Monthly Archives: May 2014

Save the tangerines for Uncle Micah….

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Ffolkes,

Must have coffee….. ugh….. Go away…. No, wait, I’ll do that, you stay here a minute….

Alright, I’m back…. but, I’m still not sure if I should be doing this…. Mama told me when I was in this kind of mood I should avoid people, lest I be tempted to break my vow not to kill anyone before breakfast each day….. Mama had a lot of good advice, and this one has helped me a lot, what with the fuss modern society makes when one leaves too many bodies lying about the landscape…. Hell, they get upset at ONE; I should know…. I’ve had to avoid their silly implications a number of times, and you’d think I had done something wrong, or something, when all I really did was bring justice to the universe….

Of course, authorities and official types never like to be told they are fools, which seems to happen all too frequently during our encounters…. Maybe that’s why I get a bit of a return favor, when they ignore me much of the time, having learned NOT to fuck with me over their silly corpses…. If I had wanted to be held responsible for them, I’d have left some evidence, now, wouldn’t I? Sure I would; I’m not mean…. I just hate inefficiency, and that’s all I see whenever they come around, so, I figure it’s better for everyone if they continue to be clueless…

Of course, they DO look at me funny, but, they’re welcome to that…. I haven’t worried about stuff like that for years, ever since I decided to stop paying attention to their silly laws and regulations….. I feel much better, now that I don’t, even if I have to disappear one of their asshole myrmidons now and again…. It keeps my hand in, and keeps me in practice in case they ever send more than oh, say, a dozen or so at once…. I tend to get a bit harsh when that happens, so, it’s good to keep my skills at peak…. It’s just better for everybody….

If you couldn’t tell, I’m indulging myself this morning, painting my fantasy of how I would LIKE to deal with reality…. If I had my druthers, I’d probably ace one or two of them on a daily basis, just to practice, as I said above…. But, it would be too much of a hassle at this stage, and might even lead to my own demise….. those who live by the sword, etc….

But, I wouldn’t mind, if it gave me the chance to remove a significant number of them from this plane of existence; I would guess it would be rather cathartic for me…. As I said, though, too much hassle for now, so, I sublimate by writing about it when I can… It sort of relieves a bit of the pressure that can build up, and can cause me to actually bite one of them…. which I’d love to do, even if I only have the two teeth on top….

This isn’t getting me much of anywhere, though, so I think I’ll bring it to a crashing halt, & get on with the rest of this mess…. I may as well, since I keep talking myself out of going hunting…. and, I ain’t talking about hunting snarks, or boojums, or other fictional creatures, either….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Character is that which can do without success.” — Emerson (I’m assuming that is Ralph Waldo….)

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Today’s rant comes to you courtesy of several news articles, to which you will find links below…. It helps me if y’all read the article first, then my comments make more sense…. I also have to comment here, to say that I find it very disturbing, though not particularly surprising, that many of the articles about the chicanery and illegal, immoral activities in which our government and police forces are engaged, are to be found only in foreign news sites… The sites in this country seem to ignore/pass over much of what is obvious to other countries, tending to softball any criticism about the people in power here…. I’m assuming that is because they are afraid of retribution; else why keep silent? It certainly is not to their advantage to do so….

Any who, read, then I’ll show some excerpts, upon which I’ll comment, as the key points to be found…. Hopefully, my comments will make themselves obvious, but, to be clear, the excerpts will be indicated with quotation marks; my comments have none….

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/19/cecily-mcmillan-three-months-jail-occupy-future-protest?CMP=ema_565

“On Monday, Occupy Wall Street activist Cecily McMillan was sentenced to three months in jail and five years of probation, after she faced down a maximum sentence of seven years in prison for her conviction of assaulting a police officer. Her supporters, unsurprisingly, feel the sentencing is excessive – especially given her testimony that the officer in question first grabbed her breast – but it’s also clearer than ever that McMillan’s conviction will have a chilling effect on the future of serious activism.”

“The most famous example of this is probably NYPD deputy inspector Anthony Bologna, who pepper-sprayed peaceful female protesters during an OWS march. In 2013, the district attorney’s office announced that it would not prosecute Bologna – and the NYPD docked him just ten vacation days and reassigned him to Staten Island.”

A large number of people are surprised when they see articles such as this, as they are really, really stupid, (sorry, I calls ’em as I sees ’em….) due to their implicit trust in the police forces in this country, assuming, in complete error, that they are dedicated professionals with integrity and compassion for others; they actually believe that bullshit. They have a hard time when an article like this comes out, which, if they only paid attention, they would see happens pretty much every fucking day….

Yep, every damn day, I go through the news, and there is ALWAYS at least one, and often more, articles that report another cop gone rogue, or some piece of corruption exposed, or another forcible rape by a sheriff deputy, or some other example of one of the BRC’s faceless myrmidons abusing the power of authority that comes with their job…. EVERY DAY ffolkes, and that is NOT an exaggeration; look at it yourself…. If I can find at least one article about a corrupt cop every day, how many do you think there actually ARE? A LOT, wouldn’t you guess? I would….

Except, it’s not a guess… My estimate is that at least half, & most likely more than half, of the assholes wearing a badge in this country are totally unqualified to carry a gun to enforce the law, because they are they type of person who will abuse that power…. Way, way more than half is my actual gut feeling, but, we’ll be conservative, & keep the estimate there at 50%…. Believe me, when it comes to corrupt cops, half of them is MORE than enough….

My question is: how can any intelligent citizen think that these people could be trusted to use their weapons ONLY in defense of the law, if they were the only ones allowed to carry them? Do you think that most police would show integrity, or would they abuse their position, using their weapons to control and intimidate citizens, rather than protecting them? I’m sorry, but, I just don’t think they are any more trustworthy than the average citizen; in fact, I would wager serious money on them being far less honest, and far less honorable than the average joe on the street, and that is a fact….. Hell, they can’t even bring themselves to use their turn signals…. what makes people think they’ll not pull the trigger?….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Ex-aide-set-to-testify-in-Christie-bridge-scandal-5490758.php       

“Christie, who says he is still considering running for president and will decide his political future later, recently said the lane closings would be “a footnote” by 2016. But his prediction last week came the same day his former campaign manager contradicted Christie’s timeline of the bridge scandal…..Political operative Bill Stepien said Christie misspoke Dec. 13 when he told reporters he had received assurances that no one close to him knew about the lane closings.”

Misspoke? Misspoke? What the fuck does that mean, if not “he lied”? As far as I can see, it can’t mean anything but that, but, this guy, Stepien, remember, is a “political operative”, and, as such, has been extensively trained to use the English language in ways no other sane person would think to do…. He is obviously pissed off at Christie for making him fall on his sword, but manages to still try to minimize the key fact of the matter, to wit: Christie was involved…. his governing style encouraged that sort of thing; it’s clear that he knew about it, and he lied about it….

This particular brouhaha, in fact, is one of the easiest issues to understand, as history has shown us that we can, for sure and for certain, count on one characteristic of politicians to be a fact…. WHATEVER a major politician says. especially regarding their own guilt or innocence, about ANYTHING, is going be an outright lie…. It’s knee jerk for them; they have no other behavioral response to fall back on, so, in such instances, when they are accused of ANY wrongdoing, they deny, deny, deny…. If pushed to the wall, they will say that the person they scapegoated, er, fired, had lied to them, which, as we know, is a crock of shit….. If they hadn’t trusted the idiots, they wouldn’t be where they were….

Two things bother me about issues of this nature…. One, the lies that are told by the perpetrators of such acts are reported as if they have validity; the media doesn’t even TRY to point out any discrepancy in fact, or suggest any alternatives to accepting it as truth…. when, in truth, they KNOW it all to be a crock…. Second, people in the public read this crap, and believe it…. They have no clue, and are unwilling to believe, that they are being lied to at every turn…. If they do that, they would have to first admit their own FUCKING STUPIDITY….

Sorry, I get a bit worked up when I think of how gullible the average American is; it makes me ashamed of what the forefathers foresaw for this country, to see that the corporate assholes have won…. They’ve taken over all three branches of the government, and the majority of people in this country have no clue that they are nothing more than slaves….

The average American is no longer an educated, honorable citizen of a democracy, who watches the government with cautious regard…. Mostly they are grossly overweight couch potatoes, carrying fifty extra pounds from eating all the crap the corporations want them to eat, locked into their own brand of indulgent stupidly, believing everything a talking head on their TV tells them, making them extremely easy to lead around by the nose, as they give up their legacy of rights to unprincipled, immoral, INSANE assholes with more money than common sense, or compassion, ignoring and/or denying as much of what goes on around them as they can…. It’s a wonder we aren’t all wearing collars….

Just wait, though, that day will come, if the monied elite have their way…. They sure as hell haven’t shown any inclination to either share any of what they’ve usurped from everyone else, or to change their nature from being predatory, so, I’d wager they’ll just keep on doing what they’ve been doing, and continue to do, which is lie, cheat, and steal to and from everyone else, always seeking to maintain their control over the rest of the world…. while the sociopathic assholes they have trained as their puppets and myrmidons, that we call politicians and preachers and policemen, continue to run roughshod over the rest of society….

So be it…. gigoid has spoken….

“Jesus died too soon. If he had lived to my age he would have repudiated his doctrine.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

nsadog
The cartoon was reproduced, without permission, but with full attribution, from the UK Guardian news site….. If it’s too small, you can find it there, under yesterday’s date….I hope.

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I’m having a bit of trouble today, trying to keep my head from exploding; it’s making it hard to get anything done…. The rant above is actually the result of a short period, yesterday afternoon, when I found the articles, and was stimulated to rant by the sheer effrontery of our talking heads and societal myrmidons, who parade their ignorance and stupidity all over the public stage…. I just used the angst therefrom to edit this morning, punching it up where necessary…

My mood, however, such as it is, is making it hard for me to accomplish any of my real goals…. such as here, where I would like to put a nice poem by some classical or contemporary poet, but, due to the way my head, and my lower back feel, finding one like that would be an impossible task….

Intelligent searching takes too much attention, which is rather broken apart right now, so I don’t feel capable of that much focus for so long…. Which means, of course, you’ll have to put up with another of my old ones, because, they’re right here, and require very little of my attention to pick one out….. I do hope it’s a good one, or alternately, that you enjoy it, such as it is….

A Failure to Germinate

Marking the days in elements of sad disarray
only holds me thrall, as I laugh while I may.
With cold, hard hands so impatient and cruel
pulling me to this vale of tears, a pathetic old fool.

Feelings sit silent, cast in shadows and light
breaking forth to implicate such vengeful might.
Just below the surface they patiently hide
to sally forth bravely, colors bright as they ride.

Tears and pain transform valued assets in hand
while comfort and serenity retreat to a far land.
Bold, bright patterns of hope garnish my ruinous state
until reality enters, full of disdainful portions of hate.

I sort out the illustrious measures of vision gone mild
only to find them transformed, now vicious and wild.
In my deepest desires I find myself calloused and cold
with faithless advocates whose souls have been sold.

My search finds little to support any hope of relief
far too much time has passed to bolster such belief.
The sad becomes real, and real becomes unfounded
until flights of such fancy are all dead, and grounded.

Nature has informed me of the newly hatched crime
that reality has boasted of proudly, time after time.
The last answer we think of is always the best
as we come to terms with fate, our hope at rest.

~~ gigoid ~~


“I see no reason for calling my work poetry except that there is no other category in which to put it.” — Marianne Moore

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Oh boy! Old school!….. Yay!….. Have fun, ffolkes, I intend to…..

“The dismaying thing about man is not where he descended from, but what he is willing to descend to in the course of living life.” — Smart Bee

IDIOT, n.  A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.  The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.”  He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable.  He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it… This is the condition of children and barbarians, in whom instinct has learned nothing from experience.” — George Santayana, _Life of Reason_, — vol. 1, chap. 12, p. 284 (1905)

“As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.” — Dick Cavett, in “Playboy”, 1971

“No matter how much cynicism you have, it is never enough to keep up.” — Lily Tomlin

“My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.” — Clarence Buddinton Kelland

“Baby, after considerable thought I’ve reached the conclusion that the only conceivable legitimate answer to the Universe as constituted is a peal of hysterical laughter.” — Keith Laumer, _Night of Delusions_

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When I look back on these Pearls upon finishing each one, I am almost always surprised to find it nothing like what I’d imagined at the start…. Today, that’s probably a good thing…..

I see from my post-creative perusal that some of the pearls are old, in the sense that they’ve been here before…. That’s okay, I’ve been at this long enough now that was bound to happen; there are only a finite number of aphorisms, even if that finite number is large….

Any who, I hope you enjoyed today’s effort…. to my way of looking at it, it didn’t come out too badly…. It’s all me, for sure…. Well, all of it not otherwise attributed, anyway…. See ya, ffolkes, I’m starting to babble now….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

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Bursting with possibility, the newest day dawns, as ever, in shades of grey….

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Ffolkes,

I’m certain, if not completely unsure, I’ve never experienced such a long-term tweak…. Usually, it takes a day, maybe two to get the ol’ back to calm down enough to return to relative normalcy…. This time, it keeps relapsing, so to speak, with each morning’s level of pain in the lower part competing to see which day will get the prize…. which means, given that my back and its pain are NOT being nice, NONE of the prior six or seven days will ever be called a winner…. No prizes will be awarded, unless I get one for not killing anyone, in spite of numerous episodes of encountering people who gave every impression of WANTING to become martyrs at the throne of stupid….

The above paragraph, however, is all the whining you’ll see…. (Trust me…) I’ve decided that today’s Pearl WILL be fresh, even if somebody must die…. Well, not me, of course; if I die, who’ll write the Pearl? But, if anyone gets in my way, or even in my vicinity, I’m taking them down, and that’s a promise…. I’m tired of Mr. Nice Guy…. Whether it’s me, or somebody else assuming that guise, I’m done with it….

That being said, there will be no rant, unless you consider this ill-mannered outburst as such….. There WILL be two old-school pearls, and a poem…. but, that’s ALL there will be today, and hell, if I find something better looking than what I feel SB can do today, then what you get will be from the archives…. Deal with it….

That is all I have today, ffolkes…. I’m not even sure I can follow my own rules today, and play nice with others…. We’ll see, I guess… In the meantime….

Shall we Pearl?….

“I’m PROUD to be a CARBON-BASED life form!”– gigoid, asb SB

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I have yet to begin searching through Smart Bee for some appropriate aphorisms, because I wanted to issue a warning, to both Smart Bee, and to y’all, to protect your sensibilities…. To SB, I say this…. DO NOT FUCK WITH ME TODAY. That’s it….. and, it had better be enough….

Oh, and, Smart Bee? If I were you, today, I would pay close attention to that warning, too…. To the Gentle Reader, my warning is this… if SB doesn’t behave, I will ask you to please avert your eyes; nobody should HAVE to see what I will do to the damn thing, as it will be guaranteed to cause nightmares, in both the recipient of the thrashing, and in anyone careless enough to watch…. Otherwise, enjoy, yes?…..

“Don’t overestimate the decency of the human race.” — H.L. Mencken

“Every event that one would master must be mounted on the run, and no one ever caught the reins of a thought except as it galloped past.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.” — Smart Bee

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

“As a computer, I find your faith in technology amusing!” — Arthur, my laptop

“Humility is a virtue all preach, none practice, and yet everybody is content to hear. The master thinks it good doctrine for his servant, the laity for the clergy, and the clergy for the laity.” — John Selden (1584-1654) — Humility

“Anything that is good and useful is made of chocolate.” — Smart Bee

Okay, well, I like it….

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To avoid any accusations (or worse, litigation…) of cruelty to a poet, here is another one of mine, so nobody else gets blamed for this… I wrote this some time in the latter half of 2012…. It’s about Pearling, or, Life as We Know It….

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 ~~

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Not too shabby so far; nobody’s dead, and no injuries requiring stitches…. bonus! In keeping with today’s pattern of insanity, here is another old-school pearl, fresh from SB’s database of virtual wisdom, hacker-style….. This one may be a bit loose, so don’t try to hang on to any of it too tight; just an easy grip, enough to allow you to follow it to where it leads….

“Happiness is the only good, reason the only torch, justice the only worship, humanity the only religion, and love the only priest.” — Robert G. Ingersoll (American lawyer and orator)

“The land of the free!  This is the land of the free!  Why, if I say anything that displeases them, the free mob will lynch me, and that’s my freedom.  Free?  Why I have never been in any country where the individual has such an abject fear of his fellow countrymen.  Because, as I say, they are free to lynch him the moment he shows he is not one of them.” — D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

“Ignorance is never out of style.  It was in fashion yesterday, it is the rage today, and it will set the pace tomorrow.” — Franklin K. Dane

“How do you know that electrons are political? Because you can never determine their exact position.” — Smart Bee

“Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.” — Langston Hughes, Dreams

“An it harm none,
Do what ye will.”  — This is the core belief in Wicca, upon which all the rest of their philosophy of life is based….

“Unknowingly, we plow the dust of stars, blown about us by the wind, and drink the universe in a glass of rain.” — Ihab Hassan

Ooh, nice finish! There you have it, ffolkes…. THIS is a pearl of virtual wisdom, clearly….

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I did it…. In the interests of not hurting myself, though, I don’t think I’ll pat myself on the back just yet…. Instead, I’ll just trust in my instincts, and put this out for consumption, sans further attention or editing…. See you tomorrow, ffolkes, most likely…. Considering my record, the odds are good….

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 dubious

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Further remonstrances should be unnecessary….

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Ffolkes,

Realizing such an overreaction would draw attention, I put away my weapon, and proceeded to thrash the idiot with my bare hands….. Having thus protected the next poor slob who tried to buy one of the asshole’s fake watches, (The fool didn’t even bother to put works in them, or set them to the right time….. just tried to foist off a fake Rolex on me, without any real idea of what a watch like that would cost, or look like…. What an idiot….), I walked out of the alley where I left his groaning carcass, giving him the opportunity for a leisurely introspection, wherein he could contemplate the error of his ways…. I turned south, toward the waterfront, where the ship that would carry me on the next leg of my journey only waited for me to board….

As I strolled down the Avenida del Revolucion, other, more honest vendors hawked their wares, to the early tourists and locals who crowded the narrow sidewalks, jostling each other in the crowded spaces between the shops and the street-side displays for each….. All the stalls were colorfully crammed with hundreds of items for sale, handy to the cars that crawled past, filled with other tourist groups and possible buyers…. The street vendors, each hawking the wares of the shop in front of which they stood, joined their cries to each other’s, almost a sing-song of prices and salutations, a commercial music that blended with and through the noise of the cars, and the blaring mariachi music from the speakers every fifty feet….

Then, of course, I woke up, and lost all sense of proportion, staring into the darkened room, wondering whether I was still in Mexico, shivering slightly in the cold air from the open window, behind me…. Pulling on a t-shirt, I arose, grabbed the essentials, and came out to try to start this Pearl….. The above two paragraphs are the best I can do, ffolkes; on looking it over, it’s not bad, but, it isn’t the best I’ve ever done, either….. Given the handicap under which I’m operating, I’m fairly content, as it is better than I’d hoped, given the level of spasming and pain I’m currently ignoring….. well, as best as I can….

Regardless of that, I’m not going to whine…. What I WILL do is try to put out a complete Pearl, fresh, (other than poetically…. I’m afraid I don’t have THAT in me right now…. but, I’ll pick something worthwhile to make up for any lack of freshness or originality on MY part….), and as compelling as I can make it…. It may not be quite up to snuff, but, it will have to do, because, well, it will….

On that note, I’m going to forgo any further folderol, or nonsense from my darker side, & jump into the rest of today’s effort….. which, as I can already tell y’all, is an effort, indeed….

Shall we Pearl?….

Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.

It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~


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“Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions are all based upon that large defect in your race — the individual’s distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for safety’s or comfort’s sake, to stand well in his neighbor’s eye.  These institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and always oppress you, affront you, and degrade you, because you will always be and remain slaves of minorities.  There was never a country where the majority of people were in their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910), “The Mysterious Stranger”

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/17/government-lies-nsa-justice-department-supreme-court

Is there any more question? Can it be laid out any clearer? It’s pretty clear to me….. Our world has been usurped, pirated by the myrmidons of the paranoid übermensch, the sociopathic monied elite, who seek to control every aspect of life on this planet, to further their own pathetic need to control and manipulate the rest of mankind for their insane personal ends….

Now, some might think that’s a long stretch of the imagination, to extrapolate such dire accusations from the shenanigans of one federal agency, or even two, apparently turning it all around into blaming the poor, faceless gazillionaires who control the resources of the planet; after all, most people now are inured to being lied to, stolen from, and getting their fannies reamed by those in charge of society, having endured that sort of treatment their entire lives.

Given that sort of background, what could be LESS surprising than to hear that someone in the government had lied, to protect someone else in another governmental branch?…. (Please note: both the liars, and those they lie about, are UN-elected officials, having been appointed to their positions….) Or that the Justice (?) Department was no longer bound by the Constitution, or, apparently, any other laws that are contrary to their purpose, thus giving them the legal right to lie, to the public, and to the SUPREME FUCKING COURT?….

Sadly, I’m not sure they needed to lie to the Supremes; that particular batch of lawyers, who, after first indicating which path to glory they preferred, mutated into judges, of such obvious degrees of corruption they became worthy of the attention of one or more of the Shrubs, those blatant corporate/spook soldiers who appointed them…. (Notice again how voting doesn’t come into this picture?…)…..

This particular current batch of Supremes seems to be more than ready to fuck things up all by themselves, casually casting aside numerous laws set, over time, as legal precedents by previous Supremes, laws designed to guard against societal discrimination, as being “no longer an issue of law”…. meaning, they are changing the law themselves, sans any need to ask for, or receive, approval from anyone else, such as Congress, the Executive Branch, or god forbid, the people of this country….

It’s pretty clear in this case, it all connects at a deeper level, where the inner workings of a clandestine organization are merely the tip of the iceberg, compared to how the ice is being used….. which is, begad, a terrible metaphor. But, I think it’s clear that ALL of the branches of our government are now corrupted by this attitude, of entitlement and the absolute belief that whatever rights we, the people, may have had, are not relevant to their goals…. all of which, in their eyes, makes those ‘rights’ immaterial, pathetic obstacles to be brushed aside, in the interests of expediency and paranoia….

Ffolkes, I don’t like to join hands with the ranks of those who believe in all sorts of conspiracies; most of the time the evil that we see is not a matter of conspiring to take over the world…. there’s no need for that, because it has already happened. It actually happened thousands of years ago; the problem has always been that not many people are willing to look directly at the evidence, or able to accept the FACTS…. which are, to me, relatively clear.

“By all means, let’s not confuse the issue with facts.”– Smart Bee

The 1% (which, actually, is a misnomer; 1% of the total number of humans alive is actually a rather large number, in relation to the small number of people who actually have real control of the resources of the entire planet…. 1% of 7 Billion is actually 70 Million people; there are many times many fewer people than that who are the actual masters of this society…. Planet wide, the true figure of people who are in the true ruling elite is probably closer to 7000, or perhaps, 70,000, not millions…. Sorry, ffolkes, but, numbers CAN’T lie…. and, remember, these people DON’T share…..), are perfectly aware they don’t NEED a conspiracy, when the controls they require have been in place for centuries…. As long as people are susceptible to money, or power over others, as long as they are subject to their own fear and ignorance, no real planning is required, as people will, all-too-often, freely give their freedom away, to those who promise to remove their fear…..

This has always been true, ffolkes…. The weak and ignorant, of which there are so many, spend their lives in fear of not being able to succeed, of being confronted with the harsh realities of life without the means to deal with any of it. The unprincipled rulers of mankind, with the willing and able assistance of the religious fanatics who support them, don’t actually conspire against the rest of humanity….

They merely live up to their own standards, which are based on expediency and self-promotion, and the ignorant masses fall right into line, giving their allegiance and obedience to temporal authority, while both the church and the rulers steadily, and thoroughly, empty their pockets of all they don’t require for basic living…. and more, if they feel they can get away with it….

I don’t profess to have any special knowledge of what is going on behind the scenes; all of my opinions are based on what can be seen right out in the public arena, based on what I read, what I see, and what I can deduce from that data. Everyone alive has the same opportunity as I do to see what is going on….

Sadly, most people don’t seem to have, or, to use if they do have, the simple intelligence required to put the pieces together, into a picture they can understand…. which, in turn, means they cannot control their own destiny…. Nor will they ever be able to do so, as long as they continue to give up the right to control their own minds, to the Beloved Ruling Classes, including the priestly hierarchies, and all the faceless myrmidons (police and military…), who do the bidding of the powered elite, the corporate snakes/monied assholes, (sorry, I decided elegant doesn’t work when describing these pricks, but, short, pithy Anglo-Saxon slang works just fine….), who prey on the rest of mankind….

I think, personally, it’s time for me to buy a gun…. and lots and lots of ammunition…. As an American citizen, I can only say that, I’m tired of my ass being continuously threatened with impalement, on the shaft of government indifference, or corporate immorality, and, I don’t intend to have it go on that way forever…. I’m sure we can find something that will work better, and won’t constantly be a pain in our collective ass….

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

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

There are times when the mere act of reading a poem, if done honestly, paying attention & trying to put oneself into the author’s mind, to fully understand the metaphor of life being portrayed, is a worthy experience in and of itself, with no more justification needed, or required, by either the universe, or the monitors of this blog, who are, as we know, non-existent…. Well, I know it; if y’all still have doubts, just submit another claim….

In the meantime, here is a poem, which long-time prisoners, er, readers, will probably recognize as having been seen here previously…. That’s just because it’s a good one, and, because I can…. Enjoy, please, as millions of history’s readers have done for a long time…..

A Dialogue of Self and Soul

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

~ William Butler Yeats ~~


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

Okay, finally, a bit of fun for us all…. I’ve been working hard to get this done before the pain gets to the point where someone has to die, and it’s going fairly well, all things considered…. Let’s see if Smart Bee is up to a bit of cooperation this morning, shall we? I’ve got my wet suit on, and my scuba tank is full…. Let’s dive, ffolkes…. Oh, yeah, take your knife; no parameters today….

        Hug O’ War

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

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~


“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Madison, 1787

“To think contrary to one’s era is heroism. But to speak against it is madness.” — Eugene Ionesco

“One must never precede any maneuver by a comment more predictive than, “Watch this!” (Keep ’em guessing.) — The Third Commandment of Frisbee — Dan Roddick

“Fear is the lock and laughter the key to your heart.” — Steven Stills

“That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue.” — Cicero (B.C. 106-43)

“What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?” — Ursula K. LeGuin

I really love this job….. too bad nobody will pay me to do it…..

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

Well, ffolkes, (and that’s a deep subject….) (Sorry, really…. I’m an incorrigible punster, so, don’t incorrige me…) (Okay, sorry, I’m done….), here we are again…. I’m still uncertain as to whether or not I’ll continue to try to keep myself unblooded today; I suppose it will depend on how much pain I’m fighting when some idiot tests my resolve. But, at my age, I don’t really give much of a shit whether it does, or not, and if things get out of hand, I’ll just blame Murphy…. it’s about time he took some of the heat he dishes out…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

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Clueless Bob gets trundled away….

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Ffolkes,
Today, you get a two-fer…. Here’s a re-blog, of an older Pearl that gives an idea of my last two days in my personal hell…. I’ll be back tomorrow…

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Ffolkes,
A lot of literature has been written throughout history on how much difference a day can make. It has also been noted that one day can make very little difference, especially for physical ailments of a chronic nature. Let me tell you, one day in the life of someone in pain is much more than just a day; there are hours within such days that last for months, and waiting for a pill to take effect (if it is going to….) can take decades, subjectively speaking…..

Having spent much of yesterday in such a state, I’ll vouch for the fact that it is no fun. But, it is life; as such, must be accepted and dealt with one way or another, and I refuse to spend all my time either worrying about it, or giving in to it. So, I am up, and determined to put as much of…

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Total addiction to pillaging…..

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Ffolkes
Two days down, one more to go, I think…. By tomorrow, I’m hoping this tweak will have resolved itself, and I can return to a normal day’s Pearl…. For now, since I am stuck in the house, here is a travelogue from my trip to the British Isles last year….. It’s a nice way to take myself out of the place my head is in for a while…. Enjoy, & I’ll be back tomorrow with a fresh Pearl….

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Ffolkes,
All of my life, I’ve read stories and books set in Ireland, or by Irish writers, and have always felt an attraction to the country, possibly due to being part Irish myself (at least a quarter, with one grandparent’s family from there….). Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I stepped onto Irish soil; the earth didn’t shake, but I did feel welcomed, by the people, and the land…..Even now, as I write, sentimental fool that I am, it is bringing tears to my eyes, to know I’ve fulfilled a life-long dream, if only partially and incompletely. I guess it isn’t often one gets the chance to connect with their inner soul…..


Whew! Sorry, took me a minute to regain control…. it’s what I get for trying to write before I’ve had any coffee. I’d best wait a bit, so I don’t do anything to embarrass myself any…

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Cats don’t do intangible….

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Ffolkes,

Yesterday, for me, was pretty well trashed from the beginning, and today is looking not much better; I’m not going to whine, which is, I’m sure, a relief to all…. I am, however, going to go ahead and let y’all know today isn’t going to be much better…. The pain I felt yesterday hasn’t gotten better by any appreciable degree, so I’ll be spending another day in a drugged stupor, if I have anything to say about it….

I decided today’s Pearl could be a re-blog, but, rather than do it the normal way, I’m going to reproduce one of my oldest works, in five sections instead of the three we have in today’s format…. This is from December of 2011, near the end of my first year in retirement, and my first year of learning to live in near-poverty…. At the time of this writing, I was in a minor funk (depression, to the uninitiated among you….), due to having NO money, with Christmas fast approaching….

This Pearl was created, fresh out of my head, the day before my son’s 32nd birthday…. I hope you enjoy it; it’s a good picture of my mind during that period, such as it was…. Minor editing has been performed to make the whole thing more readable, given my current understanding of how that works, without changing any of the content significantly… i.e., I’ve added spaces, and adjusted an adjective, or a punctuation mark, at various points throughout, that’s all….

Shall we Pearl? Yes, we shall, and more than merely old-school…..

“If you are near the enemy, make him believe you are far from him. If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near.” — Sun-Tzu, The Art of War

(I keep trying, but, my worst enemy, pain, never pays any attention….)

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

12/16/11

Ffolkes,

Another day dawns, and I’m fairly certain that I left my mind in one of my dreams last night. Disconcerting, to say the least; I’m operating on extreme autopilot mode. This could make for some very interesting Pearls, as my mind is where I keep almost all of my restraint. In this condition, I could say damn near anything, and not give a whit for how it sounds to other folks. Oh well, we’ll just have to dive in, and takes our chances…….

(Shall we Pearl?…..)
___________________________________

“Violence accomplishes nothing.”  “What a contemptible lie!  Raw, naked violence has settled more issues throughout history than any other method ever employed. Perhaps the city fathers of Carthage could debate the issue, with Hitler and Alexander as judges?”–attribution not given, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this with Robert Heinlein’s name behind it.

Our planet is rife with violence of many sorts. It’s only to be expected when a goodly number of the creatures who live on this planet use other creatures as their source of food. Those other creatures are not always amenable to that, and will put up a pretty good argument for an animal that otherwise does not fight. This can lead to some rather spirited discussions over dietary preferences…….

There is, however, another effect of using force to obtain food, one that can be problematic to use at best. The use of force can be easily applied to the process of obtaining other desired objects, such as a better cave, a prettier mate, more food, etc.  Humans very quickly adapted to this system, as violence is part of our nature. (Anyone who does not agree with this is not paying enough attention, or is in deep denial)  We tend to use the threat of force a lot as we go about our business; it is one of our most universally adaptable tools, able to be applied to almost any situation as a means of achieving one’s goals.

But there is a price for the use of this tool, and it is a heavy one. Each time a person uses violent means to achieve their ends, a little bit more Grace is carved out of their karma. They devolve, instead of evolving, and become more and more unable to use any other tools they may have, more bestial in their demeanor. The more violent a person becomes, the further they remove themselves from the rest of society, eventually coming into conflict with society at large, as being a danger to others.

As with just about anything, society as a whole is much more effective at violence than any single entity can be, just because of numbers, if naught else. Breaking the habit of assuming a violent stance in response to life’s vicissitudes is extremely difficult; people don’t give up their primary behaviors without a great deal of resistance. But society has little patience with rogue citizens, and will have its way, irrespective of our wishes.

This is why we have prisons, and an entire system of law to protect each citizen from suffering violence at the hands of another citizen. If we were truly moral creatures, we wouldn’t need any of that….but we are not, and violence will be an issue for society to deal with as long as human nature remains resistant to change…..
___________________________________

“Pessimism is only the name that men of weak nerve give to wisdom.” — Mark Twain

I always enjoy good advice in the form of an aphorism. Short, sweet, and sharp as a scalpel, a good aphorism cuts right through any preconceptions or perceptive fog, and arrows straight to the rational corner of the mind. This one from Mr. Clemens is a perfect example of the venue, and how it pulls the mind along with it, out of the darkness of ignorance, and into the light of knowledge.

I consider aphorisms, or axioms, or anecdotes, or any other word that describes this form of communication to be peerless in their usefulness, especially as a teaching tool. Hell, they are the backbone of this entire process; if I didn’t rely on them for subject matter, I’d have to actually sit down and think up what to write, instead of just commenting on what others have said, and that would bear far too much resemblance to actual work…….
___________________________________

If money is the root of all evil, I’ve been uprooted.

True enough, but not accurate in its original sense. The quote actually reads “The love of money is the root of all evil”, and is misquoted a lot, probably because it makes the same kind of sense the original possessed, and people, in my experience, are pretty lazy. The sad part of this in my estimation is that everyone knows this, and just about everyone totally ignores it. People still spend most of their waking hours in employing various and sundry methods to increase how much money they possess. Everybody wants more, and more, and more, and will say and do almost anything to achieve that end.

I’ve never wanted any more of it than I need to get by, to be able to do the things I like to do, with possibly some extra to give to folks who need some. That’s all. Perhaps my lack of ambition in this respect makes me seem strange, but I’ve never understood why folks would want to burden themselves with so much stuff that they have to worry about others trying to take it away.

It’s much more fulfilling to use only what one needs, and be happy with that, and then use the rest for helping others to achieve the same…..and you don’t have to worry that it will be taken away, just like it was taken from someone else. I prefer to not become a target……
___________________________________

“That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue.” — Cicero (B.C. 106-43)

I’m always amazed at how accurate the statement “there’s nothing new under the sun” can be. According to this little gem, mankind has been struggling with the same philosophical questions for a long time, in this case about two thousand years. And from what I can see, we’re not making a lot of progress. This concept is as true today as it was in Greece two millenia ago; mankind continues to use whatever means they have at hand to manipulate others, even if those means are degrading to all who participate.

The urge to control other folks, in order to set ourselves up as being superior, has never been comprehensible to me; I believe that the impulse to do so is indicative of a sickness in the soul, and that the folks who indulge in such actions are mentally ill. And I should know; I spent close to twenty years caring for the mentally ill, and have seen the outcome of every maladaptive behavior known to science.

In my humble opinion, anyone who actively wants to be President of this country is seriously mentally ill. The job is impossible for one man to do well, what with all the roadblocks to reform and/or progress that are thrown up in their path by the opposing political party. But, as absolute power corrupts absolutely, there is always some dickhead out there ready to foist their own particular madness on the rest of us.

I’m looking forward to the election next year, if only because the political arena has been so frigging insane this year. Next year promises to provide even more stuff to write about every day, as one pundit after another parades their ignorance before the unwashed masses…..
___________________________________

“Honor isn’t about making the right choices.  It’s about dealing with the consequences.” — Midori Koto

This is a good point to make, as I see a lot of folks in today’s world who really don’t have any idea of what honor really means. It is rare to even find someone these days who even thinks about their honor, and even more rare to find a truly honorable person. The whole concept has fallen out of favor in general society; expedience has become more acceptable, no matter how dishonorable it may be.

To my way of thinking, society has reached a point where people’s sense of entitlement has grown completely out of control. A person’s personal desires are considered sacrosanct, no matter how badly achieving those desires may affect others. It doesn’t matter that acting in such a fashion places others in danger, or demeans them, or merely inconveniences them; people don’t care, because they’ve been led to believe that what they want is what they deserve, by corporate entities who feed into this, because it plays right into their hands.

It’s easy to get someone to buy something, when they believe they have the right to it. What is hard is doing so in an honorable fashion, and we all know how most folks feel about doing hard stuff…..
___________________________________

It’s probably a good thing to stop here. This was threatening to grow by another thousand words, so it’s just as well I cut it off here; you probably have other stuff to do, and I know I certainly have a plate full of problematic tasks. We’d all best be getting to it…..y’all take care out there…..

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

I just realized this old Pearl has no poem…. We can’t have THAT….. Since I’m being egotistical today, anyway, here is another of my old ones, which speaks about my reason for not writing today….

Gauges of Pain

Consciousness devolves in pools of gripping fears
holding hostage any hope of serenity,
sharp stabbing motions and greedy tears
nary a moment passes without common calamity.

Always a surprise, nothing soothing ever found,
leaving only breathless clinging pain,
salvation seemingly absent, it muffles all sound,
bringing ever more sadness and rain.

Solitude is ever present to claim my time,
lonely hours and relentlessly long days,
no radio plays such music in secular rhyme
happy, vibrant voices belong to elder ways.

Life can be justified it seems to say,
by hopeful favored moments of pleasure,
seemingly friendly, pointing out the only way,
to bring back happiness in minimal measure.

Days of horror and embarrassing tears
serve ever to drive wretched hours to withhold
promising naught but sorrow in coming years,
black, bitter memories that never grow old.

Cold, cold the days fly by,
can it really be our only token?
Never to say, or know just why
the pain never stops, even when spoken…

~~ gigoid ~~


(Yes, yesterday was NOT a good day…. why do you ask?…..)

Griefe brought to numbers cannot be so fierce,
For, he tames it, that fetters it in verse.

— John Donne

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

Well, ffolkes, if this Pearl is any evidence, my propensity for divulging opinion isn’t anything new…. I DO feel I’ve made some good progress, in terms of my writing; I am much better now, I think, at many of the small, yet important details that make a piece more readable. Even the few structural changes I made to this piece improved the flow, and made it easier to consume…. Plus, it’s done, which, today, is the most important factor of all…. I’m going to post this as quickly as I can, then go let some hot water beat me into submission, while I wait for my latest round of consumable cannabis to take effect…. I’ll see you tomorrow, hopefully in a better frame of mind, and body….

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 dubious

dozer3

Precious moments of subtle grandeur…..

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Ffolkes,

You probably can’t tell by looking, but, in this space, earlier today, three complete fictional beginnings to a story were composed, then edited to the point of deletion, each one being rather LESS acceptable than the one before…. I can’t recall ever coming up with so much CRAP so early in the day, unless of course, we count that time in Phoenix, of which, the binding documents of non-disclosure I signed then preclude any mention…. That’s okay by me, I wouldn’t want stuff like that to ever be associated with my name, if I can help it….

Unfortunately for TODAY’s Pearl, that leaves me here, too deep in to back out, but with not a damn thing to go here….. at least, nothing I’d allow past my inner censor. Hell, at this point, it’s all I can do to blink both eyes in unison; I’m that discombobulated this morning…. My eyes are giving me fits, trying to focus; my thumb aches like crazy, telling me it’s time to stop ignoring it, & go see the Doc about it…..

I just hate thinking of the probable treatment, a shot of cortisone…. it works great, but, I’m not real sanguine about using steroids, for anything, even the stuff for which it is commonly prescribed…. Just because we’ve used something for a while doesn’t mean they know what the long term effects are…. the medical profession has too many priors in that respect for me to ever trust them completely…. Remember the time they x-rayed some guy in the ER, & found he had a surgical tool, a pair of forceps, to be exact, still inside his abdomen, left there by a forgetful surgeon a few weeks previously?…. I do….

But, that’s all just avoiding the issue, which is the lack of stimulation/inspiration I’m experiencing today, that is keeping this intro in “Inanity Mode”, with long, wandering discussions of not very much, stretched, padded, and stuffed full of useless verbiage, all designed to take us just a little further down the page, until we find ourselves in an area where we can stop a moment, catch our breath, look around, and make the self-serving,  but appropriate decision to bring this section to a close, having reached a point where such a decision becomes practicable….

Why, look! We’ve reached just such a point now! How about that, ffolkes? I even fooled myself today, into thinking this might work…. which it did, I’ll point out…. Here we are, five full paragraphs in, and we’re ready to cut loose with whatever is to take place today…. It’s always a surprise to me, and should be for y’all, as well…. Hope springs eternal…. as does my chutzpah…. though, to be honest, it doesn’t really spring, so much as creep, but, hey, it SOUNDS good, right?

Shall we Pearl?…. I think it would be for the best if we did….

In lazy apathy let stoics boast
Their virtue fix’d: ‘t is fix’d as in a frost;
Contracted all, retiring to the breast;
But strength of mind is exercise, not rest.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle ii, Line 101

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

I’m in a lot of pain this morning…. but, I also decided not to complain about it; instead we have the above nonsense, while here, in section one, I’ll go with an older rant, on a subject that never goes out of style…. not here, anyway….

From 9/19/2012, I offer the following pearl, for your viewing enjoyment:

A while back, I wrote a comment regarding another a post on another blog, concerning the proposal made in that blog of writing some new amendments to the Constitution. Most of the suggested amendments made good sense, as they would remove many of the entitlements that Congress has awarded itself over the years. However, there was one suggested change with which I wholeheartedly disagree…. This is the response to that suggestion… The address of the original blog is included, in case you want to read it first…..  To wit:

In Response to a Proposed 35th Amendment

From the blog site at:

http://lennemi.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/a-proposal-for-a-new-bill-of-rights/#comment-234

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

Sir, or madam,

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

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

Therefore, it is my suggestion that you forget #35, in favor of the Second Amendment already in place in the Bill of Rights; this concept is based on a false assumption, and making a flat statement of what (YOU believe) my rights are, or should be, is not acceptable to me as a citizen of this republic, or as a human being responsible for my own actions. Bearing arms is not a privilege, nor will I, and most likely at least 150 million, or more, other people in this country, accept that idea for a moment, a fact that should be obvious to any one with practical understanding of reality.

I do not, nor will I ever believe that Federal, State, or Local jurisdiction have either the right, or the authority to say differently, and I doubt seriously that there are very many in this country who do believe that. I reject utterly the statement that they, or you, or anyone else, has the right to decide for me what I will or will not own, or keep, or use in my defense. After guns, free speech would be the next to go….any bets?

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

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

To be honest, up to recently, I never owned, or saw a need to own a gun. As one who has followed the Warrior’s Path since my early teens (and probably before; I was raised on army posts from birth to age 10), and a long-time student of martial arts, and the theories of war, I learned how to deal with violence in many ways, with many techniques, a large number of which I had to apply in my work for years, physically controlling out-of-control psychotic mental patients, without hurting them, or getting hurt.

I got pretty  good at dealing with violent people, especially in recognizing such outbursts before they manifested fully, and diverting it as needed.  I am very familiar with violence, in a great many of its guises. That said, it seems clear that I have generally been able to deal with whatever physical violence may occur in my immediate vicinity.

Now, however, I’m not as fast as I once was, nor as well-conditioned; I’m better at foresight, it comes with age. And I can foresee a time when I could conceivably need the equalizing factor of a weapon like a gun, in order to live up to my standard of handling events without injury, as far as I can…..so, I’m probably going to buy one or two…

Because of that, and even more, because of insane (sorry, don’t mean to flame; but, it isn’t fully sane to attempt to change human nature) talk such as this, of watching society willingly slip on their slave collars…This is NOT going to happen in my world…. or, at least, not in the little piece of it I can control….

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

Oh, and I’d keep in mind…. those folks, like the police in Sanford, Florida, who were complicit in covering up the murder there,  aren’t going to disarm themselves, now are they?…. How far will you trust them to behave with honor, and respect for YOUR rights? Get real…..and I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but in hope that you will open your eyes to what is plainly there to see….

Note from 2014:

“Those who really deserve praise are the people who, while human enough to enjoy power, nevertheless pay more attention to justice than they are compelled to do by their situation.” — Thucydides

Now, if only there were ANYONE left in our society who fit this description, we might be able to hold on to some hope…..

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Since I’m using archived material today, I’m going with this older poem of mine, which seems to fit in with the tone, if not the exact same tune we are singing today….

Rhyming is better than lying….

It’s all too, too much, he cried
   I can take no more!
It’s all crazy, my brain is fried,
   battered, bloody, and sore.

Talking heads shout out hatred and fear
   jam for my morning toast.
Pointing fingers far, middle, and near
   enemies everywhere, almost.

Women, gays, and seniors fall prey,
   easy targets, slow and weak.
Convenient fools, wanting only to play,
   used, and abused, even as we speak.

It enough to drive me floridly insane,
   or want to buy a gun.
I may end up in jail, or in massive pain,
   but, oh, it would be fun….

~~ gigoid ~~

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I don’t know how, but, I seem to have tweaked my lower back in my sleep last night; it’s giving me fits this morning…. But, I think I’ve got enough in me to finish this off, as long as I go old-school here in section three…. which I shall proceed to do…. Enjoy! This is all the fresh stuff you’ll get today….

“How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.” — Thomas Jefferson, “Writings” Vol. XVI

“No amount of ability is of the slightest avail without honor.” — Andrew Carnegie

“Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confines of two everlasting hostile empires, Necessity and Freewill.” — Carlyle (1795-1881)

“Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.” — Robert Lindner

“Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.” — John Adams (1735-1826)

“There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.” — Seneca

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

I love it when a plan comes together…..

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Today’s Pearl has been brought to you by the word “stubborn”, and the number 13, which has always been my favorite of all the prime numbers…. and, no, I don’t know what that means about me, nor do I care….. This is done, and for now, that’s all I do care about, as I’m about to go obliviate my consciousness with large quantities of drugs…. See y’all tomorrow, one way or another….

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 dubious

dozer3

That’s right; now sprinkle thoroughly with the powdered milk flakes….

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Ffolkes,

The power of paradox has been entered into the equation, ffolkes, and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it; our skills, as humans, do not yet extend to being able to alter the forces of nature, or reality, beyond the confines of our own minds…. Not only is this statement true, it’s true in and of itself, indicating by that its own sense of paradox, for, ultimately, how can the truth be paradoxical? Only by the most elegant of reasoning can we, as humans, ever come to understand this principle, a happenstance unlikely to occur very often, not in THIS species…. It is only by the grace of reality we have the opportunity to even try….

What the hell was that? Well…. by all appearances, it’s a statement of belief, but, it seems to be lacking something, something that would give it the relevance it now lacks…. But, then, these days, I think we’re all a little tired of being relevant; I know I could use a bit of irrelevance in MY life, that’s for sure…. Unfortunately, reality itself has a hard time with that; since it doesn’t care one way or the other about relevance, other than how things may be relevant to its own existence…. and, I think we, or I, am now entering an area of discussion from which we may never find our way back….

I know for a fact, right now, that I’m completely lost. Whatever it was I had in mind when I started this, two paragraphs back, this isn’t it. I hate when that happens; losing one’s train of thought is actually not a matter of losing it, so much as the train runs itself off the tracks, which makes for a tough row to hoe, both for the train, and for the place where the train ends up, while running off the rails… Plus, I have not a single clue as to what any of this means, or how I got here, or how I can save this intro….

I suppose I COULD resort to emergency method #4, which always works to get us past this section; in fact, I am going to do that, as I simply can’t think of anything else that might work at this point…. I’m totally clueless right now, so, after using #4, I’ll need to take a break, to reboot my head for a few minutes…. Otherwise, I can’t be held responsible for what may happen in any of the other parts of today’s Pearl…. I’m thinking you might want to stand back a foot or two, while I do this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“After many years of study, scientists have determined that dogs bark just for the hell of it.” — Smithsonian

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“Existing order thrives upon ignorance and lies. Objective truth and individual reason are feared above all.”– Smart Bee

For several years now, here, and in my conversations with other people, I’ve been talking about how little time we have left to fix the damage we’ve done to the Earth, with our complete disregard for the harm we are perpetrating…. we, of course, being the human race, the largest example on the planet, of a life-form commonly classified as “slime”….. Of course, all the other forms of slime are, in some way, beneficial in their relationship with the Earth; ours is the only species, out of MILLIONS of forms of life, which has deliberately chosen to foul our own nest, and, in the process, destroy the very tree in which we have chosen to build that nest….

I’ve ranted on this subject often, and don’t feel as if I’ve pulled any punches in stating the severity of the issue, or in stating the facts about how quickly it will all be upon us; it’s really too bad that nobody ever hears me, other than the few regular Gentle Readers who are kind, and fortunate, enough to come by often…. Those twenty or thirty ffolkes can be considered members of the choir, anyway, as almost all of them know of this issue, and agree with my assessment…..  From an efficiency standpoint, I’d say that’s a wash…

None of my rants, however, have hit the main points involved in the issue as well as the following two of three articles; the columns are by two authors whose work I have touted previously…. Both of these men are clear-sighted, erudite, and logical in their assessment of what is going on, and though they have two completely diametric styles of writing, and reasoning, they both end up at the same point in this discussion, driving their points home with excellent accuracy, poignancy, and elegance…. The third link included is one you saw yesterday; this report from NASA on the state of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is what stimulated both columns….

I’m being nice again today, which, given the mess I made in the intro section, is probably a wise decision; I’m NOT going to rant on this, but, instead, will just ask you to read these two columns, and the report that caused them to be written…. I’ll also ask you to THINK about it, and try to decide how we, that’s you, and me, and everyone else, are going to go about dealing with this….

There will be a lot of tough decisions to make in coming years, not the least of which will be whether or not to place the blame for all of this where it belongs, smack in the lap of the corporate snakeheads, the BRC, and the priestly hierarchies, who have usurped society for their own selfish ends, thus bringing us to this impasse; I for one think we should figure out a way to use them as some kind of alternative fuel, to replace the carbon based oil products we are now codependent with, thus helping solve the energy crisis…. But, that’s me; I don’t have much sympathy for them, and would just as soon see them melted by a Klingon disruptor….

Read the following, ffolkes, it will scare you, and piss you off, if you have ANY sense at all…. Just remember, I can point you to the people who put us here, whenever you’re ready to deal with them as they need to be dealt with…. I’ll help, I promise…. I’ll also note that promises, being sacrosanct to me, are something I don’t offer lightly….

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/It-is-not-hard-to-follow-the-money-5475550.php

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/05/13/heart-attack-of-the-world/

http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/NASA-spots-worrisome-Antarctic-ice-sheet-melt-5471531.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

“Why not try peace? If we find war is better, it will not be difficult to fight again.” — Smart Bee

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I’m using a poem of my own today, mainly because I’m too lazy to go find one by someone else; these are right here in a folder, so they’re easy to find…. I like this one, (well, I suppose that’s not a surprise, since I wrote it…), and not just because it’s one of my latest…. I think it’s one of my better ones, but, then, I’m no judge, other than for what I like…. Hopefully, you’ll like it, too…. If not, well, just skip on down to the third section….

Blithely Untitled

A poem came to me today, willy, nilly,
along with a sharp blow to the head.
Since it left me feeling just a bit silly,
anything that rhymes should lessen the dread.

Manifesting destiny into a small, insidious group
we push on toward sanity, concentrating hard.
Full engaging moments spent navigating the loop
shall ever make a difference to victims found in the yard.

Still corpses of creatures, straight out of nightmare
fill up the corners of our tortured minds.
While ever saddened, the iconic male, most debonair,
gazes softly, ironically, at all the mutual interest he finds.

Moronic public statutes compel outbreaks of sanity,
responding to momentary impulses toward inducing peace.
Still, the motions get completed, in fertile stages of inanity
while the bulk of our inmates can find no surcease.

Reluctant motivation to continue is unbound,
striving to ascertain how far there yet remains to go.
No precognitive guesswork will make any less of a sound
to soften the final strains, to teach us to really know.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Y’all know what’s coming now, don’t you? I knew I couldn’t fool you; not in the state I’m in today…. I’m feeling lucky just to still be able to type, at this point; even that is getting problematic, as my thumb continues to throb and complain at each movement…. Ah well, such is life, and pain is no stranger…. I think, to avoid whining, or spewing, or any further blathering, we should go for a dive…. Shall we?….. No parameters, ffolkes, so wear something expendable, or that you at least don’t mind getting soiled…..

“Solon gave the following advice: “Consider your honour, as a gentleman, of more weight than an oath. Never tell a lie. Pay attention to matters of importance.”” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Solon, xii

“If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher.  I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.” — Confucius (B.C. 551-479)

“All cruelty springs from weakness.” — Seneca

“No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says; he is always convinced that it says what he means.” — George Bernard Shaw

“It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.” — Lucius Anneaus Seneca

“There is something inside all of us that yearns not for reason but for mystery… not for penetrating clear thought but for the whisperings of the irrational… not for science but for wizardry disguised as science.. not for rationally founded influence but for magic.” — Karl Jaspers

You will note that there are only six pearls here…. about which it may be said, there is good reason aphorisms such as these are called “ancient wisdom”. Each of these certainly qualifies, though the one from G.B. Shaw may only be old, not quite ancient…. There are only six because I could NOT find the right one to finish it off…. However, I DO know exactly what will fit, and provide the proper finishing touch…. a certain picture I have in mind, to wit:
liesAnd there you have it….such as it is…..
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today’s Pearl is one that you can chalk up to sheer stubbornness; if I wasn’t so damn stubborn, I’d have given up on this one long ago…. As it is, I’m done with it, so much so, I don’t even want to go back to edit and/or proof it…. Unfortunately for me, my intransigence extends into all areas of my existence…. So….

Well…. I suppose, given my state of mind (melted, mostly….), I’ll have to admit it’s not bad…. None of it seems toxic, anyway, so, I’m letting it go without any further fuss or bother…. Y’all will, like me, just have to take your chances…. If it helps, remember how much you paid to do this…. See ya, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

It’s just like the other one, mate…..

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Ffolkes,

Just once, I wish…. Shit! Duck!…. Get down, you bozos, this is live fire!…. Crap, who wasn’t paying attention to the perimeter alarms? Where’s my M-16? Thanks, keep your head down…. Oh, okay, Stan, no worries, we’ll check those later…. Damn, ffolkes, sorry ’bout this…. Stay behind the armored plating, & you’ll be fine….

We haven’t had an attack like this in months, since putting in the new digital cams on the perimeter…. Looks like they finally hacked them, or brought them down somehow; Stan says the monitors are dark…. Well, hang on, they never bring enough firepower; this should only take a few moments to drive them off….

Okay, good work, troops…. Ffolkes, you can go ahead and take your assigned seats now…. we’ll be taking off for the pearl beds in a few minutes…. Anybody sustain any injuries they can’t deal with using the first aid kit in the seat compartment? Good…. Stan, you’ll check the troops, please, to make sure they’re all intact? Thanks…. Me, I’ll get into the cockpit, and fire this sucker up….

Well, THAT was exciting, yes? Nothing like some adrenaline to get the juices moving, is there? My issue with that is the four hours it takes me to get over those little rushes that are our gift from our little supercharger gland…. It’s kind of fun, feeling ten feet tall and covered with armor, though it does take its toll later, when the crash comes at the end of the rush….

I prefer to have copious quantities of a preferred adult beverage on hand to consume, or some other merely semi-legal substance that will instigate the same sort mellowing process, with fewer side effects than the alcohol…. I guess my “spirits” are getting old; I know my liver is, for sure…. Can’t take those mornings after anymore….

Oh, that? Ah, don’t sweat the small stuff; this morning’s attack was actually a planned exercise; I don’t advertise them ahead of time, for a lot of reasons, the main one being security…. But, the forces that were firing at us, though using live ammo, would only have aimed to wound, not kill. The exercise is part of a mutual-assistance agreement I have with another libertarian down the street…. Once a month, unscheduled, we each mount a surprise attack on the other’s property, just to keep us each in tune, and give some practice to the shock troops who will be taking the brunt of any defensive casualties, as part of their contract….

Of course, all of the above paragraphs are a complete fabrication….. I don’t believe there are more than three or four words of truth in any of them, or all of them together, even though I padded them as much as possible…. What d’ya think, eh? Not too bad, and certainly not the average opening you’ll find anywhere else… I do try to find something new and fresh for y’all, and sometimes it works better than others, I’d say…. Whether or not THIS is one of those if for y’all to say….

Regardless of how it turned out, though, it IS an intro section, and, as such, there are certain regulations that must be observed…. Not that we pay all that much attention to them, but, we do observe them, from afar, with great admiration…. In spite of our lack of respect for those regulations, we do keep them in mind when composing this, even though WE are only ME; I just fall too easily into the royal ‘we’, so easily adopted when using the famous “sotto voce”…. as we do here, unashamedly, we admit, but, to great effect…. sort of…. To frequent effect, anyway….

Having thus used it, without the typical abuse that can follow, mostly, I believe I have reached the minimum limit of the aforementioned regulations, so, I’m going to summarily end this, hoping to go on to something a bit more entertaining…. I know, this wasn’t bad, but, I didn’t hear any outright guffaws, so, it needs a bit of work…. In the meantime….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Anyone who isn’t confused really doesn’t understand the situation.” — Edward R. Murrow

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

Any one of the following articles would, under most circumstances, be sufficient to produce a rant, if all things were equal…. At the moment, for a day or two, they are NOT equal…. Mother Nature is giving us a taste of how miserable the weather can be, and of how unpredictable it has become in these days prior to the completely chaotic time to come in the future, as the effects of global warming become more pronounced…. For now, She’s giving us a small heat wave, in May, with temps in the area threatening to hit triple digits….

Fortunately for me, the town I live in only expects to get into the mid-90’s, Fahrenheit, which isn’t too bad, but, given my decreased tolerance for heat, is more than enough to put me into a comatose state for much of the day, motionless in front of a fan on high speed…. I just can’t take it like I used to be able to do. Right now, it’s pretty nice outside, at a bit past 4 AM, but, the air is still, there’s no fog, as we usually see in summer, and it already feels muggy…. These are typically NOT good signs for the rest of the day; they tell me that HEAT is on its way….

As such, my energy levels are dropping dramatically, as I KNOW I’ll be needing it all to keep myself still, and cool, for much of the day, confining any physical activity to the morning, or late evening hours. I went to the bother of collecting these articles, so, I’m leaving them here, for you to peruse in your spare time; they’re scary enough all by themselves, even without my added commentary designed to bring out the obvious flaws or lies that you’ll see in them… especially the first one…

The two on either end are quite scary in their implications; the potential scenarios that have evolved, and those yet to formulate, from those issues, are NOT comforting, to say the least…. The one in the middle, on the FCC decision, is more encouraging, as it seems the noise we consumers made about it is having an effect on the officials involved…. YAY! It’s nice when so many people speak that they HAVE to listen….

But, I’m already tired, and sweaty, and it’s only 0423 in the morning, so, from this point, you’re on your own with these…. I WILL follow them with a five-star pearl to drive some of the points home, or, as in this case, to provide some contrasting information, in an ethical sense…. Enjoy this little taste of current events, please, or, at least, LISTEN UP….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/NASA-spots-worrisome-Antarctic-ice-sheet-melt-5471531.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/05/12/fcc-chair-said-to-be-backing-down-on-plan-to-destroy-net-neutrality/?cmpid=hp-hc-bustech

https://news.yahoo.com/spying-on-millions-of-americans-living-in-the–united-states-of-secrets-183952032.html

“Sanity is for the masses who don’t know how to handle insanity.” — Tim Sailer

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” — Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

“The most common sort of lie is the one uttered to one’s self.” — Nietzsche

“The measure of man is what he does with power.” — Pittacus

“There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth: (1) not going all the way; and (2) not starting.” — Buddha

Ffolkes, I just can’t make it any clearer than that, without resorting to a rant….

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

Since this will be an entirely fresh Pearl today, I’d best go with a poem of my own, to save the reputation of anyone else I might choose….

Accentuated Lessons

Bold statements of calculated intent
Become common rule of the malcontent.
Avarice assumes such attractive wear
Beguiling deception, illusory and fair.

Grasping and pulling with ghostly hands
Legally proper in all the signatory lands.
Seeking and finding each vulnerable soul
Anguish as payment for exacting the toll.

Wraiths of commerce’s invisible dead guards
Still haunt the dreams left in sad empty yards.
While absentee nobles sit in stiffly elegant splendor
Served by sad-faced detainees in abject surrender.

Escape from reality is illusory at best
Often we falter and fail its daily test.
Only when focused on inner strength
Does peace stay with us for any length.

Peace lies within, always…..

~~ gigoid ~~


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

Having decided to forgo a rant today, that means this will be another old-school pearl…. Yes, I’m being nice today; I’m too hot & bothered to spend the energy to be a curmudgeon… Enjoy!….

“Apparently I’m insane. But I’m one of the happy kinds!” — John Young

“In a technological world where anything is possible, paranoia will  reign supreme.” — Stephen Crandall

“Never encourage Politicians, Fools, or Punsters!” — Smart Bee

“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“Common and vulgar people ascribe all ill that they feel to others; people of little wisdom ascribe to themselves; people of much wisdom, to no one.” — Epictetus

” … for these truths hold good for everything that is, and not for some special genus apart from others.  And all men use them, because they are true of being qua being …  For a principle which everyone must have to understand anything that is, is not a hypothesis …  Evidently then, such a principle is the most certain of all; which principle this is, let us proceed to say. It is, that the same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the subject in the same respect.” — Aristotle

“All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning.” — Albert Camus

And sometimes, they end on that same silly note…..

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

After reading this, in editing/proofing mode, I think it would be best if I keep this closing section relatively short…. There’s too much in the above that could construed as legally actionable, or, at the very least, taken wrongly by those who find it hard to operate BOTH of their functional neurons at the same instant…. which is a clandestine insult those self-same few will never get, as it flies, serenely, right over their heads….

In any case, I heard an old saw once that says an author should always leave his audience wanting a bit more…. Unable to decide if I have reached that point, or not, I’ll concede its relevance, and just take my leave…. See you tomorrow, ffolkes….. if I don’t melt….

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 dubious

dozer3

An Andorean warrior, curiously in mufti, stares in wonder….

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Ffolkes,

One technique I’ve developed, in the past two-plus years of writing this blog, has to do with this introductory section, which, if you’ve more than one time logged in to read here, you are aware the intro has long been my nemesis, so far as consistency goes…. Nothing I’ve been able to come up with has ever struck me as the one sure way to go, so, every morning, I sit and stare at the blank white screen, filled with as much ignorance as I ever allow myself to experience, in regards to what the hell to put there to fill up the vast void of white that confronts me, here, and in my nightmares….

Now, consistency, as you also may know, is NOT one of our watchwords; one of history’s great minds once told us that it is not necessarily a good thing, defining it as merely a concern of those with no real genius in them (“the hobgoblin of tiny minds” I think was the phrase used…. and, I forget, whether it was GB Shaw, or GK Chesterton, or exactly who first said it…. It was one of those eighteenth or nineteenth century Brit lit icons….

It will come to me, whereupon I’ll insert it into the narrative, probably in some parentheses, as here….. I know how y’all love it when I editorialize in the middle of stuff….).  Where was I? Oh, right, consistency…

Since it doesn’t concern us overly, I’ve never worried about achieving it to any significant degree, at least, not here…. There ARE parts of my life where I’m very consistent, but, nobody really cares much how well I can cook, or tie my shoes, so, it’s not really an issue for me…. except here…. Oh, I don’t really CARE if I’m consistent; I just want it to be uniformly good, or readable, or whatever adjective you choose to say I like people to like what I write…. If they get either a chuckle, or a random thought about morality, ethics, or compassionate love for others,  out of what I produce, well, I’m good with that….

If they don’t, I do try to give folks, and ffolkes, every opportunity to object, or to disagree, or to otherwise express their thoughts and/or feelings about what I’ve written….. Since that’s true, and the ball’s in their court, I feel as if I’ve done all I can do….

That, as you are well aware, is something in which I firmly believe, i.e., “All you can do is all you can do”, so, I feel as if I’m pretty well entitled to be guilt-free, at least in that respect…. Of course, there are always those who might disagree with that assessment, but, for those misguided few, we have a special procedure, involving large plastic anal probes, and a number of excitable young primates borrowed from a local zoo…

Ooh, that’s nasty! It might be good at this point to remind y’all about today’s special offer…. Today, and today only, we will be offering each and every participant in this…. well, whatever it is… each one in attendance, whether recently buffed or polished, will be supplied with their very own portion of whoop-ass, and the opportunity to let it out on a real, actual, dyed-in-the-wool politician, which we have taken the trouble to capture and sedate, so you won’t even have to tie them down to whoop on them…. Each one is fresh from a recent press conference, so you know they’ve been lying; thus, no guilt necessary for putting them through your personal wringer….

Okay, I’m done now…. I’m relatively awake, have consumed sufficient coffee that homicide is no longer an issue, and ready to move on to another form of personal torture…. I can’t say that today’s intro comes up to the standard set yesterday (that was a good one, I thought….), but, hey, it’s got six paragraphs, or more, so, it’s legal, and that, as you know, is all I really care about…. In fact, having thus completed the obligatory number of references, we can now do this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Damage control is easy. Reading Klingon — that’s hard.” — Commander Montgomery Scott, Star Trek IV, The Search for Spock

(It was Ralph Waldo, the Emerson, and the quote says, precisely: “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”  And, yes, I was totally wrong about the author’s nationality, though not the time period….)

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

I am beset today by the onset of heat; the temperature here on the coast is supposed to go into the nineties this afternoon, and I’m NOT looking forward to it at all. I’m no longer the young stud I used to be, and can’t seem to tolerate the heat like I could in my younger days…. I used to go to Arizona in the summertime, when in my teens; if California wasn’t hot enough for me, I liked to go visit my uncle, in Tempe, spending time wandering around the desert, dodging snakes and Indian spirits, & soaking in the rays…

Now, these days, I don’t tolerate it well when it gets above 85º F, or so, and it’s supposed to hit 94 today. My intention is to either sit in a cool tub all afternoon, or go somewhere air-conditioned, and pretend to be interested in whatever is going on there…. for as long as necessary to avoid getting sweaty and/or miserable….

At this point, you may be asking yourself, “what does this have to do with a Pearl?” The answer to that would be, “not much”, but, enough…. It means that I’m not going to rant in this section, as I can’t find it in me to do so this morning…. It is already warmer than I like, so, I’m going to get this Pearl done as quickly as I can, so I can go seek out cooler pastures for the day…. Hence, the following seven-star pearl, sans parameters, our fastest product, construction-wise…. Enjoy, ffolkes, it should be a good one….

“Sometimes I think I understand everything… Then I regain consciousness.” — Smart Bee

“So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything by history.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Pericles

—-> If you cut here, you’ll ruin your monitor. <—-

“Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 19

“As the tempest and the thunder affect not the sun or the stars, but spend their fury on stones and trees below; so injuries ascend not to the Soul of the great, but waste themselves on such as are those who offer them.” — Akhenaton? (c. B.C. 1375)

“The longer I live the more I see that I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains that I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

“Always tell the truth–if you want to make trouble.” — Smart Bee

See? Told ya….. (It’s all in the wrist….)

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I found this poem in Smart Bee, hanging around in prose format…. I really like it, so, I tried to break it down into its poetic frames, or verses, but, I’m not sure I got it the way Rainer intended it to be when he wrote it… If you feel it should be different, feel free to leave a comment, showing how you’d do it; I’m sure somebody can do it better, and I’ve tried long enough… Enjoy, please, it’s a good one, even if the cadence or structure is a bit off…..

Again, Again!

 Again, again, even if we know the countryside of love,
and the  tiny churchyard with its names mourning,
and the chasm, more and more silent, terrifying,
into which the others dropped: 
we walk out together anyway beneath the ancient trees,
we lie down again, again,
among the flowers, and face the sky.

 — Rainer Maria Rilke ~~

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This Pearl has turned on me a bit…. it’s taken me almost two full hours to get this far, and I haven’t ranted at all. Not only that, but, I still don’t have a clue as to what should go here…. I’m not filled with enough angst to produce anything worthwhile in the way of a rant, nor do I really want to let Smart Bee loose again; it might get the wrong idea…. What to do, what to do…. I know, I’ll take a short break, and see what comes up when I return…..

I’m back, and I’ll bet you never even noticed I was gone, did ya?… S’okay, I didn’t expect to be that long, but, got busy spending money online…. more’s the pity… Any who, I decided to go with an older rant, from a couple of years ago, about one of my favorite subjects, to wit: human intelligence, and/or the glaring lack thereof in today’s world…. Enjoy!….

From 6/26/2012:

IDIOT, n.  A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling.  The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.”  He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable.  He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

When I picked out this pearl, I had intended to write a piece exploring human intelligence. However, my brain had a different plan, and all of the thoughts that I had marshaled to use went into the wind, poof, gone….. Since I’m feeling a bit lazy today, I’m keeping the pearl, and writing something about it anyway, so there….

Ranting about human stupidity is an endless challenge; there is so much of it to pick from that the choosing becomes harder than the actual writing. Every day’s news brings more examples of how dumb folks can be, and finding just one that is acceptable is merely a matter of deciding which is the better choice from a humorous view, or a serious view, or whatever viewpoint from which we will write. I’ve yet to see a single day when there weren’t at least four or five instances of stories that illustrate how talented people are at finding new ways to show how stupid they really are…..

“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.” — Lazarus Long

We’ve all seen this one, I think; if not this one by Robert Heinlein, then one from another author or philosopher. It’s a pretty common theme, after all. Often, examples can be found on the front pages, especially during election years. But the back pages also carry numerous examples, taken from real life…. such as this one….

Back when I was attending the University of Utah, The Daily Utah Chronicle ran a joke ad for a debate between Phil Donahue and Whiskers the Lamb. Over 30 people showed up.  (what they were expecting, God only knows.) — Smart Bee

In order to further prove my point, here is an example taken from today’s news….

http://www.fark.com/comments/7182500 

This link leads to a very short article from Yahoo news, and is a perfect example of how the world is going mad, step by step….. I’m not even going to comment on the article, as it’s already too hard to think about it without laughing at the absurdity of the whole issue…..

Okay, I think my point is proved. The human race is pretty stupid, and getting stupider all the time. Sure, we’ve got men in space, we’ve raised the average age to 72 with medical advances, we’ve been to the moon. But we also are still making war on each other. We still abuse animals, and women, and children, and any thing else that is weaker, and will stand still. We are still killing ourselves, and denying that it is even happening.

My only hope at this point is for something to happen to change human nature, to turn us away from this path we’ve chosen to walk. I hope it will happen, but I’m afraid the power of stupidity may just be greater than the power of hope….

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Well, there you have it, such as it may be…. I’m certainly not going to do it again, at least, not until tomorrow, when I flog myself once again. to get up at this ungodly hour, while my frail old body has a modicum of use left in it, and do this all over, but, different… I hope. Until that time, I bid thee adieu….

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 dubious

Dozer