digi bust

A few months ago I waxed poetic here about the peerless service of cable giant Rogers. Well, ok, peerless is too strong a word but the service did turn out to be quite good despite my trepidations. The problem, as I see it now, is not the service but the product. Rogers is not a broadcaster, of course, and so cannot be blamed for this.

Having installed the digital system, I was offered a dizzying choice of about 70 additional channels. There were soccer channels and lacrosse channels and short film channels and documentary channels. There were many radio channels, too, with any kind of music one could wish for - from 24/7 swing to roots rock. But my main reason for getting digital TV was to experience COOL-TV (the jazz channel) and FOX news. Both turned out to be a huge disappointment.

COOL-TV consisted of endless reruns of the Ed Sullivan show and screenings of inane Hollywood musicals. Neither had much jazz content. In the case of the musicals, I'd argue there was none - unless the flick in question was The Glen Miller Story or some such. As for Sullivan - there was the occasional jazz artist but they were few and far between. Old footage of the Montreal Jazz Festival was also often on offer - some real gems could be gleaned there, for sure. Finally, occasionally there was excellent jazz or blues content such as Scorsese's Blues History series and rare 1930's film clips of people like Fats Waller and Louis Jordan which were superb. But it simply was not enough for me to want to hang on to this channel. It's not that it didn't try hard enough - it's perhaps that jazz does not need a TV channel: CD's, radio and live concerts are all I need for satisfactory jazz consuption.

FOX News was a total letdown. The anchors are hair is bigger than on CNN, their teeth whiter, their voice louder. I have long ago written CNN off as repetitive, boring and often maudlin. FOX is all of that and more. Of course, I was interested in hearing a conservative perspective on the news and FOX definitely provides that. It's just that I don't like my opinion pre-chewed. I already know where I stand politically and don't need boufant coiffed anchors to confirm my views. In fact, perversly, it's more fun to watch a champagne socialist channel such as the CBC because what would TV be if you couldn't yell back at it? At least Mansbridge doesn't wear a wig! I will give this to FOX, though: their Sunday news panel is superb and of course, some of their non-news programming, such as The Simpsons and House are top shelf.

And so I disconnected my digibox and I'm back to my regular boring 60 cable channels. History TV is there, which I watch often, CBC to get my bile up and exercise my debating skills (between myself and the TV set, of course), and let's not forget The Shopping Bags on the Woman's Channel. I love those two ditzy Vancouver chicks....I don't care if they're comparing nail polish or sock material. They are FUN!

small "l"

I am annoyed at the hijacking of the word "liberal" by modern usage. Somehow the word, based on the Latin root for "liberty", "freedom" has come to mean - especially in a North American context - "left leaning". I do not like either small "l" nor capital "L" liberals, though I do like the liberals who used to be called Whigs in Ye Olde Englande. According to one website's definiton "the Whig party adhered, at least in theory, to the following principles: they were advocates of personal freedom, maintaining that the king governed at the people's consent and that sovereignty rested, ultimately, with the people"

People who call themselves liberal - and Liberal - today (again, in the North American context) do not seem to share the enthusiasm for the will of the people: to wit - the Liberal government of Canada gets defeated on a succession of confidence motions by a majority of the House of Commons (there to represent "the will of the people"). The government conveniently ignores these motions and stretches out the waiting game until such time when it has bribed and cajoled enough MP's to survive a vote in the House.

But perhaps it could be said that such politcal games would be played by all political parties and had the shoe been on the other foot, the Tories would have employed similar tactics. Quite possible, though I think it's high time we put this to a test.

However, the characteristic that annoys me the most about liberals and Liberals is their propensity for pesimism, sarcasm and analysis to paralysis. A liberal will always search for root causes, will always try to reason and persuade using convoluted legalese, will always see the glass as half empty, will always employ sarcasm and irony instead of a short, realistic appraisal. Some scribe by the name of Peter Scowen (of the Toronto Star - a newspaper I avoid except on Sundays when there's nothing else to read) wrote - with what I percieved to be dripping sarcasm - in this Sunday's edition about things which have been "declared not to be a magic pill" (here's an abbreviated list):

*hypnosis
*the 9/11 commission report
*anti-depressants
*viagra
*iraqi elections

I would venture to say that all of the above have proven to be extremely usueful and in some instances (such as Viagra and anti-depressants) they are indeed a magic pill. In other instances (hypnosis, Iraqi elections) they are a helpful tool and a significant step forward. But it is the habit of the liberal to scoff and chuckle. Very seldom does he/she propose a better alternative - other than searching for yet more root causes and debating the subject at yet greater and more paralysing length. Commissions are established, conclusions often ignored. Fault breathlessly assigned. (and you'd better believe it's always the fault the Americans!)

I wish we could call these people something else than liberals. Use "socialist" or "leftist" or "statist" or even simply "urban intellectual". It would be nice if "liberal" could again mean someone who primarily believes in liberty, justice and honor and not someone who needs a thesaurus to convey simple notions and who always, always thinks that he/she knows best!