Depends on How You Choose to Look at It

Things aren't always what they seem. It's just a question of changing your perspective. Which can be a lot harder than it sounds.

Secret Treaties

Question: What do the Simon Necromicon, Son of Sam, the Cotton Club murders, punk rock and proto-thrash, comic book occultism, the Process Church of the Final Judgment, UFOs and the AIDS epidemic all have in common?

Answer: They all played a part in the dark, druggy scene that took hold of New York City in the grim, lost decade that bridged the long, post-Sixties hangover and the go-go Eighties personified by Donald Trump.

Tenfold, It Blew Apart.

40 years ago this summer I stayed up until all hours of the night reading The Stand by Stephen King. I was riveted, couldn't put it down (fourteen years-old seems to be the perfect age for Stephen King). It was based on what was a pretty familiar premise at the time: a weaponized pathogen ("Captain Trips," named in honor of Jerry Garcia) escapes from a government lab and wipes out most of the Earth's population.

Let's just hope that's not what we're seeing here because I really don't want anyone to ever call Stephen King a "prophet." Ever.  

This is a Public Service Announcement...

New content alert: Heads up, there're plenty of irons in the primordial fires, coming to a surveillance media device near you....

Where Will It End?

Doubling down on a mistake can be costly. Tripling, quadrupling and quintupling down on a failed winnowing/disqualifying protocol masquerading as a cogent political philosophy might bring everything -- and I mean everything-- crashing down.

It's just that no one can seem to wean themselves off all that sweet, delicious, savory dopamine.