At this point it's clear that the best we can hope for is a slim margin for Kerry in the Electoral College. Because I prefer being cautiously pessimistic, however, I'm readying myself for the outcome everyone I care about has been dreading. Part of that labor consists of whetting the blades of irony.

Why do so many Americans claim to feel safer with the Bush Administration in charge? I suppose it's because the comfort of being hated around the world seems desirable to the certainty of not knowing where people in other countries stand. That's the same principle that leads men and women to stay in marriages that make them miserable, right? Hate rules. Love is dangerous. As I recall, Dostoyevsky's Grand Inquisitor made a compelling case for the practicality of that logic.

Mode: darksome
Muse: rumbling in my mind