La la la la la... We're not listening anymore...

An acquaintance of mine provided a response he received from one Debra Downey, senior editor, of The Dundas Star News and other various local weeklies operated under the once proud Brabant chain, now owned by the Torstar empire:

From: "Downey, Debra" Ddowney@hamiltonnews.com

show details
9:19 am (3 minutes ago)

Please remove editor@dundasstarnews.com, ddowney@brabantnewspapers.com, editor@ancasternews.com, and ddowney@hamiltonnews.com from your distribution list.

Thanking you in advance.

Debra Downey
Senior Editor
Dundas Star News/Ancaster News
ddowney@hamiltonnews.com
Phone: 905-628-2295, Ext. 330
Fax: 905-526-1855

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From: ______@gmail.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 6:20 PM
To: Downey, Debra
Subject: Harper Vs Dion

I suspect the reason Dion and Friends are so outraged over recent comments by Stephen Harper that they care more about the Taliban than our own armed forces is because Harper has hit a little too close to home. Our troops deserve support from every citizen in this country, including the Liberals. It was after all the Liberals who initially put them there.

This individual uses a group mailer to send his comments about media news en bloc to a select group of papers.

Now here's the irony: these Brabant/Torstar weeklies are delivered *free* in a bundle of largely recyclable waste every Saturday morning to the market served - the Golden Horseshoe region west of the GTA. Once upon a time, these were well respected local papers delivered by neighbourhood kids. Torstar took all that away and treats them largely as bulk fill in a baggie of junk that often goes directly from mailbox to blue box.

Indeed, the latter event was such a problem the local recycling centre had to send a notice asking people to remove the papers from the delivery bag before putting them out for recycling, as too much staff time was needed to separate the waste from the baggie.

Day by Day in Iraq

Chris Muir, whose Day by Day cartoons grace the lead on this blog, has just spent a bit of time as an embed in Iraq, sponsored by Bill Roggio's media company, Public Multimedia, Inc. Chris details his experiences in Roggio's blog

In the brief time I was there, I attended meetings where everyone was working with each other, I mean sheiks, the Police Chief of the city, US Army, Kurds, Sunnis, Shia, cats and dogs, everyone- together. There are real divisions here, but also a real determination to weld the place into a more stable society.

It was good to see the US State Department building infrastructure like schools, roads, water & sewage, to witness them helping integrate the various tribes here, setting up workable trade and political organizations, even living within the populace to get a feel for what is needed culturally. It was very impressive and more importantly, working.

Well, actually, it's the US Army that does all of the above with their MITT teams (Military Transition Teams). The State Department? A complete no-show, for all I could tell. Maybe they're double-parked in Washington or something.

People here will tell you they are mostly afraid of one thing-that we will leave soon, like we have since Vietnam, Somalia, etc., and that they will then be at the mercy of the terrorists who seep in from Iran, Syria, Egypt, and Saudia Arabia. A self-fulfilling circle, helped out vastly by our 'anti-war' citizens back home, who ironically enable wars as this by forcing constant US retreats through our political process. People here - real people, not 'Jamil Husseins' - want us here to give them time to reform their society.

I speculate this is one of the reasons I observed such high morale in our soldiers here. They are wanted here, unlike, say, in San Francisco. But, I digress.

Chris promises that the "kids" will report from Iraq soon...

The Global Warming Fraud - The Big Lie of the 21st Century

As a biologist for over 35 years, I could never get my head around the angst over "global warming", or as it became, "climate change". The polemic never made scientific sense. It certainly should be clear to any rational indvidual that the Kyoto Accord is nothing but a wealth transfer scheme - a scam. The entire concept of "carbon trading" is laughable in its sheer audacity and in-your-face blatant hypocrisy. Inconvenient truth, indeed, Al.

The following video, produced by Britain's Channel 4, "The Great Global Warming Swindle" should help clear your head and purge your soul. Sit back, enjoy the show...