So, is there a spud-gun tax in Connecticut?

From my cold, dead hands!

Well, Did Eastenders affect his reception or not?

Get ready to be taxed now on how many miles you drive, monitored by guv GPS installed in your car. Oregon leads the way, again.

Bastards.

Well, we tax TV here in the U.S.. We're just a little more subtle; bandwidth sales by the gov't, utility fees, sales taxes, etc.

I have a friend who is from Norway, and she has been "out of town" or "studying in the United States" when the TV tax people show up at the door for, um, her entire life. [Of course, it's her telling the tax people this to their faces.]

I think the annual TV tax there is $200. [To put it in perspective, a speeding ticket is $1000-$1500 depending on how fast you were going.].

The taxes there are so high it's nothing but humorous at this point. But healthcare is "free" of course.

Worse. It's like extorting $150 a year out of every household (you don't pay for every TV in the house, but you pay for every house that has a TV) and forking it over to PBS, no matter what wild shit they produce. There's a reason the BBC can afford to be Pravda on the Thames, but with champagne for lunch.

Open your mouth and say "ah".

On my recent cruise, we met people from Ireland. They were complaining about this ridiculous tax. They said that it applies EVEN IF THE TV DOESN'T WORK!

Unbelievable.

As S.Weasel mentioned this is a case of insult being added to injury.

Not only do they HAVE to pay this 'fee' but it largely goes to feeding the BBC so that it can remain the 'progressive' propaganda outlet we all know and love.

Imagine having to but the NYTs whether you wanted it or not, and you get the full flavour of the British system.

You know what's even better? You know how they enfoce this? They have gizmos that can detect a TV in operation. They drive around in vans checking households for an operating TV. Live off-road? They'll walk up to your door with a hand-held detector. If you don't respond to their warnings, they'll publish your name. Like, take out a billboard in your neighborhood that says "53 Fox Lane, 23 Stable Mews and 22 Valley Street haven't paid the license fee." They can also make TV merchants narc on you.

Google "BBC, license fee, van" if'n you don't believe it. The Beeb is about as ugly as it gets.

EastEnders. Bleh.

Ain't nothing that costs so much as when the government gives it to ya free.

I believe that at one time, the UK taxed the number of windows in your house. It's always been like that. Remember that the document tax in the colonies was applied to newspapers as well as all other documents and that was one of the causations of the Revolutionary War.

Thats nothing. You should see the cat detector vans used by the Ministry of Ousinge to enforce pet licensing fees.

I believe the window tax is something the French do. In Greece they only tax buildings that are complete, so... you got it, most private residenses have unfinished top floor with all the plumbing and wiring hanging out.

I've heard people say the Eastenders is brilliant. Watched it a couple of times.

Don't get it. I'll stick to Funniest Home Videos. Guys getting blasted in the beanbag......now that's comedy.

What' s worse, is even if you don't own a television and have no plans to watch television, TV Licencing, the racket in charge of all this extortion, will STILL harrass you. Apparently it just isn't cricket if you are radical enough to say "no" to television.

Read more, and thank your god that you live in the US...
http://www.tvlicensing.biz/

Wow, Cheshire Cat. Post has been updated with your link.

http://www.alltooflat.com/about/python/

monty python spoofed this british lunacy in this episode which left many american baffled

snip------------

Alright, alright, alright. A license.
C: Yes.
S: For a fish.
C: Yes.
S: You are a looney.
C: Look, it's a bleeding pet, isn't it? I've got a license for me pet dog
Eric, and I've got a license for me pet cat Eric...
S: You don't need a license for your cat.
C: I bleeding well do and I got one. He can't be called Eric without it--
S: There's no such thing as a bloody cat license.
C: Yes there is!
S: Isn't!
C: Is!
S: Isn't!
C: I bleeding got one, look! What's that then?
S: This is a dog license with the word 'dog' crossed out and 'cat' written
in in crayon.
C: The man didn't have the right form.
S: What man?
C: The man from the cat detector van.
S: The looney detector van, you mean.
C: Look, it's people like you what cause unrest.
S: What cat detector van?
C: The cat detector van from the Ministry of Housinge.
S: Housinge?
C: It was spelt like that on the van (I'm very observant!). I never seen so
many bleeding aerials. The man said that their equipment could pinpoint
a purr at four hundred yards! And Eric, being such a happy cat, was a
piece of cake.
S: How much did you pay for this?
C: Sixty quid, and eight for the fruit-bat.

snip--------------------

When taxes are unfair the liberals will want more of them