A Failed Attempt at Commenting on a Talking Points Memo

Since a certain change has taken place at This Space for Rent, I've decided to try becoming a more professional writer. Perhaps, even, something of a web journalist (editorialist).

So, I typed Talking Points into a search engine and started reading.

Now I'm reaching for a pain reliever with a sleeping aid.

I'm not going to bother commenting on our country's political shenanigans. After reading one post and forty comments about a CBS news story (from the show 60 Minutes) that I haven't seen, I've decided nothing can be gained by even mentioning ... Anything at all.

Are people, in all seriousness, just now coming around to questioning the veracity of news reports? Are they not questioning the veracity of everything they see or hear? Or even the relevance?

I've decided that I'm not going to block out one source of news in favor of another. I read, I watch, I listen to as much as I can stand. Here lately, that hasn't been very much at all. The only source for needed news I've found is something called Independent Media. It runs on Free Speech TV, and it's not without its slants and/or biases.

It was Free Speech TV that helped me to realize that I would not be able to hack it as a professional journalist. It was there I saw a report about Yucca Mountain ... First as it aired on, of all places, the usually liberal PBS network; then, as it was submitted by the reporter who did the story. Certain details he had gathered that explained exactly why locals were opposing the toxic waste site were deleted. The end result was that the aired reports made the local protesters look like a bunch of kooks who had nothing to worry about. As someone who would have liked to be a journalist at one point, this really put me off my lunch. I don't know what I would do in a situation like that. So, I preemptively quit the profession. I decided instead focus on Geology (I'll still do writing on the side, mostly poetry and observances ... things I hope will be funny.)

So, along with my realization that I won't become a professional journalist (this realization occurred about a year ago), I'm starting to wonder why I might need any news at all. I know that not following current events might make me a dull conversationalist (the only thing I have to say right now is "Why should I care about Bush/Kerry's Vietnam record?"), but maybe that will force me to be more creative.

I could really go on and on here. For a thirty-year-old who has no college degree, and has done nothing remarkable with his life, to sit and comment on our state of ... Being ... Would seem to some to be a waste of time on the part of both the reader and the writer.

But Comment I will, dammit. And there are far worse things I could do with my time.