"The `poor sod' has a name: It's Cpl. Paul Franklin"

"The gates of Auschwitz were not opened with peace talks. Holland was not liberated by peacekeepers and fascism was not defeated with a deft pen. Time and time again men and women in uniform have laid down their lives in just causes and in an effort to free others from oppression."

Another reason to like Rick Mercer.

Strange how things have gone. A newspaper columnist and academic whose c.v. cites stints as the head of a graduate program in women's studies and the chair of a sexual harassment advisory board demonstrates a weaker commitment to the struggle for internationalism and women's emancipation than a handful of ladies running quilting bees in Sooke.

Mercer writes: "In case you missed it Noreen, the Taliban was a regime that systematically de-peopled women to the point where they had no human rights whatsoever. This was a country where until very recently it was illegal for a child to fly a kite or for a little girl to receive any education.

"To put it in terms you might understand Noreen, rest assured the Taliban would frown on your attending this year’s opening night gala of the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival. In fact, as a woman, a professor, a writer and (one supposes) an advocate of the concept that women are people, they would probably want to kill you three or four times over. Thankfully that notion is moot in our cozy part of the world but were it ever come to pass I would suggest that you would be grateful if a “poor sod” like Paul Franklin happened along to risk his life to protect yours."

More of Mercer here.