Foolish (nay, devious) ideas from idle minds

For the purpose of writing this column today, I researched for an explanation of the popular saying "an idle mind is the devil's workshop".

- Aven Piramide [e-mail]

The internet says that “When someone is not engaged in constructive activities, he is more likely to entertain unproductive, negative, or harmful thoughts”. However, a variation to this proverb reads “the idle mind is a forest of foolish ideas".

I prefer to use the variation to apply to what our honorable senators have done to the articles of impeachment against Vice President Sara Duterte Carpio. Let me first tackle the “idle mind” part of the quotation. The senators themselves made their minds idle. Let us consider that according to Section 15, Article VI of our constitution, “The Congress shall convene once every year on the fourth Monday of July for its regular session, xxx and shall continue to be in session xxx until thirty days before the opening of its next regular session xxx”.