Nice: Every Knock-Out Punch Is Deliberately Misleading

"So many of the great things in the world have come from the outsider, and that lone dog isn't always attractive." 

-- Benjamin Britten, "a crabby loner," who changed the face of English music.

"It has become the way the Internet lives now." 

-- Nathan Heller, probably laughing between his fingers, as he's caused me to do.

Supertramp

"I wonder if you realize how powerfully your message is resonating?


I am reading loud and clear on this end and I must tell you that until a few months ago I always thought that homeopathy was a quite harmless diversion for the willfully ignorant, and so, not attention worthy.


The scales have fallen."

No, Anga2010, offline, I mostly exist alone, entertaining my (few) friends with tale after tale of the "spiritual" mindlessness I've discovered - like the doofus, above, who wanted to be buried on his motorcycle - enjoying my companions wide-eyed exclamations of "You're kidding?" and "Oh. My. God." as I reveal the confusion and pathologies of the "spirit world" to them.

Online, it's a totally different story:

Being a curmudgeon (with the exception of Snow White's "Grumpy", probably the least appreciated species of human) I'm either ignored, harassed, ridiculed, or hated - which is fine, because a lot of people online are involved in NewAge at some level, whether they know it or not, and I know from experience that getting a hint they're part of something so stupid (delivered in my trademark style) is, ultimately, insulting to their sense of themselves as supposed-thinking people. I mean, they hold "important" jobs and everything, so how can they be idiots/gullible/wrong? It must be me - because I'm "mean" - and we all know "Mean People Suck", right?

Right?

Anyway, I'm glad you're out of the "water as medicine" maze, as it's capable of making you look like a fool at parties. Or you might murder someone (as my ex-wife, Karine Anne Brunck, did) or, just as likely, cause something else bad to happen:

You just never know where delusion will lead.

Thanks for writing.

It's very gratifying to discover, after all this time, some more good is coming from it all.

The Wonderful Outlook NewAgers Must Destroy In Order For Their Bullshit To Flourish, Part I

"His hatreds are fierce and grand, as if produced by Cecil B. DeMille. He hates his uncle (who made a cruel comment about him when he was a boy); he hates anything to do with God or religion, and Judaism in particular (“We were the ‘chosen people,’ chosen to be killed?”); he hates Salman Rushdie (for writing an excoriating review of one of his books); he hates syrupy animation, which is why he is thrilled with Mr. Jonze’s coming film of his book “Where the Wild Things Are,” despite rumors of studio discontent.

“I hate people,” he said at one point, extolling the superior company of dogs, like his sweet-tempered German shepherd, Herman (after Melville).

He is, at heart, a curmudgeon, but a delightful one, with a vast range of knowledge, a wicked sense of humor and a talent for storytelling and mimicry."

-- Patricia Cohen, in a profile of Maurice Sendak - who is probably the world's greatest living illustrator of children's books - for the New York Times.