ABC is now running a very lengthy commercial for Dubai.  A series of horse races (the Dubai World Cup, etc.), millions at stake, the events take several hours to complete.  The average race is two minutes, the rest is Dubai airlines, Dubai real estate sales, Dubai (rented) performers doing an obviously expensive Super Bowl halftime show/Cirque de Soleil, sheiks who have never done a lick of work in their lives parading with horses they will never ride, the names of the sheiks ever on the lips of the talking heads hired to cover these races, all seamless, race, advert, Palm Island, languorous men in white robes, sunglasses, mustaches and eyebrows dyed.  Not so very far away, a madrassa in Afghantistan or Morocco, a mosque in Detroit or Birmingham, a lobbyist in Washington confirms a wire transfer of funds received that began at gas pump in San Antonio or Dubuque or Quebec moments before. 

I love horses, really, I do.  I love to see them race.  But this is one spectacle, this Dubai Cup, I will not drink.