It's August. There are three months left before the next presidential election. You glance down the Google News feed and think, "Has everyone gone mad?"

Because that's how it seems. It is time, I surmise, to keep your head down, pay close attention to your own walk, and pray for a return to reason, sanity, peace.

Let it be said that elections are not the answer in times like these. Times like these are what has produced the candidates, and the candidates seek to further the interests of one side or another in the ongoing combat. They'd rather fuel the fire than put it out.

I always hope the politicians won't screw things up too awfully much. But these days they're deeply involved in the wider dysfunction. It reminds me of France before the Revolution.

The bumper sticker saying, "Don't vote, it only encourages them," has never been more accurate.