There is no news
I work with some of the very best journalists in the world. My boss's boss's boss is a man who was a high-ranking editor at the nation's third-largest local daily newspaper. Many of my co-workers have excellent news judgment, honed by years in the business and by having been trained at the best journalism schools that money can buy.

But these days, when it comes to news judgment, I trust my wife: a 32-year-old suburban white homemaker whose education is in "hospitality and restaurant management" and whose only qualification to determine what's news is by determining what actually matters in the grand scheme.

Allow her to take apart some front-page stories from the last few days:
Item: At least 17 dead in bombing of U.N. headquarters in Baghdad. The Wife: "It's Baghdad. Things blow up there every day."
Item: At least 18 dead in bombing of bus in Jerusalem. The Wife: "Suicide bombings happen every day over there. What's different about this one?" Well, it imperils the Roadmap to Peace. "Yeah, like that was going to work. Everybody thinks they have the idea for peace in the Middle East, and they're all wrong."
Item: Every state's child-welfare system is in serious disarray. The Wife: "Now, there's a good idea. 'Hey, State, your child-welfare system is in disarray. So we're going to fine you and cut your federal funding, meaning you'll be able to pay even fewer overworked caseworkers $26,000 a year to hold these kids' lives in your hands.' That's like the bank charging an overdraft fee -- taking more of what they already know you don't have. That oughta fix things."

(Quick confession: The last one was mostly mine. But it's pretty much what she would have said had I asked her about it before she went to sleep to nurse this pesky cold she has. When she wakes up, I'm sure she'll react that way.)

Every day, I present her with an item we think is news, The Wife dismisses said item with a really solid "So what?" and a really lucid 30-second statement confirming that it doesn't really matter.

I'm pretty sure she's right and the rest of us are wrong. If I owned a news outlet, she'd be my first choice for editor.