It won't stop! Another astounding letter to the Editor of the Windsor Star:

Gardener shares tomato bounty

Sometime during the past two weeks, there was a letter to the editor, complaining that there is never anything about local gardens in the section on gardening.

I have one tomato plant I planted in my compost container. The plant was purchased May 28 in an eight-inch-wide-by-six-inch-deep pot and stood about 18 inches high, including the pot.

On Aug. 10, the plant was 52 inches wide, 60 inches deep (front to back), and 43 inches tall from the dirt in the compost container to the plant top. It also has about 36 tomatoes on it.

JEAN CHUBY
Windsor
Published: Thursday, August 17, 2006

I am well aware that even though I profess that these letters to the editor drive me crazy, it is obvious that it is my favourite section of the paper. I can't stop reading these letters. (I can't stop writing about these letters.)

The question is, do I really want the inanity, the public shaming, the wacked-out ranting to stop and be replaced with well-reasoned, factual letters that speak to pertinent issues at hand? Is there a touch of sick pleasure mixed in my disgust? Do I enjoy these letters because they make me feel superior?

Speaking of which, another letter from today:

Socialist path only leads to nowhere

Socialism is a stagnant, point-in-time belief that refuses to evolve; more like a religion than a science. It remains a moribund outdated doctrine seen through yesterday's prism at odds with today's global, high-tech, modern economies.

Socialists seem often to judge capitalism by comparisons to a Dickens' 19th century (novel) or Tommy Douglas's experiences in the early 20th century.

Only economies that embrace trade, choice, competition, innovation and real democracy have a hope of reaching their true potential.

Competition, though rewarding, is tough but the alternatives are far worse.

Why does Canada follow the wealth-sapping, tax-and-spend, ambition-killing, nanny-state formula that breeds bloated, faceless bureaucracies.

We are not a nation peopled by lesser types, so why then do we remain governed by the inept and follow the socialist path to nowhere?

Time has proven Marx, Lenin, Mao, Castro, Douglas, Trudeau and our own Carl Morgan wrong, and Adam Smith spot on. Government is the problem not the solution.

MICKEY MOULDER
Tecumseh
Thursday, August 17, 2006

Using an online database from my library, I found out that this is Moulder's fourth Letter to the Editor of the Windsor Star this year. Last year they printed nine of his letters and this is the third time in three years in which Mr. Moulder has written to warn us about the evils of Socialism.

What's the point of letters like these?

Should the defenders of Socialism acknowledge this thrown gauntlet and craft a response? Well, it is unlikely that someone will be able to change Mr. Molder's mind in less than 150 words. But one may feel obligued to make a public response for there may just be young influential minds out there that may otherwise become corrupted. Or one should take the high road and ignore the challenge on the assuption that this letter is just bait for a larger flame-war.

The parallels between the Letters to the Editor section and blogging are becoming disturbingly more apparent to me.