Ffolkes,

 

    Ooh, I’m late again. You know what that means, don’t you? No? Oh, good, then I can lie with impunity, just like a politician, and we might end up posting this on time…. just as if we were professionals, and had a deadline…. Of course, nobody would believe it, anyway, but, we do like to keep up appearances, even if those appearances are a total fabrication…. When I make it up like that, I’m practicing, for the next time I decide to run for a local office…. God forbid I ever lose my mind so far…

No, it isn’t hypocrisy for me to ask favors of God…. Since I figure He’s an illusion, when not an obvious delusion, there’s really no harm in it, and it often provides just the right phrase, or lament, or other form of communicative effort that is helped by the very fictional nature that generally assumes the focus as our target of disdain…. But, here at ECR, we’re all about equal-opportunity ranting, and are careful in our choice of targets, making sure they are worthy of our vitriol, as well as not real enough to bring suit, or hire a shyster…. The shotgun on display at the entrance probably helps, too….

If you couldn’t tell, I’m in a pretty good mood, if not exactly a frigging ray of sunshine…. I’ve got pain, I’ve got misery, but, I’m damn happy with the world at large anyway, thanks to BBR events that went well, and continue to progress with at a nice rate of advancement…. Who knows? At this rate, I could actually say something nice about somebody, before I caught myself ignoring the rules of curmudgeonry…. Not that I will, naturally, but, I could….

I think I’m going to ignore ALL the rules today…. It might just be our only hope, and I’ve never been one to deliberately take away people’s hopes…. Well, okay, there was that one time, but, I stopped before it made them cry, and did give them a rational option to try; I wasn’t a total butthead… Well, not by the same standards to which we hold our Asininnies, anyway…. I will admit, I’ve shown more ethics in the past, so, my suggestion is, we leave the subject alone, and get on with the Pearl for today….

Won’t that be nice? An actual Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, all for y’all…. I think so…. In honor of the occasion, I’ll even stop blathering now, and simply tell you I found the great picture above. with its message of “Duh!” for all to see, on Facebook somewhere. without any attribution, so, if you want any, you’ll have to find it yourself…. Me, I think it’s a PERFECTLY intelligent observation, if nothing else…. Plus, it got us to this point before any of our random right-wingers could so much as draw a breath to scream their complaints about the term “GAY MARRIAGE”…. Bonus!…. The bloody idiots….

Shall we Pearl?

“When men lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster.” — Lao Tzu, Tao Teh Ching: verse 72

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

By the time this Pearl is posted, the probe from the satellite chasing the Rosetta Comet will be on the surface of the comet (which is about the size of central London, for a scale of reference…). On landing, if it does so successfully, it will begin its programmed series of research experiments and sensory exploration of the material the comet is made of; if it doesn’t make it safely, it will still have been a successful mission, over 10 years long, a veritable epic adventure, to chase, find, catch up to, and orbit the moving object, far away in the Solar System, then land the probe on the surface, the last stage in which we find ourselves today….

Here is a video representation of the landing process, and some links to other places you can see more about this mission; hopefully, by tomorrow, I’ll have another video, of pictures beamed directly from the surface of the asteroidal wanderer…. Late word on that…. No  more videos available at this time; at last report, the scientists were still trying to figure out if they will be able to secure the probe to the comet’s surface, after the failure of the landing harpoons to fire correctly, thus making the landing site not as stable and secure as planned…. But, even if the mission fails at this point, it has been a huge success, teaching us a lot about the needed technology for such missions…

 

 

 

 

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

I could rant, but, my hands aren’t in the greatest of shape today….. plus, I found this old Pearl that just seemed to cry out to be re-posted…. I’m a sucker for a Pearl with a pretty face, or a decent opening, so, I will do as it asks, thus sparing y’all a fresher rant, that may not digest as well…. This one, truncated as it is, will probably go down better, as it is cut into smaller pieces than is now the norm….

from 1/5/2012:

Ffolkes,
Back in the good old days…..well, they weren’t all that good, after all, were they? That phrase has always bothered me anyway. Harking back to better times is a fool’s game; who says they were better? You mean we should go back to having the toilet outside? Or, maybe, dying at age 40 from lack of dental care. Or, dying in childbirth, perhaps. Yeah, they were the good old days, alright. No electricity, no computers, no refrigerators, no indoor plumbing.

Wanting to go backwards is just another way of complaining about one’s lot; happiness isn’t wanting more, happiness is being happy with what you have. But, people will be people, and common sense has never been common. Better I think, to just take things the way they are, and not worry about more, or better. Try harder to NOT be a trained consumer, always wanting something newer and shinier….. you just might find something entirely new to you……self-respect…..
___________________________________

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

This is the truest freedom we have. The concept of duty fulfilled is the hallmark of the free man, it is the only badge he will wear. Everything else assumes secondary importance to whatever task a man sets for himself, for the truly free man chooses his duty, and once chosen, it assumes the central point of his focus, and any other task or request becomes subordinate to the chosen duty.

I find it to be an extremely rare quality in most men these days; boys are not being raised with honor, and so cannot become such, without some kind of guidance from older men. But somehow, the twin concepts of honor and duty have fallen out of favor in modern society. Instead we are encouraged to believe the nonsensical claptrap spouted by self-proclaimed patriots, who haven’t the slightest intention of acting with honor, men who have made self-interest their guiding principle, and spend their days finding new ways to manipulate and degrade their fellow man.

What we need now is for those who still believe in honor and duty to realize that their newest, and most critical duty, is to put a stop to the evil that has crept into our society, and is happily sending us on a suicidal path. It’s time for free men to stand up, time to take back the rights that have been stolen from us, and return society to a path leading to harmony, and survival……

 

___________________________________

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” — Aristotle

Aristotle makes an insightful observation here, one that many in the modern world are completely unaware of, due to a relatively new phenomenon. This part of the human experience, the ability to think with great scope and precision, is being driven out of commonly accepted practice, because for the first time in history, an entire generation has been brought up with television and computers.

From the time they were small, these people have been conditioned to accept as truth anything that is put to them by a “talking head”, no matter how fantastically improbable, or how close to truth it may be. (Usually pretty far removed from any such condition….) Kids grow up with the culture of TV land shaping their thought patterns and beliefs, every day from the time they could first understand what was said to them.

First it was Ernie and Big Bird, then Mr. Rogers, then their teachers (who now include televised lectures as part of the educational process, further cementing their dependence on pre-packaged knowledge), and finally, the Six O’Clock News on channel whatever. When people stop thinking for themselves, they become much easier to manipulate.

Our Beloved Ruling Class now is able to just tell the public whatever they want them to believe, while being recorded, sitting behind a desk, with just the shoulders and head appearing, calmly relating a complete report consisting entirely of outright lies. But, most folks will never even know they are being manipulated, because they are unable to hold more than one thought in their head at one time….

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

Very well…. I’m busted…. I’m lazy, and don’t feel like finding a poem, so, here is another of my older poems for today’s offering….

 

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

Smart Bee has been pretty cooperative, not to mention generous, of late…. So, here is another group of pearls picked out without benefit of any direction from me, only editing power… It’s another good collection of observations and advice for a Life Well Lived….

 

“There are two kinds of truth, small truth and great truth. You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another truth.” — Niels Bohr (1885-1962)

“It was the saying of Bion, that though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Which are the most crafty, Water or Land Animals? 7

“Courage begins when we can admit that there is no life without some pain, some frustration; that there is no tragic accident from which we are immune; and that beyond the normal exercise of prudence we can do nothing about it.” — Victoria Lincoln

“There is no cure for birth and death other than to enjoy the interval.” — George Santayana (1863-1952)

“To be truly conscious of your stupidity is one of the greatest steps you can make toward wisdom. If you know others, you are learned. If you know yourself, you are indeed wise. It isn’t the things that you don’t know that get you into trouble. What gets you into trouble are those things you know for sure that ain’t so.” — Artemus Ward (1834-1867), aka Charles Farrar Brown

 

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

I am unable to come to a conclusion regarding the quality of any of the above; I guess the act of writing it took all my resident conscious intelligence. There doesn’t seem to be any left over for the ending…. Ah well, it isn’t as if that hasn’t happened before, now, is it? Nope…. and, since that is the case, I am authorized to say this: We’re done. Go away…. No, just kidding…. We are done, and you may go when you’re ready… There isn’t anything left here to read, anyway…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…..

 

À bientôt, mon cherí….