What does it take to become a columnist?

More to the point...

What does it take to become blacklisted from future employment as a columnist by Canada's traditional media?

The Globe and Mail has removed the unsupported-by-evidence column by Norman Spector regarding PM Harper's marital state. But let us not forget this opinion also expressed by the same man and unapologeticly repeated by him.

Most media outlets seem keen to rewrite history. They have removed articles referring to that too. They forget Google. I've linked to the cache version of one of those articles.

So what does it take?

If there comes a vacancy, I wouldn't mind the job, to be truthful.

ETA: In case that cache version is removed too, this is what Norman Spector said of then MP Belinda Stronach on CKNW's Bill Good Show, October 30, 2006:

"I think she's a bitch... I mean it's as simple as that, and I think that 90 per cent of men would probably say she's a bitch for the way she's broken up Tie Domi's home and the way she dumped [Foreign Affairs Minister] Peter MacKay. She is a bitch."

What infuriated me at the time: Spector placed no blame on TIE DOMI for breaking up his own home (or on Peter MacKay for any role he may have played in his own breakup with Stronach). Spector's comment was not just inappropriately personal but more to the point for me, it was flagrantly sexist. All the blame rested on the woman, none on the men, as though the men were helpless to stop themselves.

ETA 2: I don't give a damn about the love affairs or marital accord or discord of politicians or other public figures. Doubtless, most of the public doesn't either. If only traditional media would get that message.

Recommend this post

In Defence of Jenny Kwan

Jenny Kwan, the BC NDP MLA who spoke out yesterday on behalf of true democratic process in her party... she, who thus ultimately spoke out on behalf of the people of British Columbia... That Jenny Kwan was lambasted today by the majority of guest commenters on the popular Bill Good Show.

One commenter accused Kwan of having been silent throughout her tenure as one of only two NDP MLAs sitting as Official Opposition from 2001 to 2005. The man's observation didn't mesh with mine. It was Kwan's feistiness during that period that first drew my attention to her.

Another commenter remarked that Kwan had done nothing useful over her 14 years as an MLA and that she had been a constant annoyance to the party. Worse, accused the man, he couldn't count the number of times Kwan had cried in public.

CRIED. IN PUBLIC.

How positively sinful!

How so much more appropriate that politicians endlessly express (manufactured) outrage - OUTRAGE, mind you -, that they bluster, shout, wave their arms about. I mean, really, that's so much more... what's the word I'm looking for... manly.

That Kwan has indeed been an MLA for 14 years; that 12 other MLAs in the party refused to don the famous yellow scarves two weeks ago (40 percent of the NDP caucus, in all); that MLAs, their constituency associations and their canvassers are more directly in touch with voters and their intentions... all these are irrelevant.

Why? Because the three governing institutions of the NDP have decreed it so. The party, they say, determines the leader. MLAs have nothing to say in the matter.

That suggests a major and fundamental flaw in either the party's constitution or its application.

Recommend this post

Abortion Too Easy?

I am enraged, again, with this story about the pro-life righteous, religious, right-wing-nutters in the USA.

Is there no end to other people deciding how a woman comes to a decision about seeking an abortion? I'm beginning to realize that all the die hard pro-lifers seem to believe that a woman thinks 'Ho-hum, I'm pregnant. I better find an abortion clinic and get rid of the damn thing.'

Where are the 'fathers' in the picture? Why aren't they hauled in and made accountable for THEIR actions? Is there any pregnancy without a male partner, artificially inseminated or not?

Having lived through the era when it was a criminal offence for a woman to seek an abortion, I am livid to see this ugly hatred for women who choose to control their own bodies and destinies returning.

I recommend you read the whole article and follow the links provided.

Recommend this post

HST: Woe to families

According to some, British Columbia's new HST, to become effective July 2010, will mean serious hardship for middle-income families. For example,

That morning bagel and cup of java you grabbed this morning cost $4.20, but a year from now breakfast will cost 28 cents more.

A quarter and a few pennies may not seem like much, but over the course of a day, a month or a year, dollars lost to the harmonized sales tax are going to add up.

Just picture it: Ted and Suzy have two boys, Timmy and Sally, aged seven and 12 respectively.

Ted works as a forklift driver and his wife Suzy is a receptionist at a chiropractor's office.

Suzy took the car to work today so Ted, pressed for time, had to take a taxi. Cost for the ride today: $12.80 cents. Cost with the HST this time next year: $14.34.

Suzy gets out of work early and picks up the boys to get their haircut. As the barber dusts the hair from Timmy's forehead, mom picks the $40 tab. Next year: $42.80.

When the couple comes home tonight..., sitting on the dining room table are bills for hydro, cable and Internet, telephone and newspapers totalling $250. Next year: $267.50.

And the couple still hasn't considered a mechanic's bill, fees for the kids to go to karate classes, back-to-school supplies, and four super-saver plane tickets on sale now for a flight before Christmas to go see family in Winnipeg.

Tomorrow it's grocery shopping for the week and family night out at the International House of Pancakes - a Saturday night tradition.

Forklift driver Ted and receptionist Suzy are fortunate. Each has a full-time job.

The family has a car, a home, a telephone AND Internet connection, rather than having to choose one or the other because they can't afford both. The family also buys newspaper subscriptions, dines out once a week and travels by air for vacations and is able to visit with other members who live further away.

The children take karate classes and get their hair cut by a barber, rather than by mom or dad.

Ted, whether pressed for time or not, can afford a cab ride rather than having to walk - or to take public transit which likely would get him to his destination in the same amount of time as a cab would.

Now add to that Ted's and Suzy's daily coffee-and-bagel ritual.

To the people who buy a bagel and a coffee one or more times a day, some of you doing this five to seven days a week, I'm not worrying that you'll have to pay an additional 28 cents for the same ritual next year. Or that you'll pay more for airfare, haircuts, cab rides, etc. I worry about staying within my $67/month food budget.

Bottom line: Consumption taxes are, by definition, about consumption. The more you consume, the more you pay.

Recommend this post