TV the electronic addition for the compost pile (political)

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This post is to feel sorry that with all the political s**t in the adds I now see on my TV for the november election which we are unable to put in the proper place (IMHO) which is in the compost bin.

One thing I would really like is for anyone placing an add in regards to politics being required to provide you with the back up for the claims everyone is making. I find it hard to accept anyones adds as no matter what is brought up the other side claims the same thing. Both can't be right when they say the opposite on the same issue.

I personally would rather that they would buy an hour on late night TV and run an hour of in depth discusions on why their plan(s) are right on the different issues. But then I guess for them to do that they would really have to have a plan right? I could then use the vcr to tape and view this and have a better idea of what the different sides will do about the issues i am concerned with.

I have always thought that if private companys advertised with the lack of truth that our politicians do the ceo's or at least the vp in charge of advertising would be spending most of their time in jail. Maybe my grandpa was right in that we should always vote for the incumbant as we should not be party to the corruption of another honest man. gail

-- gail missouri ozarks (gef123@hotmail.com), September 10, 2000

Answers

I got rid of mine 3 years ago.....Except for weather, I don't miss it.

-- Doreen (liberty546@hotmail.com), September 10, 2000.

We also haven't had a TV for a long time -- not for most of the 24 years we've been married, actually. I find it extremely irritating to even be in the same room with one that's on, now, after so many years free of the things. Sometimes I don't hear about things that I would have liked to know about, (like the Gray situation, or what is going on with Israel or the fires out West), but there are other sources of news if I take the time to look for them. The TV is so full of *trash* that it just isn't worth having one. So I get the blessing of not having to listen to all these silly ads, political or otherwise! Yay!

Hey, Gail, you're using caps in your messages now -- good going!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 10, 2000.


I hardly ever watch TV now that I have you guys and the rest of the web, in that order usually. When everybody makes the switch to HDTV, my tv will be obsolete anyway and I'm not about to pay $$$ to change that. Besides, most tv shows will be/are available online in streaming video, so if I get a real jones, I can just go on-line, if I don't simply go over to granny's house to watch with her.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), September 10, 2000.

Have un-tv'ed the house 3 times in the last 10 years. Every time it has had an effect similar to that of the dieter w/ weight loss and rebound gain syndrome. Some one always feels sorry for the "poor children" and buys us/them a tv. Or 2. With a Nintendo. Or a Sega. Every time I get rid of a TV, 2 or 3 show up somehow out of the blue to replace it!

Well meaning friends and inlaws have made it almost impossible to keep that monster out of the house.

This last time I didn't completly remove them from the premises. There just isn't any antenna system anymore. Hope this bit of subtrafuge works. John

-- john in s in (jsmengel@hotmail.com), September 10, 2000.


John, that's funny! Because the only times in 24 years that we've had TV in the house, it was because someone gave it to us!! (Feeling sorry for the children, as you said!!) The first one died after only two months. The second one lasted a little longer, the third one we only used for videos because our antenna system no longer works. Finally we wore out the video player (keeping our mentally handicapped daughter occupied while I was sewing full-time for someone), and so far haven't had any more of them inflicted on us!! I didn't mind the videos so much -- no ads, and I had good control over what was coming into the house -- there are a FEW good movies out there, and our daughter loves documentaries -- now she plays with Dr. Seuss Kindergarten on the computer, instead!

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 10, 2000.


When we moved to the mountains 3 years ago, we did without TV for 8 months. We rented alot of videos, mostly because TV was a habit. Finally I agreed to satelite, no cable and the winds are too bad for an antenna. The boys and I were talking recently and I really think we wouldn't miss it if I canceled the service. They seldom watch. I do enjoy A&E, Discovery, and the History Channel. TNT produces some really fine movies occasionally. That is about it. Only, if I canceled the service, what would I do with that room?

-- Cheryl Cox (bramblecottage@hotmail.com), September 10, 2000.

Teevee and its updated relative, advertising, are both the devil's spawn, if you ask me (and you probably didn't, but..) I joked about my dad calling FDR "The Great American Destroyer" on another thread, but I believe it's really teevee. We can blame the decline of our civilization on television. If you don't believe me, stick around for another hundred years or so, and read what the historians write!

Too bad, b/c it's a great medium... unfortunately, combined with all the sicko advertising to our fat-butt-sit-on-the-sofa populace, which permits total lame-o "shows", which gets eaten up like the crap junk food that gets advertised, it's a wonder we can even think anymore. Some would say we can't...hmmm.....

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), September 10, 2000.


I believe someone said something to the effect that 'tv is the opiate of the masses'. May have that one wrong.

Do some searching on the 'net for references to 'tv addiction' and follow some of the links around. It's the perfect brainwashing tool.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), September 11, 2000.


OK Folks here's my 2cents worth. It really aint TV doin the ruination of our society its us or them. The TV is an inantimate object that just sits there. It doesn't hold a gun to anybodys head in order to make them push the on button. Its not the people who make the trash thats shown on the screen. If us or them didnt turn it on we'd never know its there and maybe if enough of us or them didnt watch they would change it. Television is not to blame. Parents who use it for babysitting are to blame for their children getting the wrong messages. Husbands and fathers who use it to escape from their responsibilities to their wives and children are to blame when their sons grow up with a twisted concept of their role in the family...learned from TV. Women learn to be dissatisfied with themselves, their homes, and families by watching somebody else's concept of the family. I whined to myself for years because my husband would not let me do away with the TV's in our home. Then it occured to me (I'm slow catching on) that it may be here but so far no one is forcing me to sit in front of it. People its just a machine and control only takes lifting one finger, pointing it at the on/off button and gently pressing it. I will admit to being a reformed TVaholic, but being addicted was due to my desire to be entertained not the machine forcing me to watch :) Blessings Peggy

-- Peggy (wclpc@cookeville.com), September 12, 2000.

Re: "Inanimate Object"

I hate to disagree but the TV is anything *but* an inanimate object. True, at the beginning it has no 'power'. But once an individual is conditioned to what it provides, it has the same addictive powers as chemical drugs.

Take a 'normal' (okay, you decide what that is...) and take the TV away. You will see the exact same withdrawal reactions as chemical addiction - depression, mood swings, etc.

It should be a 'controlled' substance...

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), September 12, 2000.



j, I believe that the quotation you're thinking of is by Karl Marx: "Religion is the opiate of the masses". (But I like it just about as well the way you said it)

My TV died in 1973, I'm happy to say. I would find myself glassy eyed, practically drooling, I suspect, at "sign off" (11:00 p.m.), wondering what had happened to my evening, and feeling guilty for not spending time with my wife and son. All I would have been planning to do was watch the "six o'clock news".

Like you others, someone (my inlaws) kept giving us TV's. My "step" son tried to carry the first one they gave us out of the sleeping loft on a ladder by himself at age six. (Deep sixed it :)

The kids hated us for not letting them watch TV, but each of them later thanked us, and said that they could always tell the "videots" from the kids without TV, by the "light being on in the eyes" of the non TV watchers

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), September 12, 2000.


I've seen articles stating that the brain activity during TV watching is the same as that of someone on drugs, so there is some addicting power there, I think. Also, not a really great thing to be doing to our children while their brains are still developing.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), September 14, 2000.

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