Analog

My thoughts turned to Hitler and Nazism several weeks ago as I was watching the PBS news program, Washington Week with Gwen Ifel. In the opening preview a woman at one of these town hall meetings asked Senator Barney Frank of his support for the Obama health care reform: “My question to you is, why do you continue to support a Nazi policy as Obama has expressly supported this policy. Why are you supporting it?” Senator Frank replied, "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" The audience laughed; so did I. However, weeks later, as I mused at this retort, it occurred to me that the opportunity to help someone understand and overcome fear was lost in a verbal jab. The camera angle didn't show how the unidentified woman was holding a flier with President Obama's photo doctored to show him with a "Hitler mustache." 1 Where did this come from? The answer is that it's coming from the Lyndon LaRouche PAC (Political Action Committee). Any interest

On the eve of what had long been recognized as the end of analog television (February 17, 2009), I'm contemplating how on January 26th, the Senate passed a bill delaying the switch to digital television to June 12. Despite this, all but two of my local stations are shutting off their analog signals at midnight. Only my local PBS station willingly chose to continue broadcasting analog signals until June; my local CBS affiliate is hanging on because of reported digital broadcast interference from the continued PBS analog broadcasts. As the saying goes, if you have cable or satellite service, nothing will change. But what's the deal with this transition? The argument I've been hearing lately is that since 9/11, emergency services have had a need for more communications radio bands. There's also the increasing needs of Internet junkies who insist that they must have access the World Wide Web through their cell phones; that takes broadcast signals too. So obviously t