The cover of the Nov. 4, 2012, New York Times Magazine sported a headline: âOff the rails For a true picture of the U.S. economy, ride the train from New York to Washington and take a good, hard look out the window.â We have to ponder this. The magazineâs reporter took a train trip from New York City to Washington, some 227 miles, less than three and half hours, and then wrote âa true pictureâ about the decline of our national economy. Thatâs like eating a bad grape and writing an article on âThe Decline of Wine in America.â This provincial approach in the news biz is because most of our national media are centered in the New York City-Washington, D.C. axis. This gives the rest of flyover country (thatâs us) a distorted view of life. (To be fair, CNN is based in Atlanta.) Those TV panels of talking heads also live in that incestuous axis. I love it when a Georgetown cocktail-circuit pundit pontificates, âThe American people today fe