Tangled up in blue (and green and orange too)

The blogosphere is many things to many people. It can be a platform for lively debate, an alternative source of news and comment for ideas overlooked by the mainstream media, a vehicle for people to say whatever the hell they like anonymously without fear of censorship or reproachement or sometimes even the virtual equivalent of a boxing ring. This morning I witnessed the latest round of the ongoing cyber-bout between Chris Gaskin of Balrog and Andrew McCann of A Tangled Web, with their omnipresent supporters and fence-sitters pitching in. For the uninitiated, Gaskin is a Sinn Féin-supporting republican anti-British leftie from South Armagh while McCann is a right wing Tory-supporting anti-Irish unionist hardliner from Yorkshire. Occupying opposite ends of the political spectrum, they have often come to virtual blows during heated debates. They are almost like cartoon caricatures and are so predictable in their posts in that they constantly distort facts to suit their own twisted agendas that they become difficult to take seriously. When the fuel for rational informed debate runs out, vicious personaI abuse ensues!

I found their online bitch fight highly entertaining and amusing. For ringside seats at a A Tangled Web’s own version of Caesar’s Palace click here (“Eye of the Tiger” to be played in the background) :

http://atangledweb.typepad.com/weblog/2006/05/nowhere_man.html

If the sportsmen who represent their respective teams prove to be as good on the ball as Chris and Andew are with the verbal fencing, then England will win the World Cup and Armagh will win the All-Ireland. Stranger things have happened…