matter from a weapons perspective—if the Chinese were to restart fissile material production, they would use national deposits and facilities not subject to IAEA safeguards. The Chinese have plenty of uranium to churn out bombs."

The Oil Drum tries to make sense of the natural gas Great Game, elaborating on a Turkmenistan-related nugget from the WaPo piece we pointed to earlier in the week.

Thomas PM Barnett's post on being patient with Iraq: "As for the Iraq situation dragging on, it’s so weird that the conservatives can listen to the insurgency experts talk about needing a good decade to defeat such an effort and yet declare, just three years into the intervention, that all is obviously lost. Where these guys’ sense of history is, I do not know." (Just in case you didn't catch this on Andrew Sullivan)

Also should have noted Steve Clemmons on listening to Israel about attacking Iran: "I think that Israel is making a lot of sense here — and if we are flying blind and they are not, we should learn from Israel what we can before we trip into a second major global catastrophe that may itself undermine what's left of America's position in the world."

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