I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

June 01, 2016 - 8:52 p.m.

Only in America

Welcome to an early evening and I'm tired edition of Wise Madness. I got a ride to the train station this morning but just missed the train before the one I usually take. Then the train I usually take came late. Then it just sat in the station with the doors closed for 5 minutes. When they let us on and we got under way they explained that they had to wait for the police. They did not explain why. On the bright side they never collected my ticket. On the down side I got to Harrison ten minutes after my bus, which comes just once an hour, was scheduled to leave. On the bright side the bus was late so everything worked out.

Weird day at the program. I have four groups per day. I was called out of the first and missed most of it. The second was psych education and we talked about personality disorders that only one person in the group has. In psychotherapy we spent half the time discussing the idiosyncrasies of insurance payments to doctors and therapists. The only worthwhile one was yoga. I am not limber and have bad balance but I still enjoy it. I'm not sure if it helps me at all but that's the way it goes.

It was my buddy in the group's last day. He has been giving me a ride back to the train station afterward and he made sure to come outside to meet me at yoga so he could drive me. I can get to the station fine without his help, the bus gets me there well in time for the train and I can walk if I miss the bus. What I like is that he wants to drive me. I have so many great friends but there's still social insecurity that started in grade school.

I have an idiot story. On the ride home I have to switch from the 45 bus to the BX29. The transfer is in the middle of Pelham Bay Park. I apparently just missed a bus and kept waiting for the next bus to reach the terminal and turn around. I can follow it on MTA Bus Time. It finally made it and was 10 minute away. I got involved following the Met game on my phone. I finally decided that it was about 10 minutes and I should get ready to catch the bus. It just meant putting my phone in my pocket and my bag on my shoulder. Just then a bus came speeding towards me. It didn't slow down even though I was at the bus bench. I shot up and dropped my water bottle, picked it up and ran to the bus. After waving my arms frantically the bus stopped after overshooting the stop. He was going to ignore the guy waiting on the bench at the bust stop. It is a bit back from the street which is why I had to run. I got on the bus, went back to the game and then realized the bus went the wrong way. It wasn't the BX29 but the BX12. I never saw the front of the bus clear enough to read it as It was going so fast. I took it back part way and then walked back to where I'm staying on City Island. It was about a mile and probably faster than waiting for the next BX 29. It was a beautiful day so I didn't really mind. Of course as soon as I got back the met game was on the TV and the ChiSox scored the go ahead run in the 13th inning. So here's the deal. I'm good luck if I'm at a Met game and a curse if I watch from City Island so the Mets really have to hire me to go to games and then I could afford an apartment and not be on City Island. They will go undefeated.

My fantasy baseball team, the Nashional Batnoses are doing better. We are in first place by 7.5 points, high-water mark of the season. Of course it's just June 1 so don't break out the champagne yet.

Who has seen this? Children destroy valuable artwork while visiting gallery. It gets worse. It was a glass art gallery. It gets worse. The two kids walked inside the roped off area around the sculpture in the view of the adults they were with, probably their parents. It gets worse. The parents not only saw this and allowed it they were taking pictures or videos of the kids till they broke the statue. Only then did they tell the kids to get back to them. What's wrong with America? We let our children run wild without disciple. It's a culture of privilege. Except for one thing, the museum was in Shanghai and the kids and the adults are Chinese. And that's why I'm writing about this. My anti-American diatribe is exactly the kind of thing you read all the time. Something bad happens in America and people act like it doesn't happen in other places. There are stupid, ignorant, and selfish people everywhere. Singling out America in these situations and saying it can only happen here is just as ridiculous as saying. "That could never happen here." So if something isn't particularly American don't use it to condemn America.

As always I'm more concerned with reasoned arguments than in what's being argued. We should at least aspire to be rational.


I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile June 01, 2016
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