Red Green

For those of you who don't know, Red Green was one of the funniest shows to ever grace our TV screens. Steve Smith conjured up a character who transcended all that we are in society. And he did it by bringing all of today's issues down to a level that even the most uneducated among us could understand. Somehow he found a way to interweave major issues of the day into a humourous, enlightening half hour. You couldn't take anything he said seriously, but the underlying current was always there.

The show ran for some 15 years, I believe, and even the reruns are hilarious. Starting off small in Canada, he sold the show to some PBS stations in the States where they attracted a cult like following. CBC finally wised up and started showing his program again, but they are all reruns. If you want to see the episodes that haven't aired in Canada yet, you have to watch PBS.

Perhaps his greatest character was Hap Shaunessy, played by Gordon Pinsent. With a straight forward delivery and a stoic poker face, Hap would spin the most outrageous lies ever heard by man. Or woman for that matter. Everyone knew he was bullshitting them and called his bluff time after time. But Hap kept the tales coming and kept believing what he was saying.

Much like Liberals when they say they'll cut your taxes and then raise them in the same breath. Here in Canada, we have Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario, who delisted chiropractic and optometry services from our health care plan. In an ever aging population, this is critical. Now the pensioners, who need those services and relied on our OHIP plan to cover them, have to pay for them out of pocket. Here's your choice: pay for food and rent or pay for a new set of bifocals. Then Mr. McGuinty slaps a 'health care surcharge' on us. This is Liberal speak for 'new tax'. So, we pay more and get less. Great plan.

Over in the States, well you have to put up with guys like Gore and Kerry. Over in Michigan, incumbent Jennifer Granholm is leading the polls over Dick De Vos in the gubernatorial race. She's Dem, he's Rep, never the twain shall meet, but based on her abysmal record so far, I have to wonder why she's ahead?

Democrats, Liberals, they're all cut from the same cloth. I thought the older you got the wiser you got. Didn't we all embrace the liberal philosophy at one time in our lives? Thank God I at least got smarter as I got older. What happened to the rest of you? Still stuck in the 'Make Love, Not War' days of the sixties? Hey people, Woodstock is over. And guess what? All those 'groovy' bands you listened to back then, extolling the virtues of not trusting anyone over thirty, did the Republican thing and made a ton of money selling you their records.

They're all retired now, living off royalties. And you're still schlepping the brown bag to work. Just because you live in a democracy doesn't mean you have to subscribe to the Democratic line.

If you really think about it, you may just learn something.