Tag Archives: H.L. Mencken

Save that lanolin, we’ll use it on the new busboy….

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Ffolkes,
I know, now, how the White Rabbit felt, as he hurried down the rabbit hole to Wonderland, “I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date…”  Even though the only thing I’m late for is posting this Pearl, I feel the same sense of panic and hurry as did he….. No reason, really. I did sleep a bit late, and had to spend the first twenty minutes repairing and reloading Smart Bee…. it pulled its bi-monthly corrupted file trick, which requires a quick delete and re-load of the entire program, plus a re-start of the computer…. No big deal, but time consuming…. which brings us to the present moment….

Egad, what a mess…. I’ve managed to completely screw up my transaction record, so I have no idea of exactly how much is in my account, and it’s time to pay bills for the month. I’m going to have to pay everything, then stop using the cards at all until it all catches up, and I can reconcile the record with reality…. SIGH…. I never was very good with money; it comes from never having much of it to deal with, along with a hearty disregard for the concept itself… “If you want a life of trouble, fill your house with treasures.”  I first heard this, and took it to heart, when I was about 11 years old, and made a conscious decision at that time to never try to get rich…. I’ve done that, quite well, actually…..

That’s all Big Blue Room stuff, though, and has no place here in ECR…. though it IS reality, I question the relevance for anyone reading this missive, so we’ll leave that behind, and find some other way to lead into today’s post…. That will be quite a trick, as I haven’t a clue as to what will happen today. I left the entire template blank, other than the usual suspects, intending to let myself go into an artistic trance, just typing away until my fingers wore out, and then seeing what was worth keeping…. much like I write a poem, in truth. But, my left wrist hurts from too much typing anyway, and I can’t seem to find a trance-state anywhere, in my head, or out. So much for that idea….

But, look, we’ve got three paragraphs again, just chock full of irrelevant BS, about rabbits, corrupted files, checkbooks, and mysticism colored by whimsy. Perhaps it isn’t exactly Hemingway-esque, but it’s certainly better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, and it does allow us to move on to something that MIGHT be instructive, if not entertaining. We often blur the two around here, so it’s best not to ask which it is supposed to be…. we don’t always know, and hate to be embarrassed…… Shall we Pearl?…..
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“I can’t keep from fooling around with our irrefutable certainties.  It is, for example, a pleasure knowingly to mix up two and three dimensionalities, flat and spatial, and to make fun of gravity.” — M. C. Escher

If you’ve seen Escher’s work, you’ll know that what he says here is truth, a truth graphically demonstrated by the visions he transfers to each  canvas. Though I doubt I’ll ever be hailed as such a genius as he, I like to think that what I write attempts to do the same, but rather than with dimensions of space, I play with the elements of belief that we humans hold, regarding certain aspects of society. In other words, it is a pleasure to knowingly point out the lies and the truths that people hold as certainties, and to make fun of how seriously the lies are taken, which we can equate to the force of gravity…. believing these lies is what holds us back from our potential, just as gravity holds us bound to the surface of the Earth…..

Just as Escher’s paintings release us from the laws of space and time, and of how to perceive them, our imaginations can release us from the repression heaped on us by the BRC and the 1%. When we stop believing the lies we are told, we can stop being puppets of the power of custom. Just because a lot of people believe something doesn’t make it true; only the facts of the matter can do that. In the act of accepting the lies we are told by those in authority, we become party to their chicanery, accessories, before and after the fact, to the crimes being perpetrated on society, and on the Earth as a whole….

“It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater.  The clown came out to inform the public.  They thought it was just a jest and applauded.  He repeated his warning, they shouted even louder.  So I think the world will come to an end amid general applause from all the wits, who believe that it is a joke.” — Smart Bee

I think Smart Bee might have a point here….. Most people don’t look past the surface of what they perceive; they accept whatever they are told, as long as the one delivering the message is in the appropriate costume, or setting. Put a moderately good looking man in a suit, have him sit at a desk looking studious and concerned, and people will pretty much take whatever he says as gospel, even if it has absolutely no truth in it, or any connection to reality whatsoever….. The public’s reaction to the possibility of global warming resembles the above statement quite a lot. Same with the question of overpopulation, either of which issue will certainly lead to war and misery, as a minimum, or extinction as a species, eventually, as a maximum result….

Whenever I bring this up, though, I am met with a silence that is deafening, and which serves as proof of exactly what I am saying…. This is the kind of message that no one wants, to hear, or to believe is real…. So, they don’t. Or, they just ignore it, thinking it will go away if they look at it again in a few days…. Guess what, ffolkes….. It”s real, it’s not going away, and that is a FACT, not a supposition, or speculation, or misread data, or conspiracy, or anything else…. it’s a fact…. And the only way to change it, is for EVERYONE to decide to turn 180 degrees from the path we are on, even if it means getting rid of those among us who don’t want to go that way… because that way means DEATH…. for all of us, without exception…. Deal with it…..

“I used to be an idealist, but I got mugged by reality.” — Smart Bee
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Okay, no cheating today…. It’s the last day of the National Poetry Writing Month, so I’m going to do my best to come up with a fresh haiku, and a fresh poem…. We’ll see how it goes, eh?….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here:  http://www.napowrimo.net/    I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku XVIII

More beautiful days,
the weather is amazing.
Soaking up the sun.

Off the proverbial cuff…

I never meant to kill that period of time,
it didn’t give me any choice.
It tried to hem me in without reason, or rhyme,
refused me any vote, or any voice.

You have to admit, I buried it deep and fast,
just as if I cared.
I knew, though, it would never last,
or ever be fully repaired.

No news, no pictures can bring it back,
once is all we get.
No pleas of public good, or even public lack;
in stone the past is set.

Futuristic visions now occupy my dreams,
I’m ready to go on.
Look! It fills up the screen, and it gleams!
Where’s the moment I’m sitting on?

Now, I remembered, at long, long last,
is all we really can hold.
Every moment goes by so bloody fast,
we’d best fill them all with beauty, warm and bold.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Though today’s first section cannot be strictly considered as a rant, it was an indictment, so we’ll count it as one…. That gives me the excuse to go with an old-school pearl. Today we’ll go completely random, with Smart Bee as the only one deciding what should be included…. Let’s see what comes up from the depths today, shall we?…..

“The earth hath skin, and the skin hath diseases.  One of these…is called man.” — Nietzsche

“Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire,–conscience.” — George Washington (1732-1799) — Rule from the Copy-book of Washington when a schoolboy

When asked, “If you find so much that is unworthy of reverence in the United States, then why do you live here?” Mencken replied, “Why do men go to zoos?”

“Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. (Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.)”  — William of Occam, Occam’s Razor

“It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“You know, of course, that the Tasmanians, who never committed adultery, are now extinct.” — W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

“UH-OH!!  We’re out of AUTOMOBILE PARTS and RUBBER GOODS!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Perhaps going TOTALLY random was a mistake; this is pretty inscrutable. So inscrutable, even I am not sure what the point is, other than to point a finger at Man, for….. something…. Maybe the finger should go up the nose, to remove any foreign bodies that may have been inadvertently ingested through the proboscis….. Oh, well, it isn’t bad, so just enjoy them individually, and I’ll leave them off the Quiz….
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Aye, very late indeed…. let’s see how it proofs….. Hmm…. it’s not responding; it may be dead…. Oh well, it’s done, so I’m not going to fuss with it any further…. Besides, I’m hungry….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

dozer3

All dryads squirt a little bit…..

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Ffolkes,
    Alright, so here’s the deal…. I write the stuff, you read it. If you don’t like it, tough; you’re welcome to take your chances by leaving a comment below. Be warned, I do not suffer fools gladly, or any other way, so be prepared to defend yourself, should you become overly enthusiastic in your criticisms, because I’m not going to worry overmuch about hurting feelings when it comes to idiots. If you do like it, that’s wonderful, and I’ll look forward to any discussion, on any subject you choose. Also, please be aware, any and all displays of outright stupidity will be handled appropriately, and I won’t be worrying about carrying on a battle of wits with an unarmed person. Here on ECR, we have very little no patience at all with deliberate, outright stupidity, and believe in rewarding the guilty party with great piles of doo doo, placed carefully upon their head…..

    At this point, you may be asking yourself, “just what the hell is he babbling about now?”  And, if I had a clue as to what prompted the above, I’d tell you, believe me…. No, when I sat down, that just started pouring out, as it is, all macho and aggressive. It was weird, too…… while writing it, I felt as if I was Robert Mitchum, when he made the statement about being a tough guy that went something like “if they sent in an order for a box car full of sons of bitches, and opened the door to find just me, they knew they’d got what they ordered…” I even felt like I was wearing the cheap suit and  battered old fedora he usually was seen in….

“In a cruel and evil world, being cynical can allow you to get some entertainment out of it.” — Daniel Waters, screenwriter of HEATHERS

    In reality, or approximately in reality, I don’t feel like a son of a bitch this morning; I actually got 8+ hours of good solid sleep, without having to get up even once, and awoke when the coffee made itself, in a pretty good mood…. But, when I sat down to write, that sort-of-a-disclaimer in the first paragraph jumped onto the page before I even thought to stop it. So, please, don’t take it too personally, or seriously, for that matter….. It IS true, however, that we (that’s the royal ‘we’, meaning ‘I’….)  do have a thing for stupid, and really, really hate dealing with it….

    But, for the most part, I haven’t had any problems with that sort of foolishness…. Every one of my readers seems to be quite well-mannered and intelligent, and even if they aren’t, or are just pretending, I would give some slack, because I know that even the dull and stupid have their story, and can’t always help being the way they are…. It’s the deliberately stupid ones I object to, strenuously, but, I guess those folks don’t often make it to the end of one of my epic posts; they probably give up halfway through, with a vague feeling they’ve been insulted somehow…. which they were. In all the time I’ve been blogging, I’ve only had one comment that tried to be mean to me, and it went to Spam, where I found, and deleted it, before it got on my page and sullied the rest of y’all with the splashing muck….

    Any who, I guess that initial outpouring of vitriol cleared out my head, and prompted the above four paragraphs of pure, unadulterated blather. Four paragraphs, however, is the legal limit for an intro section, so I’m going to take it and run while I can…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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    I had intended to rant here…. Smart Bee had other ideas, and it rules the search process, so here we have a nice little pearl of virtual wisdom, in the old school style. Let your mind flow from one quote to the next, and when you reach the end, you will find a valuable piece of insight staring you in the face… It may be a bit obscure, but that usually means it is a subtle point, and all that much more powerful for it….. Or, it may be obvious, which can also be very interesting…. Whichever it turns out to be, take notes, because it is growing ever nearer to Quiz time, and this one WILL be on there, you can count on it….

“This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.” — Douglas Adams — The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“I never knew whether to pity or congratulate a man coming to his senses.” — William Makepeace Thakeray

“A sympathetic Scot summed it all up very neatly in the remark, “You should make a point of trying every experience once, excepting incest and folk dancing.”" — Sir Arnold Bax

“There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.” — Soren Kierkegaard

“Anacharsis said a man’s felicity consists not in the outward and visible favors and blessings of Fortune, but in the inward and unseen perfections and riches of the mind.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — The Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, 11

    Ooh, perfect ending!  I hope you enjoyed today’s tickler, which is what I call pearls when they tickle the imagination so it laughs, or cries, or just lets itself wander through the universe in my head….. You can too, if you wish…. it’s a big universe….
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    Once again, there’s no poem ready, and it’s not going to get forced out today; I’d just hurt myself. I’ll write a haiku, but the poem for today is an older one, from 2012….. As every day this month, these are being included as part of the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here:  http://www.napowrimo.net/    I hope you enjoy them…..

Haiku XIV

No perilous dreams
dared troubled my sleep last night.
Beautiful morning.

Honorable Request

Days, filled to a brim with fluff and time, pass
dimly into memory, bit by combative bit,
ever mournful, yet loud with life and sass,
only in dream do we meet, and dance, and flit.

Souls, spinning ’round in gleeful wonder, comply
as they must, never given a reason,
somberly proper, yet limber and quite spry,
dancing on to greet each bright new season.

Storms, angered by apathetic care, rage
proceeding into ministerial glare, unknown,
clothed in colors, purified solely with sage,
past an infinite future, already flown.

Life, plumbed to its depths and secrets, keeps
flowing with currents, strong and fairly found,
love stands, asking release, as it slowly weeps,
seeking refuge unasked, to stay honor bound.

~~ gigoid


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    I was going to rant again in this section, but I kept finding pearls that effectively said what I had in mind better, or, at least, more succinctly, so I’m going to use them in place of a rant, because, taken together, they cover all that I would have ranted upon…. Please forgive the use of noun as a verb…. Any who, this one is pretty obvious in its direction, so I’ll let it speak for itself…. This one is NOT going to be on the Quiz, should that mythical event ever truly take place…..

“What interests me is whether God had a choice when he created the world.” — Albert Einstein

“When one studies the biographies of the founders and leaders of the various religions, one cannot help but be struck by the psychotic — or at least extremely abnormal — behavior that has characterized so many of them. Luther, Wesley, and Loyola had hallucinations (“visions”).  St. Theresa almost certainly was a hysteric.  The book _The Psychotic Personality_, by Leon J. Saul and Silas L. Warner, devotes considerable space to the psychotic personalities of Mary Baker Eddy (founder of Christian Science), Joseph Smith (founder of Mormonism), Mohammed, and the Rev. Jim Jones… It seems significant that the founder of Christianity itself, St. Paul, also suffered from epilepsy.” — Frank Zindler, “Religiosity as a Mental Disorder,” American Atheist — magazine, April 1988, p. 27

“Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and, above all, love of the truth.” — H.L. Mencken

“Once blasphemy against God was the greatest blasphemy; but God died…” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Zarathustra’s Prologue

Ever eating, never cloying,
All-devouring, all-destroying,
Never finding full repast,
Till I eat the world at last.

 – Swift (1667-1745)

    And there you have it….. pretty slick, eh?…..
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    Well, another day of my egotistical blathering comes to an end, just in time to save any permanent damage to anyone’s karma… Let’s see if it can float…..  I think I hurt myself….. Okay, so they can’t ALL be wonderful…. some are just…. there. So is this one, and no matter how odd or strange it may be, I’m not doing it over; I could hurt myself even worse. We’ll all just have to take our chances today…. I think, if you wear your warmest coat, it will be alright…. Maybe….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
   and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

dozer3

Word is, WordPress rocks!….

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Ffolkes,
As may have been noted, I love serendipity, in all its guises and forms. Nothing is more delightful in life than realizing the plain brown rock one is holding is really a diamond in the rough, or that the person we just met is the long-lost brother for whom we’ve searched, or whatever surprising shape it may take for our delectation. It is one of the truest joys in life, for it is always unexpected to receive anything nice from the Universe; generally the things we are allowed to experience are designed by the Murphy Team, and are somewhat less than delightful in their nature…..

This morning’s events led me to meander along these lines…. This time, the impetus for my thoughts is alive, and has taken the form of a vocal, affectionate, attention-mongering young cat by the name of Sadie….

She is a beautiful cat, with markings and colors that tell me part of her ancestry includes a pixiebob, a recently recognized breed of cat bred to look like a miniature lynx, without the funny ears, and a touch of calico. They have tiger-like stripes, in black, against a coat of three shades of brown, with just enough white to add contrast. Pixiebobs are dog-like in their actions, liking to hang out with their humans, following them around the house and lying nearby when quiet, and are quite trainable. They are also very affectionate, and like a lot of attention….

Another part of Sadie’s ancestry was obviously Siamese…. She has the identifiable small kink in the tip of her tail, when she holds it up straight, and her voice clinches the resemblance, as it has that Siamese tone, regal and demanding, that will cut right through a door, or three, and she uses it to express EVERYTHING…. Talk, talk, talk, just like a…. well, I’d better not say that, a good number of my readers would kick my ass…. but, she won’t shut up until I figure out whatever it is she wants from me, or decides to take a cat nap…. I’ve known a lot of Siamese, and she fits the personality type to a T, once the affectionate pixiebob characteristics are factored in….

Sadie is destined to go live with my daughter, who picked her out, but cannot take her for a week, so I agreed to let her stay with me; Sadie needed to leave where she was, in an uncomfortable (for her) home, whose human loves her dearly, but whose cat population just exploded by a factor of 5 (kittens)…. Sadie was not amused by the kittens, so she came to live with me until my daughter can take her home. As I love cats, it is no hardship, kind of like babysitting the grandkid for me, since I get to eventually send her home….

This morning was our first morning together, and it has been a wonderful way to start the day, having someone to talk to, (well, mostly listen to more than talk with….), and provide me with some affectionate company. As I sit now to write, she is lying on the floor next to the chair, purring loudly, and occasionally looking up to see if I’m looking at her; if I am, she says something, then accepts a pat on the head with a grateful blink and preen. Lovely!

If I didn’t already have plans to travel, my daughter might have to find another cat, as Sadie would be welcome to stay as long as she likes…. She slept politely all night at the foot of the bed, and didn’t knock anything over in her nocturnal explorations…. very lady-like behavior in a new place, so all is good….

There, how’s that for a low-key, happy introduction to a Pearl? Not too shabby, I’d say, and a good way to start off a day devoted to family style events…. (see section one….) I think it’s now time to get on with the rest of today’s effort, so I’ll leave this now, and get to the easy part…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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wordpressfamilyaward
One of my oldest friends on WordPress…. Wait, let me qualify that, because I have no idea how old she is, and wouldn’t assume, or say, anyway…. Let’s start over…. A blogger friend of mine, known as Willowdot21, ( her site is at:  http://willowdot21.wordpress.com/about/ ), who has been coming to my site (and I to hers….) since I started a couple of years ago, AND who has been one of my best blogging friends, nominated me for a new award, the WordPress Family Award. It was created by the blogger at this site:  http://prayingforoneday.wordpress.com  , who nominated Willow for the original, initial award. This one is a simple award, giving us a chance to acknowledge how great the WordPress family of bloggers are, in their support and encouragement of everyone who writes for the site….. Those rules are as follows:

Rules:

1. Display the award logo on your blog.    I hope it worked….

2. Link back to the person who nominated you.   Right here:   http://willowdot21.wordpress.com/about/

3. Nominate 10 others you see as having an impact on your WordPress experience and family.   The hardest part of this for me was limiting the number to only 10…. as I rolled through my blogroll, I found at least that many more that should go on the list, but, to save time, I’ll follow the rules…. I’ve picked those sites who assumed family status soon after our meeting each other online….

Dolly  http://allaboutlemon.com/
Europaicewolf   http://europasicewolf.wordpress.com/
Carol Welsh   http://carolwelsh.wordpress.com/
Carolyn at ABC of Spirit Talk   http://abcofspiritalk.wordpress.com/
Linda Vernon   http://lindavernon.wordpress.com/
Ginger Snaap   http://ohmygawdjustdowhatisay.wordpress.com/
Lizzie Cracked   http://runningnakedwithscissors.com/2013/04/06/a-z-challenge-f-mm/
Eric Alagan  http://ericalagan.net/2013/04/07/samuels-counsel-fallen-grace-15/
Jerry Doby   http://theurbanlink.net/
Lou   http://talesfromthelou.wordpress.com/

4. Let your 10 Family members know you have awarded them…. I’ll do that today…. or, more simply, I’m on it….

5. That is it. Just please pick 10 people that have taken you as  a friend, and spread the love

So, there you have it…. I’m part of the WordPress Family, and now, so are you…..  One of the best parts of this award is that there isn’t any real pressure to accept, or to send it on by nominating others…. which is why I ended up taking the time to do so, because, hey, it’s family…..
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National Poetry Month Icon Pic
I was feeling some whimsy last night, and this is what leaked out, such as it is…. It may grow, I think, but, for now, it’s not bad, just strange…. As every day this month, this is for the April National Poetry Writing Month Challenge, with the updates to be found here:  http://www.napowrimo.net/

Relative Cynicism, with Caramel Sauce

Absolute stillness follows violent movement,
  it can happen during a downhill race,
as an immovable piece of asphalt pavement
  meets the once handsome racer’s face.

Yuk, yuk, yuk said that asshole Moe,
 after poking both of Larry’s eyes,
bashing face, head, & crotch of Curly Joe
  and only ever got hit with pies.

Lonely moments never really come along
  when Murphy’s got us in his sights.
Not for money, love, or siren’s song
  will he abrogate his natural rights.

All we can do is sigh, or laugh in pain,
  as Life portions out our ration of shit.
Silver linings melt in the slightest rain,
  so we may as well learn to live with it.

~~ gigoid

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“The men the American people admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth.” — H.L. Mencken

I can feel it building…. the anger, the angst, the frustration at the members of the Beloved Ruling Class, and the priestly hierarchies, who prey on their brethren, fully knowing the evil they do. It is also building up against those idiots who allow themselves to believe what these egregious assholes tell them, no matter how outrageous, or how badly it mangles the Truth. I really, really want to rant, and I think when this one comes out, it will be a big one, and I’ll have to coin a new word just to describe it…. but, no worries, I already did that part…. I’m going to write a politireligirant of major proportion, to go along with the upcoming epic take-down of the American Rail System, as personified by Amtrak…. They (Amtrak) forgot that there are SOME American citizens who not only know HOW to write in English, but are capable of doing so, to their soon-to-be-detriment and ultimate chagrin…..

Right now, though, I don’t have the proper frame of mind for ranting; Sadie’s morning activities have bemused and amused me too much, and I can’t quite get my outrage collected enough to spill over. So, I’m going to refer you to a fairly new (to me) blog site, where the blogger rants on what seems to be a daily basis, mostly on the political scene in this country, with side trips into how politics and culture may clash…. The writer’s name is John, and he is a die-hard liberal, politically, with a lot of good sense, and a fine grasp of the reality of the issues, as far as I can tell. His arguments and statements are clearly expressed, as well as well thought out, and he does his research, with attribution, too….. :lol:

The site is located here:  http://americanliberaltimes.com/  This address link will take you to one of his posts, from today, I think, where you can peruse his archives for quite a few good takes on society, politics, and common sense…. which, as we all know, is not as common as believed by most. When I feel the urge for dialogue, I go over to his site, and can always find a post that will prompt a comment, usually several paragraphs long, and we’ve had some good conversations (which, to me, is a big part of what this blogging stiff is all about….).

Sorry if I’ve disappointed anyone by not having a rant ready, but, Sadie just wouldn’t let me get upset enough to get pissed, so you’ll have to blame her…. If you feel a NEED to hear a rant, try one of John’s well-mannered, but pointed, pieces to sublimate for today, because I just don’t have any outrage to vent….. Oh well, who’s to say who’s luckier, eh?…. On that note, I’ll leave you with this final thought from an old friend….

“Give them RADAR-GUIDED SKEE-BALL LANES and VELVEETA BURRITOS!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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It’s a wrap, if it passes the proofing stage…. let’s go see…. Oh, hey, that isn’t bad at all…. I’ll take it, and not look a gift frog in the gums…. In fact, I’m going to escape now… TTFN, as my kids would text….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

dozer3

Fatuous noises about the size of their noses….

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3

Ffolkes,
Purple dots keep dancing in front of my eyes, but they are no doubt due to the vigorous rubbing I’ve been engaged in since getting up…. can’t seem to shake the fatigue that hit me when I got home last night…. Oh well, rather than whine about it, we’ll just get going on today’s Pearl, sans any real idea of what reality is looking like right now…. I don’t suppose we can consider that a handicap, given the expressed purpose of this blog, and it’s very title, to wit: Exploring Consensual Reality…. I guess this morning you’ll just have to settle for MY Reality, or at least my take on what we all agree as that slippery slope’s approximate shape and properties….. So be it….

Travel is harder than I remember, and the TSA thing is just absurd….. I haven’t flown much since 9/11; it was way back in 2004, on the way to and from Beijing, when I was last exposed to their tender mercies….. The weird part is, after all this time, they are even worse at the whole security thing than they were back then; there seems to have been no attempt to improve the system, other than some improved technology (the full body scanner was pretty cool….). But, I noted at least five ways it had gotten worse, and could have carried enough stuff on the plane with me to cause a lot of problems, had I so desired. Being a bit of a coward about doing things that endanger ME, or anyone else, while flying at 35,000 feet, I have no such desires…. But, I also don’t want anyone else doing it, and it sure would be simple to do so, by my calculations….

I’m not going to enumerate my noted observations, though for those who know how to contact me, I will discuss it privately, for the simple reason that I don’t want to put in print any ideas the assholes who think about that sort of thing haven’t thought of yet, and give them any ideas. I may not be the smartest bozo on the bus, but I know better than to tempt the animals among us who have no restraint or compassion. I’ll say this, though…. Air flight in general is pretty safe, but I feel LESS safe thinking that the security that is supposed to keep the passengers and crew safe is being carried out by what appears to be the low bidder for the contract… and that’s the name of that tune….

Whoa, look here! We have an intro, complete with a mini-politirant, fresh out of my head, under the most excruciating of circumstances, while I was still half asleep….. Though I know better than to start a rant before I’m fully engaged, it didn’t come out too badly, so we’ll leave it alone, and get on with today’s dive…. I even found a poem lurking around in my head, to fulfill today’s poetry challenge for April, which, I will remind you is National Poetry Writing Month (I think… if not, it should be…). With no further claptrap (great word!), we’ll go on….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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I’m feeling a bit old school today, so here is a harlequin pearl, randomly chosen, at the whim of Smart Bee, and my own unconscious, somewhat somnolent direction, as far as I am able to do so on a day like today, when my mind is a bit fractious, and difficult keep reined in…. But, my problems are not your problems, are they?….  :lol:       Any who, here are a few good ones, with a point yet to be determined…. whatever suits SB’s rather silly sense of appropriateness…. Enjoy!…. Oh, and no worries, none of this will be on the Quiz…..

“Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart.  And they both take practice.” — Nora Roberts

“Some people never learn anything because they understand everything too soon.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744

“Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what’s more than enough.” — Billie Holiday

“The church is near but the road is icy; the bar is far away but I will walk carefully.” — Russian Proverb

“Basing our happiness on our ability to control everything is futile.” — Stephen R. Covey

“The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think–rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.” — Bill Beattie

Eas’d the putting off
These troublesome disguises which we wear.

– John Milton (1608-1674) — Paradise Lost, Book iv, Line 739

Well, it works for me…..
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    I found this lying around in my head, so here it is….. The link to where you can see all the challengers is here:  http://www.napowrimo.net/

Ah Ain’t Sho, but Mebbe So….

Fried eggs got nuthin’ on me
  Ah’m not even sure of mah name,
or how Ah come to be;
  no idea from where Ah came.

Ah does like a mystery tho’,
  puzzlin’ things out so’s Ah knows,
good from bad fo sho,
  Ah sho don’t want no rock pillows.

If’n Ah cain’t figure what’s best,
  Ah just falls back on mah Daddy’s words,
seems he knowed just whut’d stand the test,
  ‘n how to gentle the scaredest birds.

,Course, he’d lived a good long time,
  ‘n had lots of stuff go on by,
went to a war, n’ lost a piece or two,
  never once used it fer an alibi.

He tol’ me once Ah’d best learn to learn,
  school’s only cool if ya ain’t already a fool.
Yer own good measure you can earn,
  by startin’ yer learnin’ with the Golden Rule.

Always seemed to me as Ah growed up,
  he mostly only spoke if it wuz true,
‘n by doin’ that clued me to what’s up,
  kept me from stuff that’d a made me blue.

Without ever sayin’ the word itself,
  Ah learned ’bout honor, ‘n helpin’ others
not some fake stuff from some shelf,
  knowing whut’s right, ‘n  that we’re all brothers.

Ah’ve been around long enough now, Ah think
  to get around the block at least two times
Ah s’pose long as my head don’t shrink
  Ah’ll keep on making these rhymes…..

~~ gigoid

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I forgot I had to get something done today, and I need to go do it, so here is one more piece from the archives, from the days before I became so damn wordy and long-winded…. just a little blast from the past, around 2007….

Cat’s feet…

Ffolkes,
Foggy mornings such as this always bring Carl Sandberg to mind….am I dating myself? Ah well, so be it…Perhaps it is the drowsiness, but I’m feeling philosophical this morning (uh oh, better take cover). I’ll try not to leave any bruises….

In Ancient times, the great Taoist sages looked,
Alert, as if surrounded by danger.
Yielding, like ice that is on the verge of melting.
Polite, as if they were always a guest.

A sage is skilled at helping people without excluding anyone.

A sage lets go of extremism,
lets go of luxury,
lets go of apathy.

Like ice on the verge of melting…what a powerful image! I can’t compete with that, so….y’all take care out there.
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Not too shabby for an old travelin’ fool…. it’s done, anyway, and that is all that matters at this point…. As I said, I gotta go TCB, so…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

dozer3

We carry unfortunate news, your majesty….

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Ffolkes,
Unfortunately, the trains just aren’t what they used to be…. The trip to Oregon turned into a nightmare along about 4:30 AM, and just got worse from there until I got off the damn thing…. It’s taken me until this morning to get over the frustration on exhaustion the trip engendered, and I still have yet to call them to file my complaint…. Ah well, it’s a good thing I’m a nice guy, right? Nobody died, so I can go on to enjoy myself here with my friend….

I am also finding that writing is not an activity to carry on when visiting friends…. It’s a bit rude to ignore them for three hours while I create a Pearl, so I’m going to be quick today, using more archived material to fill in the sections. Even the poem for the challenge will have to come from what I’ve already done, and I don’t know if that is legal, or against the rules of the challenge, which may entail only fresh material…. oh well, I’m not trying to win any prizes, so it doesn’t matter in the final analysis….

In order to make this perhaps the shortest intro on record for the past two years, I’ll get right to the rest of the Pearl for the day…. It seems to be the only way I will get this done in a timely fashion…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Before a cat will condescend
To treat you as a trusted friend,
Some little token of esteem
Is needed, like a dish of cream.
– T. S. Eliot

Sometimes I’m not sure which is my favorite poet, between T.S. Eliot, Emily Dickinson, or ee cummings….. all three were of such power and influence that they changed the very face of poetry in the 20th century. Poets of earlier ages are always there to give us the beauty and depth of human experience leading up to the last century, and there were a number of great ones. Alexander Pope, Yeats, Keats, Longfellow, Cowper, Shakespeare, and a host of others, all left behind an impressive legacy for later generations, for which I am eternally grateful. This particular poem is one of my favorites; I love cats (and dogs, and just about any other 2, 4, 6, or 8 legged creatures), and it’s obvious that T.S. has known several of them intimately. In my humble opinion, cats and dogs are much better at being what they are, and nothing else, than humans can ever be. If one believes in the concept of a Deity, then they were put here to be our examples of how to live with honor, and we can do no better than to emulate their approach to life at large…..
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    I don’t know if the challenge rules mean I am supposed to create a fresh poem each day, or not, and I find myself in a position where I MUST use an old poem, as I just cannot make the time it takes to create one today. So, if that mean I’m disqualified or anything, oh well…. the link to where you can see all the challengers is here:  http://www.napowrimo.net/

Dreaming of Calliope

La dame sans merci speaks aloud through endless night,
torturing dreams, with powerful words and stentorian phrases.
Manifest visions bathed in unbearable grace and light,
destroying all direction, standing lost, in unfathomable mazes.

Fate plays a part, one that will never face denial,
as fear and courage eternally vie to gain ascendancy.
Conflict becomes valid, gifting strength in open trial,
but honest emotion wears no costume so fancy.

Blood, sweat, and tears stroll on avenues of gold,
unlikely heroines heralding as in ancient lore;
Sharp, competent knives cut through tales untold,
eternally shifting reality past the naked shore.

Drifting toward origin, bereft of mandate or cause,
finished, nay, abandoned, tied with a figurative bow.
No simple gift from muses to give comfort or pause,
save that all we need to know, we already know…..

~~ gigoid

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I looked for something appropriate, and here it is… a quite long religirant, from sometime in 2012, I didn’t check, and it doesn’t matter…. it was a good one, so enjoy…..

“The evidence of the emotions, save in cases where it has strong objective support, is really no evidence at all, for every recognizable emotion has its opposite, and if one points one way then another points the other way. Thus the familiar argument that there is an instinctive desire for immortality, and that this desire proves it to be a fact, becomes puerile when it is recalled that there is also a powerful and widespread fear of annihilation, and that this fear, on the same principle proves that there is nothing beyond the grave. Such childish proofs are typically theological, and they remain theological even when they are adduced by men who like to flatter themselves by believing that they are scientific gents…” — H. L. Mencken

“One of the proofs of the immortality of the soul is that myriads have believed it–they also believed the world was flat.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910)

“Convincing yourself doesn’t win an argument.” — Robert Half

Here is an old school Pearl, in a manner of speaking…. These three quotations all say pretty much the same thing, with varying types of expression. Each, to me, seems to express that same idea more succinctly than the one before, leaving out more and more words until the final statement gives the bottom line… which is one that is heavily argued by those to whom it most applies….

It’s funny (ironic funny) to me to hear some of the arguments proposed by the priestly hierarchies in support of their beliefs. Some are couched in formal robes, all dressed up so they appear as reasoned logic, rather than the unwarranted assumptions that they really are. Mr. Mencken’s expression above would be the most effective in engaging these wordy individuals, as it would appeal to the side of them that pretends to being a scientist. They might reject the arguments, since their own arguments are, in the final analysis, subjectively formulated, not based on observations but on induction, as the platform of their entire argument is all based on an imaginary entity’s theoretical wishes…..

“Jesus loves  me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”…. Such an innocent sounding piece of doggerel…. one would scarcely believe it is one of the most insidious examples of blatant propaganda in existence. The proponents of the “Old man in the sky” group start drumming this into the minds of children as soon as they are able to talk, and, as they well know, before they learn to doubt what their elders tell them. Children naturally accept what their parents tell them, almost exclusively for the first few years of life.

This home-schooling form of brainwashing continues once they are of an age to start looking outside their family for knowledge of the world, with teachers, preachers, and kindly old aunts who continue to inundate the young minds with stories of Bible heroes and villains, drilling into the malleable minds the sense of entitlement and elitism that will provide them with the impetus for bigotry later in life. In addition, this period strengthens the brainwashing given earlier, teaching the kids that they should only trust certain people to tell them the truth, and that all the other religions in the world are not only not saved, but are not eligible for saving, due to their own beliefs, which are characterized as villainous, and as enemies, to be reviled and persecuted because they are different….

“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.” — Oscar Wilde

This entire process, this systematic, deliberate mental conditioning, is, to my mind, pretty despicable. It denies its proponents any possible way of examining the information that other systems may possess, by convincing them that all other forms of knowledge are not only wrong, but blasphemous in nature, and should be cast aside whenever encountered, without ever examining the information for its relevance, or its accuracy.

Education is learning that you did not even know what you did not even know you did not even know. — Smart Bee

The whole system is designed to continue the delusional system into the future, while keeping the congregation in the dark of ignorance. It has no other purpose…. it is not in place to help or sustain the members of the congregation, but rather to control that population’s thoughts and behavior, ensuring the power and influence of the priests, pastors, preachers, or whatever name they choose to call themselves…..

I can only count myself as fortunate, to have been raised without the brainwashing on a regular basis. We attended a Presbyterian church, probably an offshoot of the old Church of England, where the adage about “cake, or death?” was originated…. The net result of this was that I was able to include other systems in my education, and found the entire construct to be a house of invisible cards, easily knocked down with a single bite of the Apple….

“How come you never see a politician (or a preacher) laugh? Because they know what they’re getting away with, and if they started laughing, they’d never stop.” — Smart Bee

And you know what else?…. I always thought Satan got a pretty raw deal, all for exercising the free will he was given…. and so did Adam and Eve…. Even as a child of five, I always wondered why God had set them up to fail like that…. it’s like, “Here’s the apple…. don’t taste it….” and then making sure we, as humans, had a sense of wonder and curiosity strong enough to disregard the admonition…. Even then, it looked like a set-up, and I could never reconcile the image in my head of a God, supposedly with infinite knowledge, setting up his own creation like that…. it just didn’t seem very God-like, or even fair…. and I still don’t get it, even today…..

With a subject such as this, it’s hard to know when to stop…. the issue has been one that has held Mankind back for two millennia now, preventing us from achieving our real potential as a species. All the progress we, as a species, have made in the last 3,000 years or so has been in spite of the efforts of the priestly hierarchies to keep us as ignorant as possible; at every turn of the wheel of science, the powers that be have thrown sand in the works, to try to slow down the acquisition of knowledge.

“Neither do the ignorant seek after wisdom.  For herein is the evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself; he has no desire for that of which he feels no want.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.)

They know that an educated populace, capable of reasoning beyond the limitations placed on the human mind by religious dogma, is the greatest threat to their continued existence as the leaders of Mankind. They know that once people are exposed to knowledge (the flesh of the Apple, remember?), the less they will submit to the brainwashing that is the lot of the common man…. and it scares them to death…..

Doubt. Question authority. Ask the next, deeper question. And never, ever, give up the right to make up your own mind…. In the final analysis, that power is the only one we all have, and the only one that cannot be taken away from us without our consent…. Viva la raza!…..

Oh, and won’t it be nice when you don’t have to give tithes anymore?…..

Though old the thought and oft exprest,
‘T is his at last who says it best.
– James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) — For an Autograph
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Well, it’s not particularly fresh, but it’s clean…. and it’s done. So be it, I gotta go play with my friend in the Big Blue Room….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

dozer3

Her shoes were bright, but made of porcelain….

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Ffolkes,
Imagine, if you will, the process of creation in my mind, as metaphorical coffee, softly bubbling, percolating until it is the proper consistency and flavor. Then, imagine that coffee as brewed, but left to sit on the warmer, slowly reducing itself, becoming stronger and thicker as each moment passes, until, if left long enough, the coffee turns to sludge, and becomes not a beverage, but garbage, bitter and toxic….. Well, that’s what has happened in my head this morning…. more’s the pity….

Not that I had any particularly good ideas floating around, waiting to be infused into the final flavor of this morning’s concoction, but, it would have been nice if I had been at the keyboard, ready to put in some milk and sugar, and serve it up hot and fresh…. Instead, I spent an inordinate amount of time, worshiping at the porcelain throne, to soothe my inner demons, and lost that moment or three of opportunity….. Hence, this rambling, imaginative yet stupid couple of paragraphs that once again have used up more time than they warrant, or deserve, for that matter….. SIGH…..  If I were the type to be ashamed of myself, I would be, but, I’m not, so I don’t, so there….

I do, however, feel some small regret, at having to figure out, once more, some way to have this lead into the rest of today’s Pearl with some style and dignity, in spite of never having previously attained either of those qualities. One always retains some hope, though, and I keep trying to find a way to make this intro section palatable, and interesting.

Murphy, of course, does all he can to prevent any such simple success, as he feels it is his duty as the personification of Loki in the modern world. If I can distract him, it becomes a bit easier, but, he’s getting wise to most of my tricks as time passes, so I’m brainstorming some new fabricated illusions for him….

However, in the meantime, I have a Pearl to create, and I haven’t even warmed up Smart Bee yet, what with all the other stuff in my head vying for prominence….. and I need to get done, as I have stuff to accomplish today again, out in the Big Blue Room….

I really, really want a new pair of shoes, and don’t know the outlets in this town, so I’ll have to research first. Always a fun time, figuring out the buses here, as this bus system is the absolute WORST I’ve ever seen for staying on schedule; it’s hard to figure out the times when it will arrive, meaning I end up standing on concrete for long periods…. It’s a cheap means of getting around, but rather inconvenient, if one isn’t physically up to the rigors of riding and waiting for the buses.

Why, lookie, lookie….. I do believe we have an intro section done! How did that happen? Hmm, if it wasn’t me, I’d be suspicious of conspiracy, but, I know myself too well, and it was just plain cluelessness…. Nonetheless, it worked, and we have several paragraphs of not-very-informative-but-quite-charming words and phrases, neatly stitched together into what we call an introduction…. It’s not your grandma’s intro, for sure, but it works for me, and it got us this far, so I’m not going to look a gift frog in the gums…. Shall we Pearl?…..

“Madness, we fancy, gave an ill-timed birth to grinning laughter and to frantic mirth.” — Prior
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“Have you noticed that many people who laugh at kids who believe in Santa Claus are the same people who believe in campaign promises?” — Smart Bee

Well! It’s very smart of Smart Bee to make such a cogent observation so early in the day…. I had to chuckle at this one, as it is just so, so true, and nails perfectly a great many folks in today’s society who seem to fall for anything that comes out of the mouths of the people they see on their TV’s. Max Headroom, the original iconic talking head, was much more accurate than many realized at the time, as a caricature of the type of manipulation by the BRC that is so ubiquitous, nobody believes it exists.

When the machinations of those who actually rule are exposed, people tend to either disbelieve it (because they cannot accept their own cupidity), or to rationalize it, and make it okay in their minds, as being justified…. Unfortunately, the justification most often used is that of expedience…. It’s just easier, they think, to go along with what the rules say we are supposed to do, or want to do, than it is to try to change the rules set forth by those with the desire to control, and the means to assume that control.  Most folks won’t go to any great lengths to even find out the truth of the issues they encounter; they just accept whatever is said by their trusted news anchor, and never even know they are fastening the slave collar around their own necks….

The hardest part of all this, for me, is that people actively resist any knowledge that challenges their belief in the idiot assholes who run the world…. It’s as if they WANT to be controlled, and wish to be slaves, rather than have to take responsibility for their own actions, for their own success or failure in life…. If they follow the rules, keep their mouth shut, and resist any change, they believe they’ll be rewarded, (and this is the part that gets me….), BY GETTING TO GO TO HEAVEN INSTEAD OF HELL WHEN THEY DIE!  Now, I don’t know about y’all, but I’ve heard better lines from con men and grifters on the street, who at least will cheat you now, rather than later….

I’m really not sure what it is that is supposed to be the reward in THIS life for conformity, unless it is a life empty of all challenge, or interest…. I suppose for many, the idea of being left alone to live their life is attractive, but, to me, the price they pay, of placidly agreeing to live that life by someone else’s rules, is much too high, especially since what is offered as the reward is not just an illusion, but, were it real, I could easily obtain myself….

Add in the fact that what happens after we die is, so far, undetermined, and impossible to determine, with any degree of certainty, and the promises made by the priest/preachers, and the BRC, assume a rather strong degree of falsehood, as it is obvious that they cannot promise what they do not possess, or even possibly understand….

I’m attempting in this diatribe to keep from getting too vitriolic toward anyone in particular…. I do have a lot of dislike and, yes, hatred, for the Beloved Ruling Class, composed of lawyers, politicians, judges, legislators, lobbyists, the priestly hierarchies, and the corporate masters who are all complicit in keeping the rest of mankind in the state of repression currently extant…. Lots and lots of hatred, in fact….

I also have a lot of lack of respect, for the idiots who fall for the crap served up by those self-same assholes at the metaphorical top of the heap…. and feel no guilt whatsoever at calling a spade a spade…. But, it’s hard to get them to listen to begin with, and calling names will drive them into their mental cocoons, impervious to reason, so I’ve tried to take it easy on them today….

So easy, in fact, that I’m done for now…. The lawyers and politicians, who are genetically programmed to lie, the priestly hierarchies, who are deliberately delusional, and the corporate masters, who are just plain evil incarnate in re: their relation to the rest of us, can all go straight to their own version of Hell, as far as I’m concerned…. The folks who buy into their crap aren’t much better, in my book, as they tend to choose weakness over strength, cowardice over courage, and fear over reason, all of which means they will always get exactly what they deserve in life….. which is nothing but trouble and pain….

To the rest of us, those who doubt, those who think, those who care about other people, who think about, and believe in, concepts such as reason, duty, honor, and compassion…. Well, Thou art God, you know…. Wanna go downtown and get some lunch?….

“Apparently I’m insane. But I’m one of the happy kinds!” — John Young
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I’m not sure why, but it seems to be a day for metaphorical silliness…. What better way to honor that, or to humor it, than with a selection of Ogden Nash? Why, none at all!….

Children’s Party

May I join you in the doghouse, Rover?
I wish to retire till the party’s over.
Since three o’clock I’ve done my best
To entertain each tiny guest.

My conscience now I’ve left behind me,
And if they want me, let them find me.
I blew their bubbles, I sailed their boats,
I kept them from each other’s throats.

I told them tales of magic lands,
I took them out to wash their hands.
I sorted their rubbers and tied their laces,
I wiped their noses and dried their faces. Of similarities there’s lots
Twixt tiny tots and Hottentots.

I’ve earned repose to heal the ravages
Of these angelic-looking savages. Oh, progeny playing by itself
Is a lonely little elf,
But progeny in roistering batches
Would drive St. Francis from here to Natchez.

Shunned are the games a parent proposes,
They prefer to squirt each other with hoses,
Their playmates are their natural foemen
And they like to poke each other’s abdomen.
Their joy needs another woe’s to cushion it,
Say a puddle, and someone littler to push in it.

They observe with glee the ballistic results
Of ice cream with spoons for catapults,
And inform the assembly with tears and glares
That everyone’s presents are better than theirs.

Oh, little women and little men,
Someday I hope to love you again,
But not till after the party’s over,
So give me the key to the doghouse, Rover

~~ Ogden Nash
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I slept in today, inadvertently…. forgot to punch the button to set the coffee to brew at the correct time in the morning, so I had to do it myself, when I awoke at 0715, an hour later, or more, than usual…. As a result of that, plus the extended worship session this morning, I’m quite late getting this completed…. The above mild rant, more of a discussion, really, were it not for the harsh words for the targets of the rant, used up any outrage I’d built up, and I’ve got so many plans in action, and metaphoric pans on the fire, my creativity can’t seem to focus on anything I consider worth writing about….

With my usual panache, I will proceed to cheat…. Here is a Pearl from the dark ages, way back around 2005 or 2006, when I was working at NSH as a program secretary, helping East Indian psychiatrists write court reports that made them sound like natural-born English speakers, rather than ESL speakers with accents as thick and spicy as curried rice… Each morning, before anyone else was at work, I’d compose pearls like this one, and send it out so about 250 ffolkes would find it in their email when they booted up for the work day….. For some reason, I saw this, and it seemed perfectly appropriate for today’s Pearl…. Enjoy!….

It wasn’t my fault…

Ffolkes,
The dog ate my homework. There was an earthquake, and I was helping find the victims. I didn’t get the memo. My mom grounded me. The check was in the mail. I needed a widget, & the store was out. My electricity went off. There was a flood. Right after the earthquake…..


Actually, just had an appointment, but what kind of dramatic opening would that be? In retrospect, I probably should have taken care of this yesterday, on a delayed send, but I guess if I was that efficient I’d already be rich & retired. Ah me, choices……damned if we do, & damned if we don’t. Make good ones….

“Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.” — H.L. Mencken

Human nature, being what it is, I shall not attempt to rationalize further; it’s too early in the day to fend off physical attacks.

Y’all take care out there….& remember to DUCK!
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Well, THAT was interesting…. I’m not sure exactly what just took place. Let me go back and look at it; I’ll be right back…. Sometimes, I surprise myself…. That said, I’ll take it, or, rather, leave it, or, post it, or whatever….. It’s done, and I can’t make it any better than it is, given the content…..  As I’ve previously and frequently reiterated, all we can do, is all we can do…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

dozer3

Dragons seldom require advice…..

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Ffolkes,
It is an old threat, but, if I ever find that guy, I will make damn sure he spends the rest of his short life regretting he ever lived….. What guy, you may ask? Well, actually, its a whole slew of guys, each as problematic as the next. They all inhabit this planet, but, as far as I can see, that is their only claim to any relation to other humans, because they just don’t make the grade when it comes to species loyalty, or, as a preacher would call it, morality. All of these men, and the occasional woman (generally brain-damaged) all spend their days working against the best interest of humanity at large, though their words may say otherwise…..

Yes, it’s once again time for some ranting against the BRC. In the last days, I’ve been somewhat preoccupied with other matters, and haven’t had the right degree of angst to rant. Since the election last year, most of the politicos are keeping a low profile, as far as possible. Oh, the POTUS is busy challenging the GOP, graciously trying to slip in a few reforms, and the GOP is busy maintaining their image as clueless white assholes, while the rest of us are trying to get on with living our lives without their interference.

Mostly, though, it’s been pretty quiet on the political front, if you don’t count the gun control issue (which has been raging for well over 200 years without a rational resolution….) (please, note the use of the word rational…. that is the single reason political entities will never find any such solution, as they are constitutionally incapable of that condition of mind, or of achieving any such results…. it just isn’t in them to do so….), and the economic shenanigans being played out this month….

So, I haven’t spent more than a minimum of time picking at them, since it wasn’t very interesting stuff, anyway. I’m hoping for one of them to make some really idiotic remark that I can use as a springboard, so I’ll peruse the news (hey, say that out loud…. it’s a neat little rhyme….) to see if there are any eligible remarks by a pundit, or a talking head. It usually doesn’t take more than a day or two for one of them to say something really dumb, so we’ll see what we see…. Maybe even today…. I’m tired of picking at the priestly hierarchies, and talking about global warming and overpopulation, so I’ll take a few shots at the idiots in Washington D.C. for a while…. I’m looking forward to a little fun….

Now, be aware, this may or may not happen today. I will remind you that Pearls, and pearls, are dependent on the availability of pearls, and on the nature of those pearls. (I know, a bit confusing…. just stay with me, it will get better….) So, if Smart Bee is in the right mood, or there is a good headline worth stealing, I’ll jump on it for a politirant…. (yes, I just made that word up….), as opposed to a religirant (twice, how handy!). We could conceivably end up with both, or neither, as both are likely to appear at times. But, I’ll be keeping my eye on the asses who make their money off the people by governmental decree as opposed to tithing, to ascertain where my shots might be most effective…..

As usual, though, I’ve rambled through several paragraphs of meandering conversation, while the day keeps getting older. Since I’ve already consumed the greater portion of the intro section for this, I should go for my dive, and get this slow on the road. Which I will now proceed to do…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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What we have here is a typical Pearl in the making…. that means I have no idea whatsoever of where it is headed. I’ve ranted in the intro, a bit, then wrote a politirant in the third section, to keep the two separate. I don’t wish to completely numb your minds with another rant, so I’m going with a random old-school pearl, in hopes of getting a worthy group to go along with the rest of today’s post. You are, no doubt, hoping I can find a good group, too, to help you stay awake…. so, here you go….

“If you can’t annoy somebody, there’s little point in writing.” — Kingsley Amis

Thou shalt not get caught. — The Eleventh Commandment

“My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests.” — George Santayana

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

“Do you think there’s a God?” “Well, SOMEbody’s out to get me!” — Calvin & Hobbes

“You are old,” said the youth, “as I mentioned before,
And have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door –
Pray what is the reason of that?”

“In my youth,” said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
“I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment — one shilling the box –
Allow me to sell you a couple?”

– Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

“Hello.  Just walk along and try NOT to think about your  INTESTINES being almost FORTY YARDS LONG!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

There you go…. a rather eclectic group, but well seasoned, I think…. Enjoy!
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For some reason, when I’ve been ranting, I turn to Emily Dickinson to soothe my spirit, though her work is not always soothing. This one is merely deeply insightful, as well as a good example of her unique style and viewpoint…. She always takes my mind away….. She also never used titles, so her poems are generally referred to by the first line…. In that vein, here is….

I measure every grief I meet
With analytic eyes;
I wonder if it weighs like mine,
Or has an easier size.

I wonder if they bore it long,
Or did it just begin?
I could not tell the date of mine,
It feels so old a pain.

I wonder if it hurts to live,
And if they have to try,
And whether, could they choose between,
They would not rather die.

I wonder if when years have piled–
Some thousands–on the cause
Of early hurt, if such a lapse
Could give them any pause;

Or would they go on aching still
Through centuries above,
Enlightened to a larger pain
By contrast with the love.

The grieved are many, I am told;
The reason deeper lies,–
Death is but one and comes but once
And only nails the eyes.

There’s grief of want, and grief of cold,–
A sort they call ‘despair,’
There’s banishment from native eyes,
In sight of native air.

And though I may not guess the kind
Correctly yet to me
A piercing comfort it affords
In passing Calvary,

To note the fashions of the cross
Of those that stand alone
Still fascinated to presume
That some are like my own.

~~ Emily Dickinson
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“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.

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? (Almost forgot it was a question….) 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.

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, and 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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Well, maybe it’s not Hemingway-esque, but, it’s certainly gigoidal…. Gee, this making up words is really cool!  Any who, I’m done for now; I’ve created all the confusion I can in 2500 words or more, so I’ll go try to find some trouble to cause out in the Big Blue Room.

I’ll be facing a dangerous situation later, as the library is having its annual used book sale, and I have money in my pocket…. I have a feeling, if I attend the sale, that last part won’t be true when I get home…. I’m a sucker for books, especially on sale, cheap…. I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s effort…. it certainly was…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

dozer3

But, the sign says it will sing……

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Ffolkes,
It is a commonly held belief that Time is on our side; this, I can assure you, is not true, from at least one standpoint. I can attest from personal experience that Time, as has been previously noted, is a big PITA (Pain In The Ass)….. and I mean that in a bad way…..

Some women I’ve known have been known to call Time the Time Bitch, and watch in the mirror daily, to search for signs of her bitchiness, in the form of crow’s nests of lines around the eyes, and tangles of grey in the hair. We men, not quite as concerned with the outward signs of aging, nonetheless have our own issues with the Time Bozo, with no less degree of hatred involved…..

It’s hard on men in general to get old, especially since, for most of our lives, we are seen as, and view ourselves as, strong, competent, and able to withstand whatever the world throws at us, in order to accomplish our duty. This strength is hard to give up, but, give it up we must, as our muscles grow weaker, and we tire more easily, no matter how much conditioning we try to maintain. Yes, it’s possible to keep the worst effects at bay for a while, with proper exercise and rest, and a good diet, but, eventually, even the most athletic of seniors must put aside the bikes, and the hikes, and trade it in for an occasional waltz with your lover….

In my own case, I am incensed at how my body is losing function, as I’ve always thought of myself as invincible, perhaps even immortal…. Well, guess what? I’m not either of those things, other than in a metaphysical sense (We are immortal, but not in a recognizable fashion from our current viewpoint in Reality…..), and to be honest, I’m beginning to understand a little better exactly why there are so many older folks running around with a piss-poor attitude. After a while of trying to deal with the things that aging brings with it, the frustration builds up, and there is little choice but to find a way to let it out…. It’s just too bad that other people have to be in the way when that happens, but the other side effect of getting older is that we just don’t give a shit about that….

It’s the one thing that saves us oldsters from getting homicidal, actually, this license to grump. And, whether or not you feel that we are licensed to be so, just remember that we don’t give a shit what you think about it, do we?…. Nope, we don’t. So, get used to grumpy old farts like me toddling around, trying to get our shit done, pushing through our hazes of pain and difficult mobility (you try walking around with 50 lbs. of groceries, being pulled in a hand-cart, riding buses, when your hip is screaming with a pain level of about 7 out of 10, and pain and stiffness in the back at about 5 or 6, having to stand and wait, freezing, for buses that never came, for about 90 minutes…..), while we try to live the way we used to do, but much more slowly…..

I hadn’t intended to rant right off the bat this morning, but what I described in the last paragraph took place last evening, and I guess I’m still a bit pissed about it…. I was the victim of a bus system in the throes of destroying itself through budget cuts and piss poor management, and did actually have to stand at a bus stop for over 90 minutes for a bus that never showed up; I ended up calling a cab, and thank goodness I had a cell phone, or I’d have been stuck walking, two miles from home with 50 lbs. of groceries, part of which was thawing during the delay. By the time the cab arrived, I was in tears, and excruciating pain; it took me almost a full minute to be able to sit down in the seat, I was so stiff, cold, and in pain….

Ah well, I suppose I have to get used to that sort of thing, as our society doesn’t place a large emphasis on caring for the aged. Oh, there’s a lot of talk about respecting seniors, and showing them we care, but, I’m afraid I have to tell you, it’s all just smoke and mirrors…. When it comes down to the sticking point, senior programs are among the first to get budget cuts, far ahead of any cuts to the military, or to bailing out the bankers from their latest scheme to rip off the public….. No, I’m not bitter at all, why do you ask?…..

“Alas! it is not till time, with reckless hand, has torn out half the leaves from the Book of Human Life to light the fires of passion with from day to day, that man begins to see that the leaves which remain are few in number.” — Henry W. Longfellow (1807-1882) — Hyperion, Book iv, Chap. viii

Fuck it…. There isn’t anything I can do about it, so I may as well just bury it, down deep where all the other stuff is kept, the stuff I hate, but can’t do anything about…. That’s okay, though…. all that angst, and bitterness, will sit in there with the other stuff, and percolate, much like compost, until it comes bursting out sometime in the future, as a poem, or a steamy, messy, vicious indictment/rant against….. well, somebody…. In the meantime, I guess the only thing to do is go on with today’s dive, and see if it doesn’t calm me down a bit…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“A sense of humor keen enough to show a man his own absurdities will keep him from the commission of all sins, or nearly all, save those that are worth committing.” — Samuel Butler

Smart Bee showed this quote to me this morning first off; I hesitated to use it, though it seems to lend itself to a discussion, and went on. A few moments later, after supplying a few nice pearls for an old-school format, it brought it up again. It usually knows what its doing, so this time I brought it up for treatment here, though still without a clear idea of what to discuss…..

It’s a good thought, and quite accurate in its assumption of human humor as moral mentor. To me, it seems quite obvious…. Then, I realized that, sadly, there is a significant percentage of humanity that possesses NO sense of humor that can be detected. These folks, handicapped as they are by their lack of chillness, often end up in a small category of life tasks, or jobs, as we call them today….

People without any humor tend to flock together in groups; they may not be fully human, but they do need the company of others of their ilk, just like the rest of us. So, they gravitate into professions where their lack of any sense of proportion, or irony, can be an asset rather than a liability, as it tends to be in most of Life’s activities.

Lawyers, accountants, politicians, preachers, all, by virtue of the nature of their work, don’t need a sense of humor; in fact, it slows them down to have one, as they see what they do as important and dignified, no place for levity. They never understand that, by doing so they are acting as the most hilarious of clowns, while being completely oblivious of how ridiculous they appear to the rest of mankind.

A guy calls 911, in breathless panic. When the operator answers, he cries out, “My buddy and I were hunting deer, and he accidentally shot himself! He looks dead! What should I do?” The operator, trained to be calm, says to him, “Okay, first, go make sure that he’s actually dead.” The guy say, “Okay.”, and puts down the phone, The operator hears some footsteps,then, a gunshot. The guy comes back online, and says, “Okay, he’s dead. Now what?”…..

See? That’s funny, right? Since this joke was chosen by a nation-wide search to find out what people thought was the best joke ever, we may assume it is…. Plus, if it isn’t funny to you, then you may want to get examined by a psychiatrist, as you may have lost the sense of humor you once had; quite frankly, it’s bloody hilarious, and quite true to human nature.

That’s all…. I’m going to leave this here, as I can feel my own sense of irony getting heated up, and I’m liable to start spouting off my own funniest stories…. Given my macabre, perilously close to perverted, and often unexplainable sense of humor about almost everything I perceive, especially if it has to do with people and their antics, that could be disastrous…. plus, we’ve got a long way to go yet today. So, I’ll leave this here, and just say this….

We are all Bozos on this Bus, whether we know it or not; it’s not something we have choice in, it is our nature to be clowns. The best, and easiest way to deal with the universe is to accept this, and not try to force Reality into an unnatural shape to suit our own folly, because when people try to do that, they just end up funnier than usual, to the rest of us, as Reality demonstrates its unwillingness to allow any such alteration. As the Firesign Theater said, so many years ago, “If the nose grows, let it show!”….

“Why is the alphabet in that order?  Is it because of that song?” — Steven Wright
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After my experience last night with the bus system here, I’m feeling pretty lazy, unwilling to make any effort to get past my recovery stage. I’m also feeling too tired to go searching for a good poem, so I’m going to resort to the ultimate cheat around here, and include here a poem of my own, from a few months ago; October of last year, to be precise….  It seemed appropriate for the occasion….. You may have seen it then, but, whether or not you did so, I hope you enjoy it….

Raging at Aging

As old as you feel, we are told, is old as you are,
custom assures such vision will carry us far.
Reality begs to differ, may it be so bold
it is really quite painful, and very, very cold.

The power and strength felt in our halcyon youth
desert us with age, yet another unwelcome truth.
Irony rules our time here on this bountiful earth
as we reflect the changes over time since our birth.

As physical powers fade from this fragile shell,
we learn our mind can serve us quite as well.
The strength that once filled our bones and hearts
is now applied by our will, to more arcane arts.

Life’s greatest gift is our freedom of choice
no matter how often we forget, we still get a voice.
Energy, or apathy, by our will we may choose,
failing to do so, our only way to lose.

Each of us lives in the grip of time and space,
always seeking our balance, our own chosen place.
One must accept reality, for it is true at the core,
all we can do, is all we can do, and nothing more.

~~ gigoid
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Today’s Pearl has apparently been taken over by Smart Bee…. In searching for a final pearl to discuss, it kept giving me a series of related quotes, as if it were trying to tell me which way to go…. Since I’m feeling so lazy today, I have allowed it to pick out a seven star pearl for your reading pleasure, and left it to chance that it will have some sort of relevance to reality….

Of course, each of the following, save the second pearl in line, by Mr. Graham, are worthy of an entire pearl alone…. Even the one by Graham is one I could rant on for a while, and have, in his case, in the past….. But, as I look at them all together, I find them to be not so much a pointed lesson, as a group of lozenges to treat the figurative sort throat that swallowing Reality can produce….. Enjoy!….. They taste almost like cinnamon…

“This universe is a trinity and this is made of name, form, and action. The source of all actions is the body, for it is by the body that all actions are done. The body is behind all actions, even as the Eternal is behind the body. — Upanishads (c. B.C. 800)

“God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.” — Billy Graham
(Sorry, couldn’t resist including this, as a contrast to the rational material on either side…. this is so full of shit, it would counteract five pieces of real wisdom…. and any number of pearls….)

“It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.” — H.L. Mencken
(Especially after being exposed to Billy Graham….)

“Say not, when I have leisure I will study; you may not have the leisure.” — The Mishnah

“Having a passionate commitment to social justice does not excuse you from knowing what in the hell you’re talking about.” — Smart Bee

“It is good for a man to eat thistles and to remember that he is an ass.” — E. S. Dallas

“If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep on getting what you’ve always got.” — W.L. Bateman
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As I sit here on my sore butt, it occurs to me that I need to get a better chair….. Any who, I’m done for now…. After a short break to clear out the cobwebs, we’ll see how it came out….. Hmm…. well, it will do…. Actually, considering the struggle I’m having today just to keep from screaming at something or somebody, it didn’t come out so badly…. good enough. I won’t tempt fate any further today…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

 

Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

dozer3

Safely insane amid the noise and tedium…..

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8

Ffolkes,
Unbeknownst to the rest of us, the warranty on this state of reality has expired, and I don’t think there will be any renewal, not for us, and not for the dreams we once held. Sad, but true….. A lesser man might become depressed, or fall into the state of mind where a lack of caring, about anything, becomes attractive, rather than the low-level sense of doom that is the lot of those who have any wit to spare. Instead, I think…. I’ll have a beer…..

Or maybe not…. it’s a bit early for a Budweiser, I suppose. I’m not sure exactly what the above paragraph is all about, other than as a possible lead-in to a rant, and it’s WAY too soon in this process to start that….. I haven’t even had enough coffee to be able to blink without concentrating, and I can’t be trusted to tie my shoes yet, much less start ranting about the environment, or whatever…. Hell, as is obvious, I couldn’t get through an entire paragraph without resorting to silliness….. It may be a gift, in some instances, but, just now, it’s more of a PITA…… If you don’t know that particular acronym, well, that is probably just as well…. If you do, then you’ll get my drift….

As might be apparent by now, I’m a little scattered, a little off, today. In such cases, it’s easy to tell how I’m doing, as this intro becomes rather a battleground for sanity, and gets stranger by the second the longer it goes on, and on, and on, and on…… Now, strange isn’t necessarily a BAD thing, not if it’s adequately appreciated, and taken full advantage of….. It’s when folks try to stop it, or make it normal that it gets all crazy and violent. Some folks never pick up on that, and so spend their entire lives fighting against it, rather than being able to embrace it, and allow it to become an asset, rather than a liability…. It’s easy, fun, and much more comfortable than trying to be a conformist…

Since I don’t wish for that to even have a chance to happen, I might do well to get on with business today, rather than trying to squeeze out every last drop of asininity I can from the beginning of this missive. There’s still a ways to go before I can call it a day, so, I’d best be getting to it….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Oh my GOD — the SUN just fell into YANKEE STADIUM!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

I’ve just spent more than enough time looking for a pearl, and this is the best I’ve seen….. Pathetic, don’t you think? Although I really like Zippy’s little pronouncement for it’s absolutely brilliant level of strange, it doesn’t help in coming up with something, anything, about which I can write. Having already started late today, and now an hour or more into the process, I am, relatively, no further along than when I began, especially if you don’t count the intro section, which is, if not exactly Pulitzer material, at least has the distinction of a small dollop of humor, bordering on verifiable silliness…..

Well, that last sentence certainly wound its way through the grammatical and punctuation minefield, didn’t it? Any who, I was busy complaining about the lack of material…. I’m so dry, in my own head, I’m actually going to resort to a re-post…. Here is an old, and old-school, Pearl, first published, or sent out via email, while I was still working at NSH, which would make it about six to eight years ago….

At that time, the Pearls were all in the format you see below, and were sent out to about 250 hospital employees each morning via the hospital network….It drove the IT dept. crazy when they’d see the network bandwidth patterns go crazy when I sent it out…. Apparently, the Pearls, enjoyed by so many, were a bit of a load for the network at the time of sending….. Oh well….   Any who, enjoy…..

When Reality becomes moot…

Ffolkes,
Spinning, twisting, caught up in the vortex Reality creates, we look about with trepidation, seeking, seeking, and never finding the path to the future that will ease our way. Entropy makes us weep, with deep regret, the choices we never made, the truths we never spoke, the challenges we didn’t meet. In spite of all this, we go on…with courage and good humor. And why? Because we can…..and must.

Did you ever watch Sesame Street? If so, you may remember a repetitive piece called “One of these things is not like the others.” This morning we bring you another version of that, called “Betty Likes It”. If you don’t get it, don’t worry, it’s just about as obscure as I can be, meant to confuse, as the puzzle is an easy one. Comments or criticisms are welcome, though the latter will most likely be cheerfully ignored. You computer ffolkes should like it…..

RTFM – Read The F#*@^| Manual

I admit it, I tried MS-DOS, but I didn’t inhale.

“If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.’ — Weinberg’s Second Law

For Dessert? I’ll take a piece of cherry 3.14159!

The definition of a successful life must include a commitment to serving others.

So, which is different? If you can’t tell, well, just look for the one that feels the best when you use it…. y’all take care out there…..

This Pearl was first published circa 2006…..
__________________________________

Where The Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
and before the street begins,
and there the grass grows soft and white,
and there the sun burns crimson bright,
and there the moon-bird rests from his flight
to cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
and the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
we shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow
and watch where the chalk-white arrows go
to the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
and we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
for the children, they mark, and the children, they know,
the place where the sidewalk ends.

~~ Shel Silverstein
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Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.

– Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle iv, Line 261

Ah, Pope! I regard Alexander Pope as the premier of all the romantic poets…. Deeply insightful, and ornately beautiful, his verse continually amazes me. This poem, Essay on Man, has more couplets and quatrains of great power in it, all of which make excellent excerpts, than in any other work I have ever seen, bar none, save, perhaps, Ode on a Grecian Urn, by Keats. Line after line of great composition, and insight after insight into the nature of Man, Mssr. Pope created one of Mankind’s most precious treasures in this epic work…..

I identify very closely with this couplet, as it is rather a good description of what goes on here. Even though I continue to rant and rail against the people and institutions, and ideas, that I believe are holding us from becoming all we could be as humans, I am often struck with how little response I get from anyone who doesn’t feel the same way….. which is another way of saying that I believe that, most of the time when I rant, I’m preaching to the choir, in a manner of speaking…. It’s more than just a little bit of a frustration, as I believe what I have to say is important to all of us, to, as Alexander so aptly puts it, to “teach, or save a sinking land.” If people continue to ignore what I’m saying, the consequences to be faced are horrendous, not from me, but from Reality…..

“All fear, none aid you, and few understand.”  This, too, seems to be a completely accurate picture of ECR and the rants that are fostered here. Actually, if the BRC was a little more nervous, and paid a bit more attention to me, I think I wouldn’t be so frustrated, as what I’m saying SHOULD make them nervous, since most of it pulls their covers ruthlessly. At least, I hope it does…..sometimes, I have a hard time with ‘ruthless’…. too much of a softie….. SIGH…. I can’t help it if I don’t enjoy hurting people…..

However, any hurt that I cause the BRC is NOTHING, NOTHING when compared to the pain and misery that will be our lot when the massive stupidity our species has displayed for the past 5000 years finally catches up to us…. Yesterday, I posted a quote from Lazarus Long, from The Notebooks Of, that is germane to this discussion…. It said this:

“Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” — Lazarus Long

We are writing our own judgment, with our continued denial of the facts about global warming, and the serious effects of overpopulation and pollution on the ecosystem, and are being quite insistent on making it happen as fast as we can. This leaves us little time at all to save those of us who don’t go along with this stupidity, who would sooner survive into the next millennium, rather than die, to the last man, in this one.

I only wish that more people would start to throw off the state of mind that leads to denial, and start kicking some 1% ass, as the issues around all of this aren’t the major problem for us. The main problem is the assholes who are in charge of the world, who don’t have a clue as to just how stupid they are being, and are driving us, blindly, down the road to extinction…. Their intransigence in denying all of the evidence that is there is, in my mind, about as deliberately stupid as one can be, and it’s just a damn shame that, because they are stupid, I have to live with the consequences…. or, more accurately, die from them….

Ah well, c’est la vie! Writing my rants, and shouting the message from the vantage of this blog, are about all I can do…. As I’ve said before, all you can do, is all you can do…..

“Imagine the Creator as a low comedian, and at once the world becomes explicable.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)
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I’ll take it…. and there is nothing about “settling” in that decision. It isn’t bad, considering the struggle I went through to write it…. It’s tough to come up with around 2000 words a day, and make it all fresh and excellent…. Not that I’m complaining; I’m the one who decided on this format…. It’s all good, or,  as John Lennon’s mom used to say, it’s nothing to get hung about…. Not sure what she meant by that…..   :-)    Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

dozer3

Exercising your legal option to forage….

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Ffolkes,
I remember what happened just recently when I tried to write pre-coffee, and since I promised not to allow it to happen again, hang on a second….. Oh, bless me, that’s good….. Okay, we’re good to go now…. Having consumed that first, life-giving sip, of “dark brown morning nectar”, (thanks, Doc….), I can now turn my mind to more productive matters…. Damn, that first sip is just so…… good! And the next few ain’t too shabby, either, as the world continues to come into sharper focus…..

Okay, now what? We are firmly ensconced in front of the keyboard, and the morning is bursting with promise…. Of course, we don’t necessarily know if that promise will be something we want, but, hey, you take what you can get, right? It’s always best to face the world with a touch of fatalism, especially when one’s subconscious mind wakes one up at 0533, with tears flowing down one’s cheeks, and no clue as to what the tears are for….. Most upsetting, without even going into the embarrassment factor….. I mean, how humiliating can it get? I’m 62 years old, a full-grown man, and my emotions are SUPPOSED to be under my control, not laying out there on my sleeve for the world to pluck at…..

Now, 20 minutes later, the tears are gone, but the fragility remains, along with the excessive amount of fluids in the head, that the body creates just to make things messier….. and that damn asshole Murphy KNOWS that I have that unreasonable fear of Kleenex, from that incident as a child, that I still can’t talk about much…. I think I told you about it….. You know, that time with the clown, the priest, the pony, and the convention of county sheriffs from around the US. It was a mess……  So, any who,  I’m stuck using TP to wipe my nose, which is really hard on it, as TP is NOT as soft as it claims…. Sometimes, this whole circus doesn’t seem worth getting out of bed for, you know?…..

But then I think about Pearls…. and I realize they are what make my life worthwhile…. The process of creating them each day has kept me sane now for going on two (or was it twelve?…) years, and I’m hoping it will stretch to include the next few months, until my SS comes through, so I don’t end up in a locked facility somewhere, babbling to myself and smiling at the butterflies only I can see…. They’re quite beautiful, you know…. Since most ffolkes, or folks, either, can’t see them, I tend to keep them to myself, though…. It’s just easier that way…. People can be so harsh…..

Now that I’ve reached the point of nearly pulling my covers completely off, I think it would be best if I just gave up trying to make any sense out of this intro, and get on with today’s dive…… Oh, look, over there!…. it’s Madonna! Oh, no, wait….. never mind, false alarm…. it was only Lady Gaga….. Oh well, I’ve got their autographs already, anyway…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Disco oil bussing will create a throbbing Naugahyde pipeline running  straight to the tropics from the rug producing regions and devalue the dollar!” — Zippy the Pinhead

So, a few days ago, the POTUS said that one of his priorities for his final term would be the issues surrounding climate change and global warming, to try to make an effort to halt the greenhouse effect, caused by the particulate emissions from billions of motor vehicles, that is threatening our very existence. He then proceeded to make it clear that he was just kidding, as he also indicated that he will most likely approve the new, massively-destructive-to-the-environment XP Pipeline, that is proposed to be built from the Arctic to the US, because it will help the economy by producing, get this, about 6000 jobs for Americans.

6000….. That’s it…. There are over 20,000,000 (twenty MILLION) people out of work in this country, so we’re talking about a percentage increase of…. hold on, gotta find a pencil & paper….. okay, that’s .0003%….. In English, three ten-thousandth of a percent. So, basically, we’re talking about giving in to the fat cats, who want the billions of dollars of profits they will make, at the expense of the environment, out of our pockets, by the completion of this project, for an increase that barely registers on the scale at all…. What I am wondering is just how many of those billions of dollars made their covert way into the POTUS’s re-election campaign treasury…..

The XP Pipeline project has been labeled as a disastrous idea by almost every environmental agency in the country, and the world; there is no doubt whatsoever that building it will adversely affect hundreds of species of animals, reducing their habitat, and will further add to the already massive amounts of pollution going into the air every moment. It will only provide a minuscule number of jobs, jobs that could easily be created by the enhancement of the alternative energy industry, or by instituting programs that would repair our national infrastructure of roads, dams, and other public facilities, all of which are in need of renovation.

No, instead, the POTUS, in a move that gives away his real agenda in office, has agreed to allow the fat cats to have their pipeline, in exchange for a reduction in the amount of static they give him on other issues, of less vital interest to the rest of us, but have a greater PR value. I am disappointed, to say the least, but not particularly surprised…. I do believe that Barry has a higher degree of morality than the average politician…. but, it MUST be remembered that he shares one important characteristic with every other politician…. he WANTED the job…. That kind of ambition is, in and of itself, an indication of a type of insanity common to our leadership, all the more dangerous because he APPEARS to be concerned for the people….. And, if he believes his own hype, that makes him the most dangerous of politicians…. remember what is said about the Road to Hell, and what it is paved with….

Regardless of that, how can anyone claim to be concerned about the rights of the little man, and still approve the Patriot Act, or whatever they’re calling it now, large parts of which are in direct opposition to the Bill of Rights….. He signed that off on his first day of office, in his FIRST term…. That act, to me, was a dead giveaway that all was not as it seemed, in his case…. Subsequent events have proven that my initial unease was, and is, well-deserved, as he continues to smile and play to the people’s desires on one hand, his left, while covertly screwing them by signing them into slavery with his right hand…..

“The only guarantee of the Bill of Rights which continues to have any force and effect is the one prohibiting quartering troops on citizens in time of peace.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), 1951

Ah well, I don’t suppose I’m surprised by these revelations; there have been hints and clues to be found since his first term as POTUS, and probably before…. I am, however, pretty disappointed, because I had held out some hope that he was different, and that the changes he would try to get done would be of help to the common man, i.e., me, and the rest of us here in the trenches of reality….. I had hoped that he would NOT compromise with the !%, standing up for the people instead….

I should have known better….

“If doctors ever tell you that you’ve “flipped out,” don’t believe them, and just keep on doing what you were doing, because something tells me “the Man” is behind this.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“If I’ve offended anyone, my efforts have been rewarded.” — Smart Bee

“I had a hunch something like this would happen.” — Written on grave
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Democracy

Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.

Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.

I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.

~~ Langston Hughes
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” — I’d love to, but… there’s a disturbance in the Force.” — 13 of 101 Easy Ways To Say NO

I’m going to remember this one…. We all have times when we need an excuse to say no to someone who asks for our time, especially as once you give in to them, they won’t stop asking…. I would say “that’s human nature” but you might think I meant it as an excuse. Let me assure you, I don’t…. or rather, I do…. or,…. hell, I don’t know what I meant…. but, it ain’t no excuse….

People will take advantage of others at every opportunity, it seems, and I don’t regard that as an acceptable characteristic, and hate to encourage it by giving in to the emotional blackmail that almost everyone resorts to to try to motivate people into doing their will….

Robert Heinlein made what I consider to be the best summary of this issue when he wrote:

“Do not confuse “duty” with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.”


“But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants “just a few minutes of your time, please — this won’t take long.” Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!”


“So learn to say No – and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don’t do it because it is “expected” of you.)”

None of us likes to refuse what others ask of us, but you must learn to differentiate between altruism, which is an indulgence we can little afford, or exercising our personal choice, which may, or may not, meet the other person’s needs…. But, then, their needs aren’t really your problem, are they?…. Nope, they aren’t…. no matter how much, or how often, those others may try to get you to buy into it….. Or, in other words, you have to CHOOSE to feel guilty, ffolkes…. nobody can do that for you, no matter what they tell you….

So be it…. gigoid has spoken…..   :-)
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Well, it’s done, but that may be the best I can say about it…. In fact, I’m taking a chance here, and letting it go, in full appreciation of the risk I’m taking in doing so…. I could seriously damage whatever credibility I may have created with this one…. Oh well…. It’s a good thing I don’t do it for profit, or for fame…. sanity is good enough for me, and that’s all I hope for at the end of each Pearl….. Currently, I have to admit, the jury is still out…..   :-)

Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

–
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

dozer3