This degree of calving is NOT normal, not even at the time of year I took the photograph. The simple truth is, there is so much ice crumbling off the glacier because of the phenomenon of global warming, and, the simple FACT that the ocean’s temperature is rising, not just at an alarming rate, but, faster than that…. Now, I know the intro section isn’t the best place for a rant, but, what am I to do when it (my guilt, that is…) jumps out of its chair & slaps me in the face, whenever I consider NOT speaking up…. My knowledge of the degree of danger, for us ALL, is so solidly convincing, I am, as I almost never am, afraid…. very afraid, of the future I see….

Since I am here not to drive y’all away, or intentionally frighten you with what I know to be very real, but, to, essentially, entertain, or, at best, teach a small lesson, or stimulate thought, I won’t take those thoughts any further….. now, anyway…. I have the feeling though, there will be more on this in one of the three sections to come…. It is too important, and too fucking scary, for me to keep it to myself for long… and, though I really don’t enjoy frightening people (think about it; to do so, I must frighten myself first…), this is one I can’t just let go….

Nor, in this case, must I; instead, I’ve reproduced below, in section one, a rant from the past (not-too-distant) which touches on this issue, but, with another actual target involved, also supplying some assertions as to the most likely suspects  responsible for the extreme danger we will face, very soon….

For the nonce, (Great word! Too bad it’s fallen out of style… SIGH…. I do what I can to preserve some of the finer, more elegant pieces of English being eliminated by the current climate of ignorance….), I’ll see what I can find wandering around in my head to either begin again, or segue into something more amenable, for the time being…. Hmm… let’s see what’s down this nice, dark corridor over here….

Why look! It’s a really shiny pearl, from one of our favorite contributors…. I think we’ll take what the universe is offering, and make it our final say for this intro section…. Hey, we do what we can to make it better; we just don’t always know what that means, or what it may entail….. So be it…. See y’all down the page a bit…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

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Still suffering from vertigo, but, at least, it’s now being treated so it will pass eventually…. but, ranting isn’t in the picture yet…. Here’s another from the archives…..

From 3/2/13:

He who imitates evil always goes beyond the limits of the example, whereas he who imitates what is good, always falls short.” — Confucius

Perfect! If ever a quote could be applied to fit one group of people, this one would; it fits the folks who occupy elected office in this country like the proverbial glove. Ooh! Ooh! Here’s another one….

“Ignorance: When you don’t know something and somebody finds it out.” — Jethro Burns

Okay, that’s a good start…. Now, we all know that politicians lie to us…. It’s what we’ve taught them to do, by our calm acceptance of all the other lies they’ve told, from the very beginning. We expect them to lie…. then, when we catch them at it, there is this huge public outcry, as if it had never happened before….. (Shakes head, sighs….)

Sometimes, the behavior of the American public toward the political beast reminds me of a shark…. to wit: no memory of the past to slow down their willingness to rush into dangerous situations…. For millions of years, sharks and dolphins have lived together in the oceans. For just about all that time, whenever a shark attacks a dolphin, it gets killed, unless the dolphin is injured in some way, or, it is a baby inadvertently left alone. Always, if things are even, the shark dies, because the dolphins are smarter, and faster swimmers.

After millions of years, you would think the sharks might learn to let them alone, but, they don’t, which is evidence of their lack of ability to learn. The American voting public has the same problem…. they never learn to expect to be lied to, and always seem surprised to learn that their elected officials are, shall we say, less than perfectly honest? It, quite frankly, drives me nuts…. What is it about people that does that to them? Why are they so unwilling to use the mind that sits between their ears, rather than just carrying it around from toilet to toilet, which is all most folks seem to do with it?  I wish I knew….

“There is one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him. If he says yes, you know he is crooked.” — Groucho Marx

I’m starting to feel a bit of anger, actually, and I have a hard time not letting it out on the voting public, the idiots. But, it really isn’t all their fault, as the people who run for office are the ones who are actively imitating evil, and, obviously, exceeding the limits of their example. And the voting public can’t help never being able to quite reach the good for which they reach. This is why I get angry about it…. The folks who run for office tell the public they are going to work for the people when they are elected; we all know they are lying, but we elect them anyway. Now, how stupid is that? Pretty stupid, in my book….

On the one hand, the stupidity displayed by the politicians is deliberate, in its adherence to principles of theft and prevarication; on the other hand, the stupidity displayed by the voting public is, perhaps, not deliberate, but at minimum, misguided, and, ultimately, just as evil, in placing its trust in evil people. In the dispassionate view held by the universe, stupid is as stupid does, and the sentence of death is the same for both types of stupidity, deliberate and unconscious. It doesn’t care about why, it only looks at results….

What can be done about this? Not a damn thing…. Not only do I find that most people are unconsciously stupid, but they are stubborn about it, even when it is clear how being stupid is hurting them. Rather than use their minds to find a new way of dealing with these issues, they retreat into platitudes and dogma, and run right back out to vote for another idiot who promises them manna from heaven, or, more accurately, from Washington D.C. If confronted with their idiocy, they become even more stubborn, as they are unwilling to accept they might be wrong, and refuse to either examine any evidence of being wrong, or, will deny its existence altogether. (See quote # 4 in section one, above… Plato knew this about people, hundreds of years before Jesus was born….)

The politicians, who choose to live in stupidity, by lying and cheating and stealing from their own people, don’t even WANT to choose otherwise. Why should they? They’ve got it easy, with a ready supply of host bodies on which to practice their symbiotic parasitism, a body that not only accepts all their lies, but encourages them to even further depredations with their complete acquiescence with whatever the politicos want. All the politicians have to say is that the public is in danger, from this, that, or the other, and the public will allow them to do whatever they choose, as long as they feel safe from whatever fictional fantasy they have been told is dangerous….

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” — Albert Einstein

It’s an interesting spectacle to observe from the sidelines, but it arouses in me a strong feeling of sadness, with the anger underlying, as I watch, day after day, as so many millions of foolish people get taken advantage of by a few assholes. It definitely makes me want to buy a gun, even though I would only use it if pressed; I have a feeling I may get pressed some day, if I continue to make noise about all this.

I’m fairly well protected thus far by a lack of notoriety; the BRC and the PTB aren’t going to worry about me until I have an audience a lot larger than a couple of hundred folks, of which perhaps fifty regularly read my work. If what I am saying began to gain popularity, and was being read by millions, I’d be in danger; until then, I’m as safe as I can make myself with the tools at hand; which, if I say so myself, are not entirely inconsequential….. If I said any more, I’d be giving away my precautions, and that wouldn’t do, so, just rest assured…. I am ready to deal with anything short of assault weapons, with what I have on hand….

“Many, if not all, of my presidential opponents are certifiable idiots.” — Miriam Defensor Santiago — The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1993

See? I’m not completely alone! Actually, if you pay close attention, you will note this was uttered by a politician, about their peers, so it really doesn’t count as support of what I’m saying here. What, exactly am I saying here? Hmm, okay, since I’ve already written about 1200 words or so on this, it’s a good place to wind it up…. so, here goes….

Ffolkes, you are being lied to, daily…. hell, more like hourly, by those who have been elected to office to look out for your interests. I hate to tell you, but those folks never intended to do anything of the sort. So, it would be a good thing if everybody in this country would OPEN THEIR FUCKING EYES AND GET A DAMN CLUE!!!!!….. I don’t think I can say it any clearer than that…. That’s all, for now….

“Ignorance kills daily. “– Smart Bee

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Ffolkes….Today you are witnessing the next stage in the evolution of this blog…. I’ve learned how to embed videos into the page, and can now put up a You Tube video on any subject they have on the You Tube site, meaning you will be able to have music, of any kind, playing while you read, if you wish…. Or, I could put up material in support of my rants, or whatever I can think of to help entertain, and please anyone who comes by to read…. I’m jazzed, at all the potential…. the possibilities are endless….

To begin, I’ll pull my covers first, followed by an expression of my philosophy of life…. in musical metaphor, of course…. First, a short 11 minute romantic compilation of movie clips, that follow the evolution of the relationship between Lord Peter Wimsey, and Miss Harriet Vane, of the Dorothy L. Sayers mystery novels, in which they both figured as protagonists…. Second, the Jerry Garcia Band, with a live version from 1989, I believe, recorded on Long Island, entitled, “Deal”….. also known as “Don’t you let that deal go down….”

Enjoy!….. I intend to….

Peter & Harriet:

Deal: Jerry & the guys

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No doubt, I’ve used this poem previously, but, it has been quite a while, and I’m in the mood for Emily….. so, enjoy, anyway….. Please?…..

Gosh…. Now that I’ve picked up (finally…) on how to post videos, this section can become a fixture for old-school pearls, which also makes my life easier…. fewer actual decisions to make…. while also opening up the opportunity to delegate some of those remaining decisions to SB, which seems to enjoy the freedom….

“Immorality: The morality of those who are having a better time.” — H. L. Mencken

“Life’s disappointments are harder to take when you don’t know any swear words.” — Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes

“The farmer fed apples to his pigs by holding them up to the tree, one at a time. His son, home from college, suggested that time might be saved by knocking the apples out of the tree so all the pigs could eat at the same time. Said Dad, “What’s time to a pig?”– Smart Bee

“In the end it will not matter to us whether we fought with flails or reeds.  It will matter to us greatly on what side we fought.” — G. K. Chesterton

“One of the lessons of history is that nothing is often a good thing to do and always a clever thing to say.” — Will Durant, in “Reader’s Digest”, 1972

“Imagination is the highest kite one can fly.” — Lauren Bacall

“Instead of being born again, why not just grow up?” — Smart Bee

Not bad…. not bad at all….

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Only in the direst of circumstances would I hurry this much….. It’s a special day, though, so, I’ll just go with instinct, and leave it as is…. I will see y’all tomorrow, all things remaining equal….