Ostrich filet

I know how it is. There’s so much going on: the war, out-of-control nutjob ideologues with nukes (especially (y)our own), global warming… The born-agains are thrilled, believing their end of days is imminent. They’re having rapture dreams and getting glory bumps (I didn’t make that up), unconcerned about what shape the planet will be in when their kids grow up because they’re sure God’ll hoover ‘em all up any day now. If only life could be so painless for us all.

You, on the other hand, are suffering from massive middle-class guilt because you don’t know more about the issues, you don’t try to learn more, and you don’t do anything about them. But most days it feels like you’re struggling to stay vertical in front of one of those giant movie wind machines, and information overload is just part of it. It’s too hard to keep up, find the time or energy to educate yourself, much less do something, given everything else that’s going on in your life. You didn’t contact your congressperson before the torture bill was voted on (see Blind Spot below), even though you hoped Somebody would. You occasionally forward a political e-mail to a like-minded friend or two to convince yourself and others that you are on top of the issues…

There is a point to this entry, and it’s not to make you feel bad. There is a very easy (and free) way for the lazy and/or overwhelmed to get informed: RSS feeds and newsreaders. It has become so easy to filter information and have it delivered to you, that there is no good reason not to do so. Every day I get news, political articles, and fun stuff like movie reviews. I scan the headlines and excerpts, read the ones I’m interested in, and skip the rest.

All you have to do is go to Google Reader and create an account. You now have a newsreader. Might want to bookmark the login page.

Then you subscribe to news feeds. Try some of the feeds in my Blogroll on the right for starters. I recommend The Huffington Post, which gets its (very liberal) content from all over the place, truthout, for the real story, and BoingBoing, which is entertaining and informative.

Now, when you log in to your newsreader, all the articles from the news feeds you subscribe to are there for your reading pleasure.

You can also subscribe to frogblog. Because what I have to say is so earth shattering. Click the RSS link on the right under Credits. Just don’t ask me what any of that other stuff is; I have no idea.

Blind Spot: Here’s a list of the Senate Democrats who think a little torture is OK.

I know how it is. There’s so much going on: the war, out-of-control nutjob ideologues with nukes (especially (y)our own), global warming... The born-agains are thrilled, believing their end of days is imminent. They’re having rapture dreams and getting glory bumps (I didn’t make that up), unconcerned about what shape the planet will be in when their kids grow up because they’re sure God’ll hoover ‘em all up any day now. If only life could be so painless for us all. You, on the other hand, are suffering from massive middle-class guilt because you don’t know more about the issues, you don’t try to learn more, and you don’t do anything about them. But most days it feels like you’re struggling to stay vertical in front of one of those giant movie wind machines, and information overload is just part of it. It’s too hard to keep up, find the time or energy to educate yourself, much less do something, given everything else that’s going on in your life. You didn’t contact your congressp