INTERNET

Internet provides rich mix of alternative views and perspectives on the threat of war

INTERNET The Web Doctor

Spiritual leader Deepak Chopra suggests our mental health would improve if we went on a "news diet." But if there is one lesson that the past two weeks should have taught us, it is that we need to know far more about the world than what Dan Rather, Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw have the time to tell us in their ever-shrinking and corporatized news hole. Providing an array of news and information is what the Internet does superbly well. And it provides these riches virtually instantaneously and (mostly) for free.

Papers of record
To understand the conventional wisdom, start by reading the New York Times online at www.nytimes.com (the subscription is free but you must register). You might want to balance that with the Washington Post at www.washingtontimes.com.

For a smattering of international views, consider Britain's The Times at www.thetimes.co.uk/ and The Guardian at www.guardian.co.uk. In particular, read Seumas Milne's provocative piece, "They Can't See Why They Are Hated." You can also find the Jerusalem Post online at www.jpost.com/. (I have not found Arabic papers in English and would hope that some readers will be able to help with suggestions.)

Other voices
Among the net-only publications, AlterNet typically provides progress views at www.alternet.org/. The best known of the Web-zines may be Salon at www.salon.com, which offered the unsettling insights of Tamin Ansary in an article called "An Afgan-American speaks" (with Salon, it pays to use their search engine since articles change URLs often).

For a bracing dose of clear-headed Midwest, blue-collar populism, you can sign up to receive Flint native Michael Moore's newsletters at www.michaelmoore.com. (His recent screed informed me that some radio stations are now telling DJ's to drop songs like "Bridge Over Troubled Water" and "Imagine." Can you say Noam Chomsky and the manufacture of consent?)

The conservative antidote is Matt Drudge's Drudge Report at www.drudgereport.com (handy for the list of links to columnists, if nothing else).