Stop Making Sense!

NoMoreSmartHeads
TalkingVille

Sure, Softwood's a worry.

As is our new anti-Envrionmental environmental policy and the fact that we are making noises about throwing 10 year old kids in jail.

And then there's our final demise as a peacekeeping nation and our suddently non-existent reputation as an honest broker on the world stage.

There is also this business of giving all our billions to Boeing that signals the coming creation of the cretinous crony classes.

Not to mention the beating of the drums for increased private healthcare and the fullest use of the ultimate stratergy of dumb governance by even dumber tax 'credit' bribing.

But if you pay attention to the puffmasters of the punditry this is nothing to worry about because it is all just tweaking from a minority government that doesn't yet have the parliamentary clout to affect real change.

And I might be inclined, at least when half in the bag on a Sudbury Saturday Night, to almost maybe sorta, kinda, almost, but not quite, agree with them.

Except then I read this missive from the Teamakers*, who inhabit what's left of the increasingly atrophied guts of the CBC:

A quiet death Friday (Aug 18/06) for one of the remaining slivers of CBC-mandate programming. Street Cents, the cheeky consumer affairs show aimed at teenagers, was finally snuffed out. It wasn't much of a surprise as no commitment had been made to launch a new season. After 17 years of edgy and fearless programs, the Halifax-based production was killed because - according to the information passed on to staff from Sursberg via Atlantic Regional Director Ron Crocker - it's not attracting a big enough audience.

Why does this matter at all? Well, as Antonia Z. makes clear, this show actually did something that meant something which is why, in the eyes of most thinking people at least, a public broadcaster actually exists:

Yes, that's me screaming. Why? Because in TVland, which is all about selling as much crap as possible to as many eyeballs as possible, and which is also about suckering your kids into becoming consumeristic greed heads, Street Cents was, for 17 years, a boob tube oasis for teaching kids abou t what not to buy and why. The award-winning media literacy show -- seven Geminis plus an International Emmy -- had its roots as a regional production in Halifax and from there it grew and grew.

So, clearly, the hogs are now in the tunnel.

Or, put another way, Canuckistan is already in the frying pan and the fire is getting pretty darned hot.

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*And check out their slogan at the top of the page. One of the best bits of word image-induced 'Oh, now I get it!' lightbulb popping that I've come across in the bloggodome.

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