The July 22 massacre in Norway was examined and analyzed repeatedly in the Post this week. Some questioned whether all the coverage was warranted.
“Twisted beings like the Norwegian mass murderer seek notoriety for themselves and (perhaps to a lesser degree) dissemination of their quite often equally twisted manifestos,” wrote Brent Mainwood. “The killer has very successfully manipulated the media into providing extensive coverage of him and his ideas. That coverage has sown the seeds for another harvest of death perpetrated by others like him. Anything other than a brief mention in the media of a horror like this having been committed by an execrable social misfit only gives the next one a reason to act.”
– The founder of this newspaper — who is both a member of the British House of Lords and a disgruntled veteran of the American penal system — is a frequent subject of discussion for letter writers. So how should people refer to him? I called him “Lord Black” in this column last week. In a letter on Tuesday, Eamonn Morris said that this honorific is “little more than a subtle show of support for your beleaguered scribe, his civil defiance and his misplaced sense of superiority.”
His viewpoint was not shared by all.
“Letter-writer Eamonn Morris wants the National Post to refer to Lord Black as just ‘Mr. Black,’ ” said Rob Roddett. “I wonder, does he also want the Pope referred to as ‘Mr. Ratzinger’ and the Queen as ‘Mrs. Windsor’ ?”
– Last Saturday, Robert Fulford explored an insult that he “always finds disturbing and a little mystifying: ‘Self-hating Jews.’ ”
Readers, mostly self-identifying as Jews, weighed in with their own interpretations of the term, with little agreement to be found. That exercise brought in this note.
“As if the Jews didn’t have enough problems with anti-Semitism, they now have to deal with some of their own people condemning them,” wrote William Bedford. “For the life of me, I cannot understand anti-Semitism. What the hell have the Jews ever done to deserve such universal hatred? No wonder Israelis are determined to expand and become a major military power. Good luck to them. I say.”
– Donny and Marie Osmond may be big fans of Mormonism, but that affinity isn’t shared by all Post readers. A battle has been raging all this week on the Letters page about “What is a Christian Church?” after a Post reporter referred to Mormonism as such.
This reader offered a solution to that question.
“I encourage [anyone] wishing to categorize faiths other than their own to consult the source of such faiths: God,” wrote Allan Reay.
“After all, God certainly has a more definitive answer on this matter than the perpetual back and forth of editorial comments. But if praying isn’t your thing, and you want to know what a Mormon believes, just ask a Mormon. But be prepared to hear something different than your own views. I think this proposal seems fair enough, but then again, I’m a Mormon.”
And this reader has had enough of this whole debate.
“If all these nattering folks are unhappy with what’s a Christian Church and what’s not, they should get over it and follow the teaching of Buddha,” wrote George Monckton (who noted in a follow-up mail: “I’m in my 89th year, making me a wise old stick”). “There is peace and tranquility for them there.”
– I’ll end this column with two complimentary notes from readers.
The first is in reaction to a statement last week from Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.
“I will be taking political science at Carleton University this September, and I cannot wait to read the National Post every day for my news,” wrote Jonathan Whynot. “Anyone who says you are ‘extreme-right wing’ is slightly void of reality. Some of your articles take a more rightist stance than I do, but, that’s life, and I think the left (to which I mostly belong) forgets that. By attacking one of the finest and most balanced newspapers in Canada, Mr. Duncan has lost my respect and I’m sure a great deal of others.”
The second note indirectly refers to a Jonathan Kay column last week, titled “Why we publish Conrad Black.”
“What a joy to open my Saturday edition of the National Post and there to find Conrad Black and Christopher Hitchens on the same page (the same page of the paper, that is),” wrote Michael Hendricks. “For people who enjoy well-written, provocative reporting and opinions, there is nothing in Canada like the National Post.
“I also rarely agree with Lord Black on most issues (except that he has been unjustly persecuted in these ridiculous U.S. trials),” Mr. Hendricks continued. “But if ever anyone forms a ‘Bring Lord Black Back to Canada’ movement, I will gladly join. Sensible, intelligent conservatives like Lord Black contribute to our national well-being but they are far too rare.”
Source: National Post
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