An apology is owed.
I grossly understated the risks. Sorry Blogwrath. I should have warned you enduring the tedium of a Rick Salutin lecture falls somewhere between water-boarding and having your fingernails pulled in terms of cruel and unusual punishment.
The National Post`s Jonathan Kay wrote about Salutin before the latter was dismissed from the Globe and Mail, ``After 17 years as a Globe columnist, one suspects, Salutin apparently has gotten to the stage where he simply throws a bunch of buzz phrases in the air — imperialism, Guantanamo, oil, Omar Khadr, "honest broker" — and lets his readers write their own column``
Evidently not much has changed. The rest of the panel didn`t sound any more interesting, but Blogwrath`s colorful account is excellent and will make you grateful he attended on your behalf.
I don't know whether to give Blogwrath kudos for enduring that or to set up a Kickstarter campaign pay for a deserved vacation; truly penitential experience.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as mad as the statements and sentiments documented at this Khadrfest seem to us, it has to be understood that they're more likely to receive something like official sanction than anything we say, simply because people like Salutin and company cloak themselves in official titles and resume trappings, and thus make themselves look more respectable to the mediocrities who toil in the fields of public policy, and who have no ability to discern or reason or follow a moral compass, and thus look for whoever has "credentials" to tell them what's "proper."
I fear that for those who don't know any better, you're indeed right, Rick. Salutin as a "Professor of Cultural Studies" and former Globe and current Star writer has a good resume.
ReplyDeleteWorking against him are the things he writes and says, which consistently make him look foolish. But working in Salutin's favor is the fact that almost nobody actually reads or listens to him.