There are two important things going on in the world right now, the pending war with Iraq, and the potential civil war in Venezuela. Unfortunately, only one of these is getting much coverage in the press. This is odd, because we import a sizable percent of our oil from Venezuela (about 30%, if I remember correctly). A distubance in that flow of oil would almost certainly have an effect on our pump prices.

Most of the bandwidth tonight, however, is taken up with reporting on the story of the missing Lacy Peterson, most recently of Modesto, CA before her disapearance on Christmas Eve. I use the word "reporting" in it's loosest possible interpretation, because the factual information that has surfaced in this case over the past 30 days could probably be thoroughly summarized on a single sheet of paper - using large type. In spite of this, or perhaps because of it, the press seems unusually enamoured with this story. Now, it is a horrible story, a pregnant woman disappears without a trace, but it is only one of perhaps 150 such stories each year. Why does the media glom onto this one? I believe it has much less to do with the relative merits of this case than the desire of the media to serve up endless streams of mindless drivel and the incomprehensible (to me, at least) appetite that the American public has for such meaningless fluff.