As you've probably already seen, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has mandated that all television sets sold in the United States must contain digital tuners by the year 2007.

Hello???  Earth to government: What f***ing business is it of yours what kind of TV sets we buy?

Not that I've got anything against digital TV.  Hell, I love all things digital.  I make my living as a programmer (of digital computers).  I love to massage music (in digital format).  I also tweak photographic images (in digital format) to make the very dark areas a bit lighter.  As a friend once said, only half facetiously (and this was almost twenty years ago), "JdL IS digital."

Also, digital TV is said to be wonderful.  It is required for, and will mainly be used for, High Definition Television (HDTV), which is much, MUCH sharper than the low-fi mess we're watching today.  Zoning out in front of the Tube may be a bad thing, but if we do, it's a heck of a lot nicer to do so in high resolution.

But, no matter how nice digital television is, the government has as much right to meddle in the design of TV sets as it does to mandate that we all wear shoes with flexible insoles.  Or WITHOUT flexible insoles.  Or any other harebrained requirement or prohibition, of which the government seems to have an endless supply.  The legitimate right to intrude into the lives of free humans beings in such areas is easily described and easily measured: zero.

The issue is clouded slightly by the fact that the airwaves are considered "public property."  And indeed, it is true that, if two radio and/or television stations attempt to broadcast at the same frequency near each other, bad things happen.  Whether this was ever a justification for government interference is debatable, but if it ever was, that day is long gone.  When was the last time you saw a TV antenna on a house?  Remember how prolific those were in the '60's?  Almost everyone had them, because that was the only way to pull in a good signal.  Nowadays, almost everyone has cable, or satellite, or both.

Besides, this absurd mandate really has nothing to do with bandwidth allocation.  There are well-documented government shenanigans regarding how the broadcast spectrum was divvied up (surprise, surprise), but that's already a done deal, and, in any case, with cable and satellite it has no effect whatever.

All that is required for digital TV to flourish is for the government to butt the heck OUT.  Every action it takes is going to cost us money and reduce our available choices.  When digital TV becomes cheap enough for me to afford, I'll buy it.  If, before that happens, analog TV signals are no longer available, I'll do without.  If I'm stupid enough to buy a new analog TV when the changeover is already well under way, and my TV becomes obsolete before it wears out, whose fault is that?  Have we all forgotten how to look in the mirror when we're trying to find someone to scapegoat?

The FCC says that, by the time its requirements go into effect, the increased costs will be "nominal."  That may well be, but so what?  Am I justified in holding someone up at gunpoint if I demand only five cents (a "nominal" amount)?  Or a dollar?  How difficult is it to see that theft is theft, and immoral, no matter what the amount extorted?

Dang, I'm sick of seeing the endless parade of stories like this.  What kind of sheep have we become?  To what depths of absurdity will this go, before we rise up and say "ENOUGH!!"?