For My Own Good

It is time to avoid watching news programs on TV. They do nothing but raise my blood pressure. For example, my flight into O'Hare was delayed Friday night, so I took a break from reading and watched CNN in the terminal for awhile.

It was OK for awhile. This new guy, Glenn Beck, was on first. He was goofy, but sort of likeable in a way. But after his show was over, I found myself wondering what it was about. Maybe I missed it, but I couldn't come up with the point after it ended.

But then the guy shows up, I think John Roberts. Apparently he didn't get the anchor job back at, where was it, NBC? So here he's doing a "news" program on CNN. And it is a one-hour advertisement that could have (and maybe was?) produced by the Democrat National Committee. An unbelievable hour of propaganda, complete with one-sided reporting and the presentation of opinions as facts.

I have been sort of avoiding the mainline networks as far as new programming lately, because of their obvious bias. But this was outrageous. At first, I was thinking, "How stupid do they think we are?". But by the end I was thinking, "Maybe most of us really are as stupid as they think."

I haven't figured out whether to be angry or frightened. But if the polls and pundits are right, we won't have much longer to wait to see what happens when the Democrats take charge of the war on terror. That's what frightens me.

Then there's this thing that looks like a public service commercial. It's about HPV. I've been aware that HPV is probably the largest epidemic viral disease we've got these days, so at first I thought it was about time for public service messages.

But then the shocker. The commercial, or psa, or whatever it was, never mentioned what HPV is. Not one word. Nothing telling us that it's an STD. It was even misleading, in that it seemed to suggest it was a relatively benign virus like the common cold. Oh, but it can lead to cervical cancer in women, so women should get their pap tests regularly. No biggie.

What is wrong with this picture?! Like AIDS, HPV is a disease nobody needs to get! Simple monogamy is the best and guaranteed way that nobody will get HPV. What the heck is wrong with saying that?! Why suddenly decide that something needs to be done about the biggest epidemic in our society, then mislead everyone about what the disease is and how it is transmitted?

Unbelievable.

I've got to stop thinking about this stuff, in addition to tuning out the news media. It's bad for my health.