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Thursday, October 25, 2007
The Left on the Right
Fast Forward, Calgary's weekly free arts and entertainment newspaper, has a friendly valediction to the Western Standard.
A small but funny part of the story is about Matthew Good, the Vancouver can-con rocker who has a half-music, half-9/11 truther blog where he has poked at us, including just this month.
Good refused to talk with Fast Forward for their story, even "banning" them from reprinting his public comments about us. That's just weird -- they're on his blog, after all. Weirder still is that Good wouldn't want to talk to an urban, leftish, music magazine about his political views, but a right wing magazine's entire staff didn't feel uncomfortable doing so. It's a sad statement on intellectual discourse and the left. Oh well.
If you want a chuckle, read this exchange I had with Good last February.
Posted by Ezra Levant on October 25, 2007 | Permalink
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Comments
Highlight of the article:
"All that’s left of the Standard now is The Shotgun Blog. The blog publishes writers so far to the right that, by comparison, Levant looks and sounds like a peace-loving Buddhist monk.... The content is often racist and discriminatory."
Accurate, Ez, but I'd hardly call it "a friendly valediction".
Posted by: Fact Check | 2007-10-25 2:15:48 PM
Definition of irony: Ezra posting a rant about how he is "thrilled" that In The Valley Of Elah, a film expressing political views he disagrees with, is "a flop by any standard" and then immediately after it posts a link to a story where he criticises people for celebrating the demise of the WS because that is anti-free speech.
So which is it Ez? Is celebrating the commercial failure of work promoting ideas you thing are wrong acceptable or not? You can't have it both ways.
Posted by: Fact Check | 2007-10-25 2:26:41 PM
FC you have just qualified yourself as a lunatic ranting troll.
Posted by: Alain | 2007-10-25 2:44:57 PM
>"Accurate, Ez, but I'd hardly call it "a friendly valediction".
Posted by: Fact Check | 25-Oct-07 2:15:48 PM
A study I read on the net in the last year was about how sociopaths were unable to recognize sarcasm.
Posted by: Speller | 2007-10-25 3:03:47 PM
Unlike all other Canadian magazines, but quite like the Report magazine before it, the people who ran the WS magazine made a point of refusing to accept government subsidies as a matter of principle.
Add that to the fact that the WS was a national publication, with very few Conservatives in the East, and you wind up with a magazine that helped achieve some important short term political goals which, having now been fulfilled, make the printed WS unnecessary.
It was never about profit.
Posted by: Speller | 2007-10-25 3:37:58 PM
"and you wind up with a magazine that helped achieve some important short term political goals which, having now been fulfilled, make the printed WS unnecessary."
Like what ?
Posted by: Marc | 2007-10-25 3:46:31 PM
Like report on Stephen Harper before he became PM when the entire MSM had him blocked out except for taking potshots at him.
Marc, people like you probably didn't notice, but one of the tactics the MSM used was to collectively call all of the non-governmental parties 'the Opposition' when, until Preston Manning's Reform first formed the Official Opposition, the press always referred to the party with the second highest number of seats as 'the OFFICIAL Opposition'.
It was as though the Shadow Government didn't even exist.
The WS filled the vacuum that the MSM had created.
Now that Stephen Harper is PM he has a bully pulpit and the MSM has to report on him whether they want to or not.
Posted by: Speller | 2007-10-25 3:56:56 PM
Considering the drift and tone of recent posts (I'm thinking the bus driver) perhaps the magazine's next incarnation can be called the Jewish Standard.
Just two more question on that issue, though, since it seems to have disappeared.
1) How many traffic fatalities have there been in Calgary this year?
2) If anybody has been charged in any 2007 traffic death, name them.
Posted by: set you free | 2007-10-25 4:00:57 PM
What ?
People like you probably didn't notice, but Stephem Harper is PM because only because of two things :
- Les commandites
- The NPD is a joke.
Why are we talking about Preston Manning's reform ?
*
I'm not critizing the nature of the WS, I'm asking where this magazine have help achieve some "important" short term political goals ?
Posted by: Marc | 2007-10-25 4:13:33 PM
set, you make an interesting comment. Please explain what is Jewish in expecting MSM not to provide special treatment to a particular group? Why did they choose to withhold the name of the driver in this situation?
I would have expected this comment from a few others here, but you surprise me.
Posted by: Alain | 2007-10-25 4:20:50 PM
Alain:
The implication that the accident was somehow an act of personal jihad is way over the top, especially when cellphone distraction contributed to the accident.
I've been on this thread for quite a while and this is the first time I recall details of an accident having such prominence.
How long have I been here? Oh, probably about 50 people have died on the streets of Calgary since I first started posting.
When I was a kid, the dentist we used to go to accidentally ran over a young kid while he was driving down the alley on the way home.
Within six months we were looking for a new dentist because the guy put a bullet in his brain.
BTW, the dentist was Jewish.
Posted by: set you free | 2007-10-25 4:28:09 PM
"How long have I been here? Oh, probably about 50 people have died on the streets of Calgary since I first started posting."
those two facts arent related, right, set...?
Posted by: Marc | 2007-10-25 4:34:59 PM
Marc:
You found out my secret.
I went on a personal jihad and killed 50 Jews on Calgary streets.
Posted by: set you free | 2007-10-25 4:40:15 PM
:-)
I'm not sure your best half would appreciate.
Posted by: Marc | 2007-10-25 4:46:01 PM
Marc:
I won't tell her.
Can I trust you to keep my secret conspiracy from her?
Posted by: set you free | 2007-10-25 4:49:31 PM
Yeah well, it's a huge story and you've already put everthing in words on the Shotgun witch is the blog part of one of the most important political publication in Canada...
I guess you're f***ed but I'm not the one who's gonna stool you ;-
Posted by: Marc | 2007-10-25 4:56:24 PM
Still waiting to hear what it was the WS accomplished. The thing only had 19,000 subscriptions and a circulation of 34,000. That is NOT a national magazine. I'm sure Fast Forward has those numbers in Calgary alone and without the more than $3 million (!) WS claims it raised from donors over the three years of its existence. Believe me, government subsidies wouldn't have helped. The reason it folded is because no one was reading the thing other than the dyed in the wool, hard right wing supporters who would vote for a right leaning monkey if it was elected leader of the Reform/Canadian Aliance/Conservative Party.
I'm not taking glee in the demise of WS. If there was an audience that wanted to read it then the magazine should've continued to exist. This is simply free market forces at work. No demand, no product. End of story.
Posted by: Jake | 2007-10-27 9:15:46 PM
Just another reason for Leftoids to be depressed:
"(US) Military Announces Successful Missile-Defense Test"
WASHINGTON — The military shot down a Scud-type missile in another successful test of a new technology meant to knock down ballistic missiles in their final minute of flight, the Missile Defense Agency said Saturday.
A ship off Kauai fired a target missile at 9:15 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time Friday, or 3:15 a.m. EDT Saturday. Minutes later, soldiers with the U.S. Army's 6th Air Defense Artillery Brigade launched an interceptor missile from Kauai that destroyed the target over the Pacific, according to the agency.
The military says it already can shoot down missiles in their last stage of flight by using Patriot anti-missile batteries. The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system would be able to protect larger areas than the Patriot system because it intercepts targets at a higher altitude.
The new system had its first successful test last year at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and two more successful tests earlier this year at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.
Saturday's announcement said the most recent test was the 31st "hit to kill" intercept in 39 tests since 2001 by ground and sea-based interceptors against short, medium and long-range ballistic missile targets.
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-28 11:44:20 AM
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