Sic dolet

 Written in April 2021.           A few months ago I was brave enough to venture out to do some much needed grocery shopping.  I was even braver to take mass transit. In this pandemic most people who can avoid riding mass transit for reasons too obvious to mention here have done so, leaving the trains and buses to those who, like me, have no other choice, or crazy people. This tends to make the riding of mass transit a bit hairier than it used to be. My ride back from the store offered a particularly harrowing illustration of this. On the train I sat across from a noticeably unkempt and disheveled man, who was, well, crazy and belligerent. He started a White Supremacist rant with lavish use of the N-word, which he exclaimed as loudly as he could. There were, of course, several black men on this train, and they, of course, heard him.  No one could not hear him. Everyone, knowing he was obviously bonkers, tried to ignore him, but his hateful ra...

 I am often asked with great bewilderment why in God's name Jeanne la Pucelle, a warrior who led a very bloody war, is my favorite saint? Why would God have a person lead an activity that maims, mutilates, and kills people? And, by the way, am I not supposed to be vehemently anti-war? Yeah, precisely. The Catholic Church won't let me be dogmatically anti-war. I must allow at least for the possibility of a Just War. And the story of Ste. Jeanne tells me exactly what a Just War should look like. It should be one led by a nineteen year old Virgin whose visions have been exhaustively documented by an ecclesiastical consistory and found to be consistent with Holy Doctrine and Writ, and if it's not, then it's evil and I have a sacred duty to protest it. Thanks, Jeanne!

 [This is a scene from a play that I never wrote. Actually, I just wrote this scene, and it's not very good. I include it here because it does have the merit of explaining why I would never be a Protestant. The play was supposed to about Marlene Nowotniak. She is a very bright 16 year old girl and a very beautiful one as well.  She likes to frequent a used bookstore, owned by Friedrich Nietzsche (I just decided to put Nietzsche in for the hell of it), who has as his indentured servant a very bizarre but orthodox Catholic, Ken Silenus.  Ken tries to convince Marlene of the need to believe in Catholicism to understand  Shakespeare properly.  Marlene will have none of it, though, saying that she likes Shakespeare just fine as an atheist.  Much to Ken's horror, the charming and elegant and witty Marlene falls head over heels for a quaterback from her High School.  His name is Scott Coiler, and he is a grunt, the type that thinks poetry ...

  (The scene is a college dorm room.  It is typically furnished:  A desk, a loft bed so that the resident has more floor space for a guitar and other stuff that makes sense only to an undergraduate, a compact refrigerator, and a poster of a Schiele Painting because Klimt is just too cliché.  An earnest young man is sitting at the desk, tapping away on his laptop.  There’s a knock on the door.) Ernest Young Man:  (not looking away from the screen)  Come in, it’s open. (A young woman enters in a t-shirt and very loose dungarees.) Young Woman:  You wanted to see me, Zak? Zak:  (still not looking away from the screen) It’s Cherrie, right? Cherrie:  Yeah, that’s my name.  Don’t wear it out. Zak:  (finally swivels his chair toward Cherrie). Would you shut the door, please? Cherrie:  Well, okay, but… Zak:  It's just a routine interview, but it has to be confidential.  I don't bite. Cherrie:  Okay.  (shuts the ...

  Person: So, yeah, let's see the new  Star Wars. Person 2: Great, but we should leave now. It's Friday, there'll be a big line. Person: Oh, right. Okay, just let me get changed, and then we can go. Person 2: Great. Person: Er, yeah. Just let me get changed, and I'll be ready in about two minutes. Person 2: No problem. Person: Um, I said that I'm going to change. That means I'm going to change clothes. Person 2: Yeah, no problem. I understood. Person: Well, I thought it was understood that you should wait outside while I, you know, change. Person 2: Why should I wait outside? It's cold outside. Person: Um, did your parents vaccinate you too early? Because you seem a bit autistic. Person 2: No, no. I just don't want to be in the cold tonight longer than I have to. Person: It's only the hallway! Person 2: They don't heat the hallway. University has a bigger endowment than most developing countries, and they don't heat the hallway. Person: You h...

[This is my DM exchange with Morgane Oger, vice-president of the NDP in British Columbia. On a lark I sent him a post which I knew he would find annoying. I expected that he would block me, but to my surprise he wrote me back. A rather long and alarming exchange ensued over two days (April 6 -7):] ME: "If penis doesn’t equal man and vagina doesn’t equal woman, how come our dysphoria is valid? Shouldn’t sjws be telling us NOT to get surgery because it’s transphobic to deem a vagina a female part? Y’all are literally DELUSIONAL and senseless." At this point it should be extremely clear that transgenderism is completely irrational. For instance, transactivists insist that the sexual definition of man- and womanhood is wholly unscientific and must be replaced with one that is scientific, and the scientific definition they have in mind is simply a feeling and a wholly subjective declaration of that feeling. Or the transactivists insist that anatomy does NOT constitute man- and wom...

  INT.     THE SET OF A POPULAR MORNING TALK SHOW - MORNING SADIE MCKREE, 55, in a frilly blouse and pink skirt sits on a high chair with note cards in her lap.  DECLAN KANT, 52, sits on a high chair as well but in front of a table on which is a thumbscrew in which Declan’s thumbs are placed.  An eagerly obedient SECURITY GUARD, 35, stands at the ready. CHIPPY MUSIC plays. SADIE And welcome back.  We’re here with Tony-winning Actor Declan Kant, who stars in a revival of  Death of a Salesman , opening on Broadway this week.  Declan, good morning!  Thanks for joining us! CHIPPY MUSIC fades. Declan hesitates to respond until the security guard glowers at him. DECLAN Glad to be here with you, Sadie. Security Guard glowers at him again. DECLAN Thanks for having me on. More glowering DECLAN I appreciate it. (beat) I really, really do. SADIE It seems that we’ve been seeing a lot of you these days.  Just two days ag...