Day138 Friday 01/14/11

ran 4.6 miles

• Kentucky was the fifteenth state to join the union on June 1, 1792, four years before Tennessee and one year after Vermont.

• Population, as of 2009, is 4,314,113.

• Senators are Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and newly sworn in Tea party-backed Rand Paul.

• Representatives are Edward Whitfield (R), Brett Guthrie (R), John Yarmuth (D), Geoff Davis (R), Harold Rogers (R), and Ben Chandler (D).

• Kentucky has eight electoral votes. Historically, the state has voted almost exclusively blue since remaining with the union during the Civil War through World War II. Since the 1950s Kentucky has been a reliable red state barring Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996. In 2008, McCain defeated Obama 57% to 41%.

Two weeks into 2011 and a sense of normalcy is finally beginning to resonate for the new year. The first week of 2011 was the most bizarre seven days in current events and news reporting we had seen in a long time. I say normalcy, but by that I only mean that news is once again a futile exercise in spinning facts.

There are so many things Americans need to know about their government at local, state and federal levels that they just don’t because it is simply not discussed in the media for some odd reason, yet if a travesty grabs the nation’s attention reporters will give critical updates and state unequivocal facts every two minutes, often repeating themselves with the same interesting and highly descriptive details over and over. Why can’t every day’s current events be reported in an interesting and highly descriptive manner, filled with indisputable facts?

Many of the actions Barack Obama has taken to form his legacy over the past two years are the most debatable actions that have been taken since Jimmy Carter was president and facts and statistics lay collecting dust in a reality we are obviously out of touch with. When did America change from a boot camp for success into a naptime you never awake from?

1,725.1 miles to go.