I hereby declare a week long moratorium on all political news that is dispersed through the Fourth and Fifth Estate; by this I mean newspapers, magazines, network and cable television, radio, streaming video, and blogs.  I command Arriana Huffington, Kos, Slate, et al, to go on a weeklong vacation, preferably where they can get some sun. Effective, immediately, Fox is banished off the air; in fact, they will be shut down indefinitely as punishment for crimes against truth.  Imagine, a week without the smarmy presence of Sean Hannity and his ever-changing cast of airheads. Gosh, we would be free from the nasally harangue of Greta and the bottom feeding antics of Nancy as well) All right...no John Stewart for me even though everyone knows he's just a comedy show...right?

 No Glen Beck, no Katie regurgitating manufactured "facts", no Stephen Colbert coddling cracker musicians, no foolish John McCain campaign videos, no using my campaign donations to counter his nonsense, no Paris Hilton videos, though I have to say you were the high point of the week, dear. 

Talk radio is banned from the airwaves, all 25,000 conservative hosts, as well as you five or six progressives who are still allowed a tiny broadcast frequency. All country western DJ's who feel compelled to punctuate their shows with misogynist or racist ignorance are hereby sent away for sexual and racial reassignment...I mean sexual and racial sensitivity training.

 Newspapers are hereby forbidden from spreading the corporate, oops, I mean political agenda.

 All the bloggers, everywhere, down to the last of us should go out and run, play Frisbee, swim, kayak, take our kids to the zoo, make love to our spouses.  Give the poor tired brain a rest.

 Maybe I will extend this order to those "men and women of the cloth'" who use their pulpit to further their own political agenda.  OK I hereby order you to be replaced by a guest speaker...just for next Sunday.  It's okay... you'll be back the following week to further compromise your soul.   Whose payroll are you on anyway?

 We have all been on a bender and now our psychic liver needs a rest.  

Oh, I just remembered...I'm not the King or the Queen or even the Decider. I can't control the outside forces that hammer away at us 24 hours a day. No, I can't stop them, but I CAN stop participating.  For seven days I hereby proclaim that I will not look at or listen to any political news from any source. I will delete politically motivated email without opening it. I will read poetry with my breakfast instead of spilling coffee on my Mac as I try to negotiate four news sources at once.  The television will only be tuned to old movies or Bonanza reruns. I will carefully navigate the radio in my car and turn it off immediately if any compromising songs come on. 

I am stepping off of the media merry-go-round. Perhaps in the quiet, I will relearn the concept of initiating one's thoughts from within rather than be baited into simply responding to the continual propagandized din from the agents of the media.

Who said I couldn't afford a vacation this year.