Lots of right wing stuff this week, including Andrew Sullivan, Fox News, a very unpleasant fight and a campaign to end women's suffrage. Thanks must go to readers Kelme and David Stubbs for leading me in the wrong (right) direction. Should you wish to influence the course of this column then please post your links, videos and blogs below. Once again, to all who have posted, many, many thanks.
1. Fraters Libertas Well worth visiting, not only for a selection of excellent and funny interviews, but also for the Brothers (Fraters) insights into the recent abduction of the 15 British sailors. By the way, on that subject you might also care to take a look at this.
2. Smosh Wonderfully, inspiringly inane site devoted to the lives of two deliberately cretinous mop-topped American indie kids (they look like they should support the Dandy Warhols). This week, one of them gets a haircut - in order to get a girl. It's the painful amateur dramatics that make it so watchable.
3. Fox News April Fools To counter the sometimes scary right-wing stuff you will have heard on Fraters Libertas, I thought I should include this, yet another example of the breathtaking pro-Bush bias on Fox News. Thus, when Fox viewers are asked to vote for the most foolish American of the year, and duly vote for their president, Fox, clearly aghast, award the title to Britney Spears. Even as the actual results are appearing on screen. Amazing stuff.
4. The City Journal Extremely intelligent online magazine that this week dissects The Sopranos and their gruesome, real-life Jersey counterparts; looks at the worrying relationship between hucksterism and art; and lays bullishly into the manipulation of crime stats. City Journal provides an excellent opportunity to waste a few hours whilst feeling impossibly clever. Great archive too.
5. End Women's Votes Truly distressing video that convinces a series of girls to sign a petition to end their right to vote. It says far more about the American education system than most of us would ever care to know. The confusion occurs between the word "suffrage" and "suffering". I'm still not sure if I hate the people who made it for exploiting a perfectly innocent misunderstanding, or admire them for revealing far deeper faults.
6. Andrew Sullivan The journalist Andrew Sullivan is not to everyone's taste. Feared by his numerous enemies, it is also fair to say that even his friends look grimly forward to the day he will trounce them too. Sullivan is an apparent series of contradictions. He is gay, pro-family, libertarian, wildly right wing, extremely well-informed, utterly pig-headed, pro-war and anti-Bush. He once described himself as a South Park Conservative. Here's a chance to read his daily blog. Imagine Cartman with a doctorate from Harvard.
7. Internet Movie Data Base Last week reader Kelme ticked me off for including the Encyclopaedia Britannica in my weekly round up. He rightly pointed out that I lacked imagination. The inclusion of IMDB here will no doubt inspire similar accusations. However, like Britannica, this is a vital resource, providing cast lists, plot summaries and reviews of practically every movie and TV show ever made. Oh, and it also has a chat/forum used by Hollywood moguls and Hollywood hopefuls.
8. Swim Utterly amazing, and probably utterly stupid, short movie devoted to explaining the origins of life. It looks like a trailer, but I could find no record of an actual movie anywhere. So, filmed as it is - with sperm that have the dramatic effect of the under-carriage of a Star Wars spacecraft - it appears simply as a shimmering, compellingly lovely video installation. Divine bullshit for sure, but well worth seeing.
9. Little Atoms OK, so this is now the third time I have included this site, but trust me, as the archive of interviews with polemicists, philosophers, artists and scientists keeps building up, Little Atoms just gets better and better. This week, we have an interview with the author and winner of the Orwell prize, Michael Collins. As ever, it is conducted in a style that is both blissfully laid back and wickedly incisive. A little like being stoned in a room full of your best and brightest friends.
10. Mad Dog Staggeringly violent clip of a notorious 1970s wrestling match in which a bloke with a beard and a broken arm is attacked by an idiot in a leather leotard. The ref proves himself to be so comprehensively useless that when he too is mauled - punched, smacked, bitten - you yearn for cricket, or even some relatively civilized football hooliganism. Of which, more next week.
