It's hard to believe there are still people in the world this dumb

I had the 6 o'clock news on, and a "troubleshooter" story came on about someone who had been stopped in a parking lot and offered a great deal on a home theatre system that was surplus or some fool thing, and it was worth $3,000 but could be had for $400 right now. Cash only.

It turns out the home theatre system was junk and not at all what was advertised (I know, I'm shocked, too, but stay with me here), and the people who bought it felt so ripped off by this act of treachery that they went to the local TV new station to get publicity for their poor plight.

The TV news person explained that this is a variation of the white van scam.

Warnings were given about buying "bargains" out of the back of vans in parking lots.

Eyes were rolled.

Well, at least by me.

I'm not sure what's worse:

a) Falling for such an obvious scam or
b) Complaining about it on TV.

TLC: Yup, we screwed up!

And while I'm in the mood ...

Miss America is on TLC this year.

TLC is home to Trading Spaces.

TLC has been running commercials saying that Paige Davis is coming back to Trading Spaces when the new season starts tonight.

The commercials, in so many words, say: "Remember Trading Spaces? Remember you used to watch it every week? Remember when Trading Spaces got rid of Paige Davis you and everyone else stopped watching it? Yeah, well, we're sorry we ever got rid of Paige. And she's back now! So please watch Trading Spaces again. Please? Pretty please?"

The mind boggles ...

OK, so I'm watching Miss America (it's a long story, don't ask ... ) and this year, they've "modernized" the pageant, including allowing members of the public ask questions of the finalists.

So this one person asks, "What does it say about this country when someone like Paris Hilton can become famous despite not accomplishing anything?"

Famous without accomplishing anything? Oh, you mean like MISS AMERICA!?

Raw in HD for thee but not for me

The big news in the pro-wrestling world is, of course, the fact that the WWE's flagship show, Raw, moves to high definition tonight.

As someone who watches the majority of his television on either crappy 15-inch set in the bedroom or a crappier 27-inch set in the basement - both in very standard definition - I suspect the only difference for me will be the widescreen format and new Raw set.