No. I don't care at all.

I saw Hitchhiker's Gude to the Galaxy last night. It was well done, I think, considering how gloriously absurd the book is. I think Martin Freeman was a glorious casting choice for Arthur Dent: he nailed the 'everyman' persona that comes across so strongly in the book. The Heart of Gold wasn't quite how I pictured it, but it was still well-done. They left out some things I think they should have included, yes, but, really: any movie that can pull off the sudden creation of a very surprised sperm whale gets my vote. And the opening sequence was to wonderful for words.

Okay, had to get that out of the way. Onto the Rant of the Day*: News in America. I'm not going to bitch about the entertainews that plagues TV - my opinion is that the closest shot you've got at getting actual news on TV is perhaps tuning into C-Span. Forget the talking heads, they're worthless. A 15-second sound bite is not news, it's a scripted recitation of what the authorities want you to know, and/or an alarmist scheme to boost ratings so that more people are indoctrinated by the subject matter of ads.

No, my issue is what Americans care about. I'm going to use Google News as my example here. Let it be said in advance that I adore all things Google, I think that those folks are brilliant, Google News is great based on the fact that it consolidates hundreds of stories on one topic into one list, and now you can customize it however you want. My Google News is my start page, and I've got it showing me the the 'World' section, the 'U.S.' section, the 'Business' section, and 'More Top Stories'. That's it. I like it that way, because those things actually matter.

The top story right now under 'U.S.' is "Many in Runaway Bride's Town Feel Betrayed", via ABC News. The general gist is there was a young lady who was about to get married. She went missing, and called in a phony kidnapping tip. She had not, in fact, been kidnapped, but gotten nervous, chickened out of getting married, and decided to fake her own kidnapping.

Okay, weird, yes. An unkind thing to do, which consumed a huge amount of police time and money, and also left many people upset. I agree. Is it one of the most important things going on in the nation, though? No, it is not. I would say that our government confirming that North Korea has successfully tested a short-range missile is more important. Or that proving that abuse did indeed occur at Guantanamo is a bit more important.

However, no one cares, because that doesn't make us feel warm and fuzzy. We don't want impersonal, factual news; we want warm fuzzy special features, interspersed with alarmist stories about how a factory is polluting and the toxic smoke is going to kill you all within three days! Details at eleven.

*I've decided that many of my rants like the above are, quite simply, irrelevant. Writing exercises for myself, you see.