"hate media"

"Prime Minister Harper is trying to push American-style hate media onto our airwaves"...So starts an online petition to stop a new conservative-style channel from being broadcast in Canada. One has to wonder sometimes whether a large section of the population understands the meaning of words such as *democracy*, *liberty* and *choice* One of the objections mentioned in the petition (aside, naturally, from the sense of loathing towards anything that isn't perceived as "progressive") is that this new channel would be partly funded by cable fees, thus financially obligating even those who vehemently oppose such a channel.

Well, I have news for the objectors. There already exists a TV and radio network in Canada, funded not just by cable fees but by our tax dollars. The network is called the CBC. Is it not conceivable that I object to this compulsory CBC participation in the same way the petitioners object to the proposed right wing channel? While I never watch CBC TV (except for play-off hockey), I do occasionally listen to CBC radio, some of which is intelligent and well presented. I would prefer for it to run along the lines of NPR/PBS in the States (i.e. corporate donations, some minimal advertising/sponsorship + audience membership) - but be that as it may, I am not overly exercised about paying my $40 annually for the CBC - or whatever my tax portion may be.

As for the expression "American style hate media" - this speaks much more to the ignorance of the petition creators than to the actual nature of the channel being proposed. First of all, as someone who lives in the U.S. a few months each year, FOX news is not "hate" media. "Der Stuermer" was hate media. "Pravda" was hate media. FOX is occasionally silly, often over the top and, admittedly, does employ some borderline nutbars, such as Mr. Beck. But overall, their programming is no more "hate" filled than CNN or MSNBC. I have absolutely no idea where this notion comes from, aside from complete ignorance.

Lastly: if you don't want to watch it, TURN IT OFF. The petition makes it seem like Mr. Harper is somehow foisting this channel upon our collective minds, shoving it down our throats while we're gagging, begging for mercy and pleading for another 24 hour CBC channel (the one we have commands about 6% of audience share, btw)

Grow up people! This country is about liberty, choice and tolerance. Try to be tolerant of views you don't like and simply switch the channel, why don't ya!

border checks

Just read an article in the New York Times that sent shivers down my spines. So this is what "homeland security" has come to. Soon they will ask us to carry inland passports a la the Soviet Union. Basically - for those who don't click on the link - border patrol officers board New York bound trains that travel close to the Canadian border and ask random passengers to produce ID. This is INSIDE U.S. territory and without any prior suspicion or proof. Strictly random, most likely racially profiled, interrogations. One of the astounding facts one can read about in the article is that the Immigration office personnel at Rochester quadrupled after the Toronto - Rochester ferry went bankrupt. I.e. no more ferry, no more direct traffic from Canada, but the office now has four times as many officers as before. One assumes they pull people off the streets of downtown Rochester at random? What else could they be doing? There is no ferry and no direct border crossing in Rochester, N.Y. (there's not much of anything else, either)

Even the name "homeland security" is so Orwellian it would be laughable if it weren't so scary.

Let me tell you a story about "homeland security". When I was a lad 0f 12, my parents and I undertook a journey from Prague to Israel. Today, no one would think of any other mode of transport but flying but in those days (1965), we took the train to Greece and then a ship from Piraeus to Haifa. Three days on the train, three days on the ship. Here's what "homeland security" looked like in Czechoslovakia, cca mid-1960's: the train started slowing down about 10 km from the Austrian border. It then stopped and about 20 officers armed with sub-machine guns and with large German shepherds boarded the train. They entered each compartment in pairs. Every person in each compartment had to produce their passport, their exit visa, their return ticket and their proof of purchase of foreign funds. Every person then had to open every single bag and suitcase, as well as wallets. This inspection lasted about two hours. At the end of it - and after numerous citizens were pulled off the train for insufficient documentation or for trying to smuggle something OUT of the country (such as forbidden books or a few more dollars than they were permitted), the train started moving towards the Austrian side. On each side of the train, electrified barbed wire reached about 25 feet high, with watchtowers and machine gun armed guards every 300 yards or so. This "no man's land" (but in fact a minefield designed to capture anyone trying to escape the socialist paradise)was about 3 km long. The train traversed it in a few minutes. Suddenly, there was nothing but green fields on either side of the train. Austrian custom officers boarded (about 4 of them for the whole train) and conducted a completely perfunctory check of our documents. They smiled and joked, offered people light for their cigarettes and told us to relax and enjoy their country. The relief, the joy, the elation throughout the train was amazing. We all laughed, and drank beer in the dining car (well, my folks did) and rejoiced at how wonderful life in a free country can be.

QUO VADIS, America, with your "homeland security" idiocy and your curtailing of freedoms and you usurping of citizens' rights by a cruel, faceless and metastasizing beaurocracy?

heat

Sooner or later all bloggers talek about weather. The weather in Toronto this summer has been absolutely awesome. The last two summers were wash-outs, so we deserved a good one. Even now, at the very end of August, temps are in the 30's (high 90's on the good old scale) But wouldn't you know it, there are people, even in this city, in this country which basically shivers for eight months of each year under the combined assault of frost, wind, snow, sleet and windchill, there are people that complain about the heat.

People: SHUT UP! Buy yourself a window A/C unit, I've seen them go for as low as $150 in June; right now, I'm sure you can get a slightly used one for next to nothing. Cool your bedroom and the rest of the time, just enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the girls in teeny dresses and flip flops, enjoy the ice cappuccinos, the dips in the lake, the longer days, the frosty pint on the patio...enjoy life! Summertime, and the living is easy.

back home

Southwest Airlines is as bargain basement as it gets. No assigned seating, no entertainment system, old rickety planes, haggard looking flight attendants who try to keep themselves amused by using lame humor and, worst of all, stinking, moldy looking toilets with dirty paper towels sticking out of overflowing waste bins. Still, it's hard to beat $80 one way (less in, say, mid-November) from Orlando to Buffalo and so I keep booking with them despite the bovine conditions.

The security line-ups in Orlando are always made worse by the countless kids, tots, babies, children of all shapes, sizes and smells (mostly only one smell and it ain't good) whom their caring parents keep dragging to Disney World. Why anyone would pay good money to spend a day in a park filled with plastic animals and only marginally less plastic people, fighting crowds in 95 degree heat and 100% humidity is a mystery that shall remain unanswered. My idea of a good time in Orlando is my pool, a drive out to Cocoa Beach, lunch at Ming's Court and an afternoon of window shopping at the Mall At Millenia.

Good to be home. I think.

frying and flying

I am happy to report I have mastered my feel of frying. I used to use too much oil with appallingly greasy results. Or I used too little and the smoke detectors would go bananas. Then I started using olive oil...which burns very fast. Solution? Lard!


But what I really want to talk about is mastering my fear of flying! A long time ago, a good friend - who incidentally died of liver cirrhosis, so obviously he wasn't free of his own issues - told me the formula for conquering the fear of flying was simple: "To beat it, you must fly it" It's odd that even though I have led such a peripatetic life and have flown more than most people, I would still dread each trip anew. I would fidget in my seat, sweat profusely, panic at every bump, run to the washroom every 20 minutes (always chose an aisle seat and still do) and generally felt miserable for the duration of the trip. This was not so bad flying, say, from Toronto to Boston but ocean crossings were horrible. I'd lose a couple of pounds every time just via copious sweating.

The solution presented itself for an unexpected reason. As a sufferer from a rare disease called "cochlear hydrops", my doctor recommended I take a decongestant when I fly...to relieve possible pressure on the middle ear, which might (this is disputed in medical circles) contribute to cochlear pressure in the inner ear and cause hearing and balance problems. I took the good doc's advice with the result that I felt pleasantly sleepy during the flight. Suddenly finding myself dozing off instead of white-knuckling the arm rests filled me with a sense of triumph and well-being. So, on the next flight I doubled the dose, resulting in the flight attendant having to wake me up upon landing. The last few flights I haven't even taken the drug - though I do have it handy just in case. I find that having flown a few times in a relaxed mood got rid of the panic and dread that I had felt for decades before. Now I take off, land and fly through turbulence without lifting my eyes up from my book (currently reading "The Fear of Frying" bu Josh Fried) I say: more power to Big Pharma, baby!