Politics? Hockey?

I think that it may now be the right time to give my tv and satellite dish to someone that I don't like. Probably wouldn't be a bad idea to throw in all my radios too.

It is almost impossible to turn on the boob tube without being bombarded with one of the following:

a) Paid political messages from one of the many candidates for public office. You know the definition of politician...it's someone who is too lazy to work but not too dumb to steal. I wonder if anyone can remember a political promise that was ever kept. I recall about 4 years ago that Dubya was standing high on his stump promising to stay out of other peoples' countries. He was going to make government smaller and kinder. In almost no time after he was elected by the Supreme Court he was sending troops off to Afghanistan and Iraq. Then he sets up the Patriot Act which no real patriot can possibly support. It can be amusing to listen to Bush or Kerry, if only to see which one can tell the most lies in the shortest time.

Canada is also having an election, but the Canadian election campaign only lasts for about 6 weeks. Thank God for the shortness of the campaign. Canada has three principal political parties. The Liberals, who are not liberal; the Conservatives who aren't conservative; and the New Democrats who don't believe in democracy. The Liberal Party is led by Paul Martin, who made his millions with Canada Steamship Lines. Canada Steamship Lines is, of course, registered in Bermuda or Botswana or some such place where it doesn't have to pay Canadian corporation taxes. It also doesn't have to pay Canadian wages or follow Canadian safety standards. The Conservative Party is led by Steven Harper, who gets his daily agenda and orders directly from the White House. Harper would like Canada to become the 51st state. He wants to send Canadian troops to Iraq and anyplace else that Bush invades. He would like to scrap the Canadian dollar and use U.S. currency in Canada. The New Democrats are a thinly disguised communist party led by a professional politician named Jack Layton. His main platform is to promise everyone everything. His New Democrats would outlaw everything. That wouldn't be much of a change because the Liberal government that Canada has had for the past eternity has already outlawed nearly everything.

There is also a Green Party, a separatist Party, neither of which will get more than a handful of votes.

b) The channels that aren't full of politics are full of hockey. To hear the announcers and news broadcaster you'd think that the continued existence of the world depended on who wins the Stanley Cup. Hockey, of the ice variety, was intended to be played out of doors when the ponds froze over, and discontinued when the ice melted in the spring. Now the hockey season starts in about July and ends in June. When there were only six NHL teams every team had lots of talented players. Now there are about 200 teams and most of the players are good skaters, but they have very few skills beyond fighting like a bunch of drunks on Saturday night in a logging town.

c) Then there are the made for tv movies, most of which are pornography. The studios say that Porn is what people want. Well, maybe, but it's not what I want on the tv in my living room. And if porn is what people want how do the studios and networks explain the success of The Passion of the Christ which is well on its way to becoming one of the top money making movies of all time.