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Highlands Today

We Have Little Control Of Our Lives

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By Raleigh Whiteman | Highlands Today

Published: February 26, 2009

We have absolutely no control of what the government, big business and nature has in store for us. Each of these entities has gotten so big and uncontrollable that they can do anything they desire and the general public takes a beating financially and emotionally.

We have to cope with what happens to us in our lives because of weather, it is naturally uncontrollable. We do have some choices in how we expose ourselves to acts of nature but big business is, at this time, of real concern to all of us in many ways, especially financially. Not only have the financial institutions let us down by being dishonest and conniving causing great losses of income to millions while their big shot CEOs thrived, developers and loan companies conspired to raise the cost of homes and approving loans to unqualified applicants, which is the main reason for the failure of many banks.

All Digital In June
In a few months all television stations will be transmitting in digital format by government decree. Most of our good television sets are doomed to become obsolete. We did not know this two years back when we bought a really good $1,200 television and an expensive DVD recorder. Last week I recorded the Daytona 500 race while watching it in HD, (High Definition), on a new liquid crystal display (LCD) we had purchased. The recording turned out lousy and blurred, not at all like what I was viewing in HD.

That two year old $1,200 TV is now obsolete and sitting in the garage, worthless, and the DVD recorder only records in analog that regular TV is on and not in the HD, that the new HD LCD television set receives. It's now necessary to purchase a Blue Ray DVD recorder. Wonder if Blue Ray will still play the old regular DVDs we have all accumulated.

What's The Beef?
Of all the billions of money the government is giving away to big business they have run out of money to support the $40 vouchers that gives a discount after the purchase of a receiver that converts analog to digital. The Blue Ray DVD players do not come cheap either. On top of all that when we want to dispose of our obsolete equipment we will have to pay extra for disposal.

It seems that we cannot buy anything that is not two years obsolete a week later, when something new comes along. Look at all the different cell phones on the market. Buy one today and you have to keep it two years before you can update it to a better and more loaded one, or suffer a substantial penalty.

Hi Prices Vs. Low Prices
I think I found out why Circuit City failed, they are liquidating all their items and after shopping around for a new HD LCD we found that after they discounted their TVs by 30 percent they were still higher priced than what the same set costs at Wal-Mart, and according to Sunday's advertisements, the same TV is $100 cheaper than Wal-Mart at Target.

The very least the government should do is to require that all remote controls for televisions, recorders and stereo equipment be exactly the same and do the same functions regardless of the make or model. It's frustrating to have six or more remote controls laying around and remembering which does what and how.

How about making the TV Guide channel free from all providers of television?

Raleigh Whiteman, of Lake Placid, can be reached on the Internet at rwwhiteman@comcast.net

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