Things I don't understand:
Why do we have public television and public radio? Should we tell these folks that you can sell 30 second commercials to advertisers and pay for the tv and radio that way? Is this really something that we want our tax dollars to go towards?
Why don't we go ahead and change the name of worcester sauce? Can we agree to just call it chester sauce?
How about national funding of the arts? I'm guessing if a play is good...people will show up and pay to watch it. If an art exhibit is good...people will buy the art. Don't we already have a built in system for paying for the arts that makes sense? We have the people who enjoy that particular art pay for it.
What's the deal with the Las Vegas national campaign? "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" Really?
So it's ok to do stuff there that you wouldn't do in other places? Vegas is the place where you can do stuff that you won't ever tell anyone about? It's like our national safety zone.... cheat on your wife here in Vegas! It's ok, we won't tell!
How do they make those Passat commercials where the people get into head on head collisions while they're in the middle of a conversation about hats? They're just talking about some mundane topic and blamo....big accident followed by them standing next to the car shaking their heads as if to say, "thank heavens we're safe because of our great car" They're good commercials....really got me thinking about trading in the 'ol miniature van.
Why aren't my fellow Irishmen picketing the football games because they're referring to my people as the "fighting Irish"?
Why should my tax dollars go into education if I don't have kids?
ReplyDeleteWhy should my tax dollars go into building a footbal stadium if I don't even like football? Why should my taxes pay for the road that leads to the stadium? I don't ever drive to the stadium.
Why should my tax dollars go to vouchers for kids to go to Christian schools if I have kids and they can't go because they're not Christian?
Why should my tax dollars go to pay for renovations at the airport? I don't fly. Why don't they raise the price of the airline ticket so people who actually fly have to bear all the load?
Why do I have to pay the president when he doesn't represent my views? Why can't the people who voted for him pay him?
Why do my taxes pay for cancer research? I never smoked and I don't have cancer.
Why should my tax dollars go into Hurricane Katrina relief? I don't live there.
Why should my tax dollars go to farm relief when farmers throw out their excess crops so market prices and demand stays high?
We have public television and radio so I can watch something other than Springer, and public radio so I can listen to something other than Britney. That market's already taken. I like the option. Even though I never would actually be caught dead listening to the fancy-pants NPR stiffs. Clay Aiken Rules!
ReplyDeleteWell I think you just got both of your legs knocked out from under you by Sara, Sean. Unless of course she was agreeing and commiserating with you with those comments.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to some of your questions. We can't call worcester sauce "chester sauce" because some of us actually still call it wooster sauce followed by a dry heave at the mere thought of smearing that on a perfectly good piece of meat.
As a fellow Irishman (>75%) I do protest the Notre Dame athletic program. It is slanderous of my heritage to call them the "fighting Irish". Everyone knows us Irish are a peaceful people before the 6th pint so it is misleading. They should be called the "drunken fighting papist Irish".
Passats are actually so safe that they film those commercials live in one take without any concern for the actors within the car. VW said it, I believe it, that settles it.
I wish what happened in Las Vegas really did stay in Las Vegas but I see more and more of it spilling out like infection from a sore. I think Las Vegas' new campaign should be "Las Vegas, the Amsterdam of America.... minus any of the redeeming qualities of the real Amsterdam and also a whole heck of a lot hotter." They could also go with; "Las Vegas, it's a lot closer than Bangkok.... Las Vegas is a registered trademark of organized crime incorporated"
whew. that's a lot of words.
Would you really want to not pay into the educational system, even if you don't have kids? That's just silly. It blows me away that people really think this...
ReplyDeleteIt boggles my mind to hear older people complain about how their neighborhood has turned to pooh ever since their children have left home and, surprise surprise, felt they no longer needed to fund the schools their children attended. What do they expect?
Regardless of whether you like sports or not, you can't deny that the revenue the team(s) brings to the city is good for publicity, image, and those who live in the communities of the stadiums. How the money is spent is the responsibility of the reps we have allocating those dollars.
Would you really want a president you did not vote for ignoring you and the needs you have just because you won't pay for him? Regardless of political affiliation, he has the charge of protecting all Americans, not just the conservative right wing Christians.
What if you do develop cancer? Sure, some types are caused by poor decisions than others, but what if you develop breast cancer? Is there a cause linked to that? Wouldn't you rather have tools to fight that based off of the revenues allocated to research and development if that were your lot in life?
Kind of makes you wonder why there are so many complaints when there are so many rewards to the things we complain about.
it's a fairly safe assumption that we're not going to equate schools and cancer research to free access to another of my 1400 tv channels and radio stations...
ReplyDeletethat's safe, right?
really?
yes that's safe.
ReplyDeleteI likes me some public radio though. Don't knock my NPR, PRI, BBC, APM, KQED, PBS, or CBC.
I also like shows on PBS (television). I believe they add depth and enrichment to the massive amount of trash tv, as black17 said.
I am just annoyed that a queary asking about the funding of public schools be brought up in a forum where you weren't really fielding a serious post about the allocation of moneys to important causes (not that public media isn't important).
I'm pretty sure that Sara (whoever she is) was being facetious and proving a point Griz (whoever you are).
ReplyDeleteI agree that the 9 cents a month that goes to public broadcasting is a steal. Especially if you don't have 1400 channels to choose from because you aren't a sucker who pays $35 a month for television that has commercials on it. Yikes. Really? You pay $35 or more a month for commercial television? Now that's a crime.
I get unadulterated programming like Frontline, Nova and of course Rick Steve's Travels in Europe for 9 cents. I also like to use the USPS on occasion and stop in rest stops on our interstate highway system and get books at the library and pay $10 a month to Haliburton for no bid contracts to do things like provide substandard meals to the men and women of our armed forces who have a 10% chance of dying on the job they are being paid very measley for by my tax dollars too. Oh wait that last one I don't enjoy. Do we really want to tackle the issue of public funding on this blog? This is a happy place.
does the government really need to supply tv?
ReplyDeleteYou can make a library argument...and a highway safety issue out of rest stops...but we're arguing that we need more tv? Even if you only get 4 channels, the 100 on the radio, the internet, time with your family, the parks....
I keep hearing about other things the government provides that I didn't argue...
we're arguing for more tv?
really?
Not more TV. Better (supposedly uninfluenced) TV.
ReplyDeleteso our taxes should go to The Office, because it's better? Our taxes should go to the Emmy winners?
ReplyDeleteUninfluenced?
Are the bad liberals/conservatives influencing Benson? Saved by the Bell?
come on...
really?
(this is how I end all comments from now on)
My argument is that the best broadcast programming is provided by PBS. It costs me 9 cents a month of my taxes (actually it costs me less than that because I don't make that much) to which the other hundreds of dollars a month are going to some of the most despicable endeavors I could even dream up. Why would we be wasting our time arguing about the worth of Educational television when all around us the hive of civilization is crumbling.
ReplyDeletesigned affectionately,
Dave (the ignorant slut)
Why isn't there a college football team called that? "And now the starting line-up for your Saint Joseph State Ignorant Sluts". I would have to protes. You know not all of us sluts are ignorant.
ReplyDeleteI would gladly pay for The Office. I will note that the show we know as "The Office" is directly modeled after a show created, produced and broadcast by the almost entirely government funded agency known as the BBC. Take that idea to a producer at CBS ten years ago and he would have said there is no way I can sell Folgers advertising space for a show this weird. Some almost unhindered cattlepush programmer from the BBC had to sneak that show into the collective unconscious. What the hell am I talking about? I have to get back to work. This is fun though. We should do this sometime over some Mongolian BBQ.
ReplyDeleteThe S. Joe's Ignorant Sluts could play the Southeastern State Whoremongers. I wonder about the mascots though.
ReplyDeleteDave are you playing somewhere this weekend? Yippee!
Hi Annie! Yes I am and Sean will have the pleasure of hearing me sing ad nauseam. I'm looking forward to it.
ReplyDelete