empty cans

I love Joe and Mika, I really do, but for my sanity, I had to end the ... relationship

It didn't take long at all. I went cold turkey. I woke up one morning and just decided that I couldn't take MSNBC anymore.

I had become addicted during the Primary, see, and started the new year devoting just about every waking hour to watching Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski (my favorite!) and Willie Geist; David Shuster and Tamron Hall; Norah O'Donnell; Ed Schultz; Erin Burnett; Chris Matthews; Mike Barnicle; Dylan Rattigan; Lawrence O'Donnell; Keith Olberman, and Rachel Maddow. I sat there and watched them talk and talk and talk.

Actually, they don't talk. They repeat. Ad infinitum.

I'm a die-hard Democrat and MSNBC is largely liberal and I liked what everyone had to say. At first. Then, I noticed something: While I liked what they had to say, I didn't exactly like the way they often said it.

I stopped watching Olberman first. His willful immaturity, supposedly a liberal antidote to Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, became annoying and then embarrassing. He seemed to enjoy lowering himself to their dubious level and apparently was becoming quite popular and wealthy doing so.

Next to go was Rachel Maddow. Her smug snarkiness started to grate - that and the weird faces she makes. Her intelligence is obvious but, after a while, she seemed only a smidgen more mature than Keith.

Talking heads. Heads? Hardly. I can think of another word to use.

Chris Matthews was fun - for a while. But once it became apparent that he loves the sound of his own voice, to the point of often not letting his guests get in a single word, I found myself yelling at the TV screen.

"Shut up, Chris!"

I was becoming grouchy and weird, so I tuned out.

That left Joe Scarborough, who probably has the best (and certainly the most entertaining) news show on the air. Joe's a conservative, but a reasonable one. He is atypically civil for a Republican and not at all mean-spirited. But, then, when you least expect it, he ... turns. Scary.

The last time I watched, the good Joe had unexpectedly left the room and the bad Joe had taken over completely. It made me nervous and upset.

It ruined the day for me. So I stopped watching. Altogether.

I'm happier now.