Satire , commentary and music by musicians suffering from the malady "hyper-sanity", rendering them almost totally useless at conforming to the required norms and expectations of humanity's collective insanity. Nevertheless, they make some surprisingly good music, interesting insights and a few jokes... (Licensing only upon direct contact with artists) (Below is a brief commentary by one of us regarding the current Ukraine crisis) Imagine for a moment what the US would do if a major foreign power assisted an anti-US coup d'etat in Mexico, and then started equipping that regime with hi-tech weapons, while they persecuted and killed Americans and pro-US Mexicans living in Mexico. Russia is facing that equivalent scenario. Pink Floyd's Roger Waters recently posed this hypothetical on CNN. Though I was somewhat alarmed at Russia's attack on Kiev, as a long time aficionado of geopolitical affairs, I was not surprised by Russia's military intervention into eastern Ukraine. Here's a few facts you may want to consider, many of which I gleaned over the years from hundreds of, then still objective, mostly western press releases. A small, mild sampling of these releases is listed below as links. Now, the mainstream western narrative has narrowed and hardened, but nevertheless a compromise settlement is both justified and necessary. - In spite of the Cold War being declared over, the US pushed for continued NATO expansion into former Soviet satellite states, against the advice of people like Kissinger, Brzezinski, Clinton's Defense Secretary, Bill Perry and CIA Director William Burns, just to name a few, and in contravention to the pledge made to Mikhail Gorbachev as he voluntarily set the stage for the break up the Soviet Union. Russian complaints were ignored and never properly covered in the western press. - The current Ukrainian government first came to power in a violent 2014 insurrection against the legitimately elected government of Victor Yanukovich, who wanted to be on friendly terms with both the West and Russia. The Ukraine Central Election Commission confirmed the legitimacy of Yanukovich. - - The US was heavily involved in encouraging the insurrection, with Joe and Hunter Biden in the loop, and more importantly, Undersecretary of State, Victoria Nuland was directly involved in the insurrection's progress, and the selection of the new regime's governmental officials. - The specific ouster of Yanukovich in 2014 was spearheaded by the violence of Neo-Nazi brigades, in particular at that time, the Right Sector brigade. Their leader, Dmitry Yarov, is now the commander of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army. - Petro Poroshenko was made leader of the new government. He did try to contain the rise of the Neo-Nazi brigades for a time, but was unable to do so, and was forced to tacitly accept their existence and activities, under pressure of potential assassination. - These are Neo-Nazis, not WWII Nazis. Their prime targets are pro and ethnic Russians, not Jews. For them, violence against Jews is neither necessary nor expedient, at least for now. WWII Nazis killed more than enough Jews in western Ukraine, and President Zelensky, being a Jewish front man, creates deceptively good optics for them. - Yakov Kedmi, the former head of the Israeli intelligence service Nativ, speaking on the air of the Full Contact program said of Zelensky, “He should be an outcast in any society more than others, because he rages on the blood of his ancestors, tries to justify and whitewash the murderers of his people, who today run the show in Ukraine. And at the same time he shouts: "I am a Jew." He is a disgrace to the Jewish people." - Since 2014, the EU and NATO have been rejecting Ukraine's applications for membership on the grounds of unacceptably high levels of Neo-Nazism, and political and corporate corruption. However, they are now being whitewashed and exploited as a convenient means of militarily confronting Russia - as cannon fodder. - In response to the coup d'etat, Putin easily occupied Crimea, and Russian troops were welcomed by the large Russian majority there. - The large population of ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine refused to recognize the coup d'etat government. Eastern Ukrainian regions (not just Donbas and Crimea) are historically former Russian provinces with Russian speaking majorities, plus Tatars, Cossacks and Ukrainians. These areas should never have been made a part of Ukraine, when Ukraine, for the first time in history, became a country in 1991 with the fall of the USSR. Lenin and Khrushchev, who was Ukrainian, granted to Ukraine the right to the administrative tax income benefit of these industrial regions, under the Soviet umbrella, as a show of solidarity. They never intended these borders to demarcate Ukraine's borders as an independent country. - The new regime began their efforts to try and discourage use of the Russian language (which is over 60% the same as Ukrainian) and discriminate against pro-Russian Ukrainians. - Peaceful pro-Russian protesters fell under persecution and violent attacks from Neo-Nazi groups such as the Aidar, Azov, Bandera, Kraken and Right Sector brigades. In one case, 48 peaceful protesters in Odessa were driven into a building to seek refuge from Neo-Nazi violence. All were killed when the building was set on fire. The atrocity was covered live on Ukrainian TV while the police and fire departments stood back, and no one has ever been prosecuted. - Eastern Ukrainians of the two Donbass provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, were forced to militarily defend themselves from persecution and bombings, and they declared their independence. - Putin tried for 8 years to implement a compromise peace settlement with Ukraine by negotiating the Minsk I and Minsk II agreements, but Neo-Nazi interference caused these agreements to fail. His compromise proposals then, were miniscule compared to what he's going for now. - Recently, former President Poroshenko admitted that he never intended to honour the Minsk agreements, but rather used them to buy time in order to build up the Ukrainian military. - Zelensky came to power on a platform of peace and reconciliation, but instead he too bowed to pressure and placated the Neo-Nazi brigades, and recognized them as semi-independant units of the Ukrainian army. Many pro-Russian Ukrainians were no longer available to vote. - Now, Zelensky is ruling as an outright puppet dictator, torn between the demands of his US and more extreme Neo-Nazi masters. He has banned opposition parties and freedom of the press, and fired his Attorney General and other officials, who he deemed not suitably compliant. So much for our democratic moral high ground. - Ukrainian extremists have now published an online hit list called Myrotvorets - "Peacemaker". People marked for liquidation include names such as Nobel Peace Prize winner, Henry Kissinger, Pink Floyd singer, Roger Waters, US senator, Rand Paul, lead UN Iraq WMD inspector, Scott Ritter, political scientst, John Mearsheimer, and many, many more. To read more go to: http://www.cryterion.com/Abrev.UkraineCommentary.htm

We met at the very prestigious Clarke Institute of Psychiatry's Occupational Therapy program. THE PSYCHIATRIC STATE There are two camps in the field of psychiatry - Camp A, which believes that what we term "mental illness" is caused by genetics and bio-chemistry, and Camp B, which believes that bio-chemistry is only part of the issue and usually not causative, in the case of adult onset conditions. In 2017, 6 time bankrupt former casino owner and education swindler, Donald Trump, appointed a Camp A psychiatrist to head up the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Agency. Therefore, we offer this as all the proof necessary to confirm that Camp B is correct. To understand modern humanity you must imagine what mankind would now look like without the advent of our modern but flawed psychiatric pharmacology, which has only been in use since the late 40's, when the impracticality of locking up increasing numbers of people started becoming apparent. Without humane treatment such as what we propose, to replace over-drugging and electro-shocking, there would be record levels of very apparent suffering and mayhem. In our unbridled pursuit of technological wealth at the expense of humanitarian well-being, we have silenced and hidden from view the true nature of modern humanity. We've replaced it with an artificially sterilized counterfeit, whereby the victims who cannot keep pace are often over-drugged, suffer terrible side-effects, and live shortened life spans in quiet torment. Obviously there is something seriously wrong with societies that require the mind-altering drugging of almost 1/4th of the population, not to mention the scores of people who self-medicate with alcohol and the like. It shouldn't be surprising to anyone that we are a species living with nuclear annihilation and environmental disaster hanging over our heads. Sadly, it's the culmination and natural result of our species' deepest desires and inherent attributes. There is no merit in societal success unless one constructively acknowledges that the true sicknesses plaguing mankind, are unquestioning conformity and bigotry. Technological progress is fine, but as Einstein stated: "Technology has outstripped our humanity." This is the evolutionary path mankind has chosen and if not seriously altered, it's just a matter of time before it all falls apart. Just as saving the environment will require a lot more effort and self-sacrifice from a lot more people, the same is true for the whole mental health debacle. The term "hyper-sanity" is a new psychiatric label not yet recognized by the DSM. It refers to people who have figured out the whole story and recovered from their "condition", in spite of, rather than because of psychiatric treatment; their "condition" being the inability to conform to the systemic sociopathological actions and expectations of the planet's governing powers and adherents. Face it, it's not a cliche, we're a very sick species. But that's not to say there aren't any sane leaders in the world, but they're all speaking into the wind while trying to row upstream, in their efforts to counter the Donald Trumps of the world.

Yes, no matter, read this instead. STIGMATIZATION Although present psychiatric treatment has improved over the years (just as primitive 70's treatment was an improvement over the 50's age of the lobotomy) and left-leaning shrinks are generally ok, many experts claim psychiatry is now backtracking and far from equal to handling the burgeoning community mental health crisis, and resulting in increased homelessness. Milder cases of depression and anxiety are generally being better handled, but the extreme stigmatization of conditions such as schizophrenia and "bipolar" manic depression has led to a very erroneous and negatively skewed public perception. Incidents of bizarre gun violence in the US receive widespread press coverage, while the many accomplishments of recovered ex-patients go unnoticed. Due to stigmatization, such people are forced to hide their medical history and their stories are therefore excluded from public perception. Even when success stories are publicized, they tend to only paint a picture of people who owe their supposed recoveries to psychiatric treatment. The Russell Crowe movie, A Beautiful Mind, is an example of this. Mathematician John Nash was a bright enough ally to our cause, but he achieved his career success prior to his psychiatric treatment, and then spent the rest of his life suffering from stilted brain power and the muscle contortions of Tardive Dyskinesia, all caused by antipsychotic drugs. There are many caring community workers, but patronization also causes stigmatization, and celebrity advocates are generally ineffective because of the specialized lives and treatment they experience, removing them from the street level reality of most sufferers. There are actually much better success stories going unrecognized because such people quietly blend into society after departing the psychiatric system, often owing it little thanks. Did you know that the very first American hospital for the insane at Colonial Williamsburg, was at least twice as successful at returning patients to normal life as today's institutions, by offering nothing but food, shelter and counselling? They also reported that their later recovery rate declined as they attempted other more invasive forms of treatment, especially during the civil war. Third world countries of today, with their scant psychiatric services, also report a higher recovery rate for psychosis. Although psychiatry does sometimes help people, by it's very nature it first intensifies the sufferer's problems by adding stigmatization to the list and it operates in a fashion similar to that of the SPCA and veterinary medicine, whereby a harsh value judgement governs the type and quality of treatment. REGARDING THE LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA Being that alcohol, cigarettes and peanuts are legal despite their proven health risks, we feel that marijuana by the same token can be legalized with stringent health warnings and controls. However, there is a lobby pushing for legalization on the grounds that marijuana poses no health risks. On this point they are wrong. Though for some people marijuana cannabinoids such as CBD, appear to provide some health benefits, marijuana THC is causing or exacerbating many more depressive, psychotic and anxiety related disorders than what even some in the medical professions care to admit, especially among the young. For years the psychiatric system has viewed THC as merely a trigger, and prescribed anti-psychotic drugs. By this logic THC could be used on the young as an early litmus test for illness. ughh! We, the "Schizoid Visionaries" are now either well established citizens or retired millionaires. Not that that's important or even to our credit, except in that we recovered by removing ourselves from psychiatric treatment and strictly limiting or discontinuing the use of such non-opioid drugs as marijuana. (Opioid drug abuse and criminal forensic psychiatry being separate issues, at least during the critical stages) The Canadian Medical Association has now released their study on marijuana legalization, and we are happy to say that their recommendations are very good; forty or so years late, but better late than never. In his autobiography, Bruce Springsteen claims that in reaction to the problems of his alcoholic father, he purposely never touched pot or any other drug, though it was always readily available, in order to maximize his efforts. Smart guy! He also states that he and his associates often were suffering from conditions that could easily have been diagnosed as mental illness, but that for them "psychiatry didn't exist", and treatment was never an option even remotely considered.

You'd have to ask our producer and commentary editor Frederick Serafim. CHARITY & MAINSTREAM PSYCHIATRY As Martin Luther King Jr. and others have stated, charity is ultimately no replacement for open opportunity, and can serve to disguise and widen the relative prosperity gap. Even the Romans provided free bread and circuses to the masses for what they knew to be very cynical purposes of sociopolitical expedience. The focus is on "careers" in the mental health industry, and the patients are merely the commodity. There are very few actual psychiatric experts, only those deemed to possess expertise. At one time bloodletters were deemed medical "experts". The doctor who developed the lobotomy procedure won the Nobel prize for it in 1949, and electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) was first developed by an Italian Fascist psychiatrist, named Ugo Cerletti, after witnessing how pigs at a slaughterhouse went to their deaths more easily after being hit with an electric cattle prod. He himself actually lamented developing the technique, but such experts are held to very low standards when treating the powerless, and ECT is still in use today the world over. Although most major memories regarding people, places, events and important conversations do eventually return after a limited course of electro-shock treatments, it is horrid for students trying to cram detailed minutiae into their minds, and the subtle faculties required for healthy social development are always arrested. The purpose of psychiatry is 90% to exert social control by suppressing symptoms, and only 10% to offer any tangible help. Some improvements that could be made within the psychiatric system would be to put reform minded psychiatrists and psychologists in charge, transfer more funding to peer support groups, and downplay the role of mainstream psychiatrists and their invasive treatments, such as ECT and over-drugging. Of course, drug companies pay doctors for prescribing their drugs, and studies have shown that some of the highest commissions are paid for prescribing psychiatric drugs. Also, it's certainly imperative to improve conditions in psychiatric community homes. We were talking to a pest control technician a few weeks back, who described for us the deplorable state of these homes in Toronto - a city which is ranked to be the 4th most livable city in the world. He also explained that he seldom receives calls to spray such homes. At another home, a resident got in trouble with the administration for taking the initiative at his own expense, to plant gardens and shrubs. Apparently he should first have gone through the proper bureaucratic channels. They look a helluva lot better than the weeds that were there, and ultimately, people have to take such initiative to help themselves, and friends and families must exercise more empathetic care. In today's world, the existence and significance of poverty has been diminished and marginalized in the popular conception, by medicalizing it.

THE UNIVERSE Our solar system is quite possibly an atom and our planet an electron, within the body of a much greater being, who's complex immune system is constantly at work trying to protect its health. Under this scenario, the human species is a sub-microscopic part of that life process, subject to the usually beneficial, but ultimately imprecise actions of that immune system, which we in turn often refer to as "God". Atom-like solar systems form molecules within cell-like galaxies of that cosmic "body", who is just one citizen of the multiverse. The birth of our universe could have been the result of a celestial form of sexual procreation - a big "bang", if you will :) Just a thought...