Welcome back to the new Straight Goods
by Ish Theilheimer
  Independent news alive and well in a sea of mega media mergers
 
 

Larry Solway says
  "I simply do not understand why Canadians suffer from 'Gold-medalitis'."
 
 
 

See what his guests on this week's first Straight Goods Forum have to say.

Canadian amateur sport icon and activist Bruce Kidd says we've nickeled and dimed athletes and amateur sports to death and Canadians feel badly about how obvious that becomes to the world in the Olympics.

Former CFL player turned philosophy professor John McMurtry says "The Olympics have been high-jacked as corporate marketing sites."

Another former CFLer, John Allemang, now Globe and Mail TV critic says he'll remember Larry's rant "when my daughter reminds me that she has no swim team at school" due to cuts to extracurricular programs.

Ottawa Sun columnist Earl McRae finds himself onside with Solway. He says "The Olympics are nothing more than a colossal ego hemorrhage," and thinks Toronto's Olympic bid is sure to result in wasted money if successful.

National Post columnist Roy MacGregor says most people find Olympic sports boring as compared with professional sports like hockey and there would be a lot less fanfare without footware marketing.

Straight Goods readers: Speak your mind!

Adams Mine animation:
Moose to Mel: Do unto others... You're going to howl when you see the latest animated vision from Jim Kempkes.
  (You need Shockwave^® software to view this cartoon and others in the Straight Goods cartoon gallery - it takes a few minutes to download, but it's not hard to install and it's absolutely free.)

Why high gas prices may be good news
  Penney Kome provides opinions from environmentalists and a remarkable collection of on-line resources on the topic.

Thoughtful perspectives on Pierre Trudeau from two of our favourite commentators:
  - Mel Watkins writes that Trudeau saw himself as swimming against the tide, and thought opposition to accepted opinion was the only constant in his intellectual life. It's hard to square that with his being a large-L Liberal and therefore of the crowded, conformist, comfortable political centre.
  - Clyde Sanger, in an obituary written originally for The Economist, writes "Whether he was dating Barbra Streisand or canoeing the remote Thelon River, he was daring Canadians to be venturesome, to shed caution."

Doing ecotourism right
By Jack Christie
  Ecotourism has become a buzzword for all nature-based activities. But many of them have negative environmental consequences. Not surprisingly, the term has lost much of its credibility within the tourism community.

And check out our new forums and notebooks:
  (New content every day)

News from the Web - news you can use from all over the world

Consumer Forum - a discussion forum for advice, queries, resources, and tattling - within the bounds of libel law

Activist Notebook - Tell Straight Goods about your event, campaign, publication or controversy

Community Notes and Letters - Share your thoughts with Straight Goods