Mark Morford on the national mood: "Why are you so terribly disappointing?"

On ranting, rudeness, and the (perceived) national mood, continued.

A column by Mark Morford, called "Why are you so terribly disappointing?," floated onto my facebook page, via writer Katherine Lanpher (author of the memoir Leap Days, and co-host of the The Al Franken Show on Air America Radio in 2004 and 2005).

Morford is a writer and opinion columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and SFGate; he also teaches Vinyasa yoga in San Francisco. Here are just the second and third paragraphs of the full essay:

What happened to my bonus? What happened to my job? What happened to my country? Why can't it all go the way it's supposed to go? You mean having a kid won't solve my marriage problems? Why don't these drugs make me feel better? Where's that goddamn waiter with my salad? Have you seen the stupid weather today? Is this really all there is?

These are, from what I can glean, the most important questions of the day, of the month, of modern life itself. Hell, what with the economy and job situation, the housing market and the overall feel and texture of the nation right now, it's no wonder Americans are, by and large, a goddamn miserable bunch. We don't like anything right now. No politician, no decision, no situation, no inhale, no exhale. We are sick to death of all of it, including ourselves.

Morford references Joel Achenbach's "The audacity of nope," from the January 27th issue of the Washington Post in that "We don't like anything" observation. It's a column on a distressing subject, but he nails it, and it's funny, and it makes you think. There's a book of more Morford coming soon:

..The Daring Spectacle, a mega-compendium of my finest and most incendiary Chronicle columns and assorted hate mail, banned pieces and related journalistic sacrilege.

 I can't wait. In the meantime, he has a terrific website, complete with a yoga section offering Bliss pictures. (It doesn't disappoint.)

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And now, a wonderful postscript, on the same topic, found over at Daughter Number Three – comedian Louis CK, in an appearance on Conan O'Brien's show: