Instapundit is one of the most popular American blogs, written by a law professor from Tennessee whose politics are libertarian, and pro Iraq war.
You may find his cheery Apple pie tone and hawkish politics too much to take, but his blog can be an entertaining read, and it’s packed full of links to all kinds of blogs and news articles. In 2004, Danwei asked a blogger from Tennessee who was living in China to write about Instapundit, figure out why his blog was so popular, and why the professor seemed so clueless about China. The piece is here: What is the Instapundit? Will you be assimilated?
Why bring this up now?
Last week Danwei had a traffic spike, thanks to a link from Instapundit. This is what he wrote:
CHINA’S LATEST INTERNET CELEBRITY: The government’s efforts at censorship don’t seem particularly successful. See this interview, too. Last night, however, the house was razed.
The INTERNET CELEBRITY link is to a Danwei post about the Chongqing nail house incident. Which happened a whole year ago. Not exactly breaking news.