I often hear on etsy "I don't watch the news- it's too negative". I worry about this because the news broadens your world. When I turn on NPR in the car, I get information about how the economy is doing, about foreign countries, about the surprising epicness of Canada. When I switch on Rachael Maddow, I enjoy her well reasoned analysis and the interesting guests she has on. The PBS news, especially soothing, and I like at the end when they sometimes bust out random poetry.

Knowing what's going on gives me a sense of security. When I know how the wind is blowing, I can move to adjust. When I have no sense of a baseline, of what is going on every day, the big stories seem more surprising and scary. And really, don't you seem more clever talking about the pirates in Somalia than you do talking about man, it's really cold today?