The ravings of a lunatic

No, the title of this post does not refer to me, ha ha very funny.

I spent a half-hour today eavesdropping on a conversation someone was having on their cell phone in Borders.

I've seen this guy at Borders more than a few times; he's usually there with his (presumably) wife and little girl. They seem to not have a lot of money. The (presumably) wife looks very old in the way people who struggle through life look old -- I think she's probably 15 years younger than she looks. The little girl is always bruised and slightly dirty, and every time I see her I feel bad. Sometimes they hang out in the cafe part and eat bread and butter and read. Which is why I think they're poor. But they read, so that's cool.

But it's the guy who's the most interesting. He usually wears drab olive pants tucked into calf-high socks and boots. His shirts vary, but he always wears a drab olive cap like Vietman war protesters wore. Or New York garage rockers wear.

Or paramilitary wear.

Which is what I think this guy is, now, based on this conversation I at first accidentally but then for twenty-nine minutes and fifty-six seconds purposefully, overheard.

He was alone in a corner of the book store, sitting in a chair and talking on his cell phone. I was looking for Miles Davis' Bitches Brew when I heard a voice say, "I don't want him there. If I see him around I will rip his fucking throat out." That was the accidental 4 seconds I overheard. The remaining 00:29:56 can be summed up as follows:

He quickly finished talking about whoever he was talking about and wanted to see larynx-less. Then he started saying things like "I want to meet somewhere private... where just the 4 of us can meet and anyone else is automatically under suspicion..." And then there was, "These people can fit in anywhere, and you'll never know... NO - it can't be a place you like, that you want to use again... it will be dangerous, but we need to control it... that's the U.S.S.A. for you, that's communism and we live in a socialist state..." OK. Now it just went from being weird to fucking fucked up. But I kept listening.

Bravely, I feel.

And the guy continued on about how the Supreme Court ("fucking Republican Court" is how he phrased it, I believe) came down and wrecked 10 states, including California, that have strong patients' rights laws regarding the ability to sue HMOs. So now he's on a Lefty rant. I suppose if you go far enough Right, you end up Left, and vice-versa. I remember hearing an interview with Tim McVeigh, where Tim said he was in the same prison as the Unabomber and even though McVeigh was reactionary right, and Ted Kazinski was radical left, they agreed on a lot of issues.

So now I'm thinking this guy is definitely paramilitary. He continues on about the authority of his Church or something, and how he's starting to not trust them. Then he enters a diatribe on how awful lawyers are, but how you need them because they know how to read judges, know their personalities, and understand the law. He wondered why "nothing's been done yet, because I'm going to write one more report to make it current and then I'm going to the city and then to fucking Van Nuys court." Then he goes back to this meeting he's planning, and how he wants to meet in a park. Then he tells the person he's talking to to "be careful tonight, and tomorrow" and hangs up.

My first instinct was I wanted to know what park he was meeting at and at what time so I could go there. How cool would that be? One time in London I followed a crazy guy around because he was so entertaining. But then my next thought was the London guy was just sticking his tongue out and laughing at people, and this guy here seemed a little more dangerous, and so following him was probably one of the worst ideas I've ever had in my entire life. And I've had some pretty horrible ideas, such as the one that involved beer, the fire cracker, and the house across the street.

But now I wonder if this is something more serious. I mean, I don't live my life in fear like Fox News and the current president wants me to. Though as crazy as this guy was, he was talking about fighting through legal channels.

Besides, I should just be thankful he's encouraging his daughter to read.