Better?

      Hoping I'm better today.  Yesterday was unpleasant. Tam wrapped it up looking at convention coverage, which was, at least, soporific.

     That's actually what I want in politics, especially here in the U. S.: keep it dull.  This was supposed to be a country where it was safe to turn your back on the Federal government and all the politicking associated with it -- and that's not something that's on the menu from either of the two candidates.

     But the politics of this year's Presidential election are so fraught already that anything I can say is about like throwing a full five-gallon gas can into one of the wildfires presently roaring through parts of California: it's not going to change the conflagration other than possibly adding some shrapnel I'd have to endure.  Come November, get out there and vote -- or stay home and vote.  Whatever suits you.   Just participate, and we'll have it out of the way for another four years.

     And hey, here's a thought: make up your mind now that you will be gracious in victory and courteous in defeat.  We run a Presidential contest every four years, just like the Olympics (outside of plague years), and nobody gets to win all the gold medals every time.  We've got a surplus of regular voter-level assholes in this country; about half of them are waving red-elephant banners and about half are waving blue-donkey flags and they are all frothingly angry at one another.  But we elect people to do that for us.  That's what the House and Senate are for, in much the same way that the Presidency is a handy place to heap praise or blame depending on your alignment.  Can we not, just for a little while, leave the bulk of the ire there in Washington, DC where it fits right in?

     Fat chance, I suppose.  Still, I keep hoping we can do better.