Excited Delirium

Stories about Excited Delirium, the Shock Economy and a little fiction here and there.

Daily Archives: December 28, 2008

CBC To Be Cut By $200 Million?

We know the Harpercrites hate the public and we know they hate public broadcasting even more.  Maybe it was Peter Mansbridge and his ‘daring’ questioning of our repugnant leader just a few weeks ago.

"Is a coalition really such a bad thing?"

"Die Peter, Die".  (Could it be that he really meant to say "The Peter, The"?).

Anyways, this broadcast spells out that the CBC is likely to lose $200 million in funding from the federal government. This kind of a cut would sabotage the effectiveness and ability of the CBC to properly and professionally report on activities in Canada and abroad.

The shame is beyond belief, despite the fact that I haven’t been a great friend of the CBC lately.  Of course, the lack of desire of the CBC to show some strength has been severely hampered by the constant threats and it’s likely that they’ll all continue to cower in fear that the rumours come to light.

As Canadians, we need to continue to steel ourselves to the resolve to boycott all other media sources, including CTV (Conservative TeleVision) or ConWest and throw as much support as we can behind the CBC, given that it at least gives a minor semblance of public fairness in reporting and media coverage.

And don’t forget to write your opposition MPs.  Don’t bother with the Cons:  they could care less about what you think.

P.S.  Don’t forget that if the Cons ever got a majority, the CBC would be vaporized, amongst a broad swath of a number of other Canadian institutions.

Al Qaeda joins ranks of Peter Pan, Zeus

According to this official , there is no Al Qaeda.  The truth about the war on terror becomes more obvious:  identify who benefits and you identify who causes / caused the problems.

"The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the TV watcher to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US." Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook

For nearly a decade now, we’ve eliminated a substantial swath of social programs that would make Canada a better country so that we could ‘invest’ in the defense industry to the tune of $500 billion, using terrorism as an excuse.

This is clearly a mistake.

Happy New Year: Top 25 Censored Stories in 2009

Tis the time of Janus, where we look forward to 2009 and back to 2008 at the same time.  What have we learned?  Are we making progress or are we stuck in the mud?

Project Censored has released its list of top censored stories in 2008 and 2009 and, with the power of the web, they’ll cease to be as ‘private’ as the mainstream media intended.

Here’s the full list for your enjoyment (with apologies to Project Censored, I’ve re-pasted the links below, just in case the lead story experiences a page change):

What are your favourite under-reported stories for Canada in 2008 and what do you think they will be in 2009?  My suggestions include the following:

  1. The Cadman Affair.  What does Stephen Harper know about this?
  2. The Coalition:  Which unelected coalition will Canadians be forced to choose?
  3. Afghanistan:  end date = when?
  4. Canadian Unions Forced to take a back seat to bailouts
  5. HPV and the impact on young women
  6. Vaccines and the impact on all young children
  7. Nuclear power lobbying:  when will it end and when will we be able to move on to viable renewables?
  8. The NDP-Green coalition:  Canada’s future in the making
  9. Canada’s Trade Deal with Colombia
  10. From SPP to North American Union:  Canada’s efforts to harmonize currencies
  11. Tar Sands:  How much gain for how much pain to Canadians?

Please post your suggestions below and we’ll do our best to keep track of them during the year.

You Can’t Fight the Tsunami of Structural Change

Structural change is upon us.  Our leaders can’t fight it.  As they embarass themselves with bailout after bailout, they fail to stop and look at what’s happening around them.

Structural change is an inherent decrease in demand for stuff we don’t want.  In fact, we don’t even think we need it any more, mainly because the tools of demand generation (mainstream publishers and marketing agencies) are failing to connect with the average user or ‘consumer’.

This article points to some clues that retail sales are going to continue to plunge.  In December through to Christmas Eve, retail sales fell 8% from the previous month. Continue reading →