MSG of journalism

[Re: Letters, Aug. 2] Luke opines that Raf Katigbak’s Riff-Raff is “the best column in the Mirror.” I find that his material unpredictably travels the gamut from genuinely hip and clever insight to hopelessly self-indulgent drivel. Good or bad, I’m forced to admit that I am now physically unable to enjoy any ethnic fast-food lunch without an open copy of the Mirror as a side dish—more often than not tuned to Riff-Raff. It would be kind of like having your guilty-favourite Just Noodles dish without the generous helping of MSG. Bland, but probably better for your brain.

>> Fred

The true Ryan

[Re: “The secret life of Ryan,” Matthew Hays, Aug. 2] Just two months before he died, Ryan Larkin animated three channel IDs for MTV Canada (his first animation in 30 years).

Unfortunately, this was not mentioned in Matthew Hays’s article, nor was Ryan’s upcoming film, Spare Change. This posthumous “Told you so” will be louder than any “Fuck off” Ryan ever shouted.

Ryan’s sexuality was also not an issue for him and I am not sure why he was chosen to be a subject specifically for Divers/Cité. But Ryan was so intriguing that any opportunity to write about him should be taken, so for this I am happy.

For the record, Ryan had just one business card left because I had to print up more. (I was his producer—are you laughing louder now?) People often doubted him (and me) and still do... but Ryan’s story is not finished.

I was there at the theatre when Ryan said, “Fuck off. I’m happy.” It was probably me laughing—but not nervously.

Ryan was just coming up to bat. His film Spare Change (to be finished posthumously) will hit the screens in 2008.

I miss my buddy Ryan, as all of us locals do, I’m sure. He would have been 64 on July 31. www.ryanbango.com

>> Laurie Gordon

Challenging Weinstein

I am surprised to find myself in agreement with what K. Weinstein says about me [Re: Letters, Aug. 2].

I believe there is a Zionist plot—to drop a few nuclear bombs on Iran as per Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker and Fox News. The scary part is that George Bush doesn’t have the balls to say no to Israel, notwithstanding the U.S. Chiefs of Staff’s extreme disapproval of the nuclear option.

The plot also involves deliberately and repeatedly mis-quoting President Ahmadinejad. What he said was, “This regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time... [Just as] the Soviet Union disappeared, the Zionist regime will also vanish and humanity will be liberated.” There was never any mention of a “map” or, as K.W. says, “the utter destruction and annihilation of the state of Israel.” Put another way, the Apartheid regime will vanish in Israel as it did in South Africa.

And what of the plot in the Izzy Asper family’s National Post to plant the totally false story about a plan by the Iranian Parliament to badge all Iranian Jews?

The same neo-cons who plotted with their shameless lies to stampede us into a war without end in Iraq are now beating the drums of war in Iran. This despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the CIA and other intelligence agencies have found no evidence for an Iranian nuclear weapons program.

Even the presidential candidate John Edwards is on to the plot, warning very recently that, “The greatest threat to world peace today is that Israel may unilaterally bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.”

If K.W. wants to talk about Zionist plots, I say, “Bring ’em on.”

>>Carl Aboud

[Re: Letters, Aug. 2]

Your letter-writer Ken Weinstein suggested to visit www.palestinefacts.org. I did go to the Web site and sadly found it very selective and full of half-truths.

I will request Ken Weinstein read the PAJU (Palestinian & Jewish Unity) Bulletin No. 338, dated Aug. 3, 2007, where there is a mention of the extremely discriminatory Jewish National Fund Law, which even Israel’s attorney general has termed discriminatory because it does not treat the Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of the Israeli state equally.

Can Ken Weinstein confirm or deny the existence of such a discriminatory law on Israel’s statute book?

>> Jalal Hussain

WE WELCOME LETTERS TO THE EDITOR!