Lunatic Time

Sometime around 1990 I was listening to radio KPFK based in Santa Monica California. KPFK is a member of the Pacifica Radio Network, a for the most part left of left-liberal voice of the “loyal” opposition. I don’t recall the particular radio program but the host had invited onto the show a person who claimed to have the inside scoop on the goings on in Nicaragua. At that time the Sandinistas held power and were being challenged by the Contras in irregular combat. The guest supposedly knew all about the CIA involvement in the conflict, and was laying out the "facts", when for some unknown reason he suddenly went off the rails and began expounding on how the CIA had infiltrated the Veterans Administration Dentistry Department and when veterans came in to have their teeth worked on, the agents would proceed to implant radio receivers in their teeth and then wire those up to the emotion center of the patients' brains. That’s right, you heard correctly. The CIA was doing brain surgery on veterans surreptitiously. And to what end do you ask? The guest explained that whenever the CIA felt the need to nudge the nation a little further to the right politically, they would dial in one of those radio receivers which would send a jolt to the victim’s emotion center causing that poor patient to go berserk and to kill someone at random. There would be terrific response from the terrified public which would produce a conservative reaction. And so by way of these small but horrific incidents the CIA could slowly but surely move the nation onto a more conservative path. 

I could hear the host of the show sputtering and stammering in the background as he heard this ridiculous story unfold live on the air. He obviously realized that his guest had wandered into the deep end of the pool and needed to be saved. The host quickly announced a station identification break and when they returned he had his guest back on the rails. Ah Pacifica Radio, the voice of the loyal opposition and chock to the hilt with the lunatic fringe. I miss yea…not!