It is Not True

Posted on October 22, 2012 by gigoid

It may not be true, but rmott62 is still telling it like it is…..

This is dedicated to all who want to believe lies and myths about the sex trade – even as the prostituted class are dying.

It is not true that all the women and girls in the sex trade are survivors of incest or childhood sexual violence.

It is not true that the only push into the sex trade is poverty.

It is not true that only a certain of girl or woman becomes a prostitute or goes into the porn industry.

It is not true that there is a mass demand from female to buy and sell the prostituted class.

It is not true that only women and girls from a certain ethnicity, certain class, certain culture, or particular country will be safe from becoming the prostituted class.

It is not true that prostituted women and girls were born that way or it is just their nature.

It is not…

View original post 443 more words

Penny has yet to dance the lambada….

Posted on October 22, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Yesterday, I corrected Time, so we are all caught up in that respect; the missing day has been banished, and no longer exists, for our purposes. This has, unfortunately, allowed Murphy a whole new 24 hour period in which to plan his persecutory activities, and I’m a bit timorous about diving right into a day where he’s had so much leeway for setting up potential chaos. I don’t even have a clue as to where he might strike…. my head seems fairly clear, but I have yet to examine or test out Smart Bee. He could have messed with the program somehow, as I don’t think geeking is beyond his skill set; I’ve been hit too often with little glitches that only could have come from him….. Ya never know, with Murphy….

I suppose one of the reasons I make such a good target for him, and his minions, is that I really, really hate his guts. I don’t care how often he claims it’s his job; I don’t care that the universe HAS to have someone like him, to maintain balances. He’s an asshole, plain and simple, and I don’t care how important he is to the universe. He could figure out ways to fuck with people less than he does; it is obvious to the most casual, and causal, observer that he goes above and beyond the call of his job to create special pain for people. To me, this is unacceptable, and unforgivable…. to have the choice, to make pain for innocent folks, or to mess with them, just because you can, is completely the work of an asshole, and is deserving of the disrespect of every honorable man alive….

If you can’t tell, I’m still angry at Murphy from his actions on Friday morning…. Having the Social Security case worker call me at 0801, to suggest I might wish to WAIT LONGER to get my benefits, was a brilliant stroke on his part, if one considers such acts dispassionately. Nothing could have ruined my day, and my month, any better than that simple call. I did make the analyst pay, after a fashion…. Since his question had to do with my PTSD, I treated him to a full-on episode of emotional breakdown, at flash speed, complete with blubbering, shouting, and pressured speech, with the particular added bonus of my erudition at full out attack mode…. the man definitely got an earful in a short time….

I don’t know if that will help or hinder, and since the lawyer has yet to return my call (they’re a bit lax about that…. we’ll have to have another word or two on the subject, I can see…..), I am not sure how to think about it. I’m hoping I made it clear to the analyst that any further delays in awarding my benefits would only have a bad effect on me, and that their intransigent dallying is causing me no end of problems, both physical and emotional. Not that they care, particularly, that I can see, but at least I’ve made my position clear to them…. I can only hope the lawyer agrees…. and if not, well, they are the ones who are supposed to be guiding and controlling this process; they should start doing that, to my way of looking at it…. As may be apparent, my patience with the entire process is getting a bit thin…. and if something doesn’t break soon, I’m going to start looking for targets for my angst, which, I can assure you, is building up to a nice, big explosion….

Since I’m up and writing, and it’s only 0710 (bounced up at 0635 for some reason…. might have been the falling asleep at 2100 that did it…. but, hey, how ’bout them Giants, eh?…..) I suppose I’d best get started on today’s Pearl. Once again, I’m starting with zero material…. no quotes yet, and no incipient poetry, at least not at this juncture. Ah well, it’s been worse, for sure…. Shall we Pearl?……
__________________________________

“Why does this magnificent applied science, which saves work and makes life easier, bring us so little happiness? The simple answer runs: Because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“That is the key to history. Terrific energy is expended, civilizations are built up, excellent institutions devised; but each time something goes wrong. Some fatal flaw always brings the selfish and cruel people to the top, and then it all slides back into misery and ruin. In fact, the machine conks. It seems to start up all right and runs a few yards, and then it breaks down.” — C. S. Lewis

Sometimes it takes two to make the correct point….. Between these two quotes, we are given a glimpse of both the problem that mankind suffers from most, and the solution to that problem. Of course, the solution is one that, so far, has been unpalatable to most people, but, it is at least visible for discussion…. Most simply put, the whole problem that our species confronts can be ascribed to our spiritual deficits, as they pertain to both our treatment of each other, and our treatment of the world in which we live…..

In the first case, there are still too many people who think it is acceptable to seek power over others; in the second case, that spiritual flaw translates into a sense of entitlement that extends to how we utilize the resources of the planet, to wit: without proper or even minimal restraint. In the sphere of interactions between people, this deficit leads to misunderstandings, cruelty, slavery, and war…. in the case of planetary resources, it leads to strip-mining and unsustainable industry, unchecked pollution, and ecological suicide…..

I could spend a long time detailing just how far along the path to extinction our species has come; in fact, I’ve done so many times in the past. Such detailing is to little effect, however, so today we will assume it is already done, and we have established the fact that we are further along the road to perdition than most folks want to admit. At the same time, it is necessary to admit that we are also no closer to finding an answer to the question of how we are going to persuade the majority of mankind to make major internal changes, to their beliefs, their spiritual compass, and indeed, the very foundations of their entire existence, if they wish to live, and to give their children an even chance of the same….. This is a difficult proposition, as most folks won’t even admit to the necessity for change, much less what they themselves need to do…..

The depth of ignorance, you see, is not the only problem. For many, that ignorance will keep them from ever realizing just how bad things are, right up until the Grim Reaper comes knocking on their door. But, there are many, many people out there who know exactly what they do that is wrong, and they don’t care, because they believe it will have no ultimate effect on them, only on others…. To be so uncaring as to the fates of others, it is required that one be disconnected from reality, including the reality of one’s own motivation. These folks, who live for power, will not even examine their own motives, because they already know that they are flawed; they chose to be flawed deliberately, because it serves their own self-interests, and they are incapable of understanding that they will be as affected by the end game that is coming as everyone else…. and, in this case, one can see how deliberate ignorance becomes its own justice, eventually….

I wish I had an answer…. I wish I knew a way to convince those who need to know that what they, and the fools they allow to control the world through their own inability to see clearly, their own choice to remain ignorant, cannot continue to expect to live if they do not learn to open up their minds to a new way of seeing life. These fools are rushing into oblivion with their eyes closed, believing they are blessed and protected from harm by their faith in a mirage, when in reality, their faith, and their ignorance is guaranteeing their extinction…. and unfortunately, mine along with it… So, yes, I wish I had an answer…. but, I don’t, so I’ll have to make do with my plans to wreak severe havoc amongst the philistines when the time is ripe…. If we are all marked for extermination by the universe, I’m making sure some of the guilty are going down with me…. Trust me….

“In the dark colony of night, when I consider man’s magnificent capacity for malice, madness, folly, envy, rage, and destructiveness, and I wonder whether we shall not end up as breakfast for newts and polyps, I seem to hear the muffled cries of all the words in all the books with covers closed.” — Leo Rosten

“Here pigs will fly, lightning will strike twice, hell will freeze over, and eventually, things will get really interesting…” — Smart Bee
__________________________________

I’ve looked inside, and nothing is turning up in any of the dark corners where they hide, mumbling to themselves until I rip them out into the open air…. so we will have to make do, and settle for something from a proven source…. which shall remain nameless, until I find out who it is today…. Be patient, you will know soon enough…..

Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man

It is common knowledge to every schoolboy and even every Bachelor of Arts,
That all sin is divided into two parts.
One kind of sin is called a sin of commission, and that is very important,
And it is what you are doing when you are doing something you ortant,
And the other kind of sin is just the opposite and is called a sin of omission
and is equally bad in the eyes of all right-thinking people, from
Billy Sunday to Buddha,
And it consists of not having done something you shuddha.
I might as well give you my opinion of these two kinds of sin as long as,
in a way, against each other we are pitting them,
And that is, don’t bother your head about the sins of commission because
however sinful, they must at least be fun or else you wouldn’t be
committing them.
It is the sin of omission, the second kind of sin,
That lays eggs under your skin.
The way you really get painfully bitten
Is by the insurance you haven’t taken out and the checks you haven’t added up
the stubs of and the appointments you haven’t kept and the bills you
haven’t paid and the letters you haven’t written.
Also, about sins of omission there is one particularly painful lack of beauty,
Namely, it isn’t as though it had been a riotous red-letter day or night every
time you neglected to do your duty;
You didn’t get a wicked forbidden thrill
Every time you let a policy lapse or forget to pay a bill;
You didn’t slap the lads in the tavern on the back and loudly cry Whee,
Let’s all fail to write just one more letter before we go home, and this round
of unwritten letters is on me.
No, you never get any fun
Out of things you haven’t done,
But they are the things that I do not like to be amid,
Because the suitable things you didn’t do give you a lot more trouble than the
unsuitable things you did.
The moral is that it is probably better not to sin at all, but if some kind of
sin you must be pursuing,
Well, remember to do it by doing rather than by not doing.

Ogden Nash
__________________________________

“Don’t ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun — and neither can stop the march of events.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough For Love

As with many important truths, this one does not comfort one to know it; a common attribute of remarks by Lazarus, who has a tendency to voice the truth regardless of its potential, or even certain, effect on the audience. And, damn it, it is just so much simpler to let all the bad stuff hold sway on our attention, and give in to the depressive urge to berate and chastise the universe for its lack of tact and consideration for human sensibilities. It never listens, anyway….

My semi-rant in section one today is a perfect example of this principle at work; I do try to maintain some optimism in the face of reality; I even have learned to try to explain away all the weird stuff as being outside the statistical universe being considered. It’s a lie, but it’s my lie, so I usually can buy into it, long enough to allow denial to set in, and thus preventing the otherwise inevitable depression over how bad things have gotten…..

Actually, right now, it is fairly simple to stay completely distracted, as we always have the election, and all the shenanigans taking place on that stage, to draw our attention away from the imminent demise we face as a species, or even, more importantly, our personal concerns of everyday living. It’s easy to deny the inevitability of carbon monoxide pollution when we have Mitt the Twitt’s lies to chase down, or Biden’s latest zinger to admire, or Lyin’ Ryan’s latest example of elitism to watch with dropped jaw….. it’s a veritable circus, and the clowns are in full swing….

It’s not just the candidates providing the entertainment, either…. every Tom, Dickwad, and Mary is chiming in with their two cents, on TV, radio, and, most prodigiously, on the Internet, all trying to get SOMEONE to listen to them during the run-up to the election. Those two cents can get very, very strange, as each commenter tries to make the most outrageous statements and/or claims/accusations about all the actors on stage, and is a whole new package of entertainment for us to have on hand, each one vying for our attention at the top of their lungs, figuratively speaking…..

This is where the metaphor of the circus gains its credibility, although, more accurately, I am reminded by this, most emphatically, of just about any carnival at the County Fairs I’ve been to….. Disheveled, sinister-looking barkers, complete with suspenders and a cigar in their mouth, yelling out the prizes they promise, each one grander than the next, and easy as pie to win: exotic visions that promise endless satisfaction of desires, enormously valuable jewels and objet’s d’art for virtually nothing, and endless illusions to draw the eye away from the seediness and underlying, almost frenetic despair permeating the air….

Yes, indeed, the political scene here in America has always reminded me of a carnival, and the events and activities that prompt my impression of the election as an illusionary device, designed to fool the public into thinking that things will change if they vote, has never been stronger than it is now. I have hope that by voting against the obviously evil side of the campaign, the overall effect on the immediate future will be mitigated to some degree. But, I can find within me very little hope that the eventual outcome is in doubt, and that outcome is not one that anyone is going to like…. at all.

My optimism is fairly natural to me; I’ve always been a hopeful kind of person, and I continue to hold hope that mankind’s future will extend beyond this century, groundless as it may be. My pessimism, unfortunately, has the advantage of having the most evidence in it’s favor right now, even if Obama wins the election, as I expect he will. He is only one man, and the course of human events is very difficult to change once it is headed in a particular direction. My hope is based on the wish that more than just he will learn to make the inner changes needed for us all to survive the storms that are coming…. a slim hope, yes, but hey, it happens to be all we’ve got…..
__________________________________

I seem to have gotten stuck today, harping on the same general issue in both of the prose sections. This is no doubt the result of the intense mind-control I have now assumed, in order to keep from going stark raving mad….. That severe control is causing some stilted thought patterns, falling into short, but seemingly endless loops…. I suppose I will have to sacrifice a standard or two today, in order to clear the internal censors…. but, that is simple enough. I’m human, and temporarily setting aside standards is pretty simple for us, as a rule….

Besides, I have to decide on whether to write a poem, or find one, and that can be a decision of some magnitude, depending on, well, stuff…. stuff that isn’t always clear, to me, or for me… so the decision is made more tedious, as it were…. and I’m babbling now, so I’m going to put a stop to this, with some ruthless use of the power of will…. just watch me, I’m going to stop typing any moment now, and you’ll see…. keep a sharp eye out, or you’ll miss it…. Oops, there you see, all done…. did you catch it?….. I’m just happy there’s no blood….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

In defense of inconvenient innuendo….

Posted on October 21, 2012 by gigoid

10/20/12, aka 10/21/12 ~~ Time, or the labeling of same, is mine to dictate, so, today is tomorrow…. the missing day is banished from memory. So Be It….

Ffolkes,
It seems my unconscious mind has taken a hand in directing my conscious life as well…. but, in this case, it seems to work fairly well, all in all, so I’m going to leave it alone for the time being. I know that sound mysterious, but saying this precisely this way is merely withholding details that would be unenlightening, and at the same time, counter-productive to discussion. Suffice it to say that I am here now, sitting down to write, with more than average clarity, and a degree of unusual comfort…. Thank goodness for coffee, eh?……

I know, I know, that was a less than illuminating paragraph, but, believe me, you really don’t want any more details, so let’s just get on with our regular business, shall we? Suffice it to say that this is a case where you need to trust me, you don’t want to know any more than you do now…. So, you may as well give it up, because I ain’t talking…. Well, I wouldn’t be, but this IS the intro section, and I have to say SOMETHING….

I could point out that, here at Exploring Consensual Reality, you do get more respect…. I could have skipped the above two paragraphs entirely, and not even mentioned the new schedule changes, thus avoiding inadvertently letting out TMI, but figured that my readers are too smart, and might notice something…. so, I figure it’s better to just mention it in passing, rather than try to fool you all into a false sense of complacency. Such a condition is anathema to me, and I refuse to create it in others, if at all possible…. I’d rather create a small bit of confusion, than a great deal of it….

With all that being said, and so cheerfully, we should probably get on with the search for pearls; it promises to be somewhat of a hard line search, as I am starting off with zero to work with (as might have been surmised by this intro, and it’s obvious stretching of ingredients…). This will be posted from the library again, as it is that time of the month when my available cash is scarce…. Until we can get to that point, though, we need to find some pearls…. so, shall we Pearl?…..

“It’s OKAY — I’m an INTELLECTUAL, too.” — Zippy the Pinhead
__________________________________

Okay, so there I was, cruising through Smart Bee, and these little gems popped up. Each one tempted me to begin a rant, or a discussion, but, none of them completely grabbed my attention enough to do the trick. They are all much too valuable to throw out, so I had this idea to include them as a “new-school” pearl….. Y’all can take the ideas herein described, and formulate them into your own pearl of virtual wisdom…. there is plenty here to work with; I’ve used many similar pearls myself to create unforgettable rants, or brilliantly funny forays into nonsense. (Sure I have….. trust me….)

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

“In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.” — Mark Twain

“In regard to disagreeable and formidable things, prudence does not consist in evasion, or in flight, but in courage. He who wishes to walk in the most peaceful parts of life with any serenity must screw himself up to resolution. Let him front the object of his worst apprehension, and his stoutness will commonly make his fear groundless” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, _Essays_, Prudence

“I figure that if God actually does exist, He’s big enough to understand an honest difference of opinion.” – Isaac Asimov

“There’s more than one way to skin a cat, but there ain’t no way to make the cat enjoy it.” — Jed Clampett

“Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book ii, Chap. xii, Apology for Raimond Sebond

“Once you can accept the universe as being something expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, wearing stripes with plaid is easy.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

So, you should find it reasonably simple to do the same yourselves (creating a pearl, that is, not wearing plaid…) …. and if not, well, they are all fairly strong stand-alone dribbles of good advice/good observations, so you aren’t completely without recourse…. No refunds, though, we’re not completely without shame…. Remember, you get what you pay for in this world, right? TANSTAAFL….. (for the uninitiated, that is, There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch….)
__________________________________

Choosing a Theme

Powerful words playing hide and seek in my mind,
teasing with subtle cruelty, pretending to be kind.
Grand visions and flowery verses of beauty and truth
evaded my inner eye all through the days of my youth.

Affable interludes interspersed with allegorical wit
softened the crimes, against all reason, to finally acquit.
Time became at once an enemy, and an ally
Never once compelled to provide an answer why.

Giving gifts of simple kindness are their own pay,
spreading ripples of compassion are felt far and away.
Love given freely is precious, we are ever told,
increasing love received, more than a hundred fold.

Living long and with passion has centered my soul,
allowing me room, and time, to choose my own goal.
Now that I’ve gone past any need to pretend
I love everything in life, even knowing it will end.

~~ gigoid
__________________________________

I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.

— Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) — Just So Stories (1902) “The Elephant’s Child”

I first read the phrase “feeding the Elephant’s Child” in a Robert Heinlein novel, many years ago, and enjoyed it as a metaphor for reading/learning, before I knew from whence it originally came. Once I did know (a moment of illumination whose exact placement in time is hazy….), I liked it even more, from an aesthetic standpoint. The above little ditty is brilliant doggerel, astute observation, and deep insight, all presented in a simple, straightforward style, with a powerful, basic lesson for any would-be philosopher, or any one who wishes to encompass reason as their modus operandi, so to speak. Besides which, I find that another piece of Bob’s advice fits well with this one, to wit: “Life tastes better in big bites….”

“Never wear anything that panics the cat.” — P. J. O’Rourke

I like this, a lot. It summarizes perhaps one of the most elemental rules of getting along in the Universe, in essence saying, “You can learn a lot by watching what happens around you…” It is the perfect companion to the concept of learning as presented above, as it contrives to speak to both sides of Reality, i.e., how you approach reality (the clothing you choose to show to the cat….) and how reality will change to react to your approach (the cat’s opinion of your clothing….) It also gives one a subtle warning about how the wrong clothing can produce unwanted consequences, and we all know how an offended cat is likely to respond…. as Mark Twain once remarked…. “A man who carries a cat by the tail is learning valuable things. He will never again be dim or doubtful. Chances are he’ll not carry the cat that way again, but, I say, if he wants to, let him!” You can’t say fairer than that….

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought.” — Buddha

One can always trust the Buddha to state the most profound thoughts in the simplest way…. I often wonder how he came to such a complete understanding of Murphy, whose presence is acknowledged in all of what the Buddha stated, but whose ministrations seem to have passed by the Buddha’s existence…. either that, or Murphy shows him a lot more respect than he does anyone else alive. At times, it seems that what the Buddha states, such as in this statement, is, in at least one respect, an answer to a question that is raised when Murphy intervenes in our lives…. in simpler words, he explains why Murphy is able to affect us as he does, by cutting through the bullshite we perceive to the truth of what is real….. SIGH…. one of these days, enlightenment will slap me upside the head, and I’ll be able to see Murphy coming…. I hope…

There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.” — Bob Dylan

Often I feel as if not only is life a joke, but it is our duty and purpose on this plane of existence to codify that joke, to put it down on paper, or on screen/disc, to free ourselves from the prison of sobriety, achieving an understanding that everything in this silly universe is here for our amusement, and we have been taking it, and ourselves, seriously for entirely too long….. So seriously, we have begun to offend those parts of the universe that just want us to relax and enjoy ourselves, and the time is growing nearer when we will have to admit that the joke is on us, for not being able to change our inner selves enough to be able to handle the humor of our situation…. See, the universe thinks death is funny…. not because it is cruel, but because death is just another part of life, and it doesn’t care about one more than the other…. See, now, isn’t it funny how you never noticed that?…..

I once read a science fiction novel, whose title and author escape me completely; in all it was very poorly written, with prose that did not live up to the good ideas contained in the plot line. However, it was a great plot line, in all….Specifically, there was one chapter I liked, which had a super-genius taking on the task of finding the solution to a mathematical treatise, an equation so complex and advanced that no civilization in the galaxy had ever been able to completely solve it.

The genius/hero of the book shut himself up in his room for three weeks, working on the problem. At the end, he was thinking so hard he entered a trance-like state, computing while nearly dead…. after a week of this, he suddenly opened his eyes, gave a look of astonishment, and burst into uncontrollable laughter for approximately 25 minutes. When he could finally control himself, he simply said, “It’s a joke….” and would never discuss it again….

In a pearl such as this one has grown to be, there comes a time when I have to decide whether to continue on, to try to reach the conclusion that was nebulously hovering somewhere in my mind as I began, or to admit that I have once again wandered into uncharted territory, and might find it a bit tricky to find my way back to clarity. This is that time…. and I’m leaving it up to Smart Bee, as always…. If I don’t find a proper pearl to carry on the tenuous chain of thought I’ve created, then we’ll take the first one that will appropriately wrap it up as a lost cause….. all within a specified number of attempts…. so, here we go… You’ll know in a moment what will happen….

“In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap xi

There, see?…. That didn’t take long at all…. and I managed to find the perfect pearl to cover both bases…. In this case, we will use it as an ending quote, since it sort of summarizes a lot of the discussion, after a fashion. It could conceivably also be used as a springboard for further discussion, but this has gone on long enough, and I wouldn’t want to lose anybody due to an injudicious application of excess verbiage, culminating in tedium…. Of course, we may have reached that point some time ago, but, hey, who’s counting?…. Any who, I hope you enjoyed this little foray into not very much…. 🙂
__________________________________

Well, there you have it…. Yesterday, or recently, I said, in a poem, “All you can do, is all you can do… and nothing more.” I’ve done all I can do today…. A couple thousand words, mostly all original, an old-school pearl, a new-school pearl, a poem…. it’s going to take me some time to close all the veins I’ve had to open up this morning…. but, it was worth it. It kept me from considering Reality for quite some time, other than as an objective subject for thought, so, that is a good thing…. and, it has the added positive characteristic of being DONE…. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing this one….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Mired in the prime of strife…..

Posted on October 20, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Ah yes, the delights of awakening to the tender mercies of emotional distress…. Within 10 minutes of getting up today (Thursday, the 19th), at the reasonable hour of 0755, I received a call from Social Security, to ask me, in essence, whether I would like to extend the time it takes to secure my disability benefits, another six months, by adding on a visit to a psychiatrist to determine the status of my PTSD….. As you might expect, this caused my emotions to boil over instantly, whereupon I treated the case analyst who had called to a graphic example of just what state I’m in, PTSD-wise, blubbering in incoherent anger, bemoaning in no uncertain terms the federal government’s apparent desire to put me in a grave before letting go of my money….. It was NOT the way I would have chosen to start my morning, to say the least….

Now I have no idea how much longer this will take; I’ll need to talk with my lawyer now, and that can be stressful as well, so I may as well prepare myself for a period of insensibility, as my mind tends to want to shut down when stuff like this threatens my equilibrium. But, sadly, it looks as if I may as well resign myself to another long period of waiting in the dark, and can pretty much kiss the idea of Christmas goodbye for another year….. Too bad, really…. I had hoped to be able to actually go to a store and buy something for my kids for the occasion, but, I guess I’ll once again be trying to ignore the whole scene, and making do with giving them one of my own pieces of family history as a gift, or perhaps writing a poem for them…. not exactly the most thrilling of gifts, but, it’s the thought that counts, right?

Yesterday, the 18th, I didn’t post again, for the second time since starting this blog. It felt weird to not post, just like it did last month when it happened for the first time. As the poor federal case worker found out this morning, there is a lot of pressurized material stuffed into my head, and it needs to come out on a regular basis…. I did complete a Pearl yesterday, but couldn’t get to the library in time to post it, due to waiting for other folks to get stuff done…. SIGH….. Add a few more hit points to that stress level, ffolkes, and start counting!…..

Being a day behind, even though ahead, this will get posted on the 20th of October, 2012…. which, had he lived, would be my father’s 100th birthday…. and is now my youngest brother’s 57th, 58th, or 59th, I can never keep him and my younger sister’s ages straight…. Any who, happy happy to Kevin, and to my Dad’s memory….

As a result of this morning’s folderol, I am retreating, and will start looking for pearls as a substitute for going out to look for a victim; I always find beating up on somebody to be liberating, but inconvenient, what with all the criminal charges and all…. Instead, I’ll just pour all that angst into a rant, or a poem, or something…. maybe even a piece on Zippy, or Pooh, to bring out a few smiles. They (smiles) are buried pretty deep right now, but, a bit of Zippy can do wonders…. Let’s get to it….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

Raquel Welch: 36-24-36
Bo Derek: 35-24-36
Ann-Margaret: 37-25-36
Bette Middler: 37-25-36
Marilyn Monroe: 37-24-37
Jane Russell: 39-27-38
Jayne Mansfield: 40-23-37
Sophia Loren: 37-25-36

— Smart Bee (?)

So, sue me. It isn’t what you think, unless you are thinking what I’m thinking. I’m not going to say that isn’t possible, or even unlikely…. unless you are thinking it is about some sexist premise that identifies women as objects. Being male, I’m not an expert on spotting or exposing that, but I’ve been around a long time, and have never held with most of what society holds as true about women, unless spoken by a woman who hasn’t proved to be one of the brainwashed….

No, this list is only here to note that what society seems to project, in magazines and advertising, through fashions and trends sponsored by those who determine such matters (i.e., the moneymen…) as the image of beauty, is not the same as what public opinion obviously feels about what makes a woman beautiful, in terms of weight and shape. All of the women in the above list were, and/or are, considered to be the visual pinnacle of what the public believes is beautiful, as evidenced by the popularity of their work, in film or on stage…. but none of them are at all similar to what the manipulators of fashion would have us believe is the ideal shape…. Whereas models can only be described as slender or willowy, all these women are what we might call zaftig, or rubenesque, in their visual proportions….. Personally, I agree with the public…. I find Ann Margaret to be much more pleasant to look at than any model in a magazine that I have EVER seen….. And, the fact that I feel entitled to make a judgment makes me as guilty of objectifying women as a man who utilizes brothels for sex…

Thus, if we grant the truth of that revelation, the mere existence of the list becomes the most objectionable piece of it….. It illustrates that the process of objectification is subtle; just applying such standards to women at all tends to cause people to think of them as objects, rather than as people. Society has been male-oriented for a very long time, a state of affairs justified as “might makes right.” Sadly; a lot of what is wrong in the world can be traced to that unfortunate fact. Men have, out of their own insecurities and fears, set things up so that women have very little say about what happens to them in life; those decisions are made for them by fathers, brothers, or husbands in most of the world. In order to do this, and not suffer pangs of guilt at every turn, men, and women, are taught that it is okay to objectify women, and to treat them as if they are property…. and property needs to be labeled, hence lists such as the one above….

Yesterday, rmott62 posted a blog, (http://rmott62.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/your-lies-are-part-of-our-genocide/), which I re-blogged on my site, speaking about this very subject, to wit: how the language we choose can objectify those of whom it speaks. You can probably get a better idea of how insidiously the issue of victimizing women permeates society by visiting her blog; she speaks powerfully, with no punches pulled, from experience, and with great insight, much more forcefully than I ever can, so I recommend to you very strongly that you go to her site, and read what she has to say…. It will change the way you look at much of what passes in our society for normal, and make you ashamed for not noticing…. if not, it should, for we are all guilty of perpetrating the evil, if only by not acting or speaking up, for as long as the victimization of women, and the entire prostitution industry, continues to objectify, demean, and drag women of all ages into perpetual slavery…..

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I keep hoping, but the poem I feel in my head isn’t ready to come out yet, and time is passing (at the leisurely pace so beloved of the federal bureaucracies…..)….. so, if I want to get this Pearl posted today, I’d best be coming up with another poem for this space. I’ve become somewhat addicted to this morning dose of verse; it seems to make the prose taste better somehow….. Whatever the reason, I like it…. Here, then, is another fine piece from the annals of history, with some whimsy applied as the primary search criterion…. hell, whimsy could easily be construed as an algorithm, almost, in this sense…. Besides, the poem I’ve found is the perfect choice to follow the first pearl’s message. Any who, sensible nonsense aside, enjoy!…..

Men

When I was young, I used to
Watch behind the curtains
As men walked up and down the street. Wino men, old men.
Young men sharp as mustard.
See them. Men are always
Going somewhere.
They knew I was there. Fifteen
Years old and starving for them.
Under my window, they would pauses,
Their shoulders high like the
Breasts of a young girl,
Jacket tails slapping over
Those behinds,
Men.

One day they hold you in the
Palms of their hands, gentle, as if you
Were the last raw egg in the world. Then
They tighten up. Just a little. The
First squeeze is nice. A quick hug.
Soft into your defenselessness. A little
More. The hurt begins. Wrench out a
Smile that slides around the fear. When the
Air disappears,
Your mind pops, exploding fiercely, briefly,
Like the head of a kitchen match. Shattered.
It is your juice
That runs down their legs. Staining their shoes.
When the earth rights itself again,
And taste tries to return to the tongue,
Your body has slammed shut. Forever.
No keys exist.

Then the window draws full upon
Your mind. There, just beyond
The sway of curtains, men walk.
Knowing something.
Going someplace.
But this time, I will simply
Stand and watch.

Maybe.

Maya Angelou

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As always, when lacking the wherewithal to rant, or to discourse intelligently (if that can be said to ever happen….) I retreat into the wisdom of the ages, developing an idea with pearls that says, well, whatever it says…. I do try to make it enlightening in some fashion, even if only by providing some comic relief to the sober nature of much of the other material here. Here, then, are some pearls that spoke to me about enlightenment, each in its own little whisper….

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, 1892

With virtue you cannot be entirely poor… Without it you cannot be really rich. — Chinese Proverb

A master programmer passed a novice programmer one day. The master noted the novice’s preoccupation with a hand-held computer game. “Excuse me”, he said, “may I examine it?” The novice bolted to attention and handed the device to the master. “I see that the device claims to have three levels of play: Easy, Medium, and Hard”, said the master. “Yet every such device has another level of play, where the device seeks not to conquer the human, nor to be conquered by the human.” “Pray, great master,” implored the novice, “how does one find this mysterious setting?” The master dropped the device to the ground and crushed it under foot. And suddenly the novice was enlightened. — Geoffrey James, “The Tao of Programming”

“God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent- it says so right here on the label. If you have a mind capable of believing all three of these divine attributes simultaneously, I have a wonderful bargain for you. No checks, please. Cash, and in small bills.” — Lazarus Long

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” — Alvin Toffler

“Avoid fried foods which angry up the blood.” — Satchel Paige, early to mid-20th century sage

“The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha — which is to demean oneself.” — Robert Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”

“Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst.” — Thomas Paine

The Journey is the Reward, Not the Destination. — Zen Koan

A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: “Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time.” When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, “The one I feed the most.” — George Bernard Shaw

Well, there you go…. If you’re not enlightened by now, well, you’re on your own, because that’s the best I’ve got in stock. Hmm…. gee, you don’t get the impression this is a metaphoric manipulation, do you? ……. Nah! Trust me! No hidden agendas here, or metaphoric stimuli intended to create moments of zazen illumination….It’s all the real deal, and used properly, has been known to produce wonderful results…. and, well, the price is right, yes? Free advice is always worth what you pay for it….. Ta for now, luvs…..
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Well, the gods of literature can relax now…. I didn’t need to resort to either Zippy, or Pooh to get the Pearl done. I even managed to avoid using Will Shakespeare again…. though I do have a LOT of material of his that is appropriate for target shooting, it wasn’t needed today. Some might be thankful for that, but, they’re just jealous, for not thinking of it first….. Today we are back in waiting mode, with the added hope that the federal game of slow-them-down-as-much-as-possible won’t be able to find the dice, and won’t hold things up any more than they already have been….. Fat chance, I know, but, hey, gotta have our groundless hope, eh?….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Your Lies Are Part of Our Genocide

Posted on October 19, 2012 by gigoid

She is right folks…. until it stops, we are all guilty…..

Rebecca Mott

I have to live surrounded by the lies of the sex trade, the lies of the liberal feminists, the lies of Leftist men, the lies of fundamentalist religious folks, the lies of all of the media, the lies of high and low culture about what it is to be prostituted.

These lies are never harm-free, these lies are never without an agenda, these lies are a constant remainder to all the prostituted that we have no worth, that we will never be given the right to be fully human.

Instead in this environment, it has become the only that the prostituted can gain the simple and basis right to be fully human, is to take and not to wait for others to give it to us.

For the prostituted class see with a clear eye what the lies attempt to hide – that whilst the lies play with language, whilst…

View original post 1,013 more words

Insert non-standard cliche here…..

Posted on October 19, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

The following is the post that was intended for posting yesterday, October 18th; it was written in time, but Reality intruded to prevent me from getting to an internet access point before the end of the day…. ah well, twice in a year and a half isn’t bad…. Enjoy, and I’ll do my best to see that I get posted tomorrow as well…
Wild horses, I swore, are not getting me up early again…. but, that was before the silly beasts started in with their neighing at scream volume, and pounding hoof beats. And what is with the ropes and shit, dragging my butt onto the floor?….. Any way you look at it, I lose, it seems…. At least today, I made it to 0700 before having to give up and get up, once more in the grip of sleeplessness, and more going on in the head than I care for this early…. Ah well, I’ve had it thoroughly drilled into my awareness that Murphy gives not a sh__, er, whit for what I care for, or about…. So, off I’ll go, into Pearl land, seeking, as always, excellence and enlightenment….

Yesterday, I read a pearl, in passing, that said something like, “You know you’re getting old when…. reading the obituaries is like reading a high school yearbook….” A bit grim, I know…. but, it reminded me that such events are catching up to me, as more of my peers, from high school, and beyond, are starting to bite the dust with alarming regularity….. And, in today’s day and age, other calamities can strike without warning, bringing sorrow and fear with them….

One of my friends, the wife of my oldest friend (we’ve known each other 52 years now, since grade school, and they’ve been married for over 23 years….), was very recently diagnosed with breast cancer, and will be having a double mastectomy on Friday, I believe…. My friend, of course, is very upset and afraid, though he is holding up well; he is an honorable man, and intends to be strong for his mate….. The prognosis for the surgery is good, as they caught it early-on, and have found no traces of spreading into the lymph system yet; this type of cancer has a very good survival rate, when caught at this stage, so we are all hopeful those statistics hold true….

So, any who, I only mention this so I can ask for you to send out good thoughts and, if you are so inclined, prayers for her good deliverance during surgery, and for many more years of sparkling (she’s good at that….). I’m not sure where the surgery is being done, so if you would just send them toward Northern California, I’ll make sure they get to the right vicinity…. thanks very much, she deserves, and needs, all the help she can get…. as can my friend….

Well, there’s a way to get the old juices flowing….. bring on a spate of tears, and the old metabolism just jumps right up into work mode… a bit harsh, though, I think, to have to put one’s self through that to find a muse…. But, then, when have we ever done things normally around here? That’s correct, that answer would be…. never…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Herein you will find a recipe for Life Well-Lived….. the first ingredient is illustrated here:

Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.

— Tao Te Ching

The second ingredient needed to add to the first is here:

Hug O’ War

I will not play at tug o’ war.
I’d rather play at hug o’ war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.

— Shel Silverstein

When these two parts are smoothly integrated into a malleable state, add this:

“I was standing in the kitchen one day, fixing a sandwich or something, when suddenly I heard a very distinct “sneeze” emanate from the fridge. Naturally curious, I opened the door and scrutinized the various food items. Suddenly, the mayonnaise began to scream, “The ketchup did it! The ketchup!” Of course, I was stunned. This, after all, was an inanimate object. And, truthfully, to this very day, I’ve never been able to coax the ketchup to say or do anything and have concluded the sneeze was my own imagination.” — Smart Bee

At this point, nearly uncontrollable giggles should emanate from either the substance being mixed, or from the mixer; both are a good omen for the success of the dish…. Now we can add the fourth ingredient, as below:

“The survival of the fittest is the ageless law of nature, but the fittest are rarely the strong. The fittest are those endowed with the qualifications for adaptation, the ability to accept the inevitable and conform to the unavoidable, to harmonize with existing or changing conditions.” — Dave E. Smalley

As any good chef or artiste knows, harmony comes, strangely enough, in odd numbers…. and thus with this final ingredient, blended well with what has gone before, you will find yourself in the presence of true beauty and grace…. This is a two-medium ingredient, textual/conceptual and visual….. (picture by Carol Welsh, from her blog at WordPress, here: http://carolwelsh.wordpress.com/ )

“Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living…. and above all, those who live without Love.” — Albus Dumbledore, from J.K. Rowlings’ Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows”
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I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.

Nor had I time to love, but since
Some industry must be,
The little toil of love, I thought,
Was large enough for me.

~~ Emily Dickinson
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Here are some examples of the astounding depths of Stupid that can manifest in humans……

“The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.” — Pat Robertson, Man of God and serious Republican presidential aspirant, in a letter to supporters
(My calculator broke when I tried to count how many wrong things there are in this statement…..)

“Trees cause more pollution than cars ever did.” — Ronald Reagan
(I had a hard time believing he actually said this in 1982, or thereabouts, but, there it was, right there in the newspaper…. and, in the annals of history, as it remains as the record for the stupidest thing ever said by a US President…. though Ronnie’s VP, Gerry Ford, later made some valiant attempts to break it, during his own stint in the Oval Office….)

Where Mind and each believing mind are not divided,
And undivided are each believing mind and Mind,
This is where words fail;
For it is not for the past, present, and future.

— Seng-T’San (540?-606 A.D.)
(Actually, this may not be stupid…. but I can’t tell for sure, because it is so opaque, and hides its meaning so deeply in complexity, it sounds stupid…..and is therefore subject to the Duck Test…. i.e., if it quacks, etc……)

“Facts can be used to prove anything that’s even remotely true. Facts, shmacts!” — Homer Simpson
(Come to think of it, ANYTHING Homer says could be included here…. I regard Homer to be the absolute incarnation of Human Stupidity, and thoroughly regret his popularity, though it doesn’t surprise me at all….)

Kinsey: “Oh, please. Given the chance, half of all American citizens won’t even vote, and the half that do vote are too stupid to know what they’re doing.” — from Stargate
(I’m sure I don’t have to remind you that, if you heard it on TV, it must be true…. or, in this case, be a pretty clear reflection of society….)

This kind of search, for pearls of real stupidity, as opposed to their opposites, is a slow one… Not that there are fewer examples of this kind of thing available, but, Smart Bee tends to lean toward the other end of the spectrum, keeping and displaying the most valuable and elegant aphorisms uttered through the ages, rather than these demonstrations of humanity’s other talents. So, here is a last example, which will, no doubt, be welcomed with open arms…. Just remember not to use these as Pearls Of Virtual Wisdom, or for goodness’ sake, real wisdom…. I won’t be responsible for the outcome….

I met a fool i’ the forest,
A motley fool.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), As You Like It — Act ii, Sc. 7
(In this case, what we see is a double dose of stupid…. one, what is written…. and two, all the fools who fall all over themselves to say that Shakespeare was so wonderful…. when what he was, was the best hack of his time, with a good PR man…. People still fall for this crap!…..)
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You may have noted a certain lack of original material in today’s Pearl…. which is not surprising, given my current state of mind….. It was all I could do to come up with commentary for this morning’s efforts, as I’m still a bit groggy from the hour, and quite empty of anything but the barest skepticism, my constant companion…. On days like these, I depend on Smart Bee, and the wisdom of others to carry me through this process, trusting that routine, of sorts, will produce an acceptable group of pearls. All in all, I don’t think I did too badly, and, as is the standard rule here, it’s done, and it’s not getting done over…. 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

Kowabunga!

Orders to cease and resist….

Posted on October 17, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Damn, damn, damn….. say it rapidly enough, and almost any frustration is, if not eased, at least properly expressed….. In this case it is my reaction to being up again at 0630. I have no idea why I’m up this early again, unless it is a physical reaction, somehow, to all the heat we’re having around here. It is the middle of October, almost a full month into autumn, and the temperature today is predicted to be near 90 degrees F. There is no fog outside to cool things off, so it is not a typical summer pattern; it is more like a stalled high pressure system sitting over the state that traps the heat, burdening us with weather that brings to mind tropical islands, swaying grass skirts, and drinks with umbrellas…..

Whatever the cause, I am up, and too awake to persuade myself to go back to sleep…. so, I’m here courting inspiration, hoping the poem I’ve felt percolating for some time will come to light…. Oops, don’t want to spook it away by talking about it…. any who, what to do, what to do….. hmmm, how’s this?…. I found this last night, thought it might come in handy, and sure enough….. Here is a bit of deeper information on an old nemesis….

I often lament in this space the ubiquitous presence of Murphy…. In order to get full appreciation of just how much he messes with me, of course, one would have to walk in my shoes…. but then how would I get anywhere? No, I’ll keep my shoes, thanks…. However, let me just say, I hate his guts, sincerely, and hope such negativity so early doesn’t darken your day….. Nonetheless, I like to help people understand his far-reaching asininity, so here is some information on the origins of Murphy’s Law, as cobbled together by the editors of Smart Bee, and the on-line Hacker Jargon File….

:Finagle’s Law: n. The generalized or `folk’ version of {Murphy’s Law}, fully named “Finagle’s Law of Dynamic Negatives” and usually rendered “Anything that can go wrong, will”. May have been first published by Francis P. Chisholm in his 1963 essay “The Chisholm Effect”, later reprinted in the classic anthology “A Stress Analysis Of A Strapless Evening Gown: And Other Essays For A Scientific Eye” (Robert Baker ed, Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-852608-7).

The label `Finagle’s Law’ was popularized by SF author Larry Niven in several stories depicting a frontier culture of asteroid miners; this `Belter’ culture professed a religion and/or running joke involving the worship of the dread god Finagle and his mad prophet Murphy. Some technical and scientific cultures (e.g., paleontologists) know it under the name `Sod’s Law’; this usage may be more common in Great Britain.

One variant favored among hackers is “The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum” (but see also {Hanlon’s Razor}). — from The on-line Hacker Jargon File V423

Well, there you have it…. all the latest on our old pal Murphy, and the great god Finagle…. HAH! The asshole…. may his lips become close through the efforts of super-glue…. Given the early hour, perhaps you will excuse my lack of taste and impulse control…. I’m thinking at this point it is most likely the best idea if we just give up on achieving any real coherency, and go on to diving…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“I share the belief of many of my contemporaries that the spiritual crisis pervading all spheres of Western industrial society can be remedied only by a change in our world view. We shall have to shift from the materialistic, dualistic belief that people and their environment are separate, toward a new consciousness of an all-encompassing reality, which embraces the experiencing ego, a reality in which people feel their oneness with animate nature and all of creation.” — Dr. Albert Hoffman

Dr. Hoffman (I suspect a Ph.D. here, or, at best, a Doctor of Divinity….) (and certainly not THE Doctor….. you know, the one with the Tardis ….) has made a very astute observation, and a clear statement. However, it is constructed, and presented, in such a way that 99% of the people who need to know this will fall asleep by the end of the first sentence…. and anyone who makes it to the part that says “new consciousness of an all-encompassing reality” will certainly lose any remaining interest in a flash….

The people who most need to understand this are people the good doctor does not comprehend, for to them, “oneness” comes only with the involvement of beer cans…..or Vaseline…. In order to throw off a materialistic, dualistic belief system, one needs to have the basic ability to understand what that is, and the average human, busy with life, has no time or inclination to think about their belief system in those terms, or at all, for that matter….. Much less have they any investment in whether or not it is dualistic; they deal with it just is the way it is, without any thoughts as to its structure….

“It is your resistance to ‘what is’ that causes your suffering.” — Buddha

The point related here by Buddha is also very astute, and in a way, offers support to the statement above. One of the problems with the idea of humanity changing its basic world view is that we, as a species, have learned to cope with things, as they are, in ways that may not be moral, or ethical, but are very effective in terms of allowing those who use these methods to have their way, thus reinforcing their desire to continue doing things their way. This means that, no matter how logical, or true, a new, different way of doing things may be, no matter how morally or ethically superior, people aren’t going to want to use them, unless it appeals to their own self interest, and rewards them somehow for giving up their old ways…. Difficult to do when it takes away all their power over others….. a very addictive bonus in the old method of coping….

Thus, we see that these people, who learn to love power, deal with their suffering by attempting to change “what is” to suit their own preferences. That others allow them to do so is, to me, one of Life’s great mysteries; I suppose it can be attributed to human stupidity, but I hate to be so simplistic, and would rather think it is either cowardice or cupidity. Neither is more attractive, as a reason, or as an excuse, but at least they place the blame where it belongs. In the larger picture, humankind does not present a very pretty aspect, because our history is rife with examples of how people who know better give in to people who just don’t care.

Hell, our entire system of government, if you look at it dispassionately, can be described as one where the greatest number allows the least number to dominate, merely on the basis of how well they can tell lies…. and it is also set up to reward those who lie, cheat, and steal from their society mates, with the full approval of those mates. Doesn’t make a lot of sense when one looks at it from that direction, does it?

I’m afraid I stumbled into a deep discussion, before my mind was fully prepared to deal with it…. this subject deserves a much more detailed examination, with some expanded reasoning and discussion. But, this morning isn’t the time to do that, as I am already in a small corner, and can’t seem to find a good route back out into the middle. So, we will leave this here, with a pearl that, if nothing else, will provide you with a path out of this morass back into the realms of reason…. as well as giving a hint of how some of us deal with the intransigence of the majority of society….

“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” — Professor Bernardo de la Paz

In the infamous words of the Governator, “I’ll be back….”
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Ah, there it is….. I knew it was in there somewhere…..

Raging at Aging

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid
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I’m feeling a bit lazy this morning, (big surprise!….), so here is an old school pearl, loosely pointing at the value of individuality and self-expression…. with the usual bent toward taking responsibility for self…. In the interests of keeping that purpose foremost, remember this….

Hard work has a future. Laziness pays off now. — Bumper Sticker

See? All in the wrist….. enjoy!

I is the first letter of the alphabet, the first word of the language, the first thought of the mind, the first object of affection. In grammar it is a pronoun of the first person and singular number. Its plural is said to be _We_, but how there can be more than one myself is doubtless clearer the grammarians than it is to the author of this incomparable dictionary. Conception of two myselfs is difficult, but fine. The frank yet graceful use of “I” distinguishes a good writer from a bad; the latter carries it with the manner of a thief trying to cloak his loot. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” — Oscar Wilde

“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Essays: First Series (1841) “Self-Reliance”

“I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” — Sir Winston Churchill

“I know a lot of people without brains who do an awful lot of talking.” — The Scarecrow, Wizard of Oz
(Oops! Busted!…..)

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

Finally, in order to bring just the right touch of class and elegance to this process, I give you this most excellent finishing thought, to return you to the proper state of mindfulness necessary to getting on with the day…..

“My pants just went on a wild rampage through a Long Island Bowling Alley!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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Okay, well, they can’t all be masterpieces…. that would be a bit much to expect, don’t you think? Of course, we are in no danger here of ever being accused of that anyway…. but, we keep trying…. I’m not sure about y’all, but I’m done trying to think coherently for the day. I’m going to save the dark energy simmering in my mind, as my unconsciousness mind chews on the things in my life that are stressful, to let out on some telemarketer, or a bureaucratic bozo who manages to get through my phone screening system…. they generally deserve it, or are at least accustomed to hearing it…. or maybe I’ll go read a newspaper’s front page, to get an idea on how close we are getting to the Apocalypse….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

In the wake of a fashion faux pas….

Posted on October 16, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Very odd, very odd indeed…. endings first, cut and pasting before 0700, relating personal dreams…. what am I thinking? On the whole, though, it promises to be, if nothing else, an interesting day, and I mean that in a good sense, at least hopefully….. I’m kind of dealing with some unknown factors here, so I’m not entirely certain of what I am up to….. or whether or not it will fit seamlessly into my morning routine….. well, seamless isn’t essential, just appreciated when it happens….

If I were at all sure about what I was speaking, I’d most likely get on with it, but, since I’m not, I’m dithering, if you couldn’t tell already. I guess I don’t deal well with this much uncertainty about my writing. Though it IS an energetically unregulated process, for the most part, I do like to have a clear idea of what I’m saying, or speaking about, before beginning. It just seems to work better that way…. and it throws me off when the process gets this far over toward the unlimited lane, and things start rushing along before I have a handle on just where they are rushing off to….. But, that’s reality for you…. always a bit different than expected. Murphy wouldn’t want us to get too comfortable, now, would he?…. No, he wouldn’t….

Keeping Murphy’s ubiquitous presence in mind is good policy. One cannot possibly plan for all of his little machinations; he is, after all, Murphy, and unplanned disasters are what he is all about….. But, keeping in mind what he can do does make it possible to prepare one’s attitude to accept whatever crap he ladles out as our portion for the day, and get on with business afterward, without undue distress over something that is going to happen anyway….. it’s just good sense. Not that I’ve ever been accused of having too much of that; I WAS married for over 20 years, so I’ve been made fully aware of all my faults…. 🙂

My faults notwithstanding, we’d best get on with the regularly scheduled activities…. with the way it’s all begun, there is no telling where we could end up, or how much damage we could conceivably cause if we’re not careful. With that in mind, shall we Pearl?…..
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“The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts human life a little above the level of farce and gives it some of the grace of tragedy.” — Steven Weinberg

In the past year and some time, I’ve written many words… more than I care to think about just now, and a number that some would say deserves the term “interminable”….. None of them comes closer to summarizing how I feel about life in general than this…. I’ve never seen it before, to my knowledge, which detracts in no way from its deep resonance with my core beliefs.

I spend a lot of time discussing those parts of life that lean toward the direction of farce, with no little outrage at the depth of human cupidity and well, bozoid tendencies. In my own way, I suppose, this could be construed as my own effort to try to understand the universe, and our place in it…. I hope so, anyway…. because understanding life has been my only quest for the greatest part of it that I remember, reaching back to when I was five or six, and desperately trying to blend in with all the orange monkeys, while secretly wearing my own coat of blue…. For the two years after beginning school, and being exposed all day to the world outside my family, the gap between myself and my peer group seemed to be unpredictable, in terms of what they perceived, and what I could see and understand.

This isn’t to imply I was an outcast; merely an “egghead”, or other such complimentary terminology, as I found the actual school part of it all quite simple. This did, on the positive side, give me enough time to learn to adapt, and make myself likable for other reasons… sports being one, and applying the principle of “to have friends, be a friend”; I was always generous with helping others in school, with whatever I could do. Plus, I do LIKE people, as a rule…. they often disappoint, but, if one pays attention, they also never fail to amaze, in so many ways.

This study of my peer group from my first memories has persisted throughout my life, and remains today my primary focus of self-directed education, so to speak. I love to sit in public places and watch crowds; I don’t much like being IN crowds, so much as watching them interact with each other, all according to the dancing rules we all learn, from kindergarten onward…. From the first time I ever attended a county fair, my favorite activity at each, was to race through all there was to see, spend all my disposable income, and then spend the remainder of my time sitting near the front gate plaza, watching the people as they came to the fair….. endless entertainment, and still is…. only now, I walk the streets when I’m able, or sit in the public parks, libraries, and coffee shops, wherever I live….

“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

One of the things I’ve learned about people is that human nature is just that… a force of nature. It has not changed much, if at all, since we humans were living in grass huts at the junction of a river; there are still good people, and bad people, and they are most often the same person…. because we all have our own unique view of the world, and our own feelings about what we see and believe we understand. We don’t always have all the information we need at critical times in our lives, and so make decisions that affect our behavior or outlook, decisions which become habits, leading us to believe these habits are justifiable because they work to keep us comfortable…. until they don’t. Life always changes, there is nothing that can stop it from doing so; if we do not learn to change ourselves, to adapt to the changes in the universe around us, it will end up destroying us.

The universe has no mercy, no pity; these are human concepts, and not a part of reality at all. But, being human, we crave justice, for things to be fair…. we bend our efforts to changing the universe to meet our wishes, never realizing that it is folly, that reality does not work that way, and there is nothing at all we can do to alter that reality according to our wishes without suffering the consequences. How quickly those consequences will result in our demise as a species is, of course, a matter of some debate. I tend to believe that we are nearing a breaking point, and the universe is going to be submitting a bill for payment to us, for the damages to our living domicile for which we are responsible, in the very near future…..

It must be noted that most of what I write about, whether I write well, or merely a lot, lends itself equally well to tragedy as it does to farce. In fact, it should also be noted that this is a good metaphor, for human nature. We are contradictory creatures, you, and your Uncle Bob, your Aunt Shirley, and I, and everyone else who makes up human society, filled with warring impulses, and wildly differing viewpoints. The expression of our nature in the real world reflects all of that, in all its tragic, farcical, gloriously foolish splendor…. We inspire and disgust each other on a daily, sometimes hourly basis, especially if one watches a lot of TV, with its completely distorted approximation of reality…. I have pretty much given up on TV completely, as it merely serves to fuel my outrage, and that, as you may have noted already, needs no further encouragement….

Well, a thousand or so words should be enough for a retrospective musing on human nature….. especially when they flow out as smoothly as these. I’ll leave this here, and most likely come back to it another day…. I will leave you with this fine observation from Mssr. Darwin, of The Origin of Species fame…. a book which gave birth to perhaps the finest scientific advance of the millennium, the since-proven Theory of Evolution….. surely a magnificent creation of the human spirit that encompasses both of the elements, farce and tragedy, we explored above….

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” — Charles Darwin
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I would have like to have included here a poem of my own…. but, nothing remotely acceptable is ready to be offered up for approval. Since the first and last pearls are introspectively oriented, one of mine in this spot would be the perfect addition to maintain balance. But, it’s not happening, so we’ll just have to settle for a real poet…. SIGH…. ah well, can’t have everything…. and this should be an acceptable alternative, if a bit longer than is comfortable for some….. enjoy!

Epistle To Augusta

I.
My sister! my sweet sister! if a name
Dearer and purer were, it should be thine;
Mountains and seas divide us, but I claim
No tears, but tenderness to answer mine:
Go where I will, to me thou art the same
A loved regret which I would not resign,
There yet are two things in my destiny, –
A world to roam through, and a home with thee.

II.
The first were nothing-had I still the last,
It were the haven of my happiness;
But other claims and other ties thou hast,
And mine is not the wish to make them less.
A strange doom is thy father’s son’s, and past
Recalling, as it lies beyond redress;
Reversed for him our grandsire’s fate of yore,
He had no rest at sea, nor I on shore.

III.
If my inheritance of storms hath been
In other elements, and on the rocks
Of perils, overlook’d or unforeseen,
I have sustain’d my share of worldly shocks,
The fault was mine; nor do I seek to screen
My errors with defensive paradox;
I have been cunning in mine overthrow,
The careful pilot of my proper woe.

IV.
Mine were my faults, and mine be their reward.
My whole life was a contest, since the day
That gave me being, gave me that which marr’d
The gift,- a fate, or will, that walk’d astray;
And I at times have found the struggle hard,
And thought of shaking off my bonds of clay:
But now I fain would for a time survive,
If but to see what next can well arrive.

V.
Kingdoms and empires in my little day
I have outlived, and yet I am not old;
And when I look on this, the petty spray
Of my own years of trouble, which have roll’d
Like a wild bay of breakers, melts away
Something-I know not what-does still uphold
A spirit of slight patience; not in vain,
Even for its own sake, do we purchase pain.

VI.
Perhaps the workings of defiance stir
Within me – or perhaps a cold despair,
Brought on when ills habitually recur,
Perhaps a kinder clime, or purer air,
(For even to this may change of soul refer,
And with light armour we may learn to bear,)
Have taught me a strange quiet, which was not
The chief companion of a calmer lot.

VII.
I feel almost at times as I have felt
In happy childhood; trees, and flowers, and brooks,
Which do remember me of where I dwelt
Ere my young mind was sacrificed to books,
Come as of yore upon me, and can melt
My heart with recognition of their looks;
And even at moments I could think I see
Some living thing to love-but none like thee.

VIII.
Here are the Alpine landscapes which create
A fund for contemplation;- to admire
Is a brief feeling of a trivial date;
But something worthier do such scenes inspire:
Here to be lonely is not desolate’
For much I view which I could most desire,
And, above all, a lake I can behold
Lovelier, not dearer, than our own of old.

IX.
Oh that thou wert but with me! – but I grow
The fool of my own wishes, and forget
The solitude which I have vaunted so
Has lost its praise in this but one regret;
There may be others which I less may show
I am not of the plaintive mood, and yet
I feel an ebb in my philosophy,
And the tide rising in my alter’d eye.

X.
I did remind thee of our own dear Lake,
By the old Hall which may be mine no more.
Leman’s is fair; but think not I forsake
The sweet remembrance of a dearer shore:
Sad havoc Time must with my memory make,
Ere that or thou can fade these eyes before;
Though, like all things which I have loved they are
Resign ‘d For ever, or divided far.

XI.
The world is all before me; I but ask
Of Nature that with which she will comply
It is but in her summer’s sun to bask,
To mingle with the quiet of her sky,
To see her gentle face without a mask,
And never gaze on it with apathy.
She was my early friend, and now shall be
My sister – till I look again on thee.

XII.
I can reduce all feelings but this one;
And that I would not; for at length I see
Such scenes as those wherein my life begun.
The earliest – even the only paths for me –
Had I but sooner learnt the crowd to shun,
I had been better than I now can be;
The passions which have torn me would have slept;
I had not suffer’d, and thou hadst not wept.

XIII.
With false Ambition what had I to do?
Little with Love, and least of all with Fame;
And yet they came unsought, and with me grew,
And made me all which they can make -a name.
Yet this was not the end I did pursue;
Surely I once beheld a nobler aim.
But all is over – I am one the more
To baffled millions which have gone before.

XIV.
And for the future, this world’s future may
From me demand but little of my care;
I have outlived myself by many a day;
Having survived so many things that were;
My years have been no slumber, but the prey
Of ceaseless vigils; for I had the share
Of life which might have fill’d a century,
Before its fourth in time had pass’d me by.

XV.
And for the remnant which may be to come
I am content; and for the past I feel
Not thankless,-for within the crowded sum
Of struggles, happiness at times would steal,
And for the present, I would not benumb
My feelings further. – Nor shall I conceal
That with all this I still can look around,
And worship Nature with a thought profound.

XVI.
For thee, my own sweet sister, in thy heart
I know myself secure, as thou in mine;
We were and are – I am, even as thou art
Beings who ne’er each other can resign;
It is the same, together or apart,
From life’s commencement to its slow decline
We are entwined-let death come slow or fast,
The tie which bound the first endures the last!

George Gordon Lord Byron
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“We are born for a higher destiny than that of earth.- There is a realm where the rainbow never fades, where the stars will spread out before us like islands that slumber on the ocean, and where the beings that pass before us like shadows, will stay in our presence forever.” — Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873)

Here is precisely what I meant the other day when I said that people often disappoint, but just as often will delight and amaze us with their brilliance…. This is the same Bulwer-Lytton who penned the famous beginning line “It was a dark and stormy night….”, which went on to become the inspiration for a yearly contest to find the example of the worst possible beginning paragraph of a book, the Annual Bulwer-Lytton Award, now worth many thousands of dollars to the winner…..

In this short statement, in direct contrast to his famous opening lines, he gives us a quite beautiful expression of the hopes of mankind, to explore our universe, from one end to the other, in order to appreciate the full extent of the grandeur that exists…. Of course, it’s a bit optimistic, considering we have yet to make it further than Mars, but, I suppose that is what groundless hope means…. and it has been said that is the only kind of hope there is, really….. I’m not completely certain that is true, in every case; the universe is strange indeed, and the one thing you can count on is that it will always surprise us……

I like the idea proposed here, if only because it was a dream of mine in my youth to not accept dying until I had at least traveled to one other planet (or Moon, if necessary….). I had little hope of achieving it once I discovered I didn’t have the required excellent vision to get into the astronaut program; at the time, you had to be a pilot to get in, and jet pilots don’t wear glasses…. SIGH…. It was a tough dream to give up on, and I still hoard a secret desire to fulfill the dream, should it happen to become tenable while I still live…. given my age, there is not a lot of time left, but, hey, there’s that groundless hope again, eh?…..

I was greatly impressed with the recent NASA triumph of successfully landing the Curiosity Rover on the surface of Mars, intact, and apparently with all systems functional; it is indeed the pinnacle of all the technological progress our species has made in all our history. The engineering involved was incredibly complex, and required a long series of complicated maneuvers, all at specific times, each of which was essential to the successful completion of the next item. The fact that all of them worked perfectly was a true technological miracle of major proportions, especially given that all this took place many millions of miles into space, rushing at incredible speed toward Mars. Now, the full color pictures and spectroscopic data it is sending back will provide us with a huge amount of new information to correlate and explain.

It almost gives me hope that I could still see the surface of the Moon as a tourist before I am too old to get there…. Once I’m there, I really won’t mind dying much, especially if I get a chance to see a bit of its wonders before I go…. Ah me, the dreams of our youth never really die, do they?….. And this is a dream that I will hold onto right up to the very moment I go on to the next dimension…..
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Today’s Pearl turned into a personal perspective, which is fine, if a bit unusual…. I don’t hide much, personally, but I don’t parade it much either, so today’s effort was somewhat out of the normal…. an attribute we approve of highly around here…… Besides, it all must have needed to be said, especially the first section, all of which rolled out of my head onto the screen in just a few minutes; it was all ready to go, so it must have been percolating for a bit…. Any who, it’s all good, and no major secrets were given away….. I can call that a moral victory, without fear of being wrong….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Let’s Talk About Porn

Posted on October 15, 2012 by gigoid

Ms. Mott again brings light to where there was once only darkness…..

Rebecca Mott

Dedicated to Julia Long – we both want the same thing from different roads.

Porn is talked about everywhere, porn is seen everywhere, porn is the background to our waking moments, porn enters ours nightmares claiming to our dreams.

But in this avalanche of porn there is a deadly silence of the multiple voices of the women and girls inside porn – there are no words to show their realities.

In this post, I speak to that silence.

I am not speaking for the “pain” of those who choose to consume porn.

I am not interested in finding the myth of porn that treats women and girls inside it with respect and dignity. I do not think there is a difference between lesbian and hetero porn – porn is violence to the females in it, full stop.

I am not bother by the millions of justifications for producing porn – bottom line, it…

View original post 953 more words

Elements of improbable style…..

Posted on October 15, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Unknown random thoughts awoke me early today, and I have yet to pin them down sufficiently to see just why it was so bloody important for me to be up just now (0645…. that’s AM, in case the military time doesn’t compute….). I can’t see anything particularly in need of my attention, and I can’t believe my head got me up just to witness the very short power outage at 0642, which lasted all the way until 0643….. my assistance was not necessary, other than to re-program a couple of clocks, which could have been done later.

Considering my retired state, and the fact that I don’t HAVE to get up at all, should I so wish, whatever reason I’ve been summoned awake at this hour is insulting, not to say a bit tiring….. and if it was merely to set the clocks, then I need to have a serious discussion with my unconscious mind; it’s getting a bit out of whack with reality, and what is important. But, hey, I’m up, so I may as well begin the Beguine…. so to speak. (And, boy, did I just date myself there!…..) (Of course, I MAY be the only one left alive who knows the song, so…. I might be safe….)

Much of today’s Pearl was written last night, as Smart Bee presented me at that time with a plethora of quotes with which to work. In addition to the fine group of them that centered on my usual topics, I also found this one, which relates to a post I made some weeks ago; that post, it turns out, was a pivotal post, as it seems to somehow have attracted a large number of new readers to my blog, many of which have begun to follow it, to my delight and surprise.

That post, the title of which escapes me (as they all do, since I don’t bother to make them logical, or indicative of content….) spoke in the intro section about fish sauce, and its importance in society….. That post has become the most widely read post I ever wrote, with well over 30 Likes, and a number of comments….. Fish sauce struck a chord, somehow, with a LOT of people, it seems…. Any who, the following may shed light on just why it turned out to be so popular…..

“SAUCE, n. The one infallible sign of civilization and enlightenment. A people with no sauces has one thousand vices; a people with one sauce has only nine hundred and ninety-nine. For every sauce invented and accepted a vice is renounced and forgiven.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

I find this to be somewhat comforting, all in all, as it lends to the concept of civilization a somewhat elegant veneer. Little did I, or any other historian or scholar, for that matter, realize just how intrinsic to the inner nature of society Sauces really are…. I do know that the world would be a darker, sadder place without gravy, especially Country Gravy, and who can deny the socially redeeming value of a good Hollandaise? Then, of course, there is fish sauce, without which our society would never have arisen, lifted up from the culture of the caves to assume the grandeur of what it is now. We owe a lot to Sauces, and fish sauce is one of the grandest sauces ever conceived. I don’t know about y’all, but a fresh fish sauce just makes my toes curl in anticipation…. YUM!

Okay, now that is over, my medication is starting to take effect, so fish sauce stories will soon become impossible to write, much less explain later to the authorities…. It must be time to put all this aside, and get on with the scheduled program…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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While searching for pearls for this morning, (as noted above, last evening would be more accurate…..) it seems as if Smart Bee wants me to take a few shots again at the political scene here in America…. almost all of what is coming up is pointed in that direction, and who am I to disparage Smart Bee?….. So, here are some pearls, some from political figures, some from philosophers, some from talking animals, and some from screenwriters…. maybe some others, too…. My comments will appear between pearls, to provide some direction….. if it can be called such….

Nick: “There are lots of things worse than movies: politicians, wars, forest fires, famine, plague, sickness, pain, warts, politicians…”
Jack: “You already mentioned them.”
Nick: “I know I did. They are twice as bad as anything else.”

— The Last Action Hero

Years ago fairy tales all began with “Once upon a time…”, now we know they all begin with, “If I am elected…” — Carolyn Warner

These two pearls are such that just about every American can identify with, and that is just sad. Nobody in this country will argue with either of the above opinions, as expressed, because they know there is just too much evidence proving them to be true. Deciding for whom to vote is no longer a matter of examining and comparing the candidates’ positions on various issues, but rather a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. And, as Jerry Garcia once pointed out, “The lesser of two evils is still evil….” We will know that things are changing if ever someone hears this kind of joke, and objects….

“I have never been hurt by anything I didn’t say.” — Calvin Coolidge

It is really too bad that more politicians don’t take what Calvin said to heart. In fact, it seems that Mr. Romney has not only NOT listened to this advice, but has actually gone in the other direction; just about every time he opens his mouth to speak, he says something that he later regrets. This is not merely my opinion…. just look at the news every day, and you will find yet another example of how poorly qualified he is to speak in public.

“Ah say, son, you’re about as sharp as a bowlin’ ball.” — Foghorn Leghorn

The saddest and most disheartening part of it is two-fold; one, in his bowling ball state, he believes that, merely because he wants to be President, he should be allowed to be President…..

“Faith: not wanting to know what is true.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Second, there are millions of IDIOTS, wallowing in their faith, who actually listen to him, and nod their doltish heads in agreement as he spouts off again…. They do this without ever pausing to consider whether or not what he says is true, because he has appealed to their basic fears, their bigotry and racism. It’s quite pathetic, when viewed dispassionately…. and what is true gets lost in the shuffle…

“Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do.” — President Ronald Reagan

“Poor dear, there’s nothing between his ears.” — Margaret Thatcher, — about Ronald Reagan, in the 6/2/88 issue of The New York Times

But, the idiocy we see in Romney’s acolytes is actually comprehensible when one considers that these are the same fools who thought Reagan was a saint, when in actuality, as the above statement shows, he was not only a fool, but a vicious, narcissistic fool, who didn’t care at all that what he said was absolutely false, as long as it served his purpose. To make such an ignorant statement as the above shows me not only that he hates Americans, but has no respect for them, or for their innate intelligence…. not to mention his cluelessness re: his own lack of IQ points….

“If you can’t say somethin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.” — Thumper (1942)

Ronnie, and now, Mitt the Twitt, will never understand what Thumper said; they probably think that there is nothing to learn from a cartoon rabbit. While Thumper’s mom obviously has a compassionate nature, and some common sense, these men simply cannot comprehend how a metaphor can apply to them. Of course, I’m fairly certain that neither Romney, nor Reagan, could have defined the word “metaphor”, much less understand how it might apply to them. They just don’t care enough about anyone else for that kind of insight to ever occur in their insulated little world of delusion….

“No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the Legislature is in session.” — Lysander Spooner

Here is another pearl whose very existence is telling. The very fact that someone can say this at all implies that it is a foregone conclusion, that it is such a truism that there is no argument whenever such criticisms are leveled. Everyone knows about this, but, like the weather, nobody ever does anything about it…..

“Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its one sure defense.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910), Notebook, 1888

Thus, the final line explains the process of creating Pearls of Virtual Wisdom; they are my inadequate but sincere attempt to defend the liberties that are threatened by these political assholes who want to get rid of the basic rights our forefathers procured for us. If I can make one person laugh, or stop to consider what I’ve said, then I’ve achieved my basic purpose…. which is more than can be said for many of my undertakings. I can only hope that by doing so, I can, in some small way, contribute to the dispersal of the truth about the congenital liars and thieves who are currently trying to usurp this country, and send us back to the dark ages….. And we all know who is behind them, don’t we?…..

:Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility.” — Ambrose Bierce: “The Devil’s Dictionary”
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I’ve sat and stared at the screen for about a half-hour or so now, and nothing seems to be gelling, at least, not into anything remotely resembling poetry…. SIGH…. I suppose this means we’ll have to settle for something classic this morning….. such a burden!….. 🙂 Ah yes…. after so much reality, a bit of fantasy, from one of the Romantics….

Faery Songs

I.
Shed no tear! oh, shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Weep no more! oh, weep no more!
Young buds sleep in the root’s white core.
Dry your eyes! oh, dry your eyes!
For I was taught in Paradise
To ease my breast of melodies,–
Shed no tear.

Overhead! look overhead!
‘Mong the blossoms white and red–
Look up, look up! I flutter now
On this fresh pomegranate bough.
See me! ’tis this silvery bill
Ever cures the good man’s ill.
Shed no tear! oh, shed no tear!
The flower will bloom another year.
Adieu, adieu — I fly — adieu!
I vanish in the heaven’s blue,–
Adieu, adieu!

II.
Ah! woe is me! poor silver-wing!
That I must chant thy lady’s dirge,
And death to this fair haunt of spring,
Of melody, and streams of flowery verge,–
Poor silver-wing! ah! woe is me!
That I must see
These blossoms snow upon thy lady’s pall!
Go, pretty page! and in her ear
Whisper that the hour is near!
Softly tell her not to fear
Such calm favonian burial!
Go, pretty page! and soothly tell,–
The blossoms hang by a melting spell,
And fall they must, ere a star wink thrice
Upon her closed eyes,
That now in vain are weeping their last tears,
At sweet life leaving, and these arbours green,–
Rich dowry from the Spirit of the Spheres,
Alas! poor Queen!

John Keats
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Since I used an old school pearl format above to take some shots at the political spectrum, I thought this would be a good spot for a bit of the same sport with my other favorite whipping boy…. religion, and the folks who like to fiddle around with it….. This time, I’ll leave the pearls to their own devices, and allow your minds to meander among them as you would, picking out the choicest pieces for perusal…. Enjoy!…

“You believe God created you in one day? Yeah, looks like a rush job…” — Smart Bee

“Instead of striving to be like Jesus most Christians would rather presume that Jesus was just like them.” — Callan Williams

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

Born again? No thanks, I was born right the first time…. — Bumper Snicker

Born again? Mom said, NO WAY!…. — Smart Bee

“One Galileo in two thousand years is enough.” — Pope Pius XII
(Shows how brave they are, eh? And how worried about people who can actually think….)

God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM. — Exodus 3:14
(So…. God is Popeye…. who knew?….)

That is most likely enough for one day. I imagine pearls such as this one tend to drag my karmic burden a little further into the gutter, but, I can’t resist….. We, as humans, have a lot of payback coming when it comes to religion, and all the shit it has heaped on us humans in the last 5000 years….. I’m just getting some of mine back early, that’s all….
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I’ll take it. Sometimes, the best policy is to just take the money and run. Since I know for a fact that no money will be changing hands today, I’m proceeding directly to the running part…. I’ve always found myself to be a more difficult target when I’m running…. I do hope you’ve enjoyed today’s efforts; I’d be crushed if you didn’t…. well, sort of crushed….. Any who, y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

gigoid

Ned Moore, aka gigoid, is a 70 year-old, (!!!… When did that happen?….), retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat, most days. His first blog, "gigoid’s folly", has been emailed out to folks he knows for about 18 years now. He still considers it his best defense against angst, and the ever-present specter of sheer insanity..... Due to rigorous curmudgeon training requirements, he has discontinued his Facebook presence, but still indulges in the occasional Twitter session... In essence, he's socialized, but, not overly sociable; all labels and stereotypes are forbidden in his presence... and he doesn't care what anyone thinks about that..... In fact, he doesn't want to talk anymore.... If you feel you MUST contact gigoid, his email address is: alphagigoid@gmail.com You can go read now.... Go on, beat it.... gigoid, the dubious

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