In normal times, people who are mentally healthy do their jobs, while paranoids construct conspiracy theories. But these are not normal times.

Now it is the mentally healthy people who are constructing conspiracy theories, while the only people who are NOT suspicious are the ones with a screw loose. The only people who do NOT see something to worry about are the ones with a wheel up on the curb.

A major reservoir in Pacific Palisades is taken off line and emptied in fire season. But the fire chief declares that she did not have to be notified, as far as she is aware. High winds come up every year at this time, and the fire chief is unaware of a major decrease in the water supply. Only someone of limited mental capacity, or under sedation, would NOT have an anxiety attack at this news.

Does this mean that ISIS agents did not set the fires? Does this mean that Trump haters or environmentalist fanatics did not set the fires? Does this mean that a fire started naturally, but pyromaniac copy cats did not set other fires? No. But it does mean that malice and stupidity may be hard to distinguish from each other, but from the victims’ point of view, what is the difference?

Good friends of ours just lost their home and everything in it. My first emotion is sadness. But my second is anger. Deep, deep anger.

Kipling taught us to keep our heads when all around us were losing theirs. But a parody of that advice tells us that if we can remain calm when those around us are panicking, maybe we just don’t understand the situation.

Well, maybe we don’t.