Posted on 01/12/2009 5:35:35 AM PST by shortstop
We’re pathetic.
As a nation, taken together, we are the biggest collection of spoiled, helpless pansies the world has ever known.
The converter boxes prove it.
You know what I’m talking about. For a year they’ve been pounding it into our heads.
Seriously, if you beamed down here from another planet, and based your assessment of what mattered most on what you heard the most about, it would be converter boxes. There have been countless mentions, countless little crawls across the bottom of the television screen, countless panels of “experts” waiting to answer your questions.
The background is that the federal government saw a chance to make billions of dollars by auctioning off the wavelengths currently used by TV stations. To do that, it had to move TV somewhere else. That’s when this digital thing came up. Instead of using time-tested analog technology, the government ordered a switchover to newer digital technology.
Which basically means that a signal that’s twice as good is going to be broadcast half as far.
It also means that, if you use an antenna for TV, and don’t have a brand-new TV with a built-in converter, then you need to get a converter box to plug into your TV.
Again, this is all happening because the government wanted to resell the frequencies it had already sold to the TV stations.
Apparently, somebody’s afraid that if the TV goes blank in all the welfare households across America that there’s going to be rioting. So the federal government decided to take money out of your paycheck and give it out -- $40 at a time – in vouchers so that people can buy converter boxes.
Of course, you probably think people should pay for their own darn TV. You probably think that if somebody wants to watch TV, that they ought to be responsible for it themselves. You probably don’t think that there is a right to television, that people aren’t entitled to watch Oprah and Judge Raul, that it is wrong to take one family’s money to provide another family’s entertainment.
You think that because you are a hater.
And when President Obama gets sworn in, your property will be seized for distribution to the poor, and you will be sent to a re-education camp – if you’re not just lined up and shot in the streets with the Republicans.
But this is about pansies.
Over the course of a year, people have been clubbed about the head and shoulders with incessant “public-service announcements” about the need to have a converter by February 17 – when the Mayan calendar says we will all be destroyed by a meteorite. Nevertheless, a certain percentage of the population has just awakened to the fact that something is going to happen to the TV and somehow The Man is trying to screw them up and, as the disadvantaged underclass, they’ve started squawking.
It’s kind of like Katrina people in FEMA trailers.
Television reporters have looked hard to find people so stupid and entitled as to have missed the whole thing and are up in arms over the federal government’s failure to meet their needs.
That evil Bush.
At any rate, Barack Obama is involved now and says that the changeover from analog to digital must be delayed because people haven’t had time to get ready.
I presume that by “people” he means “really, really, really stupid people.”
Some of whom are crying that there aren’t any more $40 vouchers for them. Again, that’s because they are oppressed by people who graduated from high school and drive SUVs.
So Obama wants a delay.
Of course, that would mean that the wavelengths the government sold for billions won’t be available for their purchasers when promised. But who cares about business and commerce – in this vibrant economy, we’ve got all the prosperity we need.
But about these vouchers.
Through careful use of a highly technical, cutting-edge cyber tool known to science as “Google,” I was able to find out that there are 1.1 million people with their hand out demanding a government voucher for their converter box. They are the ones the new president wants to protect.
Let’s see. With a national population of more than 300 million people, it works out that about one-third of 1 percent of the population wants a voucher – and we’re screwing up the entire changeover in order to accommodate them.
Also from the Google info bag comes the information that the government has already sent out 40 million voucher coupons – each valued at $40. Do the math on that.
But not before you consider this: How many households are there in the United States that use an antenna to get TV? Because, after all, that’s who’s involved here, right? The rest of us – those with new TVs or cable or satellite or the good sense not to watch television – aren’t affected at all.
It’s just people with rabbit ears or antennas.
And how many of those are there?
The answer: 7.7 million.
Now let’s review.
There are 7.7 million households that use antennas – meaning they might need a converter box. The federal government has sent out 40 million $40 vouchers for converter boxes.
And Barack wants to delay the changeover because 1.1 million more want vouchers.
Random question: I wonder how many million black-market vouchers and converter boxes we could find on eBay and Craigs List?
We have become a nation of handout pansies whose one-word vocabulary – “Gimme!” – is repeated endlessly. The converter box is just the latest example.
For the record: I use satellite. And I pay for it myself. And I’ve got too much self-respect and pride to take a voucher for anything.
Yep. I have a couple of them here, too.
:-(
This bozo thinks that people never use their TV if the cable goes out?
It will be delayed. The towns along the Mexican border is complaining that telemundo will go away. I suspect a large portion of converters and assistance has gone to Mexico.
is=are
Anybody who is too stupid to have this scoped out already shouldn’t be watching television anyway - they can’t afford the 15-point IQ drop.
No, I don't think that is it at all. I think the gov't is worried that the welfare households will not get their daily leftist news spin from ABC/CBS/NBC. How will they be able to form an opinion without these great newsworthy channels?
The going rate for a converter voucher is five dollars and a
ham sandwich.The same for a vote on election day.
And, now it can't be made painful either.
Which basically means that a signal that’s twice as good is going to be broadcast half as far.
He could have made the essential points of the article without engaging in Luddite fear-mongering. "Half as far?" Bull. Any fool would realize that stations wouldn't stand for a 75% cut in their coverage area, except, apparently, this author.
And "time-tested analog?" ROTFL! The guy apparently wants us to stick with technology that's backwards-compatible to 1941! What a joke!
Most people just wait a few minutes until the cable comes back on.
Have one of your party guests bring their converter box.
I’ll betcha that most of the folks demanding govt help on converter boxes will hook it up to a 42” (or larger) flat screen tv.
Best thing that could happen would be to not have tv (at least the MSM networks) at all.
‘Twould raise the national IQ - a lot.
They will just go to the default setting, voting for the 'Rat.
The gov’t should be providing free 42” TVs with digital tuning if they want us to watch that Kr@|).
Some folks were "stupid" enough to follow the sound advice of waiting until the first models' bugs were worked out.
Yes, most do. I suppose most people live in those scumpits known as cities. :-)
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