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Archive for June 15th, 2008
By John W Lillpop Apparently the sticky problems confronting our nation, including wars in two foreign nations, the very real threat of terrorism, gasoline near $5 a gallon, rising inflation and unemployment, spiraling health care costs, record federal deficits, old, declining infrastructure, and massive illegal immigration from the third-world, are not enough to keep Washington bureaucrats busy. How else to explain the fact that, as of February 17, 2009, the federal government has mandated that all analog television broadcasting is to be discontinued and replaced by digital vibes? Thanks to the Digital Television Transition And Public Safety Act of 2005 (the Act) signed into law by President Bush on February 8, 2006, that 1986 Zenith console sitting in my living room will officially die at midnight on February 16, 2009. On that sorrowful date, my 30″ Zenith will pay for the sin of being analog in the digital age. It’s sort of like being a Smith-Corona electric typewriter in the era of word processors, e-mail, text messaging and all of the other modern means of communication that no longer require carbon paper or white out. OK, I freely admit that analog is old school, but so what? I happen to like old school, and find it infuriating when any government entity chokes off my freedom to choose whatever suits my fancy! Besides, where in the US Constitution are the president and the US Congress empowered to force me to watch one type of television over another? Why is that any of the government’s damned business? Propaganda geeks in the FCC and other worthless federal departments claim that digital will dramatically improve the picture and sound of America’s television viewing. A multitude of new channels will be avaiable, so they say. That, in my opinion, is one damn pathetic excuse for allowing the federal government to stick its ugly nose and mitts into my affairs. In fact, given the utterly worthless garbage that is broadcast these days, the FCC should be doing everything in it’s power to make television viewing less attractive and less frequent! That would be the compassionate thing to do for a generation of TV-addicted chowder heads that, because of television and overly potent Marijuana, are unable to read their high school diplomas, eviction notices, or bankruptcy papers. To add insult to stupidity, the government has established the Digital-to-Analog Converter Box Coupon Program, which is bureaucratic double-speak for a giveaway program for blokes unable to afford the converter box that will be needed to tap into the digital version of America’s vast wasteland on February 17. And so it is that your government will add another couple of billion dollars to the huge tab already awaiting your grandchildren and their grandchildren.
By John W. Lillpop Tim Russert was a great American, a man loved by nearly everyone regardless of political affiliation or ideology. Besides being an affable, likable fellow, Tim was the consummate professional at a time when reporters and journalists are held in approximately the same public esteem as used car salesmen and politicians. Tim Russert’s integrity, truthfulness, and objectivity were never in question, so untarnished were his credentials and reputation. However, since Russert’s sudden death last Friday, America’s television industry has inundated the airwaves with non-stop analysis and tributes, over and over again, to such excess that Russert himself would be annoyed. Breaking news: Despite television reports to the contrary, Tim Russert was mortal. Although he expired on a Friday, no one expects that Russert will be lifted up into the heavens this Sunday morning, or on any other Sunday morning in the near future. Tim Russert deserves to rest in peace. His surviving loved ones deserve to mourn his passing in quiet dignity. The American people must remain strong and know that the elections are still on for November 4, and that we can and will hold important elections, even without Tim.
Until now, presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama has come across as a bit of a wuss, a bloke without the cojones that any American president must have to gain and maintain the upper hand against blood thirsty terrorists and brutal dictators. Obama’s anti-war extremism and willingness to meet unconditionally with Islamofacists like Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have contributed heavily to his profile as a pacifist wuss. Democrat advisers know that the American people are tired of war, but they also know that the presidency bestows the title of commander-in-chief, not appeaser in chief, to the top dog in the White House. It now appears as though Obama is starting to get tough, at least with American citizens known as Republicans. Speaking at a fund-raiser in Philadelphia, Obama issued the following challenge: “If they (Republicans) bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said, according to pool reports. and “We don’t have a choice but to win.” http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2008/06/14/obama-no-surrender-if-they-bring-a-knife-to-the-fight-we-bring-a-gun/ Roughly translated, that is the tough-guy equivalent of “Bring them on!” once uttered by George W. Bush in reference to Jihadists in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, Obama’s violent rhetoric was against American citizens, not foreign terrorists. Like it or not, Obama, there are tens of millions of Americans who oppose you and your candidacy, and there are many political operatives who will do nearly anything to defeat you and your party. Nonetheless, threatening violence against those who oppose you politically is NOT the American way, and is otherwise unacceptable. By the way, senator, whatever happened to the Audacity of Hope? Been replaced by the audacity of a gun, has it? |
