Good News
Townhall,
by
John Stossel
Original Article
Posted By: drive,
9/18/2019 7:20:19 AM
I rarely watch cable news anymore. It's all hysteria, all the time.
CNN: "We are destroying the planet."
MSNBC: "The middle class is disappearing!"
President Donald Trump says drug trafficking "is worse than ever!"
I'm glad my favorite magazine, Reason, cuts through the gloom and tells us the truth:
There is less war and more food. We live healthier and longer lives. HIV will soon be history. We are increasingly free to be whoever we are and love whom we want. Even work has become more pleasant.
It's a surprising message, since most journalists tell us everything's terrible.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Paperpuncher 9/18/2019 8:00:26 AM (No. 182949)
It is nice to hear happy stuff once in a while. As a fairly happy individual, the constant barrage of bad news (most of it fake) does over time take its toll. I get up early every morning and say to myself today is going to be a good day. One must do a reset from time to time, sit down and just think of all things we have such as The Bill of Rights and also very important indoor plumbing,
30 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
LesUNo 9/18/2019 8:11:18 AM (No. 182955)
It really is rather simple. Choose to be happy. Choose to support and encourage your friends. Choose to approach every task with a positive attitude. Be an optimist. And yes, turn off the news.
Nailed it #1. The Bill of Rights and indoor plumbing. You have made my day.
26 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Mekkkk 9/18/2019 8:26:32 AM (No. 182968)
Really, do not listen to the news!
3 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Knotwyrkin 9/18/2019 8:27:50 AM (No. 182970)
When I REALLY need a break, I stop reading all the Comment Sections.
2 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
gop_guys 9/18/2019 8:32:02 AM (No. 182974)
Agreed. Watching news is prettying and even depressing!
I’m trying to read more. Currently reading Jonathan Cahn’s “Paradigm.” This messianic Jew gets it. Scary to see how much today’s culture looks like the days of King Ahab and Jezebel as they practiced Baal worship. Male and female prostitutes in the Temple and most distressing...child sacrifice. Peculiar regarding the orchestrated effort against Kavanaugh. Don’t think for one second, it’s not about abortion. The abortion industry is much deeper than the millions of dollars at stake, it’s deeply spiritual. What does it say about a society that won’t protect the most innocent and defenseless among us. Apparently, G_d hasn’t given up on America. With one more Trump appointed pro life judge, we can end this scourge and hopefully return to righteous living.
15 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
bpl40 9/18/2019 8:35:54 AM (No. 182978)
Most of these chicken little articles are about me-me-me. It is a thinly disguised complaint that I or the ideology I profess is not getting the recognition or power it deserves!
7 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
RobertJ984 9/18/2019 8:37:34 AM (No. 182979)
I was in the newspaper business. Good news doesn’t sell. The old adage holds true....”if it bleeds, it leads”
12 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 9/18/2019 8:43:03 AM (No. 182988)
Agree about not watching the news. Way too negative.
Our minds become conditioned by what we experience. If its mostly negative, our minds become conditioned to be negative even to the point of being negative when nothing bad is happening. Viewing everything in a bad light has long term consequences. We cant turn it off, and we become stressed out and in despair believing nothing will get better.
One really has to work at seeing things positively. One has to work at turning off all the negative thoughts about things that don't exist and aren't happening.
4 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
udanja99 9/18/2019 9:00:24 AM (No. 183006)
Last night I finished Ken Follett’s gazillion page book “A Column of Fire” about Elizabeth the first, Mary Queen of Scots and the Catholic vs Protestant wars all over Europe in the late 16th century. It included the Spanish Inquisition, burnings at the stake, mass executions of heretics on one side or the other as countries switched religions depending on the current monarch. A time when, following a religion different from the monarch and the one enforced by the government was not only heresy but treason.
And people in America today think that they’re oppressed and that everything is terrible? They need to read some history. Oops. My bad - schools no longer teach history because Western Civilization Bad.
18 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Clinger 9/18/2019 9:02:41 AM (No. 183010)
When you are evangelizing from the perspective of dismantling the current state, essentially our constitutional republic and capitalism, you must manufacture the illusion that the current state is a failure. If you can convince people it is not working you can convince them to try something different.
Here's where I disagree with Mr. Stossel and point I debated with a University of Chicago economics professor who graciously conceded to my position. Since we still live in family units, I measure economic success at the family unit level. Data has been obscured by measures at the individual level masking the fact that as a family unit we work more hours outside of the home to provide for the basic needs. Technology should have driven the opposite. We consumed the economic efficiency yield from technology on the inefficiency of government and the largess of great swaths of our society. By putting both mothers and fathers to work to support the welfare state which also incentivizes broken families we have done great harm to the family unit and the rearing of our children. That is a far bigger problem than 19th century firearm technology.
The policies that have prevented even greater quality of life have been in stark contrast to our founding principles. The left leverages the harm they have done by creeping socialism as the failure of our system of individual and economic freedom. As good as things are we are being pushed to the cliff and we have no bench strength. Since there is no one left to work even more hours that is why they now are sniffing at our social security and 401K savings and all wealth.
We have it good but at what cost and are we set up for a fall
13 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
MDConservative 9/18/2019 9:03:26 AM (No. 183011)
FTA: "...everyone should have less power over each other ... because people are going to make mistakes and hurt each other. Better that they shouldn't do it with the force of the state behind them."
Nothing more to add.
3 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
lakerman1 9/18/2019 9:27:40 AM (No. 183030)
#10, if you want to supplement what you read, you might want to watch Reign, a TV series about Mary Queen of Scots. I watched all four seasons of it, at first because our daughter was a cast member, but my interest grew over the four years. (The series was canceled when Elizabeth I cut off Mary's head.)
The series was especially good at depicting the political power held by landowners in France, and how the royal family had to deal with the landowners very carefully. And the series was historically accurate, with some poetic license.
The series is probably available on line, but I don't know how to access it.
2 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Enoch Powell 9/18/2019 9:39:21 AM (No. 183045)
As Abraham Lincoln said, "people are just about as happy as they decide to be."
10 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
Republic Can 9/18/2019 9:56:41 AM (No. 183065)
#13 Your local library most probably carries it. Thats where my Brit lady finds all of her English entertainment including Reign. Outlander and Black Sails are two of our other favorites.
1 person likes this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
beancounter 9/18/2019 10:00:09 AM (No. 183068)
Well, if you live in Venezuela, Afghanistan, or California things are definitely not better. They are all run by anti-populists. I reject the swipe at populist governments in the US, Brazil or Eastern Europe.
3 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
jeffkinnh 9/18/2019 10:31:24 AM (No. 183103)
"She suspects life will continue to get better "if we can just manage to keep politicians from screwing it up.""
AMEN!
I think we should have a waiting period before politicians can act; say, their first term.
2 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
planetgeo 9/18/2019 10:50:46 AM (No. 183121)
The MSM are the loudspeaker of the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party is the party of unhappy, angry people. They are unhappy and angry at, well, everything 24x7. And they want you to know that. It's like being handcuffed to the "spouse from hell".
4 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
law428 9/18/2019 11:06:51 AM (No. 183138)
Watch less news and memorize Philippians 4:7-8, then refer to it often as an antidote to negativity!
3 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Arby 9/18/2019 11:33:31 AM (No. 183172)
Lesson: take the news in very small doses and don't let politicians screw up our lives. Works for me. That government governs best which governs least. Just let us alone.
2 people like this.
F CNN
1 person likes this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
dbdiva 9/18/2019 12:02:47 PM (No. 183201)
Thank you #10.....I've added that book to my reading list.
I decided several years ago to limit the news I read or watch. I used to spend a lot of time following the news but then I would go to bed each night absolutely seething with anger over what the left was doing to the country. I decided that life is way too short to spend time being angry so I have limited the time allotted to reading news and I never watch news programs at all. The last program I watched was Bret Baier's the day after the 2016 election. I'll probably watch again after the 2020 election to see how the Dems handle the results.
I'm spending more time reading Scripture these days; it's a more productive use of my time especially as I'm getting older. It also helps me remember that the Lord is always in control and HE will punish all evil doers when HIS time comes.
4 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
janjan 9/18/2019 12:13:31 PM (No. 183210)
I don't think cable news can rule you unless you let it. We live in the most prosperous free country in the world. Yet we protest successful fast food restaurants because their owners believe in marriage between a man and a woman. The shock. Our youth go to expensive colleges but have adolescent melt downs if they have to listen to an opinion they don't agree with. And the rest of us are supposed to care. We don't. This is a result of being ungrateful and ignorant of how the world works. Trying to micro manage other people's beliefs, life styles or opinions will only produce frustration and constant anger. People like that will never learn to enjoy life. Don't be them.
1 person likes this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
ZeldaFitzg 9/18/2019 12:21:29 PM (No. 183218)
I used to watch FoxNews every night, like clockwork. Silly me; I thought they told the unfiltered truth. Several years ago I stopped watching the news altogether-----including and especially the local news. I read L-dot every morning and no longer read Drudge, which also had been my daily fare.
4 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
Lawsy0 9/18/2019 12:57:35 PM (No. 183258)
Got to agree with Abe Lincoln. Happiness is a choice. (And love is a decision.)
3 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
Upright2 9/18/2019 1:02:53 PM (No. 183265)
Your neighbors are much more important than anyone "on TV". More and more, I'm privileged to say "I never heard of him(or her)" when someone cites a TV personality.
2 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
Deltadawn 9/18/2019 1:36:16 PM (No. 183296)
The First Casualty of War is the Truth(i.e. fake news)
One of the Most Important Things in a War is to Know Your Enemy. (Keep an eye on these folks even if it makes you want to vomit!)
We should all read "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu from the 5th Century BC. The guidance in this book is timeless and applies to war, politics and even functioning in the business world.
DON'T KID YOURSELF, THIS IS WAR!
2 people like this.
Reply 27 - Posted by:
TLCary 9/18/2019 2:41:01 PM (No. 183339)
“I get all the news that I need on the weather report”
... and you guys.
“Hey, I've got nothing to do today but smile”
- Thank you Simon & Garfunkel
0 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
udanja99 9/18/2019 2:51:29 PM (No. 183347)
Thanks, #13. I don’t watch television or go to movies so I didn’t know about Reign. I’m a a professional hand embroiderer and most of what I know about Mary Queen of Scots is from the perspective of her work - she was a very prolific needleworker.
1 person likes this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
Namma 9/18/2019 6:28:28 PM (No. 183501)
I check the news, especially politics everyday. And I am happy. I read articles like the ones posted in must reads today. 5 articles on how stupid the democrats are! Five, one right after the other. I could not make up my mind which one to read first. I love it.. Has me smiling from ear to ear. I also listen to WMAL, with Vince and Mary, who are right on top of things, and then comes Chris Plante. I think he is hilarious, and he makes me laugh with his comments on the days happenings. And then its Lucianne, with the best of the best articles, and comments that make my day. You make it what it is. Come on, lighten up. There is always something good happening everyday. Find it. or you make it happen.
0 people like this.
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Enjoy the good news. Shut off TV.