The Virtual Stoa

John Barrell on Christopher Hitchens on Thomas Paine in the LRB is quite fun.

Mark Kaplan, on the pub.

Over here.

Over here, at Contradictory Ben’s.

It’s over at virtualstoa.org, though it doesn’t seem to be flourishing especially well.

Over here.

Over here, magnificently. [via]

Class Worrier Raj shares his opinions on land reform with the readers of yesterday’s South Africa Mercury.

This, obviously.

Over at Sharon’s Place.

There’s not nearly enough Icelandic Saga Blogging on the web, so full marks to SIAW for leading the charge. I’m a Njal’s Saga man, myself.

(Actually, I think that everyone is really a Njal’s Saga person.)

Then he goes to Gizur and his band as they sat on the ground.Gizur looked at him and said, “Well, is Gunnar at home?

“Find that out for yourselves,” said Thorgrim; “but this I am sure of, that his bill is at home,” and with that he fell down dead.

Over here. Or start here.

Rest in Peace, Peter Benenson, founder of Amnesty International, born 21 July 1921, died 25 February 2005.

Killer Fact: Harry Hutton has an especially good one this weekend:

“In 2004 the works of Snoop Dogg outsold the works of Professor Roger Scruton for the 11th year running.”

This looks splendid, and the kind of thing that the internet was invented for, though I will need more time than I have at the moment to explore it properly and push back the frontiers of mediaeval tapestry design.

Good stuff, via Early Modern Notes.

Backword Dave’s Nipples Have Exploded With Delight: Over here. (I just hope it wasn’t too messy.) But I should have thought that the Monty Python reference he really wanted was to the Hackenthorpe Book of Lies.

… the Great British Public Appears to be a Bunch of Ignorant Gits. Most of what appears in the Daily Mail is rubbish or nonsense, a truth that happily restates itself with each day that passes and the appearance of a new issue of the rag.

But in an exception-that-proves-the-rule kind of exception, Green Fairy has pointed to this article about public perceptions of paedophiles, and she’s right to do so.

(Where’s Chris Morris when you need him?)

… Chris Lightfoot is Emphatically Not an Ignorant Git: He has also been reading the Government’s latest advice about what to do in the case of a major disaster, terrorist attack or whatnot. Go and read what he has to say.

I should have mentioned this sort-of blog ages ago, but trot along to Stoic News for, um, news about Stoics.

… today if you haven’t already. In quick succession (but in reverse order) Jamie has filled in his own culture questionnaire, offered his firsthand memories of a hanged man and said everything that needs to be said about the bloody Prospect competition to find Britain’s top so-called public so-called intellectuals.

As I said, scurry on over and have a read.

Sarah gets onto the pitcher’s mound, and onto the phone to the National Blood Service…

I haven’t been following it of late, so I was pleased to see that The Head Heeb has been paying attention to the issues that matter and has a useful round-up of recent developments in the Pitcairn Island sexual assault case.

It seems that my friend Alan is caught up in the Hangingday site. I’d noticed the site, and Dan (see below) had told me he was something to do with the London News Review, but I’d never put the various bits and pieces together. Anyway: even though it’s a commercial outfit, the front page looks enough like a blog to justify a permanent presence over on the blogroll on the righthandside of the page.

I’ve just added Oliver Kamm’s blog to the blogroll. He and I have recently been disagreeing about one or two things [scroll down for the comments], but since I’m making a habit of reading his contributions, it’s probably time he went onto the sidebar.

Here.