Where do you get your news?

Or for that matter do you even keep up with the news? I'm a prodigious reader, specifically I'm a news junkie. I realize that almost every news publication/broadcast available today has a political agenda, so I temper everything I read/hear with considerable scepticism.

That said, not a day goes by that I don't check in with the New York Times and USA Today. I get most of my local news off the radio news stations while driving and the Dallas Morning News, which over the past year or so has deteriorated to a quality worthy of little more than birdcage lining. I rarely read Time or Newsweek as I find them to be too slanted/prejudiced. I do occasionally watch ABC or NBC, but never CBS. I really don't like "sound bite" news....there's just not enough meat there.

I enjoyed reading the Wall Street Journal, but dropped it a few years ago when it became too expensive. And lemme tell you, if you don't renew your WSJ subscription, they will hound you to death! They're the Jehovah's Witnesses of publishing.

For fun I read the BBC News and Spiegel online (British and German respectively). But my all time, hands down favorite source for news is The Economist. It's a weekly news magazine published in the UK, similar in format to what Time or Newsweek used to be, only light years better. Their presentation of American news events without the usual liberal/conservative slant we get here is refreshing. And their news from around the world is unparallelled, too.

Any suggestions for another source I've missed?

S

Shattered fantasy

OK, this is an odd one.....Mercedes Benz has published this photo of the faces (and bodies) behind the sat-nav voices that tell us to "turn here" or "brace for impact":




Here's my question: Do you really want to know what the faces behind the voices look like? Isn't it a fantasy we all have of the sexy voice whispering in our ear belonging to that sizzling-hot super model? Or for the ladies, maybe James Bond or Brad Pitt (or whoever the big male heartthrob is these days)?

Some of these ladies look just fine (although none are what I'd call super-model material), but several are a bit scary. And what's with the lone guy?

Some of our fantasies should just be left alone, methinks.

S

Your tax dollars at work

A true story: A guy went into one of the big box hardware/tool stores and said he had $2,000 to spend on lawn equipment. He picked out a lawnmower, edger, chain saw, ladder, etc, and when the total added up to less than $2,000, he went back and bought other odds and ends in order to get his bill up closer to his $2,000 figure. It turned out that his purchase was to be paid for by the United States government under some sort of "rehabilitative" program, and he had to use his full $2,000 or lose it. It seems they were going to set him up in some sort of lawn mowing business. I wonder if he had any idea how hard working outdoors in the scorching hot Texas sun is in the summertime?

Here's the absurdity of it: the stuff he bought was lightweight homeowner grade equipment. None of it will last more than a few weeks of 8-hours-a-day use. If he had had any lawn maintenance experience he would have known that. Apparently no one with the government "rehabilitative" program had a clue, either. So a few weeks into his new career his equipment will all be junk and the taxpayers will be out $2,000. Then what? Are they going to just keep cutting him checks until they finally get it right?

And they wonder why us taxpayers are fed up.

S

You're all invited to my wake

My 60th Christmas has now come and gone, and I can happily say it was a totally underwhelming event. Not that I don't like Christmas, I just don't like all the hoopla and hassle that goes with it. Watching the little kids open their presents...that's cool. Getting anywhere near a mall from mid-November on...not so cool. All in all, I'll take "underwhelming" every time. (Does that make me a Scrooge?)

K has officially put me on notice that next Christmas will be different. We will have a party, we will have more presents, we will have more decorations, and we will have more singing.

Do you know what this means? It means I have exactly 11 months to plan how to fake my own death. Any suggestions? *wink*

S

Testing new waters

Hello Blogspot. I'm looking to find a new home where I can permanently reside, and I'm hoping this is it. I've enjoyed JournalSpace way back when, then tried Wordpress and a few others after the big JS crash, but nothing really felt right. I've been trying to re-assemble my old network of friends from JournalSpace and found that more than a few have taken refuge here, so.....I'm in.

If you should stumble across me here please leave me a comment so I'll know where to find you. And thanks for visiting. See you again soon.

Regards,

S
(aka lowndslow)