Joe Pierre, Michael Gadson, and Milt Pinsky

These are three guys whom I am tempted to like. They're all apparently smart, very social, and on the opposite side of some critical issues from me. Being on the opposite side of issues is a positive trait which draws me to a person, because my constant anxiety is that I may be unaware of some threat that is sneaking up from just outside my field of vision. At any moment, I might become Professor James Lowry, searching in suppressed terror for my lost hat. Communicating frequently enough with people like Joe, Michael, and Milt reassures me that I'm not ignoring parts of the world that might kill me.

I just wrote about Dr. Joe Pierre yesterday, and I've written about him before. He is apparently a well-respected young psychiatrist who has been in his profession almost as long as I have been criticizing it or actively fighting for its abolition. He may not respect me as much as I respect him (he probably just can't, knowing I'm a Scientologist), but at least he does occasionally communicate.

Dr. Michael Gadson is a state psychiatrist and the Medical Director of one of Illinois' plantations (Packard Mental Health Center) where human beings are psychiatrized and enslaved. He's a master up in the big house. I was recently called on the carpet by someone who thinks this is a very unprofessional thing for me to say about an opposing party in legal disputes; but I'm not the only one saying it. My clients agree, from their own subjective experience (which of course the broader society might love to discredit as born from "mental illness" that no one needs to understand). And Tom Szasz, who was an M.D. psychiatrist just as qualified as all the slave masters and overseers whom I accuse, wrote several very compelling books that made the philosophical argument in great and scholarly detail.

Dr. Gadson is an extremely professional, and apparently very "caring" clinician. He recently walked me to the parking lot and figured out how I could get into my car after I had locked myself out. I told him, "Doc you saved my ass, thank you very much!" But I always feel like I should check to be sure he's not holding a knife behind his back when he smiles and tells a patient, "I'm only here to help with your recovery, not to sabotage it..." or "Your assertive communication skills are improving...".

Milt Pinsky is a neighbor. He's hard-core, left- or far-left-leaning Democrat, and he loves to argue politics. He always brings out every sympathy I might have for Republican views (there aren't really that many of them). Milt and I have virtually never ended an argument on a bad note. I'm looking forward to seeing him tonight in fact, at a local social event. I will probably have a conversation that will begin with, "Milt! You look pretty good, but I've been warned to be very careful about triggering you right now, in case you're too upset that Trump has been nominated for the Nobel and his every action is looks golden, even through the eyes of CNN." If the event makes a good story, I may blog about it further.

My mother was a very devoted Christian, and "Love thine enemy!" was a principle close to her soul. There are two ways that makes sense to me. The first is that if you can love somebody and understand their views, you won't have to fight them, and the world will be better without so many fights. The second way is that you should love your enemy to enable knowing him better, and thereby killing him quicker.

I go back & forth with the Christianity. But Milt and his wife are friends.