What is truth?

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

I’ve read somewhere that the beginning of wisdom is the recognition of how little an individual knows. If that is so, I’m approaching wise far faster than my age or temperament should allow. It doesn’t help that I’m not as smart as I used to be. But here’s the thing: A core aspect of my character is that I’m political, in my personality and in the larger sense. I love to watch the games and language manipulations as supposed political titans clash.

But this year’s U.S. Senate race between Sharron Angle and Harry Reid has taken much of the joy of politics from me.

With the lies and half-truths told by Sharron Angle and Harry Reid, compounded by the half-accuracies of the digital and analog media, and the inane analysis of conflicted or ignorant bloggers and cable commentators, I don’t know what the truth is. I mean, I read everything. (And have you noticed how the new Google search algorithm has changed your search results? I read primarily liberal and civil libertarian sources, but now, that’s all I get. I’ve had to add right wing conservative RSS feeds to my homepage just so I know what’s going on at that end of the spectrum.)

There is so much informational flak in the air that it has made the atmosphere opaque, and I and many like me have to go back to what we knew of the candidates before the campaign. It’s kind of like driving on blizzard days—all you have to navigate by is the ruts in the road.

Anyway, here’s a bit of wisdom you can take away: This so-many-lies-the-independent-mind-can’t-discern-what’s-real is the now and future truth. So does that mean it’s wise to be afraid?

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Along other lines, we are still looking for a new restaurant reviewer. If you have an opinion about restaurants, can express it well, and want to work for little money, send me three 600-word restaurant reviews. We haven’t set a deadline, but we’ll probably make a choice within the next few weeks to a month.