Join a church, the Lions, the Knights of Columbus, boyscouts, -whatever. If your life up to now is shaping up so that your only legacy is an obituary that says "all he/she ever did was turn food into shit" move to North Korea. They need more shit.
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So I'm out on the back deck behind my little country house today enjoying a cup of coffee when the original version of 'Signs' by the 5 Man Electrical Band comes on the radio. I start singing along.
I've always enjoyed that song.
Until I got to the line about the sign to keep trespassers out, and "Man, you're some kind of sinner." I thought about scraping up the down payment to buy my 3.9 acres of country-side, going deeply into debt to build the house, and the years of hard work I put in to afford it. Then I thought of myriads of random strangers walking through, squatting, eating my wildberries and (inevitably) leaving their garbage littered all over the property.
And I thought, "Damned right, you fuckin hippies."
The actual issue is an attempt to make viewers pay for something that they've never had to pay for before. Local TV signals.
As broadcasters catch up with digital and high-definition technologies, the old style analog television transmissions will disappear.
The current campaign by Canadian television broadcasters asking viewers to demand the CRTC force Satellite and Cable Companies to pay for local stations' content is pure misdirection. The Broadcasters would have you believe that the issue is fairness; a need to make the cable companies pay for the use of the local stations they carry.
Bullshit. That's just a strawman.
First off, Despite their protestations to the contrary, if the broadcasters succeed in forcing the cable and Satellite providers to pay for the use of local stations, the costs will be passed directly to the consumers.
Secondly, the Parent companies of the local tv stations, companies like like Canwest Global and Quebecor, own a significant portion of the Cable and Satellite Providers own part of or in some cases all of the specialty channels that consumers are paying the cable companies to access. Asking consumers to pay again is almost like asking them to pay twice for the same damn thing.
Third, the cable and satellite companies include the local tv stations in the basic access packages they force every customer to buy before we can get access to the specialty channels we REALLY want to watch. I suspect that were some of the local stations to go under, the basic packages would remain largely unchanged, just carrying more of the alphabet networks' different regional feeds.
It's a changing marketplace. If local tv stations and their parent companies can't keep up and adjust to the new technologies, it's not fair to have the government (in the guise of new CRTC regulation) force consumers to keep the dinosaurs alive.
As a consumer, I gave up on local TV over a decade ago. There are perhaps twelve specialty channels I wanted when I ordered my satellite TV system. But I am forced to pay for hundreds of signals I NEVER WATCH in order the get the few I am interested in. Were the satellite and Cable companies serious about providing content choice they'd let us order the specific specialty channels we want to see.
The last thing I need is another bullshit charge added to my bill.
Many people have commented on the oh-so-ludicrous Barrack Obama "Ruin the Economy" spending bill. It's my own opinion that Barrack, a self-confessed Marxist, intends to use the impending fiscal crisis, which he helped create, to transform the greatest free market economy in the world into a marxist-style command economy. Yes, I know, every nation that has tried marxism has failed miserably, spreading misery, corruption, and destitution far and wide. Someone should tell Barry.
Please note that I also said 'impending crisis'. If you think we're already in the crisis, you ain't seen nuthin yet. The Obama must first discredit the current system, thus his plan to create an even bigger Fiscal Crisis than we're currently looking at. The biggist spending bill in American history, Obama's stimulus bill is 93% pork and only 7% stimulus. That's right, only seven percent. This is more money than any country has ever borrowed before, yet his worship the President says it's NECESSARY, and has been pushing for it's quick passage in order to prevent detailed critical review.
Sadly, Pork-barrel politics as usual reigns in Washington and the politicos don't see the landmine they're so happily stepping on.
The only hope for America is a taxpayers revolt, I think. Will it happen? CNN reports that the phone lines to the Capitol are jammed with voters calling in to complain.
