David McElroy

In most parts of the country, schools have either just started back for the year or they’re just about to. Most children are sad about this, but many parents are excited to have some peace and quiet for a change.

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What does Rand Paul believe? Does he really know anymore? Or have his efforts at pragmatic compromise left him just as confused as the rest of us about who he really is?

For a long time, many people have believed that Rand Paul can’t be too much different from his uncompromising father. Ron Paul has preached a purist message for decades, as a Republican congressman, a Libertarian Party presidential candidate and then as a Republican presidential candidate. No matter how politically unpopular it was, Ron Paul could be counted on to be consistent — every single time.

How much different could his son be? He called himself a libertarian and he’s said many of the right things about reducing the size of government and about the virtues of making governance as close to local as possible. But ever since he entered GOP politics, he’s been ever more willing to say and do things to court the Republican mainstream and the party powers. Libertarians are now looking at him and wondering whether the man they saw as the heir to his father’s movement is one of them or if he’s really one of the people they’ve spent decades fighting.

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What would happen if everybody quit watching news? What would happen if people quit reading newspapers? Would the resulting world be more ignorant? Or would the resulting world be more interesting and insightful — as people started thinking about important things in their own lives instead of trivia in other people’s worlds?

I didn’t pay attention to a bit of news Wednesday. It was a very stressful day for me, so I just didn’t have time. I had some work deadlines that were pretty much impossible to meet, and I was worrying about a cat whose leg was being amputated. (Bessie came through surgery just fine, by the way. I might get to see her today, but she’ll be staying at the vet’s office at least through Friday.)

So I was busy enough — and preoccupied enough — that I didn’t read a news story or see any bit of news online or overhear any TV news story. Did it matter? Would it matter if I did the same thing every single day from now on?

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