Our real friend up north

Our real friend up north
: Kathy Shaidle, one of my very favorite webloggers at Relapsed Catholic, just became even more of a favorite thanks to the op-ed piece she wrote for the Dallas Morning News. Go read it (I set up an account: username: weblogs@weblogs.com, password: weblogs):

…Well, I am a recovering liberal, and Sept. 11 is my dry date.

That morning, my leftist life flashed before my eyes. I remembered to my shame all of those “Yankee, go homes” I had chanted as a Reagan-era peacenik. And rolling my eyes at the tacky teddy bear memorials at the Oklahoma City bombing and muttering, “You would think a building never had blown up before.”

How sophisticated I was. And how sick….

I have taken to wearing a Stars and Stripes scarf. When asked about it, I explain that I use it to strangle old draft dodgers.

I really want to buy a gun (somehow) just so that I can refuse to register it.

I even have developed a taste for iced tea.

No, I am not entirely friendless. I have “met” new pals online: fellow Canucks equally outraged by the World Trade Center attacks and appalled by the matter-of-fact “they asked for it” attitude that permeates elite Canadian culture….

I believe I am on the right side of history now. Just on the wrong side of the border.

Thank you, Kathy.

: Update: And here is part of the reason Kathy denies her Canadianess: a column by Toronto Star editorial page editor emeritus Haroon Siddiqui that shrieks:

As the year of the war on Iraq draws to a close, the larger perspective that emerges is clear: George W. Bush, a small man in a big job, has dragged America into one of its darkest chapters.