Yeah, I know, go ahead, tell me to shut the fuck up. Interestingly, however, this time around is the “fair and balanced” edition. The Times ran a story today basically saying “dudes, chill out, it isn’t as bad as it seems.” Well, at least I think that’s what it said, I don’t actually read the things I post about.

After all of the fretting from local government leaders over the state-mandated budget cuts, it comes down this for city residents: St. Petersburg’s Main Library will be closed on Saturdays.

Now, I hate books so I really don’t care, but it does kinda suck for folks that work all week and actually dig going to the library on Saturday to get their bookin’ on. However, it isn’t the frightening cuts to police and fire service some expected. This is of course in addition to the rest of the cuts that already took place:

Of the nearly $14-million in cuts Baker proposed in June, about half came from stopping payments into two reserve funds and cutting subsidies to more than 200 arts and social service groups.

Now, I’m trying to be fair and balanced here, but I’m not going to let the Times completely off the hook without at least mentioning one fallacy. Calling this a “soft landing” does address the fact that city services won’t take a huge hit, but then casually mentioning the 70% cuts to 200 arts and social service groups is pretty weak. It appears as though we’ve already forgotten the impact those cuts have, and will continue to have on these programs. Here’s a suggestion: this Saturday, since you can’t go nerd out at the library, volunteer at any one of these fine organizations (PDF) that would appreciate and benefit from your time.