Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Not A Usual Combination of Words In A Headline

Not A Usual Combination of Words In A Headline

I remember reading some years ago that professors at a journalism school in the East were asked to pick the most boring, uninteresting headline possible--and the majority agreed that it would have the word "Canada" in it. I thought that was really cruel, but the fact is that we tend to worry about that which represents a danger to us. The greatest danger that Canada is to the U.S. is the tendency of American leftists to misrepresent Canada as a socialist paradise. (It isn't socialist, really, nor is it paradise--although it is the country that I think I would most be willing to relocate to if driven into exile.)

So when I saw this headline in the March 31, 2009 Idaho Statesman, I first thought it had to be a typo:
Canadian hit man pleads guilty to 27 murders

Even more amazing, buried in the guts in the story:
At least one Quebec man has killed more people than Gallant: Yves Trudeau, a founding member of the Hells Angels in Quebec, was sentenced to life in prison in 1986 after pleading guilty to 43 counts of manslaughter, part of a deal struck in exchange for information about fellow gang members.
You have to admit--when you think, "Canada," high count hired killers really aren't the first association you make.

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