"If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed."
Mark Twain
Ever wonder where academics got that "elitist" reputation?

I beg to differ TW. There is nothing more "elitist" about saying you need to keep abreast of current events, than there is saying you need to register for the draft, pay your taxes and show up for jury duty. Its a basic requirement of citizenship. We own this country. Bitch about Congress all you want, but we're the ones that put them there. If you don't know what you're voting for or against, you get what you deserve. To me, being informed is to getting good government, as getting a job is to financial security.
FQ13 who thinks this is just a home truth not elitism.
PS when the hell did being elite become a bad thing? What sort of socialist/rightwing crap is this? Is Peyton Manning an elitist? Is Warren Buffet? Is Jimmy Buffet for that matter? When did we start denigrating talent rather than emulating it? This is how civilizations fall, when the elite emulate the common, rather than the common the elite. One is an aspiration upward, the other, downward. When it comes to carpentry I want to be more like TAB. Machinery, I want to beTom, Music? Jaybet. Not saying anyone should want to be me, but the point is, when society gets to a point where we say "Oh, that guy has a degree and a decade of experience, he's an elitist, ignore him". We have a problem. We ignore excellence and encourage mediocrity and we wake up in the old USSR. I've probably been thinking about the Atlas shrugged thread too much, sorry about the rant.