Digital Television

This Friday, June 12th, 2009 is the day that all television stations must switch over to sending a digital signal and discontinue sending an analog signal. The New York Times survey of which cities were most prepared for this switchover showed that Austin, Texas (the most wired city in the country) was the 3rd LEAST prepared.
Newsweek magazine took this research a step further and came up with the following:
The top 25 cities with the least amount of preparedness for the switchover also had several other things in common. They all ranked as the highest in homeless (per capita), the most liberal, the least amount of registered voters (per capita), the most debt/ population ratio, the most amount of grants for the "arts", the largest amount of maintained public parks and other facilities, the most amount of people receiving some gov't. program aid (per capita), the most amount of "concerned citizens" not willing to participate in the system and of course were primarily largely Democratic cities.
The Obama administration could learn a lesson from this as to just another reason that his stimulus plan will not make any difference. The lesson is; that if you keep giving people something for nothing or require them to do anything, they will do nothing but just wait for the next "freebie".
In the top 10 cities that are not ready for digital TV, those cities have programs to give away FREE decoders to those that will not buy them.
I guess that Kennedy's phrase, "Ask not what your country can do for you...Ask what you can do for your country." is long forgotten. It's been modified to fit the Obama administration as, "...don't even ask what your country can do for you; it will take care of your needs if you're unwilling to do so yourself".
Well, enjoy your new digital picture...even though you have to put up with occasional pixilation (those little squares and breakup), the picture is much clearer.