What happened to it? Couldn’t find it, but Will at NNW did!

**

I like the CBC.

There, I said it. Right here in the Sun, I caused to be published the words that dare not be spoken. I said SOMETHING NICE ABOUT THE CBC. IN THE SUN.

If you are now experiencing chest pains, permit me to now cause you even further distress: happy 75th birthday, Mother Corp. May you have many more.

Now, the fact that (a) I was able to have the above words published and (b) that I am still, improbably, employed by Sun News should tell you a thing or two. One, it tells you that the Sun doesn’t censor opinions. When I wrote for the National Post, for example, editors would kill any column in which I expressed a kindly word about the CBC. They wouldn’t even let me quote other people saying nice things about the CBC.

Two, nobody in Sun management (including our baby-faced overlord, Kory Teneycke, who himself used to appear on CBC with some regularity) has issued a fatwa on the CBC. Like the newspaper that first bore the Sun name – which celebrated a 40th birthday this week, CBC, thanks for not bothering to send flowers – we don’t take ourselves too seriously. If you’re a man, and you want to dress as a woman and go on TV to mock the CBC, we will happily accommodate you. We’re not the Parliamentary channel. We enjoy a bit of fun, particularly when it involves on-air cross-dressing.

That all said, the CBC – like us – is not perfect. It makes mistakes. For instance, it made a mistake when it offered a job to the former leader of the separatist Bloc Québécois, right after the election campaign. That was dumb.

Also dumb was the decision of the CBC’s ‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes’ to ambush Toronto Mayor Rob Ford at his home. As the Sun’s Bolshevik-in-Chief, I heartily detest Rob Ford. I think he is a knuckle-dragging, red-necked mouth-breather. But it was dumb to go after him where he and his family live. Among other things, it achieved the impossible: it made Rob F***ing Ford look like a sympathetic figure.

In fairness, the CBC is an institution that employs thousands (and thousands, and thousands) of human beings. Human beings are flawed, ipso facto, CBC is flawed.

But there’s a reason why we at the Sun get miffed about the CBC. It’s the same reason the folks I know at CTV, Global and other private broadcasters get miffed: the so-called State Broadcaster© gets the support of The State, and we don’t.

With its legislated access to the federal treasury, the CBC is in a position to do things others can’t, as former Sun man Michael Harris recently pointed out in iPolitics. Like, undercut us with ad rates. Like, buy the latest in technology, while the rest of us wield cameras with the precision of a Fourteenth Century woodcut. Like, popping down to Hollywood to use their funding advantage to bid for episodes of, say, The One: Making of a Music Star.

When I used to work for no less than Jean Chretien, we would marvel as journalists trooped in for press conferences. CTV would show up with a cameraperson, a reporter and (maybe) a sound person. CBC, meanwhile, would descend with a small army: CBC radio (French and English), CBC TV (French, English, local and National), CBC Newsworld (and its French equivalent) and maybe even a producer or two. Without disclosing any confidences, I can tell you that my former boss – like the bosses at the Sun, CTV and Global – wasn’t impressed.

Times are tough, Mother Corp. The rest of the world currently has to make do with less, and it’s not fascism to suggest that you do so, too.

That said, let me repeat: I LIKE THE CBC. HAPPY BIRTHDAY. AND…

[Editor’s note: we at Sun media wish Mr. Kinsella the best in his future endeavours.]

Comments (59)

Just dropped eldest son off for a bar mitzvah at Beth Tzedec. The rabbi greeted us and said my boy looked very handsome in his suit.

He did, he does, and my God do I ever feel old, right about now.

Comments (12)

You could almost set your watch by it: the compulsion of the majority of commentators to bash the Occupier movement (accusing them of all being rapists is the latest) is so predictable, it’s laughable.  Almost.

Anyway, let them continue to defend 25-year-olds in suspenders making million-dollar bonuses, and as Europe melts down.  Me, I’ll hum along to this Against Me! oldy but goodie:

Through the best of times,
Through the worst of times,
Through Nixon and through Bush,
Do you remember ’36?
We went our seperate ways.
You fought for Stalin.
I fought for freedom.
You believe in authority.
I believe in myself.
I’m a molotov cocktail.
You’re Dom Perignon.
Baby, what’s that confused look in your eyes?
What I’m trying to say is that
I burn down buildings
While you sit on a shelf inside of them.
You call the cops
On the looters and piethrowers.
They call it class war,
I call it co-conspirators.

‘Cause baby, I’m an anarchist,
You’re a spineless liberal.
We marched together for the eight-hour day
And held hands in the streets of Seattle,
But when it came time to throw bricks
Through that Starbucks window,
You left me all alone.

You watched in awe at the red,
White, and blue on the fourth of july.
While those fireworks were exploding,
I was burning that fucker
And stringing my black flag high,
Eating the peanuts
That the parties have tossed you
In the back seat of your father’s new Ford.
You believe in the ballot,
Believe in reform.
You have faith in the elephant and jackass,
And to you, solidarity’s a four-letter word.
We’re all hypocrites,
But you’re a patriot.
You thought I was only joking
When I screamed “Kill Whitey!”
At the top of my lungs
At the cops in their cars
And the men in their suits.
No, I won’t take your hand
And marry the State.

‘Cause baby, I’m an anarchist,
You’re a spineless liberal.
We marched together for the eight-hour day
And held hands in the streets of Seattle,
But when it came time to throw bricks
Through that Starbucks window,
You left me all alone.

Comments (28)

Three years ago today – what a day that was.  We had a big, big party at Daisy that night.  “The arc of history,” bent towards a better day.

Comments (47)

This New York Times story is amazing because of the technological revolution it describes:

On Dec. 14, 2007, Mr. Woo was paralyzed after an accident at a construction site at Goldman Sachs headquarters on West Street. Mr. Woo, an architect on the project, was struck as seven tons of metal studs, hoisted by a crane, crushed the trailer in which he was working.

This week, Mr. Woo has been testing a bionic exoskeleton called Ekso, designed to allow patients in wheelchairs to stand and move while upright.

The story’s been covered in other New York papers, too.

But what puzzles me is that no Canadian paper has picked up on the obvious Canadian angle:

As Mr. Woo has continued his rehabilitation in New York and consulted on projects for his firm, his wife has been living in Toronto, with their three boys, ages 4, 5 and 6. Mr. Woo said he was designing a home in Toronto — with elevators and upward slopes, but no stairs — that he expected the family to move into in the coming years. Perhaps, he said, he will be able to walk in.

Historic advance in medicine, with Canadians at the centre of it.  Canadian media, where art thou?

Comments (4)

Well, well, well.  Isn’t that interesting.

Yesterday, as the whole country saw, the bovine Peterborough Conservative MP – who is Stephen Harper’s Parliamentary Secretary – had attacked Justin Trudeau’s Catholicism.  He said Justin wasn’t a good Catholic. Justin and me and not a few others were plenty unhappy about that.

So, within minutes, someone pointed out to me that Del Scumbag had violated one Church teaching, and voted for the death penalty.

Not long after, I started to hear from plenty of Peterborough folks about other ways in which the troglodyte’s life was not exactly, um, illuminated by the light of the catechism.  One of the stories I heard bowled me over.  And, this morning, someone sent me proof.

Dean, you see, doesn’t even go to Catholic Mass.  Hasn’t for a long time.  That means, unless I’m missing something, the self-professed uber-Catholic doesn’t observe the sacraments – while Justin Trudeau does.

Cornered by a terrific reporter at the excellent local paper, The Examiner, Del Scumbag finally admitted what many residents of Peterborough already knew – he doesn’t even “belong” to a Catholic church anymore.  Quote:

“The Examiner has received several calls about what church the MP attends since he met with the Pope at the Vatican on Saturday, after the G8 summit in Italy…Del Mastro said he’s a member of the congregation at Calvary Pentecostal Church.”

Oh, but he’s great “friends” with the Bishop, mind you.  He said so in a written statement.  That’s nice.

Anyway.  For me and others, Del Scumbag’s rank hypocrisy has rendered him the new Benedict Baldy, and we have jointly committed ourselves to – pardon the pun – making his life a living Hell.

Next up: sponsorship, a park, and Del Scumbag’s Conservative Party hockey team!

UPDATE: Fern Hill – who, with GritChik, made the life of Del Scumbag’s pal Tim Hudak positively Hellish (there’s that word again) during the provincial election – offered this up yesterday about what Catholic leadership in Peterborough think about Del Scumbag’s Catholicism:

A Roman Catholic in “good standing” must attend mass every Sunday and holy day of obligation, says the vicar general of the Diocese of Peterborough. “There is nothing to stop a Catholic person from attending services elsewhere if he or she chooses to do so. However, Catholics are still required to attend Catholic mass every Sunday and holy day of obligation,” said Father Raymond Rick. “You’re either a Catholic who is practising his faith or you’re not.” [Examiner, July 17, 2009]

UPDATER: Nobody’s asked, but I’ll say so anyway: yes, I’ll pray for this conservative hypocrite in church this coming Sunday – just I prayed, last Sunday, for all the other conservatives I detest.  Then, like all good liberation theology Catholics, and all followers of Teilhard de Chardin, I will go out and do all I can to ensure that conservatives Del Scumbag are beaten into dust.  Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Comments (65)

Brian and I debate guns while, unbeknownst to us, a giant person fiddles with a poppy.

Comments (17)

 

“I previously published material here that attacked the personal reputation of Mr. Kinsella. Those allegations were false and I retract and apologize for them without reservation. I have no information at all that Mr. Kinsella is anything but a good father and my publication of facts to the contrary was mean-spirited and unacceptable.

Kathy Shaidle”

Comments (30)

You can be forgiven for thinking that Dean del Mastro is a scumbag. God would.

He doesn’t decide who is a “good Catholic” and who isn’t. God does.

If I were Justin, I’d handle this like we used to at Loyola or Bishop Carroll or Our Lady of Lourdes – behind the church, face to face.

Justin is a way nicer guy than me, so he won’t. But I have no doubt he’d knock del Mastro’s porcine form into next week. You could sell tickets to that one. Hell, you could retire the national debt.

Anyway, this one has gotten me so pissed off, I think we Grits should make Dean del Mastro the next Benedict Baldy. Let’s get together and kick the crap out of him the next time he runs.

Who’s in?

UPDATE: And another thing: does he really want to have the personal lifestyles of some of his fellow Conservatives – including the one he names – scrutinized to see how rigorously they observe what conservatives consider to be “traditional” Christianity? He won’t like the result.

FURTHER UPDATE: Hey, look who voted against a well-known and well-established Catholic principle: Dean del Scumbag!  Del Scumbag voted against reaffirming Canada’s rejection of capital punishment, both here and abroad. Dean del Mastro favours capital punishment – and that’s contrary to the long-standing position of the Vatican and the Catholic church.  So I encourage everyone to contact The Most Reverend Nicola De Angelis, c.f.i.c., D.D., the Bishop of Peterborough, and other Catholic clergy, and demand del Mastro’s excommunication. You can contact every Roman Catholic priest in Peterborough right here. What’s good for the Liberal goose is good for the Conservative gander, isn’t it?

Comments (43)

One, here’s Testy Tom speaking candidly to Barbara Yaffe – who, BTW Tom, works for a newspaper and will quote you and all that: “There’s nothing I find more galling than to have the fact of being from Quebec used as a wedge issue, saying: The guy is from Quebec, he cannot lead a national party,” he said. “We’ve come full circle from the time it was seen as an advantage to the time it’s used as a slur against you.”

Two, here’s what the black-hearted CRG elf lords will turn that beaut into, in just a few months from now: “NDP LEADER [OR DEPUTY LEADER] SAYS HIS OWN PARTY IS AGAINST QUEBEC.”

And, three, here’s my suggested slogan about this guy, gratis: “Thomas Mulcair – once an idiot, still an idiot.”

Comments (6)