As I get older and am knocked off balance more and more easily  - both physically and mentally  - the  temptation  to turn my back on the news becomes harder and harder to resist. I can't quite put my finger on what's going on here; forgive me if I shock anyone  but when the Beatles, Joan Baez and their like sang their protest songs all those years ago, they didn't have too much to worry about compared to today, and I think I was much the same at their age. But nowadays the stream of horrors issuing from the pages of the NYT are enough to make one scream, and if by any chance they're not, a daily dose from a truly excellent publicationlike Next Draft  is probably enough to finish me off.