Troops Stations Overseas Denied Sports TV Because of the Shutdown

NESN – In case you haven’t heard, the federal government shut down on Tuesday. While several stories explaining the hardships this is causing people have already made headlines, this is one you may not have thought of. The Armed Forces Network (AFN), a TV station that broadcasts popular American shows for troops overseas, has almost completely shut down, according to an Associated Press report. For many troops, AFN is the only source of whatever news, entertainment or sports they choose to indulge in. As of Tuesday, that changed. AFN has stopped broadcasting MLB and NFL games and all entertainment programs… The U.S. service academies’ football games will reportedly be aired this weekend. But other than that, almost nothing.

I’m probably less worked up about the government shutdown than anyone I know.  Seriously, 3/4 of the posts on my Facebook feed this week have been people with their panties bunched like the Gordian Knot, righteously outraged at one party or the other.  But I don’t have a dog in the fight.  For my money, the Secretary of State in The Hunt for Red October said it best: “I’m a politician.  Which means when I’m not kissing babies I’m stealing their lollipops.”  (Rest in peace, Tom Clancy.)  All I’ve ever really asked of Obama is that he runs the Rose Garden egg hunt at Easter, pardons the turkey at Thanksgiving, and calls the Red Sox locker room when they win the World Series, and I’m happy.  Beyond that I don’t care what they do or don’t do or shut down in Washington.

Except for one thing: I want- make that demand- the military be taken care of.  That’s non-fucking-negotiable.  As far as I’m concerned they deserve the Super Septuple Gold Everything Plus Package from DirectTV with every premium channel and all the free porn they want at the very least.  These men and women leave their families, their friends and their lives behind, go willingly to whatever godforsaken hell hole we send them, to not only put their lives at risk but fight countless hours of the kind of interminable boredom that would make any one of the rest of us want to OD on crystal meth.  And now the feds are taking away one of the few things these guys have to help keep their morale up because we can’t afford it?  The fact that some kid from Weymouth who sacrificed so much to serve his country in Afghanistan can’t watch the Sox play today while the assholes responsible for this mess will be watching it from their taxpayer-funded offices while interns blow them under the desk is such a fucking outrage I can’t stand it.  I don’t care if they shut the whole rest of the federal government down for the rest of the decade.  But denying these men and women the right to watch sports during their R&R just to make a political point is worse than a disgrace; it’s the most un-American thing I’ve ever heard of.  @JerryThornton1