http://www.blackenvy.com Painting it BLACK--Friends on the Web As you may know, Mr. Conrad Black oversees the world's third largest and fastest growing newspaper empire--Hollinger International-- including London's Daily Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Southam Inc (which controls 60% of the English daily newspapers in Canada). Mr. Black recently launched a new national Canadian newspaper, called the National Post. Some people are concerned, however, that--even though he is expanding rapidly--there are too many people who do not have access to Mr. Black's insights and view of the world. A private citizens group, "The Friends of Conrad Black," has been formed to enable the Blacks' opinions the widest possible circulation. The first project of "The Friends of Conrad Black" is a new world wide web site, www.blackenvy.com, which goes online today. First, let us say that we are all inexpressibly proud to be envious of Mr. Black and his lovely wife Barbara Amiel-Black--indeed who wouldn't be consumed with envy considering their prodigious political potency and polymorphous periphrastic preeminence. The Blacks' writings age like fine wine, so we want to ensure that their words are available for public marination and admiration for a long time to come. This site, www.blackenvy.com, not only includes some of Canada's first literary couple's perspicacious persiflage, but it is indexed by keywords from "Authoritarian" to "Wealthy." Thus, the public can quickly search for pearls of wisdom or can browse leisurely through some of the Blacks' favourite topics such as "Envy" and "Socialism." The picture of Mr. and Mrs. Black that emerges from these web pages is of deeply complex individuals who are not afraid of personal contradictions. For example, Mr. Black declares that "I do not like boastful or overly materialistic people," yet he is comfortable with giving himself multimillion dollar "special dividends" and congratulating himself on his strategic prowess, "We were now MacArthur setting out from Guadalcanal, with an amphibious assault capability." One cannot help but share their deep admiration of the world's greatest living statesmen, including Ronald Reagan ("a 28 per cent top personal income tax rate qualified him in my estimation for Mount Rushmore") and Margaret Thatcher ("one of her most fervent desires is to do to the word `compassion' what she says she has done in Britain to the word `planning'"). But many will be surprised at Mr. Black's view of the ex-Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney ("Mulroney's speech was a model-parliament tired pastiche of sophomoric cliches.") He does, however, qualify his assessment by admitting that "I am not convinced that such an envious, whingeing people as Canada...really deserved so fundamentally well-intentioned a political chameleon as Brian Mulroney." In addition to its serious contribution to Canada's public debate, people can find information about some of the Black's favourite entertainments on www.blackenvy.com, such as the television programmes "I Love Lucre" and "The Three Corporate Stooges" as well as the film "King Kongrad." www.blackenvy.com has been designed to provide many hours of enlightenment and enjoyment. Thanks to a partnership between "The Friends of Conrad Black" and Guerrilla Media, it is being provided as a free public service for everyone, especially those few disadvantaged citizens of the world who do not have access to Mr. Black's news and views on their doorstep. - 666 - THE FRIENDS OF CONRAD BLACK. Site sponsored by GUERRILLA MEDIA Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html The Year 2000 Bug - An Urgent Sustainability Issue http://www.peg.apc.org/~psutton/grin-y2k.htm
