Alright, I'll admit, I tried to ignore Warren Kinsella, but sometimes I just can't help it.
It's hard to ignore a phrase like the following that appears on Kinsella's blog yesterday in reference to Damien Penny. Kinsella is linking to a comment Damien made in one of his posts critical of the PM's speech Thursday night.
Don't be surprised about the criticismfrom Penny; Damien links to some assortment of characters called "Blogging Tories". Cons don't like the PM for some bizarre reason. The favourable comment from Warren should be enough to convince you that Kinsella has a head of steam up about Paul Martin and may be rapidly losing any passing resemblance to a sense of proportion or reality.
Anyway, try this on for size:
"Damian Penny, an oft-kooky but not-entirely-dumb Newf lawyer who keeps a blog,..."
A not-entirely-dumb Newf.
Uh huh.
I see.
As opposed to an entirely-dumb Newf.
Or maybe just a Newf.
For the record, Warren, newf is tantamount to calling someone of colour a nigger.
In all my time on this planet, I have never heard the word used by anyone, including Newfoundlanders, where it didn't have an extremely negative connotation. It's closest cousin is "paddy", the perpetually drunken, lazy Irishmen some Brits are fond of ridiculing.
If you don't call black people niggers and you don't call them coons and you don't call Italians wops and you don't call Irishmen micks and bogtrotters, and you likewise never utter the word spick or wog or junglebunny or kyke or hebe or slope or gook, then for the love of decency, Warren Kinsella, do not ever use the word newf or the other version, newfie, to refer to people from the island of Newfoundland.
Yeah, I know that Damien links back to Kinsella and copies the same quote word for word without comment. So what? Maybe Damien's tolerance for crap is stronger than mine. Maybe his anti-Liberal sentiments over-ride his distaste for ethnic slurs, no matter what the context.
Who knows? Who cares?
For anyone who ever had an inkling that Kinsella was worthy of positive attention, think yet again.
Don't expect to see Kinsella linking to anything on my blog, by the way, except maybe to lambaste me.
When he does, I'll know I am in fine company.