by Henry, ©2025
(Oct. 15, 2025) — “So, we’re supposed to believe 22 Veterans do themselves in every week. Here’s something they don’t tell you: half of them are under the care of the VA.”
“Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 3” (3:01)
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to ‘The Pulse of the Nation,’ the place to hear it here first. Our featured guest needs no introduction. As a young man he went off to a war, came back mentally whacko, went to the VA for help and all they gave him were some pills that just made him plain nuts. Went to school and became a licensed professional psychiatrist treating combat-related PTSD sufferers at the VA. Refused to push the lobotomy pills that made his patients brain-dead, so they fired him. Taught at the university, wrote some bestselling books on how to become an amateur psychiatrist and is now on the ‘Chicken Salad’ circuit hawking his books. Does that about cover it? Welcome to ‘Pulse,’ Professor ‘Zork’ Zorkophsky, the most-watched information show in its time slot.”
“And so very glad to be here. The traffic was terrible. I took the Interstate, set the cruise control at 70 and was in the slow lane being passed like I was standing still. What’s the hurry? Everyone is going to get caught by a red light or a train. And school buses? It’s a wonder I made it.”
“Yes, many drivers are very rude, and we’re glad you made it here all calm and collected.”
“But that’s what I’m trying to say: I’m not calm and collected. I’m frazzled.”
“Let me ask you this: is ‘frazzled’ an accepted professional psychiatric term?”
“For sure it is. So is ‘nuts.’”
“Could you give us an example of someone who, as you say, is ‘nuts?’”
“Well, just the other day I heard some Congressperson say that ‘Miss Cackle’ should be the Democratic presidential candidate for 2028.”
“’Miss Cackle?’”
“Kamala Harris.”
“Oh, yes, of course. You seem to have a beef with the VA.”
“Don’t get me started.”
“But that’s exactly why we booked you, to spout about the VA.”
“Let me say that meaning well doesn’t cut it. You do know they required all their employees to get the ‘Clot Shot?’”
“’Clot Shot?’”
“The COVID-19 vaccine that is not a vaccine. Be nice if the Fake News would come clean and tell the truth just once.”
“Never happen.”
“And how very right you are, Henry.”
“You don’t trust the VA?”
“Oh, I trust them as far as I could throw them, but it’s like everything else: do your homework and don’t sit there like a bump on a log and let them shoot you up with who knows what.”
“I see your point.”
“Maybe you do and maybe you don’t, but the fact remains that they ordered all of their employees to take the vaccine that was not a vaccine or get fired; that’s the inexcusable bottom line.”
“That is true. So, what to do?”
“What to do is pay attention and take control of your own health care.”
“Sounds good, but how?”
“You know smoking is bad, and that includes crack cocaine as well as cigarettes, marijuana and hash. And no alcohol or an excessive amount of sugar like a pound of M&M’s in one sitting. And flush the pills from the VA.”
“For real? What do you say we pause for a short commercial break? Be right back; don’t go anywhere.”
“Sassy Swing” (2:04)
“And we’re back with Zork who was telling us to flush the pills from the VA, isn’t that correct?”
“Almost.”
“Then what’s the matter?”
“Maybe some pills are good, like heat medicine, but stay away from the pills that alter reality, is all I’m saying.”
“I think that’s saying quite a lot. You tend to lean on the side of self-help rather than the pills, is that it?”
“And a relationship.”
“A relationship. But that’s what almost killed me, when I was most likely to eat a bullet the day I found out my wife was cheating on me. Had she just told me, flat-out, I could’ve taken it, but going behind my back was too much. And I say close.”
“But you survived.”
“That I did, with a promise to myself if I ever made it through, I would never be that vulnerable again. And I never have been.”
“But that’s so sad.”
“It is as it has to be, sad or not.”
“Well, Zork, I wish you well. Any last words?”
“None whatsoever; what’s the point?”
“I see. Well, this is Henry, along with Professor Zorkophsky, wishing you a goodnight.
“Look, Zork, you’re just too depressing to be around. Thanks for being on the show. See you around.”
“Amergari no Samba” (3:11)
???