March 22: no news today-

Scarcely a word of news in this day's Moncton Times and Transcript, just popaganda, ads, trivia, But there are a couple of good columns - and an excellent letter to the editor. Oh, and a flash from Norbert Cunningham. Let's start with the good stuff.

For the good stuff, the place to start is a letter to the editor from Patricia Varga, Dominion President of the Royal Canadian Legion. It offers an example of how our federal government forgets about our ex-servicemen once it no longer needs them. (The same is true in the United States.) The example she gives is just one among many.

To send people into battle is asking a great deal of them, indeed.  We offer them pious thanks every November 11. But we rarely ask how great the sacrifice was - even for the survivors. And because we don't bother to ask, governments find it easy not even to think about it. We don't begin to understand what physical and emotional damage our veterans can suffer for the rest of their lives. The result is that we are abandoning them.

Patricia Varga made her stake in this clear by introducing herself as the president of the Royal Canadian Legion. That's a model that should have emulated by Beverly Barrett who submitted a letter about the MHS protest.

Though hers reads like a letter by an ignorant and vicious-tongued social outcast, there is a Beverly Barrett of Moncton who is associated with Royal Oaks. Any connection, Bev?

Alec Bruce offers a column of pure humour - which means there's a lot more sense to it than  a casual reader might think. And Jody Dallaire writes a well-informed column about how journalists can, sometimes unintentionally, misuse statistics. (Think-tanks misuse them intentionally. but that's another story.) In this column, she focusses on the statsitics of sexual assault. We should keep her article in mind when we hear statistics about education, economic recovery, war deaths....  Almost all the figures we get on these have no relation to reality.

And Norbert? He's off again.  But he he knows he has a problem. He admits it in today's column. He says his mind boggles. Yep, it's the Norbert Boggle. I can see a hit song and a new dance step coming out of that.....
Rant to the left,
Rant to the fight,
Shake your fist with all your might.
Doin' the boggle tonight.
Yeah!

Well, at least it would get us out of the age of rock.

The real purpose of today's paper is to get everybody excited about the "events centre" aka hockey rink for Mr. Irving. The first page has a big story by (guess who) Brent Mazerolle which has no news in it, just a sort of the panting of a love-sick pubescent. If you don't have time to read, don't worry. Just say GeeWhizGolly about 500 times, and you'll get the general idea.

Never a subtle paper at even the best of times, the TandT also has its editorial on that subject. It assures us, with sparkling and creative language, that the city will forge ahead (so much better than forging back.)

This time, it shows more cunning than usual in its approach to the those  who want to focus on the MHS move.  Usually, TandT editorialists are arrogant and ranting at those they disagree with.  (Norbert is a veteran of that old style. But his time it's gentle. as when Little Red Riding Hood said, "What big eyes you have, grandma!:"

And the reply was, "All the better to see you with, my dear."

All set, kids? The fix is in.For the city election coming up, the MHS queston gets buried. The focus is on the hockey rink (sorry. events centre).  And the election marching song is - sing along with the massed choir of The Moncton Times and Transcript to the rhythm of the pom-poms waved by Brent Mazerolle and Norbert Cunningham....  Let's hear it...
GeeGollyWhizGee
GeeGollyWhizGee
(continue singing until your pockets are empty)