I love journalism. I'll talk about journalism and media issues with you until you want to go away. I'm an editor at my university's newspaper, and I'm involved in Canadian University Press, which is like Associated Press, but for Canadian university and college newspapers.

I also love music, most types, actually, but only the good of each type. Right now, I'm into listening to stuff where the musicians sound like they're at war with each other. Emo/Math Rock-ish sort of stuff. I'm liking North of America, Moneen and Weights and Measures, all solid Canadian stuff, for a start.

Y'know, I don't know what to write, here. I have thoughts, really I do, but journalism school has trained me to keep them out of the public eye. For so long, I've been told not to write anything other than the facts, or other people's opinons about the facts. I've found that this semester, with an opinion writing class happening, it's been really hard to get back into the groove of writing what I feel. I feel like, why would anyone care what I have to say, now. I mean, how presumptuous is that, right?

If anyone's interested, the school paper that I work on is over here.

I'm gonna be pretty bored for the next few weeks, while I have nothing to do and I've gotta hang around Montreal while my partner finishes up her semester. So, you might see more of me.

About a week ago, it was announced that in 1999, there was a plot to bomb places in Montreal. They said the tragets were Jewish and commercial districts, and that the plan was to place the bombs with or next to gasoline trucks to maximize the damage. I'm well aware that people in various places around the world are now living with all sorts of new realities like these, but still, for me, that kind of hit home. September 11 was frightening enough, but that's even scarier, for me.

I'm getting back into chamber pop, these days. It's basically pop music with classical influences. The Left Banke, from the 1960s is probably the best-known example. I'm really enjoying a band called the Divine Comedy, at the moment.

I'm really scared about getting a job when I graduate. Is anyone else out there starting to worry about this just yet? Well, I'm set to graduate after the summer semester. Still, though, I hope to find a part-time job in my field over the summer, as well. A little while back, when I emailed a journalist who's living and working in this city for career advice, she told me not only to forget about working in radio (which is what I like best), but to get out of journalism entirely. In fact, the first two lines of her email were something along the lines of 'get a law degree, or get a business degree.'

That's the situation for journalists these days, from what I understand.

I got nostalgic yesterday. I went to see my beloved Montreal Expos play the Philadelphia Phillies on a promotional 'turn back the clock' day at the Olympic Stadium.

The team was wearing the cream-coloured home uniforms that it used to wear in the 1970s. The scoreboard displayed the primitive graphics and cartoons that the old scoreboard would have displayed in the '70s, rather than the more high-tech graphics they usually use now. Old players were on hand. They even had the original organist from the team's early days providing the music. Most importantly, bleacher and upper-deck tickets only cost $1 each. It was a very nice time. (Now if they could only tear the roof off of the friggin' mausoleum that they pretend is a baseball stadium. That'd be a real turn back the clock day.)

The Expos won, coming from behind to beat the Phillies 6-5. The 'spos are only a game-and-a-half out of first place in their division right now, but I've no reason to believe that this season won't be like all the others, in which they've teased me with strong play in the early going and gradually faded as the season wore on.

It's so sad to see the way the team now has to offer $1 tickets in order to attract just 19,000 fans to a game. Usually, these days, the Expos attract around 5 or 6,000 fans per home game. Because of this, they are the most likely victims of contraction. This is a plan by the Evil Overlord of Major League Baseball, Bud Selig, to eliminate two franchises. (And, yeah, if I'm not mistaken, his title has now been officially changed to Evil Overlord.)

I can remember loading up the car in Ottawa when I was a kid, and heading down the 417 to the big city for a baseball game with my dad. He'd buy tickets from a scalper, and then buy me a souvenir. The roof would be open, and so many fans would be in the stands.

Players like Marquis Grissom, Delino DeShields, Tim Raines, Dennis Martinez, Spike Owen, Larry Walker and Tim Wallach would thrill me.

I wish people in Montreal still liked going to baseball games. *sniff*

It was a long interview - about an hour in total, I'd say, but that includes half an hour which I spent taking an editing test. I'm hopeful right now. Cross your fingers for me...

I had another job interview with a radio station on Monday, but it seemed to me to instead be more of a con into finding free labour.

Oh well, I have work (but low-paying work at that) until the end of the summer.

But, back to the important stuff. Yesterday, I may have seen my last Expos game. I got all teary-eyed when the big screen started showing highlights from the team's 34 years, and playing Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes' Don't Leave Me This Way.

It's so frustrating to not know what's going to happen. Y'know, if we had just a bit of money, and a few fans, we could re-sign all of this year's players, and we'd have a great year, next year - I'm sure of it. The team would compete, and fans would come out.

A few weeks ago, I almost met my boyhood idol, Tim Wallach in a promotion that they had at the stadium, but it didn't happen - I was barely late.

Anyway, I'm might be in mourning right now about all of this - I'm not entirely sure.

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We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

- Albert Einstein

[This message has been edited by Bobolink (edited 09-30-2002).]

As for the future of the Expos - I read a report this week that there's interest in moving them to San Juan, Puerto Rico. That's a team that I could cheer for. If they aren't in Montreal, I hope they go to Latin America.

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I was particularly amused when Japan and Germany weighed in insisting that attacking Iraq was a bad idea and that they would not support it. Really? Well I'm shaking in my cowboy boots as I stand under the Stars and Stripes that adorn the outside of my abode! How could we take action if the Japanese and Germans don't like the idea?! Germany and Japan have had the great luck of being our defeated enemies. They are alive because of our compassion. If they aren't going to support us, they should simply sit down, shut up, and hold on.

The world is beginning to take America for granted because we are a compassionate people. They know this firsthand. And like unruly children, they will test and squeal and scream during the times they realize they aren't the adult and won't always get their way. Why not? Because they have proven, like children, they make bad decisions when it comes to important matters involving life and death. They also expect to be saved by Mommy and Daddy (the USA) when they screw up. So, they have decided to embrace the Chamberlain strategy of doing nothing while proclaiming lofty ideas about love and peace, just as their new friend in Iraq is getting ready to blow their collective head off.

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Well, there's so much to say about this insulting, condescending quote from Bruce (and you can find that I pulled it from an article over here).

If she doesn't want to work within the international community on issues that affect nations other than hers (like beating on Iraq), then I think she should get off of everyone else's planet. I wasn't aware all these years, also, that the default action following a United States military win was to kill everyone from the defeated country. How nice of you folks down there to keep so many alive after your wars. Perhaps this is why you don't want a world court, hmmm? You all just want to do whatever the hell you want, because you're the biggest, baddest dudes on the block.

I should ask, how long does this period last for Germany and Japan? Is the South allowed to disagree with the North, yet? Vietnam, I suppose, can voice its disagreement, but not necessarily have its way, right?

Finally, Ms. Bruce perhaps isn't aware that there are people in her own country who oppose this war. Like people in her own country, to some of us out here, the war on Iraq looks pretty arbitrary, especially when you take in mind the recent revelations of a nuclear nature from North Korea.

She chooses not to acknowledge it, but there are very legitimate reasons for opposing this war, just as there are very legitimate reasons for supporting it (but Bush hasn't been the one making the case well, in my opinion).

Really, with people like her floating around, and getting platforms for their views, is it any wonder so many people around the rest of the world have varying degrees of contempt for the United States?

Then again, maybe I shouldn't spend too much time talking about a woman who writes for a Web magazine that has ads along the sides of the articles saying "CIA Docs reveal China's role in 9/11. China Knew!"

Regardless, on the basis of this stuff alone, I can't even come close to liking this woman.

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"Frank, get back to work! And if the acid burns you, well, good!"
-Ms. Gusto, Grade 11 physical geography class

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Finally, Ms. Bruce perhaps isn't aware that there are people in her own country who oppose this war.

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she and other pundits are pretty darned aware, imho, which is why she and others are so vocal about it (ever read the op/ed page in the Wall Street Journal?)

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Like people in her own country, to some of us out here, the war on Iraq looks pretty arbitrary, especially when you take in mind the recent revelations of a nuclear nature from North Korea.

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this is more or less strategic. yes, the u.s. gov't is pretty unhappy about N. korea having nukes, but if any action is taken against n. korea, china is going to intervene, which is definitely a bad, bad thing for anybody involved.

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She chooses not to acknowledge it, but there are very legitimate reasons for opposing this war, just as there are very legitimate reasons for supporting it (but Bush hasn't been the one making the case well, in my opinion).

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homologous to your thoughts that bush hasn't supplied any truly viable reasons for military action, ms. bruce doesn't feel that there have been enough viable reasons to oppose war on iraq and therefore doesn't feel a need to list them. do i necessarily agree with this? no. then again, she was writing an editrial for a politically conservative online publication.

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Really, with people like her floating around, and getting platforms for their views, is it any wonder so many people around the rest of the world have varying degrees of contempt for the United States?

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the more platforms the merrier, imho. in my perfect world, *everybody* would have a platform and *USE IT* (apathy is the real enemy, imho). Is Ms. Bruce supposed to keep quiet? while that may appease so many people who would otherwise find Americans and their opinions contemptible, that's also a repugnant silencing or people's freedom of speech (which the world truly does not have enough of). Start by suppressing one opinion, then it's two, three, ten, 200, 100000 and so forth...

ooh, this is fun, let's do it again

Unfortnatually, in the US, we're nearing a time when there is going to be very little power for the liberals, myself included, and it's a frightening things. Right-wing Conservatives have a choke-hold on all three branches of government (oy... even the supreme court is stacked with right-wing appointees) after our last election. That scares the hell out of me, to be truthful. There's just too many countries, under the guise of the war on terrorism, that Bush wants to attack, even though doing so will more than likely not decrease the risk of terrorist attacks, but will actually increase the threat of terrorism.

Bruce's comments on Germany and Japan infuriate me, as I suspect they did with Dzuunmod. The United States has become the self-appointed peace-keeper of the world -- and I use the term peace-keeper liberally. Take a look at every war and conflict of the last 40-50 years that the US has been involed in. Nearly every single one, from Korea to Desert Storm has had economic motivations and little more.

Bruce (who, in my honest opinion, sits a little to far to the right to be considered a feminist) and many other right-wingers just perpetuate the idea that the US has the right idea -- the ONLY idea that's right -- and that it's our job, no, our duty, to spread that idea -- capitalist Christian democracy -- everywhere by whatever means necessary, even force.

Oy. I didn't mean to insert my own little rant in here, but, well... I just went off on a bender.

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Tim
Scarleteen Advocate

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Originally posted by Gumdrop Girl:
she and other pundits are pretty darned aware, imho, which is why she and others are so vocal about it (ever read the op/ed page in the Wall Street Journal?)

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Yeah, I was just being facetious to point out that she wasn't addressing the fact that it isn't just foreigners who aren't on side with all this.

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this is more or less strategic. yes, the u.s. gov't is pretty unhappy about N. korea having nukes, but if any action is taken against n. korea, china is going to intervene, which is definitely a bad, bad thing for anybody involved.

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I know that the situation here is more complex than it appears, but the U.S. government just keeps repeating the party line, "Iraq's leadership is bad, they need to be dealt with...". Well, be honest here. There are lots of countries with bad leadership, why isn't the U.S. attacking all of them? I just wish they'd quit trying to convince the world that this is all about human rights and democracy and stuff. Y'know, I'd like to hear them say that it's about oil, and finishing daddy's job. Or at least, I'd like to hear them say, okay it's not just about human rights. It's about oil, and a little bit about human rights.

If it was purely about human rights, there'd be plenty of places to stop off on the way there.

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homologous to your thoughts that bush hasn't supplied any truly viable reasons for military action, ms. bruce doesn't feel that there have been enough viable reasons to oppose war on iraq and therefore doesn't feel a need to list them. do i necessarily agree with this? no. then again, she was writing an editrial for a politically conservative online publication.

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I know you said it's not necessarily your position here, Gumdrop, but I'm going to address it anyway. The thing that bothers me about this, is that, 'not war' should be the default position. Saying that people have to make a case for not going to war is like saying people have to make a case for 'not flying planes into the skyscrapers'. If someone wants to go to war, it's their responsibility to convince everyone else that it's necessary. It isn't everyone else's responsibility to convince them that war isn't necessary.

I agree with your sentiment that everyone should be able to speak his/her mind and to have others listening in, Gumdrop, but the reason that people don't like the U.S. isn't that Tammy Bruce gets to write for an online magazine, it's that the U.S. leadership essentially pushes a slightly more moderate version of her anti-everyone-but-us ideas.

In the 2000 presidential campaign, what was the foreign policy platform for your president? Basically it was "We'll look out for American interests and American interests only." I'd like to think that governing is a little different from running a corporation, in that Canada isn't in competition with Angola, Papua New Guinea and Italy all the time. Unfortunately, your guy comes across to the rest of us as though that's what it's all about.

If people with attitudes such as the one Tammy is showing here weren't elected to your highest office, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

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ooh, this is fun, let's do it again

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Agreed. Debating is fun.

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"Frank, get back to work! And if the acid burns you, well, good!"
-Ms. Gusto, Grade 11 physical geography class

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Today, because of American subsidies, European countries have become the slovenly brother-in-law who sleeps on the couch, waiting for you to give him his weekly handout and then has the gall to tell you how to run your house.

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I have great issues with such a faulty analogy. It is founded on an overly simplistic view of the entire European continent, and indeed the rest of the world, and blatantly disregards the complexities of international politics, and also politics within other, albeit smaller, countries.

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It's time we strike Iraq, assassinate Saddam Hussein, and remind the rest of the world "Either you're with us or against us."

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Again, I have issues with “Either you’re with us or against us.” Why such a polarized view of the situation? There is surely room for another perspective, and I again find Ms Bruce’s take on the situation overly simplistic and entirely ignorant.

I agree that freedom of speech is very important, but I think we will all agree that we are living in very tense times. Publishing something like this on a medium such as the world wide web surely cannot help the situation. I am only half-American, and yet I feel inflamed at some of the comments! How constructive can it be for groups in other countries to read this authoritative voice saying such things? Surely it would only reinforce their anti-American sentiment.

And this one:

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save their soil from the monsters they refused to stop early on.

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It has been proven time and time again by great historians that it was not so much of a refusal to stop Hitler early on. He came to power as many European countries, but especially Germany, were enduring great economic depression thanks to WWI. He, like most powerful leaders, was enigmatic and engaging, and appealed greatly to commoners and politicians alike, almost everywhere. So yet another comment of Bruce’s that I find a little ungrounded and simplistic.

Sorry to encroach on your thread, Dzunn – I just couldn’t stop my little fingers!

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We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.