Blessed be seekers of truth -- poor devils

I have a friend who desperately seeks truth about all the current issues of the day. He sends me clips from web sites, newspapers, magazines and other sources that back up his view of the world, and I respectfully review these versions of fact, knowing it will be best if I do not respond.
Like most of us, he roots around in the bins of comfortable truths -- those things he already believes to be true -- seeking affirmation and avoiding or dismissing sources that are not comfortable.
This is why the commentators on certain television or radio programs develop fans.
Few people will switch back and forth between Fox News and MSNBC, for instance, or flip over to see what CNN is reporting.
Even fewer will spend time on National Public Radio or Television. Especially those who consider any in-depth interviews that allow more than 12 sentences from any source to be too esoteric, or worse, liberal.
Most of what we see in publication is opinion.
You can find the "thought for the day" in the Carroll County Times on Page 3 most days, the last listing under Today in History, which I believe is a feature of the Associated Press.
In these two or three sentences daily, you may find more truth than in the rest of the paper combined, with the possible exception of the comics page.
I don't think my friend has time for the comics, which may bew why he struggles so.
Saturday's nugget under Thought for Today was, "Opinion is that exercise of the human will which helps us to make a decision without information."
I saw another good quote in the Feb. 3 issue of a magazine called "The Week," which runs a feature called, "Wit and Wisdom."
William Faulkner is quoted, "Facts and truth really don't have much to do with each other."
But let us not lose our reverence for the value of free speech, or our sense of humor.
That same magazine, in it's Feb. 24 issue, reminds us that it was George Burns who said, "It's too bad the people who really know how to run the country are so busy cutting hair and driving taxis."