That all makes sense. What I’ve done is reach a point where I’m just about on the edge of being able to function, or not. When I can’t function I rest until I can. So I’m perpetually running on fumes.

... the insomnia demons have got me, so what the hell, the squirrel-muffin-garage story. 1989 and I’m going to Cleveland State University; it’s an ordinary morning, where I’ve taken the bus to campus, eaten at the greasy spoon, and I’m crossing the parking garage to get to the library where I have a student job. One…

Feel free to elaborate, though I think I get your point. Like, one of the things that runs me ragged is, I try to take care of too many people around me. Now is that a matter of principles and trying to live the way I think people ought to, or is it because I dislike conflict and I don’t know how to say no? Or maybe…

“You both can’t be right.”

“Millions of people around the world don’t read everything.”

You make good sense.

“Braveheart” featured the Battle of Stirling Bridge ... without a single bridge in sight. Oh yeah now there’s some historical accuracy.

Statistically speaking, almost everyone reading this is a descendant of Charlemagne. Dude lived in the 700s-800s, and between recognized aristocratic lineage and the near certainty of bastard offspring of aristocrats, everyone with any European ancestors has got a little Charlemagne in them. I imagine a similar…

I sometimes wonder whether I should consider therapy. My biggest worry is that the therapist is going to tell me what I already suspect: the things that keep me from being happier, are also the things that are most important to me, and so I’m fundamentally unwilling to change.

I’ll explain it yet again, in words that I hope are small enough: I am not arguing with your reviewer, I am arguing with you, and I have a problem with how you are making like you have any standing or basis to discuss the meat of the story. You are stupid, you are ignorant, and you are proud of it.

“I didn’t read this story, and I’m not going to.”

You keep asking what is wrong with me, when I’ve already explained over and over that I have a problem with know-nothings who don’t see ignorance as a reason to shut their own dumb mouths and educate themselves. You are what the Dunning-Kruger Effect is talking about.

It’s not about whether I am reliable or not; it is about whether you have any standing whatsoever to talk about this story like you are an authority. Do something about your own ego.

Oh, if you want to do something about your ignorance, turns out “Streets of Poison” is available on Amazon:

Thing is, if that other person told you that the issue of Cap and drugs didn’t show up again, they were lying. I know that, because I read the story, and remember the plot points that your reviewer didn’t bother to bring up. For example, the fact that Cap beat Crossbones for the first time, and did it without the…

“You can’t really be this naive. Or dumb. People can’t read/watch *everything*. As a society we rely on others to tell us what things are about. Are you so sheltered that you’ve never heard of book reviews, or movie critics, or relied on someone else that has read or watched something to tell you what happened in it?…

“So according to your logic, I (or anyone else) can’t have an opinion about a book/comic/TV show/movie/anything unless they themselves have read or watched it. It doesn’t matter if someone else watches it and tells you about it, or you read a review of it - you have to experienced it yourself.”

Yes it DOES matter that you didn’t read the story yourself. You’re just repeating conclusions that were spoon-fed to you, and that is a bad way to go through life. That is my problem with you.

You keep asking “what is your problem?” and then I explain where I’m coming from and you fail to understand what I’ve been explaining. Evidently you’re no more inclined to read my responses to you than you are to reading this story that you want to talk so much about.

What does justice look like? Ideally, we want a few things: restitution for the victim, rehabilitation for the criminal, and (if rehabilitation is successful) letting them start again with a clean slate. If we can’t get all of that, we hope that jail time will at least keep society safe from them for a while.