Monthly Archives: September 2012

Bath water? What baby?……

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Ffolkes,
I am forced to confess that I’ve become an internet addict…. I can’t conceive of going back to the days before the entire repository of human knowledge, minus the traditional confidential security material, was available at request, in the blink of an eye. One can feed the elephant’s child for as long as they wish, in any field or subject, and never run out of material to learn. I miss what I now feel to be a necessity, a connection to the net at home, where I can fulfill any question or impulse to find out something at my whim. Being reduced to a limited time per day is somehow diminishing, and emotionally stressful…. hmm, maybe I could plead that to the cable company, to get my hook-up for a discount…. might be worth a try….

Meantime, I am reduced to creating my Pearls ahead of time, so that I can post them quickly…. this gives me a little time to catch up to email, check in with Facebook and Twitter, check the time for the ball game at the news site I frequent, and then do any online research I’ve remembered from when at home…. all of which adds up to a routine I’m still evolving into some sort of efficiency, reluctantly. It’s still annoying to have to develop a whole new routine, just because I had to move, but I suppose I can’t complain too much…. I’m still living indoors, and have enough to eat, which is a damn site better than a lot of the world’s population can say…. Can’t forget that, even when it gets better, or worse, there are always people in a tougher spot…..

What this all boils down to is that today’s effort was actually created yesterday, almost completely…. it was necessary to fill in around the edges, as you will see after reading today’s poetry effort in the second section of pearls. That effort drained me pretty thoroughly, and I retreated into the past a bit…. sections one, three, and the closing section are all pearls created years ago…… a mild form of hebephrenia, as is were…. and, sorry, no, you’ll have to look it up….. 🙂   Try a Dictionary of Psychiatric Disorders…. which is appropriate for use in this blog….

I’m now ensconced comfortably with a cuppa coffee at the local Wi-Fi & java spot, ready to cram a day’s worth of internet into an hour and a half. The Pearl is ready, so I’m going to begin the process of moving it from my laptop to the blog site, with a short stop to send out the email Pearl, which continues a tradition founded over 10 years ago, in the dawn of the personal computer age…… and has been my primary source of defense against insanity for all that time…. Shall we Pearl?……
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There are times when getting bogged down is unavoidable; the nature of the Universe demands this, in order to maintain the proper degree of entropy. I think it is one of God’s greatest jokes, one that begs for understanding. I mean, just look at the way things are set up; is this not prat-fall funny, having a well-ordered Nature, and then tossing in entropy to keep things interesting? Things fall apart, and that’s just the way it is…..

proof by forward reference:
Reference is usually to a forthcoming paper of the author, which is often not as forthcoming as at first.

proof by semantic shift:
Some of the standard but inconvenient definitions are changed for the statement of the result.

proof by appeal to intuition:
Cloud-shaped drawings frequently help here.

— How to Prove It, Part 7

“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” — Francis Bacon, English philosopher (1561-1626)

As always, the lesson is left as an exercise for the gentle reader…..
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Playing by the Rules

All my days I looked for love,
And found it everywhere I looked.
The years were joyous and fully booked
Seemingly by command from Above.

In return for all of the beauty in Life I found
I played life by the Rules that we all know,
It was from my father I learned the how,
Honest love, given freely, hand-fasted, gladly bound.

It seemed a while as if it were all real,
that fulfillment and contentment could be
as real as the children given us to oversee,
to teach them of Life and Love, and how to feel.

Then storm clouds of grievous change arrived, unbidden
Insidious, deceitful, three steps forward, then one back.
Tearing holes in our beautiful cloth, a heart heard to crack,
Gleeful demons eating life’s bounty, fangs dirty, and hidden.

Pain and sorrow grew, in defiance of all I tried,
Sanctuary turned into a reluctant scene of ritual battle,
Love still lives, but herded like doomed and pitiful cattle,
While the keening of my soul sounds as if I’d cried.

Betrayal in love is, allow me to assure, no small pain to take.
Time has no power to reduce its place in my heart or soul.
My truest love became a stranger, a powerfully sharp toll,
Solitude has become my lot, no killing time for necessity’s sake.

Love yet surrounds me, everywhere; I’m not one of those fools…
Children are forgiving, I’m glad to be able to say,
They show me life’s solid purpose, the old, right way,
I guess  don’t know any other way, than to Play it by the Rules.

~~ gigoid

Okay, ffolkes, this one hurt, a lot, but it had to come out…. I’ve been in tears for an hour now, first drowning in feeling that arose from inside, unasked, then letting those feelings out onto the screen, and they’re not going to stop anytime soon, I can tell. This is an old, old pain, and apparently has been hiding for a while, buried much deeper than I had previously given credence to; it fucking HURTS!….. It’s a damn  good thing that I’m an optimist, and too bloody stubborn to give up believing in Life, and all that is good and beautiful in it…. that’s all I can say…. otherwise, I’d be damned depressed right now….. I  gotta go…..
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As a firm believer in taking responsibility for our own karma, I often allow instinct to guide my behavior. This is not to say that it is my sole guide, but evolution gave us certain advantageous traits, and allowing them free rein can be, and often is, a very comfortable path to success. (Success = survival)  Reason, and perception, and those other parts of us arising out of our intelligence that can be valuable as survival tools can fail us at the test, and instinct provides options. Thus this morning’s offering…. many of you are, ostensibly, therapists. These are good tools in being effective as one who serves others in the fertile fields of the human mind…..

“A bitter jest, when the satire comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp sting behind.” — Tacitus

“If rejection destroys your self-esteem, you’re letting others hold you as an emotional hostage.” — Brian Tracy

“You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept.” — Kahlil Gibran

Thoughtfully kind, self-confident, and compassionate. Valuable traits indeed……
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The following pearl, also a former Pearl, is from the summer of 2008, as are the first section, and the third section of today’s Pearl. I know it’s a bit lazy, and possibly a bit confusing, but, bear with me, as I go through these difficult times, bereft of my usual resources, such as Smart Bee, and an ISP at home…. I’ve been around writing these Pearls for a long time now, all in all, and there are a lot of them I don’t even remember…. it’s kind of fun, like finding a long lost stash of comic books…. any who, enjoy….. even if it isn’t Monday…. please?….

First Impressions…

Ffolkes,
…..can last a long time, even when the secondary & tertiary experience is contrary. Which is why I try to be particularly lucid on Mondays. But then, nobody’s perfect……

“Be able to be alone.  Lose not the advantage of solitude, and the society of thyself.”–unknown smart guy

Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom. — Theodore Isaac Rubin

It is good to be alone sometimes. And wisdom is its’ own reward. But this next one, this is powerful truth!

“Fifty bucks, same as downtown!” — The Philadelphia Kid

See, it’s all in the wrist….. And don’t worry about the lesson today; it isn’t there…..unless you wish it to be……

This is the oddest Pearl I’ve created in a while; if you are familiar with what goes on around here, you’ll know that is saying a lot…. which is, no doubt, enough said…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

—

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Scratching at the nadir of indifference….

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Ffolkes,
I’ve always known that Murphy was an asshole, but this month he has gone to new, extreme lengths to mess with my head, and I really don’t appreciate it.  As a non-corporeal entity, he no doubt feels safe from any retribution on my part, but I swear, I will figure out how to have a negative effect on an iconic force of nature, and he will pay, and pay, and pay for all the crap he puts me through….. and if not, well, it’s fun to think about it…..

I suspect that he really doesn’t have to extend himself very far to get cooperation from the USPS; they’re set up to aid his kind of purpose by the very nature of their business. They are responsible for carrying dreams and hopes to people who are desperately waiting for them to arrive, and it only takes a minimum of effort to slow that process down, thus putting the people waiting through a world of pain and anguish, merely by the act of being later than expected, or reasonably desired. And, the work is so mindlessly boring, once the routines are learned, that the people who move the mail generally end up slowing things down just to amuse themselves, not caring who is being screwed over by their lack of integrity….. SIGH…. I HATE Murphy, with a passion as great as any I’ve ever felt, and I WILL figure out a way to hurt him….

That being said, we may as well get on with the business at hand, which, while it may not be as important as what is coming in the mail, it is at least as interesting, in its way…. it’s too bad it has to wait until I can get online to get finished, but, I’m just not finding what I need without the resources there…. for the nonce, interest will have to be enough…. Shall we Pearl?……
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George Carlin was the most accurate, the most loved, and the most honest social and political philosopher of the twentieth century, without peer, and may well hold the same distinction for the twenty-first century. He pulled no punches, spared no feelings, and was as honest as the day is long. Nothing he ever said, in any of his monologues, or in what he wrote, was ever inaccurate; he spoke only of what had actually occurred, and what everyone could see around them in society. He was pitiless in his condemnation of stupidity and ignorance, and all of its proponents, who, as we know, are legion. Nobody in the public eye was spared the sharpness of his wit, or ignored and thereby enabled because they were too powerful; he speared them all, just as he does in the above statement……

Mitt Romney is one of the people (and I use the term advisedly…) who is in The Big Club…. He’s a relatively new member, but is well-liked by the others in the club, because he doesn’t seem to be bothered by people thinking this kind of stuff of him; he almost seems to enjoy being put into the elitist category, and almost smiles when he is vilified by the poor or vulnerable. Proof positive lies in the off-the-cuff statements he made last week at the fund-raising dinner, where he thought he was among friends, and could say what he really believes; it is obvious that it is not just that 47% of Americans about whom he was talking that he disrespects. It is ALL Americans who don’t make more than $100 million a year who have his disdain….. and that includes about 99% of the available people…. He doesn’t really care about ANY of them, even his own family…. they are just props for him to make him appear like the rest of America; they don’t really mean anything to him, beyond their images….

Romney and his cronies want to consolidate the power they already have, bringing their greed and total lack of compassion to new heights of calumny. They want to lower taxes for the rich, and raise them for the poor and middle classes; they want to take back the money I, and millions like me, have put into Social Security, and, like George says, put it back in the pockets of Wall Street’s denizens, thereby casting the most vulnerable part of the population, senior citizens, into poverty. They want to turn back the clock to the days when women, and people of color, and immigrants, were second-class citizens; they want to marginalize well over half of the population of this country, all in the name of the almighty dollar. They want to make being gay, lesbian, or transgender a crime; Paul Ryan has stated that he supports a law making it a crime for a woman to become pregnant without being married. They want to impose the religious beliefs of what is now a minority of citizens on all 330 million of us, no matter what our religious beliefs might be; their only concern is to maintain their own ascendancy…..

All of the statements I just made in the above paragraph are absolute truth; you can check out the veracity quite simply, by reading the Official Platform of the Republican Party for the 2012 election. It’s all there is black and white…. and yet, there are millions of STUPID, STUPID people who are going to vote for him, just because he isn’t black. It totally amazes me how these people, with the evidence right in front of them, will give their support to a man who will proceed to fuck them over royally as soon as he is in office. He holds as much, or more, disdain for them as he does for the rest of America, because he knows that they are so ignorant and bigoted they will let their fears of a “black President” overcome their common sense, and give their vote to him, merely because he is white…. and you thought racism was a thing of the past!…….

This country is, whether it realizes it or not, is at a crossroads, a nexus in time, where the fate of not just this country, but humanity at large is riding in the balance. If the election goes to the Republicans (who are making every attempt to control the vote in their favor, by passing illegal voter suppression laws that are continuously being struck down in court….) the overall effects on society will be felt over the entire world. This country will become even more isolated and at odds with the rest of the world than it is now, and the possibility of a world-wide conflagration is not entirely impossible….

So, as an American, each of us needs to make a decision…. Are we going to give in to the elitists who want to completely control the rest of us to their advantage, and take the chance of an end-of-time scenario, or will we make the choice to take back the controls they have usurped, and return the power to the people, where it properly resides? I can only hope that there are enough of us shouting out the truth to get the attention of all those who think they can let it go, that things will get better on their own…. otherwise, we are ALL up shit creek, and no paddles in sight……

“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Abigail Adams, Paris, Feb. 22, 1787
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Fatal Supplication

But what becomes of our deepest dangerous dreams?
Does fantasy rescue any part of life’s imperiled favor?
Reality becomes but silvery pairs of mismatched teams,
Dining with affable elegance, such diffident waste to savor.

Who decides what sorrows to carry bravely to term?
Will fragrant moments of sanity make hasty manifestation?
Only Time’s patient mutability sends messages so firm,
Yet salient impersonal vexation lends credence to ripe imagination.

Can folly bring out sadness and rampant visions of beauty?
What kindness can be found in distant open relations?
With countless faces the dead disturb with dire impunity,
From separate caches of wisdom come simple stylish privations.

Shall shallow emotion serve to provide such explanations?
When does avaricious intensity assume primary focus?
Plain answers slide softly through with multiple mitigations,
While conceptually indignant bigots engage a fatally personal locus.

~~ gigoid

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Due to the unfortunate demise of Smart Bee, I am forced to search through my older Pearls for material…. I came across these gems, two consecutive  Pearls from sometime around April of 2008, while I was working at the state hospital…. they kind of fit in with today’s earlier themes, so I’ve included both below…. pearls were shorter then, but, hopefully, no less compellingly true…. enjoy!…..

Babbling brook

Ffolkes,
Generally I refrain from picking on politicians; it’s too easy. But, the American political arena has consistently made a hobby of attempting to legislate morality (to impress the great mass of religious sheep who habitually vote), and this hobby has created an unfortunate cultural phenomenon, what I like to call “warped honesty”.

I was listening this morning to a commercial (for a car which shall remain unnamed, for fairness’ sake). (the heck with it, it was rude….Subaru Forester). The announcer gleefully touted about 8 features of the car that demonstrated its’ superiority over other vehicles, speaking for about 38 seconds. The remaining 22 seconds in a full minute were taken up by one of those announcers who can speak 500 words a minute who gave the legal disclaimer, which consisted of a disclaimer for all 8 talking points in the advertisement. Amazing! Nothing in the commercial was true, but because of the disclaimers, they could say it anyway. It boggles the mind. Obviously, none of these people (the ad folks, the car sellers, or the politicians) have ever heard of axiom #4, or worse yet, #7. (#4: Excellence is its’ own reward. #7: Do your Duty. Honor the Truth. Respect Life.  Share your Love.) The sad part is, most folks haven’t heard of them. Sigh……

“In the mountains the shortest way is from peak to peak: but for that one must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Be alert folks……Y’all take care out there…..

yesterday, continued

Ffolkes,
There were some good responses to yesterday’s offering, and today I just want to finish up the line of reasoning begun. The two quotes below explain a lot about human nature, which is, without a doubt, our greatest handicap as well as our salvation. Enjoy!

“Morality is the best of devices for leading Mankind by the nose.”–Friederich Nietsche

“If stupidity got us into this mess, why can’t it get us out?”–Will Rogers

And never forget…

“Those who are clever, who have a brain, never understand anything.”–Winnie the Pooh

Y’all take care out there….

Not too bad for a flash from the past…..
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Such as it is, it is what it is, and cannot be more…. So be it…. It’s another Pearl fashioned on the run, and posted in haste…. hopefully, this will not detract from its relevance and veracity…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Age before beauty, beauty before fish sauce….

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Ffolkes,
In the beginning, there was fish sauce…. and not much else. Of course, this was because things were still new and confusing, and no one had even thought about ice cream, or margaritas. But, the weather was good, so it was okay with most everybody…… people didn’t used to be so greedy. Then, of course, came the rules, first set up by a preacher, and things have gone downhill ever since…..

Life got really hard once there were rules, because, hey, no more fish sauce at bedtime, and folks have been playing the blues ever since that fateful day. We’d probably all rather have the fish sauce, but the blues are a pretty good trade-off, when you stop to think about it. And nobody pays any attention any more to the preachers, so things will get better, unless we start that old politics thing again. Boy, every time we try that crap, somebody’s got to get all elitist and big-mouth, dissing everybody else and hogging all the money, which we need for ice cream and guitar picks….. I hate when that happens….

So, rather than fall prey to the depredations of rogue politicos, or assholes, as we call them downtown, I think we should go diving in the web for pearls, & see if we can find some really shiny ones…. Toothsome, over at adollyisciousirony, also known as All About Lemon, her blog site, has started another game, a story game, and today’s first section will talk about that…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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One of my absolute favorite blog sites is called All About Lemon, aka adollyisciousirony, or Toothsome’s Place…. Dolly posts the most amazing stuff, and is always starting a new game for bloggers to play along…. Now we have the Story Game…. Dolly gives the first five words of a story, then the next blogger writes five more, then another blogger writes five more words, and so on to the end of the story that develops, with each blogger tagging one of their blogging friends or followers to provide the next five words, AND, with each blogger providing a link to the original post, to the tagger’s post, and to their site, where they’ve listed their five words…. Once the words are written, that blogger then tags another blogger to give five more words, and so on… So, the original story line started here, …….

http://allaboutlemon.com/toothsome-story-game/    …….  

with these five words from Dolly…”Once upon a Toothsome Day,”……

then, Illustrious Illustrator Mark Armstrong added, “a truck full of donuts” at his site, here: 

http://wp.me/PRFVr-1DO

So, now we have, “Once upon a Toothsome Day, a truck full of donuts…”

Linda Vernon, the next taggee, added these words, …..  “pulled up at Al’s house…”

as listed on Linda’s post at: 

http://lindavernon.wordpress.com/falderal/   

Linda, to my surprise, tagged me follow her, so…… here is my response, with five more words of brilliance, of course….. The story now reads…..

“Once upon a Toothsome Day, a truck pulled up at Al’s house….”

My contribution is: “leaking glazed all-bran crullers”…..  So, the story now goes like this….

“Once upon a Toothsome Day, a truck pulled up at Al’s house, leaking glazed all bran crullers…..”

Now, it becomes the turn of the person who I am tagging, and that person is:  WillowDot21, from her site here:

http://willowdot21.wordpress.com/  

Good Luck Willow!

Keep an eye on Dolly’s site to see the eventual finished product of our fooling about……
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Denial of Comfort

Baleful chairs become the enemy, heralded in red
seemingly welcome softness beckons with a smile,
waiting, content with slaughter, they are finally led
screaming in agony, deluged in venom all the while.

Desperate distraction becomes such a friendless fire
for all the patterns of autumn’s pale dismay,
leaving sincerely latent trails in spirals of twisted wire,
while memory insists upon failure, palpably evil, and fey.

Fat, jaded tears would have fallen in good time,
if only the suitable suitor had scaled the garden’s wall.
Credence for discounted prices luckily in their prime
bring only fascinated eyes into such a hallowed hall.

Searching for answers is ever a clever portrayal
with studious accouterments to fulfill each common rule.
Arguably patient pictures of science and honest betrayal
shall evermore languish, in light of passion so elegantly cruel.

~~ gigoid

Ouch, that hurt…..

“I was reading the dictionary.  I thought it was a poem about everything.” — Steven Wright
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Where else can you find intellectual games, with no pressure to win, that allow you to pick your own conclusions, other than right here, exploring consensual reality with me? Nowhere, that’s where…. So, here is another old-fashioned pearl for your perusal, with the conclusion right there in plain sight, for anyone to see…. it’s Hobson’s choice, all over again….

Politics is what happens to democracy when not enough people care. — Anonymous, Thursday, 1992

After his Ignoble Disgrace, Satan was being expelled from  Heaven.  As he passed through the Gates, he paused a moment in thought, and turned to God and said, “A new creature called Man, I hear, is soon to be created.”
“This is true,” He replied.
“He will need laws,” said the Demon slyly.
“What!   You, his appointed Enemy for all Time!  You ask for the right to make his laws?”
“Oh, no!”  Satan replied, “I ask only that he be allowed to make his own.”
It was so granted.

— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

“It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill  in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.” — Voltaire

“A man that expects to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic and is locked up. But a man that thinks people can be turned into angels by legislation is called a reformer and allowed to walk free.” — Mr. Dooly

Sometimes, it’s just too easy….. but, somebody’s got to do it…..   🙂
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Well, that was a thoroughly enjoyable Pearl to make, other than the poem, which hurt like hell getting it out. But, better out than in, as I always say….. And, it’s cost effective, too! The overhead is really low on that stuff….. but, I know you’re not interested in the economics of writing a blog, any more than I am, so we’ll just forget all that, and bid thee adieu for another day…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

 

Tether ball rules still apply….

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Ffolkes,
Yesterday was a wash, computer-wise. I managed to post, by going to the library, but had no extra time to read any blogs, or answer any comments, as life intervened to eat up all the extra time I thought I had. But, that event also brought in a bit of cash, so I can spend more time today, at the coffee shop with the Wi-Fi node, and even enjoy a bagel with my morning writing and surfing. Also didn’t have time for email yesterday, as the library network isn’t appreciated by my email browser, so that will be another task for today’s session….

Chatty housekeeping done, we should probably just go on to the diving portion of the program, not that diving is very deep, what with no Smart Bee to peruse. The old, unused pearls are there for a reason, that reason being that they didn’t make the grade the first time around, and it’s a longer process to find something usable. It’s a good thing I am a patient man, in the final analysis, or I’d be my own worst enemy….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Beauty as we feel it is something indescribable; what it is or what it means can never be said.” — George Santayana

This observation by Mssr. Santayana seems to me to explain most of the movies that come out of Hollywood, or anywhere else. Each of us, though we cannot always say what we see as beautiful, knows what it looks like when we encounter it; every movie made is an attempt to attract people with visions of commonality, beauty that all can agree on, and, of course, pay money to see. It’s a manufactured market, only there because people want to experience those feelings, and are convinced that they can by participating in the public viewing of someone’s idea of beauty (or comedy, or evil, or any other intriguing related emotional experience)….

It reminds me of the concept of perfection…. We all have heard that “nobody is perfect”, or “nothing is perfect”, and there are numerous philosophical treatises that attempt to prove that perfection is beyond human attainment. My question for these people is this: if there is no such thing as perfection, then why do we have its image in our minds? It seems more logical to me that perfection is merely very rare, but examples of it are bound to occur, just by the law of averages, and when it does, we have the perceptive ability to see it, to acknowledge and appreciate its perfection….

The statement also can be viewed as another way of looking at the nature of reality, or the Tao of life. Is not the very first line of the Tao Teh Ching a paraphrase of the above? “The Tao that can be named is not the true Tao.” It touches on the very base of natural law, of how reality is not what we can say of it; it is more than just the description of it. By observing what is real, our perceptions remove the part of what has occurred that gives it body and substance, what makes it real…. If Albert Einstein’s God is the true one, then He left clues to this aspect of reality all over, but especially in physics, as noted by the famed Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which so poignantly points out the folly of placing one’s total faith in what is perceived…. because by seeing it, it has already changed, to suit another of reality’s aspects, Change….

Axiom # 2 of Peruaosophy states: “The Nature of the Universe is Change. Unpredictable, innovative transformation of Reality is the Norm. If you have a problem with this, you are in for a rough ride.”  Since Peruaosophy is my own philosophy, I can tell you, without fear of lying, that the axiom is absolutely true. It has been tested by every method I could think of, all through my life, and I can assure you that it is a factual statement. Trust me….

Okay, so you don’t have to take my word for it…. test it yourself. If you can find a single time when you can say that it is untrue, you document that, and send it to me. I’ll check it out, if any are sent in, but I have serious doubt that I’ll get any replies, as I’m confident of the axiom and its veracity. It doesn’t mean it is better, or more real than any other viewpoint or world view, but I’d wager it stands up to any of them without flinching or looking away….

Now see what I’ve done? I’ve talked myself into a corner, and can’t figure out how to tie all this mental meandering together with any aplomb. I’m sadly short of quotes, so we’ll have to make do with whatever I can come up with on short notice….. let it suffice to say that I believe in beauty, as little as it can be described, and I believe in perfection, in reality, and in the nature of everything….

After all, to be perfect, one would need to also be perfectly imperfect, else how would one tell?  And I know for a fact that many of us are imperfect; at times, I am so myself, on rare occasions…..  🙂  Besides, nature itself is full of examples of perfect beauty, anyway…. just take a walk in a garden when it is blooming with roses, and you will find any number of physical examples of the concept……

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart: the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned….

— William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming

His head,
Not yet by time completely silver’d o’er,
Bespoke him past the bounds of freakish youth,
But strong for service still, and unimpair’d.

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book ii, The Timepiece, Line 702
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A new (to me) poet, talking about my favorite gems, in metaphor, of course…..

Chain Of Pearls

Mother, I shall weave a chain of pearls for thy neck
with my tears of sorrow.

The stars have wrought their anklets of light to deck thy feet,
but mine will hang upon thy breast.

Wealth and fame come from thee
and it is for thee to give or to withhold them.
But this my sorrow is absolutely mine own,
and when I bring it to thee as my offering
thou rewardest me with thy grace.

Rabindranath Tagore

From Poemhunter.com….. Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali polymath who reshaped his region’s literature and music. Author of Gitanjali and its “profoundly sensitive, fresh and beautiful verse”, he became the first non-European Nobel laureate by earning the 1913 Prize in Literature. In translation his poetry was viewed as spiritual and mercurial; his seemingly mesmeric personality, flowing hair, and other-worldly dress earned him a prophet-like reputation in the West. His “elegant prose and magical poetry” remain largely unknown outside Bengal.
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A while back, I wrote a comment regarding another blog, concerning the proposal made in that blog of writing some new amendments to the Constitution. Most of the suggested amendments made good sense, as they removed most of the entitlements that Congress had awarded itself over the years. However, there was one suggested change with which I wholeheartedly disagree…. this is the response to that suggestion… the address of the original blog is included, in case you want to read it first…..  To wit:

In Response to a Proposed 35th Amendment

From the blog site at:

A Proposal for a New Bill of Rights

After reading the above blog, I posted the following comment:

Sir, or madam,

Excellent post, well reasoned and presented…. I have a few comments, if I may….

It has long been a delusion in human society that morality can be enforced, or induced at all, by legislation. This is, as proven time and time again throughout thousands of years of human history, an idea that is doomed to fail, every time it is attempted. That is not speculation, or guesswork. Look it up…..

Therefore it is my suggestion that you forget #35, in favor of the Second Amendment already in place in the Bill of Rights; this concept is based on a false assumption, and making a flat statement of what (YOU believe) my rights are, or should be, is not acceptable to me as a citizen of this republic, or as a human being responsible for my own actions .Bearing arms is not a privilege, nor will I, and most likely at least 150 million, or more, other people in this country, accept that idea for a moment, a fact that should be obvious to any one with practical understanding of reality. I do not, nor will I ever believe that Federal, State, or Local jurisdiction have either the right, nor the authority to say differently, and I doubt seriously that there are very many in this country who do believe that. I reject utterly the statement that they, or you, or anyone else, has the right to decide for me what I will or will not own, or keep, or use in my defense. After guns, free speech would be the next to go….any bets?

That, my friend, is a fact of life, and of human nature. We only have those rights we can defend…. and this is merely another doomed attempt to legislate morality into human nature. Violence exists. Period. Get used to it, because you are not going to remove it from people’s core nature, or from reality, any more than attempting to remove guns will stop crime, or killing, or the tendency toward violence that is part of the nature of Man. Better to understand the impulse, and work toward educating people in how to cope with that part of themselves constructively, rather than destructively…..

The rest of your amendments are perfectly in alignment with what I believe is needed to improve the conditions of inequality and elitism so prevalent in today’s society, and would receive my full support.

To be honest, up to recently, I never owned, or saw a need to own a gun. As one who has followed the Warrior’s Path since my early teens (and probably before; I was raised on army posts from birth to age 10), a long-time student of martial arts, and the theories of war, I learned how to deal with violence in many ways, with many techniques, a large number of which I had to apply in my work for years, physically controlling out-of-control psychotic mental patients, without hurting them, or getting hurt. I got pretty  good at it, especially in recognizing it before it manifested fully, and diverting it.  I am very familiar with violence, in a great many of its guises. So, I can generally deal with whatever physical violence may occur in my immediate vicinity.

Now, however, I’m not as fast as I once was, nor as well-conditioned; I’m better at foresight, it comes with age. And I can foresee a time when I could conceivably need the equalizing factor of a weapon like a gun, in order to live up to my standard of handling events without injury, as far as I can…..so, I’m probably going to buy one or two… because of that, and even more, because of insane (sorry, don’t mean to flame; but, it isn’t fully sane to attempt to change human nature) talk such as this, of watching society willingly slip on their slave collars… it is NOT going to happen in my world….

If anyone, or anyone’s brother, or anyone else, tries to take away the Second Amendment rights I now have, well, I can only say, good luck with that….. and bring lots of friends…you’ll need them….

Oh, and I’d keep in mind…. those folks like the police in Sanford, Florida who were complicit in covering up the murder there,  aren’t going to disarm themselves, now are they?…. How far will you trust them to behave with honor, and respect for YOUR rights? Get real…..and I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but in hope that you will open your eyes to what is plainly there to see….
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It took some doing, but it all got done, and done well, as far as I can tell…. but, then, it’s mine, so what do I know?….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Insanity runs in our pod-group this cycle….

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Ffolkes,
Hmm….. The demise of Smart Bee as a resource for this blog is confirmed; there is something magical going on (translation: I don’t understand why it’s happening….) that is preventing SB from operating correctly, and I’m out of ideas of how to fix it. I’m going to have to think about this, seriously, and without delay; no other choice, if not the chicken-with-the-head-cut-off option. With no internet access on demand, quotes and poetry are limited to my library (non-digital), and a lot of old Pearls…. I may have to authorize some selective mining from that last source…. I do have a lot of stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day for a long time, and may just work again for inspiration….. Hmm….

Okay, I know I’m desperate when I start and finish a paragraph with the same word, especially one that isn’t even considered standard English. Of course, my English is anything but standard, I should hope…. Any who, I’m going to think about this now, and come back to it when I’ve developed a strategy…..

Okay, I’ve figured out the right approach….. I’m going to pretend it never happened….. Hey, if the GOP can base their entire platform on denial of reality, why can’t I base my blog on the same blissful ignorance? There’s obviously millions of people out there who will buy into that kind of rhetoric; witness the money collected by the GOP from people from whom they will proceed to destroy if allowed into office, to wit, lower middle class folks who are scared of the black man in the Oval Office, and will throw their support blindly to anyone who promises to get him out of there….. Denial is big-time politics, ffolkes, for sure…. and if it works for them, I’ll give it a try….

No, I won’t, don’t worry….. I couldn’t….. I don’t know yet what I WILL do, but, it will all happen as it is meant to do, so I’ll just write around the edges…… Shall we Pearl?…..
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Religion has never attracted me as a pastime that led to any particularly desirable activities. From the very first, even as a small child, I always thought the people at church were trying to get me to believe something that was not only hard to believe, but they wanted me to believe it, just on their word that it was true….. What they were saying wasn’t anything like what I perceived to be true about the world at large; none of it sounded like common sense, if you get my drift…. Plus, the more I resisted what they said, and asked questions that they couldn’t answer, the more insistent they became….. Most kids have a pretty good crap detector, and the whole church thing seemed based on fluff and wishes to me…..

Any who, it seems a lot of my saved up oysters have been on that very subject, i.e., religious dogma, and alternative ways of looking at the universe, and how it works, and what it means…. (you know, all the good stuff….), so I thought an old-school grouping would perhaps help ffolkes get a clue about what I do believe….. which can, I have to admit, change from one day to the next….. gotta keep room for new data, y’know…… shall we Pearl a bit?…..

“Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the bible is filled, it would seem more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.” — Thomas Paine — The Age of Reason

“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1972)

“I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings.” — Albert Einstein

God:  What one human uses to persecute another. — Anonymous

The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.– Robert Heinlein, “Job”, 1984

“No law can be sacred to me but that of my nature.  Good and bad are but names very readily transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my own constitution; the only wrong what is against it.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

“If the lord had meant us to have faith, he’d have given us lobotomies.” — Zlatko

“A long and wicked life followed by five minutes of perfect grace gets you into Heaven. An equally long life of decent living and good works followed by one outburst of taking the name of the Lord in vain, then have a heart attack at that moment and be damned for eternity. Is that the system?” — Robert A. Heinlein

“I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in     youth.  I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being.”
–Albert Einstein

“Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.” — Buddha

Well, there you go…. a complete mish-mash of different philosophies and outlooks, each with its own little piece to contribute to the whole, all ended perfectly with a piece of profoundly simple wisdom… not the virtual kind that is common around here, but real wisdom, that you can put in your pocket, take away with you, and use as needed…..
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November Dreams of Spring

Crass and cold, the beggar finds me swollen, so frail and fat
with painful stepping motions, running, like a Republicrat.
Building with straw and spittle, should artists come aground,
we all pay heavily, a billion for a bloody pound.

Too desperate, too ashamed to play such a part
We ask for belief, and sweet liberty, dressing up so smart.
It falls between the simple cracks, always in a hurry
To find a shrunken ego, ashen, swift, and full of worry.

Never there was a more penitent group, such a sterling way
To fast in luxury, making sure the guilty enter, but do not stay.
Forgotten gods can find their diffident suitors tonight
With dream-fitted convention, and a natural sense of delight.

For all the silken babies cried, to see the broken dreams of power
forgiven moments of certitude serve, filling up the maiden’s bower.
All the patient, loving veterans of ancient foreign time,
give up their first impressions, dying, dying for a rhyme.

~~ gigoid

Odd, isn’t it, how we sometimes fall into a trance to write…. or, maybe that’s just me…. ah well, regardless, enjoy!….
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Often of late, I find myself staring at the screen with a vacant expression, listening to the patter that passes for thoughts in my head. I can sit like this for a long time, just meandering here and there in my memory, re-living good and bad moments from what has turned out to be a lot more years than I ever thought about, really. Until I became 60, I had never thought about how it would feel to be that age, a discovery that surprised me to a certain degree. But, as I thought about it just now, I realized that I really had not considered what I might be doing in my 60’s, either as a career, or as a person. Part of the surprise, I know, is connected to the fact that I am currently without a life-partner, as the ones I chose as my supposed mate seem to have chosen to be elsewhere. This, being alone, was not part of my plan……

I had thought to be sharing all the joy, and all the pain that my life has brought me, with a person who I thought was as committed to that as I. Instead, I am left wondering, as Tom Robbins put it in “Skinny Legs and All”,  “How do you make Love stay?” His premise is is based on the idea that love is easy to find, but impossible to keep, given the craziness of the modern world, and the state of confusion and angst that seems to be the legacy of everyone these days. I’m not sure I completely agree with his final assessment, but I can see how it came to him, having had many similar experiences in my years. I hope he is wrong, and there are still people out there who can actually give their word to someone else, and mean to keep it….. If not, then the world is beyond hope, to my way of thinking, and we may as well just give up….

Of course, there is still that small part of me that won’t do that; I’m not sure if I should call it being stubborn, or stupid. Maybe it is what Emily calls Hope, that will not die easily. Whatever it is, it keeps me getting out of bed every day, with the view in mind to see what the world has to offer, whether it is more BS like I’ve been putting up with now for a few years, or whether there is some sort of justice to the world, and I’ll soon meet, or get together with, a person with whom I can share all of what I have inside me to give, and who will live up to whatever promises we can make to each other. And if not, well, I guess I’ll just keep flirting with the young lady at the coffee shop, and listen to her talk about her boyfriends, smiling to myself, grieving for might have been, and hoping for what might yet be…..

Leave the past behind;
leave the future behind;
leave the present behind.
Thou are then ready to go to the other shore.
Never more shalt thou return to a life that ends in death.
— The Dhammapada (c. B.C. 300)
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Whew! That last section turned on me…. it became quite a self-confession, didn’t it? Well, it’s a bit revealing, but it’s too well written to get rid of, so I’ll just have to suffer the embarrassment of hanging my laundry out for all to see…. and what the hell, it’s all true, so the chips can just fly where they may….. in the meantime, y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

Sometimes I sits and thinks,

and sometimes

I just sits.

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

A surfeit of hand-blown candlesticks…..

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Ffolkes,
What is the world coming to? Smart Bee has crashed on me. I am bereft of my dB, and woe is me! What, oh what shall I do now? If I could run around in a circle and scream without hurting myself, I would do. Since I don’t want to spend the next two days recovering from such an ill-conceived idea, were I to carry it out, I’ll not do that. Instead, until I can find or obtain another zipped install file for it on the ‘net, or find one on my computer somewhere, I’ll have to make do with what is in my head, and what is in my old pearl files, which are chock full of oysters with pearls that never made the grade….

This whole process is becoming somewhat problematic; between the loss of Smart Bee, and no ISP at home, getting the Pearl sent out is turning into an ordeal of no small proportion. Not to mention, of course, my new physical challenge, which is a bit scary, so I’ll leave it out for now…. Nevertheless, it’s getting tough to do this, from a tactical standpoint. So far, major strategic alterations have sufficed to solve the tactical difficulties, but those tactical challenges seem to be still growing, and my strategy once again needs to be re-examined and adjusted to deal with the issues. Always a pain in the proverbial ass….

So be it, he said, with grim determination. If that’s the way it is, so be it. And…. deal….. Okay, so I will. Deal, that is…. for now. Any who, it’s another good reason to get on with the show, so….. shall we Pearl?…..
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An undertaker calls a son-in-law: “About your mother-in-law, should we  embalm her, cremate her, or bury her?” He says, “Do all three. Don’t take chances.” — Myron Cohen

I’m not sure why, but I find the above joke to be extremely funny. It may be because of the relationship I had with my ex’s father. I often had the same thoughts about him, though he is still alive, last I heard. He is one of those ignorant, bare-faced hypocrites who got into a line of work that fed right into his own sense of entitlement and bigotry, i.e., a county sheriff.

As a member of the San Bernardino County cadre of paramilitary wannabes, his racism and natural belligerence found a supportive home; his favorite jokes were about the “beaners”, and he was proud to have thought up a line for when he had to confront any Hispanics when on duty, to wit: “Comprende pistola?….. When he would laugh after delivering that line, it made my skin crawl….

He was psychologically, and probably physically abusive to his children, and probably to his wife as well, though she escaped him by dying at age 51, so it’s hard to tell…. Any who, when he does pass, I’d prefer they use the above method for parking his remains….. call me Ishmael, if you must…. or call me harsh….. I don’t care either way, he’s an Asshole, with a capital A, and to my mind, the world will be a better place without his particular brand of narcissistic, ignorant selfishness……

I’m not sure where this mini-rant has been hiding, but I’m glad it got out of my head, so I can replace those memories with some more amenable to my persona……

In contrast to my former father-in-law’s somewhat skewed and colored view of life, here are some more positive thoughts on how to achieve longevity, along with some pretty good karma….

Eat less and chew well.
Ride less and walk often.
Have fewer clothes and launder often.
Worry less and work harder.
Waste less time, and continue to learn.
Talk less and listen more.
Frown less and laugh often.
Speak less and act more.
Blame less and praise others.
Take less and give a hundred times over.

— Kenzo Futagil, describing the secrets of life. — He lived well over a hundred years.

Since we managed to discuss two completely opposite poles of human nature in one pearl, does that make this educational, or just moderately interesting? Or was it a complete waste of time and energy? That last one is my call, I think, for this side of the coin, and I say that no, it is not a waste, because, if nothing else, one can take away Mr. Futagil’s advice, which is purely good……
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Painful candor

I sit, and ponder, then try to write…
seeking always to avoid sounding trite.
My record so far is less than grand;
we’ll not be striking up the hometown band.

Poems come to me, with cadence and rhyme,
that’s the easy part, every time.
Finding words of wisdom herein to include,
makes short shrift, however, of my attitude.

Still the words keep floating up in my head,
harbingers of danger, of wisdom, of dread.
Challenge is issued. in the weight of persuasion
Fey shadows of intent for any bright occasion.

Following along becomes habit and routine,
which naturally tells us where we have been.
New vistas beckon just out of sight
Pulling me forward, from day into night……

~~ gigoid
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Old-school professor speaking here…. just follow the dancing idea to the ending, where you’ll find the perfect finishing pearl, to tie it all up in a bow…. and if not, well, okay…. I tried….

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.” — Former US President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 — letter to Col. William F. Elkins — printed in “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, — ed. Archer H. Shaw, Macmillan, 1950, NY

“Despite its suffix, skepticism is not an “ism” in the sense of a belief or dogma.  It is simply an approach to the problem of telling what is counterfeit and what is genuine.  And a recognition of how costly it may be to fail to do so.  To be a skeptic is to cultivate “street smarts” in the battle for control of one’s own mind, one’s own money, one’s own allegiances.  To be a skeptic, in short, is to refuse to be a victim.” — Robert S. DeBear, “An Agenda for Reason, Realism, and Responsibility,” — New York Skeptic — (newsletter of the New York Area Skeptics, Inc.), Spring 1988

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

“The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.” — P. J. O’Rourke, Parliament of Whores

“Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

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

Okay, so it meandered a bit further afield than I intended…. a direct result of not having my normal resources at hand…. but, it still manages to make a pretty coherent statement….. and if it isn’t clear, well, that never hurt anybody, did it?…… Confusion is good for the soul, they tell me…..   🙂
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They were bigger than me, Ma, but I didn’t give up!….. And, you should see the other guy…..

Due to circumstances well beyond my control, and even further beyond my desire for control, this Pearl is complete. It’s not “Gone With The Wind”, but it’s probably better than “Debbie Does Dallas”, at least from a morality standpoint….. I’ll see what I can do about providing some video…. in the meantime, y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

This absinthe is perfectly unacceptable….

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Ffolkes,
First, the strings….. violins, violas, cellos, basses, all start to softly play a slow melody, gently persuading the ear and mind to follow. For a moment the soft sound is all you hear, then, very insidiously, the woodwinds begin to softly play the counterpoint melody with the strings, so that together they are slowly and gently playing a mellow, but happy tune….. After a couple of bars of this, the horns start to add in their pointed notes to the rhythmic tune of the other instruments….

Now we have a lively tune, starting to fill up the area with sound.  As the woodwinds gather speed and urgency, the percussion section begins to keep the beat, with deep bass notes filling the bottom bass line, and the snare drums, and the tom toms adding their syncopation and fast, randomly spaced riffs to the spaces between the notes of the rest of the orchestra.  More and more instruments join in, guitars, mandolins, piano, harps, until the entire thrilling sound of an orchestra in full flight grabs hold of the soul, and lifts the listener up to the heights of feeling, into higher realms of thought, into pure feeling….. until, with unbound joy, the author quietly begins to weep…..

Wow…. I had no idea that was in there. I started to write the above paragraph, with the intent of trying to emulate the feeling one gets listening to a live orchestra as it begins to wind its way through a symphony….. and had no idea that it would be so real that I would burst into tears at the climax….. I don’t know if it is just me, or if what I wrote is that powerful….. Perhaps you could let me know if it has the same effect on y’all?….. Every time I go back to read it, so far, it gets me, and I start to leak….. It’s probably just me, with my softened emotional status, and feelings that are always close to the surface….. but, it could be the paragraph, too, so if it has that effect on anyone else, I’ll know I’m on the right track with what is written there….. thanks in advance to anyone who comments….

Well, that was an unusual start to a day…… it’s been a long while since I burst into tears of joy like that…. The last time I can remember that happening was about 5 years ago, during a morning commute…. I was driving, and came up over a hill between Sonoma and Napa, where I worked…. as I broke over the hill, and came from behind the hill that was blocking the morning sun, I burst into a scene of such imposing dramatic beauty that I literally burst into tears of joy at the sight.

The sun was just rising across the lower end of the Napa Valley, and as it broke over the opposite hills to the east, it lit up the sky and clouds with an unearthly bright light, with the clouds assuming a golden, shining hue, outlining each cloud, making the grey appear like noble pewter and silver, surrounded by gold, patterned across the electric blue of the sky.  The incredible beauty of the scene just tore through all my thoughts and  emotional callouses, and brought up a burst of joyful tears…. It was an incredible sight, and an incredible feeling, one I’ll never forget….

I don’t think I’ll be able to top that feeling this morning, but we may as well give it a try. Tears of joy, here we come……. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Okay, so here’s the deal…. I started this Pearl, and this pearl, some time ago this morning, and everything since the beginning has undergone some sort of morphology, or sinuous, serious lack of stability, and everything changes….. again. This started out as a rant, morphed into a ramble, then changed again…. now, it is an old school pearl, with several quotes all pointing at the same idea, though some are pointing with a finger, and some with a sausage… but, I like sausage, so that works for me…. in any case, the idea being pointed out can take the heat…. enjoy!

“As I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity.  I collected some of their Proverbs.” — William Blake (1757-1827), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-1793)

“Governments which suppress freedom of speech… act like children who shut their eyes in order not to be seen.” — Ludwig Boerne, _Die Freiheit der Presse in Baiern_, 1818

“Bigotry dwarfs the soul by shutting out the truth.” — Edwin Hubbel Chapin

“What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967), “Sceptical Essays”, 1928

“Consequences, Schmonsequences, as long as I’m rich.” — Daffy Duck, from Looney Tunes Ali Baba Bunny (1957, Chuck Jones) (Also stated by Mitt Romney, 1997)

“We start this life alone and we end this life alone, it is what we do in between with the people and the world around us that matters.” — Larry G. Smith

“Oh dear, now I’ve made a terrible mess of things.  And all I wanted to do was rule the universe.” — Dr. Zachary Smith
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We may not know much, but one thing’s fo’ sho’:
There’s things in the cosmos that we cannot know.
Shine light on electrons — you’ll cause them to swerve.
The act of observing disturbs the observed.

Which ruins your test.     But then if there’s no testing
To see if a particle’s moving or resting
Why try to conjecture?        Pure useless endeavor!
We know probability — certainty never.

— Smart Bee

That’s right, Smart Bee…. there was no attribution with this delightful little poem, so it must have been some random hacker who donated it to the database I use ( to wit: Smart Bee….) It is a perfectly logical presentation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, one of the touchstones of modern physics, and one with which all hackers are familiar, since they need the math that is involved in expressing Heisenberg’s principle to write their programs, to create their “hacks”, as it were….. I love it! Perfectly cadenced and rhymed, it says what is true, and does it in an entertaining way…. I’m jealous…..   🙂   Hmm…. I’m jealous, but I feel a poem coming on……

Parenthood

Alternative questions always get in the way,
figuratively speaking, rudely barging around.
Still, no question is stupid, no matter what they say
An answer shall be given, a penny for a pound.

How else can our little ones learn to think,
than by asking direction, to show them the way?
They ask us to answer, with a smile and a wink,
To give them our wisdom, with all that we say.

No question too little, nor too large for them to ask,
and no given answer ever thought out of line.
Knowledge is their legacy, and their given task,
to pull wisdom’s nuggets from that eternal mine.

~~ gigoid

Okay, not the best, but not bad…. I think there is more of it still in my head, percolating, so it might reappear some day, in a slightly expanded form….. meanwhile, I hope you enjoy my little rhymes….

“If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?” — Thomas Henry Huxley

Wouldn’t you know it? Just when I finish a pearl, more appropriate quotes keep popping up on the same subject I thought I was done with….. here’s a bit more basic wisdom on poetry, and knowledge, and education….

“No one can go very far in the discerning enjoyment of poetry who is incapable of enjoying any poetry other than that of his own time and place. It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us to escape – not from our own time, for we are bound by that – but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our own time. ” — T.S. Eliot
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In life’s small things be resolute and great
To keep thy muscle trained: know’st thou when Fate
Thy measure takes, or when she ‘ll say to thee,
“I find thee worthy; do this deed for me”?

— James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) — Epigram

Yes, yes, this pleases cute owl!….. *see photo, below…. It pleases me, also, dear Readers. This is old fashioned wisdom, but only to those to whom Duty remains a primary motivating factor in all their actions; or, if naught else, serves as a touchstone for determining the relative importance of differing choices of action. I especially like the metaphor of the muscle for the power of reason and will, and how it must be used, and used thoroughly, in order to remain in prime condition for action when needed. Which is to say, hopefully, always….
Aye, this pleases cute owl, completely…. remember axiom # 7 of Peruaosophy, which says, “Do your Duty.  Respect Life.  Share Your Love.  Honor the Truth.”   That’s all you really need……
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“Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts: The sight of the deep-blue sky, and the clustering stars above, seems to impart a quiet to the mind.” — Edwards

Well…. I have no idea what to say….. It is my custom, and habit, to go back over each day’s pearls/Pearl and read it straight through once, to get the overall effect that a reader would/will get by doing so. Today, I can report that I have done so, and I remain speechless, hard as that is to believe. I have no idea how this all came about. I don’t even remember half of it, and I wrote it….. But, speechless or not, it is done, and all I can say is, “So be it”……  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Simply, frugally, and arguably fecund…..

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Ffolkes,
Yesterday, for the first time in almost 400 days, I did not publish my blog on WordPress. Not only did I not post, I didn’t write a thing. Nada. Zero. Zip. Zilch….. All in all, it feels strange, like all those 400 days were a dream, even though I have over 900 pages of material to show for it. Getting back into writing mode now feels pretty good….. I guess I got used to being able to get all the stuff in my head out onto the screen…..

This Pearl will be…… well, I don’t know what it will be, I guess. I want it to be perfect, though….. for some reason, that seems important. I confess to a bit of confusion, which is not altogether unknown to me, and will have to be used as a tool, rather than as an obstruction, if I can figure out how to do that. I’m also a bit behind the times, in terms of the news, having had no exposure to any news outlets online, on TV, or on the radio. All I know is the Giants are still in first, and won last night over Arizona; I haven’t seen or heard a thing about the elections, or anything else, so finding rantable material may be problematic. No way to tell, until I jump in…..

With all that said, I hope there is someone out there to read this…. fame can be fickle, and who knows? One day of no post, and I might have lost a bunch of readers…. again, no way to tell until it is posted. So, it must mean it’s time to go diving…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Here is an old-school pearl, using quotes from some fairly famous people….. and some not so famous outside SF fandom. All of the quotes, when co-mingled and mixed up like a smoothie, will give you a really good philosophy of life, and lots of good advice for living with a serene mind….. good luck!….

“He who knows does not speak, He who speaks does not know.” — Lao Tzu

Water wears the rock — Smart Bee

“Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.” — Buddha

“Human beings do not survive on bread alone … but on the nourishments of liberty.  For what indeed is a man without freedom … naught but a mechanism, trapped in the cogwheels of eternity.” — Harry Mudd, “I, Mudd,” stardate 4513.3.

“Virtue is the golden mean between two vices, the one of excess and the other of deficiency.” — Aristotle (B.C. 384-322)

“Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally in dealing with men.” — Joseph Conrad

“Yeah, but you’re taking the universe out of context.” — Smart Bee

There, see how painless that was? You’ll never even know you’ve been enlightened, until you wake up in the middle of the night, mumbling something about “he who speaks….”….. Onward into the fray!….
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Visible life

Forty-two days of pressure and internal rain,
leave marks of salvation, often in pain.
Such sharp reminders of yesterday’s remorse
fight heavily to keep a straight course.
Rash moments, bright, and routinely immense
Give us pleasure, bereft of common sense.

Still the night comes soft and eternally dear
to bring out wishful dreams so vitally clear.
Life’s myrmidons give freely in protest
lifting with skill, soul pieces first to infest,
Loudly brash, with no such voices to remain
Sealed in infamy, branded ugliness all too plain.

Now come brave signs of chapter and verse
Shielded by ignorance, irritable and terse.
Gravid portions of in-between retaliation
leave only pale marks of initial gestation
With hope even pallid warriors grow brave
Leading all humanity, to a warm, stale grave.

Hope never falters, nor leaves any trace
Yet lingers forever in a welcoming space.
Cheerful faces yet shine out of time
for tricking and fumbling sweet melody sublime.
Fill in the spaces with a long, strong retort
life is ever visible, if only as last resort.

~~ gigoid
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“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

See? There, now, I’ve been saying this for years, and here’s old Marcus Aurelius, that Roman cogitator extraordinaire, putting it straight out there way back around the time of J.C.’s failed attempt at societal reform. A very cogent, yet poignant description of human nature and the preponderance of Ego that drives most of humanity to act out of their own ignorance, rather than consider the veracity or usefulness of someone else’s ideas. This format for stating this answer to one of the great questions is one that all the best philosophers choose when creating aphorisms; clear, simple language and brutally honest self-examination, which provides us with true wisdom, like it or not……

What particularly gets me about people at large is the high percentage of folks who fall into the trap that Ego sets; for some reason, people seem to prefer the cozy blindness with which ignorance can cover them to the cold, harsh light of self-knowledge. The very ego that sets them apart from the rest of the animals who inhabit this planet becomes also the greatest threat to survival, when it is allowed to dictate how one views reality.

The state of society in today’s world rests on the brink of total collapse; any number of issues currently in play in the world can lead us to upheaval unseen since the last Ice Age. Pollution, created by mankind, is pumping tons of carbon monoxide into the air every minute, and all those precipitates are eventually bound to cause changes to climate that we will have no power to stop, or reverse.

The economy of the world is constantly on the verge of collapse in these times, due mostly to the unacknowledged crimes of the 1% of mankind who controls 99% of the money and resources. These crimes arise, again, out of Ego, as the elite of the world believe that they are “different” from the rest of humanity, and deserve to make all the decisions, which oddly enough, are only beneficial to themselves….. again, the power of Ego trumps virtue…..

I’m a smart guy, pretty much, but this is a problem for which even I cannot find a solution, other than the age-old, time-worn, and always ineffective war between the classes. That solution has been tried innumerable times throughout history, and each time the same structure of society re-settles into the same old shape, with a few people at the top, making all the important decisions for the rest of humanity. All because we, as individuals, and as a species, cannot learn to control our ego, to persuade it to act for the benefit of all, rather than just looking out for itself….. I figure that whatever happens will be what we deserve, and I can’t say that I think it will be very pretty, for the species….. or for a lot of individuals…..

Maybe there is a solution…. as a matter of fact, there is one that has been around for as long as mankind has been writing stuff down…. and it’s always the same little piece of advice, a little idea that can change one’s entire life and world-view….. but only if it is accepted, and believed, and applied to reality…… Everybody knows this, but, how many actually live it?…..

“Do unto all as you would wish to have done unto you, and reject for others what you would reject for yourself.” — Mohammed

That’s right, the Golden Rule…. a basic tenet of EVERY philosophy that Mankind has ever formulated; even most religions will acknowledge the wisdom of this, though it doesn’t serve their interests as well as they would wish. But, throughout history, we have always known what is the right way to act…. we’ve just always chosen not to apply the principle in interacting with others…. Instead, we allow our ego to dictate how we behave, thus bringing us to the current world, with all of its problems and dangers…..

SIGH….. It’s really quite easy, and it’s the only answer that will work, in the long run. It really is too bad that most of humanity isn’t buying into it, isn’t it?……
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Well, that wasn’t so bad…. only about a two hour Pearl to get it right…… Felt pretty good, too….. But, reality bites, and I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to get posted in the next two or three weeks…. I’m shooting for every day, but that will depend on how well my back holds up to going somewhere each day to get it posted…. Eventually, I’ll get an ISP at home, but meanwhile, I’m mobile….. and I’d best be off to get that done…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Food just isn’t for eating…..

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Ffolkes,
Farnsworthy, my valet, my gentleman’s gentleman, has neglected to show up this morning, so I’m once again up late, and have no one to press my clothes, or fix breakfast, or tidy the room after me. Oh, right…. oops, sorry, this is Farnsworthy’s year off……I forgot I gave him this year off to go visit his guru in India. I was sure I could get along without him, but, now, I’m not so sure. My clothing is looking a bit tattered and worn, and my shoes could use a good polishing. And I keep running out of brandy…… Ah well, he’s expected back before the monsoon season, which corresponds to our winter time, so that’s not far off…..

It is always a good thing to start out the day with a pleasantly harmless delusion. Whether or not it is true is immaterial, though a good delusion could hardly consider itself properly composed if it could be held as true. The trick is to have it there just to make you feel good about yourself, which is a positive way to start the day, even if a bit damaging to certain parts of the psyche. Delusions are pretty harmless, for the most part; their danger lies in holding on to them too tightly, and not being able to let go of them when life makes it necessary to face reality. If you can’t let go then, you may have a problem….. but, if you can hold onto them for a time, then put them away neatly, they can be very helpful, just like those little umbrella thingies you get in those tropical drinks…..

As might be obvious by now, I’m again short of material for the intro, and have retreated into my fantasy world, where I keep all the stuff to build fables and/or stories of valor and glory. It’s always holiday time there, and everyone eats well; the girls are pretty, and friendly, and the guys are honest and brave. Nobody hates anybody else (excepting, of course, Barney, the creepy dinosaur…. everybody hates him… even his creator….) and injuries never need stitches or a doctor’s care; Nurse Lovely is capable of fixing anything we come up with in that area, and she is always happy to do so….. no cranky nurses here! Come to think of it, while I’m waiting for my SS to get approved, I should spend more time here; time passes quickly when you’re having a good time, and that’s the only kind of time there is in my fantasy world….

Ah well, such is life….. one can’t spend all one’s time in fantasy; people will talk, and nothing gets done. Of course, there is little to do, other than write, or read, or listen to music, or watch a vid, and boy, I’m sick of doing all of those, for sure…. but, life goes on, regardless of how we feel about it, so I may as well enjoy it….. in the meantime, shall we Pearl?…..

(1) Everything depends.
(2) Nothing is always.
(3) Everything is sometimes.

I find that 3 implies 2, therefore 2 is not necessary. Further, it is interesting to note that 2 does not imply 3 because: Always U Sometimes !=  Universe of all possibilities (e.g. Never) Therefore the choice between 2 and 3 is not arbitrary, you really must keep 3 and drop 2.  I find 1 is unrelated.  — John Colosi

I want it clearly understood that I’m totally confused. —  Smart Bee, reading my mind…..
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“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.  Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise.” — Tom Paine

Here are two quotes from famous American patriots, of proven nature; one lived at the beginning of our nation’s creation, and the other more recently, right up to the latter half of the 20th century. Both seemed to have had a less than sterling opinion of government, no doubt from long experience of dealing with its denizens. I can’t add much to either one, except to say that both continue to be true, and both are good to remember as we go into this year’s election. It’s important this time to pay attention, and make sure that we vote the lesser of the two evils into the hot seat for the next four years….

“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear — kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor — with the cry of grave national emergency… Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it   by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded.  Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.” — General Douglas MacArthur, 1957

This policy is obviously still in place; witness the paroxysms of fear mongering that took place a couple days ago, on the anniversary of the attacks on 9/11/01. Eleven years now, and the government is still using those events as a reason for abridging the rights that Mr. Paine and his cohorts secured for us so many years ago….. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m not willing to give up my liberties for ANY reason, much less because some political pundit, who has never worked a damn day in his life, tells me I should be afraid of some group of insane fundamentalists from another country. As far as I’m concerned, OUR OWN GOVERNMENT is what we need to be afraid of now, for they are trying to turn us all into slaves to our own fears…..

“Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. In democracy, what you get generally is bad government by a bully, tempered by the pen of several newspaper editors.” — George Bernard Shaw — Man and Superman (1903) Maxims for Revolutionists: Democracy

I can rant on this subject for a very long time, without repeating myself much, as there are so many examples in daily life that point out how far the degradation of our liberties has progressed. For now, I need to go take care of some business, so I’ll leave this one right here. But, don’t let that keep you from staying alert, and guarding against any further take-aways of the Bill of Rights…. it’s been pirated enough…..

“Government, today, is growing too strong to be safe.  There are no longer any citizens in the world; there are only subjects.  They work day in and day out for their masters; they are bound to die for their masters at call.  Out of this working and dying they tend to get less and less.” — H.L. Mencken
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A Dialogue Of Self And Soul

i{My Soul} I summon to the winding ancient stair;
Set all your mind upon the steep ascent,
Upon the broken, crumbling battlement,
Upon the breathless starlit air,
‘Upon the star that marks the hidden pole;
Fix every wandering thought upon
That quarter where all thought is done:
Who can distinguish darkness from the soul
i{My Self}. The consecrated blade upon my knees
Is Sato’s ancient blade, still as it was,
Still razor-keen, still like a looking-glass
Unspotted by the centuries;
That flowering, silken, old embroidery, torn
From some court-lady’s dress and round
The wooden scabbard bound and wound
Can, tattered, still protect, faded adorn
i{My Soul.} Why should the imagination of a man
Long past his prime remember things that are
Emblematical of love and war?
Think of ancestral night that can,
If but imagination scorn the earth
And intellect is wandering
To this and that and t’other thing,
Deliver from the crime of death and birth.
i{My self.} Montashigi, third of his family, fashioned it
Five hundred years ago, about it lie
Flowers from I know not what embroidery —
Heart’s purple — and all these I set
For emblems of the day against the tower
Emblematical of the night,
And claim as by a soldier’s right
A charter to commit the crime once more.
i{My Soul.} Such fullness in that quarter overflows
And falls into the basin of the mind
That man is stricken deaf and dumb and blind,
For intellect no longer knows
i{Is} from the i{Ought,} or i{knower} from the i{Known — }
That is to say, ascends to Heaven;
Only the dead can be forgiven;
But when I think of that my tongue’s a stone.
i{My Self.} A living man is blind and drinks his drop.
What matter if the ditches are impure?
What matter if I live it all once more?
Endure that toil of growing up;
The ignominy of boyhood; the distress
Of boyhood changing into man;
The unfinished man and his pain
Brought face to face with his own clumsiness;
The finished man among his enemies? —
How in the name of Heaven can he escape
That defiling and disfigured shape
The mirror of malicious eyes
Casts upon his eyes until at last
He thinks that shape must be his shape?
And what’s the good of an escape
If honour find him in the wintry blast?
I am content to live it all again
And yet again, if it be life to pitch
Into the frog-spawn of a blind man’s ditch,
A blind man battering blind men;
Or into that most fecund ditch of all,
The folly that man does
Or must suffer, if he woos
A proud woman not kindred of his soul.
I am content to follow to its source
Every event in action or in thought;
Measure the lot; forgive myself the lot!
When such as I cast out remorse
So great a sweetness flows into the breast
We must laugh and we must sing,
We are blest by everything,
Everything we look upon is blest.

William Butler Yeats

It’s a bit long, but it fits right in with my mood, so….. enjoy!
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“The important thing is not to stop questioning.  Curiosity has its own reason for existing.  One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.  It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.  Never lose a holy curiosity.” — Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a true genius, unique in many ways. One of those is how well he was able to share the wisdom he possessed with other people. He had a very simple style of speaking, and a very clear way of expressing what he thought in words that anyone could comprehend. I particularly like the above quote, as it is something I believe implicitly as well. One of the things I’ve noticed about people my age is a certain loss of curiosity, and a resultant loss of interest in living.

A time to mourn, and a time to dance. — Ecclesiastes 3:4

The physical challenges that come with the aging process seems to have a mental side effect of dulling that particular sense in many of us, and I believe that is why so many folks have a hard time as they get older. They make it harder on themselves by losing that interest in life, that enthusiasm to learn new things, to try new foods, to see new places, and meet new people. I think keeping that enthusiasm is what extends our lives beyond the normal; avoiding the mundane is stimulating, and that vitality spreads to the rest of our lives, making them fun, no matter how hard it is physically to get on.

Life goes on, whether we can run alongside, or trail behind, and we need to remember that there is still beauty and wonder out there to be had, if we only leave ourselves open to perceive it, and have the courage to grab hold, and make it our own…..

Non carborundum illegitimi.  (Don’t let the bastards wear you down.) —  Smart Bee
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Today’s effort seems a bit fragmented, which perhaps is to be expected, as my writing routine is severely disrupted…. and my email readers are probably in a panic, or semblance of such, since I can’t seem to even get logged into gmail.  Ah well, it will have to do for the nonce…. things will be better, some day…. which I hope comes sooner than later……  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

How about them platypae?….

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Ffolkes,
Since this may or may not get published at a reasonable time today, I’ll make this a relatively short intro…. I can no longer afford to go to get coffee at the Wi-fi node down the hill; I’m totally out of moola for the month, unless I can sell something. I’ve enough food to get through, so there’s no need to panic; it will just complicate the process of posting the Pearls as I complete them…. I’ll need to figure out the process at the library, so it may take some time…. Fortunately, time is one thing I’ve got plenty of; retirement does have SOME advantages….

I suppose this means I’ll have to settle down and actually get to some of the writing I’ve promised myself to do…. I need to finish the story about Natomas and Findarel, the talking tiger, and a story about a little girl and a magic sunflower that I said I’d write, too. Who knew that time would contract to be filled by such a short list of to-do’s?….. Okay, okay, I’ll get to it, eventually….

Since I do have stuff to do, and will need to organize my head to do them, I’d best get this process completed as far as I can….. which is a long-winded way of saying…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Be not a baker if your head be of butter. — Timeless English Proverb

It used to be that in this country, the men who became involved in politics were not politicians. Most of them were farmers, or more accurately, rich farmers, who had the time and money to take off to debate how the country should be run. For the most part, they were righteous, honest men who were sincerely concerned with injustice and throwing off the yoke of tyranny as practiced by the English throne. What these men were NOT was politicians, i.e., men who made their living by seeking power over their fellow men, which is the case in today’s world, with just about every elected official from the local level up to the national and international being what I’d call professional thieves, or politicians ….. All of the men, and now some women, involved in government today, believe themselves to be qualified to do their job, just because they wanted it, and were eloquent enough to get  elected to do it…. in short, they had a better line to sell than their opponents, who are often incumbents who have already proven their lack of honesty and level of corruption.

Now we have two men running for the highest political office in the country, Romney and Ryan, both of whom have spent their entire lives as political pundits, and have been busily looting the public treasury while they were at it. Both of them could be considered as having heads made of butter, if their performance so far is any indication of their intelligence, and now, they are trying to bake a cake…… A cake they can sell to the public as being the only cake that will make everything taste the way it should, according to their narrow, selfish view of how the world should be. These are men who have never, in their entire lives, held what could be called a “job”; since graduating from college (paid for by their daddies….); both of them have sought public office, each time rising higher in the governmental hierarchy, and gaining the keys to more rooms in the treasury……

They’ve been so successful at lying and cheating the public as they’ve advanced through the ranks, that they believe they can now lie with total impunity…. They both seem to believe that if they say something enough times, people will believe it, even though others are shouting them down with the actual truth. It’s as if they have no idea at all how their lack of honesty is coming across on the national stage; they can’t believe they are being challenged at all, and assume an air of injured dignity, or else retreat into calling names, or making such inane, insane statements as “we aren’t going to let facts dictate our campaign….”

“The truth is incontrovertible.  Malice may attack it.  Ignorance may deride it.  But in the end, there it is.” — Winston Churchill

In the end, there is the truth, still staring them in the face. No matter how many contortions they go through, or how much they refuse to actually talk to reporters, there are a lot of folks out there who keep pointing out all the lies they are spreading, and they keep losing more and more of their supporters in the process. And yet, some polls show them as almost even with the President and Vice President, who have been picked by the incumbent party as their opponents in the big race for the gold….. Of course, those polls are taken by people who are interested in the outcome, so they’re a bit hard to believe…. polls from independent researchers show the incumbents solidly in the lead, IF the same voters come out in 2012 who voted in 2008…. But, that still means there are literally millions of people who are supporting these two elitists, believing they will save them from the big, bad, black man who is now President….

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” — Albert Einstein

Any fool can know, that all the candidates, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Green, and Odd Men Out, are liars, and who, by their very desire to be in the offices they seek, show themselves to be insane power mongers, who I wouldn’t trust to shine my shoes, unless I was watching to make sure they didn’t steal them…. And, that is the point that I understand, to go by Albert’s advice…… We are making a choice to put into office whomever we believe to be the lesser of two evils, and it is wise to remember that though we may end up with just that, the lesser of the two, whichever we choose is still evil, and not to be trusted any further than they can be thrown….. And, that’s the Truth!…..
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Keats
or Yeats,
or Emily D.,
or Pablo Neruda,
or Maya Angelou,
or Frost…..

Who wins? Today, it is…..

A little road not made of man,
Enabled of the eye,
Accessible to thill of bee,
Or cart of butterfly.

If town it have, beyond itself,
‘T is that I cannot say;
I only sigh,–no vehicle
Bears me along that way.

Emily Dickinson
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This is an old school pearl for your reading pleasure, or nearest approximation of same…. a bit different, with some internal comments from yours truly (in parentheses for your convenience….), to give directional hints that may or may not lead you to the point being developed…. but, funny, at least, as much as I can make them….

“… But when he [the people’s champion] has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.), “The Republic”

(When I read this, or sentiments like it, I always get a picture in my head of the two Bushes…. GW and GHW, otherwise known as the Senior Shrub and the Junior Shrub, or vice versa…. The national mourning that took place yesterday is the best example of their work in this arena….)

“My first American ancestor, gentlemen, was an Indian-an early Indian.  Your ancestors skinned him alive, and I am an orphan.  All those Salem witches were ancestors of mine.  Your people made it tropical for them…. The first slave brought into New England out of Africa was an ancestor of mine-for I am a mixed breed, an infinitely shaded and exquisite Mongrel.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

(Me too! I loved this when I first saw it, back in High School, a VERY LONG time ago… so long ago, it was hot off the press…… The best part is, every one of those folks who believe themselves to be blue-blooded Americans are exactly the same make-up… There are very few real pure-bloods left anywhere in the world, and certainly not in a country with the diverse population we have….. we’re all, technically speaking, close to being “mutts”, every one of us…..)

“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.” — Galbraith’s Law

(I am reminded of those folks who are busy trying to convince everyone that they aren’t against Obama because he’s black, and then turn around and support R&R, who have all but guaranteed to return racism and bigotry to government….. Hell, just look at one of their primary talking point slogans, the key part of which is, and I quote, “…we’ll take America back….” Take it back? From whom? From other Americans? Does this mean the current government aren’t real Americans? That sounds suspiciously of both racism, AND treason, to me…..)

“The clinching proof of my reasoning is that I will cut anyone who argues further into dog meat.” — Sir Geoffery de Tourneville (ca. 1350)

(Ah, the good old days…. sometimes, I wish we would see someone in the House, or the Senate, say this at the end of a speech, just to see if anyone is paying attention…)

“Somewhere in suburban Honolulu, an unemployed bellhop is whipping up a batch of illegal psilocybin chop suey!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

(Okay, I admit it… this one isn’t part of the message inherent in the other quotes…. I just like it….. Though, now that I think about it, the fact that it is entirely possible this is true, does say something about the subject at hand, to wit: society and government thereof…. What it says could be paraphrased as “If God is in charge here, I am angry; if He is not, I am frightened….” — Smart Bee)

No one ever made laws keeping people from making fools of themselves. — Smart Bee

(This is a wonderful end point for this discussion, or at least, it is such  an ending for the discussion going on in my head….. I think this is very, very true, sadly…. Moreover, I believe that the laws we do pass actually are the proof of the pudding, in terms of people making fools of themselves…. especially when we try to legislate morality…..)

That’s enough mental torture for one day….. I hope the conclusion these quotes led to is clear…. if not, well, that’s okay, because I never hold quizzes…. and hopefully, you got a chuckle or two from reading it…. and if not, well, console yourself with the fact that it is done…..
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Not too bad for a fractured process, hampered by stiffness, and made problematic by domestic near-disaster (coffee spilled near the computer…..Phew! Dodged a bullet there… none touched the laptop…); It’s fairy coherent, given all that…. Now all I need to do is figure out where to go to hook up to a network with www access, and post it….. I think the library gets the nod today…. in the meantime….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!