Update: HELP!!!! - Columnist Endorsing Torture - Letters!!

Updated: I just posted this Diary on Docudharma and the Canadian blog A Creavtive Revolution.

Not.In.My.Country...

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I need any Kossacks opposing torture to contact the editor of the Toronto Sun immediately demanding an explanation for this garbage I just read, enttitled:

"Torture? Sounds like a swimmingly good idea"

The contact information is as follows:

[e-mail]

The editorial page editor is here:

[e-mail]

I've posted a copy of my Letter to the Editor below the fold:

Here's a disgusting taste of the article:

So now that we've established that the detainees in question aren't even protected by the Geneva convention, and that they often have crucial information that can save lives, what about the idea of waterboarding as "torture"?

When asked about it during a recent CNN appearance, I suggested that "one man's torture is another's CIA-sponsored swim lesson." In case anyone thought I was being facetious -- I wasn't.

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The copy of my letter:

I would just like to confirm that the Toronto Sun has indeed published this article by Rachel Marsden endorsing the use of torture on "terrorist suspects, entitled Torture? Sounds Like a Swimmingly Good Idea

In the wake of the Mahar Arar affair, I felt the need to give the Sun a chance to explain its rationale for publishing such a toxic and shameful opinion article endorsing the torture of human beings.

At the end of the day, I shall be forwarding this article and your response or lack thereof to international blogs and bloggers, and will also be looking into violations of Canadian broadcasting standards.

This is a shameful thing to come across in a Canadian publication.  I am beyond words to describe further my outrage over this article.

I assure you that this matter shall not be dropped, smug reply notwithstanding.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

A shocked and dismayed Canadian

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I would respectfully request any Kossack who opposes torture to send a copy or their own wording, echoing the sentiments of my letter to the editor.

I would also request any Kossack reading this to send a link for this Diary to anyone they know opposes torture.

I though we got rid of this psychopath when she moved to New York, but even Foxnews doesn't want this idiot in their studios.

Please, I beg you, Kossacks.  I need help with this.

Sincerely,

TMWNP

•  Screw the End of the Day...

  I'm starting now...

  by TheManWithNoPoint on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:21:03 AM PDT

  •  Thanks for the tip-off, tmwnp.

    I'll give them an earful as well.  Harper's little elves are working overtime, I think, to establish torture as okey-dokey, lest we abandon our noble Karzai government in mid-oppression.

    I'm sorry that you had to wade through the Sun to find that.  Go get a shower.

    by oxon on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:25:31 AM PDT

    •  I'll Be Marching on Ottawa

      before the next year is over, I predict...

      by TheManWithNoPoint on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:28:05 AM PDT

      •  Well, one hopes that the Liberals will

        grow a spine and bring down the clowns this spring before Harper can disembowel the Federal government anymore.  

        Jack! in '08.  Somebody needs to show the Old Democrats how it's done.

        by oxon on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:32:43 AM PDT

        •  Wrong Country Mr Harper...Wingnuts Are NOT us..nt

          by TheManWithNoPoint on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 11:08:28 AM PDT

•  who is rachel marsden?

  and has anyone bothered explaining to her that not only is torture illegal and immoral, it also doesn't work?

  by Turkana on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:25:30 AM PDT

  •  Former FoxNews wannabe

    even they couldn't take her...she's a disgrace to decent Canadians the world over.

    A fucking disgrace.

    by TheManWithNoPoint on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:29:40 AM PDT

    •  Heh

      You've got to get up pretty early in the morning to get a Canadian this riled. ;-)

      by droogie6655321 on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:49:27 AM PDT

  •  Rising hate star on the right.

    Here's a link to background Marsden

    by oxon on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:30:40 AM PDT

    •  I'm So Incensed Over This,

      I'm tempted to go right downtown to their head office this instant...but my pitchfork is at the cleaners...

      That does it...I'm now an activist...they aren't going to turn my fucking country into Guantanamo North, not while I'm still living here...

      by TheManWithNoPoint on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:33:40 AM PDT

      •  We need a TO Kos get-together, I think.

        The only consolation is the declining number of people who read the Sun, and the fact that Marsden's career seems to be tanking if you read her self-written bio carefully -- started out on Fox, is now writing drivel for the Sun.

        A group visit to the Sun may not be the worst idea, or it might just serve to introduce a whole range of people to Marsden...  

        by oxon on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:41:08 AM PDT

        •  I just posted this Diary

          on Docudharma and the Canadian blog A Creative Revolution.

          And I'm only getting started...

          Oh, and a Toronto Kossack forum sounds like the ticket!!

          email me at

          themanwithnopoint at gmail dot com

          We should discuss that sometime...cheers!

          by TheManWithNoPoint on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:49:36 AM PDT

    •  No radio show at the moment, though,

      according to her website. Call it partial eclipse.

      by ticket punch on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 07:41:58 AM PDT

•  You were being too nice...her column is trash!

  It needs carbo-coating...
  What a puke.

  by Temmoku on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:32:12 AM PDT

•  You might also ask them...

  ...why they are giving space to a columnist who filed false charges of sexual harassment against a former professor and was sentenced to one year's probation for threatening a former lover.  See here.  Any publication giving her space is a tabloid, not a serious newspaper.  (OK, I admit: she's hot.)

  by scorponic on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:41:38 AM PDT

  •  She sounds about as stable as

    most of them!  And don't worry; you don't think she's half as hot as she thinks she is.

    by oxon on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:43:53 AM PDT

    •  She's not as hot as...

      ...Sarah Silverman, mind you.  Now that's hot, and politically on the right side -- i.e., the left.

      by scorponic on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:47:23 AM PDT

      •  Interesting (and telling) that Marsden

        references her competitive swimming days in that column considering her past stalking/harassment history (the Simon Fraser University controversy).

        Would the swimming coach she mentions be the one she stalked for years?

        by FrankFrink on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 11:58:46 AM PDT

        •  Oppps. That ended up in the wrong spot

          Meant as a reply to 'droogie6655321' just below.

          by FrankFrink on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 12:02:02 PM PDT

•  Yikes

  Sounds like someone is gunning to be Ann Coulter's No. 2.

  Remember when she said Iraq was "going swimmingly"? Even Bill O'Reilly had to swallow when she said that.

  by droogie6655321 on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 06:48:42 AM PDT

•  My LTE

  Editorial Staff of the Toronto Sun:

  I am disgusted that this editorial was written, let alone published.  Regardless of their Geneva Convention status, suspects are just that--suspects.  We live, and abide, in a country where suspects are innocent until proven guilty.  Beyond the horrific inhumanity of torture--and make no mistake, water-boarding is torture, otherwise I'm sure Ms Marsden would volunteer to undergo a 'CIA-sponsored swim lesson' herself to prove her point--we do not live in a black and white, Jack-Bauer-saves-the-world-in-60-minutes-by-torturing-someone sort of world.  Mahar Arar is a perfect example of what happens when this mindset is mated to some people's deep-seated fears.  

  I'm a former soldier.  I have had friends die protecting the ideals of this country.  I proudly wore the uniform, and served because I believed in Canada, and that Canada can be a shining beacon of freedom, peace and justice.  What Ms Marsden suggests destroys all that I, and my friends served and believed in--not to mention the additional danger it poses to our troops in the field.  Once we start torturing, it won't be long before our own soldiers are tortured--and then where is the moral high-ground for us to stand on and condemn those actions.

  This editorial is a disgrace.  Ms Marsden is a disgrace.  And truth be told, if this is what passes for journalism and opinion in the Toronto Sun these days--your paper is a disgrace as well.

  Sean

  by whytwolf on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 07:01:54 AM PDT

  •  Thanks Much...

    I hope they get a flood...miserable bastards...and it's not a paper...it's a right-wing rag...

    by TheManWithNoPoint on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 07:14:03 AM PDT

  •  And I Salute You.

    I thank you for your service, and salute you. I'd love to shake your hand in person.

    TMWNP

    by TheManWithNoPoint on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 07:15:35 AM PDT

    •  Hey TMWNP, I'll buy the beer

      if you're ever in cowtown.  I've been a fan of your diaries for a while, as I understand the ups and downs (literally) of being bi-polar.

      Look me up if you're ever in Calgary!

      Sean

      by whytwolf on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 10:47:36 AM PDT

      •  You've Got a Deal, Pardner!!

        And I might be out west sooner than I thought...starting up a business that will have me all over Canada when it's up and running...

        I'll see you sometime, friend!

        TMWNP

        by TheManWithNoPoint on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 11:04:37 AM PDT

•  Here's what I wrote:

  Ms. Marsden, the question is not "who are THEY?"  Are they prisoners of war, are they citizens, are they combatants, are they evil, are they probably evil, do they have weird beliefs or know people who have weird beliefs, and so forth.  The question, Ms. Marsden, is Who are WE?  Are we honorable?  Are we humane?  Are we just?  Are we principled?  Is the suffering of other human beings morally repugnant to us?  Or do we get off on the idea of torture because it makes us feel powerful?  Thanks to your article, I know who you are.  But that is not who I am.  And that is what I hope never, ever to become.

  by Reepicheep on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 07:35:31 AM PDT

  •  Beautiful...That is Superb...

    make sure one went to the editor too...

    Thanks for helping out...cheers.

    TMWNP

    by TheManWithNoPoint on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 08:10:38 AM PDT

•  Someone with TU please add Canada

  to the tags here. It will be more readily visible to the Canuck Kos Kontigent that way.

  Marsden is a total whack job. I see most of here history has been covered above. Unbelievebale that teh TorSun gave her a job. They are fully aware of her past controversy but apparently don't care. But this column is waaaaaay over the line.

  by FrankFrink on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 09:23:12 AM PDT

  •  Duh...Can't Believe I left out the Canada Tag...

    fixed...thanks!!!!

    by TheManWithNoPoint on Mon Nov 05, 2007 at 10:08:39 AM PDT