So with the writers' strike threatening all good television, last night I decided to check out a "reality" show that I usually don't watch. It was called "the news." Now this show has been on ever since I was a kid, but surprisingly what I saw wasn't a rerun. It was kind of a downer though.

First it was explained how the economy is on the verge of collapse, what with the crumbling housing market, skyrocketing gas prices, billions of dollars lost by GM - once the focal point of the American economy, and massive layoffs on the horizon. Then they talked about how one year from now we'll have elected the next president and that the front runners are Rudy Guliani and Hillary Clinton. It's really sad, looking at a list of all the people currently running for president, I can't imagine any one of them doing even a halfway decent job. The only one I can listen to without wanting to cry is Obama, but according to the poll on "the news," people won't vote for him because he doesn't have enough experience. (Too bad we didn't use the same criteria seven years ago.)

After the commercial I was told that, while thousands of lives and billions of dollars have been spent battling terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, none of that will matter because now Pakistan and Iran are the biggest threats, and one (and maybe soon the other) already has nuclear weapons. Plus Russia has been causing problems lately. Wait, I thought we already beat them. Guess not.

But it still gets worse - even the toys our kids play with that are made in China are unsafe. First there was the lead-based paint, but the problems caused by that weren't obvious enough. So now toys that are really popular in Australia (and not quite as popular here) are being made out of roofies. That's great news if you're in a frat, but not so great otherwise. The next commercial break was supposed to provide some relief, but it was spent by GE explaining to me that it's my fault that the environment is in such bad shape. Sure GE has spent the past 60 years or so operating in direct conflict with the environment to the betterment of kitchens everywhere, but now it's all my fault for playing along.

Maybe I can find some relief in the sports page. Let's see, the Twins are on the verge of losing Torii Hunter and Johan Santana, and now are even willing to trade away their good young pitchers. The Timberwolves are winless and won't be getting any better for at least a year. The Vikings have Adrian Peterson and Sidney Rice, but by the time they get a quarterback, the defense will be too old and they'll be as mediocre as ever. Howabout the weather - let's see, another week of 45 and cloudy. Oh well, the sun is overrated anyway.