Going soft: Mark Morford's new article hits the spot; he's searching for things "to counteract, to dissolve the simmering dread, to deflect the waves of nausea and karmic pain induced by the incessantly depressing media maelstrom and the appallingly hateful gloat of the GOP convention and by the most tyrannical administration and least articulate American president in 100 years." I'm looking for them too. In his ode to organic farms, Molly Ivins, Truthout, and other "hallowed balms," this one--a shout out to (canine) Chomsky--spoke the loudest:

And there are, of course, dogs. Oh my God yes. And what of all the amazing and open-hearted people who run all those dog shelters and rescues, people so generous of spirit and kind of heart and who feel so disenfranchised that they've chosen, as so many are wont to do these days, to switch away from people entirely and focus on a breed that doesn't give a good goddamn how angry your God is and will love you no matter what your hair looks like or how painful that tumor of anxiety in your heart? Pure salvation, that is.

(Thanks DJ Baklavonne.)