Rating: NNNNN
Oh, the humanity
leave it to a NOW reporter to whine about the U.S.’s use of “notorious” Predator UAVs to “execute” alleged Al Qaeda terrorists (NOW, December 19-25). Oh, the humanity!
I suppose the U.S. should present arrest warrants to the UN and then prosecute Al Qaeda in the Hague? Isn’t that how the Taliban were brought down?
Matthew Behrens then writes of the hypocricy of “nations like Canada that are armed to the teeth….”
Which Canada would this be? Our tanks and jets are bordering on obsolete and our Sea King choppers should be in the ROM.
NOW’s anti-war coverage is sounding more and more like The Onion every week.
Jan Burton, Toronto
The buildup boondoggle
There has been quite a bit of grumbling about our military in the past few weeks — albeit most of it from lobbyists for military contractors.
There are those who are trying to whip up fear in order to sell us on a military policy that calls for buildup.
Perhaps it’s our lack of emphasis on the military that has kept us relatively safe. It’s hard not to come to that conclusion when the United States, for all its spending on defence, is a far more dangerous place. Maybe the two have something to do with each other.
Canada, with its emphasis on negotiation, seems to have fared considerably better in the war on terror than the scared and angry 800-pound gorilla south of us.
Tom Pashkov, Richmond Hill
Kyoto’s Iraq link
Your critiques of the current U.S. administration’s crusade for oil in Iraq are revealing.
Canada is also witnessing one of its own leaders espousing fear to maintain the status quo for the powerful and lucrative oil industry — Alberta’s desperate Ralph Klein.
Ralph and the boys want to introduce legislation in Alberta so that its environmental laws will circumvent federal law now that Canada has ratified the Kyoto Accord. Ralph is not far from mimicking the Bush adminstration to the south. While the current U.S. administration continues its war propaganda against Iraq, the goliath oil corporations anxiously and hungrily eye that country’s huge oil reserves.
John Graham, Guelph
Canucks a naive lot
As a brit, I love the naive enthusiasm of North Americans. It seems this naïveté permeates North American culture, including your filthy little pamphlet.
I love the Canadian live-and-let-live mentality that opposes the war against Iraq and other rogue states. The U.S. acts to oppress Mideastern nations and protect the Western ideal, and you stand by and shake your head.
Do you really believe that if they were in a position to oppress us, they wouldn’t?
Think about that next time you’re chomping on your Big Mac.
The U.S. is happy enough to play the bad guy so that all us Westerners can enjoy the perks of modern life, and I am happy enough to pass the torch of empire-building to our transatlantic cousins.
Now, wake up, Canadians, and get some good old-fashioned British cynicism in you. Then perhaps we can show a united front in our wonderful war of oppression!!!
Christopher N. Walker
North Yorkshire, England
Hitting U.S. pocketbook
I have been thinking of an effective response by Canadians to our treatment at U.S. borders.
Remember how keenly our presence was requested after 9/11 and how we came willingly in droves?
We might consider buying Canadian food products whenever available, or, say South African, in preference to U.S. items.
We need to let our U.S. neighbours know that we will respond in solidarity if even one Canadian is mistreated at the border.
Shirley Russ, Toronto
Border crossings
I came back from Vancouver and Seattle recently.
On the trip down, the Greyhound bus stopped at the U.S. border. Dogs were sniffing for fruit, vegetables and drugs. All luggage and purses were X-rayed.
Coming back across the Canadian border there were no dogs, no X-rays of luggage, and the bus stopped for half an hour to allow an Asian guy and his English girlfriend to get a visa they should have gotten in their home countries. Should we be worried?
Sandra Alexander, Toronto
Self-defence denied
Once, we had a good relationship, but it seems to have been spoiled by an excessively bitter disagreement about Israel.
Lately, when you do publish my letters, you edit out most of them. In the December 12-18 issue, you extracted just a single sentence to publish from what had originally been a substantial and meaningful letter.
Then you saw fit to publish Bill Kitcher’s accusation (NOW, December 19-25) that my letters are vacuous and insipid, which you know is not true even of the fragments you deign to print.
However, my reply was not worth printing. In this respect I am like Israel you do not grant us the right of self-defence. At least NOW is consistent.
David Palter, Toronto
Christmas grief
Robert Priest has pierced me with my chief Christmas grief (NOW, December 19-25).
At my kids’ school Christmas concert, I hear the song Santa, Please Remember My Name. It’s a litany of all the good kids did to be worthy of St. Nick’s loot.
There is neither magic, wonder nor love in this arrangement. Kids say, “I done good, Santa. Now hold up your end of the deal — pony up with the toys!”
This is about self-interest it’s cynical and deeply utilitarian. Is Santa more “useful” in our culture than Jesus Christ?
Hearing Santa, Please Remember My Name, I thought of the thief on the cross next to Jesus, who said, “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
That’s grace, children, and I’ll take it any day over a full stocking.
Santa merely dumps stuff under the tree and disappears until next year, as Priest points out.
What we do not have with Santa is a relationship, but a contract: be good and get stuff.
Diane Tucker
Burnaby, BC
Jesus was not white
As an anglican priest and a Christian, I have to agree with Drew Hayden Taylor’s comment that “many cultures… have had orthodoxy forced on them” (NOW, December 19-25).
The New Testament is quite clear that the work of conversion is supposed to be one of persuasion, not force.
It wasn’t until the fourth century after Christ, when the Roman Empire had itself been supposedly converted, that Christians yielded to the temptations of political power and started using force to advance “orthodoxy.”
Oh, by the way, Jesus was not a white male.
He was a Semite and probably resembled a modern Sephardic Jew or an Iraqi far more than an Anglo-Saxon like myself.
Rev. David R. Burrows, Toronto
Harkness a rare breed
I just wanted to write in with my compliments to John Harkness, a fellow film lover I have read for years.
His pieces on Gangs Of New York and Adrien Brody (NOW, December 19-25) were terrific.
Harkness is one of the last of the call-’em-like-he-sees-’em film reviewers.
It’s very rare indeed to see a film writer dare speak up against junkets.
It’s refreshing and necessary to have at least one voice like that out there. Thanks again, John.
Christopher Heard, Toronto
The download on MP3s
As I read matt galloway’s article about the “failure” of online music distribution (NOW, December 19-25), I kept expecting him to weigh in with something like “But at least one service got it right… emusic.com.” But alas, he said no such thing.
And before you get the idea that I’m a PR flack, I’ll tell you that I’m neither an employee nor a subscriber: I work in a used CD store, and I think MP3s sound only marginally better than cassette tapes or vinyl records.
But if downloading MP3s is what you’re looking for, a friend of mine swears by the service and has nearly filled a 60-GB hard drive with an eclectic array of music in the last year. Peace.
William “Bud” Latanville, Toronto
Sorry to suckers out there
RE c. fisch’s letter to the editor (NOW, December 19-25).
I wish to offer my apologies to C. Fisch for comments made in my letter a couple of weeks back. I appreciate the tremendous insult to the good name of legitimate cocksuckers everywhere when I used the term to describe Tim Perlich.
I’m also happy to tell you everything is fine with my sex life.
K.B. Kelly, London
