I have some pretty disparate information sources I read everyday. I start with a summary of Google news and work my way through the state Associated Press coverage and the local newspapers serving this area of Connecticut and then puddle-jump my way across the broadcast and cable TV websites. I do not pretend it's exhaustive, impartial, all-encompassing or anything of the sort.
I like to get a quick catchup from the time after I closed my eyes and put my head down on the pillow until the next morning at 0430 when my day begins. Those moments when I hear a crash or feel a thud and a loud voice says 'sorry!' are more than disquieting. Suspect that's true at your house as well. Does that mean there are days I linger over a far away date line? Sure. Such as the story from someplace in the middle west about a person petitioning to have his name legally changed to "In God We Trust", because he feels a higher power has saved a wretch like him. Where's Gracie Allen when we really need her? C'mon, stories like this (and these opposable thumbs) help separate us from the animals and fill up the day. I don't imagine they thrill too many judges, but you can't make an omelet without breaking a few legs (according to Mike Tyson).
The great thing about the world wide web is there as many sources of information for you as you can bear to click and use. With very little effort, 'underground' and 'establishment' can look, read and sound about the same. What you believe in as Truth and what you regard as propaganda have as much to do with you, the receiver, as it does with the sender. Sometimes, though, it can be hard to be sure the account you're reading is more or less objective (and that can be a hard job). I don't like those misgivings and wish the instances that gave me pause were fewer and surfaced less often.
I never attribute to malice that which can be explained by ignorance, but sometimes I get angered by the transparency of a reporter's bias where a conclusion has been reached and the purpose of the story is to display those facts which support a previously reached conclusion. I'm guilty of it, too, at times, 'my mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts.' but even if we all do it, that wouldn't make it right.
Nowadays Clancy Can' t Even Sing but he can whistle as long as no one is eating crackers. I can understand how acquaintances who consider themselves 'conservatives' get annoyed when freedom of thought and speech is encouraged unless you think things other than what those in authority want you to think and say-things they don't wish to hear. Liberal acquaintances point to Rush Limbaugh as if he were the Fifth Horsemen of the Apocalypse (considering how much shouting he does, perhaps it's Hoarse man.
Just me or do a lot of these folks, on both sides of the aisle, not seem to have an understanding of the purpose of a microphone) and too much of our debate on issues of importance, locally, regionally, state and nationally seem to be a variant of the Argument Clinic or "I know you are but what am I?" Our young nation once had the Lincoln/Douglas Debates of 1858 but I don't think we'll see a 150th anniversary edition during this, the dotage of our fall.
We tend to get those things we want and not necessarily those things we need. And then we are surprised when we are unhappy. Quick, find someone to blame, because that's what we'll want next. Right after we get a bigger boat and a deeper ocean.
-bill kenny
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