What are the chugs and the ragheads so upset about? I mean, c'mon!

Free fantasy baseball pool, and any (and all, which may be about 10) readers are welcome to sign up. Just throw up a comment here and/or stay tuned!

---

Go figure that I go 10-14 days without posting to the Western Standard's Shotgun blog just in time for high traffic to crash the WS webserver and for a posting by Ezra that received over 200 comments (218 at the time of this writing).

Why all the interest in Ezra's poor-man's version of Alberta Report? Two words baby: controversy. Ezra decided (against the advice from the Canadian Islamic Congress and, oddly enough, the Canadian Jewish Congress) to publish a couple of the cartoons in this month's issue. (Months? I thought WS was bi-weekly, as Alberta Report was in its dying days) All hell has broken loose, even bigger than the infamous Liberanos incident. There are warnings that Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan may be at risk (yes, because the insurgents were willing to leave Canada alone until an Alberta magazine dared publish some pictures), personal injury to Ezra, and the like. But it wasn't like there was overreaction or anything. Well, except Indigo pulled this month's magazines off the shelves (this would be the same Indigo that has in the past refused to carry a lot of Israel-sympathetic books and simultaneously a lot of anti-Israeli books yet none that would ever be written by a German.

Then of course there's another story in there getting people upset: a Ric Dolphin article quoting a friend of Klein apparently slurring Colleen Klein (premier Ralph's wife) by saying when he retires she'll be "just another Indian". This is a bit of a shock to me since:

1. I didn't realize Colleen Klein (nee Hamilton) was native. Her maiden name doesn't exactly give it away, and even that I couldn't locate on Google: I needed my copy of Don Martin's book "King Ralph"
2. That's such a big slur (quoted from a not-so-personal friend, no less) that the Edmonton Urban Aboriginal Affairs Committee and two other Edmonton-based native support groups [of which there happen to be a lot of -ed] asked Air Canada to pull the magazine from its lounges (where tragically the cartoon incident had already pulled them)

The Edmonton Journal found fit to note that another of Ric Dolphin's articles (in the Calgary Herald) was criticized for portraying reserves as "nests of hopelessness". Now gee golly jenkins, where on Earth would Dolphin get the idea that there was hopelessness on the reserves????

Maybe just maybe somethings that are offensive to others can still be valid points, and perhaps "hurt feelings" is not the way to evaluate what to show. There's a Paula Simmons article I will rant about in the next entry up...perhaps I should vow to have the Journal banned on Air Canada flights unless the hateful comments about those who oppose same-sex marriage is apologized for.

I think the key point I'm trying to make here is I hate sauerkraut I maybe should have had a few posts on the Shotgun during their 3 days of excessive traffic.