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(Quote: The "world news" that you see on American television is more like "how the world has to do with the US.") Yes, that's a better version at what I was hinting at. We certainly have world news but it's very self-centered. And when you add that to the fact that we are so far away from most other places, most people really just don't comprehend other things that go on in the world. I know that the US gets looked down a lot as being arrogant. But I don't think it's arrogance, I think it's ignorance and a lack of understanding. When you hear of things like bombings, Tsunami's, etc. it is very hard for people here to comprehend how devastating it can be as we are so far removed. That's why I think it is important for people to travel and get a broader understanding of the world. Traveling won't help you change a diaper thus I don't think it a necessity before having kids. But doing some serious traveling (beyond a small get drunk and party week) with or without children will certainly change your life, your views, and things that you teach your chidlren. Just my 2 cents.

On the subject of getting news in America: I personally find Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman ( http://www.democracynow.org/ ), Indymedia ( http://www.indymedia.org/ ), and some of NPR & the BBC to be a lot more informative & unbiased (as they're not trying to sell commercial products or endorse certain corporations or religious groups) than anything else I could hope to find on the "mainstream" media.

I'll check those out when I get a chance. I usually just stick to reading news from multiple sources in lots of different countries. By noting the differences between them, it's usually possible to sort out the facts from the fluff. It's also good to read the extreme views (i.e. Fox News, Al Jazeera.info editorials, etc.) on top of the more mainstream ones, as it gives you an opportunity to see what different sorts of views can stem from a small collection of facts via incredibly different interpretations of them.

I agree that we need to read from multiple-p.o.v. sources, compare thoughtfully, but I tend to read more of the indy stuff in the past five years, as the previous 25 were spent (unbeknownst to myself until relatively recently) solely reading/listening to the mainstream lies.