If Ignorance is Bliss, Why Aren't More People Happy?

Whew! These have been a tough couple of weeks in America.  Snake mean and brick stupid aren't anything new around here but it's been quite awhile since we've had our national patience tested by this many overwrought, ill-informed fellow citizens. Hurling slurs at congressmen, making death threats, plotting to kill police officers  to spark a religious war. Please, people, go crack open an icy beer, put a cold washcloth on your heads, read the Sermon on the Mount, scratch the dog behind his ears, and relax. 

In honor of taking a deep breath and pausing between stimulus and response, here's a poem to ease you into tomorrow:

O Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie,

gimme a break before I die:

grant me wisdom, will, & wit,

purity, probity, pluck, & grit.

Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind,

gimme great abs & a steel-trap mind,

and forgive me, Ye Gods, some humble advice --

these little blessings would suffice

to beget an earthly paradise:

make the bad people good --

and the good people nice;

and before our world goes over the brink,

teach the believers how to think.

                                    --Philip Appleman