If I’m going to watch auto racing at all, I watch Formula 1 in preference to NASCAR. The former is actual racing, which involves turning in both directions and manuevering in and out of traffic on roads meant for real cars; the latter is lining up in a row and turning left for an hour or so, punctuated by someone crashing into a wall, probably from sheer monotony. The real reason that Americans do not watch F1 is of course it’s “European” – a word meaning “not American” to most American slobs. Sure, some of the best drivers are from Brazil or Canada or, in the case of the fantastically named Scott Speed, the U.S., but I don’t care, it’s jest not raht, Bubba.
More Americans, however, may pay attention to F1 now given the Führer – er, sorry, furor – over the recent doings of Max Mosley, the chief muckety-muck of Grand Prix auto racing. Seems that last week, Mosley was videoed in the company of what News of the World described as prostitutes, getting (or giving – the article’s unclear) a BDSM session; the reported price was the equivalent of US$5000. (Client #9, call your office.)
The particularly fun part, for the tabloids and everyone else, was the possible Nazi overtones of the whole session: counting the strokes of the lash in German, shouting orders in German-accented English à la Colonel Klink (“She needs more of ze punishment!“), some prisoner-and-captor role play, including a “check for lice” and a reading of a list of personal effects. It gets better: Mosley’s father was Sir Oswald Mosley – yes, as in the guy behind the British Union of Fascists during WWII. The N.Y. Times has the story here, and here‘s some video (appropriate warnings here). Continue reading
Filed under: encoded posts, politics, various musings | Tagged: auto racing, bdsm, civil liberties, fascism, freedom of speech, nazis, rot13, sex | 3 Comments »
The Hidden Message 