Commercial Free Zone

Whenever I watch television, I gravitate toward those channels that are commercial free. A year ago, my wife and I decided to combine our telephone service with our cable TV and Internet services. This deal allowed us to save money every month and to gain many more channels. My first impulse when turning on the TV now is to turn to the upper channels like IFC and Sundance before I work my way to Encore and eventually to TCM and PBS. If I am reduced to watching regular TV when too tired to do anything else, I turn to the Weather Channel, the History Channel, Discovery, or National Geographic while ensuring that my finger is close to the mute button during the commercials unless I should fall asleep. Before my wife and I expanded our channel lineup, I used to spend a few minutes on Tuesday nights watching one of the professors at a local community college teach my subject area; although the class had a fifteen minute intermission about midway through the three-hour class, it still remained free from spots pitching products offering to increase my libido or to make me an epicure of fast food. Even Book TV on C-Span during weekends offers a respite from commercials. When I used to commute, I tried listening to the radio until the number of commercials forced me to turn it off. It stands to reason that I won’t be adding advertisements to this blog. If I cannot stand commercials on the TV or the radio, why would I want them on the Internet? I understand how it could be possible to make money from offering advertisements. This posting is not in judgment of other bloggers. I believe that exercising my own voice does not require remuneration apart from an occasional comment or two.