Socially unacceptable in SO many ways….

Posted on by
4

Ffolkes,

Finding just the right words for an opening statement, after repeated attempts to do just that, for what is now getting close to 3 years, can frequently become, not merely a conundrum, but a chronic pain in the ass, at least until Reality steps in to lend a hand…. which it did today….

Just as I sat down to begin, I noted a light playing on the wall of the house across the street, a spot-light moving along, until it found and highlighted a tall, hooded figure skulking on the porch…. The light, which was coming from a police squad car at the corner, pinned the hooded figure, and apparently issued instructions I couldn’t hear, as the figure froze, put up its hands, and walked slowly out to the street, where two police officers met him, frisked, him, handcuffed him, and took him away in their car….

The entire scenario took about one and a half minutes to take place, start to finish, though, afterward, they sat in the car for quite a while, probably running the Unsub for priors, and starting the paperwork for whatever charges they were arresting him, obviously to include trespassing…. It wasn’t overly dramatic, or a particularly gripping scene, but, it isn’t every morning I get to witness crime being fought, and defeated, right here on my street…. It almost makes me feel safe….. Well, that would probably be stretching the truth farther than is good for it, so, I’ll take it back, and just say it was interesting to watch….

At least it didn’t turn into another Rodney King episode…. I’m not sure I can figure out yet how to work the video capture on my new smart phone, so, that’s probably a good thing, as I didn’t have the expertise to be able to film it, whereupon it would have become another in a long series of acts of egregious violence from police upon relatively undeserving victims that DIDN’T slide through the public’s awareness….

Oh yes, it happens…. In fact, NOT hearing about bad things happens, I would wager, far many more times than ever get reported, or captured on film, or digitally, on somebody’s phone, in the modern world….. It has always been so, it’s just not something people like to talk about, or admit…

That, by the way, is something I’ve never understood…. the reluctance of many people to report unethical actions by public servants like police, or firemen…. It’s as if people accept the sense of entitlement that often goes with such service, and automatically, and unquestioningly, give the privileges and perks that so many officers take as their due, without any real justification, other than their own power of authority…. which, in my mind, should produce the exact opposite effect…. It should make the person who holds any such position humble, and grateful, not make them feel powerful, and special, and deserving of all honor, merely for holding a certain kind of job….

However, if I start going into all that, I’ll get all worked up, as I already am, and begin to rant….. Since we’re just getting to the end of the intro, it wouldn’t be appropriate to start one now, so I’ll let that go, for discussion at another time…. or not, who cares? There’s always a new example to pick from, with the police…. The institution, as it exists now in our society, attracts the very worst sort of asshole to its ranks, men, and women, who are only there because it gives them the wherewithal, and the excuse, to be bullies, to assert their authority over others at every opportunity…. THAT type of personality is drawn irresistibly to police work, as it offers them the perfect outlet for their aggressive natures….

Ah well, I guess it’s only natural, but, that doesn’t make it right, or acceptable, in my book…. It does, however, make it enough material written to form the nucleus of an intro, which, after all, is what we were up to….. In fact, I’m going to go ahead, and just drop you here, so I can get on with stuff…. I think you can find the next section without my help…. I’m gonna go dive…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I share the belief of many of my contemporaries that the spiritual crisis pervading all spheres of Western industrial society can be remedied only by a change in our world view. We shall have to shift from the materialistic, dualistic belief that people and their environment are separate, toward a new consciousness of an all-encompassing reality, which embraces the experiencing ego, a reality in which people feel their oneness with animate nature and all of creation.” — Dr. Albert Hoffman

(I am forced to comment on this:  While I am in complete agreement with the good Doctor on this matter, I fail to see how his uplifting, accurate, totally cool expression of what is needed for us to survive will convince a single person to take it up as truth, or how it will get people to make the necessary changes in human nature…. Telling people that they need to “feel their oneness with animate nature and all of creation.” is going to lose everyone who hears it…. In fact, it is such an off-putting, airhead kind of statement, I’d wager that, in spite of the fact that this is absolute truth, and will help people to save themselves from a certain death, nobody is going to hear it, because they automatically turned off their ears as soon as they heard the words “spiritual crisis”, followed by “spheres of Western industrial society”, and “world view”…. That kind of New Age babble-speak will shut off most folk’s heads in a New York minute….. Too bad, ‘cuz its’ totally true….)

“FUN is never having to say you’re SUSHI!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

My urge to rant today is blunted, for some reason, which I’m not at all willing to try to find…. Life’s like that sometimes; we don’t feel like doing what we know we SHOULD be doing, and don’t care that we don’t…. But, y’know what? It’s okay, for a couple reasons…. One, to me, the word “should” is one I try very hard to avoid either using, or allowing to have any influence over my decisions…. When we use that word, it is virtually ALWAYS something I was told  by someone else, and is something that follows the limits of its own rules, or internal structure…. not mine. In short, it’s something somebody else told me to do, not something I decided for myself….

Two, it’s okay because I’m positive that y’all are as tired of my rants as I am…. Let’s have fun instead, and still soothe the outrage when we can, with some arrows tipped with irony, or even vituperation….

Since I don’t/won’t do what people think I SHOULD, I’ll go ahead and do what I wish, which, 99% of the time, makes much more sense, to me, and to the world at large…. In the case with which we are confronted today, this means new formats for pearls, and maybe other changes, as well…. who knows? I’m in an odd frame of mind today, feeling somewhat crusty and perverse, so just about ANYTHING COULD happen…. we’ll see how it goes….

In the meantime, below, I have put a small group of links, to various articles at news outlets around the web…. I’ve gathered them from a wider array of sources today, with three world-class news organizations represented…. Presenting their versions of the day’s news, crazy as it may be, we find articles from SFGATE (part of the SF Chronicle organization), from the New York Times, and from the British tabloid, the Daily Telegraph…. Each article shows us another side of society’s insanity, in short vignettes of human misery, corporate theft, bigotry foiled, government corruption in conjunction with corruption in the courts, and the mad, mad, world of insane dictators…. I’ll make a comment or two, but, these stories show just how crazy things are, without much help needed….

“A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man.  In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker.” — H.L. Mencken

http://www.sfgate.com/business/networth/article/Wells-Fargo-gets-big-break-in-federal-income-taxes-5267883.php

(My first question is, why do they get tax breaks in the first place? Hardship? People don’t get them, especially not if they’re under hardship… Why should they?…. This bank paid less of a percentage of taxes than I did last year, and I’m a disabled retiree, on a fixed income…. What the fuck is up with THAT?…..)

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Arizona-religious-bill-that-angered-gays-vetoed-5268325.php

(A narrow escape from reverting to the mid-eighteenth century, back into modern reality, for Arizona….. I guess now they can remain in the 21st century with the rest of us….)

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/02/27/world/europe/ap-eu-germany-ex-president-trial.html?hp&_r=0

(A politician, even though not one of ours, being tried for corruption? Wow. What a surprise….)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/world/asia/north-korea-displays-another-captured-missionary.html?hp

(There isn’t much left to say about Kim Jong Un (if I’ve gotten his name right, it’s a miracle, because I can never remember which of them is which…. I care so little, I’m not even going to check…. ) that hasn’t already been said…. My only question here is, why do the North Koreans allow him to continue to exist?…. Are they ALL that stupid and cowardly? Even the generals, who keep the county under control for him? For goodness sake, it’s as if all the stupidest, most egregiously cowardly people in the world all gathered together, found the absolute dumbest of them, and set him up as their leader….. I swear, if Reality doesn’t step in to rid the world of this idiot soon, I’m going to lose all respect for its judgment….)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/10664414/One-punch-death-no-big-deal-says-killers-mother.html

(Is it even necessary for me to comment? Obviously, the son got his (nonexistent) sense of compassion, and his minuscule IQ, from his mother….)
_____________________________

Poetry is what it is, and, says what it says; that’s all one needs to know….. because it will teach you the rest…..

Death Alone

There are lone cemeteries,
tombs full of soundless bones,
the heart threading a tunnel,
a dark, dark tunnel :
like a wreck we die to the very core,
as if drowning at the heart
or collapsing inwards from skin to soul.

There are corpses,
clammy slabs for feet,
there is death in the bones,
like a pure sound,
a bark without its dog,
out of certain bells, certain tombs
swelling in this humidity like lament or rain.

I see, when alone at times,
coffins under sail
setting out with the pale dead, women in their dead braids,
bakers as white as angels,
thoughtful girls married to notaries,
coffins ascending the vertical river of the dead,
the wine-dark river to its source,
with their sails swollen with the sound of death,
filled with the silent noise of death.

Death is drawn to sound
like a slipper without a foot, a suit without its wearer,
comes to knock with a ring, stoneless and fingerless,
comes to shout without a mouth, a tongue, without a throat.
Nevertheless its footsteps sound
and its clothes echo, hushed like a tree.

I do not know, I am ignorant, I hardly see
but it seems to me that its song has the colour of wet violets,
violets well used to the earth,
since the face of death is green,
and the gaze of death green
with the etched moisture of a violet’s leaf
and its grave colour of exasperated winter.

But death goes about the earth also, riding a broom
lapping the ground in search of the dead –
death is in the broom,
it is the tongue of death looking for the dead,
the needle of death looking for the thread.

Death lies in our beds :
in the lazy mattresses, the black blankets,
lives a full stretch and then suddenly blows,
blows sound unknown filling out the sheets
and there are beds sailing into a harbour
where death is waiting, dressed as an admiral.

~~ Pablo Neruda ~~

_____________________________

Thus far today, I’ve composed very little real material…. most of what has been written has been commenting on the work of others, or filling in space that looks empty to me. I am not going to rant, and I don’t have a poem currently threatening to bleed out,…. So…. the only choice left for me, as is patently obvious, is an old-school pearl, with a point yet to be determined, probably at the whim of Smart Bee, as my own reserves of creativity seem to be a bit low, if not yet bone dry…. Since we are sans other choices, shall we go for a dive?….. No, please, after you…. No, really, go ahead…. No, I don’t mind at all, go ahead…. Get down there and dive, dammit!….

“Actions lie louder than words.” — Carolyn Wells

“These are the days when men of all social disciplines and all political faiths seek the comfortable and the accepted; when the man of controversy is looked upon as a disturbing influence; when originality is taken to be a mark of instability; and when, in minor modification of the scriptural parable, the bland lead the bland.” — John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 – )

“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Speaker, 12/15/00

“We’re marketeers, so truth is kind of a nebulous concept to us.” — Ray Scott, DEC field marketing rep

(Sorry, have to comment here…. This attitude about the truth is one that I believe has permeated just about every level of the society in which we exist today…. which makes it really hard to trust ANYONE…. But, most especially, it makes me VERY CAREFUL about trusting anyone who is trying to either sell me something, or get me to believe something, because this concept of “I, and what I want, come first, before truth, before compassion, before virtue of any kind, before anything else….” is one that just about everyone in the world has adopted, even if only to a small degree…. It is an example of how a certain behavior is made to be acceptable because the leaders of society engage in it….. not because it is virtuous, or right, but, only because it is expedient, and convenient to them….. My uncle used to call it “Me Firsterism”, which described it pretty well, I thought ….)

“A soldier told Pelopidas, “We are fallen among the enemies.” Said he, “How are we fallen among them more than they among us?” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Pelopidas

“Don’t believe them, don’t believe them, question everything you’re told.” — Smart Bee

“Do I have a lifestyle yet?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Sorry about the little mini-rant in the middle there…. sometimes it just comes out before I can stop my fingers on the keyboard, y’know?…..
_____________________________

If the last line from Zippy made the point too broad for y’all, me apologia…. and, too bad, because, hey! Look! It’s done…. and we KNOW what that means around here, don’t we?…. Well, I do….. 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

dozer3

Paleolithic cave art on Buchanan Street….

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,

In the course of normal events, we would have no real interest in finishing sentences, unless they are of the type given on conviction of a pundit for chicanery…. Since what takes place here on a regular, daily basis couldn’t ever be described as normal, or even in the same universe as normal, that has never caused us any particular difficulties…. until now…. What’s so different about today? Well, I’ll tell ya….

Not a damn thing I can see…. It’s just another in a long series of non-sequitur beginnings to these Pearls, applied, as always, with a certain degree of reluctance, lest anyone notice it isn’t exactly legal…. How? Well, how the hell would I know? Am I a legislator, or a lawyer, who would give half a shit about the law? No, I’m not, so quit asking so damn many questions…. It’s plainly written on the door outside when the lawyers will be in their offices, so stop bothering me with all this extraneous BS, okay?….

Sorry, I don’t mean to be grumpy…. I’m a bit foggy today, and the coffee doesn’t seem to be cutting through it quite so efficiently as usual….. Hence this odd, stop & start, just plain weird beginning to what otherwise would be an excellent day…. My business in the BBR yesterday went well, (I found a doctor that not only listened to me, but actually was able to understand me without having to bring a dictionary with them), and my pain today isn’t too bad so far…. Life is good….

Such an auspicious start to the day makes me nervous, as you may know, because it CAN mean our old friend, Murphy, has something delightful planned for me later on…. I’ve had far too many days in my life like this to feel completely comfortable when things go so smoothly; Reality has exploded on me enough times to make me wary of trusting it, particularly when it tries to convince me it resembles a baby’s bottom, and that I can trust things will go smoothly…. I’m just a little too old to fall for that one…. Hence, my skittishness, and this broken, misbegotten, sorry excuse for an intro…. Remember, all you can do, is all you can do…. At this point, this is all I can do….

That being the case, it’s probably best if we just get on with it….. I’ll stop trying to rescue this, and y’all can get rid of any trash you accumulated on the, no doubt, longer-than-necessary time spent in getting to this point, while we wait for the pilot to finish moving the plane into the takeoff position…. Oh, didn’t I tell you? Today, we’re flying off to a previously uncharted, incredibly rich, bed of oysters I found, somewhere out in the South Pacific…. I’m going to dive there today, to try to find some new and exciting pearls, while y’all hang out on the nearby resort island, sipping daiquiris until I’m done, okay? Sounds like a plan to me…..

Shall we Pearl?….

The question was once put to him, how we ought to behave to our friends; and the answer he gave was, “As we should wish our friends to behave to us.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Aristotle, xi
_____________________________

Recently, there have been some articles in the news regarding a huge business merger, one so bit it is being examined for monopoly and trust issues by the government agency that has oversight in that arena…. A large corporation, Comcast, was approved to purchase, and merge with, another very large communication corporation, Time-Warner, in a deal that gives them control of about 35% of the entire cable market, including the provision of internet access to users…. This same company now wants to make a deal with another large company in the entertainment field, a deal which would improve the bottom line for both, but, at the same time, indicates that the consumer is going to suffer the indignity of price fixing, and reduction of net neutrality,  as the company explores its new ability to discriminate in the way it provides access, a perk awarded by the courts….

It’s a complex legal issue, and one that is guaranteed to put any of the public who try to pay attention right to sleep in their chairs…. deliberately, because these companies don’t really WANT the public to know what they’re up to, not until it is “fait accompli”, and nothing can be done to change it. Sadly enough, it’s also so boring and complex, I don’t feel up to breaking it down enough for exploration today, nor do I feel up to the task of pointing out the need to stop things like this from happening, or we won’t have our free internet to play with anymore….

Since I DON’T feel up to ranting today, (my level of curmudgeonry is kinda low…… plenty of outrage, but not much angst, and definitely not enough clarity of mind….), this will have to revert to an old-school format, or nothing…. Since that isn’t an option any more, (we already have SOMETHING, thus, ’tis impossible to have nothing….), I’m going to go for a dive, and see what I can find…. wish me luck, y’all…

“There is an enormous oyster here with its shell tightly closed. Interesting. Interesting. There seems to be something written on the underside of the oyster.”….. — Smart Bee

“It is better to copulate than never.” — Lazarus Long

“As long as you live, keep learning how to live.” — Seneca

“The important thing is not to stop questioning.  Curiosity has its own reason for existing.  One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of  reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day.  Never lose a holy curiosity.” — Albert Einstein

“Humankind cannot stand very much reality.” — T.S. Eliot

Dionysus the Elder, being asked whether he was at leisure, he replied, “God forbid that it should ever befall me!” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Dionysus

“C is for cookie, it’s good enough for me; oh cookie cookie cookie starts with C.” — Cookie Monster

There…. If THAT doesn’t tickle your fancy, I don’t have one…..
_____________________________

This poem is one of my personal favorites, which is a big part of why it is being used here, again…. Besides, how can one lose, with poetry such as this in their head, and thus, in their spirit?…. That’s correct…. in that case, one cannot lose….

A Draught Of Sunshine

Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port,
Away with old Hock and madeira,
Too earthly ye are for my sport;
There’s a beverage brighter and clearer.
Instead of a pitiful rummer,
My wine overbrims a whole summer;
My bowl is the sky,
And I drink at my eye,
Till I feel in the brain
A Delphian pain –
Then follow, my Caius! then follow:
On the green of the hill
We will drink our fill
Of golden sunshine,
Till our brains intertwine
With the glory and grace of Apollo!
God of the Meridian,
And of the East and West,
To thee my soul is flown,
And my body is earthward press’d. –
It is an awful mission,
A terrible division;
And leaves a gulph austere
To be fill’d with worldly fear.
Aye, when the soul is fled
To high above our head,
Affrighted do we gaze
After its airy maze,
As doth a mother wild,
When her young infant child
Is in an eagle’s claws –
And is not this the cause
Of madness? – God of Song,
Thou bearest me along
Through sights I scarce can bear:
O let me, let me share
With the hot lyre and thee,
The staid Philosophy.
Temper my lonely hours,
And let me see thy bowers
More unalarm’d!

~~ John Keats ~~

_____________________________

I’ve been cheating a lot lately…. That, I imagine, is partly a function of having written so much in the last three years or so…. I’ve got too much in my head every day to get ALL of it down on the screen to share, and some mornings, such as today, my brain doesn’t want to cooperate with the program, by exerting itself enough to rant…. I guess I’m getting mellow in my old age, eh?……

Nah, not really much chance of THAT happening…. but, I AM still plenty lazy, (it’s all part and parcel of being smarter than the average bear, you know? We’re always looking for an easier way to do stuff…..)….. which I don’t mind a bit, as long as I can still get done all I wish to do…. which I do, having decided long ago that whatever I did was okay by me…. It’s really a damn good policy, you ought to try it…..

Any who…. here is a pretty good religirant, from a couple of years ago, in December, a month that, apparently, I spent writing some pretty decent rants…. Enjoy!…..

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

From 12/7/2012:

“Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.” — Mark Twain

As is his stock in trade, Mr. Twain once again gives humanity a solid poke in the ribs, in a humorous, even comfortable way that makes us want to laugh about our all-too-human foibles, instead of crying, which would really be more appropriate. In his assessment of both the character of most men, and most dogs, he is absolutely correct, and shows in one simple, sardonic phrase, just how ugly people can be. In fact, I can honestly say that, in my life, I have met many more dogs who deserve to go to Heaven, than I have men or women. Of course, I wouldn’t wish that on any dog, but, you know what I mean. Dogs are better ffolkes than most folks, in the world I see around me….

This, naturally, leads me to a perfect jump-off point for a religirant…. “Heaven goes by favor”  This is all too accurate; in order to get into the club, one has to meet a certain standard, that of faith. Of course that standard is pretty easy to meet, as all it requires is a verbal commitment ( accompanied,  I suppose by a heart-felt commitment….) that one believes in JC, or Mohammed, or Buddha, or whomever, and will try to follow their teachings. No pressure to actually do so, just commit to it, and you’re in. Or, go ahead and live your life walking the path of evil, then convert on the deathbed, and you’re in…. according to their rules…. Or, in other words, it’s all who you know…..

“An ancient buddha said, Mountains are mountains; waters are waters. These words do not mean mountains are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains.” — Dogen

I’ve recently been reading an author whose work I had read in my youth, when I was devouring science fiction on a daily basis. Samuel R. Delany wrote a number of powerful novels, as well as shorter works. The most recent I read, Babel-17, uses the structure and meaning of words in language as the basis for the plot.

In the book, he relates how important perception is to meaning, and how the way we use language can actually work to program the brain, just like the organic computer it is. What struck me is how the process he describes, which is what can be observed in people, if you look closely, shows just how powerful a tool language can be, when used in full consciousness of what it means, and what it CAN do…..

People base their entire existence on a few words, and what those words mean to them. If someone else (say, a preacher?) is able to influence the person’s choice of the words that have that power, then that person becomes the willing slave of whomever supplies him with the words.

This is a subtle process, that operates below the level of consciousness that most folks are aware of; they don’t realize how they are being manipulated by the very words they use, into thinking along certain lines, and in certain ways, all of which benefit the manipulator in some way, much more than they do the one whose thoughts are being channeled.

“This is Daddy’s bedtime secret for today: Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.” — Eugene O’Neill

Mr. O’Neill was a decent playwright, but as a philosopher, he sucked, plain and simple. This is merely a parroting of the basic Christian dogma, and, as such, stands as a perfect example of how religious institutions tend to lie to their constituents….. I can say this because I have my own secret for today: Man is NOT born broken….. He is born as a blank slate; what is written upon that slate is only what he is taught to write, by other men. Since the first premise is false, the rest of the train of thought thus becomes irrelevant….You can easily see where it is just an attempt to get people to accept the untruths, and keep their patterns of thought within the boundaries drawn by dogma….

Sorry if such an idea is offensive, but, I don’t need to be “born again”, I did just fine the first time. I’m not broken. I’m not guilty of original sin, any more than is anyone else. That single concept, original sin, has been the most destructive idea Man has come up with in all of our long history, and, in my less-than-humble opinion, is therefore responsible for virtually ALL of the torture, warfare, and egregiously evil events perpetrated by religious fervor, of the last 3000 years.

I kid you not…. That simple lie, that we are all, somehow, for some insane, neurotic reason, born inherently sinful, and guilty of something, is pure hogwash, and is the most blatant falsehood to have been thought up, and perpetrated upon the rest of mankind, EVER!

What a ridiculous idea! To think that a newborn, of any species, should bear the guilt for an action performed before their birth, is just plain stupid, and self-serving. Of course, this doesn’t mention, that the act we are supposedly guilty of, is the acquisition of knowledge, an act which, to me, NOT something for which we should be punished, but rather deserve to be rewarded. Of course, knowledge is its own reward, so that really doesn’t matter, either….

But, in order to gain control over others, preachers have, since the beginning of history, tried to convince the rest of us that they are the only ones who have the right answer, all based on a bald-faced lie, and a false assumption….. And, since a large percentage of mankind is too lazy to think for themselves, or to risk thinking independently of others, THEY FALL FOR IT!  It almost makes me ashamed to be human, to be truthful….

But, we have dogs as our companions, and they love us, so we must not be ALL bad…. right? Right…. so, just follow your dog’s example, and just BE moral, don’t try to follow what others may tell you is moral. You’ll do a lot better, in life, and when it counts, after life…..

“Go back. Everything you need to know is in the first seven axioms.” ~~ Peruaosophy, Axiom #8, by gigoid
_____________________________

Today’s Pearl came together in a very odd way, but, it got done, so, I’m good with that…. Comfortable or not, it’s reasonably well written, and has some fairly decent thinking included, if not exactly overloaded with complete coherency…. So be it….. See you 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

dozer3

A Swift Kick In The Pants, Inc….

Posted on by
4

Ffolkes,

Terrible things could happen now…. they could, you know. And, we’ll deserve every second we experience of mind-numbing, soul-chilling, petrifying terror, because, hey, we’re the ones who left the door wide open, inviting it to enter our domain, bringing with it our ultimate doom…. Yes, it’s our own damn fault, and we will know the truth of the matter, because we have been warned, having previously been given wisdom such as this….

“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” — Albert Einstein

Albert E & true sin(A bit more powerful a message when combined with the graphic art, isn’t it?….)

This is not new wisdom, that we’ve never before seen or suspected; history has provided us with innumerable instances proving the truth of this particular aphorism….. Time after time throughout our relatively short span of existence on this world, we find nearly innumerable examples of men or women who had prior knowledge of an issue of questionable morality,, and, by their silence, for whatever reason, allowed it to take place, to the detriment of all….

It doesn’t make it right, knowing how common a problem it is, but, it is certainly not an uncommon issue for mankind…. Such issues are not, perhaps, of those we are given by Reality, our favorite gifts, …. In fact, many don’t look on this, or any knowledge, as gifts, and THAT is a big part of the entire problem….

Our problem, then, can be seen as a failure of spirit, that has to do with a basic virtue, one that has been claimed as the basis for all other virtues; without this characteristic, none of our finer qualities are ever seen in the light of day…. That pillar upon which all other virtue rests, then, is Courage…. Yes, plain and simple, courage….

I have found, in my fairly long life, that most of mankind are cowards…. Sad to say, but, true nonetheless, since all the evidence is clear…. I say this, as well, knowing I’m not an exception, though it IS something I’ve tried hard to mitigate, in order to feel I have the right to call myself honorable, and meet my own eyes each morning in the mirror…. Fear is a hard thing for most of us to admit, even though it isn’t considered abnormal; it’s strength, and the way it causes us to lose control frightens us…

However, that is also its saving grace, as the guilt one feels, for having given in to it, can, and does, stimulate us to greater effort, whereupon we can find that courage within ourselves, the next time we are in danger of giving in…. This is how almost everything we do, and have done, of an ethical nature, ever gets done…. because someone discovers they DO have the courage to act when there is danger, moral, ethical, or physical, threatening them, or threatening those for whom they care…..

That is what it takes, you see…. No virtuous act can ever take place, unless good people have the courage to act in the face of the Evil that exists, in spite of the fear they feel in the presence of that Evil. If they don’t summon, or find somewhere with themselves, the courage to act ethically, or morally, if that is needed, then Evil has free rein to let itself out to play in human affairs, to the detriment of us all….

Each of us has to find that courage within ourselves, the courage to put aside our fear, to carry on with what we know to be right, even though expediency and comfort are left behind in such cases…. Living with honor and integrity is never the easiest path we can take; it is always fraught with danger, because it doesn’t avoid evil, because it’s too hard, but, rather, confronts it, endeavoring to deal with it in a straightforward, upright fashion…. thus, preserving one’s own honor, when forced to have truck with what always leaves us feeling a bit dirty….

Now that we have wandered so far afield this morning, I’m not sure what will happen to this Pearl…. Minor ranting isn’t uncommon in the intro, but, I do try to limit it to no more than eight or ten paragraphs, so we don’t take forever to get into just the first section…. a resolution which, this morning, is NOT unfolding according to plan…. Allow me to sum up, and get on with it, if you will…

All of what I wrote above is true and complete, to the best of my knowledge, and constitutes a fairly accurate assessment of today’s situation here on planet Earth…. Evil is out there, and when we… that’s you, and me…. fail to stand up to it, look it in the eye, and tell it to “fuck off, you bloody sod!”, then it will continue to manifest its existence, causing untold pain and suffering for us all…. So, be brave, ffolkes, and don’t let Evil have its way without at least some token resistance, ‘kay?…. ‘Kay!…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Asked what he gained from philosophy, he answered, “To do without being commanded what others do from fear of the laws.”” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Aristotle, xi
_____________________________

Today’s pearl is one that I’ve worked on ahead of time, so, the fact that I’m up later than usual, and got a slow start, won’t have much effect on when it gets posted today…. all in all, a good thing…. It DOES mean that I’m ahead of myself, and need to slow down a little, or I’ll be bumping into myself from behind…. which is not only hard on me, but isn’t so good for the space-time continuum…. I’ve seen some pretty bad cosmic aftershocks from that kind of metaphorical/metaphysical dust-up….

To counteract any possible chance of THAT taking place, (my insurance guy told me I can’t afford ANY more repair bills for space and time…. those metaphysical construction guys charge OUTRAGEOUS prices to fix things!….), this will be an old-school Pearl, attempting to balance out the mini-rant in the intro, and the religirant from the archives  in section three…. So, here is a group of fine pearls, fresh and shiny…. just for y’all….

“Solon used to say that speech was the image of actions;… that laws were like cobwebs,–for that if any trifling or powerless thing fell into them, they held it fast; while if it were something weightier, it broke through them and was off.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Solon, x

(So much for the concept of legislating morality, eh?….   Remember, ffolkes, Solon was the first human to codify and bring order to the concept of the Law, so, he should know…. gigoid….)

“If you were going to shoot a mime, would you use a silencer?” — Steven Wright

(I wouldn’t…. I’d want everyone to know….  gigoid)

“Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.” — Vladimir Nabokov, quoted in “Time”, 1981

(“Me, too”… gigoid again…. I guess I’m commenting on these pearls….    🙄     )

“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

(Just as an exercise…. when was the last time you heard a modern politician use a historical basis for anything they are going to do? And, how many of them are aware they are repeating some of history’s most well-recorded cultural patterns with their own actions?…. I can answer both…. the correct number of those of our leaders who either pay attention to the forces and lessons of history, or have any idea of their own part in that, is ZERO…..)

“Do not try to live forever. You will not succeed.” — George Bernard Shaw

(Good point….)

Enjoy the present hour,
Be thankful for the past,
And neither fear nor wish
Th’ approaches of the last.

— Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)

“It’s all in there, don’t y’know?…. All there inside us already…. Happiness, love, serenity, peace, courage, compassion, all are waiting for us to discover them, right there where they have always been, inside us, abiding until we find them again…..”  ~~ gigoid the dubious

(This last pearl is one I wrote as the final line for a mild religirant back a couple of years ago…. It is my own first attempt at an aphorism, of any real success, which makes it worth mention…. to me, and, after all, it IS my blog…. gigoid, delving deeply into egoism….)
_____________________________

In cruising through the archives of past Pearls, I came across this poem, one of my own, (today only, I’ll say it…. “one of my own, of course”….) first posted in October of 2012…. It’s better than I remember it to be, which means I did something right…. It’s also got a lot of ME in it, if you know what I mean…. Enjoy….

Raging at Aging

As old as you feel, we are told, is old as you are,
custom assures such vision will carry us far.
Reality begs to differ, may it be so bold
it’s really quite painful, and very, very cold.

The power and strength we felt in our halcyon youth
desert us with age, yet another unwelcome truth.
Irony rules our time here on this bountiful earth
as we reflect the changes, over time since our birth.

As physical powers fade from this fragile shell,
we learn our mind can serve us, quite as well.
The strength that once filled our bones and hearts
is now applied by will, to more arcane arts.

Life’s greatest gift is our freedom of choice;
no matter how often we forget, we still get a voice.
Energy, or apathy, by our will we may choose,
failing to do so, our only way to lose.

Each of us lives in the grip of time and space,
always seeking our balance, our own chosen place.
One must accept reality, for, ’tis true at the core,
all we can do, is all we can do, and nothing more.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

As noted above, I was reading through some Pearls from a couple years ago, and came across some old rants I’ll be recycling, due to their continuing relevance, as well as because they’re good rants… This one is fairly mild, in all, but does hit the point to made squarely on the head…. Enjoy….

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From 12/12/12:

“He who proselytizes in the cause of unbelief is basically a man in need of belief.” — Eric Hoffer

This is true…. you never see an atheist going door to door, trying to convert the pious to their unbelief. However, I would go further on this train of thought, and add that, “He who proselytizes, in any cause, in basically a man in need of a life.” I’m sure it occurred to Mr. Hoffer, but he was too busy trying to explain this statement to somebody who didn’t understand the word ‘proselytize’…..

For my own case, I have never, ever understood why people feel compelled to go door to door to try to get other people to believe what they believe; it’s one of the most persistent delusional systems I’ve ever witnessed, to believe that anyone wants to hear what they have to say, much less they will find their beliefs palatable to others, or find anyone who believes them to be superior to their own…..

“More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying they made them.” — Smart Bee

Humans seem to have an immense blind spot when it comes to their own actions and beliefs. Most of them never seem to question the things they are told, even when those things are presented with no evidence other than faith. Of course, the people who are invested in the religious system, to wit: the preachers, begin their indoctrination when their constituents are very young, when they are still prone to accept whatever an adult says as truth.

This ensures a life-long predilection for being simple to control…. or, in short, mental slavery, if you will. Unless there is some sort of rebellion of spirit, where new knowledge is injected, these poor saps will spend their entire lives believing that what they have been told is real, when, in fact, they are fitting themselves with shackles, that will forever imprison their minds, and their imagination…..

“To defend one’s self against fear is simply to insure that one will, one day, be conquered by it; fears must be faced.” — James Baldwin

In my life-long quest for the truth, I’ve come to believe that religions, while originally intended to benefit people, (by their iconic progenitors, anyway…. I’m sure Jesus was a quite nice man, and wanted the best for those to whom he preached his own philosophy of compassion….), have historically been taken over by the predators who live to control others.

To be fair, some of those who become priests, or any of the other varieties of religious fanatic that prevail in our society, may indeed believe that their beliefs are true, and act accordingly, but the majority are, as far as I can tell, only concerned with maintaining status quo, thereby benefiting themselves, while never actually allowing any REAL progress in the development of the human condition. They would have society behave as if we were still living in caves, in essence, still cowering in our meager shelter while the storms and lightning are raging outside, terrified of the power of what we do not understand, and, therefore, allow ourselves to fear….

“A universe of death, which God by curse
Created evil, for evil only good;
Where all life dies, death lives,
and Nature breeds Perverse,
all monstrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, unutterable and worse
Than fables yet have feigned, or fear conceived,
Gorgons, and Hydras, and Chimeras dire.”

— Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II

(Side note: I’ll bet Milton had a hard time sleeping….)

The Universe is a big place, and there is a lot to learn. Fearing that knowledge, or fearing what changes that knowing will always bring, is the act of a coward, to my mind, and should not be encouraged. Supernatural beings of unlimited power are not a required component to the understanding of Nature and the Universe; we need not fear that our lack of knowledge of how things work is unattainable. Just because we do not understand a part of reality does not mean that whatever it is, is beyond our understanding.

It is not necessary to ask for exemptions, or intervention by our own personal gods, for us to achieve happiness, or even contentment; that is completely within our own power, if we but acknowledge that part of us that is free, and connected to everything else we can perceive. The connections may not be fully understood, but they are there, and if we can only learn to recognize it, the power to change reality lies within us, all the time…. As Epictetus said, “Happiness lies in learning to accept a simple truth. There are some things you can change. And there are some things you cannot.” It’s really quite that easy, you know, once one learns to accept this fact of life…. No dogma required…..

“If brains were outlawed, nothing would change.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

As things turned out, this may be one of my best all-around efforts to date…. Balanced, but with enough lightness of spirit to keep it afloat, I think… Whatever the reason, I’m happy with it, and it’s done, so, hey, we know what that means, don’t we? Yep…. 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

We’re giving up all our pornographic coupons for Lent….

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,

“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.” — Albert Einstein

As has been demonstrated in the past, Albert had a pretty well-developed, hell, a finely-honed, very basic and personal sense of humor, with a big streak of Bozo in him, which he was smart enough to recognize, and embrace…. The above is a perfect example of how he could express an incredibly deep, complex philosophical, or even scientific, concept with one pungent, and delightfully amusing statement…. Another he made that I enjoyed was, “After figuring out the configuration of space and time, wearing fuzzy slippers with striped pajamas is a piece of cake.”….. The first time I saw it, I about fell down from laughing so hard….

I also enjoyed one of the statements attributed to his wife… She and Albert were touring one the government’s space flight centers, in Los Angeles, in the early 1950’s…. While touring a part of the day alone with her guide, she asked one of them what a piece of complicated equipment was. He replied, “That’s a machine we use to explore the shape and structure of space and time.” “Oh”, she remarked, “my husband just does that on the back of an envelope….”  Brilliant!

So, you might wonder why we are discussing humorous incidents from the life of Albert, and, if you are, you’d be justified in doing so (I always like to provide some affirmation first thing in the morning for my gentle readers… it’s one of the little services we like to give our visitors, gratis….). Of course, that wondering won’t ever be fulfilled, because it’s none of your damn business…. No, that’s a joke, and not true…. Sorry, let’s begin again….

Why are we discussing Albert and his wife? Well, actually, we’re not…. We’re wandering around not really discussing ANYTHING just now, because I’ve again lost control of this intro. That’s not unusual, so we’ll keep plugging away until I get to the point, which is this….

Reality is an illusion, just like Albert sez…. Here at Exploring Consensual Reality, we are dedicated to providing y’all with a version of Reality you may not always be aware of…. I hope….. In doing so, I’m fulfilling my own need to rant, to get this crap out of my head, and onto the screen, in order to maintain what little sanity I have left after so many years of fighting Reality to stay in some sort of shape I could deal with….. The Reality I am describing is consensual, in that we all have to live here together, so we may as well try to get along…. but, that doesn’t always mean it will stay that way….

With that said, we arrive back to Albert’s contention, which tells us that, no matter how little we trust Reality to be what we expect, it will always surprise us anyway, if only by its stubborn insistence on unpredictability, contrasted by its habitual assumption of traditional shapes and patterns… It only does that to lull us into a false sense of security, whereupon it will make drastic changes, right before our eyes…. As one of the most flexible manifestations of the universe at large, it demonstrates our most important lesson in life by its mere existence, and its behaviors….

Learning how to deal with that can take an entire lifetime, if not two or three, so, we should probably get on with our learning sessions, so we can eventually move on to the next level of karmic existence, at some higher plane of Reality…. or, all of what we see is bound by the rules as laid down by the religious dogmatists…. in which case, we’re all up shit creek, and no paddles in sight….

Shall we Pearl?…..

He sees that this great roundabout
The world, with all its motley rout,
Church, army, physic, law,
Its customs and its businesses,
Is no concern at all of his,
And says–what says he?–Caw.

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Jackdaw, (Translation from Vincent Bourne)
_____________________________

It seems the BRC has captured one of the world’s most dangerous drug cartel leaders, El Chapo, the Dude, of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico…. I have included below a link to the article announcing the capture, and included below that some “interesting” phrases and words used by the anonymous spokescops (who are never authorized to talk to journalists….. but, they do anyway….)…. The italicized words are the ones I’d like to point out to y’all, with a comment or two about them as an addendum…. Read the story, then, we’ll talk…..

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Mexico-captures-Sinaloa-cartel-boss-Chapo-Guzman-5258301.php

“He was caught with an unidentified woman, said one U.S. official, who added that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Marshals Service were “heavily involved” in the capture…… A federal law enforcement official said intelligence from a Homeland Security Department investigation also helped lead U.S. and Mexican authorities to his whereabouts…… Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to journalists. ….. Mexican authorities, based on a series of arrests in recent months, got wind….. “

“didn’t say how authorities traced him to Mazatlan……” “A U.S. law enforcement official said members of Guzman’s security team helped Mexican and U.S. authorities find him after they were arrested earlier this month. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the case by name and spoke on condition of anonymity.”….. “His arrest followed the takedown of several top Sinaloa operatives in the last few months and at least 10 mid-level cartel members in the last week. The information leading to Guzman was gleaned from those arrested, said Michael S. Vigil, a former senior DEA official who was briefed on the operation.”

Allow me to point out a few little things in this article that give us a little clue as to how things are in the REAL world, where the government has the tools to find and capture ANYONE in the entire world, by the use of their “counter-terrorism” toys, and “executive orders” and the excuse of national security to employ any and all techniques to achieve their purpose, up to, and including torture, lying at will, and the legal clearance to perform their actions in complete darkness, without any public or judicial oversight…..

“an unidentified woman“, said one U.S. official, who added that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Marshals Service were “heavily involved”

To my suspicious mind, this suggests the strong possibility that the US DEA and Marshals used an undercover female operative to lure Guzman into an isolated position, where they could take him without dealing with his security forces…. which they did, perfectly…. In several articles I’ve seen, in addition to this one, the same phrase, “an unidentified woman” was used…. Now, do you you REALLY believe she is ‘unidentified’?… I don’t….

intelligence from a Homeland Security Department investigation also helped

Gee, ya think? Homeland Security is authorized to do whatever they want…. Why shouldn’t they share their technology, and some of that unlimited data they are picking up from around the world with anyone who wants it?…. As long as they’re giving it to another group of their insane compatriots, they’ll share it, with pride, even glee, in their own ingenuity, never caring at all about how unethical it is….

Mexican authorities, based on a series of arrests in recent months, got wind….. ” “didn’t say how authorities traced him to Mazatlan.

“Got wind?” Got wind? What the hell does that mean? And, since when do the police go by information they “got wind” of…..  Ffolkes, somebody is hiding something here, ya think? It’s obvious they don’t want to let the public know where they are getting their information, although in this case, they give us another clue about that….

members of Guzman’s security team helped Mexican and U.S. authorities

Gosh! That was awfully nice of those fellows…. These hard-boiled, vicious drug cartel security individuals had a complete change of heart, and shared all they knew with Mexican and US authorities, out of the goodness of those hearts, I suppose…. I think it is probably more likely that the word, and technique, “waterboarding” was brought into play, as both a threat, and in actual use… I don’t believe for a minute these guys gave up their boss without a little bit of a struggle…. They come from a culture where “machismo” is paramount, and they would not consider it very macho to talk…. Hence, they were “persuaded to help”, and I don’t think the persuasive techniques used were verbal, or anything other than torture….

How do I come to that conclusion from this article? Easy…. they told us, in so many words….

 gleaned from those arrested, said Michael S. Vigil, a former senior DEA official who was briefed on the operation.”

How does one “glean” information from drug cartel security forces? I don’t think it was the promise of some Kool-Aid, ffolkes, do you?…. And, since this mouthpiece was “briefed” on the “operation”, what do YOU think he meant by “gleaned”? I do try NOT to be too naive….

This whole “broken rant” was created for the single purpose of demonstrating how the BRC uses its new toys, provided by us, to wit: you, and me, the not-quite-charmingly naive public, when we allowed them to pass those silly ass Homeland Security bullshit Acts after the 9/11 attacks…. In truth, I don’t really care much that they used it to bring down such a predator…. He was, and is, no doubt, someone we can all do without in our midst, since he insists on preying on the weak and foolish….

But, it seems to me, it was all merely an exercise of domestic discipline, as one set of vicious, insane power-hungry individuals, in the official, authorized, guise of law enforcement myrmidons of the ruling elite, tracked down and captured one of their own type of people, who had the bad taste to try to force his will on others without having the mandate of the public voting apparatus…. When one doesn’t automatically accept the bilge water that is presented to us as the truth, it is easy to see how little difference there is between those who hunted him down, and he who was hunted….

Governments have the backing of the multi-national corporations that control society, whereas the big drug cartels, rich and powerful as they may grow, are merely small businesses compared to them… and, we all know what happens to small business when a mega-corp wants to step into their marketplace…. The pharmaceutical companies don’t like the competition from street drugs, so they keep society amped up in arms against them, so their bottom line profit is not reduced to any significant degree….

The whole War on Drugs, (Y,know? It’s funny how our society’s rulers always deal with a problem by declaring War on it….Then, they throw money at it, and tell people that will make it go away…. Hmm…. how’s that working for ya?….), that has been raging in this country since the mid-1930’s, when the drug companies noticed how popular marijuana was becoming in the mainstream, is merely another example of how the real rulers in society don’t want the people to make their own decision about ANYTHING, not if whatever it is can make money for them….

(It’s why they are making their play for control of the Internet…. It’s a very real, but, still only potential, money cow…. if they can wrest control away, and start charging for access, they’ll essentially control all the information flow…. which also gives them the wherewithal to censor information, before it gets TO the information cloud…. If they keep control in their corporate hands, you can kiss 75% of the Internet’s effectiveness as a social communication tool, free of interference, goodbye….)

Instead, the governments, at the urging of their corporate masters, spread outright lies and mountains of false information through their own media outlets, attempting to convince people of the dangers of (whatever), followed by the passage of legislation making any who decide for themselves into criminals in the eyes of society….. Even though, as in the case with marijuana, what they are fighting against is actually better for people than anything they have in the list of drugs they manufacture, (at a 2000% profit-margin, don’t y’know….), they decided to enlist the government’s influence over the people to make it illegal, since they had no actual way to stop people from finding and using it…. It grows EVERYWHERE on this planet, without much effort…. That’s why they call it a weed, you know?….

Okay, I’ve rambled, and ranted enough for one morning…. Ffolkes, the governments, the BRC, the Asininnies, the shadowy corporate slave masters, or, whatever label you wish to place upon those who actually rule this planet, don’t give a shit about me, or you, and they’re going to continue to do whatever they choose, just as long as we let them…. They make my life, and yours, a hundred times more difficult than it needs to be, all for the sake of maintaining control over the power, and resources, with which they are obsessed. I, for one, am tired of playing their game…. What game?….

“If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war.” — Pentagon official, on why US military censored graphic footage from the Gulf War

As far as possible, for the remainder of my life, I will be taking every opportunity I find to expose their asininity, their chicanery, their just plain evil intentions, in as loud a voice as I can muster…. I’d appreciate any help I can get in spreading that exposition around to those who need to see it…. Maybe, just maybe, if I can get this idea into the heads of enough reasonably intelligent people, we all will figure out it is time to stop them…. Then, we can join forces, to create of a large enough repository of the power of human will to overcome the physical entrenchments that have already been put into place, for their protection against that very thing….

With enough people, of good loving heart and infinite compassion, all putting their force of will behind whatever we decide is necessary, I’m sure it would be more than enough to turn the tide, and, in the process, maybe, just maybe, we’ll save our own sorry asses from the depredations we have allowed them to perpetrate in our name…..

“For me, all I can do is spit in the eye of my fears by living each day with as much passion and commitment as possible to what truly counts, such as love and justice. To give the into the fear and hopelessness would be to declare defeat, something I am not ready to do while there is still the will to struggle.” — Lawrence Paradis
_____________________________

Whew! That was an epic rant, to be sure…. it just kept growing on me…. Now I need something soothing, with overt hints of extreme beauty, with some irony to spice it up, to realign the wobbly portions of my dubious spirit…. When in doubt, I always prefer to turn to a genius, even, or, in truth,  especially  a genius whose mind has spent so much time in an alternate version of Reality from the rest of us…. In this woman’s case, she went so far in that direction, she BECAME eight other distinct personalities…. Incredible talent here, ffolkes, all in one whose own mind was more than she could easily handle….

Soliloquy Of The Solipsist

I?
I walk alone;
The midnight street
Spins itself from under my feet;
When my eyes shut
These dreaming houses all snuff out;
Through a whim of mine
Over gables the moon’s celestial onion
Hangs high.

I
Make houses shrink
And trees diminish
By going far; my look’s leash
Dangles the puppet-people
Who, unaware how they dwindle,
Laugh, kiss, get drunk,
Nor guess that if I choose to blink
They die.

I
When in good humor,
Give grass its green
Blazon sky blue, and endow the sun
With gold;
Yet, in my wintriest moods, I hold
Absolute power
To boycott any color and forbid any flower
To be.

I
Know you appear
Vivid at my side,
Denying you sprang out of my head,
Claiming you feel
Love fiery enough to prove flesh real,
Though it’s quite clear
All you beauty, all your wit, is a gift, my dear,
From me.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

_____________________________

All things considered, it’s been an interesting morning here at ECR…. I was up a bit late, but, the morning’s routine went smoothly, so I began to write in an unusually comfortable, clear-headed state, an event that, arguably, made the intro as coherent and organized as it is, for a change. The rant above not only went well, it went epic, and quite agreeably, from my standpoint, so, we’re good there, too. I’ve repeated myself with the poem, but, that’s merely a factor of how good it is….

That, of course, brings us to section three, with the obligatory, and, in this case, most welcome, old-school pearl…. We’re shooting today for a seven-star necklace of gems that will make me spew coffee through my nose, from laughing so hard and unexpectedly…. Let’s see what SB can come up with to accommodate us….

“It is most difficult to acquire wisdom without first having survived a whole mine field filled with folly.” — Smart Bee

“I think, therefore, I am.” — Rene Descartes
“I think I think. Therefore, I think I am.” — Smart Bee
“I think I am. That’s close enough.” — gigoid the dubious

“If you are wearing one brown and one black shoe, you have a pair like it somewhere in the closet.” — The Rule of Elderly Survival

“It happens sometimes.  People just explode.  Natural causes.” — Smart Bee

“Eternity’s a terrible thought.  I mean, where’s it all going to end?” — Tom Stoppard, _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead_

“On one occasion Aristotle was asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated: “As much,” said he, “as the living are to the dead.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Aristotle, xi

“There are worlds out there where the sky is burning and the sea’s asleep and the rivers dream; people made of smoke and cities made of song. Somewhere there’s danger, somewhere there’s injustice, somewhere else the tea’s getting cold. Come on Ace, we’ve got work to do…” — The Doctor, Survival [Last lines of last episode]

It seems Smart Bee had a different agenda than mine…. S’fine…. I like this one better, since I didn’t have to suffer the nasal spew…. I’ll leave you with that image, reluctantly…
_____________________________

“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)

Not only is this particular assertion difficult to argue against, it doesn’t need any explanation, or enhancement to make it perfect. Hence, it s the natural perfect truth with which to bring this epic Pearl to a merciful close…. I’m beat…. See you tomorrow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

Bedraggled remnants are all that remain….

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,

One might think that today’s title was an entry for a contest, or something equally inane(insane?); how else to explain such an outburst of unwanted, uncalled-for alliteration? I’m not sure what came over me, except it SEEMED like the right thing to do at the time…. which, I suppose, could be said to be a rather universal excuse for some people…. We all make mistakes (see: Theory of Bozoid Tendencies….), but, mine are often so egregious, it can take months for me to overcome whatever handicaps I’ve created for myself by giving in to the bulbousness….. This morning’s title may just fit into that category, as it is obviously something thrown together at the last moment, and settled on with reluctance….

In fact, I’m going to make this entire opening a wash, and go change it…. It’s really terrible, and I don’t think I want people to associate my name, or this blog, with such crap…. although why that should bother me NOW, I don’t know… Regardless, it’s got to go… I’ll be right back…. There, much better…. This one has all the characteristics of a decent title, with just a bit of uncertain implication, and some shy uncertainty, to draw in the interest of any readers flashing by…. We’ll go with this one, so forget the first one, & act like it never existed…. which, for you, I suppose, it didn’t, as you never saw it at all…

This, of course, means this intro is now completely off-kilter, and possibly more than just a little confusing…. Since the first paragraph makes references to which you have no connections, and thus, no possibility of ever making any sense of any of it, I’ll just tell you now, FORGET THE DAMN TITLE!…. It never has anything to do with what is in here, and never makes any sense anyway, so trying to fit my titles into some slot isn’t going to work…. they’re just not made for that…. Suffice it to say at this point…. the first title of today’s Pearl was really, really badly done, so I got rid of it, and you’ll never know just what it said, other than knowing all the words began with one letter (outburst of alliteration, yes?)…..

That being said, I think it’s best now if I just give up…. Not forever, just for now, because, let’s face it, this intro is history, in terms of ever becoming what it was supposed to be…. I’m not sure I can even make it work for today’s Pearl, except it HAS to work, because I’m just not going to start completely over, not even at 0405 in the morning…. Not even Murphy can make me do that, hard as he has tried, so, I’m certainly not going to do it to myself…. that would be even more bozoid than is common for me, and not a habit into which I intend to lock myself…. So, we’re going to once again employ emergency method #4 to get us out of this…. That’s the one where I deny everything, ignore the previous paragraphs completely, and just go on, like this…..

Shall we Pearl?….

” The shortest distance between two points is off the wall.” — The Abrams’ Principle
_____________________________

This link is to an article that details some pretty obvious, but, let’s be fair, and call it alleged, political corruption, on the part of a Democratic state legislator…. You can read it, but, it really doesn’t have much to do with the discussion that comes afterward, other than peripherally, as just an extra set of data to add to the whole concept under discussion….

So, not reading it, or waiting until later to get to it, would be acceptable, and, possibly, less confusing…. It can be confusing enough around here without providing any assistance, so, just skip on down to the rant, then, if you wish, you can read later about the naughty California fat-cat politician, and his weak-willed brother….. They’re only willing dupes and/or ignorant pawns in the scenario about which you’ll read below….

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/State-Sen-Ron-Calderon-brother-indicted-5256860.php

With the above link, I began collection of a number of links to articles that would demonstrate a point I intended to make regarding the way the administration in current power in Washington DC manipulates the news so efficiently, and so effectively, in terms of fulfilling the agenda THEY have in place for how events should proceed….

Then, I stopped collecting links, and articles, when I realized just how thoroughly the media manipulates itself, as well as the public it purportedly serves, in directions it is not aware of, out of ignorance, lack of cohesive communication, and an unfortunate tendency to avoid what makes them uncomfortable…. along with not being smart enough to see what stares them right in their own faces…. I realized this entire process is so entrenched in society, we aren’t even aware of it most of the time, which is how the SCSM’s like it….

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/02/21/judge-on-muslim-surveillance-any-harm-is-the-medias-fault/

See? It’s the media’s fault…. so says a judge, firmly in the pocket of the corporate masters…. Now, even those who decide what gets into the news are being manipulated, by those who own EVERYTHING, (aka, the SCSM’s, the Shadowy Corporate Slave Masters….), said manipulation having just one primary purpose, to keep their existence, and the machinations with which they control society, OUT of the public eye…. If a majority of the common people, to wit: the public, ever realized exactly how FEW are those who control 99% of all the resources on this planet, and the degree of power those few possess over the rest of us, in their insane quest to control it all, those few people wouldn’t stand a rat’s chance in a colony of cats….

The true rulers of mankind, the shadowy mega-corporate slave masters, who control virtually ALL the money and resources in the world, if unmasked, and made to acknowledge their crimes against humanity, committed over thousands of years, in their selfish quest for power, would be be hunted down and ripped limb from limb, slowly, by angry mobs, wherever they were revealed, all over the world…. a risk of which they are well aware ….

These are SMART, ruthless, self-centered people, who have absolutely NO compassion, or concern for the rights of anyone outside their immediate circle, and they’ve had long years of practice at hiding their existence, and their actions, from the general public’s eye…. The actual number of people in this clandestine group of mega-rich individuals is actually far smaller than 1% of the total world’s population, so few, their very lack of numbers makes all of what they’ve accomplished that much more of a risk for them….

They are fully aware of the danger of having their nefarious activities exposed to the public eye; they take extreme care to never let their faces become known, or, if so, only in ways that would fool the public into believing they are saintly philanthropists, making them beloved by the people for their generosity…. Long, drawn-out, agonizing, vicious, inhumanly torturous deaths would be their lot, should the downtrodden poor, and the ignorant, delusional middle classes, ever find out the truth of their slavery…. which would only be right, given their willingness to use the same violent methods as part of their own bag of tricks, which they are all-too-willing to employ, in service of their need to dominate….

Hence, as it stands today, we have their centuries-long charade, to keep themselves, and what they do to keep their control of events, from ever becoming common knowledge…. If such knowledge became known to the world at large, it would mean their death, for certain, and they know it….. But, I don’t think they’re too worried, at this point….

They have too much control over what people see, and hear, in terms of what is actually taking place in the world…. These people control governments, newspapers, corporations, television networks, and every channel of communication present in the world…. Even the Internet is under their control, as they have the power to shut it down, whenever they wish…. As we were taught by Muad ‘Dib, true power is the ability to destroy what is necessary to survive….

But, the use of such extreme force isn’t necessary for them to employ, yet, as they also have the resources to employ as many idiots writing for their side, as there are people such as myself, writing to try to expose their evil to the light of day….. Hence, the message I, and others like me, try to send is diluted before anyone ever sees it…. Simple enough, from their point of view, but, then, they wouldn’t have allowed the advent of the ‘Net, if they thought it would be their undoing….

Having the Internet may help us, though, by increasing our own abilities, and opportunities, to spread information, even if the odds of their winning, as they have for so many millennia, are not appreciably altered…. Mankind has always been under the clandestine control of these assholes…. That’s why we are in the mess we’re in…. So, let THEM figure out how to survive what even they don’t understand….. I don’t think they have any clue as to the Hell they have unleashed on themselves by not accepting the reality of global warming, and I’m almost looking forward to seeing it hit them, and watching them cry like babies when they understand what they’ve done to themselves….

They’ve done to us all, I know, but, they won’t care about that, so, I’ll take my pleasure from knowing they’ll suffer worse than the rest of us, because it is they, themselves, who MUST face up to reality, and not having a choice in that is something at which they have no experience at all…. I won’t feel any better, but, it will help make it more palatable, to know they’re going down, too…. This is a situation their sense of entitlement, (which, like any such emotion, isn’t going to alter reality…), isn’t going to get them out of having to face up to in the end….

“A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only deferred, and we must come back and settle the account at last.” — Joseph F. Newton

Whether anyone, 99%er, or 1%er, likes it, or not, this is what I would call a universal truth, in that, for us humans, it comes true, universally, whenever it is tested in reality….. Translated into more simple, more specific terms… whether we like it or not, our account with reality on this planet is about to come due, and it WILL be settled…. Like it or not, we WILL be judged, according to whether or not our duty to the planet has been met, or deferred until now…..

Since, to my way of thinking, the people who made the decisions about how the resources were used are the ones who assumed the duty, they should be the ones to answer…. Unfortunately, ALL of us have to answer for what they’ve done, because they, being the cowards they are, won’t ever take responsibility for it…. They’ll still reap their share of the reward, because reality knows who is responsible; NOBODY skips out on their bill in this restaurant…. I don’t think they’re going to enjoy their reward, though….

“I had a friend who was a clown.  When he died, all his friends went to the funeral in one car.” — Steven Wright
_____________________________

I am fully aware this is not a poem….. but, it doesn’t have to be if it doesn’t want to….. It’s a leftover piece of my history, which I, along with many young people, discovered during the 60’s, when the piece experienced a revival of interest, fifty years after it was written, by the Hippies, such as myself, who embraced this somewhat naive manifesto as part of the philosophy of love and peace they developed during those turbulent years…. You can consider this, if you wish, as an example of “pulling  my covers” as a closet romantic, and a hopeless optimist, who believes we humans are filled with such beauty of spirit, the universe will not allow us to perish…. It’s a fantasy, I know, but, hey, it FEELS better than all the doom and gloom in which I normally engage around here…. So, enjoy this little break from the heaviness, and take this to heart…. It’s naive, and somewhat unschooled, but, it’s all good advice, for sure…..

Desiderata
 
(1927)

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all
persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself.  Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.  And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.”

~~ Max Ehrman ~~

_____________________________

I’ve gone and screwed the pooch again, but, that’s neither here nor there…. it’s merely for me to note, and try to fix…. Any whom, here we are, once again, all the way in section three, with a rant under our belts, and a decent entry for section two, in spite of its less than perfect rhyming patterns…. which are especially apparent, since it ISN’T a poem…. S’okay, though, cuz I don’t give a shit, mostly…. We’ve gotten this far, nobody is bleeding, and we haven’t had to call for any expert help for ANY of the usual reasons; I’m happy with how it’s gone so far, and you should be as well, whether you realize it, or not….

All of this blather and dross is merely a fill-in, you know, as the time for actual work approaches…. In fact, it’s approaching at such a rate as to make me quite nervous, so, I’m going to drop all the pretenses, and get on with this pearl…. It will be, naturally, an old-school pearl, without parameters, other than a vague desire to laugh…. at myself, at the world, at y’all, I don’t care…. Let’s see what Smart Bee can find today, shall we?…..

OPTIMIST, n.  A proponent of the doctrine that black is white.

A pessimist applied to God for relief.
“Ah, you wish me to restore your hope and cheerfulness,” said God.
“No,” replied the petitioner, “I wish you to create something that would justify them.”
“The world is all created,” said God, “but you have overlooked something — the mortality of the optimist.”

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Govern a family as you would cook a small fish – very gently.” — Chinese Proverb
(This truism is also applicable to governing a nation…..)

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” — Stephen Roberts

“Abstain from beans; that is, keep out of public offices, for anciently the choice of the officers of state was made by beans.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of the Training of Children

“It’s green.” — Scotty
(Yep. It sure is….)

— How many dead politicians does it take to change a light bulb? As many as possible. — Smart Bee

— Bother! said Pooh, as a woozle bit his bottom. — Hoop (Pooh’s evil twin….)

The process of creating pearls remains a mystery, as does the point of many of them, such as this one, whose meaning has reached levels of obscurity previously unknown to mankind…. But, hey, it all SOUNDS really cool, doesn’t it? And it’s so pretty!…. Well, maybe not, but, it really does have a point, and, it really isn’t ALL that obscure…. But, if I don’t create a little confusion, where would the fun be for any of us?….. Hah! Gotcha there, didn’t I?….
_____________________________

Beneath this stone lies Murphy,
They buried him today,
He lived the life of Riley,
While Riley was away.

I found the above in Smart Bee, just as I was finishing up the pearl in section three…. I almost soiled myself in excitement, until I realized it probably was just a joke…. Boy, though, wouldn’t THAT be good news?…. Any who, I think I’ve done as much damage as possible for one morning, so, I’m wrapping this up, just like a piece of fish, and taking it to the marketplace to try to get rid of it….. Wish me luck, ‘kay?  See you tomorrow, with a bit of luck….

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

Freeze-dried chipmunks? No,thanks, we prefer ferrets….

Posted on by
2

Ffolkes,

“For a true master,
Sitting on a throne
Is no different than
Sitting on dirt.”

— Deng Ming-Dao

This is what I would consider a perfect pearl…. Short, sweet, to the point, and deep as Rush Limbaugh’s bigotry…. which is mighty deep, as he demonstrates so well on a daily basis…. I like it especially because it expresses a point of virtue, one that most people don’t want to have to accept…. It sometimes amazes me how people can lose touch with the more basic parts of life, such as, well, dirt….

It cracks me up to see young mothers panicking when their kids get dirty, even though I shouldn’t laugh at such ignorance, but should rather try to educate…. I suppose the whole idea of dirt being bad for us is another example of how just a little bit of knowledge can get one in trouble, if the individual hasn’t learned yet to try to learn anything BEYOND what they are initially told by someone in authority…. This whole believing authority business, as you can see, has its own drawbacks, as those who are in the habit of accepting what a TV pundit says unequivocally may often find themselves dealing with a LACK of sufficient knowledge to deal with whatever the problem may be.

So, these young mothers hear one phrase, “dirt has germs”, and without any further information, make their decisions based on this incomplete picture, which doesn’t tell even HALF the story of germs, and how they can affect us…. In fact, just hearing that much gives a FALSE picture, as the truth of the matter is that the more we expose our children to the dirt on this planet, the better off they are, as they will develop the proper defenses against the germs that ARE present, by exposure to them….. If the body isn’t exposed to the germs, it doesn’t learn how to fight it off….

I had a bad case of the flu at a young age (10), which, miserable as it kept me for a week, taught my immune system how to fight those particular kinds of bacteria very well…. Well enough that I haven’t had a single case of the flu since, no matter how virulent the current year’s mutation has been…. my body has the proper defenses to keep it at bay….

Now that we have wandered so far afield right out of the gate, I’d best try to bring this back around to some point we can dive from…. I’m not sure just how I got off on that tangent…. I hadn’t really intended to start writing about immune systems first thing…. I guess the quote from Deng Ming Dao got me thinking…. See? I told you it was a perfect pearl…. I think maybe we should find some more, and see what they can do for us, in the way of illumination, elucidation, and edification of our spirits….

Shall we Pearl?…..

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled,–
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle ii, Line 13
_____________________________

“Alienation without must be accompanied by alienation within; that is the law for every social level, even individuals. To harm one’s fellows, even one’s enemies, harms you, takes away some essential element from your self-respect and self-image.” — Greg Bear

“In keeping with my non-Aristotelian or relativist-Existentialist bias, I do not classify ideas as simply “true” or “false.” I prefer to assign them probabilities, on a scale from 0 (the Aristotelian “false”) to 10 (the Aristotelian “true”). A rating of 5 means that I am still sitting geometrically on the middle of the fence, above 5 means that I presently lean somewhat toward belief and below 5 means that today I lean somewhat toward finding no value in this gloss at all (for me). I admit cheerfully that I am such an advanced case of Aggravated Agnosticism that whenever I do move something into 0 or 10, I get nervous, wonder if I am becoming as simple-minded as the Pope or Dr. Carl Sagan and start looking for evidence to move that meme toward 1 or 9. — Robert Anton Wilson, in the Introduction to his play “Wilhelm Reich in Hell”

Of late, I’ve been wondering why I rant so much about the world’s problems, or, as Jimmy Buffet expressed it so eloquently, why have I spent so much of my life, “looking for answers, to questions, that bothered him so….”? (from his song, “A Pirate Looks at Forty”….) Back a couple of years ago, about half-a-year after starting this blog, I guess I had been thinking along the same lines, as I wrote the following little piece, for a Pearl in the Five-Star Format that I was using at the time, with five shorter but more pungent and wide ranging sections to each daily Pearl, each section based on its own pearl.

This post, providentially found by the WP related-post bot, provides me with a ready reference list for any of the subjects that need to be addressed in today’s world, if we are ever to grow up and reach our maturity as a species…. It’ll be handy, just in case I’m having trouble, in the mornings, coming up with something toward which I can turn the poison in my pen….

At this point in time, two years in the future, I can see that, not only have we made very little progress at resolving any of the listed issues, there are several that could be added to the list that have surfaced in the intervening years. Since doing so will depress me, I’m not even going to think about the additions, until AFTER reading the list as it is…. At the other end, I’ll add some issues that I have seen come up in the period since this was posted…..

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

From April 2, 2012, on the very day the world’s most famous author of unknown works, Anonymous, assumed the new user name of Smart Bee….. Well, that’s what we call him/her on this blog…. :

“Conscious is when you are aware of something and conscience is when you wish you weren’t.” — Smart Bee (Anonymous, by any other name, smells as sweet…)

Insane politicians (is there another kind?). Human trafficking. Racism. Bigotry. Child abuse. Spousal abuse. Slavery. Crack cocaine, heroin, morphine, or other drug abuse. War on crime. War on women. Televangelists. Fundamentalist zealots. National Security Agency. FBI. CIA. Untold trillions of dollars of national debt.  Genetically modified food. Military Industrial Complex. The 1%/99% Society. Taxes. Global warming. Air pollution. The oceans are dying. Terrorism. Nuclear accidents. Massive global weather changes. Ozone depletion. Overpopulation. AIDS. Mutating viruses. The Bohemian Club. Reaganomics. Nationalism. Elitism. Illuminati Conspiracy. Women’s reproductive rights. Bill of Rights (or rather, loss of same). War on the US Constitution.  Rampant ignorance. Lawyers. Priests. Rabbis. Imams.  Puppy mills. Wall Street. Corporate personhood. The IRS. Insane politicians. (Did I say that already? Well, it deserves mentioning twice….)  Rising incidence of halitosis.

Except for the last, which is more of a personal foible, I’d say that’s a fairly extensive, and mostly complete, list of stuff I am aware of that I wish I weren’t…..  all right off the top of my head, no research.  It certainly keeps my sense of outrage in good shape….. which is why we all need to practice the following sentiment at every opportunity…. otherwise, we are all going to be up Shit Creek without a paddle, proverbial or otherwise…..

“Speak out. You’ve got to speak out against the madness.” — Steven Stills

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

Back in the Future: 2/22/14

Here are some additions to the list, also taken off the top of my head…. which, to me, is possibly the most depressing part of this pearl, to know that I am so tuned in to what is wrong in the world, and that there is just so FUCKING MUCH of it I see that is, simply, Evil, and even more sadly, Useless….. Some of these are repeats, as the issues haven’t been resolved, or seen any progress toward resolution….

More NSA. Edward Snowden. Gun control madness on both sides of the question. Corporate shenanigans of every ilk. Bank convictions, for crimes against customers, for which minuscule fines are paid, and nobody goes to jail. Sexual slavery/Abuse of Women (continued….). Abuse of Children. Abuse of Animals. Abuse of the Disabled. Abuse of Humanity. Human rights violations. Pedophiliac priests, enabled by pedophiliac bishops and cardinals. Mass extinction of animal, insect, and plant species due to pollution by Man. Religious fanatics using government positions to further insane fundamentalist agendas…. Signs of societal breakdown as seen in epidemics of bullying, flash mobs, new, increasingly bizarre psychiatric disorders, loss of manners, loss of any sense of honor, divorce rates, increases in prison populations, and numerous other obvious signs of a distressed, decayed culture….

I could sit here for hours, and never stop coming up with more stuff that adds to the evidence of such a complete lack of morality and organization, all of it merely more evidence that we are virtually guaranteed to see the eventual complete breakdown of society, and the impending extinction of our species, along with many others, from the increasingly irreversible toxic effects of global warming, and over-population…. all off the top of my head….

Goodness only knows what could happen if I tried to codify this evidence, using researched statistics and scientific study results…. Maybe, if the list got long enough, and scary enough, someone would listen….. I kind of doubt it, though….. According to all the overt indications, and, all the covert, ‘between-the-lines’ evidence that exists, for those with the wit to perceive it, well…. it all says that nobody has heard any of this yet, and nobody is at all likely to hear what I’m trying to say in the future…. because, nobody WANTS to accept what is right in front of their faces….

That happens a lot with the Truth…. ever notice?…..

“We believe that an informed citizenry will act for life and not for death.” — Albert Einstein on atomic energy, Jan. 22, 1947

If Albert could be so wrong, what hope is there for the rest of us?….

FOOL, n.  A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity.  He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscient, omnipotent.  He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences.  He created patriotism and taught the nations war — founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago.  He established monarchical and republican government.  He is from everlasting to everlasting — such as creation’s dawn beheld he fooleth now.  In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the procession of being.  His grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man’s evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave.  And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
_____________________________

I suppose one of the reasons I continue to rant, in spite of how obviously my heavy-handed approach is driving readers away, is that I am a sucker, a patsy, when it comes to people…. I AM one, and, I can’t help but love them, and feel badly that there is so much pain and misery in our world, all caused by such a small percentage of assholes, who seem to not care at all about other people….

Often, I fantasize, dreaming of how I would like to treat some of the corporate sharks, misogynist politicians, peodphiliac priests, or overly-entitled myrmidons, if I had them in a position where I could “educate” them a bit…. Sadly, my fantasies probably resemble the torture they put us through, as I tend to be a bit vengeful when I think about the lack of compassion, or connection to other humans, these asininnies show every day.

Since it would be unethical to treat them as they treat others, (I have NO wish to resemble them in ANY way….), I find myself at an impasse, with frustration mounting as I observe the world at the mercy of these assholes…. Since I have, thus far, refused to buy a gun, lest I give in to the temptation to use it, I turn to poetry, to try to find a moment of peace among all the reasons to feel anxious about the future…. On a good day, like today, I’ll find something like this…..

No Man Is An Island

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

~~ John Donne ~~

_____________________________

Having thus completed the obligatory rant, and poem, we will now turn to the old-school for our final section today, as is our habit…. Smart Bee has been a bit unpredictable this morning, with a lot of dross thrown out along with the good stuff…. But, I trust it to use its own good judgment, so I’ll let it set its own parameters today, and trust it will find some pearls of good luster for us to consider….

Ah, wait a second…. You there, in the floral print shorts…. your mask is cracked; you’ll need to replace it from the spares before you jump in…. Don’t want to have that go out on you at a depth of 30 feet, do we?…. No, we don’t…. Got it? Everybody got their knives, for any stray barracuda that show up? Okay, let’s go for a dive, ffolkes, and find some oysters….

“As good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

“The world is full of fools, and he who would not see it should live alone and smash his mirror.” — Claude le Petite

“Men know that if a woman had to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she would probably save the infant’s life, without even considering whether there were men on base.” — Dave Barry

SATIRE, n.  An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author’s enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness.  In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic.  Moreover, although Americans are “endowed by their Creator” with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his ever victim’s outcry for co-defendants evokes a national assent.

Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung
In the dead language of a mummy’s tongue,
For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well —
Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell.
Had it been such as consecrates the Bible
Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel.
Barney Stims

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.” — H. L. Mencken

“Life is not the way it is supposed to be. It is the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.” — Virginia Satir

Sometimes, SB outdoes itself, and this is one of those times…. A brilliant pearl, almost a necklace, it’s so well constructed…. If I were you, ffolkes, I’d spend a bit of time, if necessary, in decoding the message this pearl delivers…. Not only will it be on the Quiz when it is given, you will find yourself enjoying the process of finding the encryption algorithm…..
_____________________________

Perhaps it is because I wrote this, but, I like it…. That being the case, I’m going to go with my instincts, and let this go out as it is, and not fret over any possible consequences…. It’s a bit like life, in that metaphorical sense…. which is, after all, what we do here, play with our metaphorical senses…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, if they give me another chance….

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

Save that elbow grease for the widow Jones; she uses it for baking…..

Posted on by
3

Ffolkes,

If today’s post gets done at all, ’twill be a miracle of some proportion…. The cat slept late, my back and hips are killing me, Time wobbled, while Space stood and watched…and I haven’t the slightest clue, about anything…. It has taken me 26 miserable minutes to dress, (sans shoes, or brushing of hair, as I didn’t want to bend over, or move around quite so much yet, until the topical pain killer I spread on my lower back takes effect) (it’s quick, good stuff…. new from the MJ Pharmacy I go to….)…. I then  booted up, poured a cup of coffee laced with some Elixir of Indica, and proceeded to write a TERRIBLE title for today’s Pearl, which will no doubt go through several incarnations before I settle on one sufficiently weird to pass my filters…..

Finally, when I sit down to try to write this, duty calls me to the throne for the morning worship session….. SIGH…. Nobody bothered to tell me to gird my grid for a big one today, but it looks as if the full set of hip, shoulder, and neck restraints should be fastened before we set out, for sure…. I think, maybe, we’ll even issue helmets today….

Just in case I forget to tell you later, today’s Pearl will be….. what? Shit…. I completely spaced on what I intended to write there, & I have the feeling it was important…. Damn this fog in my head! I can’t seem to pull a coherent thought out of my ass, much less my head…. If this keeps up, we’re going to have to resort to one of our emergency tools to get us out of this morass of mindlessness, that seems to have formed in front of me this morning, necessitating either complete retreat, or a long detour to find ANY rational thought, one that could conceivably be used to create a Pearl….

This new hazard on our trail, in spite of its extreme effect on my mind, will NOT be allowed to affect the Pearl itself, other than the absolute mess it has made of this intro thus far. I swear this upon the name of my father, and y’all KNOW what that means…. Now, there is NOTHING in this world will keep me from completing my duty in this….

NOTHING, caps obviously deliberate, for emphasis. There is no force on this planet that could cause me to swerve from a duty I’ve chosen to assume; the man who taught me about duty wouldn’t have it any other way, thus, my choice is the same, and by evoking his name, I seal the deal so there is no backing out. If I say I’ll do it, then, it will be done; the only possible reason for it not to be done would be my own death.  Nothing else is a valid reason to abrogate duty.

That being said, it’s probably best to go immediately into Emergency Closing #4, which is the quickest way out of this conundrum, and on into today’s offering…. Sometimes, with #4, I don’t even have the time to finish whatever it is I’m in the middle of typ…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“Everything has been thought of before, but the problem is to think of it again.” — Johann von Goethe
_____________________________

Johann is right in his assertion; in fact, he’s one of our favorites, simply because he consistently sees the world clearly, and describes it, as he did this time, as he sees it, with elegance, charm, and wit….. Plus, this idea COULD be considered as bearing a very strong resemblance to what we do here in ECR, when we create the pearls that stimulate the Gentle Readers to think, to cogitate, to exercise the muscles of the mind, until they’re strong enough to stand up to Reality, and laugh in its face…. Well, maybe not the last part….. Reality doesn’t like to be laughed at, unless it’s funny…. Any whom, before my lack of coherency causes a complete loss of speech from frustration, let’s go for a dive, and see what Smart Bee has for us today….

“Insanity is fun if you do it right.” — Smart Bee (All I can say is, “Whee!”….)

“A brute kills for pleasure.  A fool kills from hate.” — Lazarus Long

“…I probably shouldn’t point at the word ‘reptiles’ when I say ‘businessmen.'” — Rajeev Pandey

“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it… Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher.  But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings — that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.” — Buddha

“Truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is boring without it.” — Pearl S. Buck

“We have art that we do not die of the truth.” — Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

He not busy being born
Is busy dying.

— Bob Dylan

Now, there are those who would say this is somewhat esoteric, as well as exotically eclectic, if they were ever given the chance….they’d be correct in that, too…. S’okay, we’re used to it around here…. In fact, all it really does is give us an appetite for a poem…. Shall we move on to section two? Good…. After you….
_____________________________

I’ve been using the poems I’ve been getting in the email lately, because some are classics, and others were from authors I’d never before used, or seen, for that matter…. Today, we’ll go with a classic, because, in the state my mind is in today, I NEED a classic, to help me find some sort of balance, or even just a moment or two of grace and elegance, to set me back on the right path to a more sane, satisfying day….. A lot to expect from a poem, eh?…. Ah well, I’ve always been more optimistic than was good for me…. I particularly enjoy this one, for its whimsical use of his sister’s name to furnish the first letter of each line…. now THAT is talent…. with discipline….

Acrostic : Georgiana Augusta Keats

Give me your patience, sister, while I frame
Exact in capitals your golden name;
Or sue the fair Apollo and he will
Rouse from his heavy slumber and instill
Great love in me for thee and Poesy.
Imagine not that greatest mastery
And kingdom over all the Realms of verse,
Nears more to heaven in aught, than when we nurse
And surety give to love and Brotherhood.

Anthropophagi in Othello’s mood;
Ulysses storm’d and his enchanted belt
Glow with the Muse, but they are never felt
Unbosom’d so and so eternal made,
Such tender incense in their laurel shade
To all the regent sisters of the Nine
As this poor offering to you, sister mine.

Kind sister! aye, this third name says you are;
Enchanted has it been the Lord knows where;
And may it taste to you like good old wine,
Take you to real happiness and give
Sons, daughters and a home like honied hive.

~~ John Keats ~~

_____________________________

Below this paragraph, you will find a rant…. I wrote it about a month ago, when the article it discusses first hit the news…. I happened to have a reason to go over it again, and saw that, not only is it a good rant, it is on a subject that shouldn’t be dismissed, or ignored, or put on a back burner, just because the people involved aren’t actively talking about it…. In fact, that is all the more reason to keep it in the public eye, as it is information they don’t WANT us to be thinking about, or paying any attention to whatsoever….

This administration has proven, by its very silence, which it has maintained ever since these statements were released by the head manipulator and his lackeys (The potUS, the senator, and the congressman, Barry, Di, and Mikey-boy…., the last being a Republican,Tea Party idiot, er, goon,  er, stooge, who is on record as believing global warming to be a matter of debate… In this instance, he is playing a natural straight man to the president’s (almost) comically untruthful outburst, adding his own fabrications in support of his colleague’s blindly obedient lies…), because, hey, they’d rather the public just forget all about this issue….

Hence, we are subjected to this series of charades in front of the press, which is them doing their best to make that happen, followed by complete and utter silence on the subject….. It’s an old technique, long in use by spies to weaken foreign governments…. All it takes is to  make outrageous statements, no matter how egregiously false, then shut up entirely, leaving the public only the memory of the lies to chew on, until they begin to believe the planted seeds….

One of the interpretations of the material in the ancient book by Sun Tzu, The Art of War, includes this concept as a viable and much used strategy in war, giving numerous historical examples wherein it was employed successfully…. Think about that for a moment, about what it implies about how the people we elect view us, and about the depths to which they’re willing to sink, in their quest to keep us under their control….

So, to piss them off, and keep my own angst fresh, I’m going to keep throwing this up in their faces, once a month or so, just to keep my hand in…. In the process, hopefully,  I can ensure sure my other Readers are made aware, if they’re not already clued in, of how egregiously they are being manipulated by the BRC and their minions….

From January 21, 2014:

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

If you would please read this article, the arguments that follow will make a lot more sense; if you don’t, it may take you a bit longer to figure out the gist of it….    😉     Plus, you’ll know, for sure, I’m not making this stuff up, just so I have something to write about….

http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-help-from-russians-193641893.html

In the time of Pythagoras that proverbial phrase “Ipse dixit” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Pythagoras, xxv

Ipse Dixit. [Latin, “He himself said it.”]  An unsupported statement whose veracity rests solely on the authority of the individual who makes it.

And so it begins….. All of a sudden, many months AFTER the fact, several high-ranking officials from the administration all come out with the same story-line, IMPLYING that Eric Snowden was influenced and/or helped by Russian spies to do what he did…. This statement by Mikey-boy Rogers, U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman, R-Mich., Senator Feinstein’s cohort (she’s his counterpart in the Senate, who put out her office’s lies about this issue yesterday….), is the newest step in the ongoing attempt by the administration to paint Mr. Snowden’s actions with the brush of treason, when, in fact, they KNOW he is not a traitor, but, rather, a patriotic American, caught in the web of intrigue THEY created with their clandestine, illegal activities….

As soon as I saw this headline today, my highly-trained, delicately-honed, automatic political crap detector SCREAMED at me….. “LIES, LIES, MADE UP LIES!!”, it said, without much doubt implied (accuracy factor of the detection meter said it was 99.9% likely to be lies…. which makes it pretty certain, as I’ve programmed it to never say that it is completely sure; it defaults to that number when it is…)….. This is SO obviously a campaign to smear Snowden, it positively REEKS! They are introducing doubt of his character into the dialogue, which, come to think of it, is only a monologue, because, hey, he’s not here to defend himself, is he?

This, of course, is typical political posturing, reminiscent of any other campaign, such as an election run, when they need to direct the public’s attention toward certain areas, away from others, so they can control the conversation…. In his speech, Obama admitted to responding to a public dialogue called for by the leak of information, while never admitting any wrongdoing for having committed the spying initially. Yet, this conversation, this debate, has only shown them to be more secretive than we knew, and they are pulling out all the stops to stop any further investigation into, or outcry about what is REALLY going on…. Naturally, since they are politicians, they will approach this as a campaign to be won; the first step in any campaign is to decrease the viability, the believability of the opposition…. Hence, unproved, unfounded, and untrue accusations, out of nowhere, to try to demonize Eric Snowden….

They say first, it’s beyond his abilities to have done this…. Well, hell, even the most thick-headed fool can see this is a total fabrication…. If this is true, would it mean that the NSA made a habit of hiring programmers that couldn’t understand what they were being tasked to do? Doesn’t make any sense to me…. This man was part of the program, a programmer, and KNOWS how to read data, as well as write the programs that would do so…. Hell, I’m only a high powered user, and I understand what is being done, and what WAS done…. This statement is an obvious lie, an attempt to demean Snowden, so he looks more like a villain, or, at best, the dupe of master spies….

The second thing to note about this claim, is that it is introduced by a politician, who obviously is NOT capable of judging what a programmer is capable of doing with a computer…. Mikey-boy probably has to ask his admin how to use his smart-phone, which is, arguably, smarter than he is, technically speaking… Yet, this idiot, in his power suit and tie, makes this claim unequivocally, thereby implying that one of the most competent programmers alive (look who hired him to begin with!….) isn’t capable of doing something he was trained to do, but, had to be helped by a foreign power…. A pretty far-fetched stretch, to my way of looking at it….

The one professional spy they quoted, from the CIA, it should be noted, said, in his statement, right off, so he couldn’t be accused later of any prevarications…. “I don’t have any particular evidence”, but, then goes on to agree with the outrageous claims made by a politician, one with NO FUCKING CLUE about the glaringly obvious untruth of what he proposes, or, indeed, of how much truth any of what he said might have contain…. Rogers’ job, which he performed perfectly, was, simply, to put in the minds of the public a single idea, one small but important lie, that Snowden was made to do what he did, by coercion, by trickery, or by duplicity; they don’t say which, nor do they have to…. They merely imply, without directly accusing, so that the lies they intend to bring out later, as seeds for further doubt, will find fertile soil in the simple minds of the public….

None of the truth, or any actual connection to reality of the claims he was making concerned him; he was strictly a talking head, on a major TV show; his mission was to plant in the public awareness the idea that Eric Snowden didn’t act alone, and that the very act of his doing what he did, regardless of ANY evidence to the contrary, should be viewed as proof of his having had help from another country…. The fact that this isn’t remotely true was not an issue; the message was delivered, and supported by the other actors in the play…. Throw in the claim about him being technically unable to do what he did, and you’ve got some juice to keep the story going, even though all of it is a complete fabrication….

Ffolkes, if you can’t see that this is true, that you were deliberately lied to, and manipulated in an attempt to make you think what the government wants you to think, well, I guess I should just use THEIR justification and tell you…. You, too, are an idiot, and the fact is, if you believe any of what this man says about this subject, that, in itself, can be considered as PROOF of your idiocy….. incontrovertible, undeniable PROOF. (After all, that’s the same method of proof they’re offering for THEIR assertions…..) If the timing, and the words themselves, don’t make your crap-detector go off like it was on fire, then I’m afraid there isn’t much hope for you in the real world….

These statements were merely the latest tactic to be applied by the White House political strategists, all without having to bring out their big gun, the president, with his down-home, I’m-so-sincere, boyish face, and, the now-famous, good-ol-boy, aw-shucks grin, both of which are political tools of great value to him, but only if not over-used….. Right now, they’ve got a few of the sidekicks out in the limelight, after his speech over the weekend, making up stuff and carrying on with all the talking points and deliberate manipulations, all orchestrated in Mr. Snowden’s absence….. one I hope he continues to maintain, as it is the ONLY hope he has of surviving the future (….Ironically enough, in a case of Life imitating Life, this is a problem ALL OF US are going to have in the very near future…. that of running out of any hope of surviving the future, when the very air we breathe will be toxic to us….)

After seeing this story, and taking into account the other stories in response to the president’s speech about the nonexistent changes he claims he wants to make to the NSA mission (I mean, look closely at what he said…. He isn’t changing ANYTHING of any significance…..), I think it would be safe to predict that in the next few days and weeks, we will hear more fabrications and implications, with or without any actual evidence, about Mr. Snowden, as the administration continues to distract and defuse, hoping that if they stall long enough, something else will come up to take the public’s awareness from their spying, and put it back in the closet, or sweep it under the rug, where they keep all the other stuff they don’t want us to see or know, about what they are REALLY doing behind our backs….

(Note from February…. I personally think they’re hoping for another idiot to steal a gun and shoot up a mall, or a school somewhere, which always takes all the public’s attention and focuses it on their unreasonable fears for a couple of weeks….But, then, I’m pretty convinced of their complete lack of any human compassion, anyway, so, my concerns reflect my belief in their human nature, and their lack of any sort of virtue that would make them tell the truth, or espouse an agenda that benefits anyone but themselves….)

You can bet on that, ffolkes, for sure…. They’re not going to stop lying, just because they’ve been caught at it…. They’ll only get more bold with it…. It’s the way they’re built, they can’t, and won’t, help it…. There’s no profit in it for them to give up, is there? And, profit is what they are all about, when it comes down to the bottom line…. Profit for their self-interests, which are, to them, more important than the whole rest of the human race…..

As Lily Tomlin’s character, Edith Ann, used to say, when she was done making her brilliantly simple observations of people’s foibles…., “And that’s the Truth! THPPPPT!”

“Plausibility is the morality of fiction.” — Edith Mirrilees

Monthly update: The administration’s silence on the NSA spying issues continues to this date…. I’ve seen only one article in the past month on the subject, and it was merely a rehash of this information, with no real new developments reported…. They’re letting it go as long as they can without bringing any of it up themselves, so as to give the public, which has a notoriously SHORT attention span, a chance to forget all about it….. Naturally, the media is allowing this to continue without comment….  Good luck on having that stay the same, dudes…. Not if I have anything to say about it…..

😉

I’ll be here, and I’ll be reprinting this, or a fresher version, either in a month, or, before that, if and/or when new statements are forthcoming from the potUS, or one of his myrmidons….. (Unless, of course, they decide to stop me…. That would be the ONLY reason I wouldn’t be posting a month from now…. in which case, you’d no doubt read about all the dead feds in the news, if they can count that high…. I don’t intend to go, shall we say, quietly? We shall say it..
_____________________________

Well, I cheated, I guess, but, if you were here at the beginning, you’ll understand why, and be in perfect agreement that it was the right thing to do, at least for today….. If you weren’t here for the beginning, you certainly aren’t here at the end, so who the hell am I talking to? Hell, I don’t know, nor do I care at this point….. It’s done, again, and I’ve got no more excuses to keep from finishing the process now…. So, see ya….  I love you all…..

(No, I don’t know why that came out just then, but, it’s true…. and I just realized it is the underlying reason I rant about politics and global warming….That may sound pompous, but, hey, y’know what?  So I am, pompous, that is, and it’s as true as the first statement, so, we’ll let it all stay….)

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

The sheriff ain’t gonna like this, Billy-Bob….

Posted on by
2

Ffolkes,

“He who has the courage to laugh is almost as much a master of the world as he who is ready to die.” — Giacomo Leopardi

I would add to this idea, “It should be noted, Reality often requires these qualities to be present in the same person….” Not that I’m a cynic, or anything like that…. I consider myself a realist, as anyone who deals with the slippery slope of Reality on a daily basis MUST be, in order to survive longer than a day or two… We, who dare the universe to defy our scrutiny at every turn of the planet, can testify to the veracity of this notion, as we deal with both laughter and death regularly in the course of our duties…. Of course, that is true ONLY of those of us who are clumsy about it, but, then, who is there, in this day and age, who can wrestle with Reality with grace, or any significant degree of aplomb?

Now that the proper tone of nonsense and nearly-coherent whimsy has been firmly established, I think it would be acceptable to turn away from the fantasy portion of this morning’s intro, and return to the more amenable, less controversial pathways that wind their way toward section one. As you are, by now, well aware of my propensity for pomposity (hmm, “propensity for pomposity”…. not bad at all…. almost cute….), I don’t think it will be necessary for me to set out the emergency flares to show the way to the escape hatch…. I’m actually pretty sure we won’t even need to issue the usual flak jackets that go with this portion of the trip…. Our new route seems to be working out well, in terms of not drawing any hostile fire….

Of course, that may be due to flying over the native villages late at night, so late, they’ve already put the ack-acks, the antiaircraft guns, to bed. It’s a bit harder to take pictures of the scenery, since there isn’t any, (well, there is, but, hey, it’s DARK out there….), but, it saves wear and tear on the plane, and we haven’t lost a passenger for weeks…. which, of course, makes the insurance folks VERY happy!…. Bloody bean counters…. charge me up the butt already, for what? Insurance? What a scam THAT whole thing is…. don’t get me started on that…. I’ve hated the whole idea of insurance since I was young, and figured out what a rip-off it is… Legalized gambling, and the only way to win, is to lose…. Boy, if THAT isn’t a euphemism for modern society, I don’t know what is!…..

But, I refuse to rant here in the intro again…. It puts my whole sense of rhythm off, making it hard to find a good, solid syncopated riff, or even a good line, afterwards…. Of course, I may not feel like ranting later, either, but, hey, at least I didn’t burden y’all with it right out of the gate….. Credit me with a little tact, if you please…. In fact, I am not only tactful today, I’m efficient…. Watch this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“First I must sprinkle you with fairy dust…”

“I leapt headlong into the sea, and thereby have become better acquainted with the soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly song, and took tea and comfortable advice.” — John Keats
_____________________________

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/The-long-war-for-gender-equality-5242861.php

At last! At last, a mainstream columnist approaches a subject of import with unflinching honesty, with no equivocation, and no excuses made to justify the behavior he is discussing, to wit: the ongoing abuse of women all over the world by cowardly men, afraid of their own sexuality, and thus,  displaying angry misogyny toward the other sex, whom he fears because he does not understand…. To my knowledge, this is one of the first times I’ve seen one of the mainstream’s most popular columnists address this issue, one that has bothered me for many years, due to my own inability to make any progress in changing it, even in those men whom I know and love….

Men in our culture, and in every culture since we lived in caves, are taught to mistrust women, and to assume their own superiority, without having any reason, or confirmed evidence, that would support either attitude…. It’s just the way it is, to them, with almost all of society blindly supporting the fallacies of attitude that keep women in a position of subjugation. It isn’t a pretty picture, and never has been; it is also one society has refused to address, at the insistence of its misogynistic masters, who are so afraid of women, they keep them subjugated so they can control their own fears….

This pearl is one I have been saving, but, there isn’t any good reason to NOT bring it out…. only my own male reluctance to pick up the ball, and run with it, when it goes against everything that I was raised to believe…. Our culture brainwashes all young men and women to play their roles in society; it has taken me most of my life to rid myself of many of the prejudicial attitudes I carried around with me for most of it…. and I still find myself falling into the same old mental traps, and thinking of women as lesser, somehow, even though it is patently a false notion, one the has no real basis in Reality, only in men’s minds….
jimmy sez    When I resort to Art to express myself, you know I’m too angry to write…. This subject is one I have a hard time with, as I tend to become so angry, at those men who exploit and abuse women and children, (it’s the same sickness… abusing those who are weaker is the mark of the true coward….), I lose my ability to speak…. I want to go out, into the world, and find me some pimps, to use for my sport, by hunting them down, and making them feel small and afraid, just like they do when they beat one of their slaves…. It makes me want to buy a gun, to go walking around the mean streets, picking off the predators that hang there, freeing their slaves, if they are able to free themselves when released from their slavery….

I’m so upset now, I’ve lost all ability to think clearly, or to present my arguments in an organized fashion…. So, here is a link, to a blog written by a most powerful woman, who has shown the incredible strength of mind and will to pull herself out of the sex trade, into which she was kidnapped, and forced into prostitution, at a young age…. She is a very powerful writer, with a lot of pain to express…. If you are at all squeamish, then you MUST read this…. It will make you cry (as I did….), it will make you ashamed, and it will make you angry, for her, as well as AT all of the insane men around the world who engage in this plague of evil…. The latest entry, posted yesterday, on the site of which I speak, can be found here:   http://rmott62.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/climbing-back-on-my-horse/

Please stop by her site, and read what she has written; it will shame you, it will anger you, and it will leave you with the feeling there is yet a long road to any real progress, and that it is high time we ALL joined in to fight this battle….

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” — Edmund Burke, Irish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 – 1797)
_____________________________

There are times when nothing but a classic will do…. this is one of them….

 

When I Have Fears

 

 

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;–then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

~~ John Keats ~~

_____________________________

The above material, in section one, is important, to me, so I’m a bit disappointed in myself for NOT having the proper rant inside me today to address the issue at hand, one about which I feel very strongly…. I’ll have to be content with knowing that no matter how powerful, or convincing my own words may be, the words the Gentle Reader will find on Ms. Mott’s web site are MUCH more so, and will do a better job at explaining the issue so that people can understand it…. because she is writing from INSIDE the issue, not from the viewpoint of one standing aside, viewing it with objectivity, a position which, in this case, is completely useless for the purposes it needs to address…..

That being said, I’m going to create an old-school pearl for this last section, one without any particular parameters I can put to voice, but, rather, some vague, amorphous feelings, that I’ll use to influence whatever choices Smart Bee gives me in the way of aphorisms, quotes, and/or bits of virtual wisdom…. Shall we dive in?…. It’s probably for the best if we do…. Mind the steps, now…. Got your mask and flippers? Let’s go!….

“If people were required to know the law rather than to obey it, the government would be overthrown the next day.” — Smart Bee

“You cannot put the same shoe on every foot.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 596

“Under every stone lurks a politician.” — Aristophanes

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” — Aristotle

“One of the great meaningless phrases of our times is: “I take full responsibility.” This does not mean that you are prepared to pay the consequences for what you have done. On the contrary, this statement is usually offered instead of taking the consequences.” — Thomas Sowell

”        …’fire’ does not matter, ‘earth’ and ‘air’ and ‘water’ do not matter.  ‘I’ do not matter.  No word matters.  But man forgets reality and remembers words.  The more words he remembers, the cleverer do his fellows esteem him.  He looks upon the great transformations of the world, but he does not see them as they were seen when man looked upon reality for the first time.  Their names come to his lips and he smiles as he tastes them, thinking he knows them in the naming.” — Siddartha, _Lord_of_Light_ by Roger Zelazny

“Virtue is but heroic bravery, to do the thing thought to be true, in spite of all enemies of flesh or spirit, in despite of all temptations or menaces.” — Albert Pike (1809-1891)

A bit esoteric, but, it works….. Can I go back to bed now?
_____________________________

In truth, going back to bed might just be the best thing for me today, all around…. It is now 0532 in the morning, and this Pearl is 99.9% complete…. The cat, bless her little black heart, decided, at 0330 today, it was time for us to be up and doing, expressing this opinion by attacking the underside of the bed with her claws, to wake me up, and get me going…. She does this regularly, much as she KNOWS I HATE to be gotten up that way, as evidenced by the obligatory 5 minute chase around the house trying to squirt her with the water bottle for waking me…. SIGH…. They just don’t give a shit, you know?…. Maybe I’ll drug her cat food this morning, and get some actual uninterrupted sleep for a few hours….

Nah, I’ll let her be, and just shut her out of the bedroom for a while…. Of course, then I’ll have to spend an hour or so putting the living room back to order, after she tears it up in her frustration at not being able to get the door open…. Maybe, a few years from now, after she has aged and mellowed a bit, she won’t be such a psycho kitty, but, I’m not holding my breath…. she’s pretty crazy, even for a black cat…. At least she gives us something to contend with each day, although I’m not sure that “constantly challenging” is the most attractive description of a pet one can come up with, but, it fits…. Ah well, I’ve always preferred biological alarm clocks to any of the numerous technological varieties, anyway…. They don’t break when thrown at the wall….  I’ll see y’all tomorrow; at what hour that may turn out to be will be up to the cat….

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

Salting hummus makes it nearly edible….

Posted on by
Reply


SPOILER: The following introductory section contains an unusually powerful potential to affect the reader soporifically, without warning; should you find yourself yawning, or your eyelids becoming heavy and hard to blink, go immediately on to the second section, where oxygen will be provided….

Our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause in the consumption of today’s Pearl; it was unavoidable, as the intro was done before its strong, almost narcotic, sleep-inducing qualities were noted and recorded…. Fortunately, it was discovered during the proofing, (when I found myself nodding over the keyboard…) which prompted this warning….

I find, if you don’t hold your breath while reading the intro, and just treat it like the preface of a book you are about to read (which nobody ever does read…. the prefaces, that is….), and go on to the meat of today’s offering…. you can make it through without any difficulty, other than a vague, mild nausea…. Best of luck!….

Ffolkes,

And, when I woke up…. I looked around, only to find nothing had changed while I slept. More’s the pity…. Of course, I’m speaking only of the situation outside of my own little corner of reality…. In my corner, I have things nicely arranged, just the way I like them, with Patricia nearby, and nobody else (well, other than my children, and the odd old friend or two….) who has any claim on my time, or my attention…. This means that I can spend my time pursuing my own American Dream, which involves books, excellent coffee, the possibility of love, puppies, kittens, cannabinoids, and no bad food…. With the time I have left on this old ball o’mud, life’s too short to put up with anything else….

Anything beyond those are what I consider a bonus, but,those listed are essential to my personal well-being, items I am unwilling to go without for very long before becoming quite irritable, whereupon I generally find someone to sink my teeth into, for sublimation purposes…. It works for me, though I do have to keep a lawyer on retainer to deal with the occasional bout of antagonistic litigation. It also gets a bit expensive having to keep so much material handy for bandaging, and stopping blood flow; and, don’t ASK about the trash bill!….. Do you know what they charge now for hazardous bio-waste?…. It’s outrageous!….

If I haven’t said so before, let me now say, I really like being retired…. I didn’t think I would, but, as things have worked out, it’s a lot more comfortable than I’d thought, if you don’t count the physical issues that arise from getting older. That’s something we all have to deal with anyway, but, not all of us manage to arrange matters so that we aren’t struggling with poverty when we stop working….

Not having a retirement account is actually a scary, sad idea to consider, as I know several people my age who DON’T have a solid retirement set up, and must continue working in order to live; I was almost caught without a retirement in place, so I know the panicky feeling that comes from not knowing if you will be able to retire, with enough to live on comfortably, or have to keep plugging away at a job in order to eat, and sleep indoors…. As I approached my 55th birthday, I was in that boat; no job, and not enough time in to keep my retirement active with the State, so I was looking at NOT having anything in place when I reached the age to retire….

I guess I’m winding around this issue like this to get to the point where I can say this: I’m a lucky guy…. I managed to get my job with the State back, and reinstated my accumulated time, which reinstated my retirement eligibility, and left me in the position in which I find myself now…. which is a far better position than the majority of the world’s population can look forward to…. I have enough income to live in a warm, dry house, eat well, stay clothed, and have enough left for entertainment and/or travel, if I’m frugal enough to save up…. So, I really have little about which to complain, other than my physical issues, which all of us must bear….

As a man who was raised to be compassionate, and who has learned over the years that service to others is a requirement of maintaining one’s self-respect and honor, I feel like I should give back to society what I can, sharing my knowledge and expertise…. In my lifetime, I’ve learned a lot, and the only way now I have to share what I know is to write…. My physical condition is such that giving of my practical experience, in cooking, organizing, or other skills that are useful, has been curtailed; I can’t work in the kitchen anymore, nor do much that requires standing or sitting for long periods…. So, volunteering at the local senior center, as I’d planned to do, is not an option any longer….

So, I write…. I try to write about subjects that will help us all to survive the upcoming shit-storm…..You know, that impending massive planetary environmental crisis so ignorantly created by our Beloved Ruling Class, in their patently insane search for power and control over others? Yeah, that one….  It ain’t much, but, it’s what I’ve got, so, I’ll keep doing it as long as I can, if only to amuse myself…. If I can amuse someone else in the process, so much the better….

Shall we Pearl?…. With such a mundane, elementally, if elegantly boring intro, I think we need a two-fer to start…..

“He is able who thinks he is able.” — Buddha

“If the Bible proves that God exists then comic books prove the existence of Superman.” — Smart Bee, demonstrating perfectly sound logic
_____________________________

Originally, I had intended to put a rant in this section…. I even had one started, dealing with a plague our society has endured since the beginning of time, but, writing that stiff, boring introduction has put me into a semi-deep depression, for some idiotic reason that my subconscious thinks will be more fun if it hides it from me….

In short, I’ve just been struck by a chemical imbalance in my brain that has created a miasma of karmic blueness, which surrounds my heart and soul, bypassing the brain altogether to make me feel as if the world is covered all in cotton, and nothing feels right…. and I don’t know WHY! It’s just as if a bunch of dementors had been sent to harass me by some perverse, antagonistic Ministry of Magic official….  Really a pisser, actually….

Ah well, it’s fortunate for us I have the perfect solution to this sort of marginally delusional, certainly self-induced emotional abuse…. It’s called an old-school pearl, sans any parameters beyond what pleases the inner eye, dreaming without focus, of peace, and illogical hope for our future…. In other words, potluck…. Enjoy! I intend to… In fact, I may even leave a comment or two, just to show y’all how MUCH I enjoyed it….

“He who receives a good turn should never forget it; he who does one should never remember it.” — Charon

(An obvious corollary to the Golden Rule, and an attitude one could only wish was more common in modern society….)

“It belongs to human nature to hate those you have injured.” — Tacitus (54-119 AD) — Agricola, 42

(Ahem!…. Well!…. I do declare, is it a bit warm in here?…. This certainly goes a long way toward explaining the reason why our Beloved Ruling Class expresses so much hatred and disdain for those who elect them…. as well as how the shadowy corporate slave masters can justify to themselves their insane obsession with money, and power over others….)

“The discipline of desire is the background of character.” — John Locke

“Just remember, when you’re over the hill, you begin to pick up speed.” — Charles Schulz

“One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.” — George Santayana

(No comments from me could possibly add anything to the last three pearls….. Let’s see if SB can finish this off with the same sort of style and grace….)

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

“Thou shalt not get caught.” — The Eleventh Commandment

Hmm…. well, perhaps the ending didn’t quite live up to the rest of it…. But, when looked at in a certain light, one can see how that may well just be the best description of how human life stumbles along the way it does…. Then again, maybe not…. At this point, all of that is moot, and we are now free to go enjoy a poem…. Plus, the quicker we get out of this section, the faster it will fade into memory, yes?….
_____________________________

I don’t know this poet, having never seen his work before…. though for some reason, this poem sounds familiar…. In any case, it’s good, if a bit obscure as to what it wants from the reader; I found it hard to connect to the emotions that so obviously were part of the shock of the ending. Perhaps that’s a sign of a good poem; it made me think about my own reaction to what it had to say….

Richard Cory

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
‘Good-morning,’ and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich – yes, richer than a king –
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

~~ Edwin Arlington Robinson ~~

_____________________________

As a reward for hanging in there long enough to get this far, I’m not going to rant at all today…. Instead, here’s another fresh old-school pearl…. Let’s see if Smart Bee can come up with anything to lighten my depression, and give y’all a chuckle or two with your morning coffee, tea, or beverage of choice…. Myself, I advise NOT having any morning conversations with either of my old friends, John Daniels, or James Beam…. Nice fellows, but, as  breakfast companions, they tend to eliminate any prospect of accomplishing anything worthwhile afterward, for most of the rest of the day, after which, there remains the altogether unpleasant consequences to suffer through, as one recovers from the usual vicious hangover that comes with such foolishness…

As is apparent, I’ve been there, done that, and have no wish to go back, much as I love my old friends…. I’ll confine myself to shorter, more manageable conversations with them late at night, or before dinner, and leave it at that…. In the meantime, I got completely side-tracked…. Let’s see how amusing Smart Bee can be, shall we?….

“If at first you don’t succeed, you’re doing about average.” — Leonard Levinson

— Bother! said Pooh, as his ship failed to jump to light speed.

A mighty creature is the germ,
Though smaller than the pachyderm.
His customary dwelling place
Is deep within the human race.
His childish pride he often pleases
By giving people strange diseases.
Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?
You probably contain a germ.

— Odgen Nash (1902-1971)

“Believing ourselves to be possessors of absolute truth degrades us:  we regard every person whose way of thinking is different from ours as a monster and a threat and by so doing turn our own selves into monsters and threats to our fellows.” — Octavio Paz

(How did that slip in there?…. Hmm, sorry, it’s not remotely funny….. It’s also too good to toss away; such insight is rare…. Oh well, just imagine it’s funny, and go on…. I’ll make it right with the gods of consistency….)

“Sits he on ever so high a throne, a man still sits on his bottom.” — Smart Bee

(That’s better…. since we aren’t counting the fourth pearl, we’ll go with a three-fer to finish this off nice and balanced-like, just like the professionals do….)

“I spent 3 weeks childproofing my home. They still get in.” — Smart Bee

“It has been determined that most teenage girls lose their virginity during the summer months.  This stands to reason, since congress is recessed at that time.” — Smart Ass Bee

“HELLO, everybody, I’m a HUMAN!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

(It appears that balance was not going to be an element of note in today’s process…. but, I’m okay with that, especially if you consider the last line as the underlying battle cry for today’s effort…. )
_____________________________

I swear, pulling out a coherent thought today has been like trying to pull a Tea Partier’s head out of his ass…. It’s hard work, and ultimately useless, in terms of improving his chances of reaching average intelligence; in other words, there’s no hope of making them smarter, so, they’re usually better off leaving it there… I figure if somebody is a registered Tea Partier, it’s a pretty sure sign they already lost the evolutionary lottery…. It’s why I’m usually nice to them; they’re to be pitied more than reviled, as being too naive to ever really have stood a chance to learn enough to make themselves anything than the malleable mind-slaves of the BRC they are…..

There, now I’ve ranted…. Are you happy? Good. Me too, and I know why both of us have reason to be so giddy…. We’re done here, and we can afford to let go of our death grip on sanity long enough to relax for a while…. Until 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

dozer3

“I swear, Lemuel, them politicians is gettin’ tougher… this one took seven bullets, right in the heart!”….

Posted on by
1

Ffolkes,

Somewhere, over the rainbow, there’s a place that I go to…. where there’s a flower-filled meadow, complete with peaceful, grazing deer, and a babbling brook running along the far edge, leading down the hill, into the forest….. It’s always in my memory, just waiting for me to wander there, to lay myself down in the sweet-smelling grasses for a rest, after walking through the beauty of the many-colored hills, all through the warm afternoon. As I lay my head down, drowsy in the afternoon sun, I hear a melody playing, as if on pan-pipes, drifting lazily out of the depths of the forest. As the lively, yet soothing tune continues to play, a sense of peace and contentment steals over me, nudging me gently into a dream-filled sleep…..

Then, I woke up, in my chair, sitting in front of the computer, shaking my head dazedly, with the dawning realization that I had managed to completely lose track of reality….. The smells of the forest, the sounds of the mice rustling in the grass, as the wind blew softly through my hair…. All of those were, for a moment, more real to me than the chair in which I’m sitting, not entirely comfortably, or the computer at which I’m staring now…. and a lot more pleasant, I’ll guarantee!

I decided when I sat down to begin that I’d try a new technique, of going into a meditative, creative trance, writing whatever I saw in my inner eye…. As I read over that first paragraph, I see it came out rather well, if a bit namby pamby in nature….. The probable next paragraph of what I started would, no doubt, have seen Bambi and/or Thumper give us a visit, to up the cuteness factor….. So, it’s probably a fortunate thing for us all that I gave it up after a single paragraph…. much more sweetness and light this early in the day would soon have me running for the bathroom, to worship at the throne of Ralph…. a euphemism I hope I don’t have to explain….

Thus, suitably warned, y’all should be able to have a pretty good time today…. I have no fucking clue as to what will follow today…. I’m in a capricious mood, with some stuff to do in the BBR that I’m stressed over (a little…. just the stress involved with working my will on a bureaucracy…. It can be done, but, it’s hard work, and takes some stubbornness….of which I have more than enough to suit my purposes….), as well getting this Pearl completed without any extra crap from Murphy’s corner…. So far, he’s behaving himself, so, we’ll see how it goes in that respect…. He’s tricky, ya gotta keep a sharp eye on that quarter, lest he catch us unaware, and unprepared to mitigate the effects of his kind attentions….. It helps to keep moving, so…..

Shall we Pearl?

“What is sauce for the goose may be sauce for the gander but is not necessarily sauce for the chicken, the duck, the turkey, or the guinea hen.” — Alice B. Toklas

Amen to that!….
_____________________________

http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/John-Kerry-mocks-those-who-deny-climate-change-5239626.php

Wow…. I am, as much as I ever am, impressed, in a good way, by this statement from one of the administration’s most important lackeys…. I read what John K. said yesterday, or the day before, doesn’t matter…. and for once, the tenor and strength of the message, which is about the imminence of the environmental crisis we face in the near future, is nearly strong enough to get through to some folks, and any ffolkes who see or hear it will be encouraged, if somewhat bemused by this belated, typical jump to join in the fight, onto a bandwagon they should have been driving TWENTY-FIVE FUCKING YEARS AGO, but, instead, act as if it’s a brand new model, which they, of course, claim as the first to be seen driving in town….

Of course, so far, I haven’t actually SEEN any action on this by the administration, but, boy-howdy, when they decide to jump on the wagon, they do it with both feet…. He actually used the word ‘sacrifice’ I think, or maybe it was ‘danger’…. regardless, he made a good effort, for a first try, to get the most important part of the message out there, that we have to act NOW, rather than later…. a necessity easily seen to be the most important key, if we are to have ANY chance to make any difference in the eventual outcome of events….

Personally, I don’t believe, not for a minute, that they’ll do enough, or be able to cut far enough into the influence of the corporate masters to make enough of a difference; no so far as to change the eventual outcome…. But, hey, they’re at least acknowledging that it needs to be done…. I just don’t think they can do it, not before they are blocked by those who hold the purse strings, and who are making a HUGE profit on global warming, as well as on the continuing use of fossil fuels….

To be honest with y’all, I really don’t much feel like ranting today, even with the advent of good news about which to write, or the importance of spreading the knowledge of the imminence of the problem…. I guess I’m in too mellow a mood, having slept long and well again…. Therefore, I’m going to finish this section with an old-school collection of pearls, to try to gain some perspective on this latest flip-flop by the political machine currently in power in Washington D.C…… Let’s see if SB has some good stuff in there for us today, shall we?…. But, hey, I know!…. Let’s let SB fire the shots randomly, so we can see some of the fat cat preachers do some dancing around, too, dodging figurative bullets alongside the politicians and corporate assholes….

“Capitalism did not arise because capitalists stole the land, but because it was more efficient than feudalism. It will perish because it is not merely less efficient than socialism, but actually self-destructive.” — J. B. S. Haldane

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” — George Orwell (1903-1950), “Animal Farm” 1945

“I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn’t.” — Jules Renard

“We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.” — Aneurin Bevan

“Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.” — Herodotus

“The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance…logic can be happily tossed out the window.” — Stephen King

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

— William Butler Yeats, “The Stolen Child”
_____________________________

Poetry has power far beyond its apparent beauty; all the studies and historical research that we have made throughout the years have never identified for us exactly WHY poetry affects us so deeply, or why it has the power to move us, even if we don’t completely understand its every word…. This poem, to me, is a perfect example of that….

It was written several hundred years ago, precisely spelling the words used just as the current usage of the time demanded,turning common modern English into Middle English with a broad Scots accent, just about as thick a brogue as I’ve ever heard…. Yet, in spite of the unfamiliarity and strangeness of the words, and the odd structure of ideas the Scots are so fond of using, it is perfectly understandable, as well as incredibly moving, when the sorrow felt by the author is shared by the reader…. It’s a classic for a reason, a perfect expression of human emotions, simply, yet elegantly showing us the power of common experience to give us peace, and joy…. Enjoy!….

Highland Mary

Ye banks, and braes, and streams around
The castle o’ Montgomery,
Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,
Your waters never drumlie!
There Simmer first unfald her robes,
And there the langest tarry:
For there I took the last Fareweel
O’ my sweet Highland Mary.

How sweetly bloom’d the gay, green birk,
How rich the hawthorn’s blossom;
As underneath their fragrant shade,
I clasp’d her to my bosom!
The golden Hours, on angel wings,
Flew o’er me and my Dearie;
For dear to me as light and life
Was my sweet Highland Mary.

Wi’ mony a vow, and lock’d embrace,
Our parting was fu’ tender;
And pledging aft to meet again,
We tore oursels asunder:
But Oh, fell Death’s untimely frost,
That nipt my Flower sae early!
Now green’s the sod, and cauld’s the clay,
That wraps my Highland Mary!

O pale, pale now, those rosy lips
I aft hae kiss’d sae fondly!
And clos’d for ay, the sparkling glance,
That dwalt on me sae kindly!
And mouldering now in silent dust,
That heart that lo’ed me dearly!
But still within my bosom’s core
Shall live my Highland Mary.

~~ Robert Burns  ~~

_____________________________

Having thus completed my morning’s set of self-inflicted obligations with admirable dispatch,  so much so, we are looking at 66% completion of the assigned tasks only one and a half hours into the given period of time to work on it….. I guess I should either pat myself on the back, or take a break….. I hate to do that when I’m on such a roll, but, if I don’t, I’ll be done in just a few minutes, and I’m not ready for that…. So, break it is, as my shoulder joints are far too stiff and sore to reach my back…. Upon my return, I won’t say anything, I’ll just go on to the picking process for this old-school pearl, one with random, harlequin-flavored parameters of choice…. See ya on the other side…

“The First Amendment is often inconvenient.  But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.” — Justice Anthony Kennedy, in 91-155

“You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

“Even the lion has to defend himself against flies.” — Smart Bee

“If it had not been for the discontent of a few fellows who had not been satisfied with their conditions, you would still be living in caves. Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.” — Eugene V Debs (1855-1926), American socialist

“All my life, I always wanted to be somebody.  Now I see that I should have been more specific.” — Jane Wagner, _The Search For Intelligent Life In The Universe_ — [Performed by Lily Tomlin]

“The normal American of the “pure blooded” majority goes to bed every night with the uneasy feeling that there is a burglar under the bed and gets up every morning with the sneaking fear that his underwear has been stolen.” — H. L. Mencken, Baltimore _Evening Sun_, July 16, 1923

“Hand me a pair of leather pants and a CASIO keyboard — I’m living for today!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Damn, I’m good sometimes…. with a bit of help from SB….
_____________________________

“Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; knows not the livid loneliness of fear.” — Amelia Earhart

No doubt, there are those in the world who would say that what I do here is a waste of my time, as well as a waste of the time of anyone else who may stop by to read it…. All I can say about that, is, well, “Fuck you, AND the white horse you think you rode in on….. While you’re at it, on the way out, with my boot print firmly planted upon your extremely large and ugly ass, you can shut the door behind you, so the good ffolkes who generally stop in won’t be distracted by your idiocy”….  Or, something along those lines…. I’m getting a little crusty in my old age, I guess, and I just don’t give much of a damn about the mouthings of fools…. Take what I say, or leave it, but, don’t try to judge it without offering some evidence, and some dialogue…. (See the above quote re: Courage….)

That said, I’d better proof this damn thing, or I’ll end up regretting it later, I know…. Well, there you go…. Proofed, polished, and probably screwed up royally… but, it’s done, which, as we know, is the only characteristic that counts with me…. Hence, I’m outta here…. Hasta la mañana, amigos….

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