What's wrong with this picture?
Let me give you a hint. It is presented in a digital hi-definition format, and will be coming into your homes sometime in 2009.
An article that appeared last week in a Dubai newspaper, (exhausted no doubt by all the hubbub surrounding the reloaction of the Haliburton Corp to that part of the world), reported on a plan, apparently settled and agreed upon by the US Congress, to subsidize, to the tune of 1.5 billion US dollars, the acquisition of set-top boxes to convert the mandated digital broadcast signals of your local TV station to a form that your current (spell that O B S O L E T E) television can recognize.
Thank God that the government is stepping up to forestall the tragic loss of Gomer Pyle, the Beverly Hillbillies, Oprah and Jerry Springer in our lives. Where I ask, would we be without the Congress to look out for us.
I will be quick in noting that the 1.5 billion dollars is approximately equal to the amount cut from education fundng by the current despot, but now that I think of it, it is probably for the best, as people who cannot read need TV to supply the necessary input, so they can make important decisions, like, should we re-elect the guy who got us this dandy digital TV box?
The point that I am making here is that all the gridlock and acrimony that we see is to a significant extent, simply veneer; something akin to the violence one see's on WWF Wresting. Both parties serve the same master, what happens to us is simply a collateral effect, where the crumbs fall and from what end of the loaf are they cut. I am not saying that the will of the voters doesn't matter, but the impact of voter anger is minimal, and for entertainment value as much as anything. If we were to throw the entire government out on its as--, eh, ear, we would see some high quality preening by the new government prior to settling back into the same old routine.
On another related, but not really, note, the good people of Europe are enjoying the fruits of their endeavors in the consumer arena. Cleaner air? Nope. More equitable distribution of wealth? Naaaaaaaaaa. Better medical care? Fuggetaboutit. No friends, the European Union is fighting, tirelessly battling, on behalf of their constituents, to have songs purchased from iTunes to be playable on a wide variety of portable music players. Gaze upon this friends, and know that the standard for twenty-first century civilization has been struck. it is time that we all rise to this level of sophistication.
An article that appeared last week in a Dubai newspaper, (exhausted no doubt by all the hubbub surrounding the reloaction of the Haliburton Corp to that part of the world), reported on a plan, apparently settled and agreed upon by the US Congress, to subsidize, to the tune of 1.5 billion US dollars, the acquisition of set-top boxes to convert the mandated digital broadcast signals of your local TV station to a form that your current (spell that O B S O L E T E) television can recognize.
Thank God that the government is stepping up to forestall the tragic loss of Gomer Pyle, the Beverly Hillbillies, Oprah and Jerry Springer in our lives. Where I ask, would we be without the Congress to look out for us.
I will be quick in noting that the 1.5 billion dollars is approximately equal to the amount cut from education fundng by the current despot, but now that I think of it, it is probably for the best, as people who cannot read need TV to supply the necessary input, so they can make important decisions, like, should we re-elect the guy who got us this dandy digital TV box?
The point that I am making here is that all the gridlock and acrimony that we see is to a significant extent, simply veneer; something akin to the violence one see's on WWF Wresting. Both parties serve the same master, what happens to us is simply a collateral effect, where the crumbs fall and from what end of the loaf are they cut. I am not saying that the will of the voters doesn't matter, but the impact of voter anger is minimal, and for entertainment value as much as anything. If we were to throw the entire government out on its as--, eh, ear, we would see some high quality preening by the new government prior to settling back into the same old routine.
On another related, but not really, note, the good people of Europe are enjoying the fruits of their endeavors in the consumer arena. Cleaner air? Nope. More equitable distribution of wealth? Naaaaaaaaaa. Better medical care? Fuggetaboutit. No friends, the European Union is fighting, tirelessly battling, on behalf of their constituents, to have songs purchased from iTunes to be playable on a wide variety of portable music players. Gaze upon this friends, and know that the standard for twenty-first century civilization has been struck. it is time that we all rise to this level of sophistication.
posted by eccentric recluse at 7:56 PM
9 Comments:
You're really starting to bum me out. :(
Anne, I would never intentionally do such a thing! Let me know how I can improve on this...
E_R
Thank you, E_R. That's right nice of you. If you're ever in the Washington DC area, you could slap around some idiot politicians until they come to their senses. That might help. ;)
Hmmm, I detect a faint whiff of sarcasm at the end there...
I guess we can do witout universal health care, so long as we gots universal electronic pacification.
I think that you hit the nail on the head there Joey.....
there may be very little difference bhetween our various political parties, save for the special interest groups that they pander to, but they all have a vested interest in keeping the proletariat thinking along the correct lines.
I think that the apocolypse has come and gone, it just didn't get any network coverage, and what we have now is what is left over.
Just my $0.02...
E_R
Good post..
Just one point though. The gov-funded converters aren't to pacify constituents, individually. It's for the small, local, network affiliates and local advertising revenue. If the bulk of a city's population, not able/willing to buy new TVs or cable or satellite, can't see local advertisements.. the stations will lose a lot of ad-business.
That in itself is a form of pacification, and I stick to my story on the issue of a homogenously mal-informed society.
And as an aside, you watch, many of those subsidies, (which will be given in the form of purchasing cards) will go not to the lower income class, but to those who just want a giant Sony plasma set on their wall...
I suppose you could derive pacification out of it, if you really want to, because it's really just answering the cries from station owners and advertisers; not individuals and their votes. I don't think the average guy watching only broadcast TV knows much about it.. let alone lobbied for these things.
The guy with a several thousand dollar TV has either cable or satellite (or a TV not needing a converter).. so he's a non-factor.
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