Comcast Becomes A Teat Of The System

I opened up today's Times Leader and to my dismay saw a teaser at the upper left which read "Low Income Net For Families". Of course, opening the paper for me is like putting a match to a stick of dynamite. I immediately went to page 3A to read the story and then blew a gasket. I then jumped on the phone to contact one of our faithful Gripers R.W. to get his take since he subscribers to Comcast. He was at work, but I could hear the anger bubbling up inside when I asked him what he thought. If you read the story and I suggest you do especially if you have your Internet through Comcast, you will read that hundreds of low income families can sign up for a monthly Internet bill of only $9.99. This is a $31.00 savings off the regular price. WHAT! WHAT! The story goes on to say that this Internet service discount was forced upon Comcast by the Federal Communication Commission as a condition for federal approval to purchase NBC Universal. As part of this merger, Comcast agreed to "increase broadband deployment in low income households". ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME! The feds have now dangled a new "Internet Teat" for the welfare people to suck on. They are disguising this program as a help to unemployed families who have children who need the Internet for school. CUT ME A BREAK! What's next, low income discounts for high def satellite service? I am paying out the ass for food, fuel, power, water, TV and Internet service and I have to read about this shit. Maybe I should quit my job so I can have all of this paid for. Christ, this crap drives me crazy.

By the way, the story also has a grid attached which lists all of the local school districts and the percentage of students eligible for the school lunch program. Of course, the availability to latch onto this Internet program will be based on this school lunch program. Here are some staggering figures on the percentages of students who are eligible:

Wilkes-Barre Area (55.16%)
Hazleton Area (53.51%)
Wyoming Valley West (48.83%)
Nanticoke Area (43.86%)
Luzerne County General (41.11%)

These numbers stunned the hell out of me! In some cases, more than 50% of the students can get a "Free Lunch". Don't get me wrong here, no kid should go without lunch. I want to make that very clear! What ever happened to packing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a piece of fruit in a lunch bag? It is hard for me to believe that the 4 school districts listed above are higher or right around 50% of the student body being eligible for free lunch. This is mind boggling. If the kids are actually going to use the Internet for studying, I am for it. However, my guess will be that the adult(s) in the house will use it to watch streaming porn whenever they get the chance. I also think that the online dating service numbers will go up in our area as well. Once again the feds hand over the goods and the rest of us will suffer the consequences. Comcast subscribers should make sure they keep this in mind when they get that increase next year in cable and Internet services. You know its coming! Somebody has to make up the difference!