Are Lotusland's Top Pundits Wilfully Ignorant?

AllTheInanitiesThatFit
LedgieBoyVille

So.

I was listening to Vaughn Palmer and Keith Baldrey on the Goodship Watercarrier's radio show this morning (NoMeansNo* RailGate by the way) and I couldn't believe the level of inanity that prevailed for pretty much the entire hour.

Oh, sure, it was kind of interesting when Mr. Palmer used razor blades to cut a recent Michael Smyth column into a million tiny pieces because he had come to the conclusion that it was sloppy punditry of the most putrid kind.

But most of the rest of the hour was taken up with things like well-aired discussions (ie. airtime odour eaters that keep stinky-cheese-stuff-like RailGate and the willful killing of the Therapeutics Initiative at bay) of a kid that wore a T-shirt with a bad word on it and the fact that Gregor Robertson's stepping down after winning the Vision Vancouver nomination for Mayor is one more gigantic nail in Carole James' political coffin. In fact, regarding the latter point, Mr. Baldrey spent most of the initial segment of the show pulling more unsourced rumours out of his hat than a bad magician corraling a herd of sex-crazed rabbits culled from the free love ranges at the University of Victoria.

Then there was the 'fe-fi-ho-hum-I-smell-the-blood-of-an-Islander-who-doesn't-have-a-six figure-salary' (or even, probably, mid 5's) dismissal of Davey (Don't call me Jones) Hahn's latest increase-on-an-increase-that-isn't-an-increase-because-it's-a-surcharge-that-we-would-rather pay-right-now-so-that-we-can-pay-even-more-for-it-later. I mean, somebody has to pay for rising costs at B.C. Ferries, right? After all, it's not like somebody who is now piling surcharge after surcharge on the tops our heads was actually in any way responsible for the decision that resulted in the payment of an extra hundred million or two for new ferries because we paid a German shipbuilding firm a few hundred million more to kill off our local (ie. well paid worker) ship building industry, eh?**


Anyway.

That's not what struck me dumb.

Instead, what really took my breath away was the discussion of the Carbon Tax, both provincially (which is, somehow, also Carole James' fault by the way) and federally.

And on the latter point the Water Method Man was, is, and apparently always will be....

Flummoxed.

Because he just can't understand how the Conservatives can expect to win if they are not on the side of the environment when they do things like run ads on gas pumps slamming the 'Green Shift', given that it, the environment, is top of mind for so many voters.

Well.

Based on this point alone I am now completely convinced that Mr. Good is either willfully or woefully ignorant when it comes to understanding how the flackhackery that seeks to play him really works***.

I mean does he not understand that the Conservatives are actually bent on destroying Mr. Dion's only remaining real strength and turning what was once, is, and always will be, one of their true liabilities while simultaneously turning it into a "perceived" strength.****

Otherwise, how else can you explain John Baird.

OK?



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*Big question is, did Mr. P. ever write a story about NoMeansNo back in those halcyon days when he wrote other bits about some of my other favorite local bands of all time like, say, this one.
**And here's something that makes me see R-E-D, Red! .......Canadian Flags draped all over the "Coastal Renaissance" ferryboat as it is christened and gets set to sail in.......aaaaaarrrrrrgggghhhh....Germany. Crimeney! Looks like the work of the O.I.C. Network to me.
***OK, OK, OK! Maybe it's both.
****And regarding the 'possibility', also bandied about briefly during the dying moments of the discussion, that by running those attack ads on gas pumps Mr. Harper might actually hurt the fortunes of his ideological soulmate Mr. Gordon Campbell? Well, that might be a point worth considering if and when (ie. when the hell freezes over under a Mars lander?), duh!, the HarperCons actually run the ads in British Columbia. Sheesh.


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