How much of the arson, vandalism, rioting and other violence connected with the Ferguson, Mo., mess is because of honest outrage about  perceived and real racism and how much is because some people, especially the young, enjoy the excitement of destruction? The electronic news media, for their part, did everything they could to hype up the potential of violence, and thus did their part to increase it.

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The annual Thanksgiving recipe marathons on radio, TV and the newspapers are an overdose of Ambien.  They're  rapaciously repetitive and usually with some sort of a commercial angle. It's the industrial-strength start of the endlessly tedious  and loud American holiday season that, if we could afford it, we'd go  to Patagonia every year to avoid.

--- Robert Whitcomb