Bud

Thanks, R, for the rose.



Margaret Wente has gone to the dark side

Years ago, when I actually subscribed to The Globe and Mail, I used to read Margaret's column faithfully. There was a yo-yo between common sense and piffle of the leftish sort. But she never approached the hardcore socialist stance of a Rick Salutin--"where have you gone Joe Stalin?" Now, occasionally, I am reduced to to reading the G&M. My years away have shown that Wente has matured. Presently her columns zero in on a common sense, logical approach. I'm sure some of her stuff generates great umbrage amongst her colleagues, much as Rex Murphy must further curl the curlies of most of the CBC nabobs. Her targets center on the fraudulent myths that the liberal "elites" i.e. Hogtowners, have perpetuated.

Her latest lance has skewered Wendy Mesley of the CBC--ex of Mansbridge. Wendy got breast cancer, even after taking care of herself. Therefore, there must a culprit out in industrial land. Sure enough, on "The Fifth Estate" she pinpoints some of these chemicals that are carcinogenic in everyday products. News flash to Wendy: A doctor admitted to me that the greatest medical secret of the 20th century is that "Everything gives you cancer". Unless Wendy is going to get down on her knees and scrub with old-fashioned lye and water (a poisonous combo) she is doomed to use Pinesol. Actually, perhaps, her full-time maid will have that honour. You only have to watch History TV's "The Worst Jobs in History" to realize that we are exposed to far less environmental damage to our health than our ancestors were. Pottery makers and silver smiths had very truncated work lives. Lead and arsenic were big elements used even to make bread. Meanwhile we average 80 years and climbing,

My heart goes out to Wendy. But this so-called epidemic is really an epidemic of an aging population. Our ancestors rarely got cancer because it is predominately a disease of elderly people. They died from child birth, from a simple infected scratch, or from constantly inhaling lye and mercury fumes. They weren't called "Mad Hatters" for nothing. Those who actually died from cancer were affirmed to have expired from "the flux", or "dropsy", or some other unexplained colourfully-named ailment.

Wente mentions that the Red Cross representatives in the expose were blind-sided by Mesley. When they asked the CBC to not re-air that segment until they could mount a rebuttal to the unfair charges, "Tony Burman told them to go fly a kite". I think Wente was trying to point out just how slanted (and personalized) these CBC documentaries have become. And poor CBC never connects the blatantly biased reporting to their low ratings.

© Bud Talkinghorn--Up the sisterhood of the Wente-type journalists