Part of the reason I’ve shifted away from the classic tv-and-newspaper approach is that few of those actually give me the kind of news I want. Not the slant, the subjects and the approach. One thing that I’ve found, over the years, is that the typical mainstream news outlet in this country is afraid to tackle issues of complexity that unfold over a long span, such as economic developments, the political changes occurring in other countries, environmental issues, gender politics, and so on. Much of it is like reading a child’s version of the world, with all the parts that interest me left out, or so dumbed-down that it’s insulting.

I consider myself an informed person, who pays attention to what’s going on around her, but what I get from most “news” outlets isn’t information, but noise. (Who cares what Jon and Kate ate? Or that the Obamas went on a date?)

(Rush, Rush, don’t talk about drugs and unintended impacts on the senses. It’s just too easy.)

(I think i’m just going to pull out my VHS of Broadcast News and watch that opening sequence at the TV producers and reporters conference. Holly Hunter’s producer had it pegged all too well. “You’re going to get a lot more of it.” Faint echoing “Good” from the departing crowd.)

On the other hand, traditional media have been touting bullshit “firsts” and “exclusives” for years, so at least I know where they learned it.

So if we’re heading south of 5% of America at this rate watching the evening news, and even if you assume every Blitzer/O’Reilly/Matthews/Olbermann/Maddow/Hannity/Cooper viewer is non-duplicated among themselves or with the Big 3 newscasts, you can’t hardly even get to 10% — where are people getting their news from?

This doesn’t quite sound the way i intend it, but are we already into a zone where most news floating around in the thought bubble of the body politic is that which is picked up second hand, in conversation or FB comments from someone who watched “The Daily Show,” with occasional confirmation/clarification of confusing details (what’s a Uighur, and why does Jon think this is funny?) from a zip through Google News?

On the other hand, i’m just not convinced that an average conversation on politics and foreign policy is that much more dramatically ill-informed than they were twenty years ago. My theory on newspapers has been that we don’t actually have fewer readers, but just don’t have as many people subscribing & buying papers they never read; ditto books and fiction reading. So could it be that even in the privacy of the home, we only just recently felt (as a society) that it was OK to not turn on Walter or Dan or that nice lady who was on the Today Show after dinner? Honey, just click to that Animal Channel program, it’s more relaxing than all those protests somewhere.…

Even if i’m right about that (people weren’t really watching before, stopped going through the motions in the last few years), it still leaves open the question — where is the critical mass coming from on what people know/think they know about the nation and the world? I don’t think we know. And secondhand watercooler “i heard it on Jon Stewart” is as good an answer as any right now.

Two years ago my neighbor tore down his garage and burned it every night, a smoldering heap . It took at least ten weeks, a little fire each night.
You are NOT supposed to burn that stuff. Oh well…at least the next-door neighbor quit his nasty fire-habit ( I think the landlord must have forced him to quit). Oh, and they half-assedly mowed part of the yard last week…FOR THE FIRST TIME ALL SUMMER.

The coverage of the I-69 head-on crash that killed the golfer’s wife over the weekend was quite good (kpc news, but ya gotta have a paid sub) .
The soldiers that were passing through, the parishioners of St Anthony’s, the athletes on the bus who were not injured too bad, all pulled out all the stops to handle the situation, even as to preparing a LZ for the helicopter ambulances.
Why are so many people crossing lanes and smashing into other vehicles? it happened in Butler Monday night, too. And near Auburn Monday eve, I saw a semi-truck veer off onto the shoulder and scrape some of those reflective poles, and then do it AGAIN five miles down the road!

We had goats in Auburn. My former still has them. She always felt they should be fed nice stuff. This was all well and good, but they refused to eat any crap like grass and weeds. I called them the welfare goats.

Burning stuff in CA is just not on. You can do some burning in rural areas, but the drill is to call the county hot line first to learn if the day is a burn day. Be quick. There aren’t many. Usually cool drizzly days. Also what you burn and how you burn are regulated. They do watch and they do enforce. This is one area where rural neighbors will inform on you. The stakes are just too high.