I hope it’s just me who thinks this is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard, in a weird, wacky way. I’m not even sure WHY I think it’s hilarious, but, I have to go with the evidence…. Whenever I start to actually think about what it says, about life, about Jack Handey (whoever he is…), and about irony, I bust up chuckling. It’s not a guffaw, nor a belly-buster; just persistent chuckling over how really, really stupid the person who said it HAS to be….

Okay, enough about me, and MY oddities…. I am  not sure I want to know about what it says about me that I think it’s funny, so, we’d best get on with today’s mess, before the men in white suits arrive to take me away….

Shall we Pearl?

“Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it . You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.” — Will Rogers

I could keep listing the troubles faced by our world, but, what is the point? Nobody is listening, unless they already feel much the same, and the people who NEED to hear what I have to say, not only don’t give a shit, they would actively try to shut me up, if anyone actually began to pay attention. That, of course, doesn’t worry me; in fact, I wish they would try, for then I’d know I was on the right track, and I have no doubts about my ability to handle whatever they come at me with. (I’m a bit more prepared than it might seem on the surface….) The only thing they might be able to do is kill me, and that is fine with me…. I am prepared for my death; I wonder if they can say the same….

So, for now. I’m going to NOT rant, but, try to keep after them with old-school pearls, until I can figure out a way to have what I say find its way to a larger audience…. For today, here is a nine-star pearl, speaking about life in this country, and in the world at large, as it exists today….

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

“I live in the Managerial Age, in a world of “Admin.”  The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid “dens of crime” that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps.  In those we see its final result.  But is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed, and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice.”– Preface to ‘The Screwtape Letters’ by C.S. Lewis

“There is an incessant influx of novelty into the world, and yet we tolerate incredible dullness.” — Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere.” — Samuel Johnson

“If we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his own will, and that all beside is nothing to us, why are we still troubled?” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap. xxv

“Who is more foolish: the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?” — Maurice Treehill

REPUBLIC, n.  A nation in which, the thing governing and the thing governed being the same, there is only a permitted authority to enforce an optional obedience.  In a republic, the foundation of public order is the ever lessening habit of submission inherited from ancestors who, being truly governed, submitted because they had to. There are as many kinds of republics as there are graduations between the despotism whence they came and the anarchy whither they lead. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“”Cowardice” and “self-respect” have largely disappeared from public discourse. In their place we are offered “self-esteem” as the bellwether of success and a proxy for dignity. “Self-respect” implies that one recognizes standards, and judges oneself worthy by the degree to which one lives up to them. “Self-esteem” simply means that one feels good about oneself. “Dignity” used to refer to the self-mastery and fortitude with which a person conducted himself in the face of life’s vicissitudes and the boorish behavior of others. Now, judging by campus speech codes, dignity requires that we never encounter a discouraging word and that others be coerced into acting respectfully, evidently on the assumption that we are powerless to prevent our degradation if exposed to the demeaning behavior of others. These are signposts proclaiming the insubstantiality of our character, proclaiming the hollowness of our souls.” — Jeffrey R. Snyder, Fall 1993 _The Public Interest

“Wisdom begins in wonder.” — Socrates

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” — Confucius

“I do not distinguish by the eye, but by the mind, which is the proper judge of the man.” — Seneca (8 BC) — On a Happy Life, 2, (L’Estrange’s Abstract, Chap, i.)

“The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever.” — Anatole France

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.  Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.  Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.  But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” — The Buddha

“Safety is on the shore, but the pearl is in the ocean.” — Chinese Proverb

“I grow old ever learning many things.” — Solon (630 – 555 BC)

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Having exceeded my expectations today, I’m going to take the money and run…. Not that there is actually any money in this, but, hey, one uses the euphemisms that fit, right? Right. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, though goodness knows why….