Some mornings — maybe most mornings — eyeballing the news first thing is a real bad idea.
For openers, The Duck! City’s coppers told KOAT Action News that the 11-year-old suspect in Scott Habermehl’s death had already been considered “a danger to the community” thought to have a number of antisocial pasatiempos, among them “shooting one person, shooting at another person, as well as burglarizing multiple homes, vehicles, and a business.”
Next, a Las Cruces auto show turns into a shooting gallery. The body count varies wildly depending on your source of information, but The New York Times apparently had someone on the scene and counts maybe two dead and six injured.
It will tell you much about the state of today’s newspaper business that the Las Cruces Sun News had to run with a story from its El Paso cousin before finally getting its own report online around 8 this morning. Check out the staff directory. The El Paso Times now reports three dead and 14 wounded.
And finally, the DOGEbags are busting balloons over at NOAA, as John Fleck tells us in his latest wrecking-ball report.
Writes John: “Daily radiosonde launches from National Weather Service sites across the country, coordinated with similar launches at the same time around the world, provide critical data input to weather forecast models. While satellites and other data sources play an increasingly important role, the tried and true twice-a-day weather balloon launch provides the vital skeleton on which our weather forecasts depend. … The benefits of good weather forecasts vastly outweigh the costs of collecting and analyzing the data.”
Mad Blog Media 
You were right. Reading international, national, regional, and local news first thing in the morning is a very bad idea. Human kind is hell bent on self extinction. I don’t need to witness it on a daily basis.
I try to ease into current events by starting with the weather. But there’s no joy there lately either.
Me too, starting with NOAA weather first then the USGS Earthquake page. Then I check on-line banking to see if my ones and zeros are still there in the proper amounts. Then, the self flagellation begins with the BBC, CBC, France 24, AP, Reuters (although their pay wall became active again), NPR, Tucson News Now, and local Herald Dispatch. To soothe my soul after that, I go to the Rainbow Guitars and Sweetwater sites to pipe dream. Damn, that 12 fret Keb Mo Gibson J-145 got my name all over it.
https://www.rainbowguitars.com/guitar/gibson/keb-mo-30-12-fret-j-45/amrskmvs003/gb
Well I’m a bit off the back of the peloton as I first visit My Comics page, next AccuWeather to see how many layers I’ll need. Then while having breakfast I check in on the CA eagle YouTube nest camera. And then…..drum roll….I’ll get my news from Maddogmedia. If something is being bandied about that is particularly scandalous or agitating, I might then see if the Detroit Free Press has the lowdown. By buying a new MacBook of late, they gifted me with a few months of free Apple News bypassing a few paywalls so I could taste a little of the rage and angst, along with pitiful reporting. Enuf…I couldnt take it. I’ll live vicariously through y’all.
Now that’s a good idee. Start with the funny pages. When we still had real newspapers I would start with the funny pages, move to the editorial cartoon, and then I’d be locked and loaded for the evil tidings.
Let’s be like Herb, heh you Hoser? “Welcome To The Great White North” sounds inviting these days.
Be prepared to pay high taxes in exchange for health care and a comprehensive social safety net. Strict gun laws and female reproductive rights. Hear Hindi, Mandarin, Arabic, and other languages in conversation in public places. Embrace all this, along with cold dark winters. That’s Canadian. Not for everyone, but everyone is welcome.
That’s generous considering the bully in the pulpit in DC. I love it all save the cold and dark winters. After over 40 years in the high desert, I think I am stuck here until we run out of water.
I will be forever grateful for Canada for eddicatin’ me so good in kindergarten and grades 1-2 that I was able to vault directly into the fourth grade when we got transferred to Texas. One less year in the Texican school system.
That being said, Texas did introduce me to Mexican food. So, tradeoffs, yes?
After my big mug of fresh ground java I’m jacked up enough as it is. Reading, seeing or hearing anything about rich guys pouring the pork to us wouldn’t go well for me. I mean hell, I only have so much nice guy in me when I wake each day. If I use it up too soon there is hell to pay. I need to allocate it carefully so a news blackout keeps me from neck punching people. Or more likely….getting neck punched myself.
I gotta have two big mugs of fresh-ground java before I start returning to human form. Well, kinda-sorta human, anyway.
“I am half human”
Great line from “American Flyers” the great cycling movie, heh?