“There is practically no chance communications space satellites will be used to provide better telephone, telegraph, television, or radio service inside the United States.â€
– T. A. M. Craven, FCC Commissioner, 1961
It’s quite amazing how wrong Commissioner Craven was. His statement confidently rejects the subject. Yet look at how far we come in those 46 years with the communication satellites. His utter wrongness continues to prove to me that saying “no chance” and “never” should be taken with a grain of salt. Yet Commissioner Craven’s words came to me as I was thinking about the recent political news regarding Barack Obama’s Lapel Pinlooza, the Graeme Frost Caper and continued SCHIP-E-NESS, and Earmarks galore. Thinking about those issues made me realize that politics runs counter to my “no chance and never taken with a grain of salt” assertion. Politics is the standard bearer of never. It looks you square in the visual orbs with a proud and defiant glare. And then says:
There is never anyone or anything that is off-limits to me. I will never change. No chance!
And when politics says never and no chance, grains of salt be damned.
I’m not complex. Don’t have time for all that. And all that complex stuff bad for the stomach. Just color me simple and plain with a twist.