Rant #2,283: Wonderful World

Yes, we are slowly getting closer to the big day ...

And I, personally, am getting closer to a few days off.

I am sure everyone is counting the minutes now until Christmas Day, and I know that I certainly am, but probably for an entirely different reason than 99 percent of people are.

But that is OK. In a world where diversity is honored, no, not everyone follows this holiday, no matter what you are told.

But I do follow my Yahoo news feed, and I have to laugh at the headlines of the day.

Let's look at today's main news items on my Yahoo home page, probably the only place where such items are even listed as "news" anywhere.

Let's see ...

"Snow Days Could Become History In U.S. Schools": Evidently, Google and several school systems are working together to make sure that when schools are closed because of inclement weather, kids are still on their computers, doing work and not wasting the day on their sleds. This is just so wrong on a number of levels, the first of which is that kids look forward to snow days--heck, I know that I did, even though the New York City schools rarely closed during the era I was in that school system. And do we really need kids on the computer all day, rather than sledding and throwing snowballs with their friends? Let kids be kids. Snow days are fun, and kids have a habit of catching up, anyway.

Well, at least that one you can go back and forth with, but there are some headlines which kind of make you want to go directly to the comments without even reading the story:

"Woman: I Was Woody Allen's Teen Lover"

"I Got My Breast Implants Removed and Feel Better Than I Have In Years"

"Kate Jackson Turns 69 and Is Not Like We Remembered"

"9 Women on Times They Were Caught Having Sex"

"Pope Francis Warns American Pop Star Not To Be Too Sexy At Vatican Performance"

and this immortal one:

"Miley Cyrus Defies Physics With Saturday Night Live Performance"

Yes, sex sells, it always has and alway will, and reading these headlines, you would think you were reading The National Enquirer rather than your Yahoo news page.

And is Miley Cyrus pretty much exposing herself on national TV national news?

I guess it is, if Miley Cyrus is your cup of tea.

Me, I don't drink tea or coffee, so I guess I am more into someone else, but not "Miss Look At Me," Miley Cyrus.

Now, to be fair, at the top of the news page, Yahoo offers you a link to "news," but let me tell you, things aren't much better on that site, and yes, Miley Cyrus must be national news, because you can find her there too.

Many of these supposed news stories are sponsored, meaning they are rife with ads throughout, and with some of these sponsored sites, you have to keep clicking and clicking until you reach the end of the supposed news item.

These things never end, and after one or two or three clicks, you are bored as can be, and any thinking person would stop right there.

Look, I am an adult, and I get my news from my local newspaper and television. I look at my Yahoo news as a diversion, nothing else.

But I am sure there are people who get their news from nowhere else than their Yahoo home page, and that is sad, really sad.

They are not getting the major news stories--the real news stories--that they should know about, the stuff that makes them think.

Sorry, "Miley Cyrus Defies Physics" defies anybody's intelligence, and truly allows our President to proclaim certain items as "fake news"--and he is, by and large, correct.

We have gone into "Entertainment Tonight" mode with our news, and that is not only wrong, that is pretty scary.

And that makes your Yahoo news page probably the scariest page on the Internet, even though most of us probably don't think of it that way.

Let's see ...

"Victoria's Secret Model Slammed For 'Fat Shaming' After Exercising and Eating Fruit in Front of In-N-Out Customers"

Yup, that's page one news in my book.