news porn

Horrific though it is, I fail to see why a university shooting in the US should occupy top billing on the news here in Sydney. In a far away country someone I never knew shot a load of other people I never knew and then killed themself thus removing any threat they may have posed. George Bush is shocked and Queen Elizabeth is saddened. I was a bit shocked, but you know, after a while this sort of news loses it's impact because in the US it seems to just happen. Sure the numbers are bigger, but year on year guns get bigger and better and the (post?) MTV generation are hung up on pushing limits, every series of Big Brother being more outrageous (yawn) than the last. This is news porn, not news. It is Big Brother made real and brought to us as news. I'd rather know about the drought or interest rates or unemployment or local threats. Or local good news. This reporting should be consigned, along with anything to do with Anna Nicole or Paris Hiliton, to quick snippets. It is not relevant news and occupies time that could be informing me of things I do need to know. Still horrific though. Why do the Americans do this so often?

Not a full on hypocrite, but, well, y'know. Someone left one of those free papers on the bus this arvo (that is 'afternoon' in Australian) and I picked it up and read about...yep...BUT, I still think it should be in suplement sections and documentaries and not in the news. Too far away, too few links to home.

Did my final Australian run before the big (Sun)day, a gentle out and back along the new bike path by the freeway. Did it after work and on the last bit I ran along the path at the bottom of the local park. Very dark, running blind, all sorts of visions of tripping on some hidden obstacle running through my mind. But no, all good and I am now packed and ready to go. Not a lot more I can do now other than kick back, try to chill out and get mentally ready. I'm physically as good as I'm going to get this year.