Windows Vista ( at least Vista home premium ) has a “gadget” that sits on the desk top and displays headlines from RSS feeds. I assume they are the feeds listed with IE 7 ? Anyway, there are 117 different news feed gadgets listed on windows live gallery and I’m pretty sure you can figure out how to get it to customize the feeds you want.

Not sure about the self control issues of not putting in too many feeds, but the small size of the display box should help 😉