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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133514
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 10:56am | IP Logged | 1
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Some thirty years ago, I read a book called "Confessions" by Barbara Amiel. My own confession, I picked it up largely because (a)it had a picture of a hot babe on the cover and (b)the hot babe was the author.Ms. Amiel was, then, a political commentator up in Canada, and tho I had not read any of her writings, the copy on the back, describing the book as being the story of her migration from left to right, intrigued me. I remember little now, of what I read, but I have no doubt at least some of it informed my own conservative leanings. Which brings us to today, as I am leafing thru the latest Vanity Fair, and come across a picture of an attractive older woman whose face seems vaguely familiar. The text beneath tells me this is a picture of Barbara Amiel and her husband, Conrad Black. Black, for those not up on such things -- and why should you be? -- is Canada's other Lord, the one who isn't my Dad. He gave up his Canadian citizenship to accept the title. I scan the accomanying article and learn that Black is currently awaiting trial as he and his business partners have been accused of all sorts of nefarious dealings. The cumulative total of his offenses, should he be found guilty, is about 90 years in the slammer. That seems a long way from that book I picked up in Calgary -- a book that turned up when I was packing my library for the move out of Stately Byrne Manor, and whose cover picture was the main reason my memory of Lady Black was sufficiently revived that I recognized the Vanity Fair picture. C'est la vie!
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Rob Walker
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 October 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 467
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 11:04am | IP Logged | 2
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Surprisingly I read this book for the same reason... Amiel was hot on the cover! I am 30 now and when I read it I was a teenager.
What struck me was the dozen years she was in a daze from using prescribed pills. She talks about the long period of her life spent as a junkie to prescription meds. She is an interesting person as is her husband Conrad Black (up for many years in jail on stock fraud in the US right now)
Though I admit that I have some positive thoughts for Barabara Amiel, Conrad Black comes across as just purely evil. At least from the public personna you see of him he could be a stereotypical evil comic book villian. The guy exudes evilness and arrogance like you can not believe. He must be a somewhat warmer person in private I guess but he is a caricature of the evil billionaire from what you see in public.
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Robin Taylor
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 1260
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 11:24am | IP Logged | 3
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What sickens me about this whole deal is that Black renounced being Canadian to become a British lord, and now that he is in trouble he has reapplied for his Canadian citizenship in order to have the trial moved up here, where the laws are more lenient.
Disgusting
RT
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Bill Dowling
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 07 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2177
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 11:24am | IP Logged | 4
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Interesting,...so Canada has two Lords, one (presumably) good Lord,
whose son provides us with earthly delights every month, and one
(allegedly) criminal Lord, who goes by the cliched title of Lord Black?
Cool.
Sounds like a bad fantasy novel.
Edited by Bill Dowling on 17 February 2006 at 11:26am
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Rob Walker
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 October 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 467
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 12:27pm | IP Logged | 5
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Black was arbitrarily denied the right to keep Canadian citizenship and also take a British title by Jean Chrietien. It was arbitrary because Chretien hated Black, if someone else wanted to stay Canadian and take a British title they likely would have been allowed to do so.
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Jeff Stockwell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1610
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 12:32pm | IP Logged | 6
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Perhaps one of our Canadian brethren can explain this. Why does a
Canadian citizen have to renounce citizenship to accept a British title?
Isn't Canada still a member of the British Commonwealth? Isn't Queen
Elizabeth, technically, your monarch? (Not trying to be snarky. I'm
genuinely curious.)
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Michael Connell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 January 2006
Posts: 4026
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 12:32pm | IP Logged | 7
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  Wait, how does that work, isn't Canada part of the British commonwealth? And if that's still true, wouldn't Canadians be British subjects by default? (I know they still have the Queen of England on their money)
Edited by Michael Connell on 17 February 2006 at 12:33pm
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Trevor Krysak
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 4163
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 1:03pm | IP Logged | 8
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I was a little curious about this myself. Seems legislation was passed in 1919 to stop Canadians from having titles in other countries.
http://nickle-resolution.brainsip.com/
Here's some detail on Black and his battle over his Knighthood.
http://cbc.ca/cgi-bin/templates/view.cgi?category=Canada&sto ry=/news/2001/05/19/black_010519
I'm not a fan of Conrad Black. He has always seemed a smug person to me. One who thinks wealth entitles him to whatever he wants. For all I know of him personally he could be the greatest person alive today. But I tend to doubt it. He does get a decent amount of press though, good and bad.
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Flavio Sapha
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: Brazil
Posts: 12912
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | 9
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Surprisingly I read this book for the same reason... Amiel was hot on the cover! I am 30 now and when I read it I was a teenager.
******* I wonder if many of today´s teens fall prey to the charms of Ann Coulter?
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Ian Carroll
Byrne Robotics Member
King Of Pain
Joined: 01 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 526
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | 10
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Apparently Lara Flynn Boyle is portraying Amiel in a TV movie this year,
Shades of Black.
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Rob Walker
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 October 2004
Location: Canada
Posts: 467
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 1:34pm | IP Logged | 11
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I wonder if many of today´s teens fall prey to the charms of Ann Coulter?
I doubt many teens find Coulter attractive. You seriously have to see Amiel on the cover/backcover of this book. She might have been 30 at the time, I'm not sure, but she is incredibly attractive on the book, not just good looking but classical timeless beauty.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133514
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| Posted: 17 February 2006 at 1:58pm | IP Logged | 12
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Topic Closed)
