Blogger Arrests?

"Keep your political views to yourself. That's the message going out to bloggers as a new study finds bloggers being arrested in record numbers. "

Holy crap, batman! That was my first reaction after reading the internet headline; scanning for world news.

Then, I started to feel a little faint. Am I going to see my mug shot in the U.S. Post Office while purchasing postage stamps? Oh. God. My mind is racing. Hmm...there's no extradition from the country of Brazil, right? That's good; a plus. I love Portuguese wine. I love being naked. Hell, I taught myself to read and write HTML, how hard could it be to learn and speak Portuguese?

I continued to read through the article...

"According to the study, most of the 64 arrests since 2003 have come from China, Egypt and Iran — while most of the searches for the term "blogger" come from Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines (U.S. ranks seventh)."

Wait a minute. Hold everything. I just re-read the countries from where "most" of the bloggers are being arrested from. I'm living in the north east of somewhere, but on U.S. soil, so I think I'm in the World's Most Wanted for blogging clear. However, the U.S. did show up in the rankings, but not for porn. No. They want to hang you high at noon for telling the truth; non-fiction, blogging, it appears. Minor detail.

Whew. Close call though.

Do you think you can guess the other rules and restrictions on blogging from around the world?

Here's just a taste of world blogger trivia for you. As I write this, of course I find it gut-wrenching, and disturbing that I'm actually concerned about writing something that somehow wrinkles the agenda in some countries, even my own.

Fuck, I mostly blog about sex related topics, and nobody really cares. Well, I guess that's not true. Bible thumpers everywhere hate the porn industry, I suppose. I'm starting to sweat at the thought that I live in the 21st century; I call the mega-power country of the world, my home and well, I could be thrown into jail for reporting the truth. Now, isn't that something?

Q: In some nations, like this one, there are restrictions on blogging in general.

A: Asia, China.

Q: As a precaution, this country arrested hundreds of people suspected of blogging.

A: Burma, Mynamar, Asia

Q: This armed forces branch does not allow its soldiers to blog about anything military-related.

A: The U.S. Army.

Q: The International Olympic Committee says these people can blog in Beijing, as long as their blogs are "dignified and in good taste."

A: All Olympic Athletes.

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