[MSNBC] The House on Thursday passed a bill that would prevent advertisers from abruptly raising the volume to catch the attention of viewers wandering off when regular programming is interrupted.
"Every American has likely experienced the frustration of abrasively loud television commercials," the Senate sponsor of the bill, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said when the Senate approved it in September. "While this may be an effective way for ads to grab attention, it also adds unnecessary stress to the daily lives of many Americans."
#1
For some reason, I don't think Congress should be meddling here. It's as if they do it just to validate the fact that they can, even if they don't really have the power to.
#12
This is much ado about nothing. Regulating the content of what goes out over the public airwaves is definitely within the powers of Congress. Big F Deal.
#13
I'm surprised that with modern TV sets the output volume isn't automatically regulated, regardless of the volume on the input signal. This would be trivial to do.
Posted by: Aussie Mike ||
12/05/2010 17:56 Comments ||
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#14
And all this time I thought it was my bloody telly!
#15
modern TV sets the output volume isn't automatically regulated Well, it is, but the creators of the offending material learned to get around the built-in regulation by fiddling with the audio spectrum of their material so that it SOUNDS louder than it is. Certain audio pitches (and probably rhythms) seem much louder & more piercing than simpleminded measurements would indicate. You can reproduce a similar effect by using sound editors like Audacity on a sound clip. People can do similar things with their voice, like some of my former girlfriends.
#17
"Regulating the content of what goes out over the public airwaves is definitely within the powers of Congress."
That covers ABC, NBS, CBS, public TV, and Fox (I think they're broadcast) but not Fox News, and any other channels that are broadcast over the airwaves.
Nothing gives them the right to regulate cable/satelite, which is not broadcast, but delivered to paying customers by whatever means is used.
We'd all be better off it ReCongress would just butt out of our lives; do the mininum they are authorized/required to do by the actual Constitution (not the liberal one that lives in their heads), get their grubby hands out of our pockets, tell the whiners around the country to shut up and man- (or woman-) up and LEAVE US THE HELL ALONE.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/05/2010 19:55 Comments ||
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#18
Never happen Barb. Congress and our "leadership" are too interested in authorizing bum buggering for the military, feeding the "poor", and interfering globally at every opportunity.
[Iran Press TV] The US Senate has rejected President B.O.'s proposed tax plan which would extend the Bush-era tax breaks only for the lower- and middle-class families.
The failure of Congress to renew the measures, against tax breaks which expire on December 31 this year, will raise income taxes for the lowest earners from 10 percent to 15 and for the highest ones from 35 percent to 39.6 starting in 2011.
The bill fell short by seven votes to reach the 60 votes required to pass in the Senate on Saturday. Not one Republican senator backed the proposal, and even a few Democrats voted against it, Rooters reported.
Congress also failed to extend aid for hundreds of thousands of long-term unemployed Americans, which began to expire this week.
Obama had hoped to end the Bush-era breaks on incomes above USD 250,000 a year for couples and USD 200,000 a year for individuals.
"You don't raise taxes if your ultimate goal, if the main thing is to create jobs," Senator John Thune (R-SD), who voted against the bill, was quoted by The New York Times as saying.
Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden ... an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body ... said that Congress's move "will wind up costing us hundreds of thousands of more jobs."
The Senate also rejected an alternative proposal which would have raised the tax break threshold to USD 1 million.
"It seems to me that about the best way to reduce the deficit is not to give USD 300 billion of tax breaks to the 315,000 Americans whose income is over a million dollars," New York Senator Charles E. Schumer said, who proposed the bill.
Republicans won a majority in the House and picked up six seats in the Senate in the recent midterm elections.
Obama's top economic advisers are discussing a deal with key politicians to renew the lower tax rates for everyone, including America's wealthiest individuals for one to three years, Rooters reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Consider: In 1969 we had half a million troops in a foreign country, were smack in the middle of the interstate highway construction proram, one of the largest public works in history, and we put a man on the moon. The government did all those things with our tax dollars then; now they can't do even one of them.
Why is that? Where are all of our tax dollars going now? (Rhetorical question)
Isn't that about the same time LBJ started up the War on Poverty? Isn't THAT the "War Without End"?
It's not an either-or proposition, folks. Extend the unemployment, extend the tax breaks, and pay for both by rolling back the War on Poverty!
Why yes, I am heartless!
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/05/2010 12:27 Comments ||
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#2
Hello Bobby; Your review of history is as the Aussie says is "Spot on". We also had riots and media attack dogs. LBJ was forced into the great society thing. Things were falling apart. Air conditioning and food stamps defused the situation in my opinion. The money is now spent. The problems have only grown. I don't believe our representatives will have the will to deal with these pressing issues.
#3
1969 was over 40 years and trillions of dollars ago. We now have a different economy and a different country. 'Pay for both' by canceling Social Security & Medicare. RRRiight. We WILL pay for everything, one way or another. Crisis will start as soon as the US gov't can't sell enough bonds every few days to cover its expenditures.
#4
AH you are so correct. SS when it was set up was 40-1 paying in for one retiree. Now it is 3-1 and soon 2-1. I lived that time and was commiserating with Bobby. Things will get out of control soon if as you say when the bonds don't sell. The main center cities are almost warlord areas now. Not all but many as you would find out if you venture in an area you don't belong. Default possibly. In Europe I believe I heard that the governments have taken the retirement savings(France as I recall was one). Limits on how much you can withdraw at one time would control a paper run.
With proper leadership and capitalism we would turn this around fast.
#5
In Europe I believe I heard that the governments have taken the retirement savings(France as I recall was one). Limits on how much you can withdraw at one time would control a paper run. Both events have already happened, but in Argentina in 2002. Many Argentinian retirement savings at that time were in Argentinian banks denominated in US dollars. Argentine government mandated conversion of those deposits into Argentine currency, drastically devaluated that currency, and limited withdrawals of that devalued money by the account holders. By the time the account holders could get to their money, it wasn't worth much. That whole process amounted to partial confiscation of their accounts by the government. This is now being done in the USA, under the guise of QE2, and I expect, will be done in the future by QE2+X. This process is much harder to follow, especially since the US government manipulates the reporting of consumer prices. E.g., Quaker Old Fashioned Oats in the large box now costs $4.26 at my local Walmart, which is ridiculously expensive for what you get. Gas down the street last night was $2.99 for unleaded regular. US CPI stats do not cover this, by design.
Always remember that in 1933, the US government seized all gold and gold-backed currency in the US, and invalidated previously valid contracts which set their value by a gold standard. All this was approved by the US Supreme Court, although IMHO absolutely unconstitutional. The emergency executive order signed by FDR justifying all this is, IIRC, still in effect.
#7
Oh my, I didn't like the sound of those words
"The emergency executive order". Thank you for taking the time to pass that information on. I have noticed that hours are being cut in most retail. Managers are being told to covert full timers to part time or we'll get someone who will. This is the time of year for Christmas sales and temporary hires. Young people will not be working. In your area you have seen the increases and the story is being repeated everywhere. Wall Mart knows that as fuel prices go up store traffic drops as they track it.
#8
Yesterday the unemployment figures rose to I believe it was 9.8%. After the holidays and the "seasonal helpers" are laid off, I suspect they'll break 10% with no problem at all. Unless I've missed my guess, we're in for a tough bit of sledding.
#10
I am a story teller. Here are two;
Stalin asked his economists what was the best system to overcome difficult times. One said capitalism. Why? because when winter is here spring comes much sooner. He was dead not long after.
Two men are walking along and one has a dog. The other is jealous. So he kills the dog so both are equal. Rush aired this some time ago.
AH to manage this Triage may be the only way. We can only save who we can.
#11
Hasn't there already been some talk and rumors about the government seizing ROA's and 401K accounts to be replaced by a Social Security type government-run program? To safeguard and guarantee your retirement in a dangerous marketplace.....
Oh they will wrap it up on a pretty package "to save social security" or "to save seniors". But it'll be the same redistribution of wealth...
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/05/2010 16:35 Comments ||
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#3
"Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide" We didn't need Wikileaks or Hillary Clinton to tell us that. It is common knowledge commonly ignored.
#4
Karl Denninger said it better: Telling us what we already know - that China officially sanctions hacking computers and stealing from both industry and government in the United States, that we bribe people to support fraudulent "Climate Change" BS and that Hillary thinks she's Queen and can do whatever she wants (and will raise hell when she can't or doesn't) fails to impress...
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[MSNBC] The House on Thursday passed a bill that would prevent advertisers from abruptly raising the volume to catch the attention of viewers wandering off when regular programming is interrupted.
