India, viewing certain anti-terrorist speech as a threat to security, has now banned several blogs:

India, the world's largest democracy, has generally eschewed efforts to block citizens from obtaining information or from expressing their views. But following the Mumbai bombings, the government has come under renewed pressure to toughen its policing of potential security threats and improve intelligence gathering.

The world's largest democracy apparently ranks anti-terrorist speech as an equal threat with terrorism. Got a few things to learn about that democracy thing, still, I guess. And "several blogs" may be a bit of an understatement - in their zeal, they actually banned all blogspot blogs! They only named 17 specifically, though.

And all this because condeming terrorism and rampant liberalism may be offensive to certain parties (read Muslim extremists).

The Pirate Armada was quick to respond, and is now at war:

The Pirate Armada Declares War on India
The Dread Pundit Bluto, Grand Admiral of The Pirate Armada, has issued a Declaration of War against the state of India, following the internet banning of the URLs of several members of the Armada and the Blogfather, Dr. Rusty Shackleford of The Jawa Report

Text of Declaration follows:
THIS SHALL NOT STAND! AS OF 7:23 ET JULY 19TH, 2006 A STATE OF WAR EXISTS BETWEEN INDIA AND THE PIRATE ARMADA! THIS TOKEN BE YOUR LETTER OF MARQUE AND REPRISAL TO FIND AND ENGAGE ALL INDIAN FORCES - AND ALL THOSE SYMPATHETIC TO THEIR TWISTED CAUSE!

I BID YOU GO FORTH, SEEK OUT TARGETS OF OPPORTUNITY AND CALL ON YOUR FELLOW BUCCANEERS OF THE PIRATE ARMADA WHEN YOU SPOT A PARTICULARLY JUICY GALLEON. ALL BUCCANEERS WHO RUN BLOGS SHOULD POST THE ARMADA'S DECLARATION OF WAR AT THEIR EARLIEST OPPORTUNITY! DO NOT LET THESE VILE DOGS CLAIM THAT THE ARMADA FELL UPON THEM WITHOUT WARNING!

May God grant the Indians mercy, for the Armada shall not.

The Sixth Sense of Humor has posted an alternate Declaration.

Alas, I was not banned. That may be because they never read this, or this, or this, or.......

Oddly enough, though, the two blogs for the projects I work with as part of Soldiers' Angels are blogspot blogs (here and here), and are now banned. Go figure.

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UPDATE 7/19 8:46am: Hmmm...I've had three visitors in India stop by since this post went up. I wonder if they be friend or foe?