Tag Archives: Religion

Tasteful displays of chain mail crafts….

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Ffolkes,
Calamitous noise greeted me today, as what sounded suspiciously like Irish bagpipes assaulted my ears from outside the window, so sharp and  harsh, it seemed as if all the banshees of ancient legend were holding congress in the yard….. Plaintive, chilling notes tried to tear out my heart with penetrating cries of anguish, inexorably pulling me to the window to see what was causing the hullabaloo. I shall never forget the sight that met my gaze, now etched in my memory forever….

There, in the narrow space between buildings, stood a……   Okay, here’s the deal….. This started leaking out as I sat down to begin today, and seemed pretty cool at first. As I continued to put down the path to the strange vision in my mind’s eye, it began to fade away. like fog in a strong breeze, leaving me right where you see, lost, and red of face… For the life of me, I can’t think of anything strange enough to keep it going, so, I’m leaving it to y’all to do that…..

Feel free to leave a comment, if you have something that might work, and don’t mind sharing the idea….. Conversely, you can do what I plan to do, which is to put it out of my mind, forever, and get on with the rest of today’s effort….. I have the advantage of knowing that whatever comes next couldn’t possibly be as lame as this…. Well, I suppose I can’t say that, either, but, I can definitely guarantee it will….. well, shoot…. Now that I think about it, I can’t guarantee anything but correct spelling, so, we’ll just leave it all right there, and get on with the rest of today’s business, ‘kay?  ‘Kay!….

I promised not to whine any more, and I won’t…. but, I will say this…. This daily posting stuff isn’t as easy as it looks from the outside…. The Big Blue Room has once again laid demands upon a portion of my time today, so I’d best get on with this, or it won’t get done…. I don’t know what might happen if I let it go; I’m having a hard time envisioning a day without being able to experience this relief at the outset. I do know that it would jam up my feelings, a state of emotional constipation, as it were, and would probably send me right into total curmudgeon mode.

While that’s a comfortable skin for me to wear, it does tend to alienate others, which tends to complicate life rather than simplify it….. So, I’ll just put it on for long enough to rant, or find an appropriate old Pearl, thereby assuaging any potential build-up of undue angst or anxiety…. Showing one’s asshole face to the world can be fun, but only if let out on deserving recipients, and I don’t plan on hanging out with any of those today, thankfully….

Okay, enough rambling for one morning…. it’s almost 6:30 and I have yet to create a single pearl. Dithering won’t get it done, so….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“You come from far away, with pictures in your eyes.
Of coffee shoppes and morning streets and the blue and silent sunrise.

But night is the cathedral where we recognize the sign.
We strangers know each other now as part of a whole design.”

– Suzanne Vega, Gypsy
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“A little sunlight is the best disinfectant.” — Justice Louis Brandeis

In the past few days, I have been ranting, albeit mildly, and without specific target, beyond some telling shots at a large group of humanity, and the moral flaws displayed thereby…. My intent in producing such rants is very aptly stated above by the good judge, showing again that someone can always say better what we try to say ourselves.  But, that doesn’t detract at all from the veracity of what I’ve written, or the need for the light to be shined on those parts of society that most need it…. to wit: the actions of our Beloved Ruling Class, and their owners, the Corporate Masters…. with the complicit support of the Priestly Hierarchies, and, the blindly obedient horde of myrmidons dedicated to following the dictates of the ruling classes, the Police and Paramilitary Wannabes….

Of late, there has been a lot of talk bandied about the internet, regarding the personal data being stolen (no other word for it….) by the government, as authorized by Presidential Executive Order, (a concept I am not sure was ever mentioned in the Constitution…), in its insane, paranoid pursuit of terrorists, and terrorism…. In fact, by writing those words here, I am guaranteeing myself an audience, because they are two of the key words used by Prism, the data mining software in use by the NSA, FBI, and, no doubt many other less well publicized agencies, to mark any communication for further review, with the intent of examination for terrorist tendencies or sympathies…

So, just by mentioning the subject, I know I will have at least one NSA geek, or an FBI agent, who will be reading over whatever I write today…. Actually, the foregoing sentences contain at least eight words that are on the extensive list of such words that will gain their attention, so I guess I’d better make this good….   :lol:

I am proud of what the NSA contractor did; I agree with his own assessment of his action, as intended to be of benefit to the American people, not as an act of treason, and applaud his courage in the face of knowing he would be subjected to vilification by the ignorant, and prosecution by those in authority. It is very easy these days to label an act such as this as treasonous, given the recent (mostly successful) attempts by government agencies to justify their paranoia. Since 9/11/2001, (See? Another key item for them to target…. I don’t know if I’m brave, or stupid…. or just old enough not to care one way or the other….), it has become the fashion for politicians to wrap themselves up in the flag, and inflame the fears of the common man about terrorism. This includes the naming of anyone who protests the loss of their rights as ‘treasonous’, ostensibly for placing America in danger, by exposing the clandestine gathering of information by government agencies… or, in simpler terms, by shining a light on things that are going on in the dark….

“Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?” — George Carlin

No, they don’t ever mention that…. nor do they mention ANY of the stuff being done out of sight of the public eye. I hold it to be a very dangerous policy to allow government agencies to operate in the dark, to make legal a great number of actions which, if performed by any citizen, would cause intense public outrage, and which, in truth, are ethically, morally, and, most importantly, Constitutionally unlawful. Every one of the rights supposedly granted by the Bill of Rights has now been restricted, in favor of illegal searches and seizures, loss of privacy, rampant police intimidation, and a government that believes it can do whatever it wants, as long as it is in pursuit of “national security”….

Sorry, but, I’m not buying any of it…. But, then, I have suspected for many years that the government of this country has been hiding the biggest part of what they do from the public, for a very long time…. Remember Dwight Eisenhower? He was that President who, back in 1954, sent thousands of American troops to Vietnam, to act as “advisers” to the brave soldiers of South Vietnam, who were fighting their own “war of independence” against the ungodly Communists in the North (right next to Red China, don’t y’know?…)…. Of course, when good ol’ Dwight did this, he didn’t bother to inform anyone; he just sent them over, and ignored the whole issue in public….

Since that time, almost sixty years ago, the government of this country has pursued a policy of “what the public doesn’t know won’t hurt me” in almost every area of national and international involvement. Whenever there is too much clamor from that public about such clandestine activities, or too much light begins to shine on one or more of the shenanigans always taking place somewhere, there is, oops, some kind of terrorist attack, or another shooting at a school, or a plane crash, or an earthquake, or anything at all, some manufactured, others just serendipitous calamities that are part of our natural world…. Any of these will do to distract the public eye away from whatever it is that has been exposed….

I have always wondered a bit about the timing of the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon in 2001…. They seemed to happen right when there was a strong push in the news to investigate the election results of both 1996, and 2000, results that had the Junior Shrub in office, rather than the greener candidate, Gore. In both those elections, there were critical glitches in the vote counting process in key states, oddly enough, the two states that provided the key electoral votes to get Bush elected, despite having lost the national popular vote, twice (Florida in 1996, and Ohio in 2000….) Any who, all of that was very close to coming under intense scrutiny, when, all of a sudden, we are attacked, by an unknown terrorist group (strangely enough, a group whose leader was a member of the Saudi Royal family, who are close friends of the Bushes….)

After the attacks, there was a singularly lackadaisical attempt to ascertain the culprits; none of the information gathered on them ever examined where the money to finance the attacks came from, an omission that is contrary to ANY professional investigation…. On TV police dramas, in the news, and, in the minds of any intelligent person, it is always made clear that finding the guilty will include, if not exclusively use, “following the money”…. It is basic criminology to find out who paid for it when a crime of such a large scope is committed. The very lack of effort in that direction makes one wonder, just a bit….

Well, I’ve now discussed the issue long enough to have used just about every key word in the program that mines data for the National Security Agency, so, we’ll see whether or not any of what I’ve discussed is enough to get their attention…. I think I’ve also managed to mention just about every conspiracy theory out there for anyone to see, ….. If any official response is generated, we’ll know just how badly things have gotten, when a free citizen of this country can potentially become a target for police and security agencies of the government, merely for exercising the right of free speech…. In a way, I suppose you could say this is an experiment, designed to gauge the degree of paranoia that is so obvious in our BRC….

I’m letting it go now, both to get it done, and because it is such a depressing subject…. I think I need some poetry, to soothe my soul…..

Teacher:  “Bart, give us an example of a modern-day paradox.”
Bart:  “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

– Bart the Genius   “The Simpsons”
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“What a lumbering poor vehicle prose is for the conveying of a great thought! … Prose wanders around with a lantern & laboriously schedules & verifies the details & particulars of a valley & its frame of crags & peaks, then Poetry comes, & lays bare the whole landscape with a single splendid flash.” — Mark Twain

A Spirit Passed Before Me [From Job]

A spirit passed before me: I beheld
The face of immortality unveiled–
Deep sleep came down on every eye save mine–
And there it stood,–all formless–but divine:
Along my bones the creeping flesh did quake;
And as my damp hair stiffened, thus it spake:

‘Is man more just than God? Is man more pure
Than He who deems even Seraphs insecure?
Creatures of clay–vain dwellers in the dust!
The moth survives you, and are ye more just?
Things of a day! you wither ere the night,
Heedless and blind to Wisdom’s wasted light!’

~~ George Gordon Lord Byron ~~

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“I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date….” — The White Rabbit, in “Through the Looking Glass”

Well, I’m not, but I do sympathize, having once, like all of us, been subject to the whims and demands of others….. Now that I am not, I can pretty much do as I like, so, I do…. which means I get to make this an old-school pearl, just because I can…. Not only can you not stop me, I don’t think you would be that unkind, so, I’m going for it…. I’m not sure what form it will take, but I do know the initial find is a damn good one, so the rest should be fine…. Enjoy, and, if you find you cannot, well, just ignore it, or go back and read the poem again…. that’s the best I can do for you, without resorting to drugs….

“When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.” — Chinese Proverb

“The world is not to be put in order, the world is order incarnate. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order.” — Henry Miller

“For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation.”  — Rainer Maria Rilke

“People always get what they want. But there is a price for everything. Failures are either those who do not know what they want or are not prepared to pay the price asked them. The price varies from individual to individual. Some get things at bargain-sale prices, others only at famine prices. But it is no use grumbling. Whatever price you are asked, you must pay.” — W. H. Auden — Smith College Commencement, 1940

“Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.” — Eric Hoffer

“I am quite sure that (bar one) I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices or caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed I know it. I can stand any society. all that I care to know is that a man is a human being – that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.” — Mark Twain  — Harper’s Magazine, September, 1899

“We have come to a place now where our search for Truth must no longer be for the rewards; it must no longer be our seeking a creed to follow, but it must be our living a life.” — H. Emilie Cady

Okay, well, that kind of turned on me, but, don’t worry, I’m not seriously injured, and the bleeding will stop soon, I’m sure….. Y’all be careful there near the end, it’s kind of a tricky little jog in the path….. And the point is kind of sharp, too….
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There…. A generous portion of plain speaking, some fine poetry, and a bit of obscure mental gymnastics, all for the bargain price of… well, it’s free, so it’s even more of a bargain….. Now, all I have to do is see if it is palatable, too….  Well, it’s edible, if not palatable…. But, I’d suggest having some antacids on hand….  With no further ado, I bid thee adieu….  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

Building euphemisms on a budget….

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Ffolkes,
Powerful images often parade through my mind in the early morning, images I try to set down into words. I’m not always as successful at it as I’d like to be, but, occasionally, I get it right. When I do, there is no better feeling in the world, aside from an orgasm, which, as we all know, is commonly used as a benchmark for such events. Currently, that particular unique category of event is absent from my existence, but, as I recall, from the halcyon days of my youth, it feels pretty damn good, so, you’ll get the idea….

Some day, perhaps, I’ll finish one of the stories I’ve begun here; over the past two-plus years I’ve probably written 50 or so opening paragraphs for stories that crossed through the waiting room in my head, some of which were, in my humble opinion, not too shabby at all. I’ve yet to complete any of those tales, however, for a compelling reason, having to do with economic factors. Now that I’m retired on disability, any income I make from working, a category into which the writing and selling of stories falls, is to be reported as income, and would be taken out of whatever I make on disability.

So, unless I can make a sale of a book worth more than a million dollars, it isn’t worthwhile for me to enter the market at all, because all I make would be subtracted from my disability checks, and I’d be right back where I started, depending on the market for my work to keep me alive, for the rest of my life…. Since I just spent two and a half years in near poverty in the process of securing my disability income, and am tired to death of working to survive, it doesn’t make economic, or physical, sense for me to try to write for my money…. Not without a guaranteed contract of some kind that would make moot any money I would make from disability benefits….

Besides, I don’t write for fame, or money, or any of the common reasons people write…. As I’ve stated in the past, this process is designed to keep me in a state of ‘relative’ sanity (qualifier required by law….)…. I say relative because, as you know, staying close to sane isn’t part of my lifestyle; what most would call sanity, I call boring, and boredom has been banished from my existence. I refuse to be bored, especially by Life At Large; to admit boredom is to admit one is tired of what is going on in one’s own head, and that I will never do…. Bully for me, right?….

So, rather than try to make any money at this, I write for fun, and for release…. I write to express all the outrage I feel at the ongoing, dangerous antics of the Beloved Ruling Class, otherwise known as Pundits R’Us,  comprised of sycophants of the Corporate Masters, and the Priestly Hierarchies, along with those ever-amusing public servants, the Police and Paramilitary Wannabe’s, all of whom, by their total lack of ethical compass, provide me with endless fodder for my angst, fueling my sense of injustice and need to rant on a daily basis. It’s actually quite an easy task, what with the amount of crap that spews out of their mouths every day….

Now that I’ve thoroughly explored such a thrilling subject, I will show mercy, and get on with the day’s missive. I’ve meandered and blathered enough for TWO intro sections, but, don’t worry, I won’t subject you to two posts at once…. Just consider it a bonus, and for goodness’ sake, don’t report it on the customs list of items to declare before entering or exiting the country….. I pay enough taxes without adding in customs duties…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Okay, I’m amused…. It’s been a while since I saw this particular little piece of nonsense, and I’d forgotten how amusing it is…. So, just to start the day out right, I’ll put it in here, as a kind of peace offering for the above ramble…. No thinking required, and if you need to feel morally justified about reading this, just pretend that you’re only doing so because you intend to use each line as an ANTI-cultural shock infusion, and can’t be held responsible for any of its shortcomings as literature…. Hell, half the folks you say that to will believe it, and the other half will ignore you, so, all is good…. Just enjoy, ffolkes, it’s pretty good advice, taken as suggested, with a shitload of salt….

Deteriorata

Go placidly amid the noise and waste and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof. Avoid quiet and passive persons unless you are in need of sleep. Rotate your tires. Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself and heed well their advice, even though they be  turkeys; know what to kiss and when. Consider that two wrongs never make a right but that three do. Wherever possible, put people on hold. Be  comforted that in the face of all aridity and disillusionment and despite the changing fortunes of time, there is always a big future in computer  maintenance … Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls would scarcely get your feet wet. Fall not in love therefore; it will stick to your face … Reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot, it could only be worse in Milwaukee. You are a fluke of the universe; you have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back. Therefore make peace with your God whatever you conceive him to be–Hairy Thunderer or Cosmic Muffin. With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal, the world continues to deteriorate.  Give up.”

~~ Tony Hendra ~~


Hell, I gave up years ago….. Entropy is alive and well, and coming soon to a theater near you…
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Over the last six months, I have been falling into love, slowly and beautifully, with my neighbor, Patricia…. I’ve been reluctant to share a lot of it, as it is, of course, private, and I don’t want to put that sort of thing out on the street, so to speak…. Though I write a lot of personal revelations, I don’t intend to put ALL of my feelings out there for review by the public, even if it is limited to the few ffolkes who stop by to read my always-longer-than-expected pieces…. Also, she is a very private person, and I’m not going to share HER stuff online at all….

But, I have to confess, I am enjoying the process, even as I take it super-slowly, to make sure neither of us is making a mistake about our feelings… So far, so good…. In keeping with the spirit of good feeling I have in this respect, here is a poem from one of the acknowledged masters of romantic poetry…. and look, it’s a love poem! What do you know about that?…..   :-)

Air And Angels

Twice or thrice had I loved thee,
Before I knew thy face or name;
So in a voice, so in a shapeless flame,
Angels affect us oft, and worshiped be;
Still when, to where thou wert, I came,
Some lovely glorious nothing I did see.
But since my soul, whose child love is,
Takes limbs of flesh, and else could nothing do,
More subtle than the parent is,
Love must not be, but take a body too;
And therefore what thou wert, and who,
I bid love ask, and now
That it assume thy body I allow,
And fix itself to thy lip, eye, and brow.

Whilst thus to ballast love I thought,
And so more steadily to have gone,
With wares which would sink admiration,
I saw I had love’s pinnace overfraught
Every thy hair for love to work upon
Is much too much, some fitter must be sought;
For, nor in nothing, nor in things
Extreme and scatt’ring bright, can love inhere.
Then as an angel, face and wings
Of air, not pure as it, yet pure doth wear,
So thy love may be my love’s sphere.
Just such disparity
As is ‘twixt air and angel’s purity,
‘Twixt women’s love and men’s will ever be.

~~ John Donne ~~


“What is a poet? A poet is an unhappy being whose heart is torn by secret sufferings, but whose lips are so strangely formed that when the sighs and cries escape them,they sound like beautiful music.” — Soren Kierkegaard, in Either/Or
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“Nevertheless, in the system of Copernicus there are found many and great inconveniences; for both the loading of the earth with a triple motion is very incommodious, and the separation of the sun from the company of the planets, with which it has so many passions in common, is likewise a difficulty, and the introduction of so much immobility in nature, by representing the sun and stars as immovable, especially being of all bodies the highest and most radiant, and making the moon revolve about the earth in an epicycle, and some other assumptions of his, are the speculations of one who cares not what fictions he introduces into nature, provided his calculations answer.” — Francis Bacon, Descriptio Globi Intellectualis, 1653

In his time, Frank Bacon (Oh…… no wonder he went by Francis!….), was considered a learned man; even now, he is regarded as one of the brightest minds of his era…. which does not go far toward explaining this statement. As is patently obvious, according to what we now know, Frank is talking with his head firmly planted up his ass; every one of his objections to Copernicus’ work is WRONG. We know now that the Copernican system of physical construction of the solar system, and all the stars and galaxies, is the closest to reality, when compared amongst all of the ancient ideas on the subject.

No, Frank was being a coward here…. He was afraid of the churches of the time, as well he might have been, for the churches of the middle ages were notorious for their intransigence when it came to what they defined as heresy…. So, Frank, being the mealy-mouthed opportunist that he was, dutifully issued this condemnation of Copernicus’ theories, to satisfy the priests, and get on their good side…. I have a feeling that he KNEW he was being a bald-faced liar in this instance…. it’s too wordy, and too UN-scientific in nature to disguise his lack of truth, and gives me the impression that he would have found it difficult to state this aloud, with a straight face….

“Appearances deceive and this one maxim is a standing rule: Men are not what they seem.” — Harvard

The point I’m making here, or trying to make, is this: People lie…. They do it for a lot of reasons, but, regardless of whether it is justified, or not, by whatever standards one chooses to apply, they still lie…. Mostly they do it for reasons that are not particularly public minded; humanity, as a rule, finds it hard to act other than in their own self-interest, even when acting honorably. It is the rare man, or woman, who makes their decisions based on the public good on a consistent basis….

This, of course, is merely my observation, but, I think it’s fairly accurate, given my age, and how much I’ve watched people for my entire life. Most folks act in their own self-interests FIRST; they may act otherwise AFTER they are satisfied they’ve achieved their own ends, but, it will be an afterthought, and may also be designed to benefit themselves more than anyone else…. There are very few who act with honor in this respect, and I don’t exclude myself from this; I’m no saint, to be sure…. But, I think that Truth is more important to me than to most of the people I see out in the BBR, and that, I think, causes me to have a clearer view of reality than those who color it with their own preconceived notions of right and wrong, with right being what is good for them, not for anyone else, necessarily….

“He who would distinguish the true from the false must have an adequate idea of what is true and false.” — Smart Bee

How often do we meet someone who even attempts to find out the truth? Most people, from what I observe, tend to just accept whatever they are told, preferring the abrogation of responsibility for their own opinions to having to spend the mental effort to find out what is true…. It is an all-too-human characteristic to want to have someone else take the responsibility for all of that; thinking takes effort, and most folks aren’t willing to put forth that effort, no matter how often they are told they are being lied to, even if the telling comes with proof…. They prefer to let anyone who appears on TV show them, preferably with lots of bright, colorful pictures, just what they should think and feel….

SIGH…. I’m depressed now. This is an issue that burns my ass on a daily basis, because it is not amenable to resolution, at least, not any easy, peaceful resolution. It is the very nature of humankind that allows this kind of chicanery; this has been true for all of our history, and will remain so until our untimely demise, somewhere in the not so distant future….

I wish I could entertain hope for enough changes in society that we, as a species, would conceivably stand a chance of survival, but, given the stubbornness of even the most average person in resisting any kind of cogitation, I don’t hold out a lot of hope for it, not in the long run. Humans aren’t going to stop acting in their own self-interest, and it’s a damn shame there isn’t much that can be done…

“What is man’s chief enemy? Each man is his own.” — Anacharsis (f1. c. 600 B.C.), Scythian philosopher — Quoted in Stobaeus, Flor., II, 43
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Such is the life of an itinerant dilettante…. Sorry ’bout the depressing rant in section 3; sometimes the human race just annoys me. However, since I am a fully cognizant member of that species, my annoyance has no real meaning beyond its effect on me, and, concomitantly, on what I write…. Hopefully, the depressive nature of the above discussion isn’t catching, and won’t spoil anyone’s day…

It won’t spoil mine; like most of us humans, I’m really quite adept at denial, and I don’t mean the river in Egypt….. (Sorry, couldn’t resist…..)  On that silly note, I bid thee adieu for another day, and hope you have a day filled with love and light, regardless of the weather…..  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

Put the stray curator in the parlor for now….

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Ffolkes,
Rational thought, being skittish, and reluctant to come out to play at this time of the morning, has easily escaped my feeble effort to pin it down, in spite of the reservation I made. While the foregone conclusion may well be obvious, that doesn’t alleviate the frustration. Having, however, given a solemn promise, this won’t stop me, but may, due to circumstances completely within my control, adversely affect the quality of the content of today’s Pearl. I’ve a pile of stuff to take care of today out in the BBR, so this missive must needs be done smartly; I only hope I can do so with some style…..

Legal requirements for blog intro material require me to notify any potential readers of the above, little as it has to do with anything at all. Regulations are like that, especially when they only exist in my imagination, but, I prefer to cover all the bases, having experienced the wrath of bureaucrats previously. Not that imaginary bureaucrats have anywhere near the power as actual, live zombies, but, one must do what one believes to be correct, even if not entirely sure of what that may be…. In spite of what you might have heard, the Universe does give points for effort; you just can’t use those points for any of the prizes….

Right…. now that we have conjured up a sufficient quantity of absolute twaddle, it is imperative we not lose momentum, lest we lose track of what has been done, and what remains to do. Of course, I can’t honestly say that I ever actually KEEP track of any of that, but, it sounds good, and does fill in more space. Moreover, we have honorably adhered to my determination to avoid anything resembling cheese, thereby keeping under control one’s consumption of cheese’s favorite beverage companion, dry, white whine…. Hey, it can’t be any other color; I’m Caucasian, and haven’t been out in the sun without a shirt for years…..

Now that I have completely gone ’round the bend, we’ll get on with today’s conflagration (I don’t know what else to call it at this point…..). I will point out that, despite any such rumors to the contrary, none of what is included in this blog has any nutritional value…. intrinsic philosophical value, yes, but, don’t bother trying to live on it, as you’ll end up with a severe case of scurvy to go along with the hair loss….

“It is human nature to think wisely & act foolishly.” — Anatole France
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As mentioned above, I have a lot to do today out in the real world, so fresh material will have to wait until tomorrow…. Here is a relatively short rant, sort of a combined political and religious rant, from the first day of the year we are currently surviving…. It came out pretty good, and is still quite valid today, so…. enjoy!….
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“If the obstacles of bigotry and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do everything else.” — Thomas Jefferson

Oh well, so much for THAT hope! From all I can see in today’s society, what Tom J was afraid of has come to pass. If one takes almost any of the articles in the news that talk about the activities of government, religion, or society at large, it is obvious that bigotry and priestcraft have corrupted every level of those entities, and influence just about every human interaction that we see. Common sense is nowhere present, in any of those same activities under discussion. Of course, he forgot, in this instance, to include the bankers, but perhaps that is where the bigotry comes in…..

By its precise meaning, bigotry doesn’t include the idea of cheating, lying, and stealing from whomever one encounters; those activities, for a bigot, are only appropriate when done to those outside the personal group, to “foreigners, niggers, and chinks,” or some likely other group they’ve chosen to bless with their ignorance…… But, in a sense, bankers can be said to be universally bigoted, for they have no qualms about lying, cheating, or stealing from anyone, in any group, even their own. I guess that would qualify them as Ultimate Bigots…..

“As an ox goeth to the slaughter.” — Old Testament — Proverbs vii, 22; Jeremiah xi, 19

I would imagine this is how the bankers and preachers (either of which is capable of turning into a politician, at the drop of a hint….) view the masses of humanity who do not subscribe to their venality. In this view, they may be at least partially justified, by the apparent willingness of those masses to submit to whatever is done to them. Why should the politicians stop lying, when their lies secure for them the keys to the treasury? Why should the preachers not spread their delusions, when the masses are so willing to accept them, because it saves them the effort of either thinking about morality, or even better, saving them from having to BE moral….. The bankers, of course, need no excuses to carry on their despicable acts of calumny upon the remainder of society; their sole motivation is based on profit for them, and nothing else concerns them at all…

“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” — Thomas Jefferson

Back to Tom…. He was a bit over the top sometimes, in the force of his expression, but never, to my mind, in his sincere commitment to Truth, and his sincere love for Mankind. I would like to think I join him in this sentiment, especially today, when we are so besieged  by attempts to tyrannize our minds by our own beloved ruling classes. The war against immorality continues unabated, and too many folks in the world have withdrawn from the battle, accepting the lies and delusions that are foisted upon them.

It is important, in my opinion, that the rest of us, who can see the depredations assaulting the common man every day, keep on shouting from the rooftops to the rest of our compatriots, if only to save our own sanity….. and, before the strain of the conflict brings us to our knees, and we enter Zippy’s domain, doomed to extinction…..

“I just forgot my whole philosophy of life!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
__________________________________

Here is another piece from the archives, to save time, our most precious commodity, after the contents of our bag o’love….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It has been awhile since I read the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam, and a small piece of it in Smart Bee gave me a hankering to run through it again. It’s a long piece, though, and can take a while to get through. In addition, it takes up a lot of space…. so, to avoid both those problems, today I’m providing a simple link to the poem, on PoemHunter.com, where I find a lot of what goes into this section…. A very large amount of the world’s best poetry and poets are to be found there, and I enjoy the simplicity of their interface… Any who, here, for your reading pleasure….

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/

Enjoy!…..
__________________________________

Well, I’ve gone and done it…. I’m going for the hat trick today, with all three sections pulled from the archives…. I decided that, if there are over a million words of material in the archives, why should I not utilize a bit of it to my own advantage? It IS my own material, after all…. Any who, here is another rant, this one fairly straightforward, again taking aim at organized religion, which I consider to bear a large degree of responsibility for the state of society….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.” — Vladimir Nabokov, quoted in “Time”, 1981

Well, Vladimir certainly nailed it in one! This fits right in with what I believe, which, though it has little if anything in common with popular religious views of the afterlife, is nonetheless just as optimistic in outlook as any of those rather exceedingly ornate, highly unlikely scenarios. In my world view, the mind, and consciousness, whatever it may be, is equivalent to energy in our universe, and as such, should logically have the same characteristic as all other forms of energy we have thus far discovered, to wit: it cannot be destroyed, only changed in form.

Each of the world’s religions has their own version of what happens after we die, and all of them are made with the assumption of the presence of their idea of God as the underlying reason for all that occurs. This, while logical, to a small degree (one has to accept some rather specious assumptions in order to follow a logical path to the concept of a God….), mostly reminds me of a small boy walking past a graveyard, whistling loudly to scare off his own fears…. It’s mostly wishful thinking, as far as I can see, according to all the physical evidence available. The proponents of these religious philosophies all make the same basic error in their logical constructs, one that is so basic, they can’t even see it….

That error lies in assuming that Man, or a man, being a mortal being, limited in perception and understanding by their own physical envelope, is capable of either understanding, or describing, what is a God. If one assumes that an entity is capable of creating an entire universe, I don’t think it is logical to assume that we, as part of that creation, would have the capability of comprehending either the process involved, or the being that carried it out. The mere fact that, in order to try to comprehend God at all, we need to try to give him first, a sex, then a visual identity, is the first and most telling clue that we are wrong, right from the start…..

The next clue as to our inability to know God is the behaviors that Man ascribes to Him. In just about every religious book I’ve read, the actions of most of the Gods therein reminded me more of a surly, selfish teenager than of a God. I don’t know, it just seems a bit illogical to have the creator of the entire universe behave worse than a cranky two year old that needs a nap, if He doesn’t get the fawning worship he so desperately needs. It sounds more like Benito Mussolini, or Madonna, to me, than it does like God….

This doesn’t mean, though, that there is no hope of redemption (though I’m not sure from what I’m being redeemed… the idea of original sin is pretty much a hoax, you know, put in the Christian dogma to help manipulate and control people….), or of life after death. The universe is actually a quite beautiful place without the concept of God hanging about, getting in the way…. And this viewpoint allows one to appreciate life much more fully, knowing that we bear sole responsibility for making our lives worth living…

Everybody dies, and everyone lives after death, as far as I can see from a logical standpoint. I think that what Vladimir says is a good way to look at things, as it acknowledges that responsibility for our own happiness, and does so without implying the existence of a need to do so in hope of a reward for good behavior, as is the case in those religious institutions who wish to control people here in this life, using the threat of punishment or reward in the next. We can assume control of our own lives, including our own happiness, or, we can allow others to think for us, and accept the chains and limitations of living according to someone else’s ideas of what is real….

The saddest part of all this? Most folks never even realize they have a choice in the matter. From infancy, they’ve been brainwashed to believe what they’re told, and all-too-few of us manage to escape the bonds of slavery that are placed on our minds early in life. Most folks just accept what they are told by anyone in authority, and get very comfortable in their chains, since they don’t have to think for themselves at all….. They never realize just how large and beautiful the universe really is, because they’ve accepted the blinders they wear, and refuse to even acknowledge that they wear them at all….

It sure makes me glad for whatever happened to keep me from falling for that whole scam; I can’t say exactly what first clued me in to the facts, but, I’m very, very happy that it did. I can’t see going through my life filled with fear of what might happen afterward; it’s too much fun enjoying all the beauty and grandeur that exists on our planet to spend more than a second considering such nonsense……  :-)    Thank God for small favors, eh?   :-)   Sorry, couldn’t resist….

‘Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 50
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Mission accomplished, and with some style, by all appearances…. Let’s take a look…. Well, it all worked once, why not again? Plus, all of it remains valid, so, it works for me….. As a bonus, I’m still on schedule for the day’s activities, so I’ll take it, and run…..  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

Have the mango smoothies been certified yet?….

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Ffolkes,
Dark, out-of-focus images of lava filled volcanoes, steaming rivers flowing down their sides, against a backdrop of a smoky sunset of unimaginable color and beauty, float around in my mind’s eye, with no concomitant tales of interest attached, making me wonder yet again just what it is that makes me want to do this again. Each morning, I stare at the blank page before me, and let my mind assume a trance-like state, while it searches through the inner realm for yet another fresh way to begin, only to find mere remnants of ideas once fully formed, or abandoned phrases that have no connection to anything real.

Somewhere inside me is a lake of material, waiting to be written; I can feel it, and often catch glimpses out of the corner of my eye, before it flashes off into the vast, unknown reaches of my mind, where I never willingly go, knowing it will be safe there until ready to flow out onto a page…. A lot of what I write is spontaneous, at least in the sense that I don’t decide beforehand what subject is to be explored. Instead, I let Smart Bee, or some random thought, dictate the choice of material, having found long ago that I am more likely to come up with something interesting that way. When I decide beforehand, I feel like I’m back in school, writing a paper on a given subject, with the length and style pretty well fixed, and not amenable to alteration. It’s probably not a particularly efficient method, but it works for me, most of the time….

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” — The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, 1951

But, it does make it hard each day to come up with an intro, (especially when J.D. has already written the ultimate version of this kind of opening, one that denies normalcy)…. and it just occurred to me that y’all are probably getting tired of hearing that. I wish I didn’t whine about it so often…. a statement that occurs to me to be just about as dumb as anything I’ve ever come up with…. If I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t have to whine about it… If I didn’t whine about it, I probably wouldn’t do it as often… Any way one looks at it, whining about it just exacerbates the issue, and makes it into something significant, instead of the minor issue it ought to be…..

Hmm…. it also occurs to me that I am approaching this in a manner that guarantees the issue won’t die, an event which is anathema to me…. Why am I doing this to myself? I am forced to admit, I believe my sub-, or un-, conscious mind seems to have set up a situation here where I am continually set up to fail, at least in my own eyes, and THAT is unacceptable! The world, and the assholes who have set themselves up as the BRC, fuck me in the ass on a daily basis, just like they do everyone, and doing it to myself is NOT what I’d call intelligent…. So, it stops here….

No more whining about intros… no more angst about blank pages…. no more bullshit cop-outs relating how hard it is to come up with ideas on a daily basis, and make them interesting, to boot. It’s the same issue every day, and all this repetitive fooferaw is getting on my nerves, so, I’m done with it…. I know it doesn’t help this particular Pearl, but, in the future, you can look forward to an intro section that doesn’t complain, that doesn’t serve cheese, with or without whine, one that doesn’t drag on forever before getting on with the show…. In deference to that glorious future…. Shall we Pearl?…..

“The character of human life, like the character of the human condition, like the character of all life, is “ambiguity”: the inseparable mixture of good and evil, the true and false, the creative and destructive forces — both individual and social.” — Paul Tillich

Having discovered within myself exactly how much such ambiguity can affect our lives, I feel compelled to add that one must learn to use that ambiguity, to balance its overall effect on us, with competence, confidence, and steadfast aplomb, else it will use us, instead….
__________________________________

“Truth needs no flowers of speech.” — Alexander Pope

What immediately comes to mind when I look at this, is an image of a politician, mouth open, spewing out lie after lie, couched in flowery terms designed to draw in the listener with sweet, colorful little statements of intent, that have no relation at all to what is real, or what they will actually do. The more flowery a speech one hears from one of these pundits, the more you can be assured that all of it is lies. It is a time tested method of fooling the public…. tell them what they WANT to hear, and they will fall right into line…. Tell them what they don’t wish to hear, and they will mill around in confusion, and go through immense contortions to keep from using their minds, or making their own decisions, and, most importantly to them, it will make them uncomfortable, and fractious…..

My mind is almost automatically inclined to rant when I see a line such as this, and I’m always willing to take a few shots at the BRC, politicians, AND/OR any of their myrmidons and/or supporters, comprised of the mass of humanity that prefers to NOT use their brains for anything other than figuring out how to use the remote control, or sitting on. But, I slept a bit late today, and I’m feeling a bit lazy, at the moment, anyway, so I’m going to depend on SB to come up with an old-school pearl that will poke a stick or two into the eyes of the assholes who most deserve it….. SB is usually pretty good at that, so, let’s see what’s what….

“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them!” — Albert Einstein

“History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten. …What is interesting is brought forward as if it had been central and efficacious in the march of events, and harmonies are turned into causes. Kings and generals are endowed with motives appropriate to what the historian values in their actions; plans are imputed to them prophetic of their actual achievements, while the thoughts that really preoccupied them remain buried in absolute oblivion.” — George Santayana, The Life of Reason:  Reason in Science, 1918

BIBLE  A bible is a book which one or more religions consider to be holy, and to be something that they should follow. It is of course generally rather impractical to follow books, not just because they don’t often go anywhere, but also because they are not very good at public speaking, decision making, problem solving, or any of the other qualities recognized as being an advantage for leadership. A religion based around the teachings of any compilation of Toxic Custard would be very strange indeed. To subscribe to this new cult following, send $15 now. — Daniel Bowen’s TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA

“A tough lesson in life that one has to learn is that not everybody wishes you well.” — Dan Rather

“Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?” — James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance

“And unextinguish’d laughter shakes the skies.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Iliad of Homer, Book i, Line 771

Ffolkes, I just can’t make it any plainer than that…..
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This is a reprint of a poem I used some time ago…. It’s being reused because, a) it’s bloody brilliant, and b) it kind of fits in with the mood for today…. and those are all I need to justify it to myself, as I know the poetry buffs out there will enjoy it, for the genius it is….

Witch Burning

In the marketplace they are piling the dry sticks.
A thicket of shadows is a poor coat. I inhabit
The wax image of myself, a doll’s body.
Sickness begins here: I am the dartboard for witches.
Only the devil can eat the devil out.
In the month of red leaves I climb to a bed of fire.

It is easy to blame the dark: the mouth of a door,
The cellar’s belly. They’ve blown my sparkler out.
A black-sharded lady keeps me in parrot cage.
What large eyes the dead have!
I am intimate with a hairy spirit.
Smoke wheels from the beak of this empty jar.

If I am a little one, I can do no harm.
If I don’t move about, I’ll knock nothing over. So I said,
Sitting under a potlid, tiny and inert as a rice grain.
They are turning the burners up, ring after ring.
We are full of starch, my small white fellows. We grow.
It hurts at first. The red tongues will teach the truth.

Mother of beetles, only unclench your hand:
I’ll fly through the candle’s mouth like a singeless moth.
Give me back my shape. I am ready to construe the days
I coupled with dust in the shadow of a stone.
My ankles brighten. Brightness ascends my thighs.
I am lost, I am lost, in the robes of all this light.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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In keeping with today’s themes, which are, respectively, Truth, and Madness…. (what else?), I submit the following, an excerpt from the archives, from early 2012, comprised of two short pearls, one a short indictment re: the spread of religious dogma, and one short but telling list of woes currently present in Reality…. If nothing else, they’re in color…. Oh, right, that’s only if you have the correct software… never mind, just read on, you’ll understand….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.” — Billy Graham

Now, if that isn’t a scary thought, I know nothing of fear; I assure you, however, fear is an old friend, with whom I am quite familiar, in all its guises. Now, to give credit where it is due, I suppose it must be noted that, from the standpoint of someone of Mr. Graham’s ilk, this is a very powerful statement of belief; it has all the proper elements for that particular delusional thought process (if one may stretch the definition of ‘thought process’ just a bit).

It is based purely on assumption, with no hint of anything resembling direct evidence. It implies omnipotence, displays deified arrogance, identifies a source for guilt, and encourages a fear of death. It vagueness allows the moral ambiguity necessary for the complete abrogation of personal responsibility for one’s actions. And, like all such proclamations of this nature, its very words indicate a complete and utter dislike for humans, both individually, and as a species.

My immediate and forceful response to this was “Then you, and God, need to get a Life! If y’all have nothing better to do in your copious free time than to try to shove this kind of crap into people’s minds, then you need to find a new activities director for the imaginary cruise you are on…. or find some better drugs.”  But, that’s just me…..

(Oops…. I think I just heresied on several important religions…..)
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Conscious is when you are aware of something and conscience is when you wish you weren’t. — Smart Bee (Anonymous, by any other name, smells as sweet…)

Insane politicians (is there another kind?). Human trafficking. Racism. Bigotry. Child abuse. Spousal abuse. Slavery. Crack cocaine, heroin, morphine, or other drug abuse. War on crime. War on women. Televangelists. Fundamentalist zealots. National Security Agency. FBI. CIA. Untold trillions of dollars of national debt.  Genetically modified food. Military Industrial Complex. The 1%/99% Society. Taxes. Global warming. Air pollution. The oceans are dying. Terrorism. Nuclear accidents. Massive global weather changes. Ozone depletion. Overpopulation. AIDS. Mutating viruses. The Bohemian Club. Reaganomics. Nationalism. Elitism. Illuminati Conspiracy. Women’s reproductive rights. Bill of Rights (or rather, loss of same). War on the US Constitution.  Rampant ignorance. Lawyers. Priests. Rabbis. Imams.  Puppy mills. Wall Street. Corporate personhood. The IRS. Insane politicians. (Did I say that already? Well, it deserves mentioning twice….)  Rising incidence of halitosis.

Except for the last, which is more of a personal foible, I’d say that’s a fairly extensive, and mostly complete, list of stuff I am aware of that I wish I weren’t; and it all came right off the top of my head, no research.  It certainly keeps my sense of outrage in good shape….. which is why we all need to practice the following sentiment at every opportunity…. otherwise, we are all going to be up Shit Creek without a paddle, proverbial or otherwise…..

“Speak out. You’ve got to speak out against the madness.” — Steven Stills
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Well there you go…. This is what happens when I’m allowed to dress myself, I guess…. Let’s see how it looks in the mirror….  Wow… it’s like a vampire, nothing shows at all…. I suppose that’s my usual morning alteration of consciousness kicking in, but, just in case it isn’t, try to ignore any parts that are showing signs of infection, okay…. And that’s all I’m required to say, according to public health regulations, so I’d best draw this to a rapid close, and catch that last train out of town, before the authorities show up for a late breakfast interrogation….  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

Parking parallel is de rigeur on Mondays….

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Ffolkes,
Fiddle di dee, fiddle di die, the cow jumped not over, but, onto the moon, bending and breaking it beyond all recognition. The cat wasn’t playing a fiddle, but did have a boom box blasting…. according to the latest reports. Little dogs do more than just laugh at such sport, they usually pee on it. And dishes, well, they’re well known to prefer dark, sharp knives over spoons anyway….

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” — Willie Wonka

Especially when it attacks first thing, before coffee, before reason…. It is smart, therefore, to just go with the flow, and let it out as needed, knowing full well the consequences of such actions. One must, however, consider the overall effect, and keeping it inside can cause much more damage than letting it out. As I am fully aware of all this, when it strikes me, I just let it right out, and use the time I didn’t spend agonizing over it to clean up whatever spillage there might be…. saves me time and energy this way, y’know?….

It also allows me to find a way back to reality from the fringes inhabited by all such nonsense; such foolishness cannot spend too much time close to the normal side of reality, lest it turn mundane, so one must go where it resides in order to pluck it up for use. I find it to be a quite relaxing time, those hours spent in pastimes reminiscent of circuses and carnivals, soaking in the happy laughter of fools, and the merry giggles of the clowns. Even the “nyuck, nyuck, nyuck” sounds coming from the Stooges corner bring no annoyance, as they blend right in with the blaring of the bicycle horns and big, red noses worn by so many in that neighborhood…..

Hmm… looks like I wandered a little further away from the mundane than I had realized; that last paragraph slipped over into nonsense again, instead of heading back toward sober reason. I do enjoy my time there, but, I tend to have trouble letting go of it; for a while upon returning, it is difficult to even consider religion or politics, without applying some Carlinesque twists, to soften its gravity.

Needless to say, it also makes it hard to rant about much of anything else, as everything is viewed through a prism of humor and silliness, and doesn’t appear half as bad as it actually is in real time. All in all, this is probably a good thing, as it keeps reality from hurting too much on a daily basis; it merely makes it hard on the political/religious reformer in me, to NOT be able to rant sufficiently….

I suppose that idea makes y’all burgeon with hope for this Pearl, but, that, too, is a foolish thing to do… As yet, this Pearl has no obvious shape or intent, so it’s next to impossible to say what will happen… The first pearl Smart Bee shows me will often set the tone for the whole day, so we’ll see how that goes… I do know that starting with nonsense always makes me happier… I may be a reformer, and a curmudgeon, but I really do enjoy life more when my bozoid side comes out early in the day…. Who knows? We might even end up with something amusing, or elevating, rather than something depressive and dark…. I suppose, though, we’ll never know if we don’t get on with it, so….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“I only wish I may see your head stroked down with a slipper.” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Act v, Sc. 7, 4, (1028.)

Now, see what you’ve done!…..
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Okay, so I get it now…. The universe sometimes gives us directions we may not clue into fully…. I see, now, why reality chose to push me toward silliness and bozosity today (Bozosity is the state of being a bozo….). What we have, following this introductory blurb, is a group of aphorisms about religion…. I guess it made more sense to put it like this today, than it did to rant about it, as I normally do… Or, maybe reality is tired of my rants… either way, y’all win today, because this is just as pointed, just as accusatory, and, in its own quiet little way, as much of an indictment as are my most telling, and compelling rants on the subject…. Enjoy!  And be careful, the point it makes is quite sharp, and WILL cut you if you are negligent of care…..

Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’d,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

– Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 87

“Religion is the opiate of the masses.” — Karl Marx

“You can’t depend on the man who made the mess to clean it up.” — Richard Milhouse Nixon (1952)

SCRIPTURES, n.  The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

– Bother! said Pooh, after he spoke the Lord’s name backward.

“If God is dead, who will save the Queen?” — Smart Bee

“True myth may serve for thousands of years as an inexhaustible source of intellectual speculation, religious joy, ethical inquiry, and artistic renewal.  The real mystery is not destroyed by reason.  The fake one is.  You look at it and it vanishes.  You look at the Blonde Hero–really look–and he turns into a gerbil.  But you look at Apollo, and he looks back at you.  The poet Rilke looked at a statue of Apollo about fifty years ago, and Apollo spoke to him.  ‘You must change your life,’ he said.  When the true myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message.  You must change your life.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

Whoa! Sorry, that last one slipped in there without telling me… but, it kind of fits, if you look at it with just the right squint to the eye…. I mean, if the first six quotes didn’t give you a clue about how religions are bad for you, the last one drives the point home, with the very last line….. I don’t know about y’all, but I LOVE THIS STUFF….. Oh, and just in case it wasn’t clear already….

“A mind not to be changed by place or time, the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” — John Milton
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It’s probably a literary law of some kind, but, when one is given a hint like the one above, one MUST take that hint…. Far be it from me to ignore a slap to the side of the head like this one…. Here, then, is the poem to which Ms. Le Guin refers, above…

Archaic Torso of Apollo

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast’s fur:

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.

~~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~~

__________________________________

“I don’t want to panic, but my alphabet soup says, “Forget about me … just try to save yourself.” — Tom Wilson (“Ziggy”)

Now you know just how I feel every morning! This is the real reason I gave up on Alpha-Bits cereal, in spite of what was published, and in spite of whatever you may have heard. I got tired of being warned every morning re: approaching Armageddon, and started eating more oatmeal, just so I didn’t have to face that every day. It’s disheartening to be reminded on a daily basis that your breakfast is significantly smarter than the majority of US citizens, at least when it comes to their government, which is completely controlled by corporate interests, as well as when it comes to society at large, about which one may confidently say the same.

We won’t even bother to mention the religious hierarchies’ connections to temporal authority, or to the shadow masters; we took our shots at them above, and wish to be fair, if not merciful. We’ll just say this on that: if you think the churches and preachers are NOT in the pockets of the corporations, well, I suggest you try to obtain for yourself a new mind, because the one you have isn’t working very well….

I mean, think about it… Who are the favorite members of any congregation, no matter what the denomination (clue: it has to do with the word “denomination”….)? Why, the men, and a few women, who contribute the most to the church roof fund, right? The ones who put the most gelt in the collection plate are the ones the church leaders pander, er, cater to, not the ones who reach out with empty hands….

“If this isn’t war, why is CNN massing on the border?” — Smart Bee

Let us also NOT get into the culpability the media holds for its part in the farce that comprises the play put on the world’s stage by society. We could point out the numerous, obvious perpetrations of cluelessness, or lament the lack of courage in modern journalists, either of which is common in the media.

How else can one explain how sheer lies are repeated endlessly, without challenge? How can one explain why certain questions aren’t asked, or certain articles suppressed, at the request, or the legal insistence of governmental authority? It isn’t explainable, unless one remembers that the media relies on government to supply the reason for its existence, and one is reluctant to bite the hand that feeds, eh what?….. Sycophancy is not limited to dweebs, and/or acolytes…

Instead, let us indict the true culprits for today’s worldly mess…. ourselves.  Pogo, by Walt Kelly, said it long ago…. “We have met the enemy, and he is us…..”  We are responsible for all that is wrong with the world, because we, the great unwashed masses, allow the governments and churches, and their puppet masters, the corporations, to determine how the world will be run…. We accept all their lies, and go on with living our lives as slaves, subject to the whims and twists of fate, because we refuse to take the reins of our own lives into our hands, and assume control….

The shadowy rich assholes who are the real power behind all the governments of the world are not going to stop their self-centered, selfish hoarding of the world’s resources, nor will they ever make a decision based on the welfare of society as a whole. They will always make their decisions in relation to what is most beneficial for themselves, and what will allow them to maintain their stranglehold on the rest of the world….

That is their primary concern, and they have guarded that concern for well over three thousand years, without ever letting the rest of humanity realize to any great degree just how much they control…. No other theory holds any water, nor fits the given facts of history, as well as this, and I regard it as gospel truth…. According to the available evidence, this is not a theory, so much as it is a fait accompli….

“In the game of life you get to choose where you keep your brain – heads you win, tails you lose.” — Smart Bee

I guess I had a rant in there after all…. We are all screwed, ffolkes, just as often and as hard as THEY want; moreover, unless we decide, as a group, to do something about it, it isn’t going to change until we are all dead and gone, leaving this planet, and the universe, to go on without our promise, or our participation…. I hate to be a downer, but, I don’t see how we can fix it, without some serious upheaval, for which I am not particularly hopeful, given the general level of “stupid” in much of humanity…. Oh well, as Epictetus said, “Happiness and freedom depend on the realization of one principle. Some things are within your control. And, some things are not.”  So be it….

“UH-OH!!  I think KEN is OVER-DUE on his R.V. PAYMENTS and HE’S having a NERVOUS BREAKDOWN too!!  Ha ha.” — Zippy the Pinhead
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I am afraid I have to report that most, if not all, of the above was written while in an altered state of consciousness…. which should make for some interesting reading, you betcha…. Let’s just see….. Well, since it would be overly egotistical to call it brilliant, I’ll merely say, well done, and let it go at that…. For a morning so devoid of original direction, it seems to have found its way into the light fairy well, which bodes well for the rest of the day…. That is, if I were the type to be susceptible to precognitive signs….  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

Mooning over pugilistic dreams….

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4

Ffolkes,
Salacious, grinning demons haunt the edges of my dreams, claws dripping in the blood of innocence. Hideous screams echo through the dark halls in my mind, as the torturous maze leads me ever deeper into the nightmare of my own mind. No soothing touch is felt on skin numb to all feeling, no mellifluous voice penetrates the foul cacophony ringing in my unwelcoming ears. Time stops, and pain becomes eternal, the focus of all perception, until I awake, groaning in fear, to find myself alive, and whole, shaking, soaked in sweat, and vowing never to sleep again….

Gee, look…. it’s already 0700 in the morning, and I’m just now getting started…. If I didn’t know better, I’d believe I had finally overcome the time distortion suffered when I went to a different time zone for over two weeks…. I knew about jet-lag, but didn’t realize just how powerfully it can affect someone unused to it (or maybe, someone so old…..). It has taken me until this week to feel relatively normal (though, if one is to judge by the first paragraph, normal has a very flexible meaning around here…); I suppose it is only logical, looking at it from the outside, to expect the recovery to take as long as the original change, but it certainly has been enlightening to experience the process from the inside.

I apologize if the first paragraph was too graphic, or negative, for anyone; it just seemed to flow out, as a reaction of some kind to the lack of sleep I’ve known for the past weeks, since leaving for Europe. Due to the absence of normally available substances to assist in getting to sleep, and staying there, during the time I was traveling, my sleep, for the entire time while away, was rather broken up…. Since returning on May 27th, it has taken this long to resume any kind of routine, as my body seemed to resist all attempts to change back to this time zone…. Ah well, persistence has saved the day, and I think from now on, I’ll be able to get back to a more acceptable level of rest at night…. If it keeps me from writing any more horror blurbs, I’ll be happy…. It’s just not my kind of thing, y’know?….

I distinctly remember, at age four, being taken to the movies by my older sister and brother, to see the opening of the (then) new movie, The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Needless to say, at that age, the monster scared the crap out of me, and I spent most of the last hour of the movie in the lobby, waiting for it to end…. While waiting, I remember vowing to myself to never, ever again spend my own money to go see anything that scared me;it seemed to me, even at that tender age, that spending my money on that was silly, or stupid, take your pick, and I wanted nothing more to do with it…. I lived up to that vow, too, and have avoided horror movies ever since….

At about age 25 or 26, some lady talked me into going to see “Jaws” with her, and since she offered to pay, I went along with it, despite my reservations… It was pretty scary, too, right up until that chicken-wire contraption jumped into the boat, coming after the stupid, asshole boat captain…. Since the chicken-wire was fully visible in the movie, when the camera looked straight into the shark’s mouth, in the scene where it grabs the boat captain, it lost a bit of its scariness…. but, it was bad enough that it reinforced my reluctance to watch any other horror flicks…. So, I don’t, which suits me just fine… Life is scary enough; I see no need to pay money to get scared, for any reason….

Now that we’ve taken a trip down memory lane, to no real purpose, it must be time to quit blathering, and get on with the day’s business, such as it is….. I’m really, really late getting started, thanks to Morpheus’ kind attentions, so I may have to dip into the archives for something appropriate, in order to get done, and get on with the rest of today’s planned activities…. So, Shall we Pearl?…..
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“I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature.  They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.” — Thomas Jefferson

This pearl is a perfect one for a discussion (rant, if you will…) of religion… a religirant, as we call them around here…. Or, it would be, if I had the mental wherewithal to create one today…. Oh, the angst, and the knowledge I need, is all in there, organized to be presented logically…. unfortunately, I don’t have the energy, for some reason. Though I slept well, for me, I’m still tired; probably has to do with smoking, and not getting enough oxygen, or something like that… Regardless of why, I don’t quite have it in me to rant today, so I’m going to sublimate that urge by going with an old school pearl from the archives, which, fortunately for me, is on the same subject, so the above aphorism from TJ fits right in…. Enjoy!….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I’m feeling curmudgeonly this morning, but also quite lazy. Therefore, old school pearl…. Here is another one that jabs a pointed stick in the eye of religion, as is fairly common ’round these parts….. All of these historical figures, and modern authors, had something to say on the subject, but all in a slightly different way…. which is what makes life interesting, right? Right…. Enjoy, and pay heed, because otherwise those preachers, they’ll getcha…. and they won’t let go…..

“Human, do you know how interesting it is, this thing you describe? Avata does not have a god. How is it that you have a god? Avata has Self, has the universe. But you have a god. Where did you find this god?” — Frank Herbert

“Strange, because they are so frankly and hysterically insane — like all dreams: a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice and invented hell — mouths mercy and invented hell — mouths Golden Rules, and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man’s acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him!” — Mark Twain, _The Mysterious Stranger_

“In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.” — Pliny the Elder

“History records no more gallant struggle than that of humanity against the truth.” — whoever Google says it was, if not Smart Bee… (sounds like H. L.  Mencken, or Voltaire..) (Huh…. Google attributes this to Ashleigh Brilliant….)

“I believe that ideas such as absolute certitude, absolute exactness, final truth, etc. are figments of the imagination which should not be admissible in any field of science…This loosening of thinking seems to me to be the greatest blessing which modern science has given us. For the belief in a single truth and in being the possessor thereof is the root cause of all evil in the world.” — Max Born

(As perfect proof of this particular assertion, I offer the following unattributed piece of nonsense, that nevertheless is probably one of the most revered items of dogma in many Christian cults…..)

God didn’t call them the 10 suggestions! — Unknown fundie

(If you can’t see how WRONG this statement is, in so many different ways, I have a great deal of pity for you…. Reality is going to really work you over…..)

Under Alabama law, the wearer of a false mustache in church who causes unseemly laughter is subject to arrest.– Smart Bee

Well, there you go…. It all will make sense….. maybe if you just play it backwards….
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For some poetry, no introduction is needed…..

Ancient Air

I climb up high and look on the four seas,
Heaven and earth spreading out so far.
Frost blankets all the stuff of autumn,
The wind blows with the great desert’s cold.
The eastward-flowing water is immense,
All the ten thousand things billow.
The white sun’s passing brightness fades,
Floating clouds seem to have no end.
Swallows and sparrows nest in the wutong tree,
Yuan and luan birds perch among jujube thorns.
Now it’s time to head on back again,
I flick my sword and sing Taking the Hard Road.

Li Po.

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Here is a another pearl from the archives, first presented in November of 2012….

I first read a Robert Heinlein novel when I was about 10 years old. Then, when about 11, I read his masterpiece work, Stranger In a Strange Land, and my mind was forever changed. His characters were real to me, and the words they spoke were filled with Meaning and Truth, capitalization required. Over time, he has continued to be my favorite author, and I was saddened beyond measure when he passed on, as was the entire Science Fiction world of readers and authors (I’m sure his editors and publishers were also saddened, but for different reasons, the ghouls…). He was considered, by all of SF fandom, and by all the other SF writers, to be the Grand Master of the genre, deserving every bit of praise he garnered in his lifetime.

His character, Lazarus Long, continues to be my favorite of all his protagonists, though it is a close race with Miss Friday…. Lazarus’ character is one that gave Mr. Heinlein unlimited scope for the wisdom he wished to impart to his readers. At the beginning of the book, Time Enough For Love, Lazarus has just reached the age of approximately 2600 years, having been born in 1912, with that age somewhat skewed by some travel through hyperspace, which does funny stuff to Time.

But, as near as he can remember, Lazarus has survived through all those centuries, and, in the course of the book’s plot, agrees to share some of the wisdom he has collected over the years, in the form of his “Notebooks of Lazarus Long”, a short chapter in the larger book, Time Enough for Love. Here are a few of the most cogent aphorisms in the Notebooks; all of them are used by me on a daily basis, if not more often, and one can do no better than to keep them in the forefront of their mind, to ward off the insanity the world can foist upon us with no notice…..

“Beware of the “Black Swan” fallacy.  Deductive logic is tautological; there is no way to get a new truth out of it, and it manipulates false statements as readily as true ones.  If you fail to remember this, it can trip you – with perfect logic.  The designers of the earliest computers called this the “Gigo Law”, i.e. “garbage in, garbage out”.  Inductive logic is MUCH more difficult – but can produce new truths.” — Lazarus Long

“Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts: “Of course it is none of my business, but –” is to place a period after the word “but.” Don’t use excessive force in supplying such a moron with a period. Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh.” — Lazarus Long, Time Enough for Love

“A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.” ~~ from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

“If you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people.”~~ from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

“Bromidic though it may sound, some questions don’t have answers, which is a terribly difficult lesson to learn.” — Katharine Graham
(Okay, not Lazarus, but, it’s one he might have said, perhaps in the character of Lorelei, or Lapis Lazuli, Lazarus’ cloned twin sisters, had he/she/they thought about it…. )

“Always store beer in a dark place.” ~~ from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ~~ from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

That’s enough for one day; Heinlein’s ideas are not as simple as they may appear at first read, and should be absorbed only after considerable rumination over their meaning…. like any chocolate for the soul, it needs to be thoroughly mixed into the milk….     :-)
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Such as it may be, here it is, complete…. Let’s see how it floats…..  Okay, I have to admit it… It’s all a cheat, but it ain’t too bad…. and it’s going out the way it is, so there…. I seem to detect a bit of friction building up in my attitudes… I’d best take a break from this now, or suffer the consequences; that would be totally unfair to y’all, as you’d probably get splashed, or dragged down with me…. Instead, I’ll just say this…..  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

Priceless moments of shared arrogance…..

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2

Ffolkes,
That was close…. I almost began today’s missive with a song…. Not just any song, mind you, but a particularly bright, bouncy, tuneful one from a particularly perky musical that shall remain nameless, lest I get sued for intellectual theft, or chastised by my readers for excessive tackiness, either of which is unacceptable to me, especially before I’ve finished my first cuppa….. It also saves you from having to go wash out your ears so early in the day…..

Since my morning routine has returned to some semblance of its former normalcy, or mendacity, depending on your relative point of observation, it seems my initial comments are turning on me as well. Not sure what to think about that, or what I should do, if anything….. It’s not as if what I do here in the intro section is written in stone; in fact, nothing like consistency has ever come into the equation at all. It has been both a stimulant, to be more creative, and a hassle, because I’m not always in a creative frame of mind first thing in the morning. I do prefer to write then, as I seem to have more energy than later in the day, but that preference isn’t based on how creative I can be, just how awake I am, and how long I can sit.

None of this is getting me any closer to an introductory section that will do what I wish it to do, which is pull the reader into what is written, like the siren call of the muses…. Oh, well, it’s probably a good thing I can’t seem to find a template for this; if I did the same thing every day, I’d go stark, raving sane, and lose all my sense of humor, most likely, turning this into merely another mass of poorly written garbage, in spite of how pompous and extensive my vocabulary gets, or how accurate my observations…. A conundrum is what it is, and I don’t like it….

Sadly, or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint, my likes and dislikes have absolutely no effect whatsoever on reality, so I’m going to have to just suck it up, and get on with the business of the day, just as if I knew what I was doing, or where I was going. I suppose that could be seen as another metaphor for life in general, but, I’m not in the mood right now for logical, or practical, metaphors, no matter how close to the truth they may be. I’m currently busy feeling curmudgeonly, grumpy because I can’t have my own way, and things aren’t being amenable to my manipulation today, especially my own attitude…. I can see I need to adjust it, so, pardon me if I spilled any of it on you….

I’m going to bring this section to a rapid close now, before I get into anything that could be construed as illegal, or even immoral, which is more of how I judge things in my life…. Not that I’m such that I could be held up as an example of anything other than how to grow old gracelessly, but, I do try to make my decisions based on morals, and/or ethics, rather than laws…. Always have, always will…. Regardless, I have to go now, or “bad things” could happen….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Oooh! Did you see that? Oh, no, I guess not, since you’re not here in the room with me…. I just created a new pearl format, completely by accident, courtesy of Smart Bee, and the principle of serendipity….. The following pearl, composed of four parts poetry and three parts prose, is just about as perfect as it can be, in terms of being a clever and useful concept, artfully brought to light by the way the given quotes direct the mind’s eye, to the correct vision implied by the tenor of the presented metaphorical signs…. All a short, confusing way to say, look, look, it’s a plane, it’s a bird, it’s not any of that! It’s virtual wisdom at its best…..

Curse away!
And let me tell thee, Beausant, a wise proverb
The Arabs have,–”Curses are like young chickens,
And still come home to roost.”

– Edward Bulwer Lytton (1805-1873) — The Lady of Lyons, Act v, Sc. 2

“By the streets of “by and by”, one arrives at the house of “never”.” — Cervantes

The charge is prepar’d, the lawyers are met,
The judges all ranged,–a terrible show!

– John Gay (1688-1732) — The Beggar’s Opera, Act iii, Sc. 2

“The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s
In deepest consequence.

– William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Macbeth — Act i, Sc. 3

“Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.” — Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.

– John Donne (1572-1631), “Death, be not proud”

Sniff…. I couldn’t be prouder, and I’d like to thank the Academy, and my director, and my mum and dad, and…..
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I’m in the mood for obscure genius, so…..

Two Lovers And A Beachcomber By The Real Sea

Cold and final, the imagination
Shuts down its fabled summer house;
Blue views are boarded up; our sweet vacation
Dwindles in the hour-glass.

Thoughts that found a maze of mermaid hair
Tangling in the tide’s green fall
Now fold their wings like bats and disappear
Into the attic of the skull.

We are not what we might be; what we are
Outlaws all extrapolation
Beyond the interval of now and here:
White whales are gone with the white ocean.

A lone beachcomber squats among the wrack
Of kaleidoscope shells
Probing fractured Venus with a stick
Under a tent of taunting gulls.

No sea-change decks the sunken shank of bone
That chucks in backtrack of the wave;
Though the mind like an oyster labors on and on,
A grain of sand is all we have.

Water will run by; the actual sun
Will scrupulously rise and set;
No little man lives in the exacting moon
And that is that, is that, is that.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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I am running late, a bit, since I got up at a completely reasonable hour, and have been dawdling over getting this done, letting my mind wake up at its own pace…. and now, I don’t have the time, or the energy, to rant, not effectively…. Once again, though, the archives will come to the rescue…. Here is a politirant I wrote on 7/14/2012, a little less than a year ago, during the run-up to the Presidential election in November of that year….

I remember the piece quite well, and consider it one of my better rants, especially as it continued through two sections, of what, then, were the longer, five section pearls of the old format…. At that length, it’s a bit long, but it’s all quite accurate, and still pretty relevant, given that the political scenery hasn’t altered significantly since it was written… But, then, political scenery never does really change anything but the faces of the people at the top, does it?….. Enjoy, ffolkes, this one is pretty good, and on the mark…. “And that is that, is that, is that.”……
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“Ignore the man behind the screen.” — The All Seeing, All Powerful, Wonderful Wizard of Oz

As the time passes and we draw ever nearer to the election this year, this becomes increasingly relevant. It is important to remember that ALL the political candidates are guilty of using the art of prestidigitation in their communications with the public. Of course, Mitt the Twitt and the GOP are showing particularly egregious new heights to which they are willing to take the art; they have paraded a series of lies before the public that are not even hidden, or palmed like cards; they’re just out there, proven as lies, but ignored. They don’t seem to care; they just deny, ignore, and issue their next false accusation or made up statistics….

‘Shit Happens’ according to… Denialism:      What shit? — Smart Bee

The Democrats aren’t completely free of this syndrome, either; if you believe they are, then you have entered the Twilight Zone, and may have trouble finding your way back to the real world. I admire Obama, much the same way I did Carter; they are both basically decent men trying to do an impossible job, while constantly having to contend with an entire segment of those who are supposed to support him who, instead, are attempting to thwart his every reform, simply for the sake of divisiveness. In their fight to get ANYTHING done, they have had to resort to chicanery of their own. I figure they, at least, feel a bit of guilt about it, whereas I can see no such reaction from Mitt or any of the GOP spokesbozos…. They just deny and ignore any such suggestions of wrong-doing….

Let’s consider Mitt the Twitt for a moment. Here is a man who admits to being rich as Croesus, yet finds it necessary to hide at least half of his real worth, as if it would tarnish his image of someone who can relate to the common man. I think the common man, to Mitt, is someone who only has $50,000 worth of investments, to go along with the house they own, their three cars, and the vacation home in Maine. In contrast to EVERY OTHER candidates policy of publishing their taxes, he continues to refuse to release any returns beyond the last one; there are inconsistencies and red flag items of interest to the public in that one, too, but he refuses to discuss any of it…

This is the same man who tied his dog to a kennel on the roof of a car, and went off on vacation, without ever thinking of how terrified the dog might be, barreling along at 80 mph, with the wind blowing straight through the kennel. He laughs about it, and turns questions about it to other subjects, refusing to even comment on it. This is the same man who, when asked about a serious incident of bullying and gay bashing during his last year in high school, shrugged it off as “youthful pranks and high spirits”…..

This is the same man who…. well, never mind. I could go on most of the day, and not get to all the little incidents from just the last few months that indicate the Twitt’s complete disregard for the majority of Americans, and show clearly how entrenched he is in the 1%, and how committed he is to solidifying the stranglehold that the banks and corporations have on the rest of American society. His total focus is on the agenda of the rich, to the detriment of the poor, and I am totally astounded at just how many IDIOTS are our there in this country supporting him, in the mistaken belief that he gives a shit about them….

No politician is acting in the best interests of the people they govern. None of them. But people continue to act as if they do, and it is driving me crazy! Normal, intelligent people are backing this asshole, thinking that he isn’t going to screw them over. It is incomprehensible to me how people can blind themselves to the obvious so completely that they would fall for this shit….  I will say it one more time, and I hope they can understand it….

And then shall many be offended,… — Matthew 24:10

You are being lied to, by every politician who is currently seeking office, and by every one currently in office. If you don’t see that, if you don’t believe that, then you are deliberately fucking yourself in the place it will most hurt, and apparently, enjoying it…. The man, the party, and 99% of everyone you see on TV is LYING TO YOU!!!!! They are doing so every day, every hour, every minute, and you are accepting it like you are a starving sheep and what they are saying is manna from heaven.

WAKE UP!…..  I’m stopping here, my blood pressure is spiking. That’s how worked up I get when I think of how deliberately stupid people can be…. I don’t so much mind the stupid part, but the fact that they have to CHOOSE to not see what is right in front of their face just sets me off…. and so much indignation, righteous or not, is giving me indigestion….. stay alert, ffolkes, the politicians are coming, and they’re dangerous when unregulated….
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Certain passages in several laws have always defied interpretation, and the most inexplicable must be a matter of opinion. A judge of the Court of Session of Scotland has sent the editors of this book his candidate which reads, “In the Nuts (unground), (other than ground nuts) Order, the expression nuts shall have reference to such nuts, other than ground nuts, as would but for this amending Order not qualify as nuts (unground)(other than ground nuts) by reason of their being nuts (unground).” — from the Guinness Book of World Records, 1973

I’m almost speechless. (I know, you’ll believe it when you see it…. I did say ‘almost’…. that’s something…) It’s absolutely beautiful! Perfectly priceless absolute nonsense, dressed only in legal briefs…. It is so impenetrable, I can’t tell if it is the law itself, or the judges written opinion on the law, or a passage from Nightmare on Elm Street! Which I’ve never seen, by the way….

How’s that for tangential? Any who, this was included today as a finishing touch to my Twitt-rant above. This goes to show just how the political hacks we are burdened with today work their verbal magic, to distract us from looking at things they don’t want us to see. Bureaucratese is what I’ve heard it called, a language and skill set that society has had practiced on them since the days of ancient Greece. When a document such as the one above reaches a certain level of impenetrability, the majority of people alive will either fall asleep halfway through reading it, or totally ignore it after reading the first 11 words or so. It’s a classic piece of distraction, and is probably used in courses for political science majors in college, and in law schools, as an example of how to carry off the trick.

To me, what this law indicates is that one, or more, of the people involved in writing the law have a monetary interest in being able to obfuscate the definition of “Nuts”, in order for them to achieve some financial reward owing to the indicated distinctions in that definition. In other words, a loophole or three is created, so the “Nut” vendors can make more money, charging more for each kind of Nut than could be accomplished without the legislation. It’s similar to the law in this country that was pushed through the Federal Courts back in the mid-1800′s, when a corrupt Federal judge awarded “personhood” to corporations, after being paid handsomely by those corporations for his verdict…. Same, same, alla same…. Evil is loose in the world….

– Bother! said Pooh, as he had another plate of Piglet sausage. — Smart Bee (Remember Mitt the Twitt at the NAACP?…..)

I suppose all I’m trying to say here is, once again….. Wake up ffolkes…. the beloved ruling class, the priestly hierarchies, and the corporate “persons” in the shape of banks and multi-national corporations, are continuing their campaign to hide from all of us the actual business they are pursuing, which has everything to do with benefiting them, and everything to do with screwing everyone else as much as they will allow…. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m about done with allowing ANY of it….

“I’m not tense, just terribly alert.” — Smart Bee

So, please…. DON’T ignore the man behind the screen…. he’s the one who is killing us all….
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Ollie would be proud, I think… and just in time, too. The store is now open, and I’m done with this, so, all is right with the world, such as it is today. I’m not any more certain than you are what that may mean, or even whether it SHOULD mean anything, but, obscurity is what we’re always shooting for around here, and sometimes, it’s just easier than other times….. Especially when my fingers take over the keyboard like this, and just type away as fast as they can, without any idea of what will come out….. I’d better put a stop to it, before I hurt myself, or y’all….   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

Mostly, it’s just safer not to tango….

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Ffolkes,
    And then, I woke up….. The birds were not chirping, the sun wasn’t awake yet, and I am, thanks to the tender ministrations of that asshole deluxe, Murphy, shall we say, less than the happiest camper in the park….. But, then, what else is new? I can’t complain about the hour I was awakened; at 0538, I can’t call it anything but relatively normal. Nor can I, or will I, complain about the uncomfortable, yet also fairly normal, paroxysms of coughing that greeted me upon awakening; that’s my own damn fault for smoking…..

    But, when the process of bullying me into arising for the day includes polka music at top volume, I draw a thick, indelible line, and it’s best not to cross it….. Who in the world listens to loud polkas before 6 AM? I mean, it’s effective, for sure; I’m as awake as I’ve ever been. But, the price for that isn’t acceptable to me, and that is for certain…. I don’t care who it is, next time I hear that before daylight, I’m buying a gun, a big one….. Of course, it COULD have been a hallucination, but, I have to ask myself, would my own mind do that to me?…. Polkas?…. I don’t think so….

    Due to the mere fact that you are not in the room with me, none of y’all were able to observe the past 35 minutes of my morning, which did NOT include any writing, once the forgoing was on screen… It did, however, include much thinking about what to write, at least during those moments when I wasn’t being seduced into reading more pages of “Gaudy Night”, the Dorothy L. Sayers novel I’m currently devouring. A bit of Dorothy’s most excellent English prose, an extended period of successful worship at the throne, and the day takes on a whole new aspect, one with much more positive features than the one that first greeted me…. Best thing? The polka music went away…. either the radio’s owner got a clue, or my medication kicked in, whichever…. it’s all good, now…

    Good enough that I can consider just getting on with the day’s portion of insanity, which, I’ve always said, is better out than in…. Keeping stuff like this inside my head leads to what we call “bad stuff” happening, and, my lawyers tell me I can’t afford for any more “bad stuff” to happen, at least until I’m off probation for the last time…. You do know that’s a joke, right?….

    I’m not a known name and face to the local constabulary, (that I know of….), nor am I of particular interest to anyone outside the NSA, who are currently busy watching ALL OF US, at the behest of the government, under the authority of Article 215 of the Patriot Act, signed first by Bush in 2001, and re-signed, twice, by President Obama (didn’t know that, did ya?….)…. Yep, the White House, and all the paranoids in the clandestine (sub)intelligence agencies, are accessing your email, right off your internet mail server; your phone records, direct from the phone company; plus, they’re mining and harvesting just about any other data you leave out there for consumption, and they’re not even trying to hide it…. They don’t have to, it’s legal, we let them do it…..

    Okay, I know, this is the intro section, and it’s too early to rant, so I’ll let all that go (although there isn’t a single untrue word in any of the previous paragraph… every word is corroborated by other evidence, available to anyone….)…. for the moment. I’m starting to get a bit pissed off about it, but, right now, I’m still engaged in my own battles with my HMO, which seems to have a problem with communication… and which, I found out, is also accessing my emails….. Yep, the “secure” email system they have, I discovered, isn’t secure at all, as almost anyone can look at the emails in the inbox they provide for me, on their site, as long as they’re part of the HMO…. Needless to say, I’m just a little angry about that, and intend to deal with it later today, when the rest of the world arises….

    With that in mind, I suppose I’d best quit blathering, and get on with today’s effort…. If I don’t get to it soon, I’m going to end up hitting the archives again…. which, all things considered, isn’t a bad thing… It just doesn’t get all that much out of my head, unless I get lucky, and find an old rant that makes it all worthwhile…. For now, we’ll see what Smart Bee has to say this morning, and go from there….  

    Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

    The intro section went so long on me, I am going old-school, right out of the gate, to give a little balance to this…. The pearls all picked themselves, so I have no clue as to what they mean, taken together…. But, upon looking them over, I can see that, once again, Smart Bee’s sense of whimsy, and irony, are both in full play….. Enjoy!…..

Pressed for rules and verities,
 All I recollect are these:
 Feed a cold and starve a fever.
 Argue with no true believer.
 Think too-long is never-act.
 Scratch a myth and find a fact.

 – Phyllis McGinley

“On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one’s mind. It becomes a pleasure.” — Oscar Wilde (1856-1900), from The Importance of Being Earnest

“Throw strikes. Home plate don’t move.” — Satchel Paige

“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” — Leonardo da Vinci

“Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. . . . the human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.” — Frank Herbert, Dune

“A man who can fool chiefs, and even gods, must still face the monsters he himself created.” — Old Maori saying

For a true master,
Sitting on a throne
Is no different than
Sitting on dirt.

 – Deng Ming-Dao

    There you go…. and, I’m sorry, but, if you can’t bring meaning out of THIS group of pearls, there is little hope of it ever happening, not without some serious practice, and learning to use one’s mind for something other than figuring out how to open potato chip packages….   :-)   
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    Some poetry can stand alone, sans embellishment by comment, and should be left to do so…..

The Bait

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines, and silver hooks.

There will the river whispering run
Warm’d by thy eyes, more than the sun;
And there the ‘enamour’d fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously to thee swim,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

If thou, to be so seen, be’st loth,
By sun or moon, thou dark’nest both,
And if myself have leave to see,
I need not their light having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset,
With strangling snare, or windowy net.

Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest;
Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies,
Bewitch poor fishes’ wand’ring eyes.

For thee, thou need’st no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait:
That fish, that is not catch’d thereby,
Alas, is wiser far than I.

~~ John Donne ~~

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“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” — Leonardo da Vinci

    I knew when I included this above that I would be using it another time in the future. It is such a succinct observation, and one that parallels my own thoughts about what happens in our minds, and in truth, about what our minds are…. “What is the mind?” Where is the proof, the hard evidence that our minds, our conscious self-awareness, actually exist in a real sense? We know, because we are inside it, that it exists; but is that existence really a part of the real world? If so, how do we know it, if not only by our own perception? I’m not entirely sure, myself, that this can be answered in any way other than by acknowledging those perceptions as having validity because we perceive them, which is, seemingly, a tautological impossibility….

    Of course, we can use the definition of Reality as proposed by Philip K. Dick, which says that reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. This accounts for the inconsistency, but does so by transferring the validity from the perception, to the absence of the perception. I know, that’s a bit of a tenuous connection, but, it points out the difficulty of trying to validate reality with perception; first one must validate the perceptions, and to do that, we must assume the mind to be part of reality, and consciousness to be the connecting tissue.

“A reverence for life does not require one to respect nature’s obvious mistakes.” — Robert A. Heinlein

    I realize this subject is not one common to most folks, especially early in the morning. I also will admit to knowing that much of what I’m saying is not particularly of interest to many people, but, I don’t write for many people. I write for me, to get out of my head all the stuff that otherwise would sit in there and cause havoc to my own equilibrium… It’s sort of an aftereffect of the course of my earlier life, admittedly a bit cumbersome, but, with the help of my trusty laptop, and a willingness to use time, given by my situation, to keep from building up so much angst and/or mental frustration that it starts to affect me adversely…. which is a polite, discrete way to say, it keeps me sane….

    I think about stuff like this because, to me, it is important to know our own place in the scheme of things, and we can’t do that without a clear understanding of both ourselves, and the way we perceive, and react to, the universe at large; in other words, our response to our perceptions, and, ultimately, our response to Life. We determine our own happiness according to what we do with what we perceive, and I believe it is critical to stay aware of that process, and how we are utilizing what we perceive. It’s good to take out our attitudes now and again, to examine them for necessary updating, dusting off any acquired prejudices, and giving them a good shake to let them fall into the proper shape to pick up the clearest perceptions, in order to use them efficiently, and compassionately…..

“‘T is strange, but true; for truth is always strange,– Stranger than fiction.” — Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Don Juan, Canto xiv, Stanza 101

    And so am I, for I live for the truth. I accept that as the proper price for the understanding I have of reality, and for my own always increasing ability to deal with it on my own terms. It does make me a bit conspicuous at times; probably why I don’t go out in public all that often. It gets chancy sometimes, trying to maintain a cloak of normalcy when I’m out in the Big Blue Room, so I tend to avoid most public venues, just to avoid controversy…. I’m social, but not sociable, if you catch my drift…..

    Well, I see I’ve blathered on about this until it petered out…. Not much left to say, really, about Reality, and our perceptions, that I haven’t said before…. In life, “true power is control of the routes of perception.” — gigoid   This is a universal truth, my own deduction, based on observation and historical fact. The BRC and the churches know this, and do everything they can to control what people perceive, and what they are allowed to believe. I have no illusions about the degree of their control over society… This knowledge gives me a certain degree of defense against such control, as knowing it is there is the first step to resisting its influence, or to making it appear as if I am allowing it to control me, while maintaining my own reality….

    And THAT is quite enough of that…. I don’t wish to pull ALL my covers, not at once anyway, and it makes little sense to give away my best defense… I don’t think I’ve gone too far today; after all, it’s just a little bit of truth…. What harm can that cause?….

“I don’t think they could put him in a mental hospital.   On the other hand, if he were already in, I don’t think they’d let him out.” — Smart Bee
__________________________________

    The last line above might just be the most coherent of the lot….. Let’s see if the rest of it lives up to the advance reviews….  Well, it isn’t the worst to ever come down the pike… whatever that’s supposed to mean. It will do. Rather than saddling y’all with more of my lack of wit, I’ll call it a day, and hope for the best…..  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

Sweet, savory, sour, AND bitter….. nice choice…

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Ffolkes,
Honestly, I didn’t mean to wake up like this….. all crotchety, grumpy, and annoyed. But, then, I didn’t plan to wake up at 0430, with a ripping headache right in the middle of my forehead, either. Thankfully, a bit of coffee, a bit of worship, and all is well, at least for the time being, and I can think about getting this started.

Not that I’m brimming over with ideas right now; in fact, that well seems particularly dry at the moment, so we’ll have to see what happens when I start actually firing up the old brain cells for real…. Yesterday, I managed to come up with a decent religirant, and a hell of a good pearl in section three (you should go back to read it, if you haven’t…. it’s a good one….).

I’ve had to change some plans that I made yesterday, thanks to the unpredictability of other people that I failed to factor into the plans, so today promises to be another day of cleaning up after Murphy, in a sense. He managed to thwart what was on the agenda for yesterday, forcing me to reschedule it for today, costing me about $50 extra, so I’d wager he’s feeling pretty good about himself right now, having used well an opportunity for which he’s probably waited for several days. Asshole….

Can’t seem to pull the crankypants off all the way; they keep getting fouled on my socks, or maybe the lingering headache has something to do with it…. In the short time I had yesterday to read blogs, I did read one rant from one of my favorite liberal bloggers, John over at The American Liberal Times; he gave some pretty good shots to the conservative right in the political world, all with his usual mild tone, which he uses to great effect in his indictment of the idiocy generally on display in conservative writing.

I enjoy his fair-minded, even-handed manner of delivering these indictments, with which he usually supplies ample evidence of his target’s ill-conceived misconceptions about life, political reality, and justice. He also is quite steadfast, and stands tall and strong in favor of his ideals…. Fun to read….

Any who, I suppose this isn’t getting done what needs to be done around here, so I’ll quit blathering, and get on with today’s post. I’m totally unsure of what might happen, but, that’s nothing new, so….  Shall we Pearl?….
__________________________________

“Go on, EMOTE!  I was RAISED on thought balloons!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Okay, so that didn’t work out so well…. Though the truth of the above statement, as it applies to me, and my life, is indisputable, it doesn’t solve any of the problems inherent in this process, and is here only to indicate the extent of the difficulty I face today….. To begin a pearl with such a pearl is very un-pearlish…. trust me, I would know.

It’s a perfect ending line, naturally, but to shove itself into my face with the intent of starting off a pearl, well, that’s just, plain and simple, over the line…. Now that it is there, though, what can I do with it, except go with the flow, and finish it off? Nothing, that’s what…. So, here we go, with a supporting cast that will, hopefully, save this pathetic attempt at humor from blowing up completely, necessitating plastic surgery….. I like my face just the way it is, strangely enough….

“When you go in for a job interview, I think a good thing to ask is if they ever press charges.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“In Oregon, the State Legislature has come up with a State Nut. This is unlikely to happen in Missouri, since there are too many candidates.” — Smart Bee

I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty;
I woke, and found that life was Duty.
Was thy dream then a shadowy lie?
Toil on, poor heart, unceasingly;
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A truth and noonday light to thee.

– Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1816-1841) — Life a Duty

“Memory serves wise commanders.” Tz’u-hsi, 638 AD

“Luck affects everything; let your hook always be cast.  In the stream where you least expect it, there will be fish.” — Ovid (3/20/43 B.C.- A.D. 17) Roman poet

“A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.” — G.C. Lichtenberg

If thou would’st have me sing and play
As once I play’d and sung,
First take this time-worn lute away,
And bring one freshly strung.

– Thomas Moore (1779-1852) — If Thou would ‘st have Me sing and play
__________________________________

I am feeling more than just a little lazy today; can’t seem to shake off the sleepiness I woke up with… so lazy, in fact, I’m not even up to Googling for a poem, and will go with one of my own, from the archives, just to save the effort of finding one somewhere else….  I know, really lazy, huh?  Oh, well….

Here is one to celebrate, sort of, the coming, and going, of spring, which, this year, thanks to the myth of global warming, has been completely unrecognizable as a  Northern California spring, resembling more something you might find in Missouri, or Uzbekistan, or somewhere odd like that….

An Old Man, Snoring….

Winter arrives with gusts of wind and rain,
  clover spreads green amongst the hedges.
Urban gardens quiver, and dream of spring again,
  gargoyles stoically crouch on corniced ledges.

Umbrellas sprout over heads shrouded and hatted,
  dotting the sidewalks in colorful profusion.
Urban denizens pose sketches, framed and matted,
  adding casual beauty to fill the illusion.

Hissing tires, swishing along with the wipers
  join nature’s orchestra smoothly, as percussion.
Dripping gutters sound gong tones, true pipers,
  a sudden roar of wind hushes all discussion.

Dreams of summer heat form the crux of desire
  as winter chills our souls from without.
Sitting in warmth, gazing into an imaginary fire;
  content to know spring will come, no doubt.

~~ gigoid

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The following is another display of how lazy I’m feeling today….. It is a rant I wrote back in January of this year, when I was still living with the constraints that come with living with no money to speak of, to wit: not enough food, and barely enough of anything else….. Things have changed, for the better, but, sometimes, it’s good to think back to how little I had then, and appreciate the difference…. Not that any of that has anything to do with this rant, but, it had to be said, to cover up my lack of work ethic today….. so be it… If nothing else, it’s a good rant, so, enjoy….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Is this an out-take from the “BRADY BUNCH”?” — Zippy the Pinhead

I’m rather hoping it is, in sooth…. if not, we all are in serious trouble, up the proverbial creek without a hint of a paddle. Not that it should be anything new or unfamiliar, as most of our history has been spent thus occupied. Of course, previous centuries didn’t have the distinct advantage of having either the Brady’s, or Zippy, in all his insane wisdom, as cultural icons, as well as ethical touchstones….. They had to make do with Socrates, and Plato, and stuffy old guys like that….. Aristotle was practically a rock star in his day, and remains a pretty smart dude, by all evidence, but I still prefer Carlin, I think, for the most cogent philosophy for modern times….

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.” — The Constitution of the United States of America Amendment 6, 1791

For a moment, I wondered what my unconscious mind was thinking when it made me copy and paste this amendment into the pearl, as a pearl…. especially as it seems to be in conjunction with the Zippy quote…. Here I am, five minutes later, still wondering what the hell I was thinking…. It happens that way sometimes…. just give me a few moments here, and I’ll come up with it…. Aha! Got it! Naturally, I only needed to go back to basics…. The answer to the question of how the two quotes are related is…. Reality….

Aye, that’s right, reality. It’s what we do here, explore reality, and all its implications, ramifications, and delineations. Also, it’s temperature. Well, perhaps that isn’t the right word, but…. Reality, as is clear and obvious to the most casual observer, exists in varying degrees (hence: temperature…. see?). The degree of reality that is included in an out-take from the Brady Bunch is clearly not the same degree of reality that is implied in the Sixth Amendment.

I’d say, the Amendment would hit around 8 or 9 on the real scale, with 10 being the Reality of Amber, where all roads lead. (See Roger Zelazny’s book, The Courts of Amber…..), whereas the highest the Brady’s could hope for would be a 2 or a 3 on that same scale. They’re too oppositional in nature to be rated otherwise, as well as being on opposite ends of the scale of Relative Importance to ME and YOU…..

Now we get to the meat of this matter…. Of late, there has been a lot of public discourse regarding gun control, as a result of the media’s steadfast love of gore and manipulation. Another school shooting took place a few weeks ago, wherein some crazy idiot got hold of some firearms and used them in an insane manner.

This, of course, all morality aside, is still a reprehensible act, and, IMHO, most easily solved by just taking one of his own guns and using it on him, at the time of his crime. Bang, problem solved, and since he’s standing there over the bodies he has made, no question of guilt. In such cases, the why of his guilt should not matter; whatever it is, it is reason enough to put him down, in defense of humanity. The other questions can be answered after the children have been defended….

Sadly, there are two segments of humanity who don’t agree with this logical outcome. One segment is what I term the humanitarians, a misleading term, since it usually involves the denial of much of human nature. The other, of course, is our old nemesis, the BRC…. our Beloved Ruling Class….

Neither of these groups will agree that allowing people to have guns should be allowed, or that killing the killers is a proper solution for the issue. In both of these positions, they are dead wrong, and, more, they know they are. This serves to make their arguments more shrill, more emotionally based, and, in their eyes, more valid, in some strange form of weird logic….

“Everybody in this room is wearing a uniform, so don’t kid yourself…” — Frank Zappa

One of the most edifying parts of this discussion, for me, is how it makes it so easy to identify those who are wearing the uniforms, and from what camp they are from, according to their colors and insignia. You can tell the humanitarians, they’re the ones wearing the faux-camouflage pants, in support of the troops, they’ll assure you; they want the police to be the only ones who carry guns, believing, for some unknown reason, that police are somehow more moral or ethical than other people. (Of course, they also would have trouble if you asked them to define the words, “moral”, or “ethical”, in any other terms than those used in a philosophy paper they memorized in college, or in seminary….)

The BRC are always easy to spot, as their sense of entitlement provides them with all the armor against opinion, or law, they ever need. They want guns to be only held by the militia, (which they control), or the police (whom they also control), because it makes them nervous as hell to know there are guns out in the land, in the hands of people who would use them, for certain, if they attempt to perform their illegal lying, cheating, and stealing anywhere in their presence. It also makes them nervous knowing that they would be in danger for real, if the truth about what they do is ever made public with enough evidence to convince the masses to act…. They don’t want to have to worry they will be over-matched in firepower when that day comes along….

SIGH…. I’ve opened a can of worms, again, I know it….. I’m not going to claim to have all the right answers to the situation we find ourselves in today. Though it is a different world, technologically and culturally, from the time when the Second Amendment was written, deciding to abandon its precepts on that basis is not, and should never be, enough to justify any change in a law that is so important to the common man, the very people for whom the laws were created, to protect them from the self-same usurpation that is now being attempted. Once the law is amended, and weakened, the term “slippery slope” becomes very real, and a valid fear for those people.

To put a cap on it for now, I’ll say this…. Quite simply, I do not trust those who would take the right to bear arms from the people (added later: I reserve the same lack of trust for those who wish to amend, or limit in any way, the right to bear arms; ANY kind of change will ultimately be used as the basis for arguments designed to completely take the right away…). I have seen NO evidence, in history, or in recent current events, that ANY governing body, or ANY group, or ANY single person, of ANY persuasion can be trusted to have guns, and use them solely for the benefit of the people, without turning them to their own purposes, first. NONE. You can’t show me any, either…. Go ahead, I’m listening….

I have studied people every day of my life, and I know too much of human nature to ever believe what I’m told of another person’s intentions; even the best intentions can change in mid-stream, turning its back completely on any commitments made previously. People lie, they cheat, they break in their minds, and they can’t, as a whole, ever be trusted to act rationally on a consistent basis….. at least, not any more rationally than can I myself….

“In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.” — Oscar Wilde

Such being the case, I’d rather keep my guns, thanks. I’ll accept the risks that go with that freedom, which includes the risk of bad people getting their hands on guns, and doing bad things to others. Don’t worry, if they do it in front of me, I’ll help…. and not by running away and hiding…. Life is dangerous, ffolkes, and one either learns to get along with that idea, or one spends a lot of time worrying about shit that can’t be changed…. A very unhappy state of affairs, to my way of thinking, and not very realistic in the long run….

“When the panorama of human existence becomes chaotic and confused, it is quite soothing to watch the sun rise in the East.” ~~ gigoid
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All things considered, this went very well, thanks to my laziness and willingness to cheat on my own standards…. Of course, if they are MY standards, then breaking them isn’t really cheating, is it? It’s merely utilization of the right to edit, otherwise known as “changing my mind”, a right and privilege none of us should ever forget we possess, as it can make the difference between success, and a handful of shit….

Sorry, forgot to hold the graphics….. “One cliche, please, with a side of graphics!” “Do you want whale sperm with that?”…..  Now that I’ve completely lost it, let’s see how it reads….. Not too shabby, all in all, and certainly worth posting…. Onward, into the day!…..  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

Maggie, I swear that penguin winked at me!….

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Ffolkes,
And then, I woke up….. wobbly. That’s wobbly, in the Doctor Who, Tardis-like sense, as regards Time and Space, not the old, rusty bicycle wheel type, that has only to do with one’s progress down the road….. In this sense, wobbly assumes new meaning, much deeper and more relevant to reality than its previous incarnation as a word of note. In this case, wobbly means….. well, wibbly-wobbly.

I know, it’s early for silliness, but, what else can one do when one awakens all giddy and bemused, from having slept to a decent hour, indicative of a number of positive life-events?…. I was so rested and relaxed, I was able to get in a full-body stretch, without falling into a paroxysm of back spasms and leg cramps, for the first time in recent memory, recent being defined as about five years….

Since the universe seems to be in such a positive alignment, I should probably take advantage of that, and see what kind of stuff I can do today to support that trend. Once I’ve spewed out this morning’s Pearl, I think I’ll take a bit of time to do some planning…. As I’ve gotten older, and older, and older, and…. sorry, got stuck….. any who, I find, as time passes, that the more time I spend planning, if I am thorough in my plans, the more efficiently I can get things done.

I don’t end up as often, somewhere on the other side of town, only to find that what I went to do is impossible, as the place I didn’t call isn’t open, or some other such foolishly impulsive activity that would add to my day’s frustration, especially if  I was already in pain. Engaging in a constant war keeps one on one’s toes, so to speak, and my war with gravity is as unrelenting as it is unavoidable…. C’est la vie, though, so I try not to whine about it; I’ve merely learned to think further ahead…..

Now that I’ve completely bored y’all, perhaps I should get on with today’s dive for oysters, in that ocean of data we know and love, called by even the most cynical, the world wide web of knowledge…. which is, when one stops to consider, merely an extension of our minds, suspended in a cloud of electrons held together by sub-nuclear forces of great delicacy, and a bit of glue here and there where the plastic breaks…. Perhaps I’ll find something inspiring, or uplifting…. chances are slim, but not impossible. Perhaps something  humorous; that always goes over well. Whatever it may be, it will be a surprise today, because I’m heading out with no real preconceived notions of where to go, or how to get there….

Of course, some might point out that this is not a particularly unusual event, in the case of this blog. And, they would be right in saying so, because it IS so. I can’t let that affect me, though, or I’d never work up the nerve to publish, knowing what I know about where all this stuff comes from, and where it’s been…. sometimes, it’s not very savory, or polite, or even clean…. But, a real pearl diver doesn’t let stuff like that get in the way of finding, and sharing, the best of what is down there to find, so I’m going to just stop blathering now, and get on with it….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“I’m an atheist, and I thank God for it.” — George Bernard Shaw

:lol:   Trust Mr. Shaw to get to the heart of a matter quickly, eh? I suppose I’m feeling brave today, to pick a subject like this right off the mark, but, this was the first idea of note to pass in front of my mind’s eye on my search, and I had to do as the little icon is doing (if you are viewing this on WordPress… if not, this line will make no sense to you… so go look at it online, for goodness sake!… ), and laugh out loud….

I’m NOT one, you know, not strictly speaking. An atheist, that is…. I suppose you could say I’m more agnostic than atheist, as there is very little hard evidence of any kind that corroborates either the idea of a single, white haired, benevolently vindictive old man up in the sky passing judgments on what everyone is doing and thinking, or of the idea of nothing like that ever happening. Since there isn’t, it’s a bit premature, and unscientific, to make up one’s mind without reservation….

I guess that is the most polite way of saying I don’t buy into any of the delusional material that makes up the dogma, history, and/or tenets of ANY of the major religions of the world. As far as I can see, they all are constructed for the sole purpose of improving the lot of the preachers, and little to do with actual religion, or metaphysical philosophy. When they do drift into trying to explain their delusional interpretations of such ideas, it tends to become either extremely fanciful, or hard-line ignorant. I’m sorry, I don’t tell them what to say, they just say it, and I am not responsible for the fact that NONE of it makes any sense, to me, anyway….

“Nature didn’t make us perfect so she did the next best thing. She made us blind to our faults.” — Grit

This is not to say I don’t appreciate what the churches have done to for humanity over the centuries…. Just think, we have them to thank for, oh, human sacrifice, goat sacrifice, lamb sacrifice, virgin sacrifice, and, oh yes, martyr sacrifice. We can always remember with fondness the crucifixions, and the mutilations, and the torture that those martyrs underwent, because they were all for the good of the church, and society, right? Then there were the religious wars, that continue to today’s world between the Muslims and the Christians, the Hindu and the Sikh, the Tamil, and the Balinese, between the Lutherans and the Methodists, the Catholics and the Protestants, and the Fundamentalists with everybody else alive…. In the immortal words of Rodney King, “Can’t we all just get along?”…..

“Expertise is gained by investigating why a system doesn’t work.” — Smart Bee

In this sense, I can consider myself an expert, at least when it comes to figuring out why these systems of belief don’t work, and, essentially, never have worked the way they were intended to work by the prophets and philosophers who originally inspired the ideas behind the churches. I’m not entirely convinced that all of them were assholes and wicked perpetrators of scams and con games on the rest of humanity; a few of them weren’t, I’m sure. Jesus of Nazareth seems to have been a smart guy, all in all, though he was handicapped by  having to deal with a group of humans who had about a 5% literacy rate, and life was hard enough that any system of belief had to be kept simple, to allow the constituency enough time to do those things needed to survive, which, those days, took up a LOT of time….

Put most simply, they don’t work because they are wrong. The assumptions all these religious belief systems make, regarding the structure of Reality, is, plain and simple, incorrect, not in any way able to be either corroborated, or demonstrated in real time. No matter how often they claim the opposite, nothing of what they profess to believe has any demonstrable proof that it actually happened, or that it is substantially real at all. They will profess the absolute logic of their faith, and will repeat their lies directly into the face of anyone who dares challenge their delusional assertions, accusing the unbelievers of speaking under the influence of some mythical force of evil intent, rather than the actual tone, or rational content, or spirit of reason being demonstrated by such doubt.

Kindness, compassion, honor, integrity…. These, to me, are the most important characteristics of a human being. Virtue comes from how we act, not from what we believe. No system of belief automatically brings a state of virtue to those who choose to believe in it; only the act itself is important. How we treat others, how we approach life, and other forms of life, are much more valuable to the universe than any lip service to a deity that seems to worry more about being worshiped than taking care of his creations.

G.I.G.O. means ‘garbage in, garbage out’, and is a term, and a process with which I am very familiar, as might be construed by my user name. My study of the major, and many of the minor, religions in the world has led me to conclude that most, if not all, of them are operating under a false set of basic assumptions, and reality dictates that doing so can only produce results that are incompatible, in the long run, with the normal state of reality. This, in turn, can only lead to what we call in the scientific world, “bad things all around”, or, “Oh, shit, it blew up again!”….. Entropy WILL have its way, given half a chance, and starting one’s whole approach to living with a false set of assumptions, is awarding it free rein to send life out of our control….

And people still wonder why the world is so screwed up……

“The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
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After a rant like that, only one poet will do…..

Whispers of Immortality

Webster was much possessed by death
And saw the skull beneath the skin;
And breastless creatures under ground
Leaned backward with a lipless grin.

Daffodil bulbs instead of balls
Stared from the sockets of the eyes!
He knew that thought clings round dead limbs
Tightening its lusts and luxuries.

Donne, I suppose, was such another
Who found no substitute for sense;
To seize and clutch and penetrate,
Expert beyond experience,

He knew the anguish of the marrow
The ague of the skeleton;
No contact possible to flesh
Allayed the fever of the bone.

Grishkin is nice: her
Russian eye is underlined for emphasis;
Uncorseted, her friendly bust
Gives promise of pneumatic bliss.

The couched Brazilian jaguar
Compels the scampering marmoset
With subtle effluence of cat;
Grishkin has a maisonette;

The sleek Brazilian jaguar
Does not in its arboreal gloom
Distill so rank a feline smell
As Grishkin in a drawing-room.

And even the Abstract Entities
Circumambulate her charm;
But our lot crawls between dry ribs
To keep our metaphysics warm.

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~

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Today has been somewhat traditional, in terms of format, so we’ll stick with that, and go old-school for today’s third offering…. These are fresh pearls, chosen just after writing this, so, it’s pot luck again…. enjoy….

“Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke.” — J. R. “Bob” Dobbs

“Only the mediocre are always at their best.” — Jean Giraudoux

“Courage is fear holding on a minute longer.” — Harry Emerson Fosdick

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” — Carl Sagan

“Little girls, like butterflies, need no excuse.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

Now, that is an almost perfect group of pearls! But, I think there may be a couple more that would finish it off nicely…..

“In fact, one thing that I have noticed . . . is that all of these conspiracy theories depend on the perpetrators being endlessly clever. I think you’ll find the facts also work if you assume everyone is endlessly stupid.” — Brian E. Moore

When the dream came, I held my breath with my eyes closed.
I went insane, like a smoke ring day when the wind blows.

–  Neil Young

“By God, for a moment there, it all made sense…” — Smart Bee

Okay, so it took three…. But, you will note, please, it is a damn near perfect pearl, even with eight, instead of the classic seven…. I love it when a plan comes together….
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I did it. I was up at such a good time, and slept so well, I wanted to make it all as fresh as I could…. so I did. Let’s see how it holds up…. Okay, well, that’s not half-bad. I’ll take it…. Wrap it up and send it over to my hotel, would you? Thanks….. That having been said, all is right in my world, and I’m off to go play in it….  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