Moral: don’t support conservatives.  They’re dumber than liberals.

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One of the feminist bloggers I link to, GritChik, has objected to the Sunshine girl tradition at the Sun, now in its fortieth year:

“So, a recent “Sunshine Girl” is headed to the pages of Hustler magazine. Must be a proud moment for her. I admit, I clicked the link in the article that took me to her November 4th appearance in the tabloid. And saw her posing in a barely-there bra and transparent panties.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m no prude. And I believe that, at it’s best, nudity is an art form. At it’s worst it’s exploitative, degrading and damaging (to both men and women). We live in a hyper-sexualized society in which 3 year-olds are entering beauty pageants dressed as the Julia Roberts’ hooker character from Pretty Woman, complete with blonde wig and thigh-high leather boots. Girls, barely out of their teens (if we’re lucky), grace us from the cover of main stream men’s magazines with come-hither eyes and the suggestion that she would like you to join her in the bed she’s rolling around in.”

Way, way back at the dawn of time, when I was a journalism student at Carleton, Peter Worthington was invited to speak to us.  When it came time for questions and answers, I challenged him on the whole Page Three Sunshine girl thing, saying it (a) wasn’t necessary, given the abundance of similar stuff elsewhere (said stuff which is even more readily available now); and (b), it probably wasn’t something a lot of journos at the Sun would like to see continue.  Mr. Worthington was good-humoured about it all, and genially defended the feature.

The Sunshine Girl is no longer on page three, but she’s still around.  And the video of Mme. Bourbonnais’ recent visit is a real eye-opener, to say the least.

What do you think, Dear Readers?  Is GritChik right?  Or do you favour seeing more of Mme. Bourbonnais?

(Not that there’s much more to see, as you will see.)

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…I’m told.

“We’re looking for someone with a Liberal pedigree, significant knowledge of the players at Queen’s Park, great writing and strategic skills, and bilingualism wouldn’t hurt.  Toronto location.”

If you know such a person, contact.

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Maj. Alex Ross

From the author:

Warren:

It really bugged me when Harper quoted my uncle at the Vimy memorial on 90th anniversary of Vimy. He took my uncle’s words completely out of context, in order to justify the massive loss of life and glorify war. For me, that was the last straw, and was the genesis for today’s column.

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Understatements R Us.

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So, what the hell is a conservative, anyway?

Good question. Hacks and flaks use the word all the time, these days ­ to describe political parties, to describe politicians, to describe someone’s position on the ideological spectrum. Because conservatives increasingly dominate our politics at all levels — federally, locally, and everywhere in between — the word gets used a lot.

But is it the right word? Are the people being called “conservative” (mainly by journalists, because journalists are in the shorthand business) truly “conservative?” Like I say, it’s a crucial question, because we indisputably live in a conservative era.

In Europe, for the first time in generations, conservative political parties tower over the landscape. David Cameron in Britain, Angela Merkel in Germany, Nicolas Sarkozy in France, Silvio Berlusconi in Italy — along with conservative dominance in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland and Belgium.

The European Union, its present economic predicament aside, has been a conservative union since 2005. One of the few socialists, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, quit this week.

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Der Werner, as Rayman dubbed him, is a lunatic of the first order, and progressive folks active on the Internet all know that. The reporter should have researched this creep before putting him on a pedestal.

Anti-immigrant, pro-extremism, all-round nut bar.  A loon. Someone even his own colleagues want to keep at a distance.  That’s who the Calgary Herald considers a victim.

Five minutes on the Internet would’ve shown who this guy was.  And it would’ve shown that Nenshi reacted with restraint.

 

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What happened to it? Couldn’t find it, but Will at NNW did!

**

I like the CBC.

There, I said it. Right here in the Sun, I caused to be published the words that dare not be spoken. I said SOMETHING NICE ABOUT THE CBC. IN THE SUN.

If you are now experiencing chest pains, permit me to now cause you even further distress: happy 75th birthday, Mother Corp. May you have many more.

Now, the fact that (a) I was able to have the above words published and (b) that I am still, improbably, employed by Sun News should tell you a thing or two. One, it tells you that the Sun doesn’t censor opinions. When I wrote for the National Post, for example, editors would kill any column in which I expressed a kindly word about the CBC. They wouldn’t even let me quote other people saying nice things about the CBC.

Two, nobody in Sun management (including our baby-faced overlord, Kory Teneycke, who himself used to appear on CBC with some regularity) has issued a fatwa on the CBC. Like the newspaper that first bore the Sun name – which celebrated a 40th birthday this week, CBC, thanks for not bothering to send flowers – we don’t take ourselves too seriously. If you’re a man, and you want to dress as a woman and go on TV to mock the CBC, we will happily accommodate you. We’re not the Parliamentary channel. We enjoy a bit of fun, particularly when it involves on-air cross-dressing.

That all said, the CBC – like us – is not perfect. It makes mistakes. For instance, it made a mistake when it offered a job to the former leader of the separatist Bloc Québécois, right after the election campaign. That was dumb.

Also dumb was the decision of the CBC’s ‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ to ambush Toronto Mayor Rob Ford at his home. As the Sun’s Bolshevik-in-Chief, I heartily detest Rob Ford. I think he is a knuckle-dragging, red-necked mouth-breather. But it was dumb to go after him where he and his family live. Among other things, it achieved the impossible: it made Rob F***ing Ford look like a sympathetic figure.

In fairness, the CBC is an institution that employs thousands (and thousands, and thousands) of human beings. Human beings are flawed, ipso facto, CBC is flawed.

But there’s a reason why we at the Sun get miffed about the CBC. It’s the same reason the folks I know at CTV, Global and other private broadcasters get miffed: the so-called State Broadcaster© gets the support of The State, and we don’t.

With its legislated access to the federal treasury, the CBC is in a position to do things others can’t, as former Sun man Michael Harris recently pointed out in iPolitics. Like, undercut us with ad rates. Like, buy the latest in technology, while the rest of us wield cameras with the precision of a Fourteenth Century woodcut. Like, popping down to Hollywood to use their funding advantage to bid for episodes of, say, The One: Making of a Music Star.

When I used to work for no less than Jean Chretien, we would marvel as journalists trooped in for press conferences. CTV would show up with a cameraperson, a reporter and (maybe) a sound person. CBC, meanwhile, would descend with a small army: CBC radio (French and English), CBC TV (French, English, local and National), CBC Newsworld (and its French equivalent) and maybe even a producer or two. Without disclosing any confidences, I can tell you that my former boss – like the bosses at the Sun, CTV and Global – wasn’t impressed.

Times are tough, Mother Corp. The rest of the world currently has to make do with less, and it’s not fascism to suggest that you do so, too.

That said, let me repeat: I LIKE THE CBC. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. AND…

[Editor’s note: we at Sun media wish Mr. Kinsella the best in his future endeavours.]

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Just dropped eldest son off for a bar mitzvah at Beth Tzedec. The rabbi greeted us and said my boy looked very handsome in his suit.

He did, he does, and my God do I ever feel old, right about now.

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