When Rome was having trouble with the economy, wars and rumors of wars, and a host of other problems, the emperor gave them bread and circuses to take their minds off the other things. Between sports, Hollywood, and the talking pinheads on TeeVee, those distractions are pretty much covered. When it comes to a real discussion of important issues, you can actually see the eyes glaze over on most people. DO YOU HAVE THE WRITE STUFF?

Ever since I turned 18 and registered to vote--well, up until recent years--I was a true blue Republican, especially during my time in the Navy as a Reagan enlistee. During Gulf War I, I listened to Rush Limbaugh lambaste those nasty liberals and also bemoaned the liberal media like everyone else. What changed for me was George W. Bush and 9/11. I started using the Internet for more than just reading the transcripts of what they posted on Fox News. I started digging deeper. It was rather shocking to find that the media wasn't liberal at all and that I had been lied to (or, more correctly, I let myself be lied to) all those years. I am still working on the whole digging-to-find-the-truth thing, but I am no longer in danger of labeling the media as liberal without facts anymore. DO YOU HAVE THE WRITE STUFF?

Thanks for the comment! Part of what is lacking in this country is a lack of commitment to make time for the things that are truly important in the Big Picture. We have become a nation of video game addicts and there-was-a-book?-movie-watchers. Everything has to be now, now, now. But, despite having all the conveniences of an advanced industrial and technical nation, we have less time than ever. Why is that? It is a common complaint by many that "there isn't enough time". Funny. I was under the impression that we all have the same 24 hours in a day, broken down into 60 minute increments of 60 seconds each. If some people are able to accomplish a lot with the same amount of time, then the problem isn't a lack of time, but not using it efficiently. If I told a person who made that complaint that I would pay them a million dollars for the use of five minutes of every hour of their day, but they had to be awake for the deal to work, you can bet your hat that they would make every effort to free up that five minutes. They may pop vivarin and stay up for the whole period of time just to make sure they didn't sleep through the allotted amount of time. So, the question becomes a willingness to find the time. If they valued their freedom or knowing the truth, they could easily come up with a few minutes a day to fact check an article or news story. It may just take the right motivation, like losing their job or lots of money when this economy tanks because they weren't paying attention. DO YOU HAVE THE WRITE STUFF?