On Sun, 30 Jan 2005 11:24:21 -0800 (PST), Neil Schneider <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The citizens of the UK have an option also. If they don't like > supporting the BBC programming, don't buy a TV.
To not buy a TV is the only option I'd have, were I British, for not supporting the BBC? Your statement is factually correct, they have the option. But if Microsoft said, "You must use our .NET on Windows, and you can't use any of the alternatives. Hey, you have the option to not use Windows...", you would petition the DOJ to stop Microsoft from doing this. Why? Why is it that a private company, operating under voluntary contracts, comes under your fire, but a public organization, operating by compulsion of law, does not? The only constant here is your willingness to force others to accept your view. In the case of Microsoft, you're willing to use the Department of Justice to force them to run their business and their operating system as you want them to. In the case of the BBC, you're willing to let the British government force the people who live there to pay for a service they may not want. > I'd gladly exchange our funding method for the U.K method, if it meant we > would get > better quality programming and far fewer commercials that insult my > inteligence. I don't have cable television, I don't have rabbit ears, and I can't receive anything but snow on the TV I own. That's the way I like it. I use my TV solely for the VCR and the Playstation 2. But hey, as long as *you* get to watch Quality TV, I ought to pay for it, eh? On a related note, I've been subscribed to this list for a month or two now and I've noticed something. Whereas on other Internet-wide lists I'd be a bit more willing to use a four letter word when encountering the above sentiment, here I have a much higher barrier to doing so. Something about being local, I guess. I may actually face a subscriber to this list someday, and how silly would I look if I'd resorted to such puerile language in the past? Back to the subject: Your position angers me, Neil. It angers me that either 1) you're actually willing to make *me* fund *your* TV viewing habits (television!) or that 2) you hadn't even thought of me when you formed that opinion. Whichever one it was. -todd -- KPLUG-List mailing list [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
