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June 21, 2003


Ascot inspires sarcasm among Brits.

It's time for the traditional British nonsense of the races at Ascot, and other summertime nonsensicals of the so-called better classes, and Marina Hyde of the Guardian just wants to blow them all away. Such language, and from a lady too.

As the days reach their longest and the blossom scent its headiest, that perennial summer dilemma surfaces once more. If you could carry out a drive-by shooting and get away with it, would you take out Henman Hill or the drinks paddock at Royal Ascot?

People often say violence isn't the answer, but it only takes one look at the denizens of both these grassy corners of England to realise that here, unquestionably, it is. As Ascot draws to a close this evening, the paddock will resound with skirmishes among those just unable to accept that it's over. This is as baffling as the shock which greets the annual discovery by some hack that there are traces of cocaine in the racecourse lavatories. Frankly, given the urgent need for escapism from this Boschian hell, it's a shock there isn't a higher incidence of PCP coating the cisterns of the sponsored portaloos.

Maybe she doesn't understand that it's the absurdity of it all that is the whole point. It's not enough for the rich to simply waste the hard-earned wages of the poor. They have to do so in the most ridiculous and insane manner possible, just to make sure that everyone appreciates what arrogant wastrels they are. The twist of the knife as it stabs you in the wallet, if you will. The defining characteristic of the British nobility.

Something tells me it's a good thing that people can't blow each other away just for being silly. Now, if they believe in a silly god, that's an entirely different matter. Can't allow silliness in heaven, only here on earth.

 permanent link image permalink, posted by mike on Saturday, June 21, 2003 at 11:32 AM




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CATEGORIES



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LINKS / BLOGROLL


THE BLOGOSPHERE

Group blogs and centers

Wood s Lot. Maybe the most consistently interesting weblog out there. Superb selections on all sorts of topics, especially art and literature. Tons of links too.

Blog Sisters, a group blog, with a-z links to individuals. More by the ladies at Blogs by Women.

Good community blogs at Boing Boing, Metafilter and Kuro5hin.

The Wibsite, wiblog.com. British bloggers.

Fairvue Central hosts the Bloggies, awards for best weblogs in different categories from all over the world. See the nominees for 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 (in progress).



Iraqi blogs

Today in Iraq.

A Family in Baghdad.

Baghdad Burning.

Healing Iraq.

Salam Pax.

G in Baghdad.

Ishtar talking.

The Mesopotamian.

Iraq at a glance.

Hammorabi.

Nabil's blog.

Baghdadee.

Fayrouz.

Iraq the model.

Iraq and Iraqis.

Road of a nation.

Ihath - Losing myself.

Sun of Iraq.

Back to Iraq.



Individual blogs

Robert Hunter's journal.

Follow Me Here.

Caterina.net.

Avram's journal.

Rebecca's Pocket.

Alas, a Blog.

Weblog Wannabe.

The Rittenhouse Review.

Margaret Cho Blog.

The Oregon Blog.

Angry Bear.

Brad DeLong.

Dohiyi Mir.

Eschaton.

Hullabaloo.

Nathan Newman.

Orcinus.

Steve Gilliard's News Blog.

Tapped.

Tbogg.



Blogging communities

Lists of bloggers in these areas.

Austin, Texas.

Beltway Bloggers, Washington, DC.

Boston, Massachusetts.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Chicago, Illinois.

Dallas Ft. Worth, Texas.

London, United Kingdom.

New York, New York.

San Diego, California.

Seattle, Washington.

St. Louis, Missouri.

Washington, DC.



GENERAL LINKS, NOT BLOGS

News, magazines, reference

The sites where I do my usual news browsing, and get most of my articles and links.

Common Dreams.

Refdesk, info on absolutely everything. A comprehensive newspaper page, listed by US states and countries, and an encyclopedia.

BBC News, BBCi Home, BBC Radio, categories, history topics.

The World News Network, wn.com, gathers news sites from all over the world, country by country.

Wikipedia, online encyclopedia.



The Asian Times.

The Scotsman.

The Moscow Times. Russian perspectives and news. The Russia Post is a World News site with links to other Russian sites.

The Black Commentator.

Aljazeera Net in English.

Outlook India.



GENERAL INTEREST

History, literature, philosophy and other subjects, mostly related to the works in the Galileo Library.

Online Clarity. An I Ching community. Newsletter, readings, etc.

Sacred Books of the East. A 19th century project of eastern literature.

Bartleby.com. Great books online.

Bibliomania. Free online literature and study guides. Lots of classics and reading resources.



THE ARTS

Vincent van Gogh Gallery. Complete paintings and writings, and a nice arts links page. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Bob Dylan, live performances.

Grateful Dead, GD Radio.

David Byrne, radio station.

New Pages. Book and reading related center, lots of alternative publishing links and weblog.

Reading Rat. Reading center with lots of links.

Avid reader web ring.

The Louvre. Other Parisian museums.

The Web Museum, index of artists. Extremely high quality images.

August Rodin web org.

Mark Harden's Artchive.

Emile Kren's Web Gallery of Art.

Artcyclopedia. A fine art search engine. Historical and current, with a nice museum list.

Plagiarist.com poetry archive. Classic and modern plus news, articles, forums, etc. View a random poem.

Rotten Tomatoes. Film center, with collected reviews, ratings and forums.

Aint It Cool News. Movie reviews and previews from a fan's perspective.

Roger Ebert's film reviews.

Scott McCloud. The latest in the world of cartoonists.

YouTube. Video center.



MILD EROTICA

Domai.com. Eolake Stobblehouse's extraordinary, and extremely tasteful, paean to pretty girls, updated daily. Nudity yes, sex definitely not. Nice general purpose links too.

Simple nudes. Lots of links.

Vintage nudes. Pin-ups and other classics.


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