Melinda L. Secor: Of Life and Liberty....Should We Have To Choose?: January 2009

"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse." -- James Madison - (1751-1836)

"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force. " : Ayn Rand in "The Nature of Government"

"Throughout history there have been tyrants and murderers. And for a while they seem invincible, but always they fall. Always."-Mahatma Gandhi

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings: Helen Keller

The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is , more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime ; he is a good citizen driven to despair.--H.L Mencken

"When even one American-who has done nothing wrong-is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth-then all Americans are in peril" Harry S. Truman

"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist."- Winston Churchill, Nov. 21, 1943

"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed: Ayn Rand - (1905-1982) Author - Source: Atlas Shrugged, Francisco's "Money Speech"

"Loss of freedom seldom happens overnight. Oppression doesn't stand on the doorstep with toothbrush moustache and swastika armband -- it creeps up insidiously...step by step, and all of a sudden the unfortunate citizen realizes that it is gone." ~ Baron Lane

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

A Crisis of Epic Proportions: Congress is "Scrambling" to Find Funding to Avert this Looming Catastrophe

This story was brought to my attention by my brother, who said it was making his brain melt....

TV Converter Program Runs Out of Funding
The government's billion-dollar program to help people prepare for the transition to digital television has run out of money, potentially leaving millions of viewers without coupons to buy converter boxes they need to keep their analog TV sets working after the switch.

As of this past Sunday, consumers who request a $40 coupon to help offset the cost of a converter box are being placed on a waiting list. They may not receive the coupons before Feb. 17, when full-power television stations will shut off traditional analog broadcasts and transmit only digital signals.

Members of Congress are now scrambling to find ways to allocate more money to the program.

Unbelievable. This is worth "scrambling" over? This is a priority in the minds of lawmakers and the Washington Post? Never mind the multiple wars and economic meltdown....hell...millions of tax paying citizens are about to become unable to tune it all out with the idiot box. Our government, in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, has spent a BILLION dollars making sure the morons can get American Idol on the boob tube, AND are "scrambling" to find more money to devote to averting this unthinkable crisis....Please...could this society get any more shallow and MORONIC? Shhh...Don't tell anyone....wouldn't want the swat team or Child Protective services to swoop down on us....but my kids and I have survived quite nicely without a television for more than a year now....it really can be done folks.

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)