A Fair and Balanced Look....

I just finished reading Al Franken's book: Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right. As I mentioned elsewhere, the problem with reading a book written by a satirist and a comedian is that you aren't always sure when the author is being serious and when he's having some fun. That and the fact that the book is definitely about the minutia of American political discourse (or what passes for discourse down there...).

However, there were many good lines and it was especially fun to try and apply them to Canada's current political situation. So, some tidbits:

1. Post-9/11 the balance between civil rights and national security became a wee bit more tenuous. Examples were given of the kinds of actions being contemplated or carried out in the name of national security. Those still advocating civil rights were called out by the US attorney general (Ashcroft) who said: "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists - for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies."

In Canada, Canadians who were asking for information about what happened to Afghan detainees a few years ago were accused of "standing with the Terrorists" and, more recently, privacy advocates have been accused of "standing with the pornographers".

2. The book did spend almost all of its words describing what the author feels were lies...egregious lies...made by members of the American Right. At the end of the last chapter, the author muses about whether the liars believe what they are saying or not. Although not certain about the answer to that question, the author does feel that the best action is to call such people on their dishonesty and eventually, their dishonesty will lose its effectiveness. Then, he says, "...[they] will have to resort to Plan B: name calling. Which, I think, will expose them for what they are. Stupid bastards."

No, the author doesn't hold back much. In Canada, of course, we've experienced, over the past few years, the spectacle of ordinary Canadians who don't agree with the government being called terrorists, child pornographers, Hitler, radical extremists, environmental extremists.... You get the picture.

So when our Dear Leader says that in four years you won't recognize Canada, and you wonder what he might be talking about, maybe have a read of this book to see what our future might be.

For those of you who still see the service of your country as a higher calling, there was one quote just for you:

"Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives. It's about advancing the cause of peace and justice in our country and in our world. Politics is about doing well for people."

'Nuff said.