I'm the train, I'm the train.

  There's a school of thought wherein people encourage, themselves or others, to be "weird" if that's what their natural inclinations tell them to do. In my experience, that definition of "weird" means, at best, a quirky sense of aesthetics or a deep love of some "geeky" form of pop culture that really isn't all that weird. I mean, Dungeons & Dragons is a billion-dollar franchise and no weirder than fantasy football. If that.

 I say all that because as a bonafide "weird" dude, I've never, ever felt like I belonged or like I was doing something properly. I'm not saying this makes me interesting, don't get me wrong. Having no personality and less charisma, I'm pretty damn dull and it's a tribute to my friends that they put up with my goofy ass. I've never been able to fit in anywhere and I've always felt like an outsider in any social group I found myself a part of.

 For the most part, that's okay. Whether by nature or purely self-defense, early on I developed a preference for my own company. Put simply, there's plenty of stuff I can do by myself and that's what I've always enjoyed the most. Apart from sex and playing in bands - which I'm convinced come from the same impulse - that's all I prefer to do.

 The other thing is I have some very dark thoughts on a lot of common-place stances. I won't go into great detail because I don't want to, but to draw it to current affairs, the deaths arising from the recent siege of the White House by Trump partisans doesn't move me all that much. Don't get it twisted, any loss of life hurts the soul. At the same time, though, it's a testament to something that there wasn't a larger death count. People were trying to break into the Capitol building after spending a day howling threats of violence and revolution.

 People keep trying to compare it to the Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests earlier in the summer, but that just don't fly. The former would've been mowed down before they got within a hundred yards of the steps and the latter wouldn't have gotten much closer. Plus, we're learning a lot about how law enforcement agents were a part of the siege and how the fuzz on the ground more or less gave them directions.

 "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes" I guess is what I'm trying to say applies here. We act like the worst shouldn't happen, but that's where we put ourselves. People who regularly engage in protest understand when you go against the Natural Order, it will smack you in the face It shouldn't be that way, but there's a lot about life in this cruel world you could say that about.

 Anyhow, let's get the News done. Big week, of course, and every day had a lot to get in. Monday was the setup, Wednesday was the delivery, and Friday was the fallout, which is ongoing and a long way from being over. I think I did a pretty good job breaking it all down into bite-sized chunks, but a week like that is like a too-big meal. You're never going to do it full justice.

 Another thing I feel is worth touching on is the de-platforming of the President from Twitter and what that says about free speech. First and foremost, it says nothing about free speech because a platform has the right to rid itself of profit-harming individuals. I'm not at all surprised conservatives are screaming censorship and, really, that they're claiming a non-governmental, privately owned business not doing what they want is akin to communism. They're kind of stupid that way, honestly.

 For the record, I don't think they should've booted him so long as he was President. Something something official record something, sort of thing. I doubt the absence of him egging his worshipers on will result in less violence and I bet they've got something dramatic planned for Inauguration Day. However, the first nasty crack after he's no longer officially president, yeah, dump that bastard.

 I guess that's plenty for now. It's been an exhausting week and I'm tired of all of this, but I guess everyone is. I did get some good news this week, though. I did an informal bit of journalism this week for local tobacco and smoke shops in Tupelo - including one flat-out head shop, who knew - and they're all fairly positive about things when the medical marijuana initiative rolls out this summer. They're also more or less confident Tupelo won't be left behind, and that was my big worry. This part of Mississippi is extremely conservative, even for Mississippi, so wrap your head around that.

 And this was nothing but a head shop, too. They had some vape stuff, but come on. It was set up like every head shop I've been in, rows and rows of glass pipes and bongs behind the counter. Wild.