INTERESTING LINKS
Note: The presence of a link in this section does not imply that Curmudgeon agrees with all, most or indeed any of the content of the site.
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Also take a look at Interesting Articles
Beer, Pubs and Drinking
CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale)
- Campaigns for traditional beer and pubs - but has it become in recent years complacent and politically correct, and too eager to shun the major issues confronting the British brewing and pub trades? In particular its fence-sitting over the smoking ban was disgraceful and it has seemed strangely reluctant to attack the recent rise of neo-Prohibitionism.
- Stockport & South Manchester CAMRA
- The local branch of CAMRA - the content has been considerably expanded since launch, but the appearance is still a touch rudimentary
- uk.food+drink.real-ale
- Usenet newsgroup devoted to real ale and related topics. In contrast to many other newsgroups, discussion is usually polite and constructive
- AIM - Alcohol in Moderation
- A digest of news and research about sensible, moderate drinking that debunks many of the myths put about by the neo-Prohibitionist lobby
- J.D.Wetherspoon
- Rapidly-growing pub company that in many areas - not least the Internet - is showing others how it should be done
- British Beer and Pub Association
- New name for the Brewers and Licensed Retailers Association. Contains plenty of interest, but despite the recently site redesign is still not as well-presented and topical as it could be.
- Cask Marque
- Industry scheme to ensure consistent cask ale quality in pubs - but unfortunately it seems content to tolerate short measures and over-chilled pints
- Alcohol: Problems and Solutions
- A serious but well-presented American academic site that speaks up strongly in favour of moderate drinking and against neo-Prohibitionism.
- American Beverage Institute
- US trade organisation site that contains a lot of disturbing news about the neo-Prohibitionist trend across the pond - will it spread to the UK?
- America's Addiction to Prohibition
- Trenchant piece that turns the spotlight on the increasing trend to restrict the consumption and distribution of alcoholic drinks in the US
- The Fun of Alcohol
- A libertarian defence of boozing against the anti-alcohol killjoys - starts in lighthearted vein, but becomes more serious, and the bit about the "New Puritans" is particularly good.
- Institute of Alcohol Studies
- An extremist neo-Prohibitionist body that masquerades under a reasonable front. Know your enemy! Having said that, it's a well-presented site with some interesting material, including a press digest of alcohol-related news items.
Tobacco
This section is vital for anyone who enjoys beer and pubs, as what happens to tobacco today will happen to alcohol tomorrow. Unfortunately there are as yet no British websites (apart from this one) standing up for drinkers' rights in the same way.
FOREST
- Campaigns for smokers' rights in the UK
- FORCES
- American organisation opposed to the anti-smoking lobby, whose website is gloriously politically incorrect and stands up against all kinds of health and safety fascism
- The Big Debate
- Very active UK forum discussing the smoking issue
- The Truth is a Lie
- Lists twenty-four favourite lies of the anti-tobacco lobby
- Pennsylvania Smokers' Action Network
- Outspoken site run by Michael J. McFadden, author of the essential book Dissecting Antismokers' Brains
Campaigning Organisations
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- Association of British Drivers
- Campaigns for transport choice, improved road user training, and a better road system, and takes road safety seriously rather than using it as an excuse to harass responsible drivers
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No to ID - Campaigns against compulsory ID cards and the totalitarian implications of the spread of the database state
- Association of British Counties
- A kind of "Campaign for Real Counties", the ABC argues that Britain needs a fixed popular geography, divorced from the ever changing names and areas of local government, but instead rooted in history, public understanding and commonly held notions of cultural identity.
Safe Speed
- Road safety campaign founded by Paul Smith, which shows how speed cameras, far from making the roads safer, in fact lead to increased danger
- British Weights and Measures Association
- Supports the retention of "real" rather than "keg" units of measure and opposes the imposition of the impractical metric system
- Pipedown
- Campaigns against the abuse of piped music in public places
- Countryside Alliance
- Campaigns to defend the interests of rural areas - there's more to this than just foxhunting. If you don't like this, you can always take a look at the website of the League Against Cruel Sports instead. But banning foxhunting will not save the life of a single fox.
- British Toilet Association
- Exposes the hidden scandal of Britain's rapidly disappearing public toilets
- Watching Them, Watching Us
- Big Brother is Watching You! The UK CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign monitors the ever-increasing use of CCTV surveillance, which is potentially a major threat to civil liberties
Other Opinionated Sites
- Winton's World
- Retired Reuters journalist Neil Winton certainly has some forthright opinions on a variety of topics
- Number Watch
- Exposes the abuse of numbers and statistics in support of partisan causes
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- Spiked
- Offers a refreshingly different perspective on contemporary issues that is prepared to step outside the confines of political correctness
- Oregon Petition
- Declaration by over 17,000 scientists that the theory that so-called global warming results from human activity has no sound scientific basis
- Still Waiting for Greenhouse
- A lukewarm view of global warming from Tasmania
- Junk Science
- Exposes faulty scientific data and analysis used to further special agendas
- Harrison Bergeron
- Full text of the classic science fiction short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, about the dangers of political correctness and the quest for equality at the expense of freedom
Curmudgeons Worldwide
The Grumpy Old Sod
- New site containing a multitude of rants and grumbles about life in Britain today
- The Disenfranchised Curmudgeon
- Described as "the ramblings of a disenfranchised homebrewer" but in fact contains more about politics than beer. The author (not surprisingly) feels that no US political party even vaguely reflects his views.
- The Curmudgeon's Home Companion
- This guy's already bagged "www.curmudgeon.com", and this site is really just an ad for a print magazine. However, it's worth a look, particularly the three sample articles.
- The Wine Curmudgeon
- OK, it's about wine, not beer, but it makes many excellent points about moderate drinking and neo-Prohibitionism in the US. Did you know that in many US states it's illegal to buy wine or any other alcoholic drink by mail order from another state?
Previous issues: Issue 3 | Issue 2 | Issue 1 | - The Potable Curmudgeon
- Another boozy American curmudgeon, this time into home-brewing
- The Fulford and Tang Hall Curmudgeon
- "Bugging the Neighbours since 1997. The work of four diseased minds, it informs, rants, digresses, disturbs and gets us loads of free stuff, so it's got to be good." Or so they say. A favourite UK search engine result, this is basically a commentary on films, music and related topics - and it's certainly opinionated. The current issue is apparently going to be the last ever.
- Dull Men's Club
- Obviously this doesn't apply to me, you understand....
- PetrolTed's Rants
- OK, this is all about cars and driving, but it's one of the best collections of truly curmudgeonly rants I've come across on the Web
- The Happy Hippy
- Described as "a cornucopia of ranting, raving, reviews plus other interesting and miscellaneous subject matter" - but I'm not sure whether someone who has a Vauxhall Astra as a company car can really call himself a hippy.
- Come to New Britain
- The author loved this country so much he emigrated to the USA. Personally I'm too fond of our our beer and pubs. Half of this rant is spot on, half is very wide of the mark. In my view, obviously.
If you want to suggest any links to be added to this page, please send me an e-mail.
Curmudgeon would expect any broadly sympathetic links to be reciprocated.