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Barb needles local knitters (This dog won't knit!)
The Ottawa Sun ^ | Tue, October 24, 2006 | Earl McRae

Posted on 10/24/2006 5:01:30 PM PDT by fanfan

Belinda Stronach's use of the K word an insult to 'pretty dynamic bunch' of yarn masters

The nation is still waiting for Belinda Stronach's apology for her vicious, uncalled for slur against those who knit. Not one slur, but two.

The pampered, privileged, millionaire princess wants an apology from Peter MacKay for allegedly referring to her as a dog in the House of Commons.

Never mind Peter MacKay -- you, Ms. Stronach, get off your royal buns right now and show you have what you say he hasn't, and apologize to the knitters of Canada and the world.

"She did us all a disservice," says Nancy Moynihan. "It was an insult."

Nancy Moynihan should know, she's president of the Ottawa Knitting Guild.

She's referring to two comments by Stronach, one the other day in the MacKay dog-dissing dustup when she said: "Why does this government insist on being so disrespectful of women? Is that because it would prefer that we simply shut up and stick to our knitting?"

Now, one could say that Stronach's knitting knock was simply playing off MacKay having told NDP leader Alexa McDonough several months ago to "stick to her knitting," and that Stronach has nothing against knitting, but wait -- this isn't the first time Stronach used knitting as a metaphor that women who knit are old-fashioned, non-feminist, and don't have a life.

In her recent biography by Don Martin, she responds to a question on her sex life with: "Let's face it -- I don't sit home on Friday nights and knit."

Knit? Why not just "I don't sit home on Friday nights," Belinda Stronach?

Why the K word as a metaphor for social doofus? Tell us, Ms. Stronach, have you ever knitted? Just asking, ma'am.

Nancy Moynihan has a proposition. She's inviting you to the next monthly meeting of the Ottawa Knitting Guild. It's Nov. 20 at Woodroffe United Church, 7 p.m. You might learn something about knitting and the type of people who knit. You might even want to join, $25 a year.

Nancy Moynihan, 51, married, mother of two, university graduate, knitter since the age of 7, owner of a company that designs and manages data bases:

"We have 130 members, including a few men. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, business people, as well as retired people. They range from teenagers to some in their 90s. Knitting has been viewed as non-masculine, and a socially outdated thing for women, but knitters are with-it people who've been known to meet in bars, drink beer, and knit. Belinda Stronach would find we're a pretty dynamic bunch."

So, there you are, Belinda Stronach. In the future, lay off the knitting references, okay? One can knit and still have a sex life.

Talking of insults, one wonders how fast the fragile Ms. Stronach would have melted in self-pity had she been the MP who once said to Winston Churchill in Parliament "Winston, you are drunk?" with Churchill firing back: "Indeed, madam, and you are ugly, but tomorrow I'll be sober." Or when he rebutted Lady Astor's "If you were my husband, I'd feed you poison" with: "And if I were your husband, I'd take it."

Churchill's retorts didn't railroad his great career, and when it comes to insults, how about you, Ralph Goodale, Liberal House leader, who spluttered about MacKay's supposed dog reference: "After depicting a woman as his dog, how can the minister of foreign affairs pretend to promote women's rights in Afghanistan or anywhere else?"

You were a Liberal MP in 1997, Ralph Goodale, but we don't recall you leaping to your feet with an attack against your party colleague Doug Young, the defence minister, after he rose in the House and called the hefty Reform MP, Deborah Grey, "more than a slab of bacon."

You didn't ask how your defence minister could possibly condone large-size women in the Canadian military if his mindset towards such women was "more than a slab of bacon," as in M-o-o-o-o, as in cows, which I would suggest is a genuine insult towards women as opposed to a dog in that a cow is dopey-looking and slow-moving while I've seen some pretty nifty, classy, upscale dogs that I, personally, would be proud to be.

If you, Ms. Stronach, weren't such a bawl baby, and made of stronger stuff with a sense of humour, you would have countered the alleged MacKay dog reference with: "You got it right, Peter, I'm a high-class Lhasa Apso."


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: belinda; canada; knitting
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1 posted on 10/24/2006 5:01:32 PM PDT by fanfan
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To: Knitting A Conundrum; GMMAC; Pikamax; Former Proud Canadian; Great Dane; Alberta's Child; ...
;-)

Canada ping.

Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.

2 posted on 10/24/2006 5:03:17 PM PDT by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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3 posted on 10/24/2006 5:06:11 PM PDT by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: fanfan

Hey, this hits home. I love to knit. LOL :)


4 posted on 10/24/2006 5:07:29 PM PDT by Bahbah (Shalit, Goldwasser and Regev, we are praying for you)
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To: fanfan

Boy, talk about words that totally infuriate me!

Both this country and Canada were made great by items knitted by people who had nothing better to do on Friday nights.

I call on all knitted items to rise up and defend those who knitted you!


5 posted on 10/24/2006 5:07:59 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
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To: Bahbah; ConservativeMind
This reminds me of the remark the Liberals made in January, before they lost the election,.......
that Canadian parents would spend their $100/month child allowance on beer and popcorn!

I bet Belinda wouldn't know a knitting needle from a crochet hook!

;-)

6 posted on 10/24/2006 5:13:19 PM PDT by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: ConservativeMind

"PSSO, ya'll."

7 posted on 10/24/2006 5:20:48 PM PDT by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: GMMAC
A recent picture of Ms. Belinda Stronach.

Conclusion: Liberalism is bad for you.

;-)

8 posted on 10/24/2006 5:21:38 PM PDT by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: fanfan
"Stick to your knitting" is an old business expression -- meaning to concentrate on your core businesses, and avoid senseless diversification. The fuss over MacKay's use of the expression was ridiculous.
9 posted on 10/24/2006 5:25:09 PM PDT by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
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To: yankeedame

I started knitting a year ago and I have met great friends many of whom are at the highest levels of business, education and medicine. I hate sexist remarks by women.


10 posted on 10/24/2006 5:26:36 PM PDT by babaloo
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To: USFRIENDINVICTORIA
The fuss over MacKay's use of the expression was ridiculous.

You're right, the Liberals are grasping at straws. The Globe and Mail, and Toronto Star can't even get their polls to work anymore. LOL!

11 posted on 10/24/2006 5:34:31 PM PDT by fanfan ("We don't start fights my friends, but we finish them, and never leave until our work is done."PMSH)
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To: yankeedame

That's the Ogden Rodeo girl as a knitter! Really kind of cool...and we do have one of the better knitting shops around...I like it!


12 posted on 10/24/2006 7:53:47 PM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Mercat; alwaysconservative; wildehunt; IN Farm Girl; proudofthesouth; HarleyLady27; ...

Crafters, you might be interested what this person thinks of those of us who knit (and probably the other yarn arts as well...)


13 posted on 10/24/2006 7:56:17 PM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: Bahbah
Hey, this hits home. I love to knit. LOL :)

Yes, it hits home here, too. I just bought a knitting instruction book and hope to be knitting soon.

14 posted on 10/24/2006 8:10:16 PM PDT by Peace Is Coming
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Thanks for the ping...

Isn't Ms. Belinda supposed to be Bill Clinton's newest thing???


15 posted on 10/24/2006 8:20:31 PM PDT by abner
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

How fast can y'all knit muzzles and send them to her in the mail?

-----by the thousands, with directions for use.


16 posted on 10/24/2006 8:23:51 PM PDT by RandallFlagg (Roll your own cigarettes! You'll save $$$ and smoke less!(Magnetic bumper stickers-click my name)
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To: RandallFlagg

We should knit her socks and tell her where to stuff them.


17 posted on 10/24/2006 8:50:47 PM PDT by Knitting A Conundrum (Act Justly, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With God Micah 6:8)
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To: fanfan

Seems to me the dogs are the ones entitled to the apology!


18 posted on 10/24/2006 9:32:27 PM PDT by Fair Go
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To: Knitting A Conundrum

Thanks for the heads up! I just took up knitting in the last couple of years, (and I love it!), but anyone who knows me would think the idea of me staying home nights without a social life is completely laughable. Knitting most definitely does NOT mean that one is a social misfit or dweeb. LOLOLOLOL!


19 posted on 10/25/2006 3:09:04 AM PDT by alwaysconservative (Some things are so stupid, only an intellectual could believe them. Orwell)
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To: Knitting A Conundrum; abner

Maybe Belinda should take up knitting, and not Bill Clinton, as a pastime. It would be a lot more productive, and she might get the satisfaction of having something she made with her own two hands turn out really well.

Thanks for the ping, KAC! Long time no "talk" to.


20 posted on 10/25/2006 5:32:52 AM PDT by IN Farm Girl (Hoosier by birth, Boilermaker by the grace of God)
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