I have been holding off posting these past few days because I wanted to announce that the book (Our Life Off the Grid) had been published but – as of this writing – it is still a few days away.  Our part is done but it is stuck in the Amazon pipeline.  They figure to have it up before the end of the week.  E-books on Kindle and Smashwords are available now. 

http://www.amazon.com/Our-Life-Off-Grid-Couple/dp/0994014503

So, apologies for the delay in the special announcement.  Instead, we will resume our regular programming always in progress.  Back to RANTS by DAVID.  Lucky you.

Advertising on TV is expensive and it gets more expensive as the networks rank the popularity of their shows.  Famously, the most expensive ads are Superbowl ads and, of course, the most popular sitcoms Like the Big Bang Theory rank right up there.  Ads for prime-time TV run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for 15 seconds of exposure time. Typically, the companies with the greatest profit margins or largest market share take the most expensive slots and produce the most expensive ads.  Think: Coke, MacDonalds, Nissan, Ford, Tylenol, Charmin’ toilet paper and panty-liners.

Imagine my surprise to find that the greatest amount of expensive ad time lately is Canadian government sponsored propaganda.  I counted three out of four ads during a BIG Bang episode that boosted Confederation with John A MacDonald, Oil Pipelines as environmental stewards and a loan program for students to learn welding.  In a rub-it-in-your-face twist, the fourth ad was a repeat of the Confederation with John A. MacDonald ad.

The ad for John A. is blatant propaganda and even features a goal being scored by the Canadians at a World Cup event implying that the fathers of Confederation invented hockey or, at the very least, were in favour of it.  And we should all be proud.

Prior to that we were exposed to ads extolling the virtues and bravery of those who fought in the war of 1812.  That’s right, folks, stand up and be proud of your ancestors who fought the Americans two hundred years ago!  Before that we spent millions celebrating the ill-fated Franklin Expedition that saw dozens starve and freeze to death in the North.  For little or no reason.

How is it that a country that is dropping the ball on taking care of veterans, cutting back on health care and shorting education (except where they offer loans to young people) has millions if not billions to spend celebrating crap by advertising on the National Football League semi-finals?

Yesterdays NFL semi-finals were brought to you in large part by the Canadian government!

We shake our heads at the lies and propaganda of North Korea that deceive their people. We are alarmed at the lies and propaganda of the Chinese government that prohibit truth in the news and misinform the people.  We wonder at the mindless boosterism of the Americans and their false history movies, black flag ops, yellow ribbons, flags-on-porches and love-it-or-leave it slogans.  And we can only imagine the lies of Putin and African dictators as they lie to, rob and enslave their people.

But Harper is doing the same.  More subtly, I guess, but still pretty blatantly as far as I am concerned.  But subtle or blatant doesn’t matter.  Why is a government (a monopoly) spending our tax money to promote a distorted version of history massaged to look heroic?  Why are we being inundated with silly images of John A. MacDonald?  Does anyone in Canada want or even appreciate actors dressed in costume re-enacting some kind of perverted version of history?

When you combine the mis-telling of the lone nut-case shooting in Ottawa, the glorification of largely irrelevant history and the lies and obfuscations that passes for debate in parliament, when you add in the constant drum-beat for more police and security measures together with restricted freedoms and invasion of privacy and when you consider the abuses of power by big corporations, government and our very own police force, you have no choice but to compare all that to other dictatorial and corrupt governments throughout history and around the world.

And the comparison is getting way too similar.  It’s frightening.