Don’t Take My TV!!!

Have we really sunk to the place where TV is a “Right” and not a “Choice”?

I have been watching the commercials about the digital transition that the government is completing next month. The commercials alerting the huddled masses of this fact offer a coupon for a converter box to anyone who needs one. My wife and I keep asking ourselves, “Is this really a needed program”?

Some Americans have been trained to automatically ask for a handout instead of a hand-up. If we had less TV and replaced it with other activities – family and friend time, conversing with others and gasp…reading, we wouldn’t need to subsidize TV viewing. To me, this is un-American to expect the government to make sure you don’t miss American Idol. Don’t get me wrong, I watch TV from time to time, but I’m not asking for the government to pay for a converter box.

Don’t fear though, the Messiah is talking about possibly extending the deadline until this summer. I suppose that two years is not enough time for the unwashed (and I mean unwashed) of us to plan ahead. I suppose that this would entail prying the backside off of the couch to go and get the converter box…way too much to ask. Might miss something on TV.

Of course, that is just my opinion.

Rob’s Rant

http://www.dtv.gov/

Show Me The Money…

It seems that history repeats itself. Former President Bush decided to do a “Stimulus” bill last year to actually give money to people. A frickin‘ check. His hope was that people would actually go out and buy stuff to stimulate the economy. Problem was that they already went out and spent that money and needed to pay their credit card bills with that welfare check.

Now President Obama, in order to “Stimulate” the economy, has proposed his own $825 Billion Stimulus Bill (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009). Mr. Obama, this is a futile exercise that will further deepen our debt and pull us further into a recession. I believe these type of massive government programs were tried by President Roosevelt (and prolonged the Depression).

The House of Rep. just passed the latest bill, fortunately without any Republican support. If the GOP has any intentions of electing a Republican in 2012, these wimps in Congress must stand up for their core conservative values – even if it won’t make any difference. We’re all watching you clowns.

Unfortunately, Obama has the votes to push most everything through both houses of Congress so he can get whatever he wants with little or no opposition.

This bill includes a massive amount of spending, including:

600 million – Buy new government cars
7 Billion – Modernize government buildings
400 million – Global warming research
1 Billion – Amtrak
50 Million – NEA Funding
2.4 Billion – Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects
650 Million – Digital TV Conversion Coupons (that’s more)

And so on, and so on….

What does all of this have to do with stimulus? I’m puzzled also. Here’s an idea, how about cutting taxes across the board (a good idea would be to nix the IRS and institute a Fair-Tax, but that’s a pipe dream). This would actually give us our money to us from the start. Just the mention of something like this would be HUGE. I suppose I’m in a pipe dream…

Of course, this is just my opinion.

Rob’s Rant

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310466514522309.html

If Green is In, I’m Out

I’m all for conservation. Conserving our parks, making sure we have clean water, reducing pollution – those things are great. I think most rational people agree with my sentiment.

What I am really getting tired of is seeing, hearing and reading about all this “Green” stuff. I’m the type of person who goes the other direction of someone is doing something or suggesting that I do something. If going “Green” means that it will inconvenience me or cost me more money, I’m out.

I don’t buy into all the Global Warming hysteria. There is no credible evidence that Man and our technology has affected the temperature of the planet (minus of course all the sanctimonius Hollywood stars touting the genius of Algore). Many climatologists are actually talking about Global Cooling. Actually, back in the 70’s, this was the hip term. (See Newsweek article from 1974 – http://denisdutton.com/newsweek_coolingworld.pdf). A great history of the warming and cooling from the Business and Media Institute (http://www.businessandmedia.org/specialreports/2006/fireandice/FireandIce.pdf).

Bottom line is that we are very arrogant if we believe we can actually affect the temperature of the planet. This stuff is cyclical. Considering that we are freezing in 10 inches of snow here in the Midwest, a little global warming would be appreciated.

Get the facts and stop bothering me about going Green.

Of course, this is just my opinion.

Rob’s Rant

I Just Love Blago!

How could you not love Blago? He gives so much joy to so many. With his references to strange poems or a crazy western, there is never a dull moment. Considering Oprah for Senate is really the icing on the cake.

I really love the fact that he is starting to mention all kinds of people in his press conferences. Jesse Jackson, Jr, Rahm Emanual, John McCain…man…he’s going for the Gold. And why not, what does he have to loose?

I’ll have to admit, I’m loving watching everything unfold. Even though this is a disgrace to my home state of Illinois, it really shows the vast corruption in Chicago (us downstaters call it the State of Chicago). I’m hoping for a special Governor wing at Menard State Prison – or maybe Joliet! Chicago Rod and Springfield George. Not the same ring as Joliet Jake, but it will do.

My only question is….who is going to play Blago in the After School Special? Maybe we could dress up a female army drill sergeant to play his wife. No need to parse the typical drill Sergeant language here for Mrs. Blago. In fact, I’ll bet she could cuss rings around them.

Of course, this is just my opinion.

Rob’s Rant

One Day to Go – The Messiah is Coming to Town!

The Messiah is on his way to Washington and President Bush will soon be on his way back to Texas. Soon, everything will be wonderful in the world with no more problems. We’ll all have more than enough money to pay our bills, the financial market will get better and that pesky war over in Iraq will soon end due to the Messiah’s intervention. At least that is what will be reported by the main stream news media.

Watch the news reports over the next couple of months and contrast them to those that transpired at the beginning of Bush’s first term. A great example of what will be to come is the coverage of the Inaugural expenses proposed by President-Elect Obama. It seems that just four short years ago the 40+ Million spent by President Bush was so extravagant that newspapers and other “journalists” made comparisons to what that money could buy to make things better for the troops, the homeless, etc. No such stories this time, even though the price tag is estimated to be 4x the 2004 Inauguration.

My initial thought is, do we really need any of this expense – especially if the taxpayers are footing the bill. I don’t care who the President is, this is frivolous spending in a time that the US is in a dire financial crisis. Obama could have really done good for himself by curtailing these expenses, but that’s really not in the cards. How about sponsors for everything?

This is yet another example of those in Washington really not getting it. Print more money and have a great party.

Of course, that’s just my opinion.

Rob’s Rant

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Inauguration/story?id=6665946&page=1