I stumbled across a brilliant essay by John Zmirak on the American Conservative magazine's website (thanks for the link, Rational Review!). Sometimes, it's good to knock the cobwebs out of the old belfry, and this essay had a salutary effect on me. As a libertarian, I alternate between the so-called liberal and the so-called conservative positions, but I could always be more empathetic to others.

Zmirak's right: one can steep oneself for days in news and opinions and chats and discussions that never raise opposing points of view. I for one have gotten into the habit of using Antiwar.com as a near-exclusive news source, and while the coverage there is excellent (and mostly from mainstream media sources), there's a lot more going on in the world. The BBC Headlines RSS feed that comes installed with Firefox is a great lifeline, and I should really make a point of visiting a moderate website like the Christian Science Monitor once a day.

But really, what's a libertarian news junkie to do when he can't watch the cable news networks for fear of an aneurysm?