An informative exchange on the MRZine website. Any look at political Islam that doesn't share Washington's (or Tel Aviv's) xeonophobia should be of interest to babblers.
http://monthlyreview.org/090330amin.php
http://monthlyreview.org/090330amin-khan.php
I think I see why there are often blank entries at the beginning of some threads. I can't seem to edit the first post. Is that the reason?
I believe so, yes.
It is in some cases.
In most cases, however, the thread is an older one that was "migrated" from Ye Olde Babble in a process that leaves the first post blank. The theory seems to be that the first post isn't part of the "Comments", which actually commence with the second post (which is of course, using Elbbab logic, post #1).
Oh, I didn't realize that, thanks M. Spector. Another addition to the list of defects in the migrated threads; a lot are almost unreadable, the quote function messed up, etc.