A rant! - maybe I should blog it instead & spare you all?!

[dranzal]

Don’t they have friends?

Kathy

We associate with like minded families as often as possible. My children participate in a Christian homeschooling PE program during which there is little time for any other children to “educate” each other on the topic of sex. We participate in “park days” with other homeschoolers, many of which are not Catholic. Still, they run around and play. It isn’t exactly conducive to peer sex education. In the current over-sexed mentality in our culture, I consider maintaining my children’s mental purity to be part of my job as long as I am able. They will be educated–by dh and I. They will be educated both on the basics of the topic and on the deviance they will encounter once they leave the nest. It will all be taught in light of what does God will for us. In some ways, they are already getting the beginning of this education when dh and I point out terribly immodest clothing offerings displayed on mannequins in the mall or simply on people we see (sometimes at church ).

Don’t worry, we are not retreating into a cave with our children until they are 43 years old. Though I wonder, if I were homeschooling my children in Sodom or Gomorrah, would I consider that very idea?

 

[CatholicSam]

How about this for a compromise. Cancel your cable/satelite service and join up with an online movie rental place instead? For Rob’s sporting events that he wants to see, he could see them either on the internet (some websites do require a subscription fee, but you would be saving money from your general cable service), or at a different physical location such as a friend’s house or restaurant.

If you don’t have a problem with the programs you watch, then the TV itself isn’t the problem. It’s the cable box or the satelite dish that you should be getting rid of. And with the technology available today, you can still see many of the programs you like without having to be subjected to the trashy commercials.

 

[CatholicSam]

Don’t worry, we are not retreating into a cave with our children until they are 43 years old. Though I wonder, if I were homeschooling my children in Sodom or Gomorrah, would I consider that very idea?

Wow, that is quite a profound thought. I definitely wouldn’t want my child of *any *age running around without me in Sodom or Gomorrah! It’s a scary thought that our society could possibly become like that!

 

[queen_anne78]

we chucked the cable after G was born…so much trash!!!. but we can still watch movies since we still have the TV.

however. now that football season has begun, I feel very bad for DH…I know he is jonesing for some football

 

[wisdom_3_5]

I sooooo agree with you. What really gets me though is WHY ARE THEY EVEN ADVERTISING **PRESCRIPTION **MEDICATIONS IN THE FIRST PLACE??? Is that really necessary? Honestly, I think all advertisements for meds should be banned just like tobacco products are. Leave the choice in the doctor’s hands where it belongs.
My dh thinks they do it for the purpose of getting the Hypochondriacs to buy their products.

Want to know why prescription meds cost so much? ADVERTISING!

The AMA’s action was prompted by recalls of high-profile drugs such as Merck’s 2004 withdrawal of Vioxx, which had a huge advertising budget, and problematic side affects that have become apparent sometimes years after a drug or device hits the market. newstarget.com/019955.html

Google merck advertising budget and you’ll see statements like, “*And by far, the drug (vioxx) beat out Nike’s advertising budget of $78.2 million for shoes” *and Vioxx had a bigger advertising budget than Pepsi-Cola, …"

And this is just **one **drug! I guess you could argue that the funding supports research. I think if that were the case we would be seeing more cures though.

 

[Rob_s_Wife]

alas I do not have cable and don’t want it.
just a pair of rabbit ears on top of the entertainment center.

---

I do restrict the tv far more than most people though.

---

**It’s just these blasted commericals! **

 

[CatholicSam]

however. now that football season has begun, I feel very bad for DH…I know he is jonesing for some football

I know how you feel. We chucked the cable after the 2006 soccer World Cup. I think my DH is going to be paying more visits to his and my parents’ houses in 2010

You could suggest that your DH can offer up his not being able to see all the games as a kind of “fasting”. But from what I’ve read of your family, I think he’s probably already doing that, huh?

There is something where you can get the sports events on the internet and have it “sent” over to your TV so you can watch the games on the TV. Sorry I don’t have more info on it than that And you can always take a family trip to your local high school football games if you like that sort of thing!

 

[CatholicSam]

alas I do not have cable and don’t want it.
just a pair of rabbit ears on top of the entertainment center.

---

I do restrict the tv far more than most people though.

---

**It’s just these blasted commericals! **

Sounds like it’s time for your TV to ditch the rabbit costume I don’t know much about rabbit ears, but is it something you could keep in a closet and DH could pull it out when the kids are in bed and he wants to watch his game? I don’t know if it’s a complicated thing to set up each time.

 

[Rob_s_Wife]

Sounds like it’s time for your TV to ditch the rabbit costume I don’t know much about rabbit ears, but is it something you could keep in a closet and DH could pull it out when the kids are in bed and he wants to watch his game? I don’t know if it’s a complicated thing to set up each time.

**You know it’s so much easier to be pious without stuff. **

---

Before we moved to this awesome and much bigger house, we had the 1 tv in our masterbedroom that we almost never watched.

---

Now we have THREE. Master, upstairs gameboom/older kids bedroom, and this monstrosity inside an entertainment center in the living room.

---

It’s the monster one I want to ditch. We almost never watch tv in the other rooms because if I can’t see/hear it - then they can’t watch it.

---

**Besides I need bum space in the living room. I could put another sofa there for more company to share coffee with. **

---

Honestly dh works so much that I wonder how long it’d take him to notice? I think I’ll try for after football season. He’s getting rather cranky as it is about missing games.

 

[masondoggy]

A couple weeks ago, i got the “Mom, what’s genital herpes?” question out of my 10 yr. old son.

At least this happened AFTER we had to have the discussion about sex so that I could make the obvious point to him that if you don’t want to get genital herpes, don’t have sex 'til you’re married! Duh.

 

[CarolAnnSFO]

I agree with getting rid of commercials for prescription medications. It’s not as if you can just go to the pharmacy and buy them off the shelf. I can just see all the people badgering their doctors for drugs that may not be suitable for them.

As far as commercials in general, I don’t watch them at all. The remote control is a great commercial-banishing device.

 

[Nepenthe]

Please yes, take prescription medication commercials off the air. My entire family (nontheist biomed researchers and medical school profs) are horrified by this, and so am I. It deludes and corrupts patients, doctors, and their entire relationship. Oh, I had better not continue, or I really will rant.

 

[Firefox]

Naw, just the occasional stripper on the B-roll.

Yes, this is true, and I don’t like it. I really think he could do the stories without so much of that. But, I agree with him on a lot of things…

 

[CarrieH]

Want to know why prescription meds cost so much? ADVERTISING!

That is a bit of an oversimplification. Don’t think that research is cheap by any means. As the daughter of a retired Ph.D.-level scientist for a major pharmaceutical corporation, and as a clinical research nurse myself, I can tell you first-hand that it’s not just about paying the salary of the scientists and his/her associates, and keeping the labs stocked with rats and monkeys. The human volunteer subjects for the clinical trials have to be paid, as do the physicians and staff of the investigational clinics. There are actually people who make a career of being volunteer “guinea pigs.” Check this out: wired.com/wired/archive/15.05/feat_drugtest.html For every drug that makes it to clinical trials in humans, many more don’t, and the cost of the drugs which finally make it to market has to stretch to cover the cost of ones that don’t.

Back to the discussion of advertising, I don’t have cable/satellite/etc., just an old TV with “rabbit-ears.” The sex-drug ads are on network TV as well, so you won’t escape those by ditching cable. I wish they would take those ads off, too, or at least restrict them to the hours after family programming is off…even though they indirectly help to pay my salary. I guess we can use the ones for genital herpes to promote premarital abstinence. But the ED ads…well, I’m at a loss as to how to use those constructively.

 

[ack]

This is also something that I am concerned about, but I’m having trouble finding usable data on this. The statistic that you quoted doesn’t prove anything, because it doesn’t consider the total revenues that Merck received from Vioxx sales, and the percentage of the Vioxx purchase price that went to cover advertising.

Do you have statistics that back up your assertion (that prescription drugs are expensive primarily due to advertising)?

Want to know why prescription meds cost so much? ADVERTISING!

…

Google merck advertising budget and you’ll see statements like, “And by far, the drug (vioxx) beat out Nike’s advertising budget of $78.2 million for shoes” and Vioxx had a bigger advertising budget than Pepsi-Cola, …"

 

[AlaAnnie]

For those of you with antennas and rabbit ears, I think I read a little while back, that in a few years they are going to stop broadcasting the TV signals that the antennas pick up. So, you’ll be forced to get cable or have no broadcast programming. I need to google for the details again.

 

[masondoggy]

For those of you with antennas and rabbit ears, I think I read a little while back, that in a few years they are going to stop broadcasting the TV signals that the antennas pick up. So, you’ll be forced to get cable or have no broadcast programming. I need to google for the details again.

I’ve heard the same thing. I think it’s terrible. There are a lot of people who just cannot afford a cable bill.

 

[Rob_s_Wife]

For those of you with antennas and rabbit ears, I think I read a little while back, that in a few years they are going to stop broadcasting the TV signals that the antennas pick up. So, you’ll be forced to get cable or have no broadcast programming. I need to google for the details again.

:extrahappy: **Who cares?! I’ve got internet and a radio. And I could do without the net if neccessary. **

 

[Alphonsus_John]

Daddy, what’s an erection lasting longer than 4 hours?

 

[Linnyo]

In the uk we have a place where complaints can be made to if tv is inappropriate for the time of day. We have what is known as the watershed and anything that isn’t suitable can be complained about if it is on before 9pm. I presume you do not have any such body that monitors what is allowed on tv?