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Sunday, June 22, 2008AP: EVERYBODY PANIC! (and what to do about it)Not undaunted by its recent fisticuffs with the bloggers of the world, the Associated Press now chooses to manufacture alarm by claiming the American can-do attitude is "under assault." Of course, the article goes on to say this is cyclical, that we have nothing to fear, that the 21st century will challenge all previously held assumptions... ...blah blah blah. I reject this entirely. America is doing just fine, with or without the regurgitated nonsense media spinsters, commercial interests, speculators, and politicians ask us to eat and believe on a near daily basis. True we have our challenges. The state of the individual liberty in America is being actively challenged by the same aging crowd that trampled it in the latter half of the 20th century. And once again, these same Baby Boomers are looking to dip into the pockets of the future, passing along a $9 trillion dollar national debt in their wake, an unsustainable government-run health care network, thousands of government programs, a teetering dollar, and a legal jurisprudence that will require a Justinian Code to unravel. If there are faults, if there is a mess, it is because a generation rejected the wisdom of prior years for the sake of "a great unraveling" of things past. I do not credit it the victories of the civil rights movement or the defeat of Soviet Communism -- these are the laurels of the Greatest Generation, laurels I am certain Baby Boomers of the 1960s covet, but will never rightfully claim. There is a simple solution to all of the hype, to the network of 24 hour news and the steady ding of infotainment keeping so many American minds in the chains of consumerism and weak argumentation. Just. Unplug. Let's be honest: There is no possible decision on any policy position of the day that an educated mind cannot make. True, we don't need to operate in a vacuum. But do we really need the steady diet of misinformation, spin, and bad statistics that passes for news to make decisions about public education, transportation, the environment, social issues, and all the rest? So just unplug. Come back in two weeks and discover that the news of today has been the same news of the last two months. Come back and discover that the media picks and chooses crises based on what readers plugged-in will instinctively bleat like sheep as relevant. Come back and discover that slogans like "hope" and "experience" are really what you're voting for president in 2008 -- not true policy issues. Unplug for two weeks. Read some non-fiction books. Go camping this weekend sans blackberry or cell phone. Tear up a four foot by four foot patch of your backyard and plant some corn and potatoes. Ignore the media, and start asking why people are asking you to believe so-called news and information. If the fearmongers at the AP are so damnably right, then take some time away from the media -- and stop being told that America is falling apart. America is your backyard. No need to let anyone live there rent-free.
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JEFFERSONIAD POLL: Whom do you support for Virginia Attorney General?1) John Brownlee2) Ken Cuccinelli AboutShaunKenney.com is one of Virginia's oldest political blogs, focusing on the role of religion and politics in public life. Shaun Kenney, 30, lives in Fluvanna County, Virginia.ContactThe Jeffersoniad
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