That story you heard about the four goofs on Fox News -- each one of whom is about as funny as a instructional video on how to clean a clarinet -- mocking the Canadian Forces, should be water off a duck's back. Sure, it's infuriating on some level, but you should take comfort knowing that, whatever Americans say about our military, at least our banks aren't a joke.
(Incidentally, think it's really host Greg Gutfeld on Twitter? "My apologies to the Canadian military, they probably could at least beat the Belgians."
Anyway, Doug Benson, the goof who says, "I didn't even know they were in the war ... I thought that was where you went if you didn't want to fight," is due to perform in Edmonton next week, April 2-5, according to his MySpace page (over age 16, and he has a MySpace page?). Thankfully for him, there are no military personnel based near Edmonton.
It seems best to invoke the Haisuk rule, even speaking as the grandson of a World War II veteran. Don't get riled up and run the risk of legitimizing some twitbag without working the Google on the Internet machine for 10-15 minutes and finding out where they're coming from.The one twit, Bill Schulz, going by his MySpace, thinks it's the height of hilarity to list his occupation as "registered sex offender." He would probably say, "where's your sense of humour?", the usual reflex of promoters of self (et tu, Sagert?) who bring little to the table beyond a boundless ego. However, if that's what you think is funny and cheeky, where is your sense of humour, sir?
Point being, Schulz and the host, Greg Gutfeld, are former editors at Stuff and Maxim magazines. (One wonders how that can be justified when Fox News is so closely allied with the Republican Party and its family-values agenda, but bear in mind, some people are conservative just because they want taxes cut, criminals brutalized, and be ruled like a king by someone who is part Santa Claus, part Genghis Khan.)
That's not meant to dismiss people's opinions out of hand based on where they work, since regular readers know where I work.
However, you should take solace in knowing there is no virtue in being the idiot with the shrillest opinion in the room, even if in weak moments, you wonder that the real dopes are the ones who bother trying to have the most considered opinions. That's how you end up with that walking advertisement for Queen's University, Ashleigh Banfield, getting paid, and paid well, to advance the numbbrained argument that teenagers should be charged with felonies for sending lurid text messages ("sexting," as it's known in the buzzword-obsessed media). Well done, Ms. Banfield. You're aware, no doubt, that efforts to legislate moral behaviour have almost never worked in North America.
Ultimately, the beauty of this age is there are so entertainment options that you can safely ignore the ones who nothing to contribute. That would seems to apply to those who appear on Fox News at 3 in the morning, when God knows who's watching (since the stoners who are usually up at that hour are probably all in jail, thanks to the War on Drugs).
The only nauseating aspect is seeng that Americans have this notion of Canada as a bunch of namby-pambies. That might speaks to how we teach high school history in this country. People come though our education system not knowing what we've done in wars and thinking all we've ever done is play peacekeeper.
For anyone from the States reading this, it is cold, hard fact that Canada entered both world wars before the U.S. and suffered more casualties on a per-capita basis. We didn't join in Vietnam or the Iraq conquest because those countries were no threat to us or you for that matter (several Canadians, as individuals, fought in Vietnam). To Canadians, remember, water off a duck's back.
The universe tends to unfold exactly as it should. This too shall pass and in time, hopefully so will Fox News' chances at relevance. Meantime, do what you will with Greg Gutfeld's Wiki.
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