Avid readers: do you ever survey your library in search of something to curl up with and think nah, I just read all this?
Well, right now I'm thinking, nah, I just wrote all that.
Seriously. Oh, there are lots of things I could write about, but the frame of mind I'm in right now, they'd all come out either depressingly boring or boringly depressing.
Take Jim Balsillie's upcoming battle royale with the National Hockey League, for example. As a hockey fan who is sick to death of 40 years of Maple Leaf mismanagement, I'd love to write about what will soon be the Hamilton Predators. But the NHL's management makes Toronto's look like, well, RIM's. I highly doubt there will be a team in Hamilton, or anywhere else north of 49, any time soon. Gary Bettman would rather have a failing American team than a successful Canadian team.
Depressing. And, if you're not a hockey fan, boring.
I asked my wife for a blog topic. She thought for a second and then said "Is Canada's greatest natural resource now water?"
Yike. Research required there, not to mention where the hell does she get these thoughts?
(If it isn't yet, it will be: you'll see water wars waged worldwide within a few decades.)
Depressing. Boring.
I could write about how I've discovered Facebook--how three people from various points in my past all nudged me (same week) into joining, and how I've since discovered and reconnected with people I haven't seen in years. But since it seems like everyone else is joining either Facebook or Myspace, my story's boring in the extreme, right?
I could wax political, but I've been there and done that; I could tell you about my work, but (a) it's boring, (b) it's depressing as hell and (c) I don't want to be fired.
I know! I haven't excoriated the CBC lately.
In the wake of the gang raid that 'took down' the Driftwood Crips street gang, the CBC television reporters showed their typical colours. Every question was directed against the police: either questioning why so many had been arrested, wondering about the racial makeup of the officers ("why were there so many white officers arresting black suspects?"), even at one point asking the chief to tell them about the "terrified children" who watched the raids net parents and siblings.
Yeah. Because living under perpetual threat of gang warfare isn't in the least terrifying. It's only really scary when the police come.
As my longtime readers know, I am the son of a career peace officer, now, thankfully, retired. My dad never fired his weapon in all his years on the force, a fact he and I both take pride in. Of course, he spent the majority of his time far removed from the mean streets of Toronto (when he worked those streets, they were nowhere near as mean).
My dad's choice of career colours my thinking, as my more perceptive readers may have noticed. I don't like criminals. Even moreso I hate people who seem as if they do like criminals. Such people include the majority of the Canadian media and practically every member of what we call our justice system. (That street gang? They weren't 'taken down' at all. At most, eleven months and countless person-hours bought the Jane-Finch ghetto maybe a week of comparative peace.)
When my father was my age, he'd already been on the O.P.P for fifteen years. I can assure you I wouldn't have lasted half that, had I followed in his footsteps. I probably would have killed myself by now. I mean, here's a job that, to my mind, is noble and distinguished (and monstrously underpaid, but that's another post...) But it seems these days as if everybody's on the I-hate-cops bandwagon. Most of the teenagers I work with think police are something less than vermin. The Toronto Star is forever suggesting that cops ought to be teddy bears/social workers/anything but what they are, people charged with 'Maintaining the Right', as the RCMP's motto goes. I admire the hell out of anybody who can keep themselves centered in the face of such blatant and ridiculous opposition.
And the CBC? It can take its agenda and shove it. Sideways.
Incidentally, here's another example of CBC doctrine at work. "Happiness is paying your taxes, study suggests", goes the headline. Well, now, I had to read that, because nobody I know enjoys paying tax.
The study they cite had absolutely nothing to do with taxation. It monitored brain response to charitable giving--which is a red-headed Swede if ever I saw one, a Norse of a different colour. Participants knew their 'money' was going towards a food bank. A food bank. That's a wee mite different from a bloated government bureaucracy, no?
But according to the CBC, happiness is paying taxes. It is, of course, un-Canadian to wish for lower taxes; to do so is greedy and selfish and...naughty! You are Canadian, you will bend over and YOU WILL LIKE IT!
I guess I had something to write about after all.
4 comments:
Call me weird but, I do not mind paying my taxes. Enjoy? Well no, I never enjoy paying for anything.
I'm also a fan of the CBC, but I took a little umbrage at CBC Radio on Friday afternoon for giving voice to the mother that objected to the officers pointing guns at her children when they busted in and arrested her son. Like you, I am the son of an ex-OPP officer (who then went into Firefighting. Oh yeah, and my mother was a nurse. If I had a third parent they probably would have been a teacher thereby nailing the four "noble" professions in my books.) I am also acquainted with one of the officers who participated in the raids on a tactical unit. The tactical teams were responsible for hammering down the doors with battering rams, tossing in a flash bang to disorient anyone inside and then rush in and secure the entire location as quickly as possible. So yeah, it actually is just like the movies in that respect. Their gun is their "third eye" through which they survey their surroundings. Leaving the rifle "at ease" or down provides an opportunity for a perp to get off a quick shot. It doesn't mean they will shoot everything they look at, but they are ready if they find a hostile holding a weapon.
Why did they go in this way? Well, no police officer wants to die during an investigation (or ever for that matter), so why would we insist that they do their job in a manner that endangers them (guns down, safeties on)? In their briefings, the tactical teams were informed that every residence they were breaching contained a weapon.
Incidentally, investigators in the apartment that my acquaintance secured found guns, knives, crack and coke.
I wouldn't mind paying my taxes if governments made some useful use of the money. Did you know that between the federal and provincial governments there is a twenty nine billion dollar surplus? Despite all the money government loves to waste? I find that obscene.
As for the CBC, I like CBC Radio for its variety, but I won't touch their news. I know everybody's biased, but sheesh! it's scary just how far they'll try to go to direct public opinion.
And concerning the police raids: the truly terrifying thing is that the thirty guns they seized are hardly even a drop in the bucket. I heard today that most of the arrested parties will be out on bail as early as tomorrow.
And round and round we go...
Sorry Ken, that $29 billion number is a red herring.
That is all levels of government added up and also includes the CPP (which SHOULD be in a surplus, it's gonna need it later, when you and I retire)
I don't see it as that bad. Sure there is room for improvement (there is always room for improvement). I take heart in that we aren't getting the alarms sounding over our economy the way they are in the US.
Granted if the US tanks big time, it'll drag us down too, but we seem to keep a more even keel with fewer excessive fluctuations, and are therefore more stable and predicatable.
CL, thanks, dang it, caught again. I really need to stop stuffing statistics in here just because I read them somewhere. I've got a great memory for all manner of stats but I sometimes miss the context (or it's not provided).
You're right, of course, at least as far as CPP is concerned. I do recall not that long ago some real concern over whether there would be enough in there to support the Boomers when they retire (if they ever do!) I haven't heard anything like that in several years.
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