Hey Ma, I'm on TV

Just hold on their goober. Just because you’re running behind the reporter while they are trying to do a stand up report about the triple homicide that happened next door to your double wide trailer in that meth lab, your dear old mom might not be able to see you. Do you know what yesterday was supposed to be?

The official date that television in the US was supposed to switch from a hybrid of analog and digital to 100% digital. This would have resulted in stations on your TV going dark (well actually “snow”) if you didn’t have cable, satellite, or one of those converter boxes. All this means that your dear old mum might not have seen her idiot, tattooed spawn running back and forth in the background.

All this was....before our heroes the Federal Government stepped in and delayed the official switch date about 5 months (until June). But that’s only part of the story. It seems that in many markets your favorite stations have been broadcasting in both digital and analog for some time now so that you can enjoy Simon Cowel’s nose in both high-definition digital or lower quality, standard-definition analog. Now those stations, who are loosing money hand over fist in disappearing ad revenue, are looking to save some money by cutting off their analog feed ahead of the Government-mandated deadline pending FCC. So this means that your goober son many only be broadcast out in HD which means that you may not see him.

Here’s my take on the situation: GOOD! Besides the obvious fact that your idiot child doesn’t deserve to still be breathing, you don’t deserve to see him there. How can you not have heard about this conversion...it’s been advertised to the point of nasuem. Is your TV blank/static-y well go out and get a converter or better sign up for Direct TV (you get $50 and I get $50). We need to start trusting the American people are not quite as stupid as the governor of Alaska and are capable of making a decision between watching television and not watching it.

But wait, weren’t those converter boxes expensive? They might be but the Government gave out $40 coupons to help defray the cost. The catch? The idiots who ran the program for these coupons (who may be the same people running behind the live shot at the beginning of this post) didn’t bother to “qualify” people to receive the coupons, but rather sent them out indiscriminately. Did anybody bother to have the people who wanted coupons answer this question: “Do you currently have cable or satellite TV service in your home?” At last check it was not a guaranteed right in the Constitution that every TV in every household be able to receive a signal. You might not like it but you can live for a few months (until more coupons/converters become available) you can watch on one set in your house (if you don’t have alternate sources of video). This way everybody who needs a converter box can get one.

My 2 cents.