More Hypocrisy from the Far Right

To say that the extreme right is often hypocritical is tantamount to saying that when the sky is clear, it is blue. Nonetheless, I can't help but feel more than my usual disdain when that hypocrisy is especially overt and egregious.

This morning, while waiting for my wife at the dentist's office, I picked up a copy of The Globe and Mail to read one of the few columnists I actually miss from the days that I subscribed, television critic John Doyle. In his column today, entitled Warning: This column contains scary Sun News scenes unsuitable for some readers, he reports that the Sun News channel, which enjoys what could most charitably described as a miniscule audience,

... has put in for mandatory carriage on basic cable in Canada. The elusive, lucrative 9(1)(h) category, as it is called by CRTC wonks. What it means for us is that if you purchase a basic cable package, Sun News would be part of it, whether you bloody well like it or not.

As Doyle points out, this desperate measure to save the station runs completely counter to its notion of freedom:

... isn’t Sun News anti-mandatory on everything? Watching Sun News doesn’t bring many surprises; you’re more likely to get variations on a theme watching the Fireplace Channel. So, mere minutes spent watching its continuing hilarity confirm that it’s against folks being obliged to do anything they don’t wanna do. Like, you’d think, pay for a TV channel they don’t want to watch. On the day Sun News went on the air, Levant declared, “We’re talking about truth and freedom. If you love freedom like I do, it’s a pretty happy day.” Well, sunshine, “freedom,” also means freedom from not having to pay for your channel.

Yet one more reason to hold the extreme right-wing in the contempt they so roundly deserve.

Another Insight From A Star Reader

Whenever I fall into the trap of thinking that the Canadian public is indifferent to the things that are going on both within our own country and abroad, I turn to the letters section of The Toronto Star. Admittedly, the majority of the sentiments expressed accord with my own, especially in their criticisms of the Harper regime and its support for all things corporate, no matter how excessive or immoral.

Today was one such day to draw inspiration. After all of the recent shameless government exploitation of our war dead, many of whom died for noble reasons in the past, and many of who have sacrificed their lives or wholeness of body and mind to unknowingly serve unsavory agendas, an observation from Vincent Colucci of Aurora was most welcome.

I reproduce his entire letter below:

On my way to the cemetery Sunday, I drove by several gasoline stations. Last night the price of gas was $1.20 per litre; this morning it was $1.25.

I looked at the handful of poppies on the passenger seat I was taking to the cemetery, thought of the 5-cent overnight increase that coincided with this particular day, and felt disgusted.

To all those insensitive and egotistical CEOs, to those uncaring members of same corporate boards and to those self-serving shareholders of the petroleum conglomerates: may you all choke on the profits you made Sunday. These profits were made on the backs of all those whose lifeless bodies washed ashore on foreign beaches, were buried in mud-filled trenches, were never found, whose bodies are now only small white crosses in fields throughout the world and whose lives are sadly, for many of us, only a distant memory.

Those lives were readily sacrificed to protect all that is right, just and decent in societies everywhere. Little did the fallen know that their lives also disappeared from the arms of their loved ones to protect the freedom of corporations to exploit and gouge, and provide governments with the licence to oppress their citizenry and straightjacket their rights.

Regrettably we also live in a global society where substance has given way to fluff, where values are determined by the size of bank accounts and where hope continues to fall to the ground along with our tears. This current world state, however, is just fine with the power elite.

There are now, and there have always been, viable options for people to exercize. Unfortunately we live in a global society that fears fear itself, where complacency is the order of the day and where we can’t wait to rush home and lock the door behind us at night.

The bells toll, but there is no one left to bravely confront the cold wall that is corporate and political. The French may have been on to something more than 200 years ago.

Lest we forget.

A Glimmer of Hope?

Perhaps the Canadian electorate is salvageable, after all.

The Failures of Our Political Representatives

The other day over at Trapped in a Whirlpool, blogger Kev wrote a post entitled Irrelevant by Choice. In it, he lamented the failure ofParliamentary-backbenchers to do the job they were entrusted with, the representation of their constituents. He wrote:

I choose to believe that the vast majority got involved in politics for the right reasons, because they believed strongly in something and felt they could make a contribution. However, somewhere along the way they were convinced that the only role they could play was to defend the party, tossing away any principles they may have had.

Although our political system is based on what is known as party discipline, like Kev, I have been dismayed by the failure of Conservative backbenchers to show any moral fiber, choosing instead to support the most odious of legislation and propaganda spewed out by a government that evidences little concern with anything save its own ideological agenda, no matter what the cost to the environment, ordinary people's lives, or faith in the democratic process.

My assumption is that in many cases, the siren call of a Parliamentary secretariatship or, the ultimate prize, a seat at the 'adult table' via a cabinet post, overwhelms any residual morality of the people's representatives.

Nonetheless, occasionally the slightest ray shines through on a dark contemporary political landscape. As reported in the print edition of this morning's Star, that ray is to be found on Toronto city council.

Michelle Bernardinetti, one of two women (Jayne Robinson is the other) on Rob Ford's 13-member executive committee, has decided not to seek reappointment to the cabinet-like body, saying, "I'm a Liberal. I'd like to focus on the values that I hold.... It's a great opportunity just to be an independent councillor."

It seems that biggest objection Bernardinetti has to the committee is one that parallels the nature of federal and provincial politics: the whipped vote wherein members face "intense...pressure from Ford's staff" to vote a specific way, supporting even the most inane of the chief magistrate's directives.

Says Bernardinetti: "I'm elected by the 60,000 people in Ward 35, and I have to listen to my residents.

A pity 'tis that our provincial and federal representatives show such deep contempt for such a lofty concept.

One of Nature's Hidden Affronts

I assume this requires no commentary from me:

H/t janfromthebruce

From The Salamander

Lately, I guess as a response to the rhetoric that comes pouring forth every year as Remembrance Day approaches, I have made several critical posts directed against those who find it so easy to don the mantle of patriotism while paying only lip service to the lives lost in war.

In response to one of those posts, the salamander left a poem. With his permission, I am showcasing it here, as I think it very effectively captures some of the motivation behind those who so willingly consign others to the risk of injury or death while fighting wars that hardly serve the purposes their propaganda suggests.

Here it is:

on armchair warriors.. and their ilk ....

--------------------------------- the Theocrats ... assorted aborted Bureaucrats the ethically dead, and marching ants of zombie conservative reform rants

The toxic loutpack ministry of lord Stephan Harper Baird, - Mackay, Oliver and Clement, Kenney, Fantino.. Flattery .. the noisy others

All of them piss-poor pro war hissing cowards sycophant jowly pigmaids in lipstick waiting.. lords of flies, electoral lies and the live and oily robocall

Guided by invisible heavenly white angel noise boot lick back-room - blackberry electro twits and sneery war-room phone call cabin boyz

To their mission-vision calling they must whore.. all wrapped in petro power F-35 bomblet games steeped in wet red dreams of good old fashioned war

And kneeling to their woofing Rapture Beast in Heat in holy Israel.. they inhale their precious time in the trough Wallow Baby.. Wallow.. squeal from your Commons seat

When hobnailed real Canadian boots kick yer stinkin filthy arses high n heavenwards then and only then, will you behold

The filthy Rapture You Deserve.. and Earned

I look forward to hearing much more from the salamander.

And Another Thing ....