Why do I listen to the news?

[Capt Jack]

Originally Posted by PirateMunkee

Wow, and people wonder why I keep praying for an asteroid the size of Texas to slam into the Earth.

Im workin on it! Im workin on it! geez, people are so impatient.

Originally Posted by Gemini Cricket

Go on a media diet.
No tv news, no radio news, nada.
Just take a break for a little while.
It helps.

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

I stopped watching and reading the news years ago. People may call me apathetic but I know my life is better for it.

no lie. I abandoned ship on "world affairs" via regular news outlets eons ago. I decided back then to concentrate on the things I can change and try to separate myself from the exasperating, depressing, enraging ones I couldnt. the news still gets around, but at least I dont feel saturated by it.

as my sig on another board says

"if you don't read the newspaper, you're uninformed
if you DO read the newspaper, you're misinformed
- Mark Twain"

I choose the former.

[Kevy Baby]

Also remember that for all of the horror stories you do hear about, there are also stories of people championing others. People taking at risk children into their homes and teaching them what unconditional love is. People overcoming personal tragedy to make themselves and the world a better place. The everyday heroes who coach kids (like, in basketball ) so that those kids grow up to be better human beings.

Unfortunately, those people are just not newsworthy. But they are out there!

[Gemini Cricket]

And when all else fails, there are Looney Tunes cartoons.
There's nothing that will make you feel better faster than watching a cartoon rabbit drop a boulder on an opera singer.

[scaeagles]

I'm more a Sponge Bob kind of guy, but Taz works for me.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Perhaps I should.

And yet you know you won't. Which of course is the very definition of addiction.

[Morrigoon]

I think the issue with the dumpster thing is this - we adults know about the drop off laws, but we're not making an effort to make sure our kids know about them - and guess who's most likely to need them? Yep, teenagers.

[BarTopDancer]

Sex is dirty. Sex is bad. Birth control promotes sex. If we ignore sex our kids will never find out about it! Won't SOMEONE think of the CHILDREN?!?!

[Strangler Lewis]

Given your response, I assume that you listen to the news for the reasons they broadcast such stories: to make the people who patronize their sponsors feel better about themselves at the expense of those less fortunate who commit these crimes. It's tough, of course, but I believe the first reponse to such horrors should be "There but for the grace of God go I." Yes, the janitor is a pervert, but illegal immigrant does not equal pervert. The criticism here should lie, if at all, with a school willing to hire someone for a position around children whose background it cannot reasonably expect to check.

[scaeagles]

Well, I oft feel that way regarding my god fortune in life. Many things which are beyond my control I am fortunate in. For example, I have a great wife, great kids. I know plenty of better men than I with a less than great wife or kids that struggle mightily in various areas of their lives.

However, there are certain things that I know I would never be party to. I will never, ever beat my children. I will never ever kill a baby. I don't understand the mentality of those who do and they sicken me.

I do hold the school administration to a high level of responsibility as well.

I don't listen to the news for such stories, though I know there are people who do for precisely that reason. I want to know what's going on in the world, and I don't consider such stories as really news worthy. What good comes from me knowing about a woman who has beaten her kid bloody? Or about a woman who drowns her newborn? Nothing. I guess they get the play, though, for the reason you cite.

I don't regard someone who beats their child or kills a newborn as less fortunate. I regard them as depraved.

[Strangler Lewis]

Victimization of others is all horribly foreign to me, too. Because it seems logical to assume that it should be easy to choose to do better, the fact that people make unspeakable "choices" tells me that, be it nature or nurture or both, they can't.