Fascinoma

Kierkegaard the Ironist fulminates against journalists in his journals: "What we need is a Pythagorean silence. There is a far greater need for total-abstaining societies which would not read newspapers than for ones which do not drink alcohol."

Of course Kierkegaard did not dream of Powerline and Fox News, but he certainly understood how the need for a "public" makes truth at best a tertiary consideration to journalists -- even as they congratulate themselves for their objectivity.

In any case, I have come to the conclusion that paying attention to the divergence of our national discourse from reality, or even rational abstraction, has had a pernicious effect on me, driving up my blood-pressure, making me irascible, causing me a very low form of despair, and distracting me from more salutary labors. So, I'm giving up the news -- not reading any more papers or blogs, not watching any news on TV, or not with any regularity anyway. We'll see how that goes and what it does for blogging.