I don’t like the media very much. You can tell, I know. More often than not, the media displays a habitual, even vindictive, Leftist slant in virtually every issue. Sometimes, reading the paper or watching the news, it’s hard to imagine that they believe conservatives can do anything right or that liberals can do anything wrong. Every now and then, however — not often, mind you but just often enough — I come across something that just plain makes good sense and demonstrates that even the media is capable of heaving its head out of its arse from time to time.

Maybe I judge the media too harshly. Or maybe it’s just a case of even a stopped clock being right twice a day. Whatever it is, I do enjoy seeing it on those occasions it comes along. Today’s editorial in the Freeps was one of those occasions. Check it out for yourselves:

Reinforce our troops

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has rightly reminded the opposition parties that Canada has an obligation to its NATO partners in fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But NATO has an obligation to Canada as well.

Because, along with the British and Dutch, it is our troops who are on the sharp end of the stick when it comes to the fighting in the deadly Kandahar region.

To date, 44 Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan, 36 of them this year in and around Kandahar, including two killed in a suicide bombing this week. Almost nine per cent of the 511 coalition soldiers killed in Afghanistan since fighting began in 2001 have been Canadians.

This week, Harper came away from a NATO meeting in Latvia with only vague assurances that more countries in the 26-member alliance will start sharing the heavy lifting in Kandahar.

There was also confusion about which NATO countries will supply needed troops; and about the extent to which restrictions they have placed on their military that preclude their forces from serving on the front lines in Kandahar, will be lifted.

Harper who had gone to the meeting looking for reinforcements from other NATO countries, acknowledged that while Canada will be getting some help, it is not at the level he had hoped.

“Look, we’re not going to kid you, the security situation remains a challenge in the south,” he said. “We still believe we are under-manned, but we’re getting more forces all of the time, we’re getting more flexibility from our NATO partners.”

Gone are the days when Canada stood apart from these deadly conflicts and self-righteously lectured from the sidelines. Canadian soldiers are now in harm’s way, doing what must be done in Afghanistan if it is not to fall back into the hands of the religious fanatics and terrorists who first plotted 9/11 from within that country.

Canada has earned the right — through the sacrifices made by its soldiers in Afghanistan — to have its concerns taken seriously at the NATO table.

Alright; I get it. Bigger letters. Gotcha. I can take a hint. Since that last post, I’ve gotten over 150 emails! 😯 Yes, that’s right. And all of ’em basically said the same thing: bigger letters bigger letters bigger letters bigger letters bigger letters bigger letters bigger letters…. Never let it be said that I can’t take a hint.

So… I’ve GIMPed it and reworked the design a bit. Did I mention how much I loathe working with image editing software? Just thought I’d grumble about that a little. At any rate, here’s what I have so far:

And folks: PLEASE limit commentary, criticisms, etc to the comments sections. My email box is TOTALLY stuffed… 🙄

As for me now, I’m gonna go try to figure out just WHAT the H-E-double-hockeysticks Harper is thinking… 😕

Okay, I know I’ve been babbling about this for a while now, but this time I really mean it. Here’s the first draft for the first shirt design:

I’ll keep at it till it finally looks right to me.  When it does, I’ll make ’em available.  So, in the meantime, what does everybody think?

PS – Yes, I KNOW that I’m not worth a damn at image editing… 🙄

Edmonton Sun columnist Graham Hicks usually starts off his colums every day with at joke or two.  Sometimes great, sometimes groaners, but almost always a joke.  Not today, though.  Today, he started off with something that should be required reading for just about everybody, especially at this time of year.  The author is unknown, but the message is unmistakably clear:

Your alarm goes off, you hit the snooze and sleep for another 10 minutes. He (or she) stays up for days on end.

You take a shower to wake up. He goes weeks without running water.

You call in sick with a headache. He could be splattered with bullets or shrapnel, but keeps moving forward.

You put on your anti-Afghanistan shirt, go meet your friends. He fights for your right to wear that shirt.

You talk “trash” with your buddies that aren’t with you. He may not see some of his buddies ever again.

You walk the street, staring at the pretty girls. He walks the streets, searching for insurgents and terrorists.

You complain about 30C in summer. He wears his heavy gear in 40C heat, not daring to take off his helmet to wipe his brow.

You change your clothes every day. He’ll wear the same army issue for months, but makes sure his weapons are clean.

You’re angry because your class ran five minutes late. He gets told he’s staying in Afghanistan another two months.

You hug your girlfriend every day. He holds the letter close and tries to think of his love’s perfume.

You criticize the government – war never solves anything.

He sees the innocent, tortured and killed by their own, and remembers why he’s fighting.

You see only what the media thinks you can handle seeing. He sees the bodies and blood, lying around him.

You sit and judge him, saying the world is a worse place because of men (and women) like them.

If only there were more like them.

(Author unknown)

Damn. First Bruce Cockburn grows a brain, and now this. And here I thought all the fancypants types in the entertainment industry were supposed to be all anti-military up the wazoo.

That doesn’t seem to be the case here, though. Canadian-born Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels seems to be the latest in a lengthening line of the supposedly exclusively-left showbiz crowd to yank his cranium out of his colon and say what most of us have known all along:

OTTAWA (CP) – “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels applauded Canada’s participation in the Afghan mission Thursday, saying he’s glad his native country is “back in the world.”

But the Toronto-born Michaels, one of six Canadians being honoured this week with a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for lifetime achievement, had some sharp criticism for the previous Liberal government’s reaction to the September 11 attacks.

It’s almost enough to make you want to have faith in celebrities again.

It continues. As some of you will remember, Sun Media had themselves a little experiment a few days ago. They plopped one reporter on the street in several Canadian cities (Ottawa, TO, Edmonton, Calgary, London) for two days, carrying a different sign each day. On the first day, a sign would be displayed either in support of or against the deployment of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. The next day, the opposite message would be displayed.

Well, as Thane Burnette at the TO sun tells it, they seem to have opened up the floodgates of public opinion (and not leaning as we’ve been led to believe):

While those who approached me on the street seemed to match the polls of support for Canada’s mission in Afghanistan — about six out of 10 wanting us to stay — those opposing the war were vastly outnumbered in my e-mail in-box.