I cancelled my subscription to my local newspaper today. Why?

Because I am sick of paying for a newspaper that greets me with things like this and this and this and this.

Four days of heroic fighting by Coalition forces, of unprecedented gains and bravery, of Iraqi guerilla attacks, suicide bombs and faked surrenders. Four days in which AP, Reuters, Sky News and Defenselink have put out some amazing photos of our troops. But my local paper chose to run one depicting two Scots smoking as Basra burns and one of a US soldier walking, armed, toward Iraqis grovelling on the ground.

It’s not just the pictures, although they say a thousand words about the newspaper’s attitude toward our forces. No, a quick scan of my newspaper’s front section reveals a smorgasboard of stories lifted out of predominantly anti-military, liberal papers. If I wanted to read the LA Times or Washington Post, I’d subscribe to them. Unfortunately, I subscribed to what I thought was a newspaper. Apparently, I got a leftist news filtering service instead.

What makes this more disgusting is the huge military population on these islands. If you aren’t currently working or retired from working for the military or federal government, there’s still a 75% chance that one or both of your parents did. Unfortunately, the paper’s editorial staff seems to believe that being pro-Hawaiian and pro-military are mutually exclusive.

The result? A newspaper that insults a huge portion of the the very readership that pays for its publication; a newspaper that bites the hand that reads it. Well, not in my house. Not any more.

Granted, I have 58 other news sources in my aggregator that I check at least four times a day and another 12 or so news sites I visit, plus another 3 dozen blogs I read at least once every 48 hours. So it’s not like my decision is going to deprive me of information.

Still, there’s something mighty fine about sitting on the lanai in the morning with a steaming cup of coffee on the table and a newspaper in my hands. I’ll miss that, but not for long. I’m sure I’ll get used to taking my laptop to the lanai instead of the paper. Rather than fighting against the tradewinds as they blow my front page all around, I’ll have to get used to sitting with my face toward the sun so I can still see the screen. I suppose I can print crossword puzzles to work on, and I know there are coupon sites I can visit now that I won’t be getting that fat Sunday paper that was always good for shaving a few dollars off of my grocery bill.

But it’s going to take a long time to get over the loss of my favorite comic strips. They were the best writing ever printed by that rag.