Down to Nanaimo and back yesterday: 400 kilometers, 12 hours of shopping chores and travel in the heat of the day. I am not suited for that kind of crap anymore. Too old.

Age, eh?

Speaking of which: Jack Layton was buried yesterday. It was on the radio as we drove. It was on the TV screens at the places we stopped. I found it embarrassing.

I may have this all wrong so I apologize for any offense but I honestly don’t get it. JL was a fine fellow from all accounts – no quarrel with that. And I am sure that he deserved a decent burial and some public ceremony. Who am I to begrudge a public man his last farewell? But, honestly, a state funeral?

I think I am grossed out more than embarrassed. The CBC, in my opinion, exploited the grief of the family shamelessly. They Americanized the event complete with close ups of his wife’s face, spotlights on his coffin and over-the-top eulogies some of them delivered by certified imbeciles. The CBC did a Michael Jackson-type Special on Jack Layton. I half-expected Leonard Cohen to host.

Are we so hard up for cheap-to-produce news that our national broadcasting company has to sensationalize a family’s loss for ratings? It is an embarrassment for the CBC and I am grossed out. Makes my skin crawl.

When the CBC was simply boring and useless, I could just choose not to tune in. But, when it is the only ‘outside’ news readily available to me, I tend to expose myself to it’s toxic blandness more than any sane man should. And yesterday was just plain sickening.

Please don’t misunderstand me: it is to tasteless non-news puffed-up grotesquely that I object. When JL stepped down, it was news. When he died, it was also news – but it was only news for those who knew him personally. The funeral service was not news! This funeral service was turned into made-for-TV news by the CBC.

It is a sad statement but: it was only done because it was cheap-to-produce air-time.

Sadly, it reminded of the Vancouver hockey riots. That, too, was news on the scale of yet another nipple-revealing by a minor singer-celebrity. I.e. little to none. A hockey game riot! Puleez! It is just a bunch of spoiled-brat punks acting out their beer and testosterone. Period! And the CBC made a mountain out of assholes. You know why?

BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T HAVE TO LEAVE THE BUILDING!

That’s right – it was delivered hot and fresh and virtually free to their door! THEY REPORTED FROM THEIR WINDOWS! Given that they have no reporters nor any kind of reasonable operating budget, they could divert from the normal on-going, mind-numbing gibberish of their usual on-air non-personalities in order to bring us weeks of coverage of thugs burning cars. OMYGAWD!!

Olivia Layton wouldn’t have asked for what happened. No one would. She didn’t need full facial TV close-ups for long durations, she didn’t need Thompson Hall’s spotlights on the coffin. She sure as hell didn’t need Stephen Lewis prattling on and on as if auditioning for a role at Stratford. That ceremony was not only in bad taste, it was insensitive to the family, exploitative of the man, and sensationalized and embarrassingly self-serving by and for the CBC.

It was bad – maybe as bad as Justin Trudeau when PET died.

I sure hope Wayne Gretsky, Shania Twain and William Shatner outlive me. I can’t take any more of this drivel.