Pubdate: Sun, 3 May 1998
Source: Calgary Sun (Canada)
Contact:  http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySun/
Comment: Parenthetical remarks by the Sun editor : headline by hawk

I READ the letters to the editor sections of many newspapers and have noted
the Sun is unusual in its habit of attaching parenthetical comments to its
readers' letters. Your editorial board has the luxury of opining on a daily
basis and should therefore refrain from attaching one-liners to other
people's letters. An insistence on getting in the last word is juvenile and
reflects poorly on your editorial judgment and on your newspaper.

Craig Schroer

(Many of our readers love our comments.)

Does a janitor sneak into your office and put these little remarks at the
end of people's letters when no one is looking? The comment on the April 29
Letter of the Day, "Legalizing drugs would kill more people and cause more
crime," proves you're a bunch of idiots who didn't read (or understand) the
letter you were commenting about. It is the prohibition of drugs (and the
black market economy created by the prohibition) that causes most of the
crime and violence associated with drugs, not the drugs themselves. Get a
clue.

James Hammett

(Been to Amsterdam lately?)

THANKS FOR publishing my letter urging an end to the Canada's drug laws,
which were enacted not for public safety but to impede Chinese immigration,
re-press oriental culture, protect white manufacturers and grant special
privileges to the medical profession. No thanks though for your boneheaded
rejoinder: "Legalizing drugs would kill more people and cause more crime."
Yeah, I wouldn't return to the killing fields of 19th century Canada
either. The 20th century is so much more peaceful by comparison, don't you
think? (No doubt you're confused. I'm being sarcastic, you know, like I
don't really believe what I just said ... Oh never mind.)

Alan Randell

(What have you been smoking?)