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At least everyone in Cuba have access to medical care.
    http://www.hr676.org/

On your points:

"Go to work,"
http://www.whywork.org/rethinking/whywork/abolition.html
http://www.basicincome.org/bien/aboutbasicincome.html

"send your kids to school."
http://www.newciv.org/whole/schoolteacher.txt
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/16a.htm
http://www.holtgws.com/

"Follow fashion,"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-consumerism
http://www.alternativeratreatments.com/eat-to-live.html

"act normal."
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/the_war_on_the.html
http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

"Walk on the pavements,"
http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about (shows how unusual that is)

"watch T.V."
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/
http://www.tvturnoff.org/
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml

"Save for your old age,"
http://knol.google.com/k/paul-d-fernhout/beyond-a-jobless-recovery
http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/02/social-collapse-best-practices.html

"obey the law."
http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/402
http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/47
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification

"Repeat after me: I am free."
http://www.amctv.com/videos/the-prisoner-1960s-video/
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710--.htm

Any more? :-)

a brick will do. Source code to brick-making has been in the public domain for thousands of years.

Uhh... it is a free service.

In the UK everyone who owns a TV set is required by law to purchase a TV license for that TV set... and not surprisingly anyone who doesn't have a license is a suspect "license-dodger". If they catch you using one without a TV license you could actually face jail-time.

http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/international/bbc.htm l

If the governments want to collect money, they can always tax the receiver. They don't care that you get spammed, they get their money anyway. Take the UK television tax. You have to pay the BBC even if you don't watch them ever ! http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/international/bbc.htm l

How about this

Now it doesn't matter what time it is, and we can save not just energy, but brain cells, creative souls, careers, and lives! (exercise saves lives)

-- "By the age of 70 they will have spent 7 to 10 years of their lives watching TV." -- The Kaiser Family Foundation

While it [the BCC licence fee] might be officially setup as you paying for a 'licence', it's essentially a tax similar to all other taxes

More information:

One guy who doesn't own a TV, but gets harassed by the TV Licensing Agency (which is actually a private company contracted by the BBC, to the tune of a quarter billion pounds a year): http://www.marmalade.net/lime/

Information about BBC revenue and expenditures, TVLA, etc: http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/international/bbc.htm l

What a great story to start off National TV-Turnoff Week.

What a great story to start off National TV-Turnoff Week.

This link shows that there is considerably more than 15 minutes of non-programming time per hour on American t.v., as much as 20:53 minutes per hour in some time slots.

It is bad enough that people are actually stopping watching television, choosing instead to download t.v. shows, watch it on PVRs that allow them to skip commercials, or taping the shows and ff-ing through commercials.

Does this mean that the Japanese government is going to take up wardriving to look for violators?

Unfortunately that's exactly what we get in the UK from the TV Licencing authority - they drive around in detector vans looking for anyone watching TV who doesn't have a licence.

They also have the assumption that _everyone_ has a TV and target households who don't have a TV with threatening letters and billboard adverts, even if they don't have a TV.

A few years ago after I moved house I didn't have a TV for a few months - I got a threatening letter from the TV Licencing Authority with "YOU ARE BREAKING THE LAW" printed across the _outside_ of the envelope in big letters. If I had any money at the time it would've been interesting to sue them for libel.

KILL YOUR TV

My broadband cable modem fees are cheaper if I also buy basic cable TV than if I don't. How fucked up is that?

is here

seriously though, a friend of mine used to have tv smashing parties every fourth of july (independence day) for about 10 years. He just stopped having the last year which totally sucked because so many people always looked forward to that particular party.

personally, I don't watch tv unless I'm at a bar or someone's house that has one on. I have an eyetv hooked up to my mac, but only use it as a device to play vcr tapes.

Come on slashbots, and set yourself free - Kill your TV!

I've been tv free for 4 years now - and would never consider going back.

there is much more to life than watching a piece of furniture.

It's not like women in porn are all that real these days anyway, between injections, implants, airbrushing, lighting, posing...

From an old, but related article:
"The Beautiful People Syndrome is attacking the psyche of television-addicted America. For a man, if you are not 6'1'', handsome and wealthy you are not ideal. Any woman who isn't bone-thin with a large chest certainly is below the standard."

Warning, some of this article is downright silly.

[thinks to self: "old" being from 2000. Sheesh, I turn 41 today!]

... or at least end up spending more time on the 'net :/

Actually, its a yearly tax, they have trucks that run around looking for scofflaws and people that are illegally watching television in their own homes.
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/bbc.html

Television is a powerful opiate and population control machanism. I admire people who can control it. I'm succumbing again.

Dude, it's time to kill your TV!

England, for instance, has a Television Fee, which I hear is enforced with vans that drive around and somehow detect if you are running an unlicenced set. In the US, we charge various fees [PDF] for amateur short-range broadcast licenses. So there's kind of a precedent. I don't see why 802.11, in which you are actually broadcasting, should be any different.

So I'm sure the US isn't far behind. Your 900mhz wireless phone and certain halogen lamps that often interfere with wireless devices should have their own fee as soon as the right politicians read this thread.

Oh wait, politicians don't read slashdot. Phew.

When I think of "TV Brick" it's usually in a different context. (replace hammer with brick) Generally after watching yet another Laci Peterson segment on CNN.

David Keirsey, the well known psychologist, believes that ADHD is just an excuse to sell drugs and to dumb-down kids who are bored with school.

My brother and I both have ADHD-like symptoms from time to time. No drugs here, and somehow we're both capable of surviving. Television has done a lot to reduce the attention span of just about everyone these days. What can you do?

Tim

$480/year for repetitive movies, videos, shows, channels is too much even for the gainfully employed.

Can I get an AMEN! Seriously, it is way overpriced and more folks should consider things in terms of yearly cost. With the currently passed policy of mergers the programming is going to get even more homogenized. Once the news comes from one souce, then I'll not suscribe to any of it because I'll trust it even less then the current media (which is close to single source). One big propaganda machine for Madison Avenue.

BLog-o-sphere to the rescue....

Kill you television, before it gets you!

Here's a random anti-TV site. Google for more. http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/.