It's Soapbox Time.
I recall a news article about an academic who had studied the effects of information overload. I'd like to know what he found because I'm a wreck. I'm a news junky and every bit of it is making me nuts. I could be just overreacting to all that I hear, but I still think the world has gone mad.
The weather is screwy. I can't even listen to the weather report without being anxious. Being a red blooded Canajun boy, I should be up to my knees in snow right now, and it has been raining cats and dogs all day. It's going to be like a warm spring day tomorrow according to the geeks with supercomputers in Ottawa. This time of year, normally there are emasculated brass monkeys running all over the place. Now there are rivers of water in the streets. Catastrophic weather. This global warming thing has got me in a state.
Now we can proceed to the real hard news. That's the stuff that's really got me freaking out. Every week we hear stories of greedy business people peddling poisons and playing hard and fast with the facts to avoid scrutiny. Their friends, the greedy politicians are under constant scrutiny, and they're not saying much either even though they try to hog airtime as much as possible.
About the only good news these days is kinda bittersweet because it has taken a disaster of horrendous proportions to motivate the world to do good. Massive relief efforts are underway, and people the world over are rallying to the aid of the tsunami victims in south Asia. It's good to see this global effort, but I wish a few hundred thousand people didn't have to die to generate the good news. Even so, I've donated money and I'd urge anyone with a few extra bucks to do the same. Maybe the world can improve by keeping the momentum of third world debt relief and construction ongoing. That would be good news without the accompanying disaster.
It is more likely that in a few months we will get back to scrutinizing the greedy business people and the crooked politicians, and forget that we were ever decent. Then the news will return to it's normal state. Bad.
The weather is screwy. I can't even listen to the weather report without being anxious. Being a red blooded Canajun boy, I should be up to my knees in snow right now, and it has been raining cats and dogs all day. It's going to be like a warm spring day tomorrow according to the geeks with supercomputers in Ottawa. This time of year, normally there are emasculated brass monkeys running all over the place. Now there are rivers of water in the streets. Catastrophic weather. This global warming thing has got me in a state.
Now we can proceed to the real hard news. That's the stuff that's really got me freaking out. Every week we hear stories of greedy business people peddling poisons and playing hard and fast with the facts to avoid scrutiny. Their friends, the greedy politicians are under constant scrutiny, and they're not saying much either even though they try to hog airtime as much as possible.
About the only good news these days is kinda bittersweet because it has taken a disaster of horrendous proportions to motivate the world to do good. Massive relief efforts are underway, and people the world over are rallying to the aid of the tsunami victims in south Asia. It's good to see this global effort, but I wish a few hundred thousand people didn't have to die to generate the good news. Even so, I've donated money and I'd urge anyone with a few extra bucks to do the same. Maybe the world can improve by keeping the momentum of third world debt relief and construction ongoing. That would be good news without the accompanying disaster.
It is more likely that in a few months we will get back to scrutinizing the greedy business people and the crooked politicians, and forget that we were ever decent. Then the news will return to it's normal state. Bad.
posted by othercat @ 10:10 p.m.
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