Monday September 15, 2008

The duty not to turn away 

Paula Chidwick

Your book excerpt ''Now You Now What Rape Is' (Focus - Sept. 13) was so truthful and honest, I was left with a feeling that the author had revealed a truth about this horrible situation without judgment but through pure storytelling. We were able to look without turning away.

The country and the city 

Eric Mendelsohn

If as John Duffy says (The First North American Election? - Globe Essay, Sept. 13), the focus has changed to an urban/rural split, then the election system is in grave disrepair and rural voters will control Parliament indefinitely.

Rule by no-confidence 

Richard Tindal

Andrew Stark contends that Stephen Harper's tactics have made the distinction between majority and minority government largely meaningless. He explains that Mr. Harper broadened the items designated as matters of confidence, prompting opposition parties to allow these items to pass, to avoid an election. Thus, he claims, Mr. Harper not only imposed the usual discipline on his own party, but also forced opposition parties to control their members as he wished - treating Parliament ''as if it were just a larger version of his own caucus.''

Roberto Gualtieri

Andrew Stark's article (A Minority Win For The Tories Is Really A Majority Win - Comment, Sept. 13), pointing out that Stephen Harper's use of non-confidence votes has transformed Parliament by allowing a minority government to govern as if it were a majority, is the best piece of political analysis I have read since a 1959 Fabian Society pamphlet arguing that Parliament with a majority government is really a dictatorship punctuated by a periodic referendum, i.e., an election.

Metrosexual origin 

Mark Simpson

Russell Smith (The Half-Pone And Those Man Enough To Wear It - Style, Sept. 13) writes, ''It was Beckham's daring style that caused the bitter commentator Mark Simpson to coin the derisive term ''metrosexual' in a hysterically bitchy article in Salon.''

Harper as artist 

Noah Richler

I was touched to learn the Prime Minister had tried his hand at poetry, the sort of art that nobody wants, but alarmed to learn that he ever thought he could excel at the piano by playing on a cardboard cutout keyboard.

Claudia Buckley

How does Grade 9 piano (Harper Plays Populist Tune On Arts Cuts - Sept. 12) become the leading criterion for arts funding?Twenty years ago, I was certified by St. John Ambulance to perform first aid, but I have not become the prime minister. Fortunately, I cannot determine national health-care policy as a result.

Alison Kyba

Swift work (The Ladies Love Harper - online edition, Sept. 12) by the RCMP in apprehending and cuffing Geri Hall before she had a chance to attack Stephen Harper with perhaps the two weapons he is least equipped to deal with: satire and comedy.

Gouging and NAFTA 

Gordon Warren

Unless the NDP is promising to demand a renegotiation of NAFTA if elected, Jack Layton's announcement that his party will legally eliminate gouging at the gas pumps in Canada (Gas Companies Gouging Consumers, Leaders Say - Sept. 12) is meaningless.

Fatal dumbing-down 

John Brooke

Re Author David Foster Wallace Found Dead (online edition - Sept. 13): A writer's demons? Lest anyone forget, at the heart of his novel Infinite Jest is a video, one that keeps viewers frozen where they sit; it is just too funny for words. Or for thinking.

Eyeing, not mingling 

Miriam Simpson

Regarding the caption ''Canadian soldiers mingle with villagers'' with your article The Closer A Canadian Base, The Greater The Danger (Focus - Sept. 13), a closer look at the body language and dress of the photographed soldiers and villagers might suggest instead:

A big party is watching you 

Ian Alexander Robson

The pairing in Saturday's Globe of the story on Conservatives' ''targeted campaign aimed at personal voter contact ''on a scale we've never seen before''' with the quotation from Ontario's information and privacy commissioner, ''If you look at it historically, the first thing that happens when a free and democratic society morphs into a totalitarian state is the loss of privacy'' (The Not-So-Private Price Paid For Social Networking - Sept 13) is a connection that does not let me sleep good....

Colleen Maloney

The Conservative Party's information-gathering tactic (What the Tories Know About You - Michael Valpy, Sept. 13) of collecting and storing voter data smacks of McCarthyism, notwithstanding its benign acronym, FRANS for Friends, Relatives, Acquaintances and Neighbours.

'Russet' in Green Gables 

Jane Moore

I admire Michael Smith's cooking talents and enjoy Victor Dwyer's writing (''You Visit It Once, And You Never Want To Leave' - Travel, Sept. 13); however, I think they need to reread Anne of Green Gables.