Speaking of balls, Blatch...

I would have paid good money to be a fly on the wall for this speech by Christie Blatchford, accepting her Ross Munroe Media Award (ht:Army.ca):

The criteria for the Munro Award is that the winner make a significant contribution to the general public understanding of issues that relate to Canada’s defence and security.

Frankly, on one level this means the bar isn’t that bloody high, because too few journalists in this country write well or regularly about these issues and the general public understanding of the Canadian Forces is in my view pretty dim. We are a country where the civilian population is so separated and disengaged from its military that almost anything that I or anyone else writes helps breach that gap.

But the real reason the award means as much as it does to me is because I have come to care so damn much about our soldiers. If I wrote well about them, it’s because they were, and are, generous with their time, patient with my dopiness, protective of my ass, articulate and intelligent and unafraid to talk to me.

The soldiers won this thing for me, and that’s why I treasure it so. [Babbler's emphasis]

The sentiment I've put in bold font above is precisely why those of us who post to this site take the time and energy to do so: we need to bridge that gap between soldier and civilian in this country. And we need to do it now, before it grows any wider.

I'm with one of the other gents on the Army.ca thread when he says Blatch would have a hard time paying for a single drink at any CF mess across this, or any other country. In fact, she'll not pay for one around me either, should I ever have the privilege of making her acquaintance.