Welcome, Toronto Star readers!

I've hit the big time. Antonia Zerbisias mentions this blog (and provides the URL) in her latest column, in which she tries to use this post as proof that we warmongering neocons are abandoning the blogosphere, now that the Iraq War "is a bloody, costly, tragic, world-dividing disaster that has led to more acts of terrorism by more groups." (The U.S. State Department says that outside of Iraq, international terror attacks were down sharply in 2003, though I'm sure Zerbisias has dismissed that as neoconservative disinformation.)

Sorry, Antonia, but several of the absent bloggers have already made it clear why they left and when they're coming back - and some long-absent bloggers, like the great Rachel Lucas, have actually returned in recent weeks. Bob Tarantino, the one-man Toronto Star demolition squad, is back from his vacation on Tuesday. We're here to stay, and we make no apologies for supporting the removal of one of the world's most brutal dictators. Deal with it.

(Antonia and I go back quite a long way. A couple of years ago, the great "media critic" used her column to promote an anti-Semitic conspiracy-theory website, before I and several other bloggers pointed out all the blatant hatemongering she somehow missed. The column in which she did so has mysteriously disappeared from the Star website, by the way.)

All that said, I have to say I do like being called "one of the top right-wing online pit stops for Canadians". That has a nice ring to it, even though I prefer to think of myself as more "center-right" or even "libertarian".

Update: as you might expect, Kathy Shaidle's response is absolutely devastating.

Update II: she slagged this guy, too.

Posted by damian at May 16, 2004 12:45 PM