Never has normal looked so good

Mark Morford: Can John Kerry Cure Cancer?

There will not be a great parting of the clouds.

There will not be brighter flowers and happier puppies. There will not be massive choruses of angels singing and birds chirping and dolphins finally standing upright and speaking fluent Latin and saying we knew it all along.

Let's be real: Should Kerry win this election, we are most likely not in for a spectacular and unprecedented ride of shiny progressive glory that will astound the world and reignite the collective soul and float us all to the hereafter on golden wings of sparkly well-lubed bliss. OK?
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So you know that even the best and brightest have obstacles and roadblocks and vicious detractors aiming to take him down, just for being wildly popular and successful and coherent. All signs point to the fact that Kerry could be absolutely excellent. But he will also still be just another president, facing many of the same demons as any.

But here's the thing: Given how this is pretty much the most important election in your lifetime, given how much is at stake and how deeply BushCo has rammed us down the bleak hole of fear and war and environmental gluttony and abuse, a "regular" president is a blessing we can only dream of.

And the presidential debates have shown Kerry to be a formidable intellect, forthright and fluent and the absolute antithesis of Bush's fast-blinking aww-shucks dumb-guy smarminess. You know, like a normal president should. And the bottom line is this: never has normal looked so good.

a poem, and a plug

First, the plug: Arthur Loves Plastic is now on iTunes. Go buy Bev's music, you know you want to.

Next, on to something ganked from pecunium: "When you read this, post a poem". Since I've been on a bit of Neruda kick lately, how about this one:

( Your Laughter )

(no subject)

While I'm busy doing memes, I've seen this one floating around various places and it sounds like it could be fun. Give me a suggestion for something in my normal habitat that you'd like me to take a picture of. My own caveat: you're not getting any racy pictures of me (or anyone I know) out of this. That requires an entirely separate backchannel negotiation. ;)

[Poll #367300]


[Edit: I really should start a betting pool on how many "racy pictures of you!" responses I end up getting. ;)]