We like to say it's a 24-hour news cycle. And maybe it is, but there's real news, stuff that effects our lives, that happens over a much longer span of time. Boring or not, we have to keep cycling back to it, for our own good.
For example, the Dems and Dem-leaning pundits can't sell an idea if their lives depended on it. Unfortunately, some people's lives do depend on health care reform. And we're losing ground with health care reform because the Repubs don't mind selling, even lying, to get it repealed.
If the tables were turned, and ObamaCare were a Republican idea (it actually was, believe it or not) you can be sure the idea of repealing it would have been shouted down long before it had a chance.
Another slow-hand story is one reported by Alexis Madrigal at the Atlantic. He says that "frictionless sharing" could undermine your legal right to privacy. I'm no lawyer, but I am a technologist. He's got a point, one I hadn't thought of until I read his piece. This is not a 24-hour story. It's going to be with us until we completely lose any rights to communicate privately.
|