The Great Digital Television Conversion Consumer Heist

This may go down in history as one of the biggest con jobs swallowed hook, line and sinker by your United States Congress and fed to an unsuspecting public. The Digital Television conversion transition has lived up to my billing as being a scam, backed by sheer ignorance and blatant lying. And as is usually the case, the taxpaying citizens get the shaft and are left to pay the bill. This is just one more reason to oust every last politician in Washington, never to see such stupidity and crooked thievery again.

Just about one year ago, I told you that the DTV conversion and transition was a joke and a lie. I have listened to talk radio hosts rail about how people should just buy the converter box and stop being so cheap. I’ve read commentary about what a great thing this is and also those who didn’t think the taxpayers should be picking up the tab for all those converter boxes, etc., but nobody would tell the truth that soon millions of viewers would be left without television reception. Read more

$5 Per Gallon Gasoline! Reason: Endangered Species Act

That shouldn’t make a lick of sense unless of course scientists were to discover some rare and endangered species living deep beneath the earth where oil and natural gas reserves lie. But this is what has become of our beloved Endangered Species Act, a legal document devised in 1973 that was intended to help prevent the man-made destruction of animal and plant life.

Last year the Bush administration decided to list the polar bear as a species that is threatened – meaning that there is a possibility that if we don’t pay close attention to this animal, certain circumstances could put the bear in danger of going extinct. We don’t want that but was it necessary?

I guess it depends on whose science we opt to use and how much politicking comes into play. It appears that the Bush administration attempted to play politics instead of opting for science and fighting the battle based on that. Read more

Disney Spokesman Denies CEO Used “F-Bomb” to Conservative Activist

Witnesses Recount What They Saw and Heard

Washington, D.C. – Columnist Tommy Christopher at the AOL News website “Political Machine” reported Wednesday that a spokesman for the Walt Disney Company has denied that Disney CEO Robert Iger said “f— you” to conservative activist Tom Borelli at the company’s March 10 stockholder meeting.

Said Christopher:

“According to… the National Center for Public Policy Research, Disney CEO Robert Iger used an F-word other than Fantasia at this year’s annual shareholders meeting. Conservative columnist Tom Borelli, senior fellow with the organization… claimed that Iger said “F**k you” to him at the meeting… Read more

DTV Conversion A Fraud Bought By Congress

Have you noticed all the hype of late about getting your coupon to offset the cost of the purchase of a converter box so you will still be able to watch television on your old analog TV? The thing is Congress approved this move a long time ago, yet they sat quietly by while television manufacturers unloaded millions of analog television sets at reduced prices to the masses of Americans who were for the most part unaware of the changes that lay ahead.

But that is only one aspect of the scam dumped on an ignorant, lazy and inept Congress. The television broadcasting companies weren’t really sure what to do because they wanted to convert to digital broadcasting but knew that just under 50% of Americans who watch TV do so by means other than cable or satellite – in other words by use of the old roof antenna or rabbit ears. Read more

Restaurants on the Bleeding Edge

by Kenshin

I had the misfortune to suffer through two dinners worth of liberal food in a row. No longer content merely with ruining America, now liberals have gotten their morally reprehensible claws into your dinner.

Now wait a minute, you’re thinking—-food is an inanimate object (even barbecue, after you kill it). How can food have a political bent? Just what is liberal food, you ask?

Glad to tell you.

Liberal food combines ingredients that shouldn’t even exist within the same zip code, much less on the same plate. Onions and vanilla do not taste good together, but liberals insist on forcing concoctions like that upon the unsuspecting public. Some vegetables can be enjoyed raw. Take carrots, for instance. These good-for-raw-consumption vegetables, however, do not include asparagus and beets, unless you happen to be a bovine or a hippie.

Nor is chicken meant to be sashimi. Hello central, salmonella calling!

Years ago, at a posh place out in the Hamptons, I was served a chicken breast that was still trying to escape from the plate. The staff had stabbed it through the heart with a hefty stake of rosemary in a vain attempt to get it to lie there quietly and stop bleeding.

That should have been a warning to me.

See, what these leftist chefs and restaurateurs are saying through their “creations” is: Reality and tradition mean nothing to us (not to mention palates).

Coconut in salsa. Raw trout in ice cream. Horse’s hooves stuffed with mustard sorbet and swamp mud. These are just some of the other delicacies that litter the menu of liberal (sometimes also known as “hip” and “cutting edge”) restaurants.

So what they do then is attempt to disguise the food by presenting it in a “different” and “unusual” and “hip” and “cutting edge” manner. Just like every other foo-foo restaurant on the face of the planet.

They do this to disguise the fact that it tastes like crap, much in the same way that liberals attempt to disguise their crappy socialist political message by wrapping it up in pretty entitlement packages and calling it “Something other than the vile disease of socialism.”

That’s pretty much what they do with their food. When you need a paragraph to name a dish, you know you’re in one of Those restaurants.

Then they either stack it so high on the plate it needs clearance from ground control, or they bury things under other things, like hiding your raw asparagus under some squished peyote and a slab of semi-raw chicken.

And then they decorate it with an empty lobster shell.

And expect you to like it.

Not only like it, but approve of it via your wallet and a check that would buy dinner for eight at your local neighborhood pizzeria.

Come to think of it, you’d be much better off at Joe’s Pizza Joint, where they have never heard of mustard sorbet, and the most complicated item on the menu is a green salad. Served flat. On a plate. With the dressing over it. They way God meant it to be.

—The Sword Heart Scrolls, copyright 2k6

Is Your Pension Secure?

A few minutes ago, I watched a piece on Fox News with Neil Cavuto about how Congress wants to step in and force companies to stop paying upper management pensions when they can’t pay the working class pension.

Congress was partially responsible for creating this mess in the first place when they passed laws forcing corportations to set up two distinct pension packages (1994 I think) – one for management and one for the workers.

Before you go yelling and screaming at corporate America and me, think for a moment. Is this what you want government doing? Do you trust Congress enough to meddle in this issue?

Evidently, most of America does want Congress sticking their noses into private business practices because they are and more and more people are yelling for government intervention into anything and everything we don’t like – high gas prices, high utility bills, etc., etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the practices of these companies that are top heavy when it comes to salaries and pensions, is extremely poor, yet we have done nothing about it for years – until we begin losing or getting a reduction in our benefits including pensions. I say we, meaning you and I and I don’t mean calling on Congress to stop it. You and I are the ones who make the decisions of what products to buy, who to work for, what companies to buy stock in. As consumers, we have the power yet fail to use it. We cry to government for help. A free enterprise system without government interference works when we let it. Human nature fights it – our greed, envy and jealousy.
The bottom line for everyone is always the dollar. Not much has ever been said about over-salaried executives until they decided to cut your benefits, pay, pension or all of the above.

Capitalism can be an ugly thing, particularly if you are a jealous and envious kind of person who gets their dander up when someone makes money. It can also be a great thing when you are the one taking the risks and reaping the benefits.

If allowed to run its course, many of these companies would fold before they got to the state they are in, but there is so much government meddling – that we all insisted on – , these companies know for themselves government would bail them out – afterall, we would demand it of them. We have continuously bailed out the airline industry without putting any demands on their business practices. Would you personally loan money to someone you knew was going to squander it because they don’t know how to manage it?

If stock holders could realize what is being done and invest their money in other, better managed companies, this problem could correct itself. But again, the bottom line is the dollar and as long as investors can make their money, they don’t really care – nor do you and I until it’s too late.

So, what do we do? Do we invite or allow Congress to step in and control this issue like they try to control everything or do we allow these practices to run their course?

We are all blaming globalization for the auto industry laying off so many employees. I’m sure it has its effect but seriously how can you compete with foreign car makers – as we have been trying for many years now – when we continue to pay assembly line workers very high wages and overpay the auto executives? We then get angry because someone else enters the market with a product as good quality or better for less money.
Good ole free enterprise and capitalism will “self-level” if allowed to. In other words, the essence of both practices forces good management from good competition. These days when a company gets in trouble, they run to government for a bail-out and we sit back believing that their problems come from outside, non-controllable forces. Have you ever thought it is just lousy management?

The more America moves toward socialization of its workforce, the sooner we will all be wearing the same gray colored uniforms walking around in a daze.

Tom Remington