At the stroke of Midnight the Sun turned into a pumpkin

Dateline, exactly one minute after midnight, Saturday Sept. 18. Let the groveling commence:

Retraction and apology to George Soros

September 18, 2010 12:01am

On September 5, 2010, a column by Ezra Levant contained false statements about George Soros and his conduct as a young teenager in Nazi-occupied Hungary.

Upon receiving a letter of complaint from Mr. Soros’s legal counsel on September 13, 2010, Sun Media Corporation always intended to publish a retraction and apology for this column. Despite constant efforts on both sides, Sun Media and Mr. Soros’s counsel were unable to reach agreement on the content of a retraction.

The management of Sun Media wishes to state that there is no basis for the statements in the column and they should not have been made.

Sun Media, this newspaper and Ezra Levant retract the statements made in the column and unreservedly apologize to Mr. Soros for the distress and harm this column may have caused to him.

Translation: "Please sir, have mercy, don't sue us into greasy stains."

I sincerely hope that the apology is not accepted and Soros' lawyers administer the kind of punishment that makes grown hatemongers and Quebecor executives cry like little children.

If anything calls for Schadenfreude...

...its the prospect of Ezra Levant getting raked over the coals in a libel and defamation suit by George Soros and ending up living in a refrigerator box.

Billionaire George Soros is threatening to sue the Sun Media chain over a column penned by a conservative gadfly expected to play a key role in the media giant’s Sun TV venture.
Soros spokesman Michael Vachon said the chair of Soros Fund Management was deeply upset by a early September Sun Media column by right-wing activist and author Ezra Levant.
In the piece, which has since been removed from Sun chain news websites, Mr. Levant offered his opinion of how Mr. Soros, a Hungarian Jew born in 1930, survived the Nazis.
Mr. Vachon said Sun Media was notified of Mr. Soros’s reaction earlier this week.
“It made false, defamatory and offensive statements and as a result Mr. Soros has notified the relevant parties of his intent to sue,” he said.
“What is of concern in the article are the false assertions that Mr. Levant makes regarding George Soros’s conduct as a 13-year-old child in Nazi-occupied Hungary.”

Housekeeping

It's that time of year again. I will shortly be decamping to the countryside for my annual rest cure. Two weeks at my cabin far from work, the maddening crowd, and Internet access.

While I'm gone my buddy Matt has been invited to file reports about life as a Canadian expatriate in San Francisco, his perspective on American racial and immigration related insecurities and anything else he wishes to explore.

I don't leave till Wednesday morning so there might be one or two more updates before then and then I'm back in September tanned rested and ready to to get back to kicking against the pricks. Think of me as you trudge to your daily grind, stretched out on my deck drinking in the sun.

I'm doing it all for you.

Maintenance

Some time this afternoon Rusty Idols will hit the 75,000 hits mark.

Rusty Idols now cross-posts to Twitter and Open Salon and via a little headline widget to Live Journal and Myspace.

Rusty Idols features political and cultural commentary, sarcasm, snark and angry rants. Occasionally also music and humour. Drop by and say hello.

Happy Rosh Hashanah and ARRRR!

Today is both Jewish New Year and 'Talk Like a Pirate Day'

Holiday blogging schedule

If it wasn't obvious from my not having posted for 10 days, I'm on holiday blogging schedule. Two sets of families to visit, gifts to buy, arctic temperatures to brave.

Happy happy, joy joy.

President Barack Obama

Salon calls it. With Iowa, Pennsylvania and Ohio and victory in California assured, Obama is the 44th President of the United States.

Congratulations Americans welcome back to the world community and the reality based community. It is so very good to have you back.