Monthly Archives: September 2013

Give us a piteous whimper, Number Six….

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Ffolkes,

    Today, like any other day, has yet to show its true potential, though even now, the feeling of pregnant possibility is almost palpable. It’s hard to describe, actually, this feeling of electric, buzzing anticipation of…. what?  The very unknown qualities of the future, far-distant or immediate, add a certain tingle of both fear, and burgeoning joy, to the mix of emotions that swirl as we ponder the day’s dawning….

    For some, this jittery, bouncy feeling is too much of a morning, so, they bury their nose in a paper, sip their coffee, and try not to think about what might happen… But, for others, such as meself…. well, let’s just say that there’s no better start to the day than to feel as if it will be filled with challenges, with problems, with solutions, and with both joy, and pain…. Not a bad day, for a human… It’s like Lazarus used to say….

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

    I can do all of the above, except program a computer (I can learn, though, and am in the process of doing so, slowly….), and balance my checking account…. Well, actually, not true… I have had it balanced, once or twice in the dim, dark past; now, I just let the bank do it, and keep track of it online… So, this means I can consider myself a human, by these standards, which I consider to be an accurate summation, and much the same as the conclusions I had already come to in my life. Of course, reading Heinlein’s work since the age of 11 hasn’t hurt a bit in developing those beliefs and standards….

    Nor did it hurt to be raised by a Master Sergeant…. I always call my dad that, but, I wouldn’t want to give the impression that was ALL he was… He lived for 72 years, but spent only 20 of that in the army, so, there was more to him than that…. But, in my mind, the fact that, after those 20 years of service, he ended up at that rank as his permanent billet, (though he was promoted after retiring; that is standard. By the time of his death, he had been promoted to major….), is an indication of what kind of man he was…. It is a well-known, and accepted, fact that in the army, Master Sergeants are the ones who actually run things…. smart officers leave the bulk of their duty to the sergeants, merely giving good orders, and staying out of their way….

    But, my father was more than merely a Master Sergeant; it’s just a convenient handle to describe him, and to give an idea of what sort of guy he was…. Any who, I’ve wandered around again, without much purpose, and seem to have ended up in a place where I can’t find an easy way out, and into the Pearl… Not unusual, I suppose, merely bothersome…. Oh well, I think I’ll use emergency procedure # 1, which is in its place at the head of the entire group of techniques for saving my ass because it always works… It’s called the Bail-Out, for good reason: it just stops, and…..
_____________________________

    And, you never hear from me again on whatever subject was at hand…. Pretty cool, eh? It ALWAYS works…. So, having been dumped here in the first section, clueless as to something to write (No, nothing new in that, I know, but a PITA, nonetheless….). I guess I’ll go old-school, like I had any intention of doing anything else….  😆

“An older student came to Otis and said, “I have been to see a great number of teachers and I have given up a great number of pleasures. I have fasted, been celibate and stayed awake nights seeking enlightenment. I have given up everything I was asked to give up and I have suffered, but I have not been enlightened. What should I do?” Otis replied, “Give up suffering.” — Camden Benares, “Zen Without Zen Masters”

“When the rich make war it’s the poor that die.” — Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980), “Le Diable et le bon Dieu”, 1951

“His seat back is not in the full upright and locked position.” — Smart Bee

“Food, sleep, fear, propagation; each is the common property of men with brutes. Virtue is really their additional distinction; devoid of virtue, they are equal with brutes.” — The Hitopadesa (600?-1100? A.D.)

“All but the hard hearted man must be torn with pity for this pathetic dilemma of the rich man, who has to keep the poor man just stout enough to do the work and just thin enough to have to do it.” — G. K. Chesterton, Utopia of Usurers, 1917

“There’s a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure truth.” — Maya Angelou

“Never commit yourself to a cheese without having first examined it.” — T. S. Eliot
_____________________________

    Poetry such as this needs no adornment from me…..

Love Is A Parallax

‘Perspective betrays with its dichotomy:
train tracks always meet, not here, but only
   in the impossible mind’s eye;
horizons beat a retreat as we embark
on sophist seas to overtake that mark
   where wave pretends to drench real sky.’

‘Well then, if we agree, it is not odd
that one man’s devil is another’s god
   or that the solar spectrum is
a multitude of shaded grays; suspense
on the quicksands of ambivalence
   is our life’s whole nemesis.

So we could rave on, darling, you and I,
until the stars tick out a lullaby
   about each cosmic pro and con;
nothing changes, for all the blazing of
our drastic jargon, but clock hands that move
   implacably from twelve to one.

We raise our arguments like sitting ducks
to knock them down with logic or with luck
   and contradict ourselves for fun;
the waitress holds our coats and we put on
the raw wind like a scarf; love is a faun
   who insists his playmates run.

Now you, my intellectual leprechaun,
would have me swallow the entire sun
   like an enormous oyster, down
the ocean in one gulp: you say a mark
of comet hara-kiri through the dark
   should inflame the sleeping town.

So kiss: the drunks upon the curb and dames
in dubious doorways forget their monday names,
   caper with candles in their heads;
the leaves applaud, and santa claus flies in
scattering candy from a zeppelin,
   playing his prodigal charades.

The moon leans down to took; the tilting fish
in the rare river wink and laugh; we lavish
   blessings right and left and cry
hello, and then hello again in deaf
churchyard ears until the starlit stiff
   graves all carol in reply.

Now kiss again: till our strict father leans
to call for curtain on our thousand scenes;
   brazen actors mock at him,
multiply pink harlequins and sing
in gay ventriloquy from wing to wing
   while footlights flare and houselights dim.

Tell now, we taunt where black or white begins
and separate the flutes from violins:
   the algebra of absolutes
explodes in a kaleidoscope of shapes
that jar, while each polemic jackanapes
   joins his enemies’ recruits.

The paradox is that ‘the play’s the thing’:
though prima donna pouts and critic stings,
   there burns throughout the line of words,
the cultivated act, a fierce brief fusion
which dreamers call real, and realists, illusion:
   an insight like the flight of birds:

Arrows that lacerate the sky, while knowing
the secret of their ecstasy’s in going;
   some day, moving, one will drop,
and, dropping, die, to trace a wound that heals
only to reopen as flesh congeals:
   cycling phoenix never stops.

So we shall walk barefoot on walnut shells
of withered worlds, and stamp out puny hells
   and heavens till the spirits squeak
surrender: to build our bed as high as jack’s
bold beanstalk; lie and love till sharp scythe hacks
   away our rationed days and weeks.

Then jet the blue tent topple, stars rain down,
and god or void appall us till we drown
   in our own tears: today we start
to pay the piper with each breath, yet love
knows not of death nor calculus above
   the simple sum of heart plus heart.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

_____________________________

    I haven’t ranted today, and I rather think I’ll not do so at all, being, as I am, in a state of mind NOT conducive to the proper critical assault of some deserving asshole in the public venue…. although, I’m certain, there is SOMEONE in the news today who deserves an insult or two as payback for their asininity…… Hell, I could easily take two or three minutes, peruse the news headlines, and come up with the name of one or two appropriate candidates…. I’m just too lazy this morning to do so….

    I’m gonna go for another old-school pearl, as you probably knew I would, once you saw the word ‘lazy’…. Let’s see what The Notebooks of Lazarus Long have for us along the lines of some ironic, or possibly sardonic, observations on that historically ubiquitous obstacle to the progress of mankind, Religion, or as we like to call it here, the Priestly Hierarchies…. All of these are from Robert Heinlein, via Lazarus, with just a bit of help from Smart Bee….

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

“One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh.  “

“Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.”

“The most preposterous notion that H. sapiens has ever dreamed up is that the Lord God of Creation, Shaper and Ruler of all the Universes, wants the saccharine adoration of His creatures, can be swayed by their prayers, and becomes petulant if He does not receive this flattery. yet this absurd fantasy, without a shred of evidence to bolster it, pays all the expenses of the oldest, largest, and least productive industry in all history.”

“God split himself into a myriad parts that he might have friends.” This may not be true, but it sounds good — and is no sillier than any other theology.”

“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.”

“Doubt is the beginning, not the end, of wisdom.” — Smart Bee

    Well, there you have it, ffolkes…. My own personal invitation to Hell, if the Christians have their way….   😉
_____________________________

    Okay, so, they can’t all be brilliant…. Now, if only I could get ONE of them to approach that, I’d be happy…. Let’s see where on the scale this one falls….

    Okay, well, I’m impressed… I was barely paying attention, and this came out pretty good…. I’ll have to try this more often, if I can figure out whatever the hell it is that I did differently…. See ya, ffolkes…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Surveys are calling for juicier burgers….

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Ffolkes,

It’s entirely possible that I’m drying up….. I’ve written so much in the last two years, it’s all starting to sound the same; if there is one thing I refuse to consider, it is repeating my self to no purpose. I’ve repeated myself here, of course, many times, as I have continued my campaign to show as many ffolkes as I can just how badly they are being disrespected by the BRC, the PH’s, their CM’s, and the blind, vicious masses of myrmidons who loyally, if immorally, support them all, hoping beyond hope enough people would hear the truths I’m shouting out, and begin to work toward stopping them from killing us all….

In that campaign, and to pursue the stated end,I HAVE repeated my assertions, any number of times, which is why I think I may not have much left. It all is beginning to seem futile, at the least, and completely pointless, at the worst; I cannot see much evidence that all I’ve been saying is getting us very far toward salvation as a society. Oh, don’t worry, I’m not a complete idiot (presumably); I don’t believe that I am the world’s savior, or that I have the only message worth hearing, and I certainly don’t claim to be the world’s most compelling writer, even if I do use a lot of big words…. 7 billion people who have NOT ever read what I write can’t be ALL wrong, can they?….

No, I can’t claim to be the most important, or the best, or even the most committed writer of what could be called “calls to action” (though, perhaps, the most prolific in word-count); a lot of people, who are (maybe) better writers, and who certainly have more readers, also write about this stuff, every day, in a lot of news outlets. There are organizations with web sites who have been formed solely for the purpose of counting all the lies that politicians tell us (fact checkers, they call themselves….), checking the claims made in their speeches against reality, to ascertain the level of truth being told….. At last check, the claims I’ve made, about ALL of them, that they are ALL lying, have been proven, beyond a doubt, to be absolutely correct…..

However, truthful as I may be, I’m getting a bit tired of continually promoting a message that, even though annoyingly and humiliatingly true, as well as bitterly ugly, does not seem to outrage others as much as it does me…. I don’t understand how the press can constantly print the crap they do, allowing the lies that are put out to be distributed beyond all hope of counteraction…. It is as if the entire society has accepted the lies as their only truth; even the media will breathlessly repeat anything said by a major politician, without ever checking the statements for truth, in full awareness that what they are repeating may not be the truth…. They know what they’re doing, but, because it makes a profit, or in some other way meets their need for expediency, they refuse to stop reporting what they KNOW, or, at least, suspect, to be false….

Actually, I don’t know if profit is the ONLY motive of those who report the news…. I do know it is the sole motive of those who own and control the media; their primary concern has always been one of control of information, not the undisciplined spread of it. But, it really doesn’t matter what their motive may be, as the end result is the same; a society controlled by shadowy masters who have no compunction about lying, cheating, or stealing their way into power, then using that power to consolidate their positions, making it damn near impossible to either remove them…. most of the time, they don’t allow the media, or anyone, to even identify them….

Those who have the real power in this world tend to stick to the shadows and back alleys, (which, oddly enough, look strangely like penthouses and country mansions….), never showing their faces to a public that would revolt and tear them limb from limb, had they any clue as to their real part in how reality is ordered….. They don’t like to be photographed, and they never walk in public venues without security at close hand, to protect them from the “mean streets”, filled with the mostly ignorant inhabitants, of the world they have created to suit themselves.

I would imagine that even the most powerful politicians in the world haven’t a clue that they are really puppets, controlled by people who will never give up their clandestine power. If the world’s political leaders were ever made aware of the degree to which they are no more than marionettes for their invisible masters, just like the unwashed masses they lord it over, it could conceivably cause problems for those who have the real power, which they aren’t going to allow…. The real rulers of this planet have had many thousands of years of practice at directing human culture into the channels they desire, wherein the great mass of humanity believes their leaders are good people, trying to make their lives better, when in reality, we are all headed straight to a Dante-esque version of Hell, of our own making….

On that positive note, I think I should go on to the rest of today’s outburst, before I rant myself into a coma…. As pleasant as that prospect may sound to some, I’ll pass, thank you….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“Sex! Lies! Drugs! Money! Power! Corruption! Man, I love Congress!” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

I’ve waited a long time, and spent a lot of time very diligently searching the Net for an article such as this one…. It is a very even-handed, and more importantly, realistic take on all the stuff that the politicians use to whip the public into a frenzy of fear, whenever there is a new mass shooting, or another terrorist attack somewhere. Such reports of terrorist activity doesn’t even have to be happening here, in this country, for some of the media pundits and politicians to use it as a method of creating panic and outrage in the public arena.

The author acknowledges a little known, and certainly under-appreciated fact, which can be stated thus: when the number of shootings are actually COUNTED, there are actually no more of them happening now than at any other time since statistics on the matter have been collected. In fact, several earlier periods of our history, especially in the last century, experienced significantly more terrorist bombings, and more mass shootings, than have occurred in the first 13 years of this century. These are numerical FACTS, ffolkes, not speculation, or guesses…. The pundits WANT the people in fear, so they promote that agenda, with no shame at all…

Because the political pundits would rather keep the public in a state of suppressed panic than tell them the truth, they flood the media with emotional diatribes against unseen, sometimes even non-existent dangers, in order to manipulate the great unwashed masses into accepting new limits on their freedom, in the form of “temporary” laws they tell us are only there to protect us, but, in reality, will be used to spy on their own people, operate clandestine prisons and courts with no oversight, and arrest even law-abiding citizens who fit their profiles of a possible terrorist….

Did you know that the right to publicly assemble to address the government with grievances has been done away with?…. Yep, look it up, ffolkes, the Patriot Act makes it a crime to gather a certain number of people without a permit…. which they are NOT giving out…. They — “They” being police authorities and/or military troops, or even agents of government bureaus, such as Homeland Security, the FBI, or the NSA, or ‘special agents’ of some other acronym we haven’t even been made aware of, acting blindly, but with full cooperation and agreement, under the orders of politicians — they no longer need to give it out, anyway, as it is now legal for them to arrest anyone at such an event, under suspicion of terrorist actions, and they don’t have to explain it to ANYONE!…. Truth, y’all…. Capisce?

Read the article ffolkes, it’s an eye-opener, and gives a good take on a subject most are afraid to even discuss….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Terror-mass-shootings-don-t-mean-more-danger-4852423.php

“Although a wise man might urge that one should suffer fools gladly, this should not be construed as license for any fool to demand that one do so.” — Frederic William Kantor
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Today’s Pearl has, so far, come from within the confines of my own mind, such as it is, and, as far as it goes, so, for the poetry selection, we’ll go with one of mine, as well, to maintain balance, and to ensure that no one else can be blamed for any of what has transpired here today….

Unheralded Sagacity…

To many, who will not see beyond their nose
the world becomes a dangerous place,
a bullet in every gun, a thorn with every rose,
no magic comes to save us, reality leaves no trace.

Minds closed, wrapped tight in manufactured fears,
men become clay, easily molded into complacent form.
No chains needed, held in thrall for years,
lies become gospel, when dishonesty is the norm.

Shed the chains you wear in durance, in kind;
Oh, ye of little faith, and much doubt
Strength is found in an unfettered mind,
Cry “freedom” with a great shout.

No help from any gods can hinder so much
as our own lack of confidence;
finding the light within, knowing it as such
confirms us, becoming consequence.

Illumination…..

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Thus far today, I’ve ranted, twice, if one cares to be technical, and used one of my own poems as ballast; that order of events dictates that this section will be an old-school pearl, and who am I to fuck with tradition, eh?….. I have no idea what direction it will take, but, I’m hoping for a good grouping, to finish off what feels like a good effort…. Let’s see what we can persuade Smart Bee to let loose….

— Bother! said Pooh, as the Borg assimilated him.

“There are many who consider as an injury to themselves any conduct which they have a distaste for, and resent it as an outrage to their feelings; as a religious bigot, when charged with disregarding the religious feelings of others, has been known to retort that they disregard his feelings, by persisting in their abominable worship or creed. But there is no parity between the feeling of a person for his own opinion, and the feeling of another who is offended at his holding it; no more than between the desire of a thief to take a purse, and the desire of the right owner to keep it.  And a person’s taste is as much his own peculiar concern as his opinion or his purse. It is easy for any one to imagine an ideal public, which leaves the freedom and choice of individuals in all uncertain matters undisturbed, and only requires them to abstain from modes of conduct which universal experience has condemned. But where has there been seen a public which set any such limit to its censorship? or when does the public trouble itself about universal experience? In its interferences with personal conduct it is seldom thinking of anything but the enormity of acting or feeling differently from itself; and this standard of judgment, thinly disguised, is held up to mankind as the dictate of religion and philosophy, by nine-tenths of all moralists and speculative writers.” — John Stuart Mill, _On Liberty_, Chapter IV

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

“Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically–for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist–but then what isn’t?” — Quentin Crisp, 1984

“I’m going to live forever, or die trying!” — Spider Robinson

“All generalizations are dangerous, perhaps even this one. There are exceptions to the rule, but this does not appear to be one of them.” — Smart Bee

— You may be redneck… If the Borg refuse to assimilate you.

Okay, well, hmm….. I am speechless…. moreover, I’m in awe, of SB’s sheer genius at what Dorothy L. Sayers called piffle, what the world-at-large calls insane nonsense, and what I call damn fine irony…. I hope you enjoy this one…. I did…..
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“Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?” — Friedrich Nietzsche

Yes! Yes! Now, THAT’S what I’m talkin’ about!!! Of course, once I read it through from start to finish, it could fall apart, but, for now, it feels like a good one…. Let’s go see….

For once, I was right, even though I’m a man, and I’m standing in a forest, by myself, talking…. I have it on good authority that in such cases, I am always wrong… Nonetheless, this is a good one, and I’m not going to listen to anything to the contrary… Well, wrong, I’ll listen, but, I won’t agree…. Not only that, but, it’s done! So, see ya…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Bolstered by the innuendo, he preened….

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Ffolkes,

Since the fear of the blank page that formerly caused me so much frustration is no longer a problem, I seem to have evolved a different type of issue in the introduction, to wit: long-winded ranting, before I’m even awake, or have had sufficient coffee to allow me to organize my thoughts with some elegance, rather than just emotionally-driven indictments of the BRC, the Priestly Hierarchies, and their myrmidons, the military/police wannabees….

I call them wannabees because the ones to whom I refer have a tendency to be those men and/or women who enter those groups in order to feel powerful, to exercise authority over others, which is a sublimation of their own feelings of inadequacy; becoming policemen, they believe,  allows them to let out their inner bully with societal approval. As a general rule, the self-image these folks have is poor, and they need the job to feel like they are a real tough guy, never realizing that real tough guys don’t NEED a position to feel self-confident…

The ranting I’ve been letting myself perform in the intros of late has been somewhat general, purposely. When I’m just railing away at the idiocy that I see being acted out in the public arena, I don’t usually try to bring in a lot of detailed evidence, relying on the evidence that is shown each day in the news, and can be easily found by anyone willing to keep an open mind. In that sense, what I see in the news is available for all to see, so I don’t feel I need to provide anything else to support my claims…. and I get very few challenges (I don’t know if that’s because everyone agrees, or nobody is seeing it, and it doesn’t matter, ultimately…. same result…).

Where this is going is not clear; I’m merely trying to get a handle on what has been happening in the mornings, so I can at least TRY to put some elegance, or a bit of pizazz into it….. (Wow… “pizazz” didn’t trip the spell checker!….). I don’t mind the ranting; it does give me a chance to go more old school in the three sections, which is good from my standpoint…. There is much less effort involved for me to put together a good random, harlequin pearl, than there is in using my reasoning powers to create a ranting pearl…. In the former case, Smart Bee does the hard part, and I just have to keep a sharp eye on the choices made; in the latter case, I must actually activate neurons, use deduction and intuition, and generally work a lot harder for the same net result….

Maybe that is why I’ve been ranting here, in the intro, to get the hard part out of the way first, allowing me to cruise downhill for the remainder of the day’s effort…. To believe that, however, I would have to attribute a greater degree of intelligence to my subconscious than it has heretofore shown; its usual efforts to manipulate my conscious mind aren’t very subtle, or complex, nor particularly effective, as a rule.

The sub-, or unconscious part of our minds is not fully understood, but, I’ve found mine to be stubborn, a bit selfish, and overly opinionated, but, with strong virtues that determine a lot of what it wants me to do…. Sadly, it doesn’t have a good grasp of reality, and will often make demands that cannot be met in the real world, causing a lot of angst if it doesn’t get its way….

Or, this all could be a trick that my conscious mind has developed, to distract y’all from what actually transpires here in the beginning of these missives….. Nah! No way….. I wouldn’t do that to anyone I respect…. And, if I did, I wouldn’t tell you, so, you can be sure, this time at least, we’re still dealing with the real world on this, not my inner fantasies and/or delusions… I’m pretty sure, anyway…. I mean, my unconscious COULD be screwing with me, and, therefore, you, but, that would indicate even less control over this process than even I had imagined, bringing this entire process into the realm of Entropy, or, as it is more commonly known, Chaos, devourer of minds….

Or, as is most likely, I’m just short of coffee, and it will all be better in a little while…. I’d say, of those I’ve seen fit to bring forth, this is the most likely scenario , so we’ll go with it, and count ourselves as lucky to have found our way…. somewhere….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“The day is committed to error and floundering; success and achievement are matters of long range.” — Goethe
_____________________________

I receive an email each week from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or,  EFF, as it is known, an organization that is dedicated to keeping the Internet free… free of influence or control by the government, or anyone else who would try to limit the way that people can use its unlimited possibilities…. This, of course, fits in perfectly with my own view of the world, so I appreciate the job they are doing (which is excellent, BTW). In the latest email from them, a number of interesting articles were shown, each addressing a different issue, or another attempt by the PTB (Powers That Be) to shut down one or more of the ways people can find out just what our leaders are up to….

The article I’ve included below is a good one; it provides a clear picture of just how egregiously the NSA has abused its powers, and how far PAST the limits that were placed on its activities it has repeatedly gone, right from the first….. I could easily rant about this one, for days, but, it has ticked me off so much, I am incoherent with rage…. That much is obvious…. I only provide euphemisms for vulgarity (‘ticked’ instead of ‘pissed’…) when I am so mad, I have to deliberately tone down my language, or I become downright viciously vituperative…. It’s too early in the day for that much emotional output, so, I control it with severe pomposity….

I will point out, however, one part of the article, which seems, to me, to give a pretty good idea of just how little the people who get into office respect the public…. The NSA began EXCEEDING the limits placed on them by the Patriot Act on the very first day it was passed; that much is clear from the records they have released. Their own court, which supposedly oversees the actions they are taking, has stated that the agency cannot be trusted to observe the limits they are given, as they have repeatedly ignored those limitations, and continue doing so to this day…. Even the fact that the court TOLD them not to perform certain actions, they went ahead and did them anyway, just because they wanted to, and had the technology to do it….
See for yourself…

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/09/gems-mined-nsa-docs-released-today

“The United States has entered an anti-intellectual phase in its history, perhaps most clearly seen in our virtually thought-free political life.” — David Baltimore

I’ll be nice, and leave this here…. I AM trying to cut down on my ranting a bit; I was getting a bit overboard with it…. But, the damn fools just keep doing things that are outrageous, and I can’t help but react…. I’ve about given up hope of ever seeing enough change to save our collective asses from extinction, but, I continue to watch the show, and comment on the more obvious stuff going on right in front of us…. Not with any hope of seeing it change, but in hope of sharing the misery, since it loves company….

Ah, well…. I saw another article yesterday that confirmed that the unnatural levels of CO2 in the air have been conclusively found to be the result of the insane actions of our species, wherein we have been pumping, literally,  millions of TONS of CO2 into the atmosphere, EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY FOR THE LAST 60 YEARS!   This is not new news, but rather a confirmation of an idea that has been around for some time, one that is continuously challenged by the ignorant, when it isn’t being denied outright. This is merely the latest in a long series of reports in this vein, but, it takes away weight from an argument that should have had no basis in reality in the first place; only the stubborn denial of those ignorant fools who don’t WANT to believe it has kept it from being acknowledged as fact before now….

SIGH…. Face it, ffolkes, the world is going to hell in a handbasket, and nobody is giving us any viable alternatives to killing ourselves…. and the only real hope of staying alive would entail becoming as ignorant and violent as those who brought us to this point, in order to eliminate them from the picture…. As Nietzsche said, if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze long into you…..

“All mimsy were the borogoves.” — Lewis Carroll
_____________________________

We shall never cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.

 — T. S. Eliot

Seeing is Conducive to Belief

Folly sits so comfortably upon my fevered brow
one would easily believe that I would know how
to look at Life with a jaded, weary eye
seeing enough, and more, to know Why.

Such seems the case, as I will it to be,
an open book of a face, it looks so like me;
what’s known to be so, needs no close attention
familiar sights require no minding, nor mention.

The eye is drawn at once to the stark and new,
and sent back to sleep by successful review.
Once we find evidence we feel we understand,
curiosity languishes, dismissed at command.

Ancient sages knew the insidious value of illusion,
preachers and pundits know the power of confusion.
Each pair of eyes contains its own point of reference,
each mind sets its own standards of preference.

Seeing is believing, for those who live in thrall,
accepting what is perceived is all they ever recall.
Unknown to them, reality follows another set of rules,
Deeper, more dangerous, and no place for fools.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Yay! I’ve finally reached the third section of today’s Pearl, and, having completed all the required regulatory entries, (a rant, one of my poems to avoid accusations of piracy, all with some sarcasm woven in), it is now legal for me to proceed to put together an old-school pearl for your delectation, and mine…. Without further ado….

“In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.” — Coleridge

“Welcome to the Democratic Party, here’s your blindfold.” — Smart Bee

“Tilting at windmills hurts you more than the windmills.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“Welcome to the Republican Party, here’s your cattle-prod.” — gigoid

“I deserve respect for the things I did not do.” — Vice President Dan Quayle

“Beautify America – Deport Congress!” — Smart Bee

“The basic delusion that men may be governed and yet be free.” — H.L. Mencken
_____________________________

I hadn’t intended to go political in that last section, but Smart Bee kept throwing those quotes at me, so, I went with the flow…. which turned out quite well, I think…. It does have the elegance and chic that comes from being DONE, so, I’m letting it fly, as is…. Now, let’s see if it all hangs together, or if we’ll need some caulking…

Not bad… a couple of tweaks, and we’re good to go…. For once, I’ll accept that without any further blathering, and just say…. See ya!….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Avoiding those odd “Elvis” moments….

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3

Ffolkes,

It is not without a certain degree of trepidation that I come to this decision; no one at all could ever consider taking such a step without thinking about what might happen, if things do not go as planned. If things don’t work out as hoped, the carnage will be extensive, and the world, as we know it, will never be the same…. Contrarily, if what I am contemplating works as it should, no one will ever know they were mere seconds from annihilation, destined to exit this plane of existence, not with a bang, but with the poet’s whimper….

On the other hand, I could quit fooling around, and tell you that all of the above is just another silly collection of words, put together in such a way as to draw your attention, and engage your mind in some sort of fictional scenario, with no real connection to reality…. How’d I do? I don’t know about y’all, but I was completely fooled….. and I was the one writing it! Now, THAT’S some powerful writing!….. Just kidding, ffolkes….. I’m fully aware of how my pomposity, my arrogance, my regular and harsh criticism of religion and its icons, and my so-far-left-I’m-right political positions, have a tendency, no doubt, to make people uncomfortable, or, at the very least, leave them with feelings of guilt, which nobody cares for at all….

The guilt, if I’ve done my job correctly, comes from knowing that we, the American people at large, are responsible for the mess we are in, due to our long-term habit of putting our head in the sand every four years, and voting for yet another batch of lying, cheating, immoral assholes, establishing them in their elected positions, where they will proceed, like every other politician in the last 100 years, to fuck things up beyond all belief….. Sometimes, I think that what they studied in college was not law, but bozoid technology….. how to make best use of those tools we all employ at one time or another to make fools of ourselves…..

What is THIS all about? Good question…. Over the last couple of days, I’ve been looking back at all I’ve written in the last couple of years, since beginning this blog, and I realized that I’ve been beating a horse so dead, it’s petrified, and has been erected as a statue in the local park…. I’ve ranted and railed against the machine, belittling the churches and their deliberately delusional perpetrators, and accused ALL politicians of psychopathic greed, not to mention congenital prevarication….

I’ve pointed out the lies that the politicians tell us, either by omission, or by commission, and bemoaned the entitlement and arrogance of the para-military police forces that most of our towns and cities have espoused…. All to little purpose, and littler effect, as it turns out, as the same people keep on screwing us over in the same old ways…. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m getting a bit tired of putting out so much effort to such small effect; I’m accustomed to my work having some kind of positive outcome, but, it’s hard to call the response I’ve had as being overwhelmingly so….

While it’s true that most of the ffolkes who do comment here tend to agree with my take on matters, it is also true that, even given the 315 followers I reportedly have, the number of people who SEE it isn’t exactly what can be called a huge audience…. Now, that’s okay, in one respect, which is, I don’t care about the numbers, very much…. I write to get this stuff out of my head before it rots, not for the usual purpose of stimulating action in the public; it’s always been more about saving my sanity than it has about saving society….

BUT…. and it’s a big BUT…. saving society wouldn’t be such a bad thing, now, would it? It would be nice if I could tell myself that what I say here has some positive effect in that direction, even if I wasn’t telling the entire truth…. SIGH…. As a curmudgeon, though, and as a self-made, self-taught, self-reliant philosopher, no matter how much better it would make me feel, I can’t do that, because it just isn’t true….. If we don’t stick to the truth, it’s all just an exercise in futility, and we may as well just go lay down in our graves now….

So, anyway, I see now that this has turned into not merely a rant in the intro, but has become what seems to be a series of personal revelations about the relevance of what I’m doing here…. Though I don’t really care about how many ffolkes read this, as it is written for another purpose altogether, there is another part of me that would like to have the world pay attention to what I’m saying, for their own benefit…. It’s a bit frustrating, and that frustration may prompt some radical changes around here, in how I approach the entire subject of ranting….

If I can make it more effective, I’d be willing to put more effort into publicizing it, to get more ffolkes to read and spread it around…. I’d even be willing to take more meds, so I could spend more time reading and commenting on other blogs (which I would LOVE to be able to do, but for the pain it causes me physically…), so that my readership would continue to grow, to a level that had some real power of distribution….. Ah well, it’s all just speculation, at this point, so, we’ll just have to see how it goes…. but, expect SOME changes, for sure…. I’m just not certain what form they’ll take, or how it may affect the rest of what I write, but, I HAVE to do SOMETHING, or I’ll drive myself crazy…. which, I admit, is not a long drive…

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Don’t take the bull by the horns, take him by the tail; then you can let go when you want to.” — Josh Billings

(Trivia note: This statement is a more effective method of animal husbandry than is first apparent, which only strengthens its metaphorical nature…. As any farm boy knows, you can’t persuade a large animal to go anywhere by putting a  rope around its neck, and yanking on it, especially large animals such as cattle, or mules, or donkeys, of either gender; they’re all quite stubborn, and stupid, to boot. However, any and all of these animals will go wherever you wish them to go, if you will merely grab them by the tail, with a good strong grip, and give it a firm twist…. Guaranteed, the animal will move IMMEDIATELY, and briskly, in whatever direction they were pointed at the time the tail was twisted….   🙂    )
_____________________________

“Ignorance is temporary. Stupidity lasts forever!!!” — Smart Bee

A few days ago, in the news, one of the Republican Senators, John McCain, took some heavy shots at a freshman Republican Senator, some guy named Cruz, a desperately confused young Latino, for his useless, and even harmful, use of a filibuster-like speech to delay a vote that was going to happen anyway…. It was actually kind of cute, the way they bickered over the issue, and provides a perfect example of how, even amongst themselves, these psychopathic idiots cannot figure out how removed they are from real life, or how little all their contortions have any positive effect on the public… They all just look like little kids, running around getting mad over trivial stuff, and never getting anything done that would benefit anyone other than themselves….

“He probably just wants to take over my CELLS and then EXPLODE  inside me like a BARREL of runny CHOPPED LIVER!  Or maybe he’d like to PSYCHOLOGICALLY TERRORIZE ME until I have no objection to a RIGHT-WING MILITARY TAKEOVER of my apartment!!  I guess I should call AL PACINO!” — Zippy the Pinhead

I don’t think even Al could help in today’s political world…. Any who, what McCain objected to in Cruz’s speech were some comments he made comparing certain people with a certain view to Nazis… I’m not sure to whom he referred, but, it definitely offended McCain, and he made some comments of his own…. over which I had to laugh, heartily, as I could think of nothing other than “the pot calling the kettle black”….. If there is ANY political group that has shown characteristics shared by the Nazi Party in the last 50 years, it is the Republican Party, which can barely figure out how to phrase the planks of their platform without resorting to racist epithets….

Not only the Republicans, but the entire government machine, by its very bureaucratic nature, at times will naturally fall into postures which remind one of the fascists who once ran Germany, but are now confined mostly to chat rooms, and a few conclaves in Minneapolis (I hope…)…. As a perfect example of what I’m saying here, I offer the following article, from yesterday’s SF Chronicle, which describes the latest events in the housing market in SF, wherein nobody cares when the elderly and the disabled are abused, all in the name of BUSINESS….

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Tech-boom-forcing-longtime-S-F-family-out-of-home-4843955.php

“Our eviction-assistance team has been there several times and left notice for the family to contact us, but the family has chosen not to do so,” said Fahey. “We certainly don’t want anybody going without a place to live, but we have our orders.”

“I feel bad for the old people being evicted, and I can see why there is so much controversy,” said Allie Crocco, 25, who works in finance and moved into an apartment a few blocks away this summer. “But on the other hand, there’s a lot of money to be made in these buildings.”

There you have it, ffolkes…. Rampant Nazi-like behavior, with quotes…. The first of the two highlighted phrases, both of which came from the above article, was uttered by one of the people responsible for evicting people, under the law that was specifically passed for that purpose, to make it easier for businesses to get around the existing laws that protect the tenants…. Please note how it echoes the statements of more than one Nazi prison guard convicted during the Nuremberg Trials after WWII…. The other quote is from a person who lives nearby the house where the old couple is being evicted, and clearly demonstrates the lack of empathy in those who are not involved in the issue…. To the average joe in our society, if there is money to be made, it justifies ANYTHING, no matter how egregiously immoral it may be….

IMHO, no further rant is needed to make my point, so, I’ll trust in the intelligence of my Gentle Readers to fill in the rest of what might have been said, and, mercifully, was not….

“Coming up: our definitive answer to the JFK assassination, the Iran contra coverup, the cure for the common cold, and our hidden videotape of Madonna’s torrid affair…” — Anchorman, “Zombies in PJs”, Eerie Indiana
____________________________

I’m hopeful for the quality of today’s Pearl, so the poem needs to be just right…. Let’s see what I can find….. Ah, this will do nicely….

Personal Helicon

for Michael Longley

As a child, they could not keep me from wells
And old pumps with buckets and windlasses.
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.

One, in a brickyard, with a rotted board top.
I savoured the rich crash when a bucket
Plummeted down at the end of a rope.
So deep you saw no reflection in it.

A shallow one under a dry stone ditch
Fructified like any aquarium.
When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch
A white face hovered over the bottom.

Others had echoes, gave back your own call
With a clean new music in it. And one
Was scaresome, for there, out of ferns and tall
Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection.

Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

~~ Seamus Heaney ~~

_____________________________

“It is quite untrue that British people don’t appreciate music. They may not understand it but they absolutely love the noise it makes.”–Sir Thomas Beecham

“Hateful to me as are the gates of hell, is he who, hiding one thing in his heart, Utters another.” — Homer (c. 700 B.C.)

As you can see, for this final section, Smart Bee has presented me with two directions to go… The two don’t stretch, in any way I can think of, to work together to make a point, at least, not one I’d care to make, so I’ll have to either make a decision, or trust to fate, an uncertain proposition at any time…. I’m feeling lucky, though, so let’s see what happens if I just dive in, like this… Oooh!, that’s cold!…. Okay, take a deep breath, and follow me…. Don’t worry, any sharks you see are just metaphors….

“Don’t take life too serious. It ain’t no ways permanent.” — Pogo, by Walt Kelly

“Here, let me show you.” — Famous Last Words

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” — George Bernard Shaw

“Every society needs someone whose job it is to tell the Emperor he’s naked.” — Smart Bee
(Me! Me! Pick me! I’ll do it for free!…. Oh, wait, I already do that…. okay, well…. to continue…)

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” — Albert Einstein

“At any price that I can pay, let me own myself. And the price is worth  paying if you keep what you have bought… A man may apply his independence to what is called worldly advantage, and discover too late that he  laboriously has made himself dependent on a mass of external conditions for the maintenance of which he has sacrificed himself. So he may be  festooned with the whole haberdashery of success, and go to his grave a castaway. Some men hold that the risk is worth taking. Others do not. It is to those that I have spoken.” — Rudyard Kipling, speech at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 1923, — quoted in _Kipling’s Science Fiction_ edited by John Brunner

“Small change can often be found under seat cushions.” — Lazarus Long
_____________________________

“Within the oyster’s shell uncouth
The purest pearl may hide,
Trust me you’ll find a heart of truth
Within that rough inside.”

— Mrs. Osgood

And aren’t we all glad that is so!… Well, I’m glad…. You’ll have to make your own decision as to how you feel about it…. What I’ve done here today, well, it’s the same, but different, sort of…. which is exactly what I need to think about…. See y’all tomorrow, perhaps with a new gestalt….. No new physique, no altered proportions, of anatomy or build, perhaps, but, just maybe, a bit of a change in the silhouette, some contrast to the shadows that haunt the edges of my perception….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Free speech, with a side order of lies….

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1

Ffolkes,

Today’s title is a bit more relevant than usual; it’s kind of a mini-rant, in it’s own little way, complete with sarcasm, and outrage, right there for all to perceive, should they so choose. The title was a reaction, in essence, to an email I got yesterday from the White House…. Yes, that’s right, the White House…. There’s no need to be impressed, or to think I’ve got a good line into the administration, or anything like that….. Like millions of other folks, I once clicked on some link that offered me a chance to give my opinion to them, back in the beginning of Barry’s reign….. I sent what was supposed to be a comment on some of what I’d seen, knowing full well I what I was letting myself in for, to wit: spam with a side of grits….

I don’t mean to be racist by that statement; I was being literal, actually. Ever since sending that one email, I have been inundated with multiple daily blurbs from Michelle Obama, from Stephanie Cutter, and a host of other names I don’t recognize, all of whom are perky, enthusiastic, and want me to send them money…. Occasionally, like today, a personal note from the First Lady herself, asking me to send in a comment for them to parade as part of their claim to grassroots connections…. I’m so thrilled to have been personally addressed by the FLOTUS, and will immediately rush out to complete the task she asked of me, to furnish my version of “the number one issue I care about”, so they can use that information to guide them to doing the best thing for me and all the other poor saps out there believing this crap…

What annoys me the most, aside from having to delete several emails a day from these idiots, (and, yes, I include the FLOTUS in that group…. Sorry, I just can’t bring myself to get too enthused about anyone who buys into the whole scene she endorses….). Just because I sent ONE email to them, an email they obviously did NOT read, they assume I am behind them 100%, and address me daily as if I am one of their trusted minions…. This is actually the reason I have not opted out of the email group; it gives me some idea of what they are up to, which is a good thing for my strategic plans. I’m just following the old saw about keeping my friends close, and my enemies closer….

You may wonder how I can call myself a patriot, when I am so dead-set against BOTH sides of the political scene we see today…. Well, it’s simple…. I am patriotic only about the vision of our country, of what I believe framers of the Constitution and Bill of Rights had in mind when they wrote them. They had a vision of a country where men of good virtue and character could pursue their own personal view of what is good and right, in the atmosphere of freedom of thought, and of action, that the laws provide to us. The founders of our nation saw very clearly that what they sought was a fragile state, and would always be in danger from those who envy the freedoms we enjoy, and from those who would take it away, for their own profit and power….

Those people, the ones who have no virtue, save that of self-interest, are now in control of this country, and have been since the mid-19th century, when a corrupt federal judge made a landmark decision that gutted the Constitution, making it relatively useless for the purpose it was created.  One legal judgment, deliberately made by a judge who made no secret of his loyalty to those who paid him, took the most basic rights away from the common man, and put them into the hands of corporate entities that don’t exist anywhere but on paper…..The corporate interests that actually control the events of history thus secured their position as the shadowy puppet masters of society, and they did so right in front of the public eye….

SIGH…. I see that once again I’ve ranted before I was really ready to do so…. I just get so outraged when I start to think about what ASSHOLES these people are…. They don’t give a SHIT about anyone but themselves, and could care less that what they do is detrimental to the well-being of others; it’s not something that even crosses their awareness, other than as it affects their travel plans…. It’s tough to have to decide whether to jet off to Chamonix for winter sports, or to Bali for water sports…. I suppose it’s marginally better than having to decide whether to stretch the chicken to one more pot of soup, or break down and buy some beef, which they can’t afford…..

Okay, I’m done for now….. I never really got started strongly, and only used vague references to real events, rather than factual accounts of actual happenings in the world, to make my points…. But, that is only because the urge to rant caught me unaware, again, and I didn’t want to take the time to go research so early…. Besides, I figure once I go look at some news headlines, I’ll find plenty to bring back the outrage, with plenty of evidence, as it is right out there for all to see, every day….. which, actually, is kind of scary, when one stops to think about that…. They don’t even really try very hard anymore to hide what they’re doing from us, which means they know there isn’t anything we can do to stop them, or to make a difference in what they wish to do….

I’m so discouraged, I’m going to end this introductory section here, after a healthy sized rant, and go on with the rest of today’s Pearl… even though my discouragement is preventing me from enjoying it very much…. I just get so angry at what I see in the world, because I know there are solutions…. solutions that will never be tried, because the assholes who run things don’t WANT any changes in the world, not until they have ALL they want from the rest of us…. and their avarice knows no boundaries….

Ah, the hell with it…. Shall we Pearl?…..

“We, the people, are not free.  Our democracy is but a name.  We vote? What does that mean?  We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.” — Helen Keller
_____________________________

Having lost my way completely, by giving in so far as to spit out the above seriousness, I want some funny…. Smart Bee, give me…. humor…..

“Is this where I’m supposed to insert the funny lines?” — Smart Bee

Yes, yes, it is…..

“All I kin say is when you finds yo’self wanderin’ in a peach orchard,  ya don’t go lookin’ for rutabagas.” — Kingfish

(Good start!…. Humor and wisdom all rolled into one bubblegum cigar! Hopefully, it’s the exploding kind; a good explosion always raises the ratings….)

“Here I am in the POSTERIOR OLFACTORY LOBULE but I don’t see CARL SAGAN anywhere!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

(Zippy goes over the top much of the time, I know, but, it’s always amazing to me to look at the things he says, filtered through the light of metaphor; in that light, they take on deeper meaning, every time, and always in a way that can be traced back to reality, sort of….. As we all know, “sort of” is as close to real reality as we can tolerate around here, especially when I’m in a mood like this one…. the risk of explosion right now is, as they are fond of saying in the newspapers, significant…. Zippy is like cold water on a hot fire, in that sense…. )

“Without recognizing the ordinances of Heaven, it is impossible to be a superior man. Without an acquaintance with the rules of propriety, it is impossible for the character to be established. Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know men.” — Confucius, _Analects_, Book 20

(Well, it was funny when I read it….. A worthy group of statements, though….)

“The English are not very spiritual people, so they invented cricket to give them some idea of eternity.” — George Bernard Shaw

(Doesn’t seem to have worked very well, though, does it?…. I mean, look at them… Now, they are touting this poor new lad born to the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge as their symbol of continuity and tradition…. Poor baby, can barely even drool yet, and already an icon, destined to live a life well-insulated from reality…..)

“Well, Darkness has a hunger that’s insatiable,
And Lightness has a call that’s hard to hear.”

— Indigo Girls

(Okay, busted…. not funny, but, it’s powerful, and it’s beautiful, so it stays….)

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” — Dalai Lama

(Actually, it might have been someone else who said this…. but, it’s something he would  have said, had he thought of it…)

If on my theme I rightly think,
There are five reasons why men drink,–
Good wine, a friend, because I ‘m dry,
Or lest I should be by and by,
Or any other reason why.

— John Sirmond (c. 1589-1649) — Causae Bibendi

Well, I’m retired, what do you expect?….. It doesn’t HAVE to make sense any more, now, does it? Nope…. so, as is obvious at this point, most days, I don’t even bother trying to police that particular concept…. You get what you pay for, every time, right?….. Of course, I’m not counting the cost to me, but, that’s just the kind of guy I am…..
_____________________________

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

A drop fell on the apple tree
Another on the roof;
A half a dozen kissed the eaves,
And made the gables laugh.

A few went out to help the brook,
That went to help the sea.
Myself conjectured, Were they pearls,
What necklaces could be!

The dust replaced in hoisted roa
The birds jocoser sung;
The sunshine threw his hat away,
The orchards spangles hung.

The breezes brought dejected
And bathed them in the glee;
The East put out a single flag,
And signed the fete away.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

_____________________________

I’m not sure what my mind is doing…. Some days I keep track, and others, it’s just too much work, so, I don’t…. Today is one of the latter type of days, and it’s probably showing in the structure of this Pearl…. So be it…. I’m not one to argue with what is, and I’m too short on meds to risk getting all bent out of shape about it….

Whenever I fight against reality, it wins, and I hurt for a while… So, I’m going to hearken back to the days of yore, when I was learning Judo, from Sensei Uchida, at UC Berkeley, and let the force of my opponent do the work for me…. a little cosmic judo, don’t y’know?…. Hope you enjoy it…. just relax, and spread the shock of contact with the floor over as much area of your body as you can… It will hurt less, and you can get right back up, where I’ll show you how it was done….. or, give you a couple of aspirin & some water, if you prefer….

“There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you please unless it causes others harm. With it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences.” — P.J. O’Rourke

“Conscience is the inner voice that warns us that someone might be looking.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

A drill is a tool. A hole is a solution. — Smart Bee

All who joy would win
Must share it, –happiness was born a twin.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Don Juan, Canto ii, Stanza 172

“To find a fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.” — Plutarch (46 AD-120 AD)

A Scholar asked his Master, “Could you advise me of a proper vocation, Master?” The Master replied, “Some men can earn their keep with the power of their minds. Others must use their strong backs, legs and hands. This is the same in nature as it is with man. Some animals acquire their food easily, such as rabbits, hogs & goats. Other animals must struggle for their food, like beavers, moles & ants. So you see, the nature of the vocation must fit the individual.”  “But I have no abilities, desires, or imagination, Master,” the scholar sobbed.   “Have you ever thought of becoming a salesman?”. . . the Master queried.– Smart Bee

“In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears.  Things are not only what they are.  They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.” — Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-78)

(The last one is included as contrast to the other six pearls in this group, just because it popped up at a propitious moment…… Mr. Humphrey’s statement, while almost true, is actually a good example of why politicians in this country find it so simple to lie to the public…. This is related with all seriousness, as if it is great wisdom, when, in truth, it is simply not true, unless the person in question wishes it to be true…. Things are only what they seem to be in our perceptions, not in reality, and refusing to acknowledge that distinction is the same as learning to lie about it…. and believing the lie, rather than the truth….. Insidious, isn’t it?….. They get people to buy into the very lies they tell, by making it sound  as if it should  be true…..)
_____________________________

“Inside every old person is a young person wondering what happened.” — Terry Pratchett.

That’s for damn sure, and exactly how I’m feeling today…. But, I’m okay with it, too, so, no big deal… I wouldn’t go back for anything…. Let’s see what the last three hours of struggle and pain has come up with today….

Well, it’s certainly more than I bargained for when I started…. I do have a tendency to ramble, don’t I? Ah well, so be it… I was up early, this took forever, and I’m too tired to make it all better, if such is possible at this point….. In fact, bye, now, y’all be real, I’ll see you tomorrow, I hope….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Salvation lay in perfecting a peony in fuchsia….

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Ffolkes,

Of late, the ranting in which I’ve engaged has become somewhat strident, to my ears…. Some unkind persons might take it upon themselves to say I’ve gone all the way over, into shrill cacophony, but, as yet, I don’t think I’ve quite achieved that particularly annoying attribute, so painful to the inner ear, though not for lack of effort, I’m sure….. The reason for this is merely my own sense of diffuse anxiety and imminent disaster, probably due to my PTSD…. which tends to mark ALL crises as personal, y’know? It doesn’t matter whether the crisis is right here, in my house, or out there, in the Big Blue Room, in Washington D.C., or some other place where history is happening…. Any crisis situation, to which I become attuned, brings out the worst of my all-too-familiar left-over fears and anxieties, forcing me to  experience the full onslaught of emotion that accompanies them, whenever they show up…

This is why I’ve fallen into ranting in the intro section; when the rants are fueled by the emotional morass inside me, they pop up in the most inconvenient places they can find, pushing their way into the conversation, no matter where it started….. Kind of like the people they are generally talking about, actually….. Convinced of their own correctness, the usual targets of my ire are those feel no compunction against letting out their innermost thoughts, regardless of what else may be called for by the conversation, by the demands of reality, or by intent of the author, to wit: me…. In other words, I’ve lost control of this blog, completely…. That, or I’ve slipped back into the pit of insanity, and it’s all gone to shit….

Nope, I can’t claim that one… I’m still here, and fairly lucid, most of the time….. Well, lucid by MY standards, which probably aren’t the same as those of normal reality…… Mine are most likely much more stringent, as I have very high standards when it comes to how my own brain works….. It may not appear that way, but, it is true, nonetheless….. Normal Reality is a much less logical, and less highly organized, place to be, compared to being in my head, most of the time…. I can probably never actually convince anyone of the truth of that assertion, but, it is the absolute truth, regardless of how things may appear from the other side….

In fact, a lot of what is visible is illusion, just like out there in the real world….. I don’t show ALL my cards at once, not until the last bet is called, as my daddy taught me so long ago….. Okay, now I’ve really done it….. Here I am, talking about my daddy, and what he taught me, before I even wake up enough to realize I’m even writing…. How did I get here? What in the hell am I talking about? Is there any hope for this Pearl? I’d better take a step back, and look at this from a new viewpoint… Be right back, ffolkes…

Ah, okay, found the primary contributing issue…. I forgot this….

“Avoid running at all times.” — Satchel Paige

Satchel gave what is no doubt the best advice for living that I’ve seen, especially given his lack of education….. But, sometimes, as is obvious here, too much education can be an issue, as well, causing as much trouble for its possessors as it does to solve those troubles…. In my case, it only leads to verbal indigestion, but, that can be uncomfortable enough, believe me…. I also found, during my inner troubleshooting episode, that I had been forgetting the following aphorism, to wit: Hanlon’s Razor…. It becomes clear that I’ve been a bit harsh to the BRC, as well as to the priestly hierarchies, and the fools who inhabit them….

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.” — Hanlon’s Razor

In other words, ffolkes, they can’t help being the way they are, so shouting at the top of my lungs to make them change their ways is NOT going to be an effective technique for instituting, or encouraging, any such changes…. But, then, I’ve always known, to some extent, that what I do here is shouting into the wind; I’m just one unknown, inconspicuous guy, with no societal props, or creds, as they say on the street, to make people pay attention to what I have to say….

As noted above, I seem to have lost all sense of direction, if not my sanity as well, so we may as well just get on with this, and try to put this one out of its misery…. Shall we Pearl?…..

“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” — Henry David Thoreau
_____________________________

It is now the middle of the week, a segment of time that has little meaning to those of us who no longer work…. One of the more interesting issues I’ve noticed since retiring is how flexible time becomes….. The various little segments of time we use to describe different periods, such as “week”, “day”, “month”, “hour”, etc. have meaning to me only for keeping track of specific events that will occur at specific times… Otherwise, there is no strong reason to pay any attention to those distinctions, as one day, or one hour, is much the same in importance as the next, with little to tell one from another, (especially for those of us to whom Reality is a slippery concept, hard to grasp and/or hold for long, before it morphs into something else entirely…..).

The best part about this new scenario is, one assumes a great deal of control over each of those categories of time, by possessing the right and power to decide whether or not to acknowledge them at all; when we do, what we do with that time, too, is ours to choose, rather than being manipulated and/or controlled by the want and needs of other people….. Our time, after so long, is our own, to do with as we please, and it is a heady experience….

What does this have to do with creating a Pearl, or searching for pearls?….. Well, obviously, nothing much, but, then, it also has EVERYTHING to do with that process…. as it is entirely MY choice as to where we go from here… and, I say, let’s go find some GOOD STUFF…. Of course, I’ll leave the definition of GOOD STUFF up to random chance, but, hey, it sounds good, right?… Well, I think so, and it’s my blog, so there…. Sorry, don’t mean to get silly, or huffy, just having too much fun here…. Let’s go see what SB has today for us to find…..

“Growing old is not for sissies or the faint of heart.” — Smart Bee

“Let us not say, every man is the architect of his own fortune; but let us say, every man is the architect of his own character.” — George Dana Boardman

“A closed mind is like a closed book; just a block of wood.” — Chinese Proverb

“I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

“For when I was a babe and wept and slept, Time crept. When I was a boy and laughed and talked, Time walked. Then when the years saw me a man, Time ran. But as I older grew, Time flew.” — Guy Pentreath

“A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us. To live is to be slowly born.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.” — Mark Twain

When speaking of aging, and time, who better to finish with?….. I like how this turned out, but, it needs two addenda, making this a nine-star pearl,  in order to have the absolutely correct feel….

“Is not old wine wholesomest, old pippins toothsomest, old wood burns brightest, old linen wash whitest? Old soldiers, sweetheart, are surest, and old lovers are soundest.” — John Webster (c. 1580-1625) — Westward Ho, Act ii, Sc. 2

“We all have a face that we hide away forever,
And we take them out and show ourselves when everyone has gone.
Some are satin, some are steel, some are silk and some are leather.
They’re the faces of the stranger and we love to try them on.”

— Billy Joel, The Stranger
_____________________________

Some days, this process is rather a revelation, in terms of what the presence of entropy in the universe can do to how we view reality….. I went to find a poem for the rather odd mood I’m in today, and found a perfect candidate on the first try….. Here is a poem, which I find to be quite complex and intricate in its very simplicity… and quite powerful for all that…. It’s from a poet new to me, who sadly died recently, though not without recognition for his work… His name is Seamus Heaney, an Irish Poet Laureate….

 

Follower

 

My father worked with a horse-plough,
His shoulders globed like a full sail strung
Between the shafts and the furrow.
The horse strained at his clicking tongue.

An expert. He would set the wing
And fit the bright steel-pointed sock.
The sod rolled over without breaking.
At the headrig, with a single pluck

Of reins, the sweating team turned round
And back into the land. His eye
Narrowed and angled at the ground,
Mapping the furrow exactly.

I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake,
Fell sometimes on the polished sod;
Sometimes he rode me on his back
Dipping and rising to his plod.

I wanted to grow up and plough,
To close one eye, stiffen my arm.
All I ever did was follow
In his broad shadow round the farm.

I was a nuisance, tripping, falling,
Yapping always. But today
It is my father who keeps stumbling
Behind me, and will not go away.

~~ Seamus Heaney ~~

_____________________________

This is what I call a left-over pearl; these kept popping up for consideration while I was looking for the pearls in section one. Since they all were connected, obviously, by subject matter and/or intent, it seemed wasteful not to use them…. so, here is another randomly chosen pearl, but with more of a point to it, critically speaking…. Seven stars should be enough….. Works for me…

“In America, anyone can become president.  That’s one of the risks you take.” — Adlai E. Stevenson

“The heresy of one age becomes the orthodoxy of the next.” — Helen Keller

“Reason transformed into prejudice is the worst form of prejudice, because reason is the only instrument for liberation from prejudice.” — Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind

“Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy.” — George Bernard Shaw

CABBAGE, n.  “A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man’s head. The cabbage is so called from Cabagius, a prince who on ascending the throne issued a decree appointing a High Council of Empire consisting of the members of his predecessor’s Ministry and the cabbages in the royal garden.  When any of his Majesty’s measures of state policy miscarried conspicuously it was gravely announced that several members of the High Council had been beheaded, and his murmuring subjects were appeased.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“As you know, I planned a trip out there for some time, so it fits in very nicely.” — President George Bush, on his trip to LA after the riots

“Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.” — P.J. O’Rourke
_____________________________

“I don’t have a weird sense of humor. Your reality is just weird.” — Smart Bee, speaking for gigoid again…..

As I suspected after writing the intro section, this turned on me, into an epic effort; I haven’t taken this long to put out a Pearl for quite a while…. Let’s see if it was worth all the perseverance and dedication…..

As I noted above, today’s effort has been somewhat of a revelation…. With a few minor tweaks and/or edits, it turned out pretty well, all things considered, so I’ll once again consider myself fortunate, and will post and be done with it, until tomorrow….

Hmm…. maybe, someday, someone will see one of these Pearls, even a strange one like this, and think it worthwhile to bring to the attention of the world at large…. Nah, that’s too much like a fantasy, or a sitcom scenario…. which would, given the nature of this beast, probably result in lasting harm to the space-time continuum, and a huge alteration of history…. Never mind, probably not a good idea….. Until tomorrow, then….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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

Which is Why….

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

 

gigoid

dozer3

Braided sable wigs stimulate abnormally well…

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Ffolkes,

I’m uncertain as to what possessed me to get up even earlier than usual today, but, here I am, at 0457, coffee already in hand, ready to sit down to assault another piece of paper…. No, that isn’t quite accurate, is it? We’re going to have to come up with a whole raft of new clichés to use, since very few of us are using paper anymore, until we are ready to print whatever we have written. It’s kind of sad, really, as I had a very close relationship with pen & paper, for many years. But, life goes on, and we must learn to adjust to whatever the future brings, even if we don’t always like the changes we see….

As I’ve proven already, I can blather with the best of ’em; I don’t think I even need to demonstrate my expertise, other than to point out any of the entries here for the last two-plus years. Just in case you don’t believe me, hang around a little while, you’ll see it again….. I could, of course, jump right into a rant, but, the last few days of that seems to have exhausted what I have to say, if only for the moment; I’m not currently feeling much outrage….. I have yet to look at the headlines this morning, which may explain that lack of curmudgeonly affection (or is it affliction?…. ah well, who knows, or cares?…..), but, for now, I’m clear of any intent to throw insults or epithets, deserved or not…..

What do I intend? Well, that’s classified….I have decided that it is a matter of national security, and needs to be protected from casual use or divulgence.  What? You object? So what? Object away, I don’t care…..  If the government can refuse to tell us something we believe we have the right to know, and justify it with a “classified” claim, then I can do the same….. I don’t care, any more than they do, if y’all don’t like it; you’ll just have to accept it, because, like the BRC, I’m not giving y’all any choice in the matter…..

The only difference is that I’m not elected, so that isn’t hanging over my head…. but, then, it doesn’t seem to bother them all that much, either, as they know that the fools who put them in office will buy the same old story every time, and put them BACK in office, no matter how many times they lie, or cheat, or even how many times they get caught lying or cheating… It actually drives me nuts, watching the American public keep re-electing the same dishonest assholes every time they vote….. The voting public is like sharks, with absolutely no recent memory at all to keep them from acting on impulse….

I note here that once again, I have begun to rant, before I even get started…. SIGH…. It’s a gift, I guess…. What the hell…. I think we had better get on with it, before things get wonkier than they already are….

Shall we Pearl?…
____________________________

“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.” — George Carlin

One can always count on George to cut straight to the heart of a matter. His particular genius gave him the vision to see society, and people, in such a way that he was able to express what the common man felt, fearlessly. No subject was verboten, and no public figure escaped his regard; his target was ignorance, and arrogance, and entitlement, and bigotry, and racism, and power-mongering, and every other human vice….If he saw it, no matter who displayed it, it became a target, irrespective of who might become the victim of his scorn…. You’ve gotta love a man who tells the truth, no matter what, especially when he makes it palatable through humor….

As I noted in the intro, sort of, I’m not up to ranting effectively today; the reason for this is not readily apparent, but, since I don’t really care, either, it’s all moot. Like it or not, I’m going old school again, shooting this time for a Carlinesque group of pearls, that will fill the bill in place of a well-deserved, but absent, rant from me…. Let’s see what SB can do for us, shall we?….

“Amazing how mad some people get when someone makes them think.” — Smart Bee

“You’re either part of the solution or part of the problem.” — Eldridge Cleaver, 1968

“You really have to be careful of politicians who have no further ambitions: they may run for the presidency.” — Harry S. Truman

” If you have a weak candidate and a weak platform, wrap yourself up in the American flag and talk about the Constitution.” — Matthew S. Quay

In the beginning, God created the Earth and he said, “Let there be mud.” And there was mud.
And God said, “Let Us make living creatures out of mud, so the mud can see what we have done.”
And God created every living creature that now moveth, and one was man.
Mud-as-man alone could speak.
“What is the purpose of all this?” man asked politely.
“Everything must have a purpose?” asked God.
“Certainly,” said man.
“Then I leave it to you to think of one for all of this,” said God.
And He went away.

— Kurt Vonnegut, Between Time and Timbuktu”

“I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.” — Clarence Darrow

“Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.” — Smart Bee

Okay, it’s a little choppy, but, it got to shore without sinking…. and, it’s all tax-free!…. Unless, of course, one allows it to tax their patience….
____________________________

When I’m feeling as I do today, which involves a lot of confusion, I always turn to a certain poetess…. which Shawna will just have to deal with….  🙂
A Dying Tiger — moaned for Drink —
I hunted all the Sand —
I caught the Dripping of a Rock
And bore it in my Hand —

His Mighty Balls — in death were thick —
But searching — I could see
A Vision on the Retina
Of Water — and of me —

‘Twas not my blame — who sped too slow —
‘Twas not his blame — who died
While I was reaching him —
But ’twas — the fact that He was dead —

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~
____________________________

As it turns out, not ranting is a good thing, today…. I just spent a bit of time perusing the headlines for this morning, where I found the most controversial article to be one registering a complaint by Jack Klugman’s son, stating his belief that the Emmy’s award program was bad/evil, or at least misguided and shallow, for choosing to have a tribute to Cory Monteith (whoever he was…I mean, I know he was a young actor who committed suicide, but, that’s all I know of him…. He had no major films or TV shows, though he did have a few kudos; moreover, he had no Emmy awards in his lifetime…) rather than for his dad, (who won several Emmy’s over his 50 year career in TV and movies….). This is the story with the highest degree of emotional content that was posted today, as far as I could tell….

See what I mean, though, about NOT ranting?…. We are witnessing a singular dearth of heavy news, which, like not getting mail in envelopes with windows, is preferable to the alternative…. a front page full of controversy and danger for the world, in this case…. No matter, though, as we have a default position to which we can retreat, and suffer no loss of quality of life…. Well, no loss capable of measurement,  anyway…. Any who, all that aside, here is a random, harlequin pearl, picked by SB, with no parameters to speak of… It’s just the way it is, such as it is….

“Money is the god of our time.” — Heine (1797-1856)

“If you wish to make a man your enemy, tell him simply, You are wrong. This method works every time.” — Henry C. Link

“Don’t knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn’t start a conversation if it didn’t change once in a while.” — Kin Hubbard

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

“Every man is as Heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.” — Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) — Don Quixote

“Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases.” — Hippocrates (460-359 BC) — Aphorism i

“Although war is cruel and brutal, it is also dangerous and stupid.” — Yakko Warner

There are times, such as this, when I think I would do well to let ALL of the groups of pearls I post be picked by this method…. Every time I leave out the parameters, I end up with the finest pearls that can be found; they do shine, don’t they?…. Maybe I won’t commit suicide, as my sense of honor demands now and again….
____________________________

Don’t worry, ffolkes, nobody, myself included, really has a good grip on my sense of humor; I only know it’s there, and it saves me, daily, from the horrible alternative life I’d lead without it…. Let’s see what it’s been up to today….

Okay, well, somehow, it got done. As noted above, it’s choppy in places, but, hangs together over the course of time, so, it will do for now…. I’m using my newer, travel comp today, so it may take a while before it gets mailed to the email group (data needs to be transferred from one file to another, but, one is on my computer, and one is in the Internet Cloud, and I haven’t been able to figure out an easy way to do it… Later, I will do it the hard way, just to get it done, but, for now, it will be online, at my domain address, gigoid.me….)…

TMI, probably, but, hey, housekeeping must be done before the dust bunnies get too big for the vacuum…. See y’all mañana…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole,
and everyone else, too….

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

Which is Why…

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

gigoid

dozer3

All the artichokes were bronzed in individual sterile containers….

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Ffolkes,

‘Tis a sad and fearful thing, when I see nothing more than a vast plain of blankness upon first gazing into my mind in the morning….. Since it matches the blankness on the screen at which I’m gazing, it doesn’t bode well for the day’s Pearl when I do….. But, being the tough son of a bitch I am, I persevere, blindly blundering ahead, pushing aside the fear and loathing that accompanies such inauspicious beginnings, to make yet another attempt at breaking through the boundaries of reality, into the ethereal realms of reason, and hopefully, enlightenment…. or, at minimum, illumination…. Hell, I’ll settle for getting my eyes all the way open….

Or, we can just have some oatmeal, and get on with it…. That sounds a lot more attractive than the first paragraph, especially since we can add brown sugar and milk to the oatmeal to sweeten it…. The only thing I can add to the first paragraph would be hope, which is in short supply these days in this reality….. Of course, the oatmeal doesn’t get the Pearl done, but it increases the chances of it reaching at least a modicum of coherence, whereas, given the parameters implied in the first few lines, we couldn’t hold out much hope for that to happen….. If you manage to decipher all of that, well, I think you’ll see what I mean…

I admit it, I’m lost already…. Three short paragraphs in, and I’m toast…. I’m seriously considering reprinting an old Pearl, from a couple of years ago, just so I can be done with this, but, that would be cowardly, a quality I refuse to countenance in myself. I’ll end up going old school, if I’m smart… but, knowing myself as I do, I also could conceivably fall into another rant, since the BRC and the Priestly Hierarchies continue their policy of taking advantage of everyone else’s good nature, and have no intention of stopping. I can’t help it, they just do this stuff right out there in public, so what is a curmudgeon to do, but point at it, and laugh, as long and hard as I can?….

The laughter, it helps, though it really isn’t funny, is it? But concentrating on the futility and hopelessness won’t make anyone feel any better, either, and I DO try to keep from bumming people out deliberately…. It isn’t my fault the world’s news is what it is; I just look at it, and write about what I see, which, for the most part, astounds me on a regular basis… How else to describe my reaction to the depths of ignorance, and height of arrogance & entitlement that I observe in so many of the world’s so-called leaders? Astonishment is the only possible adjective to give the strength of my outrage at their sheer avarice, and their shameless absence of virtue….

There, I’ve ranted…. short, and not too detailed, but, I think it works…. And, I did remember to include the religious hierarchies today, which, for the last few days, I’ve neglected to do…. The churches and their delusional leaders are the most important of the supporters of the BRC, for they too know all the tricks of mind-control of the unwary, having practiced those techniques for many thousands of years now, to manipulate and control the masses of the faithful, who are the source of their great wealth, as well as their labor pool.

In these modern times, I’m sure the churches are ever so thankful for the newest way to tap the masses for their spare change, to wit: crowd-funding…. It fits right in with car washes and bake sales, as a way to get the ignorant to give away their spare money, to causes they believe will be fruitful in some way, but, actually will end up the same place as their tithes, and their taxes, and most of the rest of what they earn…. in the pockets of politicians and priests, as payment from their corporate masters for their continued support of the thievery happening at every level of society, except the top…..

If you think of the idea of trickle-down economics, but reverse it, you’ll get the picture of how our society ACTUALLY works, in a financial sense…. Everything trickles up, ffolkes…. just follow the money, and you’ll be…. well, perhaps not surprised, but, at the least, chagrined, to find where ALL of it ends up…. But, hey, who am I but one of the schmucks who lets them get away with it?….. I suppose it’s probably a good thing I’ve never owned a gun…. I’d be awfully tempted to use it…..

My dad taught me about guns…. He considered it as his duty to teach us (his children…) how to use them correctly and safely, and how to respect them for the tool they are (One part of which taught us that’s ALL they are, too, by the way…. just a tool, a big hammer; one that throws a lot of nails a long way, quickly…. but, still, just a hammer….). If I owned one, or more of them, however,  I would most likely feel duty bound to use them for personal purposes, which, while I would see any such actions as being beneficial to society, those same actions might be viewed differently by that society itself, especially given the control over the news media that the BRC has…. Plus, I can count, and there are more of them with guns than there is/are(?) of me; strategic planning would seem to dictate a different approach, as that one is pretty much doomed to failure in the long run…. I just don’t have, and can’t get, as many bullets as they already have….

S’okay, I don’t mind…. guns have never been my preferred weapon of choice, anyway…. What I have between my ears is a much more versatile tool, and much more powerful in the long run… After all, I have based my life, in many ways, upon the following aphorism, which, if you examine it closely, and think on it a while, will show you who, and what I am… or, at least, who I try to be…. Of course, there IS no try, is there… Do or do not…. I do, mostly….

“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you the Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger.”  — Gordon R. Dickson, The Tactics of Mistake
_____________________________

Well, I ranted in the intro again, so, we’ll go old-school here, to bring a wee bit of balance to things…. Hope springs eternal, it seems…. Any who, I’m not going to set any parameters, but, it seems of late Smart Bee has had its own agenda in that respect, anyway, so, we’ll just see what comes up, and where it goes…. Enjoy!

“If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.” — George Bernard Shaw

Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,–
Now green in youth, now withering on the ground;
Another race the following spring supplies:
They fall successive, and successive rise.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Iliad of Homer, Book vi, Line 181

“Obsessed by a fairy tale, we spend our lives searching for a magic door and a lost kingdom of peace.” — Eugene O’Neill

“Under the most carefully controlled conditions of temperature, density, and pressure, the organism will do what it damn well pleases.” — Harward’s Law

“There are no winners in life; only survivors.” — Smart Bee

“I wish they would only take me as I am.” — Vincent Van Gogh

“Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust?  That no one should exalt himself over the other.” — Baha’u’llah

Onward, as they say in the movies; fear not, mes amis, all will be well…. I just took my medications…
_____________________________

In the interests of not letting anyone else take the blame for any of what has occurred here today, I will use one of my own poems, one which clearly states who and what I am…. well, sort of clearly….

Ah Ain’t Sho, but Mebbe So….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

See, now we’re in the third section, and I get to do whatever I want; it’s in my contract….. So, since I don’t feel like ranting any more today, or maybe ever, I’m going back to the same old taxi stand where I leave from when I’m in a hurry, in a figurative sense…. Who knows what will come out of this one? I certainly don’t….

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

“Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion.  Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787

“The world will never have lasting peace so long as men reserve for war the finest human qualities.  Peace, no less than war, requires idealism and self- sacrifice and a righteous and dynamic faith.” — John Foster Dulles

“If a rock falls on your head it does positive harm, but shame, disgrace, reproaches, and insults are damaging only in so far as you’re conscious of them.” — Erasmus

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” — Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) — Churchill’s Commentary on Man

“Is consciousness just a special form of hallucination?” — Frank Herbert

“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), As You Like It — Act v, Sc. 1

I don’t often use Willy’s stuff, but, he was so prolific a writer, even HE got some of it right…..   🙂    I didn’t know where it would go, but, it sure ended up there, didn’t it? I like it, so, I guess that makes me stranger than even usual…. Oh, well….
_____________________________

Yes, and no, I suppose, is the best response I can come up with, at least until I can go over this with a clear head…. and that could take days. I guess I’ll have to do that now, instead….

I reiterate, I have no idea how that happened, officer…. I’ll be going now, to look for my peace of mind, which I somehow dropped somewhere…. I’ll find it around here somewhere, I know it…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Baldly factual assertions, drying in the wind….

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Ffolkes,

Yesterday’s outburst, one would think, would have been enough to soothe the urge to rant that comes over me at the reading of these reports on the idiocy prevalent among the elected glitterati in this country. The amount of sheer stupidity, of outright deliberate denial of facts in favor of paranoid delusions, the display of asininity and selfish, avaricious cupidity that has been reported in the news, JUST in the House of Representatives over the last two weeks, is enough to weigh upon anyone with a brain, much less a sensitive, patriotic minded fool such as myself. It is seriously painful to observe the degree of idiocy the Retardican Party has tapped into of late, while trying to justify their racism and bigotry, which they typically try to disguise as concern over what should be non-issues….

Obviously, as indicated by the tone and content of the first paragraph, all of that rant didn’t get put down on screen yesterday, and it continues to burn a hole in the bag I’m holding it in, demanding to be put out into the light of day, where it can scream epithets and derogatory statements about relatives at the idiots who keep assaulting all of us with their intransigent asininity.

I mean, are these fools living in a different world than the rest of us? Can they not see the same evidence that the rest of us see? Can they continue to deny reality in the face of all the opposition that has been generated against them by just about every other demographic category in existence? I often wonder how many of these seemingly obvious questions, so obvious they are really rhetorical in nature, can be answered with a yes, when describing the current crop of Tea Party-supported fools in the Retardican Party…. you know, the idiots causing all the trouble in society right now, with their blind, fascistic insistence on opposing any and all reforms proposed by a black man, whose very existence as POTUS is a fact they are unable to accept….

I ask you this…. How long is the rest of this country, consisting of people like me, who believe in the true American Dream, a group that includes more than merely the White, Christian sub-group as its proponents, a Dream which acknowledges the diversity that actually exists in Reality, of Whites, Blacks, Browns, Greens, Purples, Rainbows, Latinos, Asians, LGBT’s, women, and everyone else the Tea Party would like to believe isn’t entitled to participate in their delusion…. How long are we going to allow these ASSHOLES to continue to try to force their vision on everyone else?

These people, as policy, lie, and cheat, and will resort to almost any act, no matter how egregiously immoral, to keep things as they want them to be, where their desires and entitlements are the only ones allowed. This has been proven by historical fact, and continues now, as they keep attempting to legislate morality, change congressional voting districts to favor themselves, and generally do anything they can to keep the rest of the people in this country from achieving any real societal diversity….

Hmm… I seem to have let this get away from me again, but, it just pisses me off so much when I look at the news each day, and see another example of how the ignorance and bigotry of the right-wing Retardicans is being shoved into the face of American politics, with the concomitant splatters of shit flying everywhere…. Their intransigent stupidity, and arrogance, is getting very old to me, and, I’m sure, to a lot of other people, and I wish to hell they’d just crawl back in their holes, and leave everyone else alone…. Not to mention shutting the hell UP!….

But, they won’t, so we will have to continue to put up with their noise, and the sheer lies and nonsense they throw out on a regular basis, to confuse and distract, if nothing else….. Me, I’m about ready to DO something about it, but, it will have to wait until I finish this Pearl, which, by the looks of it, may not ever get started, if I can’t shut myself up…. Okay, if I can’t stop at the end of this paragraph, I’ll institute emergency procedure #5…. I hope I don’t have to, though…. #5 is a messy one….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“If an ass goes traveling he will not come home a horse.” — Thomas Fuller

(The more I let this little statement echo around in my head, the more angles, depths, and meanings float up, into my awareness…. To keep from adding undue length where it is least needed, I will just say this… I wish the BRC wouldn’t spend as much time trying to convince the public that this statement is false, as they currently do. Since the statement is demonstrably and unarguably true, in so many ways, that could be construed as an impossible task… unless, of course, you help them by believing it…..)
_____________________________

Having begun my rant in the intro, I don’t think it would go over well to continue it here…. So, we’ll go old school, which, as you know, is my default position in these instances….. I’m uncertain still if that meets with the approval of my readership, but, hey, I’ve been operating in the dark here for a long time, in that respect, so, it’s nothing new, and nothing to get huffed about…. As long as I can continue to pretend to some sort of relevance, and keep y’all unaware of how little I really know, well, I’ll be doing as well as the average politician, right? Right…. Let’s see what SB has for us today…..

“The typewriting machine, when played with expression, is no more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.” — Oscar Wilde
(Ouch! Now, THAT’S sarcasm!…. At which, of course, Oscar was the master….) (You don’t think he’s…. wait!?…. He’s not talking about ME, is he?…. Nah!…. No way!….)

“I’m continually AMAZED at th’breathtaking effects of WIND EROSION!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“The ruthlessness born of self-seeking is ineffectual compared with the ruthlessness sustained by dedication to a holy cause. “God wishes,” said Calvin, “that one should put aside all humanity when it is a question of striving for His glory.” ” — Eric Hoffer

“The only thing I know for sure is that I know nothing at all, for sure.” — Socrates

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

“Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.” — Buffalo Springfield

“If you can’t laugh at yourself, you’re missing the joke.” — Smart Bee, with gigoid’s complete agreement….

When this pearl was about halfway done, I had no idea where it was headed, and still don’t know exactly how it got to where it ended up… but, then, I don’t know a lot of stuff about reality, so, we’ll just go on, as we were, no doubt, meant to do anyway…. I don’t encourage the belief that fate is unavoidable, but, when it happens, it’s best not to fight it too hard… One must learn how to “go with the flow”, as it were, or severe mental injuries may occur, even in the best of families….
_____________________________

Today’s poem chose itself…. I went searching, on the internet, for an appropriate poem for today, but, couldn’t seem to settle on anything I read, from a number of poets I visited…. until this one. It reached out, grabbed me, and said, essentially, “Use me, again….”  I should have known it would know it has been here before…. so, here ’tis again….

And Death Shall Have No Dominion

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead man naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan’t crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

~~ Dylan Thomas ~~

_____________________________

Today’s your lucky day…. Nothing in the news this morning has prompted an upsurge of angst or outrage to parallel the rant in the intro section… which means we get to go back to old-school. I know, the law doesn’t say we HAVE to go there, but, around here, it’s what we do…. So, deal…. and, preferably, enjoy!    😆

“He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts.” — Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

“Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.” — Mark Twain

“The beauty of a pun is in the “Oy!” of the beholder.” — Smart Bee
“Puns can groan on you” — Yep, where else? Smart Bee
(A true two-fer, that counts as one pearl….)

“Each time Time torments me, I tell myself that one of us must back down, that it is impossible for this cruel confrontation to go on indefinitely.” — E.M. Cioran

Before enlightenment, one carries water and chops wood.
After enlightenment, one carries water and chops wood.

— Zen Proverb

Ooh, ooh, Teacher! Can I answer?…. See, it shoulda used the Buddha quote, then it would all be clearer…. Teacher: “Y, know, you may be right…. but, that would be unethical, now, wouldn’t it? Resorting to Buddha, when Zippy will do?…” Sorry, Teacher…. I’ll pick two more, to fix it….

An American scientist once visited the offices of the great Nobel prize winning physicist, Niels Bohr, in Copenhagen.  He was amazed to find that over Bohr’s desk was a horseshoe, securely nailed to the wall, with the open end up in the approved manner (so it would catch the good luck and not let it spill out).  The American said with a nervous laugh,  “Surely you don’t believe the horseshoe will bring you good luck, do you, Professor Bohr?  After all, as a scientist–”  Bohr chuckled.  “I believe no such thing, my good friend.  Not at all.  I am scarcely likely to believe in such foolish nonsense.  However, I am told that a horseshoe will bring you good luck whether you believe in it or not.” — found in Smart Bee, without attribution

“For him who has conquered the mind,  the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so,  his mind will be the greatest enemy.” — Bhagavad Gita (c. B.C. 400)
_____________________________

Please save the above drivel for future reference!

At this point, there is little point in not admitting defeat, and slinking away with head bowed in shame…. or, at the very least, embarrassment for having allowed this to occur, without giving ffolkes the proper warnings…. Let’s see if it has any redeeming qualities..

I’m pretty certain none of the above is toxic, so, we’re going to let it fly, solo…. One can’t always be two places at once, can one?….. Whatever that may mean, and it may or may not mean anything, we are still outta here…. now…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Another confusing day in Paradox….

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Ffolkes,

I often wonder…. a quality which, I believe, in part, is what makes me different than most folks. Oh, I’m not saying I’m special, or better than anyone else… But, it seems to me, many of the people I see in the world today have stopped using their imagination, and never allow themselves to wonder, about anything…… Imagination is humanity’s most powerful weapon in the struggle to deal with reality, as well as our most versatile tool, yet, the world’s demands are so heavy that most people seemingly forget they have a way to deal with them, with less stress and effort than they commonly spend. If they only take the time to learn how to learn, and to use their imagination to foresee the future enough to effectively prepare for it, they would find life less of a chore, and more of a joy….

This, of course, sounds like the beginning of a rant, and, of course, it is…. but, it’s a rant that will be postponed for the moment, as I am really not ready to let out all the stuff Ive been thinking about this subject….. My disappointment in my fellow man has never been deeper than it is today, and I am incensed, and embarrassed, by the stupidity of those who continue to fall for the crap the BRC hands out, along with being enraged, at the sheer effrontery, and selfishness, of those who would have us believe they are our leaders,….. However, I have only had two sips of coffee, and if I begin what I have to say now, I’ll be overly vicious, and someone might just get offended….

Yes, I know that doesn’t matter at all; as well, I don’t give a shit whether they get offended or not…. In truth, if they didn’t, I’d think I was doing it wrong. What good is a rant that nobody gets offended by? Nothing, that’s what; a good rant should piss of at least half the folks who read it, or it just isn’t getting into the right hands, and can only be considered preaching to the choir…. But, I’m still a bit groggy, to be honest, and if I start now, it will degenerate into name-calling, and deliberately provocative statements, designed to either piss off the BRC, or show the public just how much they SHOULD be pissed off at them, thus pissing THEM off at their purported benefactors….. Or, even better, pissing them off at their own cupidity….

I suppose I COULD rant now; it really doesn’t matter…. but, I want to wait a bit, and let the arguments percolate until they’re good and strong, like good coffee must be. Maybe then I can feel like it’s more accurately targeted, and someone who needs to read it will actually come across it, get pissed, and start showing it to their friends…. I keep trying, pointing out to folks, and ffolkes, as well, just how much the assholes we elect lie to us, and how often they steal from us, and how much they actually disdain the people who elect them to office…. Unfortunately, the majority of ffolkes who stop by to read what I say are of the same opinion, and already aware of the depth of the corruption that is present in today’s governments, all over the world….

Any who, I have a specific rant today, so you’ll see it down the page a ways…. In the meantime, I see I’ve wandered around, verbally, sufficiently to make this a legal introduction. I am kind of enjoying this method of starting the Pearls; if nothing else, it gets a lot of blather out of my system, always a good thing for everyone….. I also don’t seem to have as much fear of the blank page with this method, as I seem to know it will get filled up quickly and easily, by just letting my head wander about, and trying to type fast enough to get the blather down correctly…. Of course, I’m trying NOT to be aware of just how silly it all is, but, hey, what’s a little deliberate ignorance among friends, eh?

Shall we Pearl?…..

“If we don’t change our direction we’re likely to end up where we’re headed.” — Chinese Proverb
_____________________________

In order to allow the rant for today the time to percolate, hopefully to evolve into the shape I envision, I’m going to start with an old-school pearl, to get my mind lubricated, as it were….. By setting some loose, if stringent, parameters for the search through the Smart Bee dB, it brings some focus to my will, while simultaneously freeing up the imagination to interpret what I see outside the boundaries of normality…. I know, it sounds a bit amorphous, but, it works for me….

“If you follow the flock, you step in shit!” — Darkwisdom
(See, what did I tell you?….)

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is NOT a sin–just stupid.)” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“I have always thought in the back of my mind, cheese and onions.” — The Rutles
(I LOVE this!….)

“How pleasant then to be insane.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Alexander [the Great] asked Diogenes if there was anything in the world he wanted. Diogenes, without looking up, replied: `Yes. Get out of my light.'” — Plutarch

“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe. And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two make four and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?” — Awfully Smart Bee
_____________________________

Today’s poetry choice will be picked later…. I have a feeling I’ll need a bit of exposure to poetry when I’m done with the rest of this Pearl….

I was right; that was an epic rant…. (Spoiler alert: it’s a long rant, ffolkes, so be ready when you decide to dive in…. have your smartypants on, put away your guilt, and it will go over better, with less chance of neuronic indigestion……) Now I’m done with it, though, I need a poem to help me to feel a little lighter…. and I know just who to turn to, to find that very thing….. I have used both of these in previous posts; today, they are a perfect addition to the given ambiance…. Enjoy!….

À Bas Ben Adhem

My fellow man I do not care for.
I often ask me, What’s he there for?
The only answer I can find
Is, Reproduction of his kind.
If I’m supposed to swallow that,
Winnetka is my habitat.
Isn’t it time to carve Hic Jacet
Above that Reproduction racket?

To make the matter more succinct:
Suppose my fellow man extinct.
Why, who would not approve the plan
Save possibly my fellow man?
Yet with a politician’s voice
He names himself as Nature’s choice.

The finest of the human race
Are bad in figure, worse in face.
Yet just because they have two legs
And come from storks instead of eggs
They count the spacious firmament
As something to be charged and sent.

Though man created cross-town traffic,
The Daily Mirror, News and Graphic,
The pastoral fight and fighting pastor,
And Queen Marie and Lady Astor,
He hails himself with drum and fife
And bullies lower forms of life.

Not that I think much depends
On how we treat our feathered friends,
Or hold the wrinkled elephant
A nobler creature than my aunt.
It’s simply that I’m sure I can
Get on without my fellow man.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

A Caution To Everybody

Consider the auk;
Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk.
Consider man, who may well become extinct
Because he forgot how to walk and learned how to fly before he thinked.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

_____________________________

Regarding the nationalization of industry or private property: “Of what importance is all that, if I range men firmly within a discipline they cannot escape?  Let them own land or factories as much as they please.  The decisive factor is that the State, through the Party, is supreme over them regardless of whether they are owners or workers.  All that is unessential; our socialism goes far deeper. It establishes a relationship of the individual to the State, the national community.  Why need we trouble to socialize banks and factories?  We socialize human beings.” — Adolf Hitler to Herman Rauschning, pre-WWII — “Why Does Socialism Continue to Appeal to Anyone?”, Robert Hessen

This is a perfect lead-in to what I wish to say about the BRC today….. First, for those who are not regulars here, BRC stands for Beloved Ruling Class, a term I borrowed from an author named Joel Rosenberg, who uses it in two of his novels set in a fictional world. It is intended to denote ALL of the elected officials in this country, the hereditary ones who run the countries who are still in the feudal era of history, and those shadowy corporate entities who control them; it also includes their myrmidons, the armed forces, and the paramilitary police forces now so ubiquitous in our cities. All of these people are insane, in my estimation, just for WANTING to take the reins of power over society. Moreover, I believe they are not only susceptible to the principle of power’s corruptive qualities, but actually revel in it….

Hitler’s statement above is included as an example of how that particular group of society reasons; it is indicative to me that there is plainly not a microgram of respect for other people in this statement, an attitude that I believe…. No, an attitude I KNOW, is prevalent among every one of the people in this country who occupy an elected office. I know this because every action they take, and everything that comes out of their mouths, provides me with evidence of that disdain….. How else can one explain how often they lie to the public? How else can one explain their constant denial of what the general public wants, and their insistence that only their own agenda is worthy of being promoted.

“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.” — C. W. Leadbeater

This mistake, all-too-common among the great unwashed masses of humanity who live from hand to mouth, gratefully consuming everything they can latch onto, as they’ve been taught, and wondering why nothing ever seems to make them feel good, is part of why it is so easy for the BRC to manipulate the rest of humanity.

People get so busy dealing with what they see in their lives (what they’ve been taught to believe is important, whether it actually is so, or not….) they forget that there can be much more to it than just what is in their vicinity, and their sphere of awareness. Because they don’t have, or take, the time to think, or to imagine, they are easy prey for anyone who gains their trust, for those who do can tell them ANYTHING, and nobody will question it, because they can’t imagine being lied to by someone they’ve chosen to trust…..

Then, there is the rampant stupidity that is repeatedly displayed by some members of the BRC, who are also victims of this frame of mind….. Unfortunately, these particular idiots are in a position where their misconceived attempts at reasoning can actually hurt ALL of us… For example, take the recent hullabaloo over the current budget.

The Retardican Party, which holds the numerical advantage in the House of Representatives, is forcing the viewpoint of a minority of the public onto the rest of that body, by threatening to send the government into a shutdown, in order to defund laws they still can’t believe got passed in 2009, known commonly as Obamacare, (the healthcare reform laws that expanded and altered the health insurance landscape, to allow a lot of people, who heretofore were unable to do so, to get care and/or treatment for their illnesses, at a rate they could actually afford).

These laws, which the House Retardicans have tried to vote down 42 times, unsuccessfully, and regarding which they have made numerous appeals to the court system, also unsuccessfully, have actually HELPED the American public…. and these IDIOTS won’t let go of their racism and anger at being irrelevant long enough to admit even that the law is working. So, they threaten and bluster and keep losing voters, who are getting very tired of watching them display their ignorance and selfishness….

These assholes are so focused on their own fears, of a world that includes Blacks, Gays, Latinos, Asians,strong, independent women, children who think, and adults who take responsibility for the actions, they are willing to bring the entire government to a standstill, harming incalculable numbers of people who cannot afford to foot the bill for their foolishness.

“On the other hand, it takes real moral fiber to remain a Republican when there’s no money in it. And things *are* looking grim on the financial front. Even worse for the President, they’re getting confusing.” — A. Whitney Brown

Now, of course, they won’t be able to force their legislation completely onto others, thanks to the veto powers of the Senate, and the White House…. but, the whole issue creates ill will, and further gaps between people, at a point in the history of our planet where the impetus demands we come together, and learn to live together, or we all will surely perish together…. Stupidity, selfishness, greed, the thirst for power, all will eventually lead to our demise as a species, if we don’t make major changes in the way society is structured, and the way it works.

Below you will find two links, to news articles, each of which contributed to the formation of some of the outrage I am experiencing whenever I let myself consider this issue. It’s all such a pathetic pile of crap, an issue that completely demonstrates every wrong thing about the modern American version of democracy, on BOTH sides of the political spectrum…..

The Demobutt Party is no better than the Retardican Party, when it comes to lying to the public; at the current time there happens to be a significant number of them who have seen the profit for them in backing certain ideas that actually help the middle class (look closely, though, and you’ll see the dead giveaway…. nobody admits there is a ‘lower class’…. ), so, they are in favor with the public right now, as their agendas seem to match more closely with what society’s momentum dictates…..

Nonetheless, it is necessary to remember that there are still a LOT of people in this country who actually believe what these people are telling them, without ever questioning whether it is right, wrong, or unreal…. They just nod their heads and send in money… I mean, think about the fact that the subject of the second article, Ron Paul, has the support of a great many….. well, I hesitate to actually call them people, because they exhibit not nearly enough intelligence to warrant that title….

Any who, a lot of folks believe whatever this idiot says…. and the assholes under discussion in the other article aren’t much better, in my view…. They’re more interested in how they look on camera than they are about the people who elected them…. ALL OF THEM, sorry to say, are elected officials in the highest offices in this country, and THIS is their best stuff…. I don’t even need to look for what is wrong in our society, because it shoves itself in my face on a daily basis…..

This is the state of things, ffolkes…. I wish I knew what the hell to do about it, other than write… but, that’s all I have so, there you go….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/Cruz-Lee-plan-on-Obamacare-unnerves-some-in-GOP-4832241.php

http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2013/09/19/ron-paul-more-women-should-sacrifice-career-to-homeschool-kids/

I feel bad…. I don’t want to bum ffolkes out, or depress anyone, or in any way cause anyone’s day to turn dark on my account… So, I’ll leave you with a bit of hope, and advice, at once…. Remember, ffolkes, as long as we can keep our health, and our sense of humor, it will all turn out okay… It’s a load of BS, but, it sounds good, and, the wisdom of the ages really does support me in this, as there are a lot of very wise ffolkes who have said the same…. to wit:

Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.” — Mark Twain

If nothing else, we could laugh them out of town, couldn’t we?…. Worth a try, I think….
_____________________________

All I can say is, I didn’t have anything better to do, so this is what I did…. so be it. I’d better go proof it, if I’m going to sign it at the end…. Be back in a few…..

Well, it’s long, and involved, and I’m sure I got it all out, for now…. It’s already caused a discussion with someone, so, I’m hopeful for the written version… Think about it, ffolkes, that’s all I ask…. Be real….

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid