Tagged: Cliff White
Text of the ambassadors’ letter – feedback
Contrarian reader Cliff White writes:
What a wonderful letter: short, succinct, to the point, and balanced.
I’ve personally found this whole affair very disturbing. Although the media in general have been very good in following it and keeping it on the front burner, they have also, at times, let what seems to me the main issues slide out of focus.
The issue is not whether there was proof that Canadian detainees were tortured. Anyone with a scintilla of sense knew torture by Afghan forces was common place and it you’d have to be a complete fool to suggest that, for some reason, only those detainees captured by Canadians wouldn’t receive the same treatment.
Insisting there was no evidence of such treatment was simply an exercise in government obfuscation. Unfortunately instead of ignoring this red herring reporters and commentators have given it weight I don’t think it deserved.
The main issues from my point of view are, first, the government’s obvious ignoring the issue of torture, in the first place—it seems quite clear that in the early days at least they just didn’t want to know about it. Second, the unscrupulous attacks on Colvin. These attacks have underlined the moral bankruptcy of this government. Unfortunately I also feel they have tainted us all.
NDP dissembling – reader feedback
Contrarian reader Cliff White, who perches somewhere to the left of our new blue NDP government, responds to our complaints about the Dexter/Steele spin on their foregone fiscal promises:
Enough with the self righteousness already. Of course they have to take responsibility for, and be brought to task for, their broken promises and misleading statements. On the other hand, dismissing them offhand and branding them all as liars, as some readers have, is not helpful.
Lets face it: they didn’t get into this predicament on their own. There are, for instance, the unelected workers and volunteers who craft strategies and policy statements they think will sell during the campaign. And there is the public, many of whom later become the complainers, who do not want politicians to tell the truth. They want, and vote for, those who tell them what they want to hear. Take a look around and see how many elected politicians you can find who make a habit of pointing out unpopular truths. It does hurt though to see a government you hoped would set a higher standard, fall into the same old patterns.
Vin Scully – reader feedback – updated
Our post on Vin Scully, 81, who just wrapped up his 60th season calling play-by-play for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers (and plans to stay on through next season), elicited some wonderful reader comments.
First, Frank MacDonald (yes, that Frank MacDonald, the other Inverness County writer who deserves a Giller):
Enjoyed your reminder of the Koufax perfect game. In my own writing during the baseball season, the game plays the role for me that music plays for many others. Even when it is televised, as it mostly is in this house, it is two rooms away, and the sound of the game (changes in pitch tell me to go see) is soothing as a lullaby.
Unfortunately, current commentators seem more interested in sounding off as if their own opinions are more important than the game (a lot like newspaper columnists that way, I guess), but none of them tell stories any more, just data reports from fact sheets in front of them.
Anyway, it was a pleasure to read what I once listened to.
Frank also sent us the lyrics to a baseball song he wrote.
Contrarian friend Cliff White also likes the sound of a baseball game:
I love the piece on Vin Scully. I’m in no way a sports fan but I remember baseball on the radio from a very young age. There is something about the slow rhythms of game that radio captures and transmits perfectly, but that get completely lost on television. It’s actually two entirely different games.
The record of the Koufax game took me back decades, to when baseball was a major part of Nova Scotia summer culture. And this from a non fan, that’s real power.
It’s difficult if not impossible to catch major leage games on radio in most parts of Nova Scotia, but here’s a little secret to remember next March: $15 (US) will buy you a year’s subscription to the radio broadcasts every Major League baseball game, regular and post-season, with a few spring training games thrown in. Then you can listen on your computer or your iPhone, just like the good old days.
Hugh Fraser, the former press secretary to Premier John Hamm who now toils for Bristol Communications, sent kind comments about Contrarian, and a recommendation:
If you’re a baseball fan, I suspect you’ve already been reading Doug Glanville’s occasional columns in the NYTimes. They are great — insightful and addictive. I’m a big Roger Angell fan and I think Glanville’s baseball writing approaches his.
Anyhow, keep up the good work. Better luck with the Dodgers next year.
Ah, Hugh, Dem Bums left town in 1958. Contrarian roots for the Jays now, and sometimes the Sox, and he still hates the Yankess.
Miles Tompkins remembers how the World Series played out on his family’s Margaree farm in the 1950s:
My mom, who knew more about baseball then my father ever did, came to Margaree from Antigonish in the 1950s. We had a large farm and in the fall there were plenty of potatoes to pick. My mother had two jobs: feed the pickers, and come to the front step at the end of every half inning to give the lowdown on the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Yankees. More then once she saw a bucket of potatoes kicked over after a Yankee home run.
Contrarian reader Stan Jones points out that, with the $9.98 MLB app for the iPhone, you get to choose which team’s announcers you want to listen to. You also get one or two free telecasts every day. By contrast, Stan reports, the NBA app isn’t nearly as good, and the NHL has… nothing.
