Fatuous remarks can create structural instability….

Posted on November 21, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Dark days are coming, ffolkes, there’s no denying it. Hard as I tried to work WITH the humongous bureaucracy that constitutes my HMO, the intransigence so natural to such a beast has dictated, once again, that we must do battle…. This time, I may even need a lawyer to help me, to find and use the part of the law that will MAKE them pay attention to my humanity, instead of ignoring it in favor of their own corporate greed, and their own corporate cowardice…. But, it’s okay, cuz I’m ready to take them on this time…. This time we’re going down to the wire, where I will find a way to force them into compliance with what is best for ME, not for them…. If it kills me, well, then, so be it, I’ll be a martyr for the cause of freedom in our bodies, as opposed to having our medical needs abrogated and altered according to the whims of bureaucratic avarice, and corporate selfishness….

That all sounds pretty highfalutin’, doesn’t it? I thought so, mainly because that’s how I tried to write it…. Now that I see it on the screen, I see that it says a lot, with a lot of force, without really giving any clue as to what the hell I’m talking about…. and that’s okay, too. I’m not really going into it now, as it concerns matters best kept, to some degree, private… In addition, it’s not the right time, or place, for this rant; a better choice for that process is to wait until it is done, and I know the outcome of the battle, or at least the projected, most likely outcome…. At that point, I’ll have a better idea of exactly what to rant about, and for how long I should rant, given the level of built-up angst that is sure to accompany such an event…..

Suffice it to say, now, that this battle will be a major one, with consequences that are potentially far-reaching, that could conceivably have a ripple effect on other aspects of modern culture, and how healthcare organizations are allowed to operate…. I’m hoping, anyway…. If not, if I am crushed under the heel of the uncaring corporate machine, then nothing will change, and the HMO’s of our world will be able to continue to operate as they wish, without any consideration for anything other than their own profit line… Of course, that’s the way it is now, so, you might not notice any difference, except for the fact of my non-existence….

As is normal for me, I am, of course, blowing this up, somewhat out of proportion; it’s a natural tendency to do that when one is trying to pump up one’s own confidence, trying to build up the necessary courage to take on one of the behemoths of our society. I’ve been tilting at society’s windmills for a long time now, off and on ever since my college years, so I have at least a modicum of experience in these matters….. Corporations are not like other kinds of living creatures, even though the law gives them the same rights…. Actually, corporations have MORE rights than the average Joe, since THEY have been given the right to make a profit, which is NOT one of the rights of any other live, flesh and blood citizen….

In addition, it’s a hard thing to fight a corporation, because they’re so amorphous….. Their shape shifts each time one looks at them, to serve whatever purpose they currently pursue…. This makes them appear shapeless, always changing in aspect; the net result of this is, they don’t offer a lot of target area at which to aim and fire…. Also, since they are not really alive, killing, crushing, or otherwise destroying, or, simply excising one part of it barely draws its attention, as it has a million of those parts, easily sacrificed, that it can give up without suffering any real, lasting damage…. The trick is to get their hold on a certain law to loosen, so that society can wrest back some of the control that is seized by such entities when laws are written in their favor….

Ah well, I’m starting to rant, if I haven’t already done so, and I hadn’t intended to do that today…. I’ve got other stuff to rant about, and now I’ll have to review that, to see if it will hold to another day…. Damn! Sometimes, I wish I could learn to shut myself up…. but, that just causes other difficulties, when the angst and dross sits in my mind and festers…. NOBODY likes what happens then, so, I try to get this stuff out of my head, and on screen, as soon as I can…. For now, though, I think I’ll bring this once again meandering stroll through my early morning brain to a screeching halt, and call it an intro for today…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it and proceed to translate that belief into action.” — Lin Yutang
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So, there I was, cruising through the news site I frequent most often, when I saw the first article listed below, regarding a new public surveillance center being constructed in Oakland…. Apparently, the police forces in that city, who have been losing the battle with criminals in that city for many years, due to the complete and utter ignorance of the leaders of the city, and, a factor completely unknown to the police, their own misplaced, intransigent sense of entitlement, have decided they need to be able to spy on the public much more effectively….

They haven’t a clue as to how to deal with any of the issues that cause the level of discontent in the city, as they are clueless as to their own part in creating those issues, so they figure they’ll just tighten down the screws even tighter…. never realizing that their own actions are the biggest part of the problem….

(Gee, does that sound suspiciously like the foreign policy attitudes displayed by the US federal government?… Why, yes, yes it does…. Why is it so hard for these idiots to understand, when you treat others like dirt, they aren’t going to like you?…..)

So, anyway, the police asked for a center where they could coordinate all the technological data they have been collecting, from publicly placed cameras, license plate readers, gun-shot detectors, radio dispatch calls, car cameras, and whatever else they can figure out to beg, borrow, or steal from the NSA… Apparently, encouraged by the success of the NSA programs at invading the privacy of normal citizens, the embattled officers have asked the city supervisors permission to build this center, so they can increase their data intake, and collaborate to join forces with other police agencies around the bay area, as well as make best use of all the surveillance they are now allowed to use….

It is a chilling story, all in all, not only in its bare tale of truth, but because of the reactions by the city supervisors, who have completely ignored all the public outcry against the new center, completely removing its construction from the public venue, and accepting no public input as to whether it should or should not be instituted as policy for the future… They just DID it, with no public input at all…. THAT, to me, is the most frightening part, and one that should immediately provoke a number of lawsuits against the city, the police, and whomever else will take the suit for consideration…. In addition, if they won’t change anything, then start actions against the courts and legislature themselves…. But, that’s just me, and the way I would deal with such effrontery…. I’m not one to tolerate a fool for long….

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-moves-forward-with-surveillance-center-4995249.php

The revelations from Eric Snowden regarding the extent of the spying being done by the NSA are reaching well beyond our borders now…. A number of countries around the world have registered strong protests regarding the privacy invasions by our government, with a number of European countries demanding changes from President Obama in the wake of the news that they had been targets of the spying…. Australia, which has used the same data produced by our agency, and applied the spying techniques and data found by our agencies for their own clandestine spying, have so insulted their neighboring countries that one of them has severed all diplomatic relations with them, at least temporarily, in response to the reported breaches of privacy….

Below you’ll find a number of articles describing the extent of the hullabaloo around the world, which will give you an idea of how the rest of the world’s outrage matches our own here in ‘Amurrica’…..

http://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2013/11/20/nsa-australia-spying-on-indonesian-president/

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/19/world/asia/indonesia-australia-spy-row/index.html

No apologies, no tolerance, no way they’re going to change what they’re doing…. Sound like someone else? Someone, say, from THIS country?….

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/05/world/europe/germany-uk-spy-report/

Oops, caught again…. and still no apology, and no indication of any intent to either stop, or alter what they’re doing…

So, how do our police forces respond to all this talk of spying on the public, and to the huge public outcry AGAINST such spying? Well, apparently, they ask for more ways to invade our privacy….

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/S-F-police-seek-cameras-to-capture-whole-picture-4997404.php

Sick, just plain sick…. To protect their OWN asses, they are going to film ALL public interactions…. Can you say ‘paranoia’? Sure you can…

Oh, and what does our government DO with the data they get from their spying? Here is an example…..

http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/US-drone-kills-5-outside-of-Pakistan-tribal-region-4997699.php

It’s the day before the anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination…. do you know what YOUR government is up to?….
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Mining old Pearls is bringing me in touch with a lot of my own old poetry…. Here is another of which I’m fairly proud….

Intelligent Crimes

The value of wit is often said to cause harm,
for those who think, such is its greatest charm.
The new and the bold cannot be fulfilled
if innovation and change is left unwilled.

Society behaves at its base as a mob
conformity and submission its primary job.
Any sign of rebellion against the mob’s rule
is met with resentment, naming such rebel the fool.

Intellect and talent are mostly viewed askance,
expressing artistry stands nary a chance.
To stand out from the rest of mankind
is fraught with danger, for body and mind.

Often I stand to watch in solemn dismay
as beauty and joy are left by the way,
ignored and reviled by the unwashed masses
who prefer darkness, and acting like asses.

With shouts of derision the normals make known
their fear of intelligence, greater than their own.
They hope to stop all semblance of progress;
for thoughts and ideas, they couldn’t care less.

The world struggles on in spite of all opposition,
managing to maintain its advanced position.
Pulling the foolish along in spite of reluctance,
helping each to learn the survival dance.

Hard though it may be to keep up with the future
genius manages its plans to develop and nurture.
In the final analysis, those who live by reason
enjoy life the most, season to season.

~~ gigoid ~~

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I’ve done my ranting for the day, so now I get to let Smart Bee help me pick out a group of pearls, that will make a statement of some sort, in the old-school style we’ve all come to know and love…. I have a feeling I know what kind of statement it will make today…. but, I’ve been wrong before… in this century, too! Any who, let’s see what happens when I give SB the reins…..

“Annual drug deaths: tobacco: 395,000, alcohol: 125,000, ‘legal’ drugs: 38,000, illegal drug overdoses: 5,200, marijuana: 0. Considering government subsidies of tobacco, just what is our government protecting us from in the drug war?” — William A. Turnbow

“Political truth is libel; religious truth, blasphemy.” — William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

(The battle, begun long ago, goes on today, does it not?…..)

“It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?” — Henry David Thoreau

“A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.” — Mark Twain

“Soap, Ballot, Jury & Cartridge.” — The Four Boxes of Freedom

“The higher we soar, the smaller we seem to those who cannot fly” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“Let’s all face the facts. This world, in which many, if not most of us live, will never be a better place, until such time as it is occupied by a better class of tenants.” — Smart Bee

This last quote stimulated a thought, which I want to share…. I rant here, a lot, about politics, and religion, and how the people who engage in those particular pastimes are, essentially, sick puppies, and mostly just need to be put out of their misery, before they cause any further harm…. What occurred to me on reading the quote above is this: the real culprit responsible for our problems on this planet is not those who engage in those activities, precisely, though they are the outward manifestation of the problem…. The fatal characteristic that is guiding our downfall is a particular flaw in human nature, one that allows us to pursue those activities, but doesn’t give us, or make us use, the most important quality that makes them viable…

This flaw, which is a lack, (of restraint, a lack of ethics, or morals….) more than an actual flaw, is one that each of us, good and bad, possess, and display, at various times; I identify it as that part of us that can determine that we, as individuals, have the right to work our will on others, to seek and use power and resources to make other people follow what we wish to believe, to manipulate others so as to make what we want to happen the only outcome, to the exclusion of whatever others want, or need, or even think…. This power-hunger is all too prevalent in those who take up politics, as well as those who “are called by God” to enter the church (sorry, but being “called” by supernatural entities is deserving of medication and at best, compassion, not worship, or indulgence…) In the quote below, a wise man gives a short explanation of this flaw, and how it can affect all of us….

“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.” — Lazarus Long, aka Robert Heinlein

Until our species can manage to root out this particular part of our nature, or at minimum, achieve enough control of it so that those who display it cannot affect the rest of us, we, as a species, will never be able to really get any further down the evolutionary road, since the path we are currently following, thanks to this flaw in our nature, which allows the predators to prey on the the rest of us, will only lead us into extinction… and THAT will be sooner than most ffolkes, or folks, believe it will be….

“A certain monk had a habit of pestering the Grand Tortue (the only one who had ever reached the Enlightenment ‘Yond Enlightenment), by asking whether various objects had Buddha-nature or not. To such a question Tortue invariably sat silent. The monk had already asked about a bean, a lake, and a moonlit night. One day he brought to Tortue a piece of string, and asked the same question. In reply, the Grand Tortue grasped the loop between his feet and, with a few simple manipulations, created a complex string which he proffered wordlessly to the monk. At that moment, the monk was enlightened.

From then on, the monk did not bother Tortue. Instead, he made string after string by Tortue’s method; and he passed the method on to his own disciples, who passed it on to theirs.” — Smart Bee

Sadly, neither Tortue, nor his disciple, ever made a copy of the string, and no one now is alive who remembers what it looked like…. SIGH… If nothing else, it might have kept the predatory among us all so busy, (See, that part’s easy… we’d just tell them there was a treasure for them, if they could make the string correctly assume the shape of enlightenment….), they wouldn’t have time to fuck with anyone else….
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Well, that was certainly a Pearl, if the way I’m huffing and puffing, and trying to blow down walls is any indication… Of course, the wall is fine, but I’m definitely huffed and puffed out, so I’d best go see just what I’ve done here….. Have some toast and butter, and I’ll be right back….

Once again I’ve created something that is a little bigger than intended, and, in this case, almost up to snuff, conceptually….. It’s certainly fresh, and real, so, if nothing else, it’s probably healthy for you…. or for me, whichever comes first… Let me guess, ah, that would be……. me, of course…. but, I think, if you consume all of this one, it might just healthy for you, too…. Regardless, it’s done, so it’s good to go…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, if my luck holds….

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

The cost of implementing the Rules for Sanitary Operation are included in the quoted price…..

Posted on November 20, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Although my fear of the blank white screen is no longer as debilitating as it was in the past, I still feel some pangs on mornings such as this, when I awake, fully rested, but with a mind as foggy as a San Francisco summer’s day….. So far, my daily dose of coffee is working, albeit slowly, and I should probably wait to begin…. In fact, I will… I’ll be right back…

There, that’s a bit better…. Not so much on my mind, so to speak, after a session of worship at the porcelain throne…. 😉 If that isn’t delicate enough for you, well, my apologies, and here are the directions to Disney World…. It’s the best you’ll get today, around here, anyway…. I’m not in the best of moods, I guess, so I’ll apologize in advance for any curmudgeonly statements, or rough language you may encounter today….. Not that I really give a shit whether or not you’re offended…. Most of the time, I’m TRYING to offend people, to stimulate some kind of reaction…. But, today, given my fogginess, and my incipient gruffness, which is struggling to break free and dump on somebody, well, it’s probably for the best to tender my regrets ahead of any potential issues….

Now that we have that out of the way, what shall we do for an encore? It shouldn’t be too hard to top the above two paragraphs, ensconced as they are in such mundane mediocrity…. Hell, I could have done as well while still on the throne…. But, protocol calls for some kind of chatty discussion of future events at this juncture, and protocols MUST be followed, or chaos ensues…. Hmm…. Chaos, eh? That actually sounds like fun; maybe we should try…. No, no, that’s being indulgent, and liable to lead us all into places we can’t easily back out of…. especially around here, where there are so many forces of nature just bursting with anticipation of being allowed to jump and dump on some unsuspecting visitor…. No, we’ll leave the chaos for another day….

But, since we’re not going to head down that path, where should we go? I’m at somewhat of a loss, having already handed over the reins of responsibility for how this turns out, placing it firmly in the hands of the Gentle Readership, back there in paragraph 3…. Didn’t you notice? I did, for sure, as it makes it easier on me, not having to make those decisions while my brain is still functioning at around 40% efficiency….. Maybe AFTER my first cup is down, I’d be able to make such decisions with alacrity, but, for now, I’m leaving it up to y’all…. Oh, wait….

I just realized I can’t do that…. I have to finish the Pearl FIRST, then post, and only then can the Gentle Readers tell me what THEY think…. No way to get that input at this point in the process…. Oh well, I tried… Since it is now back in my court to decide what to do, I’m going to go limp on y’all…. Cosmic judo, so to speak…. I see that I’ve managed, again, to wander around without any visible purpose for almost five paragraphs…… and THAT is a legal intro, ffolkes, by every legal requirement that exists….. That means I can be done with this, and go find some other kind of trouble to cause…. Yay!…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Find time still to be learning somewhat good, and give up being desultory.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ii, 7
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You can’t blame me for this one…. Below you’ll find a seven-star pearl, but I didn’t put it together…. Each of the following quotations picked itself; I didn’t want ANY of them, but, when I went to paste, there they were…. When Smart Bee does that, I’m helpless to make any changes; I’ve tried in the past, and it just doesn’t work out…. So, I’ve learned to just let them be, let say what they’re going to say, and get on with the rest of the Pearl…. Such is the case today… For the life of me, I’m having trouble figuring out what the point(s) is/are for this, but, as I said, it wasn’t up to me to decide, so…. just deal with it, okay? We’ll go on as soon as y’all are done….

“As Meander says, “For our mind is God;” and as Heraclitus, “Man’s genius is a deity.”” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Platonic Questions, i

“The treacherous are ever distrustful.” — Gandalf

“And Man said: ‘Let there be God,’ and there was God!” –Smart Bee

“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.” — G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 4/19/30

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

“A lie isn’t a lie if it’s in reply to a question the questioner has no right to ask.” — Rex Stout

“The purpose is to identify not with the body which is falling away, but with the consciousness of which it is a vehicle. This is something I learned from my myths. Am I the bulb that carries the light, or am I the light of which the bulb is the vehicle? If you can identify with consciousness, you can watch this thing go like an old car. There goes a fender, etc. But it’s expected; and then gradually the whole thing drops off and consciousness rejoins consciousness. I live with these myths — and they tell me to do this, to identify with the Christ or the Shiva in me. And that doesn’t die, it resurrects. It is an essential experience of any mystical realization that you die in your flesh and are born to your spirit. You identify with the consciousness in life — and that is the god.” — Joseph Campbell

Okay, so, I can sort of see where it’s going, or where it went…. which isn’t too bad, considering…. In the interests of time-management, we’ll STILL go on….
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This poem is a contribution from milady Patricia, my partner, my roomie, my current love…. It was written by the father of her son, in days gone by…. I think it’s lovely, and hope you enjoy it, as well….

Woman of the Night

Soft dawn
Summer light on snowy skin
Her presence, her body
warm as ocean sand and salty air,
Hard night
Winter moon caught in infinite eyes
We share the warmth, physical love.
For her winter eyes
lure her lovers
into the indifferent labyrinths
under her star-white flesh,
And she leaves them
Quickly as twilight’s slipping softly away
from a seagull’s pleading cry
echoing in the still Sierra vastness.

~~ Ryan Miller ~~

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Below you’ll find a short, but concise, religirant, another blast from the past, as I continue to mine my archives for material I can use today, to save me a bit of time, and mental energy, which I can always use to decide where I’m going for my next trip to…. ANYWHERE!…. Any who, all personal idiosyncrasies aside, this one is pretty good, I think, so pay attention, if you please, and take heed of what it says, for it is good advice, if naught else….
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From April 27, 2012

“He that doubteth is damned.” — Romans 14:23

It took a while, but it was worth the time spent searching…. This is a perfect example of how, if we let them, all those folks who would have us believe that the Bible, (or any other sacred books inspired by alleged supernatural entities), is a direct line of information from God, will go to almost any lengths, trying to trick us into doing exactly what that book tells us to do. In this case, they apply both guilt and fear of retribution in the next life if we question any of what we are told by that book, or any of what we are taught by those who hold it as truth….

I have previously written here as to the value that Doubt possesses, in the bag of tools people have to get by in this complex, confusing universe we inhabit. It is our only defense against information or events that can cause, or even intend, us harm, rather than good; such information invariably is given to us by other people, whose only intent in doing so is to achieve some sort of power or control over us. I don’t think this is a particularly hard concept to understand; its proof lies in almost every interaction we have when faced with organized religions. Anyone who has studied the psychology of humans can point out the techniques of behavioral modification used by the religious hierarchies to assert their will upon the public….

The above short little warning/threat, drawn directly from the Christian Bible, (Old Testament, if memory serves….), implies that anyone who does not bend over in submission to its decree will spend eternity in Hell. Hmm, a bit harsh, don’t you think? For merely entertaining a question regarding the accuracy of a concept presented, one with no evidence that proves its reliability? The Universe at large presents us with such false information regularly; anyone who doesn’t learn caution in such instances is liable for the consequences, which can be severe, such as in the case of being confronted by an apparently friendly, but in reality, rabid dog. Rabies is no picnic, from all reports, so, Doubt, used as a tool in such instances, is very appropriate, patently a valuable one.

However, in the minds of the folks who are selling faith-based products, Doubt is the last thing they want people to have in mind when considering what they say. It tends to cause their arguments to fall apart right in front of their eyes, and they cannot make the sale that way. If they can’t convince people to accept what they say without questioning it, their entire house of cards will come tumbling down around their ears, and they would have to give up all those nice little perks that go along with having everyone believe everything they say, like having poor people willingly give up 10% of their earnings in tithe, or getting to reside, with no rent, in a house built by the labor of others…. Did you think they would give that up easily?…. Well, then you’ve lost your strongest ally against such degradations to your sensibilities…. a healthy sense of Doubt….

“Fear not, for I have given you authority to do so.” — Smart Bee, via some random preacher’s King James version….
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I suppose it is no big surprise that I should be done already this morning…. Having utilized a poem from home, already done, and something from the archives, putting the rest of this Pearl together wasn’t bound to take up a lot of time, unless I really, really tried to procrastinate heavily…. which, fortunately, I didn’t…. I could have, but, what would be the point? It’s MY blog, so procrastinating only harms ME, and I haven’t reached the point of self-abuse for fun, or even for profit, since there is none to be had for that….. SIGH…. blather… It’s a bane, and a gift, I suppose…. Let’s see how this all holds up under scrutiny….

I should have known…. Every time I create a Pearl without using any forethought as to direction, it seems to end up as a pretty good Pearl…. I’m not sure I even WANT to know what that means, either about me, or about the Pearls…. I guess that’s why it was extra smart of me to call them Virtual Wisdom, rather than insisting on people taking them for real wisdom…. Whatever it was, this one will do, 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

Burdened by implications of impropriety….

Posted on November 19, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Wow…. It’s been a LONG time since my head has been so empty in the morning….. I’m guessing it has something to do with getting an extra hour and a half of sleep, which has me up today rather later than is usual in the recent past….. Of course, my guesses are wrong as often as right, so that’s no guarantee that I’ve figured this out, or that trying to use my brain for any kind of cognitive tasks will have any positive results… In short, I’ve reached that momentous state so aptly described in the Grateful Dead song, Sugar Magnolia…. to wit: “Head’s all empty, and I don’t care….” I DO care, though, at least enough to feel some regret at my lack of alertness just now, if not any great depression, over not being able to write…. I mean, THAT is nothing new, right?….

Besides, the empty-headed state described in the song has more to do with the effect on the brain of a beautiful woman, not over-zealousness in pounding the pillow, so it doesn’t help explain anything… As is normal in these cases, I have absolutely no idea what to do about it, and intend to carry on in the usual way, as I am right now, wandering around in my head, blathering, until something, anything, I type strikes a chord, whether of humor, anger, outrage, or simply reminiscence…. SOMETHING has to pop up eventually, and when it does, I’ll be all over it, like a male dog chasing a female in heat….

Hmm, as is plain to see, I shouldn’t be allowed to make up any descriptive phrases until I have a better handle on things… I’m not sure that image is the one I was shooting for…. But, what is a daily blogger to do, eh? I ask you, is it fair to expect brilliance every day? Well, maybe it is, but, hey, not all of us can do that, okay? Some of us need to be average some days…. otherwise, those flashes of brilliance tend to get overlooked.

If I was brilliant all the time, it wouldn’t seem special when I do make some connection, or expose some nerve, or shout something out that makes people sit up and take notice. There has to be a degree of contrast, sort of like using a frame for a picture, to serve as a way to highlight what I’ve written, a dichotomy that tells the tale to be told….

Most days, I end up like today, trying to achieve perfect piffle, which, to me, is great fun, and funny, and, in some ways, the most honest way to start off these missives… Nothing else conveys the sense of nonsense that we try to achieve here, that sharp, sardonic wit and intelligent discourse to which I aspire in my writing…. Of course, not everyone appreciates piffle like me, but, that is NOT my problem; I can’t fix the whole world at once…. It does mean that I have to also write in such a way that those folks are included in the message’s recipient list, as they typically are in the direst need of such information as I impart in my ranting mode…. So be it….

Well, like it or not, I’ve done it again…. Four plus paragraphs of near-piffle, punctuated within an inch of its life, all with absolutely no meaning, or relevance to what is happening in reality…. What can I say? It’s a gift…. It also meets all the legal requirements for an introductory section, which means I can put down my quill, and start typing again…. That’s sort of what it feels like, even if it isn’t anything close to that…. Piffle takes me back to my youth, and I can’t help it…. nor would I, if I could…. I’m just a sentimental fool about that sort of thing, and there’s no changing that at this late date…. I suppose I’m starting to ramble beyond even the loose limits at play on this site, so, I’ll give it up now….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It is not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horseraces.” — Mark Twain, from Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar(1894)
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Over the past two and a bit more years, I’ve written an average of about 2000 words per day, and have posted them all here on this blog…. This is either very egotistical, or very neurotic, and I don’t really give a crap which, because it was my only defense against insanity, at the time when I began. It seems to have worked, at least from this side, so, whether or not it is, or was, necessary is, to me, a moot point…. There is one advantage to having written so much, which I am now able to better utilize, since WP has been referring us to various older posts of the same nature as the one being read; that advantage is having a large archive of material that I know is ready to use, for those times, such as today, when my brain is somewhat less than perfectly groomed, and not willing to come out to play just yet….

Hence, the following discussion, which I found in a Pearl first posted on December 15, 2012…. I hope you enjoy it….

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“Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right actions arises by itself?” — Lao Tzu

Ever since being first exposed to the precepts of Taoism, back when I was in college in the late 60’s, it has always appealed to my sense of rightness, and makes the closest approach to what I personally believe about the Universe at large. Not the mystical parts, that cater to the religious order of the time it first was clarified by Lao Tzu, but the essence of the concept of reality, as being both within our perception, and unknown to us as beyond our understanding. We may not possess the necessary sense to be capable of receiving such information, whether about reality or fantasy, and if we assume the omnipotence of a god, then we would not be able to comprehend their existence, lacking the tools to perceive them with our five or six senses….

This knowledge, however, is tempered by the deduction that, as a physical part of the universe, we are connected to it, and to every other part, if only by sharing that existence. The connection, intuitively, is deeper than merely the physical; it extends somehow into the spiritual plane, which, though not tangible, is nonetheless a proven part of our mental reality. (What IS the mind?) It is this very lack of the ability to explain by which we may know the connection exists, as it echoes the nature of reality itself, which cannot be explained in words. Goodness knows why I’m trying, to be sure…. this is getting pretty esoteric, although, so far, it is consistently rational, if not entirely illuminating.

“Since everything in life is but an experience perfect in being what it is, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.” — Long Chen Pa

What better way to acknowledge and celebrate the perfection that we can see, or hear, feel, smell, taste, or imagine?…. It’s certainly preferable to a long, dusty discussion of esoteric concepts, and will encourage enlightenment just as efficiently, if not quite so verbally. In some way, I’m always looking for the perfect quote, the ultimate aphorism, that delivers that cosmic truth we are all seeking in one swell foop, and the above from Long Chen Pa comes very close to it, especially when considered in the light of what one concludes from considering the answers to the first two questions today. As a Westerner who has learned to appreciate what the East brings us, the following resonates very well….

“Somehow, in the midst of their horrid history, the best among the _gaijin_ learned a wonderful lesson. They learned to distrust themselves, to doubt even what they were taught to believe or what their egos make them yearn to see. To know that even truth must be scrutinized, it was a great discovery, almost as great as the treasure we of the East have to offer them in return, the gift of harmony.” — David Brin – Dr. Pak’s Preschool

There’s the key, ffolkes, right there in front of you…. Even truth must be scrutinized, or the universe will have its way with you, and you may never find the gift of harmony that is also there for the taking…. There, not so esoteric, after all….and, not too shabby at all, eh what?….

“The ancient Taoist sages were poised and alert….. like ice on the verge of melting.” — Taoist proverb
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In the same Pearl where I found the above short discussion, I found a very powerful poem, surprisingly… I was surprised because it was my own poem, and I had no recollection of writing it, or posting it…. But, there it was, and here it is….

Territorial imperative…

Beauty must define, as augment to existence,
as life must be more than mere subsistence.
Nature demands more.
Truth helps.

~~ gigoid ~~

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WARNING! FRESH RANT BELOW: Read it, or not, as you wish…. but, don’t tell me I didn’t warn you…. 😆

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” — The Constitution of the United States of America Amendment 1, 1791

I had thought, when I found this restatement of the First Amendment, to use it as the opening for a politirant. It IS the perfect lead-in to such discussions, as each and every one of the issues addressed in this codicil to the Constitution is under attack, and, in essence, is no longer one of our guaranteed rights…. I’m not crying “foul!” without evidence; the sky actually IS falling, to use an obvious literary reference. So, I suppose I will…. use it to lead in to a politirant, that is…. Let’s take this piece by piece….

Religion in this country IS free to carry on with, as long as the religion is a Christian sect…. Any other group is likely to suffer a lot of obstruction in the pursuit of their religion, both by law, and more significantly, by custom, and the power of peer pressure…. On the State level, as well as locally, laws have been, and are being passed that prevent Muslim women, and men, from wearing certain articles of clothing their faith demands they wear; other religious icons and dogmatic representations have been subjected to legal restriction as well, for many religions…. except Christian…. But, such laws are only the surface of the problem….

There are even Christian churches, or, well, allegedly, or peripherally Christian churches, that are discriminated against by their larger co-conspirators, just because they don’t have the same ideas about what their particular focus of worship is all about…. Just ask anyone from the Mormons… or ask anyone in The Tribe about antisemitism in the twenty-first century, and listen to them list all the various examples one can find, and not just in the news…. Ask just about any Southern Baptist what they think about Catholics, or Jews…. but, be prepared to get spewed upon with some nasty vulgarities…. Then, ask anyone from Texas what they call a Muslim when they aren’t calling them ragheads….

Okay, that’s the first section of the Amendment, on religion…. That’s gone, kaput, no longer in force; from a cultural point of view, it really never was in place, not very strongly…. The Christian sects have always been good at paying lip service to the principles of their dogma and creed, (the ones about tolerance, and compassion for others….). but, they’ve never been terribly good about actually living up to those principles, have they?…. That little episode during the Middle Ages, the one they called The Inquisition, now THAT was a pretty thing, wasn’t it?…. Now, of course, we have the plague of pedophilia, and/or outright bigotry that permeates so many church hierarchies, and not just the Catholics…. Even a simple, even Christ-like soul, such as the current Pope seems to be, won’t have a big effect on that degree of corruption of spirit….

Next is free speech…. Need I even say anything at all about this? How free is our speech, when telling the truth about the illegal activities being perpetrated by the government is looked on as treason? How free is our media, when they won’t print anything that exposes the lies told every day by the government, much less publish the stuff that Eric Snowden had to show? Oh, they enumerate the prevarications in spots; there are fact checking sites, and a lot of folks who claim to call BS on them everywhere…. The lies they tell are so obvious, that much exposure is unavoidable, given the internet, and the scope of modern technology….

But, those sites, articles, and shows that expose the lies don’t get anywhere near the publicity or exposure that the lies get, or the spin on the lies, or anything at all that the pundits and talking heads have to say in defense of their lies…. Hell, much of the time, the response by the government, regarding a particular instance of being caught lying, is handled most effectively by just ignoring it, making no statement at all…. and the media lets them do it! Every time!…. No follow-up outrage, no further mention of the lies told, just silence…. When was the last time we saw a public official actually tried in court for lying to the public?….. Nixon, maybe? Maybe so….

I can think of, at minimum, three instances in the past six years of this administration when huge lies were told, or exposed, and not a single politician or government official has been prosecuted for those lies, up to, and including the President…. This doesn’t even address the lies told by the Republican Party (the “loyal” opposition?….) on a daily basis by that entities representatives…. I’m not going to bother naming them, as all of them were covered extensively in the news, for all the good it did….

Okay, free speech, and freedom of the press, those are pretty much gone, too…. Let’s see, now, what’s next?…. The freedom to peacefully assemble, and petition for redress of grievances…. Have you tried to get a permit to have a protest lately? I understand there are now a bunch of requirements that are necessary to be allowed to assemble anywhere in a public venue, all laws passed on a local level, as a rule, and enforced by police departments with a huge sense of entitlement, legal backing, and guns they aren’t afraid to use on the public….

Those requirements that must now be met before assembling any group for protest in public, requirements which are, if one actually reads this Amendment, completely illegal according to the Constitution, have to do with protecting property, mostly, from the vagaries of mob actions….. The laws were put in place through the efforts (i.e. they spent a lot of money to make sure their politicians voted the “correct” way….) of corporate entities…. The landed gentry, or more accurately, private interests, to protect THEIR profit margins, and THEIR rights, as opposed to the rights of the people… Can’t have those ignorant voters taking money out of their pockets in their dissatisfaction, now, can we?….

Oh, and by the way…. When was the last time we heard about a policeman getting arrested , ( Or women, though police women don’t seem to ever go as completely overboard in their zealousness as their male counterparts, at least not without first becoming more male than female in their attitudes about violence, and the use of it to control the public….), for being violent during a protest? Or actually being prosecuted, and convicted for those kinds of acts? Very, very seldom, as you are well aware, I’m sure…. That particular issue is generally taken in hand by many governments by passing laws making the police immune to prosecution for ANYTHING they do while on duty…. pretty slick, eh? Become a policeman, get a get-out-of-jail-free card to stick in your wallet….

Not bad work, if you’ve got the stomach for it, along with a very, very skewed and distorted sense of honor, and justice…. To my mind, in the current state of our society, it takes a pretty sick mind to want to take on the duties of a police officer…. Sadly, there just aren’t enough honest, honorable men to fill the empty spaces, and the need for them….

As a result, I’d estimate that at least half of the men, and, almost as many of the women, who try to become police officers are clinically insane, and should never be allowed to have that sort of power over others, for they WILL eventually, even consistently, use that power for their own ends, or use it in ways that are destructive to the public good…. It’s their nature to do so, and they WILL do so, if given the chance… As evidence, I will once more point to the news, and the many instances reported of dishonorable, destructive behavior by police officers….

It must be remembered, THOSE reports only tell of the ones who are caught, or prosecuted, or screw up so badly even their own mates turn on them…. How many instances of police bullying, or intimidation of citizens in the pursuit of their ends, actually show up in those reports?…. More significantly, how often do you see a news report, many months after an incident, that was investigated for wrong-doing, or illegalities on the part of the officers, that exonerates the officers of all wrong? Of course, the fact that these investigations are carried out by OTHER POLICE OFFICERS seems to forever lose its place among the reactions from the press….

SIGH, now, I’m a little bummed out…. Here it is, not quite 7 AM, I’ve got a dental appointment to live through at 10, and I’ve already put the hammer to the First Amendment…. Say BYE BYE, ffolkes, to that hallowed document, the Bill of Rights, otherwise known as the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, because the efforts of the past 235 years by the corporate masters to do away with that hallowed document, as predicted by Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, George Mason, and a number of other of our Founding Fathers, have almost reached their desired results….

Most, if not all, of the rights we were guaranteed in the Bill of Rights have now been abridged, in one way or another, and we can not depend on ANYONE in our government to give them back…. Not when we’ve already given them the keys to the treasury, by allowing them the right to vote their own salaries, their own health care system, their own retirement, all without ever realizing we were doing so….. The American people have cooperated fully in their own enslavement, ffolkes, and though the collars we wear are not yet such as to kill us outright with their fit, nonetheless have taught us to do without a lot of the freedoms our forefathers gave us, with our full, if sadly ignorant, consent….

Sorry to be the one to bring this out, but, hey, somebody has to, right? Right….. I may not be a small child, but, as far as I can see, the Emperor is NOT wearing any clothes, ffolkes….. Now, let’s see how many ffolkes, and/or folks, out there will either admit to it, or reject my assertions…. nicely, of course…. I suppose this is a good place to bring this rant to a dignified close, though, given my history, that’s pretty much out of the question… the dignity, I mean… I think I’m going to have to resort to a pearl to make my escape…. so, let’s see if Smart Bee can come up with just the right one…..

“What now if the sky were to fall?” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Heautontimoroumenos, Act iv, Sc. 3, 41, (719.)

“If you don’t make the rules, you don’t have to keep them. If you do make the rules, you won’t anyway.” — Smart Bee

How admirable, he who thinks not,
Life is fleeting,
When he sees the lightning!

— Basho

Well, it took three, and that’s okay, too…. because they’re perfect….
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Without even going back over this, I can feel it is something of an epic Pearl…. I can only hope it can carry the weight of its own dimensions…. Let’s go see…. Yep, completely epic… I apologize if I have set the bar too high, and y’all don’t have the time to read it all, or to comment… It’s a lot… But, if you should have a thought, or even two, about any of it, feel free to chime in…. Meantime, it’s started raining here, so I’m going out in it to soak up some moisture, first-hand…. 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

Proud members of a local pantheon…..

Posted on November 18, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I’m a bit pensive today…. This may be due to the subject matter that occupied my thoughts yesterday evening, a series of old impressions and feelings about my family, whom I dearly love, as long as it is from a distance….. No, actually, I do love them, such as they all are, for they are legion…. I think if possible, my mom would have produced an entire baseball team, rather than merely a basketball squad…. Though it is hard to think about, for a son, or a daughter, my parents MUST have enjoyed the physical aspects of marriage, and more than just a little bit, for they certainly “issued forth” with more than their share of children; there were seven of us, in total, though two of us died soon after birth (my long-lost, unknown, but always loved brother Scott, and sister Emily, both of whom died within hours of their birth, sometime during WWII, while my father was overseas, fighting in the Pacific theater…..)

It’s strange, actually, to sit here in tears, crying for two people I never got to know, but, I guess I’m just a closet softie. If both of the babies had lived, life would have been very different for me… It’s quite possible that, instead of being the middle child of five, I would have been the baby of the brood, with two older brothers, and two older sisters to torment me unmercifully, as did I and my siblings for my youngest brother…. Perhaps I’d have been the fifth of seven, as it did turn out, but, that, too, would have made me a different person than I am…. As middle child, the pressure is to survive the eldest siblings machinations, while still finding ways to make my younger siblings’ lives miserable… It’s what brothers are for, you know…

Actually, I always thought growing up in the middle gave me an advantage, that of learning to develop the use of brains over brawn…. Since I wasn’t big enough to fend off the older siblings, I had to learn fast, and develop my mental flexibility, to be able to outguess them consistently… That wasn’t hard with my older sister, but, my brother was pretty smart himself, and gave me some fits before I figured out how to manipulate him… You see, the middle child is in a difficult position… If I fought with my older sibs, I suffered pain, from their retaliation…. If I fought with the younger ones, the risk came from the possible intervention of my parents, who always tended to side with the underdog, ( always the younger of anyone involved in such altercations…) So, you see, we middle children learn to develop a larger, more flexible set of mental and physical skills than do our siblings, just to keep our sanity in the dog-eat-dog world of large family dynamics….

What occurred to me last night was the following query, to wit: had Scott and Emily survived, would I have been the same person I turned out to be? Since it is, relatively, a moot point, (it didn’t happen, after all….), it enters the realm of unwarranted, and therefore useless, speculation, at best…. In other words, a waste of time, for the most part…. I don’t regard the time I spent on this as wasted, however…. I did find out a few things about myself I hadn’t known…. such as, I really do miss them, even though I never knew them… I think I would have enjoyed having an older sister named Emily, especially given my predilection for the poetry of Miss Dickinson….. and who wouldn’t have enjoyed a brother named Scott, who would, perhaps, have been my champion, my protector against my other older brother, Tim, who picked on me without mercy, as was his right and duty, and fought with me incessantly..

I guess it goes to show that growing up in a large family has its ups, and downs, and advantages versus disadvantages; it seems to me, though, to have been well worth it, if only for the socialization and interpersonal skills it develops in those children, from living in a small copy of society, with all its different pressures and dynamics. Kids from smaller families, and only children, don’t get that same inundation in relationships, or the immersion in a melting pot of different personalities, thereby learning to deal with that issue, before having to do so out in the real world, outside the home, where one is, to a certain extent, protected from the vagaries of reality….

Okay, pensiveness fulfilled, and thus, easily dismissed… Though it isn’t my usual intro, it seems to have worked fairly well to break the ice for the day, with a good five paragraphs of material, all of which, though a bit personal, and irrelevant to much out in the BBR, or Reality at Large, nonetheless fulfills all legal requirements, and fills up the necessary space at the top of the page…. 😉

Shall we Pearl?….

When stars are in the quiet skies,
Then most I pine for thee;
Bend on me then thy tender eyes,
As stars look on the sea.

— Edward Bulwer Lytton (1805-1873) — When Stars are in the quiet Skies

Hmm… see, pensive…. Onward, ever on, he cried!….
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There isn’t a lot that needs to be added to this, as is immediately apparent to anyone, such as myself, who was raised according to these principles…. I would add only this…. The world would, indeed, be a very different place, if all men were invested in this philosophy of living… Of that, there can be no doubt at all….. In contrast to how things normally go around this blog, that is all you get today, for this section, because it is complete, just as it is….
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In cruising around yesterday, I came across some older poems of mine, first written back in 2011, I think, & rediscovered in August of this year… This one is perhaps my favorite of those I found, as well as one of my all-around best efforts…. Well, I like it, anyway, and I hope you do as well….

Dreaming, I wait….

In the most patient moments of rationality
kindness flows smoothly in a special milieu,
fallow thoughts speed first from equality
giving no anxious fever, nor anger to eschew.

Indignant mothers and step-sons in-law
fade simply from brilliant to grey,
intoning ritual dogma, fresh, avid, and raw,
falling, falling, in massive pastoral disarray.

Safety lives not, save brightly in ignorant bliss,
it follows us all, silent and infinitely frail,
foremost too often, soft as a virgin kiss,
alive, always eager, willing, and pale.

Intimate knowledge finds only the bold few
with courage and virtue to gift, unbidden.
No solemn royal version may pass in review,
true love for man, never to remain unhidden.

Sweet feathers of Emily’s hope uplift,
calm, drowsy episodes bursting with light,
With final glad cries we set ourselves adrift,
swimming in deep oceans of natural delight.

When sorrow is banished, in ages yet to come,
roots solidly anchored, cold and remote,
Ample supplies of kindness sit silent and dumb,
as the old stranger shrugs on his faded coat.

Dreaming, then, I wait with shadows in the night
aspiring to inspire, a message from the muse’s heart
Never forgotten images, framed in color bright,
tempt me only, grieving, steeped in serenity’s arcane art.

~~ gigoid ~~

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There are times in the making of these Pearls that I falter in my forward motion, and begin to wonder exactly what the HELL I think I’m doing…. Then, I grin at myself in the nearest mirror, and remind myself, hey, who gives a shit? At that point, I am free to go on, to bigger, and better, things…. Well, that’s the plan, anyway…

The following seven-star pearl is an odd one… It started out in one direction, then took a good 110 degree turn into another….. Far be it from me to interfere where I’m not wanted, so, I let it do its thing, promising to accept whatever happened…. In looking over the end result, all I can say is, keep your minds flexible, ffolkes, in reading these, and don’t let them push you into the wrong alley… There just might be something down that alley that could cause you some serious harm…. or not…. Let’s see just what happened, shall we?…..

“A mask has but one expression, frozen and eternal, yet it is always and ever the essential expression, and to hide one’s telltale flesh behind the external skeleton of the mask is to display the universal identity of the inner being in place of the outer identity that is transitory and corrupt. A mask, any mask, whether horned like a beast or feathered like an angel, is the face of immortality. Meet me in Cognito, baby. In Cognito, we’ll have nothing to hide.” — Tom Robbins

“I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it’s a limit that’s very seldom mentioned. It’s the point where free speech begins to collide with the right to privacy. I don’t think there are any other conditions to free speech. I’ve got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I haven’t got a right to press it on anybody else. …. Nobody’s got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors.” — H.L. Mencken

“Victory goes to the candidate with the most accumulated or contributed wealth who has the financial sources to convince the middle class and poor that he will be on their side.” — Mark B. Cohen

“Anarchism is not a romantic fable but the hardheaded realization, based on five thousand years of experience, that we cannot entrust the management of our lives to kings, priests, politicians, generals, and county commissioners.” — Edward Abbey

“By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.” — Albert Camus

“Lots of them go to the spring, but none of ’em ever drink.” — Footprints

“But Chrysippus, Posidonius, Zeno, and Boethus say, that all things are produced by fate. And fate is a connected cause of existing things, or the reason according to which the world is regulated.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Zeno, lxxiv

Zounds!…. If such astute men as Chrsippus, Posidonius, Zeno, and Boethus ALL say this, well, then, it must be true, right? I mean, those are all names that echo down the halls of history, shouting out their wisdom, right?… No?…. Oh, yeah, I guess I haven’t heard of any of them, either…. Oh, well, never mind… Just go with the flow, and it will all make sense… And if not, don’t worry about it; none of this will be on the Quiz….
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“Portions of the preceding were recorded. As for the rest, I quite fear that it was all in your mind.” — Smart Bee

It is arguably a good thing that we have reached the end of this Pearl…. I’m not sure whether or not it would remain in a non-explosive state if continued any further…. Now, if it can stand up to the loose standards of scrutiny applied here, we’re good to go for another day…. Be right back, after I see what actually took place up there….

Once more, the resulting mess defies description, or analysis…. That, in and of itself, is probably for the best….. Before I do something, or write something that will cause more serious harm, I’m going to post this, and be done with it… I managed to get to some of my favorite blogs yesterday, to catch up a bit on my reading, and awareness of what is up out there in WordPress… It felt good, and I plan to do so again today, given the space from my pain I experienced yesterday…. we can hope, can’t we? Of course we can…. it doesn’t mean our hope will be justified, or fulfilled, but, hey, it’s better than a milkshake made of tree bark and turpentine, right? Definitely right…. 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

21 seems to be all Murphy wants today…. but, 21 what?….

Posted on November 17, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

It isn’t often I am favored with obvious clues from the universe as to what is coming up on the agenda….. Therefore, it comes as no surprise this morning that I don’t seem to be able to decode whatever it is trying to tell me with all these rather blatant little pointers, these little precognitive moments….. Moments such as looking up at the clock to note when I begin, to see it is EXACTLY 5:00 AM as I type the first letters….. or that I awoke at EXACTLY 4:30 AM….. or that the EXACT meaning of a word implies a certain complex concept, while simultaneously supplying meaning to a formerly inane title segment…. I wonder if the white raven that was sitting on my chair as I came out of the bedroom has any place in all this?…. Have I ignored TV so long I can’t figure out an obvious plot device like that?…. Maybe….

Actually, the above paragraph is one of those throw-aways of which I am so fond of creating, a collection of meaningless ideas strung together in such a way as to compel one to read it, but never quite reaching a degree of meaning that will offer the reader anything other than the beginning of a headache…. Since I awoke with one that is pushing right through the Norco, making my right eyeball throb like a dub hound’s bass speaker at top volume, I figured, why not share the wealth, eh? If I have to sit here in excruciating pain, with both hips screaming, back muscles threatening spasm, and a throbbing eyeball, it’s the least I can do…..

Not that anyone else deserves the pain I feel almost all the time; I’m still trying to figure out what I did to my karmic burden to cause this state….. If one believes at all in the balance of good and evil in the universe, karma is basic, a system of understanding and approaching life with compassion rather than aggressiveness, and the joy of striving for love, rather than the pain of striving for power….

I do believe in that balance, though it often seems that our neighborhood here in the Universe at Large is somewhat overloaded with folks who don’t feel the same way, spending most of their time in the pursuit of what I consider to be useless stuff, like money, or power over others…. I mean, power over others is EASY to assume, if one has no compassion…. it is much harder, and shows much more inner strength, to be able to have power over one’s self….

SIGH…. The power over ourselves of which I speak often, even mostly, eludes us, though, which is probably a big part of why the world is so screwed up….. Not only that, but, it seems I’ve once again fallen into the trap that often gets me in the mornings…. Another intro section full of nonsense, near-sense, and epiphany…. or what could serve as epiphany, had it occurred inside someone’s head, rather than here on my screen….

Since, however, I’m not one to waste anything I can use, especially if it adds to the word count, I’m keeping all of it, and going on to bigger and better things, if I can persuade myself to stop typing anytime soon…. I’m falling into the “can’t seem to stop” mode that occasionally plagues me….. That CAN be a problem, though it does help in creating these Pearls…. Besides, as I’ve iterated previously, it’s MY blog, right? I can do just about whatever I want, as long as it doesn’t draw the government myrmidons down on me…. or, even if it does…. I’m armed, even if I don’t appear to be…. Not only that, but, I have the power of the pen on my side, and THAT is powerful indeed…. Well, that’s what I’ve heard, anyway…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, not all that could be.” — Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld

Aha! That’s been my problem the whole time…. Now, why didn’t I think of that?….. I’ll have to work on that a bit, won’t I?….
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“Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the _real_ object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?” — Patrick Henry

It has been a while since I spoke on the matter of gun control, and the Second Amendment… Since I HAVE done so previously, and in a way I found to be clear, and compelling, I am including that diatribe below… This is from the POVW posted on 11/20/12, a couple of weeks after the national election….
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As I suspected, the news has become a desert…. Since the election settled so many questions that had been paramount, there has been virtually nothing going on that is worth any outrage, and certainly nothing that would stimulate enough angst to produce a rant. The Republicans are all walking around shaking their heads, and wondering where they went wrong, or trying to fool the public into believing they are going to cooperate with the administration (a load of crap if I ever heard one….), and the Democrats can’t stop grinning long enough to get anything done yet…. It’s like watching a video of a particularly exciting Sunday School class…. pretty enough, but boring as hell….

A few items worth discussion have come up…. There is more noise being bandied about regarding gun control again, as I see some folks posting statistics about guns and people getting killed…. What, did they think?…. Were they expecting that, all of a sudden, after the election, human nature was going to change? It always amazes me how much outrage, and surprise, people seem to exhibit when another atrocity killing is brought out by a news outlet. People are going to lose their cool, and their control…. that is a fact of life, and a law of nature.

This issue, of the failure of human nature to control its homicidal urges, isn’t going to change, and wishing otherwise is a fool’s game. In addition to this fact we need to consider another, of equal importance…. guns are real. When they are used to kill, it is not as if the gun is responsible, yet people seem to think that allowing the government to regulate who can have guns, and who can’t, will somehow stop all that from happening. It won’t, and thinking it will is the worst sort of self-delusion….

“Gun Control – the belief that government, with its great wisdom and moral superiority, can be trusted with a monopoly on deadly force.”– Smart Bee

Smart Bee has hit upon the main argument against gun control, as desired by the idiots who think it will help. Sorry, don’t mean to be derogatory, but it is undeniable, inarguable idiocy to think that the government is capable of controlling itself any more than individuals can; what evidence is there to even hint as much? None, none that can be seen, because there is none that can be produced. If you think that the government has even the slightest intention of using such a monopoly with restraint, or with any sort of integrity, well, then, you have fallen into some serious deep shit in your mind, and will need to seriously consider some intensive psychotherapy.

Hell, just take a look at recent statistics as to how many civilians have been gunned down by corrupt cops…. It may surprise you to see that the numbers are at least equal to, if not greater than those deaths by gun that are attributed to civilian citizens. In the town I live in, alone, there have been at least seven civilian deaths at the hands of police, using guns, just this year…. I’ve lived in a lot of rough towns, and in my estimation, this is not a particularly large town, nor a particularly violent one.

“Most people seem to think that trampling individual rights is OK if it is “for the good of society as a whole.” However, society is but a large number of individuals, and how can harming the individual parts better the whole?” — Andrew Ford, forda@agcs.com

Hearing a government official claim that by restricting a right it is good for society as a whole is, to me, the very same as hearing someone wearing robes and a conical, comical hat, claim they are looking out for ‘my’ interests over their own…. I’m not gonna buy it, not now, not ever. There is NO TIME when it is acceptable to restrict an individual’s rights, unless their exercise of that right is denying the rights of another. Doing so is entering the slippery slope that leads to the loss of that right. The good of society does not lie in that direction, but rather in a direction that protects that right, and all of the others we were left as our legacy.

Hearing ANYONE say they are acting “for the good of society” reminds me of the thief saying he is taking my things “for my own good”….. it doesn’t compute. Nor would I trust it if it did…. I may be a cynic, but in this case, I know I’m right…. The beloved ruling class is NOT going to look out for your best interests, or mine…. No matter how often they say they are, or how often they try to convince you, they are NOT going to do that. They are trying to control you, and screw you, and unless you hold on to your rights, and protect them with your own gun, then they will continue to try to take them away…. Sad, but true….

“Sure, understanding today’s complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head! But…. there they are!!!. . .” — The Firesign Theater, “I Think We’re All Bozos on this Bus!”

I have made friends with the bees in my head; they know that I am armed and dangerous, to anyone who tries to convince me that our beloved ruling class has my best interests at heart. They don’t, and never have done…. I know this to be factual, and continued attempts to try to convince me otherwise are not only doomed to failure, but are likely to prompt an unexpected response; I can personally guarantee it will be one they will regret…. And, if they so decide, well, all I can say is “just desserts”….
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POETRY, n. A form of expression peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

I don’t pretend to always understand exactly what Emily was up to in her poems; to try to unravel the mind of a poet, and a woman poet, seems to me to be a task fraught with both frustration and danger; hence, my reluctance to approach that task…. However, understanding is, fortunately, not a prerequisite for enjoying her poems…. I hope you do, too…. Enjoy them, that is….. At least it’s not a magazine….

‘T was just this time last year I died.
I know I heard the corn,
When I was carried by the farms,–
It had the tassels on.

I thought how yellow it would look
When Richard went to mill;
And then I wanted to get out,
But something held my will.

I thought just how red apples wedged
The stubble’s joints between;
And carts went stooping round the fields
To take the pumpkins in.

I wondered which would miss me least,
And when Thanksgiving came,
If father’d multiply the plates
To make an even sum.

And if my stocking hung too high,
Would it blur the Christmas glee,
That not a Santa Claus could reach
The altitude of me?

But this sort grieved myself, and so
I thought how it would be
When just this time, some perfect year,
Themselves should come to me.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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Though I am up, and awake, and relatively free of major pain (I DID take my meds upon arising, so it’s all under control, for the moment….), there isn’t a whole lot that is sticking in my head for long…. I seem to be unable at this point of maintaining any train of thought for long; that’s the main reason I went with an old rant in section one. Fortunately, not as much mental effort is needed to produce an old-school pearl, so, that’s what we’ll do now, and hope for the best…..

“He is nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent.” — Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC), attributed

“The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.” — Hubert H. Humphrey, 1965

“Among mankind money is far more persuasive than logical argument.” — Euripides

“Life is cruel? Compared to what?” — Edward Abbey

“Every day should be passed as if it were to be our last.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 633

“We have met the enemy and they are us and you are me and we are all together” — Walt Kelly, Lennon, and the Beatles

“If you can see a thing whole… it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives…But close up, a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful a life is, is to see it from the vantage point of death.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, Dispossessed

Sometimes, the less effort I put into these pearls, the better they turn out…. like this one, which became a quite excellent little monograph on human nature, and Life at Large…. Serendipity hides all over the place, neh?….
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Having arisen at a time that is, for me, of late, rather late, I am somewhat later getting done…. I hope that hasn’t adversely affected this Pearl; I hate when that happens!…. Let’s go see….

Once again, through a process I don’t fully understand, this came out okay…. Enough so that it can go out, just the way it is, with only minor proofing, and a lot of hope…. I hope somebody reads it, that is…. See ya next time…..

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

Soluble items should be sterilized first….

Posted on November 16, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I’m still in a bit of shock, but, it’s understandable…. It’s not every day the President Of The United States addresses one directly in an email…. Actually, logic, and my ever-alert crap detector, says that even if I DID receive an email that purported to have been written by the POTUS himself, with a real White House logo at the top of the page, addressing me by my first name and all, the real odds are, it probably wasn’t him at all, but one of his staff flunkies, trying to convince me that he actually knows who I am, and gives the tiniest shit about what I might think…. Perhaps that’s why I’m a bit skeptical of the offer to join in on a conference phone call with the POTUS, because, hey, he REALLY WANTS TO KNOW what I think about stuff….

Yep, I got that email yesterday, directly from the White House, and signed (digitally, of course….) by Barack himself…. First, the damn thing addressed me by my first name, as if Barry actually was writing, had been introduced, and was granted the use of my given name, rather than treating me with the respect of using my surname…. Pretty insulting, if you stop to think about it, not to mention presumptuous….

They (or he, as they wanted me to believe….) wanted me to respond by clicking on a link that would include me in whatever propaganda event they have planned for whenever it was…..some kind of group hug over the phone or something…. Sure, I’m going to give them my name again…. they already inundate me with daily emails to try to get me to donate money (begging letters, I call them….), or to involve me in some propaganda spin, or to get me to call Congress (where one may talk to as many answering machines as one wishes….. I know, I’ve tried….)….

To be honest, I only let them continue because I believe in the old adage about knowing one’s enemies, and keeping them close, in order to know what they’re up to….. Originally, back in 2008, when I first emailed the White House, I did it because they advertised that they had set up the email to give them an idea of what the public wanted…. I found out quickly that all they really wanted was a way to gather emails from people who might be supporters, so they could ask them for money and time, to carry out their so-called “grass roots” efforts to “improve the lot of the middle class…..” Since I wrote them ONE TIME, FIVE YEARS AGO, I have been assaulted by ten different organizations who somehow got my name (I wonder where?….), all of whom want me to sign petitions, or start petitions, or join a cause, or mostly, just send some money for them to throw into their black hole….

Move On.org, Greenpeace, the White House, and a host of others now send me emails EVERY DAMN DAY, practically dunning me for contributions, letting me know that, if I don’t personally take the time to support them, the big bad Republicans, or the Tea Party, or some corporate raider, is going to once again make me and the whole rest of the country suffer, just because they are able to raise more money than we are….

Hell, even Al Franken, the former comedian who got himself elected as Senator in Minnesota, sends me begging letters every day, just because they got my email address from Move On (I think….)….. I just delete all of them without reading them all the way through, so I know at least what they’re moaning about now…. If I bothered to click on the “unsubscribe” link in the emails, well, that would just be one more piece of data for them to use, so they could mark me as a known enemy-type to them…. Better to just ignore and delete….

I really hadn’t meant to rant in the intro again, but, as I sat down to write today, it struck me how insulted I was by that email…. For them to think that A) they could manipulate me like that, B) they could get me to join in by making it a personal request by the POTUS, and C) to use my first name, as if I’m some sort of child, or servant…. Well, all three of them are erroneous assumptions, insulting in their familiarity, and in their assumption of my gullibility, as well as being downright asinine in their assumption of my technical ignorance….

In addition it is just plain stupid to think that I would actually believe for even ONE SECOND that the President of the United States would actually address a citizen in such a way, and actually care for even a moment what that citizen thinks…. As if that would alter their own agenda!…. What a crock of bullshit!…. I am tempted, a little, to send back a reply of some sort, just to see if they are paying attention at all to what they receive, other than as a means of mining addresses…. But, I know for a fact that they would just ignore it, as it doesn’t fit into any of the parameters they’ve set up to gather that data….

I guess I’ll just let this one go for the time being, and see if they try to follow up, as they’ve done before, with another invitation to join the call…. Sometimes, they’ll send two or three invitations like this, just to see if I’ll respond…. I don’t generally do anything but delete them, but, it might be time to see if I can trick THEM into some kind of dialogue, until I can pull them in far enough into my game, and deliver to them some of the same kind of CRAP they send me every day….. It’s worth a try, I think, and may keep me amused for a short while…. It also probably won’t affect these Pearls, as nothing else seems to keep me from getting them out, other than my own physical failings….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“.. Should I get locked in the PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE today — or have a VASECTOMY??” — Zippy the Pinhead

Hmm…. Tough choice, there, Zippy…. Having been there, done that, for both, we’ll go on to bigger things…..
_____________________________

I like to think I’ve got a handle on Life, but, as soon as I think that, Life snatches itself out of my grip, so my handle probably isn’t as secure as I’d like to think…. That’s okay, it’s always been a chancy world, with nothing ever guaranteed, but for change….. I like it that way, truth be told.

With that in mind, I’m going to gather together a group of pearls for this old-school version of a daily POVW, as they were created back when I sent them via email to about 200 otherwise bored state employees, who came to view them as their bright spot in the day, whether they opened them when they arrived, or saved them for a quiet moment, as some did….

Since this one was picked out without any particular parameters or paradigms to guide the choices, I can’t predict how it will turn out…. but, that’s Life, right?….

“Virtue consists in avoiding vice, and is the highest wisdom.” — Horace (B.C. 65-8)

“Ten thousand years – a single thought. A single thought – ten thousand years.” — Zen saying

“The first gift of maturity is the ability to look a child straight in the eye.” — John Francis Putnam (1964)

“A God alone can comprehend a God.” — Young

“I’d rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I haven’t.” — Lucille Ball

“Men often believe — or pretend — that the “Law” is something sacred, or at least a science — an unfounded assumption very convenient to governments.” — Lazarus Long

“Life is too short to be taken seriously.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Damn near perfect, I’d say….
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Today’s poem is one I’ve used before, though not for some time…. I use it, because I like it, and that’s all there is to it…. I hope you like it, too…..

Pu suan tzu

A fragment moon hangs from the bare tung tree
The water clock runs out, all is still
Who sees the dim figure come and go alone
Misty, indistinct, the shadow of a lone wild goose?

Startled, she gets up, looks back
With longing no one sees
And will not settle on any of the cold branches
Along the chill and lonely beach

~~ Su Tung-po ~~

_____________________________

As I noted yesterday, the new WP function that refers us to older posts has been a real godsend for me…. Here is a wonderful little rant from early this year, that seems quite appropriate today…..

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

From the 2/26/13 POVW, “Don’t bust Your gaiters, boys, it’ll get bigger….”

“We are going to have to find ways of organizing ourselves cooperatively,sanely, scientifically, harmonically and in regenerative spontaneity with the rest of humanity around the earth…. We are not going to be able to operate our spaceship earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common.” — Buckminster Fuller

Bucky said this some time around 1968 or 69; Google would know exactly…. but I remember it well, as part of the argument that first convinced me of the imminence of the danger from overpopulation, pollution, climate change, and all of the other foolish, self-destructive behaviors in which our species has engaged for millennia. The cumulative effects of all of these issues is approaching a flash point, a point that, quite possibly, may already have been reached, and passed, without anyone noticing….

Perhaps the worst example of the entire problem is the movie “An Unpleasant Truth” with former VP Al Gore narrating a summary of these issues, with all the then-currently-available-evidence, all of which, taken together, was rather impressive, as well as fairly well unarguably accurate. In other words, it told the exact truth, and clearly….

I call this the worst example because this perfectly told truth of the matter was ridiculed, reviled, and dismissed, by the governments, and the public, one by ignoring it, and the other by refusing to listen, reacting instead to an unfortunate delivery style. Yet, every word Al spoke in this movie is true, and is being proved today, with the already extreme climate changes we are witnessing on a world-wide scale….

“What are the facts? Again and again and again — what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” — what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!” — Lazarus Long

But, the stupids keep on decrying any changes have happened, and blithely ignore the warmer, dryer winters, the cooler, wetter summers, the shrinking polar ice (at BOTH poles!…), the instability in the biosphere, the tons of carbon monoxide and particulates being added into the atmosphere every second, along with all of the other evidence that PROVES them wrong. It isn’t a matter of there not being any real evidence, it is a matter of the evidence being ignored, or challenged, that is proving to be the hardest obstacle to be overcome, if we are to survive beyond the next 100 years….

Yep, that’s MY estimate, based on all the different time-scale estimates I’ve read about, the evidence I’ve examined, and my take on how society is dealing with all of it…. I don’t see the changes needed happening, not yet, nor is there much indication that a way to stop the assholes in power from their insane intransigence, or their selfish hoarding of resources for their private use, is even close to being discovered, or implemented.

The atmosphere is almost full, and the balance of the gases and elements that make up the air we breathe is, WITHOUT FAIL, going to begin to change, eventually changing into air that will not support our life form, meaning, we won’t be able to breathe it; we will suffocate…. This process, well understood by science, has already begun, and will happen faster with each passing day, once it reaches a certain critical point…. That point, if not already reached, is not far off….

“Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” — Lazarus Long

Now, I know there is some small hope, and that everyone who reads this will give me positive reasons for that hope…. and I agree with all of them. I don’t want to die, and I don’t want my children, or their children, to have to face the same issues in order to save themselves. I’d much rather just shoot the motherfuckers who are causing all of it right now, and be done with it….

Sadly, that won’t work, (they’ve already proven that, by using that method over the last three or four millennia…), so we’ll have to figure out something else to do…. I am not enough of a genius to be able to figure out exactly what that might be, though I have some ideas that would help, I’m sure…. But, I’m not in a position now to have those ideas instituted, so they are moot, unless I somehow find myself in such a position….

Hope is, therefore, just about ALL I have left….
_____________________________

I must be restless again…. I booked another cruise yesterday, just a short 4 day affair to Ensenada and back, out of L.A., and now am trying desperately to find stuff to distract me from getting all worked up about it, packing two weeks early, and generally driving Pat crazy with my enthusiasm to get out of Dodge…. Now, I’m trying to post this before actually getting it done…. Settle down, there, big fella, there’s still a good 13 days before you get to go, so, you’d best get a grip…. Let’s see how today’s Pearl came out, shall we?….

Not too bad, considering…. It’s good enough to let if fly without any more help, or editing that I can see… I guess that means I have to go now….. Ta then, until tomorrow….

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

Soften the edges with a little innuendo….

Posted on November 15, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Do you feel it? That suffocating sense of burgeoning terror, the shivering fear that steals over us to freeze the blood, that makes us want to run, screaming gibberish at the top of our voice, fleeing as fast as we can, until our lungs want to burst? Is it filling your mind with visions of demons, ripping innocent victims to pieces with ravening claws, eating them while still alive?….. Well, cut it out, because that’s just silly…. It’s just a blog intro, and just because I MIGHT end up filling the next five paragraphs with nonsensical blather isn’t sufficient reason to go all wonky on us….

Of course, that is the way I feel every morning, but, that’s probably TMI, considering the time of day; nobody needs to know my motivation at 0400 in the morning, with only one or two sips of coffee on board so far, to hold back the insanity. No, there’s really no reason to go off like that; besides, it’s more fun, and more amusing for the rest of us, if you would just use the medication provided for you in your safety pack, right there in the pocket on the seat back in front of you…. The calming pills are the purple ones, with the lotus flower on them…. One should be enough to dull the edges of your fear, and two will complete the process of eliminating all your cares and woes, trading them for a much preferable set of euphoric hallucinations….. We aim to please here at ECR….

All silliness aside, how’s things? Wait, that won’t work, either….. There’s no vehicle for interactive chatting, not without resorting to Facebook, or some other social media that offers instant replies to such queries….. Probably not a good idea, anyway, on a site where the material is often incendiary and deliberately provocative; I’d spend my time answering chat comments, and never get the damn thing finished…. Yeah, better to not offer such amenities as interactive chats, or instant messaging on a blog site; leave that to the data crunchers at FB, Google, and/or Twitter…. then we’ll know for sure that the NSA is getting all they need to keep us safe from the big bad terrorists….

Don’t fret, I’m not going to start ranting again here in the intro, even if they deserve it…. We’ll leave that until later down the pike, when I’m fully awake, and SB is in a better mood…. You see, all this has been created, for the simple reason that my oh-so-necessary, but frequently dodgy, database is acting like it’s been listening to Murphy, refusing to give me anything fresh, or particularly valuable to use as an opening platform for comment… I spent about ten straight minutes going through its offerings, without finding a single usable quote with which to start today’s post, and that’s a lot of quotes…. I’m hoping it will get over it by the time I’m done here…. and, gosh almighty!, look here! Four full paragraphs, all chock full of nothing much, just waiting to be recognized as the crap it is, long, silly, and legally over the limit for an intro, again….

Not being the kind of man to look a gift horse in the mouth, without first applying some horsey mouthwash, at the very least, I’m going to take it and run…. far, and fast as I can, too…. It’s the least I can do after subjecting y’all to this kind of blather once more…. Forgive me, I know exactly what I do….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Cleverness is not wisdom.” — Euripides
_____________________________

Thanks to the new function in WP, that refers one to older posts, I’ve been enjoying some of the stuff that came through my head a couple of years ago…. Here is an old-school pearl, complete with intro and concluding remarks, from a Pearl in August of 2012…..

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

Yesterday, I sat down in the afternoon to do some pearl diving, as my stash was getting low. Out of the first ten pearls offered up for my perusal, the following entries, all but one from Smart Bee itself, popped up one after another, just as if they were meant to be together. Upon rearranging the order slightly, I found them to be correct; together they make a fine little old-school pearl. So, without further ado, follow the bouncing thought bubble to the ending point, where you will find yourself in possession of a valuable piece of virtual wisdom…. or possibly, a great deal of confusion….. your choice, both are free of charge…..

Although everyone is entitled to be stupid, some abuse this privilege. — Smart Bee

Keep the pointy end forward and the dirty side down. — Smart Bee

I’ll tell you what’s wrong with it, my lad. It’s dead! — Smart Bee

Tomorrow & tomorrow & tomorrow creeps in this rutabaga…. — Smart Bee

Ignorance of one’s ignorance is the greatest ignorance.– Smart Bee

“YOW!! I’m in a very clever and adorable INSANE ASYLUM!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

I think the final line from Zippy punctuates the idea very well, ending not only with wisdom, but with two exclamation points to drive it home!!…. Such courteous service, you won’t find just anywhere…. Most bloggers would just abandon you, leaving you to figure stuff out on your own. But, not here at gigoid’s house…. we’re all about customer service…. I hope you enjoyed the ride; you may now go on to the next section….
_____________________________

Since the rest of today’s Pearl came from old posts, I thought this one would fit right in with the rest….. I first posted this poem in July of 2012, with this introductory statement, just as you see it here…. I hope you enjoy it…. I did, even if it IS mine….

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

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, ‘O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless–of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.’ That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?” — John Keating, Dead Poet’s Society

Early Observations

Until I knew there was more,
I wanted to know God.
They said he was a nice guy,
and would let me live forever.

All I had to do, they said,
was live my life for Him,
always living by scripture
cleaving only to his Way.

But, everyone I saw in church,
acted different at home.
Living wild, cussin’ and fussin’,
nobody lived like they said.

Still, I tried to be like Jesus,
he was sort of cool.
He never hurt nobody
and walked on the right path.

‘Course they killed him for that,
they couldn’t stand his example.
Turned him into a martyr,
hid his real words among their own.

Then I found the Buddha,
and met Lao Tzu at the gate.
They saw things real different,
showed me how to see straight.

Right thought, and right action
replace blind obedience and faith.
Reality becomes manageable,
fear retreats, the universe expands.

Brother John said it pretty well,
“Imagine there’s no heaven,
it’s easy if you try.”
Sounds like he knew why.

Day to day, life is grand,
we walk in eternal beauty.
Open your eyes and hearts,
find yourself already immortal.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

I’ve been struck by the hammer of laziness, again, but, it’s okay, because I’ve got this huge archive of stuff I can use when that happens…. as demonstrated in section one…. Here, in section three of today’s Pearl, I’m going even further back, to mid-June of 2012, where I found this mini-rant, that is still quite valid today…. I hope you enjoy it, as it’s all true stuff…..

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

“…when all government… in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1821

The framers of the Constitution knew what they were doing when they tried to build in safeguards in the system of government they chose after the revolution against England. They structured it with checks to the balance of power in each section, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, and reserving several rights to the people that had historically been reserved for the governments themselves, including the right to bear arms, one that every government in history has tried to restrict for its own use. The right to bear arms, the right to vote, the right to gather to protest, to speak freely, all these have, at one time or another through the last four or five millennia, been restricted, until men like Jefferson, Mason, and Washington took those rights for themselves, and offered the same opportunity to their descendants.

In fact, I regard it as proof of this assertion to find that the government, not only of this country, but all of them, is STILL trying to restrict the rights of the populace to bear arms. To my way of thinking, the most recent attempts by the government to curtail the public’s ability to obtain the means to protect themselves adequately merely serve to point out how accurate are statements such as the above, showing how little human nature has evolved, or advanced in the intervening years…. I’d be hard pressed to call the changes we’ve seen anything other than a retreat from achieving a more civilized society, as the populace continues to live in fear, most of which is manufactured by that very same government, to distract them from what is going on behind the scenes; for example, observe the data mining and illegal surveillance being carried on by Saint Obama and the current administration….

Sorry to apply the sarcastic epithet to the POTUS, but, his recent actions have revealed a lot of stuff that indicates that, yes, he IS a politician, and, as such, has been lying to the public on a regular basis since entering office, a habit much practiced by all those who enter those hallowed doors, as it turns out. Historically, it seems, ever since I’ve been alive, for the last 62 years, each and every man who has been in the White House, with the possible exception of Jimmy Carter, has lied to the public on a regular basis, without qualms, and without apology…. This isn’t news, or new news, at all…. just go back over the headlines and op-ed pages over that period, and the evidence of what I have asserted is plain to see….

That is why I won’t ever consider any alterations to the second Amendment, or the First, or to any of them…. I still regard them as law, and see any attempts to restrict them as being acts of treason against the principles by which they were conceived and enacted. I DON’T trust ANY politician, not one who spends millions to get elected, even if, or especially if, the money isn’t theirs…. The mere act of WANTING to be an elected official implies insanity to me, either of a sociopathic nature, or an evangelical one, either of which is dangerous to allow into any position of authority over others, as they will ALWAYS act to serve their own self-interests first…..

’nuff said….. gigoid has spoken, and has no more to say on this subject, except….. Leave my Bill of Rights alone, or pay the consequences…..

“Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made, through disobedience and through rebellion.” — Oscar Wilde
_____________________________

Having thus avoided any truly creative output, other than the not-so-creative intro section, I find myself already finished, in just under an hour’s time…. completely unprecedented, unless you count the other times….. which we don’t….. Any who, let’s see if it will fly…..

Okay, it flies, if a bit erratically…. I suppose it will eventually wind its way to where it needs to go…. Why, look! It already has! Imagine that….. I’m going to go now, leaving you with no further assaults on your credibility…. You’ve been wonderful, putting up with my idiosyncratic tendencies, and deserve to be left alone now, to lick you wounds in peace…. 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

Weeding dead paradigms is honest labor….

Posted on November 14, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Gripped in the tight fist of fear is a terrible way to wake up….. Good thing I didn’t wake up like that…. but, it IS a pretty gripping way to grab your attention, eh? Sorry if I startled y’all; at the moment, it seemed like the only way to wake up completely, and fictional openings, while not frequent, ARE a fairly regular occurrence here, so, I thought it might work out to get things going in a slightly different direction today…. I could be wrong; that’s been known to happen, too….

Let’s just put all that aside, shall we? I often make false starts, but, have always figured it’s just part of writing on a daily basis…. Speaking of which, I’ve noted that WordPress has added another feature to the blog sites we all have here…. At the bottom of the page, three links to previous blogs are shown, all of which, in some way, have a common theme with whatever is in the current post….. It might be the subject of pain, or fear of the blank page, or some other subject, but, they’re all suggested as further reading for whomever is taking in today’s post, should they be interested…. For me, it’s been a real treat, as it brings out a lot of stuff I hadn’t seen in a long while, some of which I find to be pretty good Pearls….

A bonus of this is that each of the new suggestions shown by the links ALSO has three more suggested posts to read, seemingly random, but with that same connection…. As a result, I’m getting to see a LOT of my older stuff, without having to go look for them myself…. It’s grand fun to cruise through some of the older ones, and see what was working then, as compared to the latest material…. It’s also given me the material I need to decide on when I can take a day or two off from writing, now that I have a bunch of archived blogs that are suitable to be re-blogged….. Yay for me….

There, are you thoroughly bored now? Or, at the least, losing interest? It wouldn’t surprise me in the least…. I can get pretty pedantic, and pompous, too, often without even realizing that I’m going there….. Let’s do something new, and cut me off…. I’m not in the habit of shortening this intro; in fact, my usual mode involves running off at the mouth, so to speak, for as long as I can, randomly, and with little purpose, other than mild entertainment…. not what I’d call compelling…. more like surprisingly sticky…. It’s kind of like reaching to pick up what we believe to be is a coin, then finding it to be covered in some slimy invisible substance that makes our skin crawl….

Now that I’ve probably alienated my entire audience, of three, let’s see if there is some further damage I can bring about in my own fumbling way… not that I wish any harm to anyone, but, there HAS to be SOME way to see if what I write is having any effect on the real world, and piles of rubble, if nothing else, indicate a certain type of progress, even if it is destructive, rather than constructive…. Those two always tend to get mixed up in my head, anyway…. Oh hell…. This isn’t working, so, I’m stopping now….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci

Doh! I KNEW there was something I was supposed to be doing….
_____________________________

It has been some time since I sat down to really do a number on what I consider to be one of the world’s greatest handicaps to human progress, to wit: organized religion…. In fact, it may have been over a month since my last formal religirant…. I’ve taken some passing shots, of course, during my discussions of the political scene, as the dear ministers and preachers fall all over themselves in trying to please the corporate masters and political pundits who protect them, working in tandem, in common cause, to keep the common people in their place….

But, there has been no formal ranting, as such, strictly about them…. the popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, imams, sahdis, or any other iconic religious title given to the leaders of the world’s major, and minor religions…. They’re all deluded, to me, and I wish they’d just shut their damn faces….. For thousands of years, they’ve bent their efforts to molding society into a pious, obedient mass of slaves, content with their lot, keeping their tiny little minds focused on the delusional rewards they will receive in the next life…. Of course, they ignore the fact that all of what they promise in heaven could happen right here on Earth, if they would only stop the nonsense, and work on BEING compassionate, rather than just talking about it….

To be honest, though, I’ve been unwilling to rant about them much of late, because it seems they are killing themselves off, having pretty much alienated most everyone with any sort of basic intelligence…. The people who now fall for their nonsense are those who never have a chance to know anything else…. The poor children of the world are indoctrinated in these silly philosophies of pain and suffering from the time they are born, and are brainwashed into belief before their reasoning minds have any defense against it….

But, even the numbers of the faithful who fall for the delusional message they promote are falling, as more and more education is spread around, thanks to technology…. Ignorance will ALWAYS be defeated by education, given any chance at all….. and technology is becoming more and more ubiquitous in the world, so much so that even the churches are attempting to come to terms with it, never realizing it will destroy them, once and for all…. Well, we can hope, anyway…..

Any who…. I’m not really in the mood for a religirant, even though just thinking about them will usually provide me with enough outrage to create one…. (I also note that I’ve leaked out four paragraphs of “not enough for a rant” material….) Smart Bee, however, has provided me with some great shots at them, so, we’ll go old-school for a few minutes, then follow up with another great article/essay from one of my favorite columnists, Mark Morford…

The link below the group of pearls will take you to yet another of his brilliant forays into the depth and scope of reality, to remind us again how we are all just a part of something strange and beautiful, if we just allow ourselves to realize it…. It’s a great read, ffolkes, so please do so, and spread it around to anyone who needs to see it….. which, these days, is just about everyone….. In between here, and there, enjoy these little pointed sticks thrown at the eye of organized religion….

“In the beginning was nonsense, and the nonsense was with God, and the nonsense was God.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“Let’s do lunch, have your god call my god…” — Smart Bee
(See Peruaosophy, axiom #3….)

“How should one deal with a man who is convinced that he is acting according to God’s will, and who therefore believes that he is doing you a favour by stabbing you in the back?” — Voltaire

“Mystical explanations are considered deep. The truth is that they are not even superficial.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“God has always been hard on the poor.” — Smart Bee

RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.

“What is your religion my son?” inquired the Archbishop of Rheims.
“Pardon, monseigneur,” replied Rochebriant; “I am ashamed of it.”
“Then why do you not become an atheist?”
“Impossible! I should be ashamed of atheism.”
“In that case, monsieur, you should join the Protestants.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“So, if there’s no God, who changes the water?” — [two goldfish in a bowl, New Yorker Cartoon]

Enough! Or, as our friends in Milan say, “Basta!”…. I have only one more thing to say here…. Read this:

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2013/11/12/40-billion-ways-to-dance/
_____________________________

I’ve used this poem before, but, it’s been quite a while, and it’s one of my favorites, so, I’m using it again, not caring at all if I am being repetitious…. I think I put out enough to make it seem fresh…. Besides…. It’s Yeats….

A Drunken Man’s Praise Of Sobriety

COME swish around, my pretty punk,
And keep me dancing still
That I may stay a sober man
Although I drink my fill.

Sobriety is a jewel
That I do much adore;
And therefore keep me dancing
Though drunkards lie and snore.
O mind your feet, O mind your feet,
Keep dancing like a wave,
And under every dancer
A dead man in his grave.
No ups and downs, my pretty,
A mermaid, not a punk;
A drunkard is a dead man,
And all dead men are drunk.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

_____________________________

As may be guessed by now, my ranting urge, at least for today, is somewhat blunted… Oh, not for lack of outrage, for the news is still printed each day, and it provides more than enough of that for anyone…. No, I’m just still tired from fighting the cold I’ve had for the last week and a bit…. Better, I am, but not well, if you know what I mean…. Any who, no matter which excuse I choose, the end result will be the same…. an old-school pearl, with the usual suspects as the target of the day…. I’m sure you can figure out of whom I speak….

“The triumph of libertarian anarchy is nearly (in historical terms) at hand… *if* we can keep the Left from selling us into slavery and the Right from blowing us up for, say, the next twenty years.” — Eric Rayman, usenet guy, about nanotechnology

“Our “neoconservatives” are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell.” — Edward Abbey

POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Franklin D. Roosevelt: If he became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would get him the votes he surely needs, he would begin fattening a missionary in the White House backyard come Wednesday.” — H. L. Mencken

(As the single most successful ‘politician’ our country has ever produced, Frankie D., with his sheer genius at shape-shifting, thus molded every other politician who ever lived…. )

“Every horse thinks his pack is heaviest.” — Smart Bee

(For those who may not quite ‘get’ why this is appropriate for inclusion in a pearl about this subject…. This is the very reason that politics exists in the first place…. think about it…. Go ahead, I dare you….)

“As war and government prove, insanity is the most contagious of diseases.” — Edward Abbey

“As one gets older, one discovers everything is going to be exactly the same with different hats on.” — Noel Coward

Well, there you have it…. This one really took a long time, but, I think it came out perfect…. Goddess knows I worked on it long and hard enough….
_____________________________

“late-60’s variant: Why did the running-dog lackey of the bourgeoisie throw the clock out the window? Because it was a continual reminder of the imminent doom of capitalism! Oh, well, you had to be there…” — Smart Bee

I suppose it had to happen someday…. My roots are showing…. At least I haven’t spent the intervening years, since the late 60’s, covering my roots with different shades and colors…. I’ve always been a radical, so far Left I’m Right…. Deal with it, ffolkes, because you know in your heart that everything I’m saying, about the government, and the churches (along with their shadowy, hidden masters, the corporate elite of the world….) is true… I haven’t bothered to alter, or stretch any truths I’ve encountered… I just lay them out for your perusal, mostly using the brilliance of others to demonstrate the points I’m making…. Now, if only my message could spread out to encompass the whole world, there MIGHT be a chance to do something to make things better….

SIGH…. I don’t think I’ll hold my breath until that happens, though… In the meantime, let’s see how this turned out…. Well, it may not be some folk’s cup of tea, but, I think, with a blueberry scone, or a croissant, it would do quite well for an afternoon’s replenishing social gathering, anywhere the culture enjoys the custom of high tea…. Of course, it would, hopefully, have more of the effect of a triple espresso, straight up, rather than a mere cup of soothing tea, but, that’s just me, and my possibly neurotic need to know I’m helping reality by encouraging it to fulfill its nature, to CHANGE….

I guess we all have our dreams….

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

Honor is never for sale…..

Posted on November 13, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

It isn’t every day one can start off with live Dead before breakfast, or even coffee, and, for many, it might not be exactly their cup of tea, ( I know, mixing my beverages, if not my metaphors….) but, I find it to be a fine way to begin the day, especially when the tune being enjoyed is from a live concert, with a lively, jiving boogie beat, complete with extremely hot licks by one of rock’s greatest improvisational guitarists, one of the earliest virtuosos in that category…. the inimitable, and, sadly, now deceased, Jerry Garcia…. Ah, sublime!….

I guess I just pulled my covers again, as an aging, now aged, hippie, first indoctrinated in the philosophy of free love in 1968 in Berkeley, CA, and a multi-concert attendee at Dead shows….. I never went on the road with the Dead, following after them all over the country, as so many did, but, I’ve made my share of whoopee at their gatherings of the tribes, and don’t regret a single moment of the experience…..

It was a time of great hope in our country….. The passions of the day, and the concepts of liberty and personal freedom that were engendered among the young of our nation back then have been carried forth, and preserved, over time, until, today, the same people who protested the war in Vietnam are now out on the streets, protesting the most recent draconian actions of the government, which, in spite of our efforts, have grown over time to include the latest outrage, wherein they are spying on their own citizens, looking under every rock they can find, in their paranoid search for terrorists….

Of course, the spying began even before the Vietnam conflict; they were putting together files on us at the FBI in 1968, and before that, from 1960 to 1964, during the Free Speech Movement, that preceded the advent of the hippies, and free love…. The government, apparently during WWII sometime, decided that keeping secrets from the public was necessary, whereupon they began to consider themselves as above the law, not subject to the same requirements as the rest of us….. Troops began to go to Southeast Asia, to protect “American interests” there, which, when examined more closely, turned out to be our interests in the heroin trade, a trade that has flourished there for centuries…. About that time, the FBI began to spy on American citizens, looking to root out the “commies” amongst us….

That particular insight, first brought to light in the mid-1960’s, and made very public by the movie, Air America, in the 1970’s, was the beginning of the end of my blind, willing support of the government….. The idea that our elected officials were involved in protecting that industry was completely repugnant to me then, and remains so today, especially since it turned out that such involvement was only the surface of how much corruption, theft, and outright lying our politicians were engaging in, among other revelations, all of which convinced me of their complete lack of virtue, or honor…. They were hiding behind the flag of liberty and justice, using its precepts to engage in destructive, illegal acts that threatened their own people, and didn’t seem to care at all that what they were doing was diametrically opposed to all we have been taught to expect of our leaders….

Hmm…. I seem to have slipped into another early rant, brought on by nostalgia…. Well, that should pass, now that the Dead song is over…. I’ve switched over to the classical station’s stream online, and am now being soothed by J.S. Bach’s “Little Suite”, a familiar piece that never fails to please…. Dum ditty dum, dum ditty doo….. lovely!

Oops, I seem to have pulled another cover here…. Yep, I’m a longhair, and that includes my choices in music; I love classical music, especially that of Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach (all of them…. several of the Bach family wrote good stuff, not just Papa…. PDQ Bach wrote some pretty amazing pieces himself, as did J.S., Junior….) Any who, it’s nice to have a variety to listen to….

I started listening to the genre about 15 years ago, when I got tired of what was passing for rock and roll then, and found that I had discovered an entirely new universe of music to explore, most of which I’d never heard…. What a treasure trove that turned out to be….. Like any field of human endeavor, 90% of it is crap, (Sturgeon’s Law covers ALL human activity….), but, over time, the crap has been winnowed out, for the most part; what is left is some excellent music, and offers me uncounted hours of bliss…..

Well, now that I’ve blathered, and ranted, and just plain babbled about next to nothing, I think we should get on with the day’s dive, saving any further chattiness for any public contact I have to make today….. Yeah, that’s the ticket….

Shall we Pearl?…..

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the mome raths outgrabe

— _Jabberwocky_, by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson)
_____________________________

In this section today, you will find an old-school pearl, fresh as SB and I can make it….. I had intended to discuss a more sober, perhaps even significant subject, with every intention of allowing myself to rant thereon….. but, I’m feeling a bit under the weather, rant-wise, which means, basically that I’m not outraged enough at the moment to carry it off successfully…. So, I’ll go with my default in such instances, and let SB figure out something appropriate to the day, and the moment…. It should all be okay, and, if nothing else, you may congratulate yourselves on having dodged another bullet, metaphorically speaking, of course….

“Tip O’Neill is just like Congress; old, fat and out of control.” — J. LeBoutillier

“You can always get the truth from an American statesman after he has turned seventy, or given up all hope of the presidency.” — Wendell Phillips

“As a general rule, the freedom of any people can be judged by the volume of their laughter.” — Smart Bee

(Even the Google algorithm can’t find attribution for this, other than “Anonymous”…. hence, the attribution is given to SB, per ECR policy….)

“I believe I have no prejudices whatsoever. All I need to know is that a man is a member of the human race. That’s bad enough for me.” — Mark Twain

“The effectiveness of a politician varies in inverse proportion to his commitment to principle.” — Sam Shaffer

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

“The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.” — G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 4/19/24

Okay, so it turned into a rantish pearl in spite of all my precautions…. oh, well…. So, sue me…. or, if you’d care to just ignore it, we can go on to other things, and just chalk it up to experience…. Let’s do that, shall we? If nothing else, and like nothing else does, it will piss off the lawyers, which is ALWAYS a good thing….

“Great things can be reduced to small things, and small things can be reduced to nothing.” — Chinese Proverb
_____________________________

Since I don’t wish for anyone else to catch the blame for any of this, here is one of my older poems to fill up the necessary space, and time….

Off the proverbial cuff….

I never meant to kill that period of time,
it didn’t give me any choice.
It tried to hem me in without reason, or rhyme,
refused me any vote, or any voice.

You have to admit, I buried it deep and fast,
just as if I cared.
I knew, though, it would never last,
or ever be fully repaired.

No news, no pictures can bring it back,
once is all we get.
No pleas of public good, or even public lack;
in stone the past is set.

Futuristic visions now occupy my dreams,
I’m ready to go on.
Look! It fills up the screen, and it gleams!
Where’s the moment I’m sitting on?

NOW, I remember, at long, long last,
is all we really can hold.
Every moment goes by so bloody fast,
best fill them all with beauty, warm and bold.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

How did y’all get so lucky? Here I am, already in section three, and still no rantable passions available to get me going…. One might gather the erroneous impression that I’m a wimp today…. I prefer to think of it as a temporary disinclination toward emotional excess, and let it go at that…. I mean, one can’t rant all the damn time, or one takes the chance of becoming entrenched in the same set of attitudes so common to that type of thinking epitomized by the dreaded Limbaugh, that bastion of all that is most ignorant and ugly about America….

I do try to save my outrage for things that have some social significance, hopefully of greater significance than my own prejudices; he doesn’t even bother to try to decide if anything that comes out of his mouth is significant; he only cares that someone listen to his drivel…. Ah well, let’s go in a totally different direction from that fool, and find some thoughts on Life from some of history’s more elegant thinkers….

“The meaning of life is that it stops.” — Franz Kafka

“Where life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valor to dare to live.” — Thomas Browne

No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” — John Donne (c.1571-1631) — Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624) “Meditation XVII”

“It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is absolutely fatal.” — Oscar Wilde

“[…] For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner […] on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. […] That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that.” — Carl Sagan

“Don’t try to have the last word. You might get it.” — Lazarus Long

I would like to have it noted that I took great care in the construction of this Pearl, editing the inclusions numerous times before coming up with this seven-star grouping…. which, I believe, is one of the best pearls ever…. Really, it’s damn fine stuff, ffolkes, so, please, pay heed…. Then, when you’ve finished that, remember this ……

“Never underestimate the importance of a cheap laugh.” — Plucky Duck

Okay, so I could have said that more elegantly…. how’s this?…..

“A little nonsense, now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” — Willie Wonka, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
_____________________________

It’s been a long road to this juncture, and I feel every step it has taken to get here….. Let’s see what we picked up along the way….. I am compelled by honesty to admit that it isn’t bad…. at least, not so’s you’d notice, anyway…. It’s certainly long enough for a Pearl; I guess, given my feelings about out versus in, we’ll leave it as it is, and just pretend that I know what I’m about….. If you bought ANY of that, well, thanks…..

😆

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

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

gigoid

Would a bit of irony be of assistance?….

Posted on November 12, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Many days, when I wake up to begin writing this blog, I’m struck by how egotistical it must appear, from the other side. Day after day of relating what goes on in my head, all for what? Many would think that it is to stroke that ego, making it stronger and even bigger than it was….. which was plenty big, believe me…. I’ve never felt that denying reality was of any help to anyone, so I’ve never bothered to try to be too humble about my own abilities….. I’m smarter than the average bear, and have a lot of physical skills that many don’t ever acquire….. However, I have always tried to be patient with those who don’t quite understand as much as I do, and have never taken advantage of anyone less skilled, or less of anything… That would be dishonorable, and I was raised to put honor before need, or desire, always….

Also, let us not confuse that strength of ego with conceit, or with lack of humility; I don’t believe I make the grade in being conceited, as I’ve never let my own abilities keep me from appreciating those abilities that others possess, and I don’t….. There are a LOT of these skills and/or abilities I don’t possess, that others have; this is NOT a problem for me, as I am content with all I have. I also don’t believe that my own somewhat extensive talents make me any better, or worse, than anyone else; I believe as the Dalai Lama has expressed, that what makes a person valuable is how much compassion for others they feel, and express…. Unfortunately, this effort to keep from allowing myself to take advantage of others doesn’t keep me from showing my abilities, and that often brings censure from people who automatically assume that such displays are ego-driven, never thinking, or understanding, that it can also be motivated by altruism….

Hell, sometimes it’s hard for ME to believe in altruism, but, there it is, and there isn’t anything I can do about it at this point. My father drilled into me a code of ethics that leaves no room for any actions that can cause dishonor, and I believe, firmly, that those ethical mores are what make me different from many others, others who DO use their abilities for their own benefit, to the exclusion of others. That sort of amoral folk are rife in the fields of politics, religion, law, and the paramilitary; I’m not sure just what the attraction is, other than the ultimate freedom that comes with not giving a shit about other people…. I suppose, to that sort of mind, or emotional makeup, such debauchery is attractive as a lifestyle….

Myself, I can’t handle it; when I think about how much the pundits and preachers take advantage of their positions, it makes me ill, and I want to go out to buy a gun…. which would then put me into the same category as them, as I’d be forced by my own sanity to use it on them, forgoing all my father’s teaching…. It’s a conundrum to be sure…. Fortunately for me, though not necessarily for all of you, I have this blog, to sublimate the urge to kill that passes through me almost every day, when I read about the latest lies and chicanery they’ve been up to out in the BBR….. It’s almost enough to put one off reading the news…..

So, I’ll continue to rant, and write my pearls of virtual wisdom, in my own little attempt to bring some reason and stability to the world, if only for the time spent here reading…. Whether or not that is approved of by others is moot, as it makes me feel better, and that is all any of us are really concerned with…. If we have anything left over when we feel good, then we might share it, but, mostly, we are all looking out for ourselves, and doing our best not to sink under the waves…. and that’s okay….

Me, I gotta write, and get some of this stuff out of my head, before it sits in there and turns into something that could drive me to go buy a gun…. If that ever happens, look for a lot of politicians, preachers, bankers, and otherwise useless people to die, one after another, until they catch me…. That IS a joke, you know…. I’d never do any of that, in reality; too much work, and I’m retired from working… Besides, I haven’t let myself give in like that, for 63 years now, and I’m tougher now than when I started this journey….

On that pleasant note, Shall we Pearl?….

“Live a life worthy of the things that will be said of you when you’re dead.” — Ambidextrous Rex
_____________________________

Today’s intro section turned a bit stodgy on me; it’s a good discussion, but, feels a bit like wearing a suit and tie…. a bit stiff and constricting, no doubt pinching in the tight spots….. So, I’m going immediately to a harlequin old-school pearl, to loosen things up a bit, and hopefully, lighten the mood at the same time…. I’m hoping that Smart Bee’s natural sense of whimsy will come through to bring that about…. let’s see what it’s got for us, shall we?…..

“To sing the same tune, as the saying is, is in everything cloying and offensive; but men are generally pleased with variety.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of the Training of Children

“The present is the only thing that has no end.” — Erwin Schrödinger

“I readily relapse into my reflections on the uselessness of our education. Its aim has been to make us not good and wise, but learned; and in this it has succeeded. It has not taught us to follow and embrace virtue and wisdom, but has imprinted their derivations and etymologies on our minds. We are able
to decline ‘virtue’ even if we are unable to love it; if we do not know what wisdom is in fact and by experience, we are familiar with it as a jargon learned by heart. — Michel de Montaigne, Essays

“Bow to no patron’s insolence. Rely on no frail hopes; in freedom live and die.” — Seneca

“A man is average when he can see the other man’s faults; he becomes above average only when he can also see his own.” — Smart Bee

“Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.” — Bhagavad Gita (c. B.C. 400)

“Always store beer in a dark place.” — Lazarus Long

Yep…. I think that should do it….
_____________________________

Today’s Pearl is all fresh so far…. in keeping with that theme, albeit with older material, here are two of my own poems, for better or for worse….

Haiku XII

I called an old friend
a few days ago, or so.
Old friends are the best.

~~ gigoid ~~

When life calls, ready or not….

Memories are all we have sometimes
to keep our sanity intact,
with learned phrases and subtle rhymes
lessening life’s vicious, vibrant impact.

Presently all seems composed and intent
in stark contrast to hollow day,
forlorn patchwork emotions of unheralded bent,
fill up night’s bower, leaving hell to pay.

Such vigorous and elevated temper
brings us rare moments to ponder,
filled with lessons all need to remember
lest base perception lose valued wonder.

Laugh loud when entropy sticks fast
leaving shameless anger in its wake.
Let bygones pass quietly into the past
reaping only what is left to take.

Final words of wise imagination
tell us living well’s the best revenge, it appears
ever eluding choirs and congregations
finally finding home, never buried in tears.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

“Without God, everything is possible.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

When first observed, this little aphorism seems contradictory, but, I’m sure that is only because it stands in stark contrast to all we’ve been told since we first began to hear about the concept of God…. If one stops to actually THINK about what it implies, the contrast disappears, to be subsumed by the sheer elegance of the reasoning that prompts such a statement…..

I am not sure, however, that my current state of mind is capable of doing justice to such a discussion just now; one must be in touch with all of one’s reasoning powers to live up to such a topic of such complexity, and to sustain the effort through enough time to overcome the natural resistance that is thrown up whenever such blasphemous concepts come under scrutiny…. Considering the cold I’ve been fighting all week, the hour (it’s not even 0530 yet…. & I’ve been up for almost two hours already….), and the overall state of my psyche, I’d rather save any such discussion until I can respond with a bit more vigor than is currently on tap….

That being said, I think that a small reminder of what John Lennon proposed in his song “Imagine” is appropriate as a sublimation for the absent discussion; the song can be viewed as an almost perfect statement of how it might feel to consider a universe without the constricting concept of an overbearing God watching over us, judging all we do…. sort of like Mrs. Grundy, the ever-present nosy neighbor, or your disapproving maiden aunt, who has nothing better to do than to sit in judgment of others, even though their own experience of life is confined to their own sad existence, based on what they read in ONE book, of dubious authorage….

Along with the lyrics of the song, I’ll also substitute an old-school pearl at this point, saving the rant itself for another day…. That is, if SB will cooperate…. worth a shot, don’t you think?…. And, I don’t think God will mind, as He doesn’t really exist in the way most folks think….

“Always make allowances for the “duh” factor.” — Smart Bee

“Some things don’t need the thought people give them.” — Calvin

If you want to sing out, sing out,
and if you want to be free, be free,
’cause there’s a million ways to be,
you know that there are…

— Cat Stevens, from a song lyric

“Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.” — Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“If I had a large amount of money I should found a hospital for those whose grip upon the world is so tenuous that they can be severely offended by words and phrases yet remain all unoffended by the injustice, violence and oppression that howls daily about our ears.” — Stephen Fry

“A lizard ran out on a rock and looked up, listening no doubt to the sounding of the spheres. And what a dandy fellow! the right toss of a chin for you and swirl of a tail! If men were as much men as lizards are lizards they’d be worth looking at.” — D. H. Lawrence (1928)

“Clay is moulded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing. … Thus, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not.” — Lao Tzu
_____________________________

On a normal day, at 0542 in the AM, I’d prefer to be sleeping, but, that event, having NOT happened in many a year, thus takes on the shape and desirability of a dream quest, a chimera, beckoning me to chase it down the halls of Time…. like a fool. Since the day isn’t normal, and neither am I, I suppose it shouldn’t shock me to be done already with today’s Pearl. I DID get up at 0330 or so….. Any who, let’s see how it turned out….

Well, it’s a Pearl…. More than this, deponent sayeth naught, with good cause…. Which is, I’ve probably said enough, and more than….. 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

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

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Monthly Archives: November 2013

Fatuous remarks can create structural instability….

The cost of implementing the Rules for Sanitary Operation are included in the quoted price…..

Burdened by implications of impropriety….

Proud members of a local pantheon…..

21 seems to be all Murphy wants today…. but, 21 what?….

Soluble items should be sterilized first….

Soften the edges with a little innuendo….

Weeding dead paradigms is honest labor….

Honor is never for sale…..

Would a bit of irony be of assistance?….

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