Ffolkes,
For those who may, or may not, have wondered, the titles of these Pearls never have any meaning. At least, not deliberately. Picking a new title or subject line for the email I send out each morning used to be a complete drag; it would take almost as long as writing the post some days. So, rather than trying to be creative, and making it fit with the subject matter below, I opted for being nonsensical.

The phrases I end up using are made up by picking random words out of my head and flinging them together at the screen. The ones that stick get used. Sometimes it is very pretty; other times not so much. Some are cute, some are weird, and some are just plain stupid. But they work, and they take less time than trying to find something that fits appropriately. (Always hated having that word applied to me anyway)  Some days, like today, it just pops up in my head, already strung together, so I just go with it. It never has anything to do with what is written below it…..and that’s how I like it……
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Everything is matter. Matter is electricity. Electricity is invisible, intangible. Therefore it is nothing. Therefore everything is nothing.

I like this. It is a perfect example of how circular logic works. Each statement but the last, taken alone, is not merely true, but obviously true. String them together, and it all becomes nonsense. This process has been described as using logic like a hammer, rather than as a scalpel. It is also an unfortunate reality that many people accept this kind of logic just as readily as they do the veracity of scripture, and with the same amount of verifiable evidence, i.e., none.

It’s how politicians get elected in this country, and probably in others as well. All they need to do is find some catchy phrase easy for people to remember and repeat, based on a line of reasoning such as above, and say it enough times that it is accepted as true. No matter how untrue it is, if its repeated loud enough and long enough, there will be some folks that will buy into it. Isn’t human nature grand?…..

“Zero raised to the nth power remains zero.” — Pop Baslim
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“It’s getting harder and harder to act weird.” — Zippy the Pinhead

One would think, based on the generally accepted meaning of the word ‘Pinhead’, Zippy and his ilk would be unfamiliar with Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. But this poignant complaint from Zippy is compelling evidence that they are not merely familiar with it, but understand its relevance to real life. It is indeed becoming harder and harder to stand out from the crowd by being weird. This is another natural result of overpopulation; the more people there are, the more weird ones there will be. The percentage per capita is rising also, as the stress of modern life pushes more and more folks to react to life just as if they were a Pinhead, in order to retain what little sanity they possess.

All in all, I think this trend is a good one; believe it or not, weirdness is a powerful antidote to oppression of the spirit. It is a figurative, and literal, way of throwing off the shackles of normality we are all forced to wear, due to the power of peer pressure. And it’s a good way to loosen up those gluteous maximus muscles a bit……which is always a good thing….
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“A serious public debate about the validity of astrology?  A serious believer in the White House?  Two of them?  Give me a break.  What stifled my laughter is that the image fits.  Reagan has always exhibited a fey indifference toward science.  Facts, like numbers, roll off his back.  And we’ve all come to accept it.  This time it was stargazing that became a serious issue….Not that long ago, it was Reagan’s support of Creationism….Creationists actually got equal time with evolutionists.  The public was supposed to be open-minded to the claims of paleontologists and fundamentalists, as if the two were scientific colleagues….It has been clear for a long time that the president is averse to science…In general, these attitudes fall onto friendly American turf….But at the outer edges, this skepticism about science easily turns into a kind of naive acceptance of nonscience, or even nonsense.  The same people who doubt experts can also believe any quackery, from the benefits of laetrile to eye of newt to the movement of planets.  We lose the capacity to make rational — scientific — judgments.  It’s all the same.” — Ellen Goodman, The Boston Globe Newspaper — Company-Washington Post Writers Group

There isn’t a lot I can add to this, and the reasoning is tough to pick apart, as it is logical, and verifiable by physical evidence. Not being the sort to gild a lily, we’ll let it fly solo, and merely add this……

“Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything.” — Frank Dane
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“If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five? No, four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” — Abraham Lincoln

Abe was not just another pretty face, obviously. And he had a pretty good sense of humor about that, too, as he is said to have made this observation, “If I was two-faced, would I be wearing this one?” Not a bad attitude for one whose face, which, by all reports, could stop a clock just by asking the time. He also is credited with some decent insight, with this gem, “Most folks are just about as happy as they’ve made up their mind to be.”

Not to belabor an obvious point, but we could use a President with this kind of inner strength today; the batch we’ve been saddled with over the last 40 or 50 years has been somewhat of a disappointment, to say the least, with perhaps two exceptions. (Which ones, you may ask? In my mind, only JFK, who wasn’t in office long enough to screw up badly, and Jimmy Carter, who was prevented from doing much by a partisan Congress. Clinton had a chance to be included, but he committed the unpardonable sin of getting caught being stupid)  Yeah, old Abe would be a welcome change to the folks we are forced to pick from, even if all the mirrors would have to be removed from the White House……
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Lament for the Bill of Rights

Insidious, and silent, oppression steals away
most precious gift, our enduring legacy.
Sing no more bright songs of laughter and play,
pride of spirit fled with our democracy.

No more protest, no more comedic rant,
only silent obedience to the master’s word.
Our only hope becomes completely insignificant
Best to fly away, as a once-free bird.

–gigoid
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More evidence that becoming the world’s greatest poet may take a bit more time than I had suspected. Ah well, since I can’t exercise any of my no-longer-extant rights, I may as well go out and see what kind of trouble I can cause. Y’all take care out there…..

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

Kowabunga!