Pulling The Plug

Its Over


Goodbye 'Dancing With The Stars', so long 'Celebrity Apprentice',....no more 'Amazing Race'.

The wife and I have reached our limit. It all started with the never ending stream of attorney advertisements on television. Shishter ambulance chasers that pleaded with everyone and anyone that was injured to sue the pants off of someone (for a meager 33% fee). Their never ending recitation that promoted the 'victim' society and the concept that every poor schmuck was 'entitled' to compensation for something was just too much.

This was compounded by the never ending stream of 'you want this' advertising that was lead by the major auto manufacturers of the world. Their constant harrassing us about how much we wanted a Yugo, Hummer, Mercedes, Toyota, Jaguar just sort of rang untrue after a while. The fact that their quoted price of $19,995.99 for that new Ultima, didn't really factor in the interest rates, insurance, maintenance, and general stress level of sitting for 10 hours a week in stop and go traffic. By my calculations the end cost for the buyer would be about $50,000 and about 5 less years off of their life. Regardless....dam-it, you wanted one! So visit your Nissan dealer, TODAY!

Next came the attorneys once again, this time convincing us that it is a GOOD thing to declare bankruptcy. Hey, everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't you? Tired of all those credit card bills that you racked up for things that the television set told you to buy. Well, guess what? You don't have to pay them after all. Just declare bankruptcy, its quick, its easy....don't delay, file today!!! I even bet the law office will issue you a new credit card when you are bankrupt so you can pay the attorney's fee.

But the final straw has been the fast food commercials of late. After being reminded of exactly where this food comes from and how it is prepared, the fact that multi-national food conglomerates are telling us that we really 'want' that super-sized BBQ rib sandwich or that mega-meat KFC chicken sandwich (sans the bun) were just too much. They are obviously trying to push obesity and diabetes on us all for the sake of their profits. Well, sorry Mr. CEO, we are on to you.

We pulled the plug.

As of today, the wife and I disconnected the cable television in our home. No more talking heads on the local morning news, no more commercials and no more inane reality shows where quasi-celebrities parade around having hissy-fits. No more broadcast or cable television in our home.

From here on out, it is Netflix over the broadband connection, or a selection from our 450+ volume LaserDisc collection not to mention the excellent collection of videos available from the public library for free.

We have officially abandoned the dark side and stepped into the light......and we feel better already.