Kids are like farts. You don’t mind your own, but other peoples are unbearable.

Heard today on Pandora: YoYo Ma plays Ennio Morricioni, "The Moses and Marco Polo Suite."
Whew! Too beautiful.

Followed immediately by "Symphony #22 in C Major" by Christian Cinnabich.
There are lines here about evangelistic airport pastries with really bad attitudes, but I'm counting calories.

The White House set up a section on their official website several months ago that allows people to set up petitions others can read and sign if they choose. If a petition gets 25,000 signatures the White House will respond to the issue in writing.
Since the election residents of 40 states have started petitions for their state to secede from the Union.
On the face of it that's pretty silly. As the Civil War made clear, once in the Union you can't get out.  No do-overs or take-backs. Never mind the disaster it would be if any state actually did secede.
But what to make of the almost 700,000 people who have signed those petitions? Are they all just crazies? 'cause there are at least that many of those in this country. The answer is probably yes, and that this is a confluence of loonies and a White House attempt to look especially interested in the average Joe through this online petition system. The PR dept. at 1600 Pennsylvania gave them a platform.
But there may be a takeaway even with those caveats.
Everyone seems to agree we're living in a time of extreme political polarization. There's a giant hole where the middle used to be, with growing clumps on the extremes at either end of the spectrum. After a nasty political season a whole lot of people at one end of the spectrum are bitter and angry. Part of that is human nature, some of it is their refusal to grow up, accept defeat, and play well with others. Some of it can be attributed to excessive schadenfruede among the victors.
We can hope that at least some of the petition signers knew when they put their name on the list that it was an exercise in expressing their displeasure and nothing else. Another way to be heard.
I'm not going to sign the one for Arizona. I will, from time to time, express my disagreement and displeasure with the way the govt. does it's business (and mine), but I'm still pretty glad to be an American and think we've got a pretty good system here.
One of the best parts of that system is that we all get another crack at this in four years. In the meantime lets all relax, tone down the rhetoric, and not make every issue the basis for a line in the sand.
IMHO

The President said in today's press conference that as a result of his victory he has "one mandate." He said his single mandate is to work on behalf of the middle class and those working hard to get into the middle class.
If I were a rich man I'd be pretty ticked. I thought the President's job was to work on behalf of all Americans, regardless of income or wealth.
I was disappointed none of the reporters in the room called him on that one.

One more Beatles tune, this one played on a single bass guitar. At about halfway through his finger work is so good you begin to think it's magic.