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Monday, March 20, 2006
Second Anniversary
Last week was the second anniversary of the Western Standard's launch. To mark the occasion, Lord and Lady Black of Crossharbour generously hosted a party at their beautiful Toronto home. Here are a few photos from the evening.
Posted by Ezra Levant on March 20, 2006 | Permalink
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Comments
Lovely . . . congratulations!
Posted by: Linda | 2006-03-20 9:51:51 PM
Speaking as a charter subscriber to the magazine, I wish to extend my thanks to Ezra, and all the Western Standard staff and columnists, for two years of quality reading. Well done, folks.
Posted by: Vitruvius | 2006-03-20 10:42:51 PM
Ass kissing rightfully is not my foray, I am much too old for it.
Posted by: Sorry | 2006-03-21 2:28:21 AM
Hey, is that that criminal guy?
As for Lady Black, must've increased her dose since standing that close to a black woman hasn't got her twitching.
Posted by: It's called Principles | 2006-03-21 6:31:40 AM
Thanks Ezra for the snaps.
Barbara Amiel, still one of my favourite woman writers.
One of her best lines about Bob Rae when he was running Ontario into the gutter was " Bob Rae - crypto - communist".
You are in good company Ezra, Mark Steyn, Babs, Conrad et al -
pity Rupert Murdoch wasn't there!
Up and onward - Western Standard.
Posted by: Joe Molnar | 2006-03-21 7:20:23 AM
LOL!!!! The next time Ezra goes on another rant about how corrupt the "Libranos" are I'll be sure to look at these party pics again. I believe Lord Tubby is currently being charged with eight counts of criminal fraud as well as charges of racketeering, obstruction of justice, money laundering and wire fraud. If a man is measured by the quality of his friends, then I think Ez made the right choice for host of his shindig.
Posted by: Mark Logan | 2006-03-21 10:46:05 AM
Ezra has opened some doors that won't close again. Because of the Western Standard, more people have been introduced to Darcey and Raskolnikov and other voices from the hills, and there's a publication in Canada that's not afraid of Mark Steyn, and not afraid of Danish cartoons, and now there's some guy ranting about Communism in China. Voices that have been there all along, but somebody kept cutting off their microphones. Basically, Ezra opened the door, opened the window, turned on the microphone, and let these people say what they have to say. Some of what they say will make your hair fall out and give you a toothache, but some of it really needed to be said, and in any case, you won't be bored. Thank you, Ezra.
Posted by: Bob & Ulli | 2006-03-21 1:10:30 PM
Considering you conservative types tend to be of the "tough on crime" variety, don't you find it a touch embarassing to be seen with Conrad Black? I mean, the guy's a complete crook! Oh well, at least one of the financiers of the Canadian conservative movement will soon be in a US prison. Can't wait.
Posted by: Ironic | 2006-03-21 5:58:55 PM
So I guess the Western Standard won't be selling any of those cute Sopranos-esque T-shirts but with Tubby and Lady Golddigger cast as the criminals, then?
Posted by: Jim in Toronto | 2006-03-21 6:39:00 PM
You're actually proud of this, aren't you?
Considering the havoc Black wreaked on news publishing in western Canada, you should be ashamed. But thanks, now I know the context within I'll judge the Western Standard in the future.
Bleah.
Posted by: djb in Saskatoon | 2006-03-21 9:22:54 PM
Does anyone else find it interesting that the Western Standard decided to have its anniversary commemoration in *Toronto*?
Posted by: marita | 2006-03-21 11:27:10 PM
Where's the famous Canadian tolerance? You're supposed to say "Some of my best friends are embezzlers, but I wouldn't want my daughter to marry one.'
Posted by: Bob & Ulli | 2006-03-22 6:57:08 AM
As with everything else western, the Western Standard could not exist without the beneficence of Toronto.
Despite Ezra's shrill anti-Lib crusade, it's instructive to see that the Standard's commitment to integrity is much like its self-proclaimed commitment to libertarianism... which is to say, loud but without substance. Maybe Dithers should have thrown better parties at 24 Sussex -- it might have saved him some bad press.
Posted by: Jim in Toronto | 2006-03-22 11:01:09 AM
Congratulations to all of you at Western Standard. To the critics of Conrad Black; This man has a voice that he is not afraid to use and he does not care that he is not 'gushed' about by the msm or lefties. Mr. Black is his own person. I respect and admire him.
Posted by: jema54j | 2006-03-22 2:41:22 PM
Well Jema, it's nice to know that you can get all hot and bothered about Liberal corruption but still find it in your heart to respect and admire a man under indictment for eight counts of criminal fraud. But don't worry, I'm sure that doesn't make you a hypocrite or anything. Sure.
Posted by: Jim in Toronto | 2006-03-23 8:25:10 AM
Liberal corruption was the taxpayers' dollar, using kick-backs to subvert the democratic process.
Anyone who invested money in a Conrad Black newspaper was risking private money in an entreprise that was mostly a Conrad Black head trip, like Walt Disney at Disneyland in Disneyworld making Disney shows and firing anyone who disagreed with Disney and then having himself frozen for all eternity - how much did Disney spend on a new briefcase? Would he have the word "Disney" engraved on the briefcase at corporate expense? The word "Disney" was engraved everywhere he went. When you invested in Disney, you got Disney and that's all.
Mr. Black put out some great newspapers and wrote some good columns and a few good books. Other than that, he may well be a scoundrel and a villain and he may well be convicted of taking non-compete money to non-compete and charging investors for an expensive briefcase. Or maybe the reason all those new $20 bills are so shiney is that he took them all to the laundromat. Whether or not he goes to jail is not my problem; I am neither police nor prosecutor. But I would not kick him out of a dinner party, especially if he was paying for the wine. Some of us are just indulgent to redneck white trash, which is often the same kind of guy without the fancy suit.
Posted by: Bob & Ulli | 2006-03-23 11:13:43 AM
That's odd, I never really thought of major daily metropolitan newspapers as a "Conrad Black head trip" before.
So what you seem to be saying is, it's okay to be corrupt with someone else's dollar, as long as you (fraudulently) get them to give it to you willingly. Is that right?
Posted by: Jim in Toronto | 2006-03-23 12:10:33 PM
Energetic moral superiority seems to damage reading comprehension skills. Did I say it was okay to be corrupt? No, I said he may well be a villain, a scoundrel, and he may well go to jail. People who invested in Barnum and Bailey had no clue, no idea, no inkling, that they were investing their money in a circus. They would never have approved how the money was spent, and if only they had known, they would have out their cash into treasury bills instead. So if the law is on their side, and the proof is made (it does require an actual trial, you know), it is entirely possible that Mr. Black will become a famous jail-bird. But, personally, I am not inclined to spit at him. He did not subvert democracy with stolen tax dollars, he did not shoot any cops, he did rob any churches nor cut off any babies' heads. There is no reason to wax indignant at people who have lunch with him.
Posted by: Bob & Ulli | 2006-03-23 12:55:30 PM
If your meaning is unclear, perhaps you should brush up on your writing skills. Less tortured logic would also help you get your point across. On one hand you say it's not okay to be corrupt, but then you end by saying you won't spit at Tubby just because he's corrupt. That's what we call a contradiction in terms, Bob.
If we can't condemn Tubby because he hasn't been convicted, then it's a little rich for Ezra and the gang to print up T-shirts comparing the Libs with mafiosi and then sell them to their adoring fanboys, don't you think? I don't recall any criminal indictments being handed down when the "Libranos" shirts went on sale, but correct me if I'm wrong. And if Ezra is going to squeal and squeal about Liberal corruption and mismanagement, then it's more than a little unseemly for him to enjoy the hospitality of a man who has been indicted (something that never happened to Dithers, lest we forget) on charges of corruption and mismanagement.
But that's okay, apparently corruption and mismanagement are not the issue -- the issue is whose money you corruptly mismanage, I suppose. Taxpayers bad, corporate shareholders okay. I'm glad the conservatives are here to uphold solid moral values!
Posted by: Jim in Toronto | 2006-03-23 1:16:39 PM
What a lovely home! That's going to be an interesting auction. It will be hard to hide some of the antiques now that they've been shown in public.
For all you cynics, I happen to know that the Hell's Angels also hire a professional photographer for their parties.
Come on! I just lost all my newfound respect for you guys.
Posted by: dan | 2006-03-23 2:13:04 PM
In the late 60's, Ulli and I lived in Spain, in a small fishing village where there was no electricity and the hotel had no glass in the windows. There were two major studs. One was Franco's rep. The government. You want a job, you blow him. You want your kid to go to university, you blow him. If you oppose him, with the slightest action, you, and your family, and your friends, are found the next day, genitals burned off, hands tied, bullet in the brain, in a ditch beside the main town square. You tend to watch your words after that.
The other guy we knew was a black-market trader. Antiquities. Dug out of the sand in Israel, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, India. Pay-offs all down the line. Private airplane, coastal mansion, women waiting their turn, multi-lingual, extremely articulate, a curator of history. You know, a few years ago, the Taliban destroyed 3,000 years of Afghan history? They were the government. What remains is mostly what our black market dealer smuggled. And sold to private collectors. Who are dispersed. Just as the British collectors had lots of artifacts of ancient Greece, even though the Turks used the Parthenon for storage of explosives.
So. who would you take to lunch? The sanctified government rep, or the bad guy? Depends what kind of conversation you want to have over lunch. Or, did wine never once contaminate those pure Baptist lips?
Posted by: Bob & Ulli | 2006-03-23 9:14:24 PM
Here's a suggestion, Bob: don't have lunch with either of them. Better yet, don't yell about how corrupt the government rep is, then have lunch with the criminal, and still expect people to take your complaints about corruption seriously.
(Also, don't move to a country that you know is run by fascists.)
Tacitly accepting corruption as a regular part of life is the hallmark of a Liberal Party supporter. I had thought this was understood around these parts, but apparently I'm now at Bizzaro-Shotgun...
Posted by: Jim in Toronto | 2006-03-25 1:30:49 PM
Here's a suggestion Jim, shut the hell up. Voting for and supporting possibly the most corrupt party in the modern world immediately removes your credibility on any discussion involving matters of intellectual honesty.
So go worship your thieves somewhere else, it's old news. You sound like a complete ass.
Posted by: deepblue | 2006-03-25 2:34:55 PM
Conrad's paper is gone, but its spirit lives on and on.
Posted by: EBD | 2006-03-25 3:19:09 PM
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