And yet . . . there was politics

It's true: I did not take a computer with me on vacation, so I had no email or internet access. I thought I would leave politics behind too.

First, I found the daily New York Times for sale at the Starbucks down the road. I've discovered in visits to other smaller cities (Santa Fe, for example) that you can always find the NYT at Starbucks.

Then . . the condo had cable TV, and I discovered MSNBC and almost became addicted to a line-up that is the liberal's answer to Fox News.

Starting in the late afternoon, you can watch straight through hour-long programs each hosted by: Chris Matthews, Al Sharpton, Laurence O'Donnell, Rachel Maddow, Daryl Rattigan, and Ed Schultz on The Ed Show. Meanwhile, I could flip back and forth and watch Anderson Cooper on CNN and, later, Charlie Rose on PBS. Not just liberal, in contrast to Fox and most of the rest of TV as well, but intelligent discussion. Six hours in a row !!!

Rachel Maddow was already my favorite, from watching clips of her programs on the internet. But Al Sharpton? I was unprepared for the quality of his show. I remember the skeptical comments, when MSNBC announced it was giving a talk show to Sharpton. But the Reverend Al turns out to be quite a lucid and focused interviewer and news analyst. He does not in any way come across as a radical screamer, as he has often seemed in the media when defending some victimized individual. I came to look forward to his pithy characterizations, as well as his clear thinking and hard-hitting challenges to the Republicans.

The big problem was -- which show would I choose to miss in order to go out for dinner?

All this intelligent, reasonable discussion was intoxicating after the vast morass of the Monday night CNN-Tea Party sponsored GOP debate (more later about that) and just about anything else on the tube, including those pestering commercials.

I briefly flirted with the idea of coming home and getting cable TV. But in the end I opted out. It was ok to spend four or five hours watching TV on vacation; but not as a regular diet back home.

I broke myself of the TV habit long ago, and I don't want to get addicted again. After all, I can barely support (time-wise) my addiction to the internet.

Ralph