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Thursday, November 08, 2007

Rachel Marsden Fired by the Toronto Sun

 
Rachel Marsden is officially a Canadian although most Canadians would prefer than this not be widely known. She's currently based in New York city. Here's how she describes her upbringing in Vancouver [About Rachel Marsden].
Born in suburban Vancouver, British Columbia, Rachel grew up listening to Jack Webster, who pioneered combative political talk-radio long before it ever spread to the USA.

Fully bilingual in both French and English, Rachel survived growing up in Canada during the socialist regime of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, best known for his close friendship with Fidel Castro, decimation of the Canadian military, a wife who partied at Studio 54 with the Rolling Stones, and doing pirouettes behind the Queen of England's back.

Always a capitalist at heart, Rachel spent her childhood on her parents' farm selling eggs from the family driveway. To ensure the operation looked legit and to score an advantage over the competition (the neighborhood Safeway), she would hold her pet chicken, Brenda (named after her Sunday school teacher), on her lap as proof that the eggs were truly "farm fresh".
Here's a clip of Rachel Marsden on CNN from just last week. She's defending the torture of so-called terrorists1—one of her favorite topics—while getting skewered by Jack Cafferty. One of her most famous recent quotes comes from this broadcast, "One man's torture is another man's CIA-sponsored swim lesson."

Marsden used to write a weekly column for the Toronto Sun. one of Canada's most idiotic right-wing rags. This relationship is now over according to her website [RachelMarsden.com].
Attention terrorists and Islamofascists: You can now read the Toronto Sun without having your delicate sensibilities offended, as my weekly column is no longer with Sun Media. I am currently exploring US syndication and other venues for the column. In the meantime, you can continue to read it here at RachelMarsden.com, every Monday. And yes (to respond to some of your queries), after more than 2 years of writing weekly for the Sun, I've been under a new Editor-in-Chief, Lou Clancy, since October 5th, who comes from Canada's most liberal newspaper: The Toronto Star. My column about Islam was spiked on his first day at the job. Best of luck to any principled conservatives who remain.
Now, the remarkable thing about this is that even the Toronto Sun has had enough of Rachel Marsden. Who woulda thunk?

I guess she'll just have to sell her brand of "principled conservatism" south of the border from now on. No doubt she'll find plenty of buyers. I understand that the USA is about to appoint an Attorney General who approves of torture.

Here's an excerpt from her last column in the Toronto Sun [Torture? Sounds like a swimmingly good idea].
When asked about it during a recent CNN appearance, I suggested that "one man's torture is another's CIA-sponsored swim lesson." In case anyone thought I was being facetious -- I wasn't.

I suppose that those who object to terror suspects getting water up the nose would say that, as a young competitive swimmer, I was also tortured. It was called "hypoxic training" -- swimming underwater and holding our breath until we passed out. Our coaches didn't call it torture, just an exercise in "mental toughness." So think of it this way -- terror suspects are getting some free mental toughness training courtesy of the U.S. government.

Here's another idea to make the concept more palatable to objectors: Call the place where waterboarding is performed "The CIA Centre For Aquatic Excellence," give all participants an "I survived training camp" T-shirt with the centre's logo on it, and treat them to a couple of carbo-loading pancake breakfasts. It worked for us.
Judge for yourselves.


1. All of the people who are being tortured are merely "accused" of doing something wrong. Many of them are innocent. Very few of them are real terrorists.

[Hat Tip: Canadian Cynic]

7 comments :

Anonymous said...

Fully bilingual in both French and English

What odd phrasing, as though the writer was not entirely familiar with English.

Unknown said...

It obviously mean that she can speak, for example, both Canadian French and French French, and British English and American English. Or something like that.

Harriet said...

We have some high profile people who are fighting against this AG nominee.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/11/7/908/72619

note that the author this the Senator who ran for president against Bush.

Torbjörn Larsson said...

I didn't know about "waterboarding" until yesterday, when a discussion over a US administrator describing the practice getting fired by Bush did the rounds. The description he gave, after himself undergoing the procedure in Guantanamo to observe it and its effects, isn't like anything what Marsden describes.

The victims are strapped down in such a position that water is forced into their lungs. They aren't merely passing out, they are experiencing drowning. This engender a lot of additional harmful side effects such as possible brain or heart damage and severe psychological trauma.

Maybe Marsden should try it out herself if she is so sure it is beneficial.

Anonymous said...

I was also tortured. It was called "hypoxic training" -- swimming underwater and holding our breath until we passed out.

That would explain some of the brain damage. Hey, at least she doesn't have a prominent Adam's apple.

Unknown said...

I like her, thanks for the introduction!

Unknown said...

Is this not the same Rachel Marsden of the seemingly forotten SFU swimming "scandal" in which she falsely accused swimming coach Liam Donnely of sexual misconduct, leading to his termination and subsequent rehiring when it was revealed she lied?

If so, her skill at dishonest representation of the facts will no doubt see her ending up alongside Megan Kelly, Ann Coulter and the rest of the attractive yet factually neurotic female crew at the fair and balanced Fox News.