Tag Archives: Albert Einstein

As the black cat watches, the ritual begins….

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Ffolkes,

Brain damage…. it’s the only reason I can come up with to explain this…. I must have banged my head on a sharp corner, or something equally inane, that caused some bleeding, that led to swelling, and now my brain is frozen in place, never again to jump or play in the vast fields of imagination…..

Okay, so maybe it’s just the usual morning fog that I’m trying to see through…. but, a little drama never hurt a blog, now, did it? I have to keep coming up with a tricky piece of writing every morning, in order to catch and hold your interest, right? That’s how it was explained to me by Mrs. Rich, and Mr. Olsen, back when they were teaching us the basics of writing, in English classes in my teen years….

Now that I’ve been actually writing every day for over two and a half years, I’ve learned a bit more about the actual workings of the written story, or article, and know that the beginning of any piece is the most important part of it…. It doesn’t matter at all if what you have to say is right, or pretty, or important… what matters is that you can catch the interest of the reader…. Once you have engaged that interest, it can be led to where you wish it to go, depending on the available skills, and the value of the story being told…. but, first, you’ve got to get them to bite..

I’m trying to avoid using the old metaphor about fishing, as I think it’s over-used, and has lost some of its appeal as a teaching tool…. but, in this regard, it remains as valid as ever…. The writer must find the tastiest looking worms, er, ideas, and put them out to attract the fish, er, readers, not always knowing what which worms will work, which will move and squirm in such a way as to say to the fish, “Come! Eat me!”, rather than, “Oh, shit, get me outta here!” which is more likely what is passing in that tiny little brain…. I know if I were there, drowning, with a hook through my thigh to hold me in place, I’d be screaming and playing hell to get gone….

Now that I’ve destroyed all hope of garnering any of the gentle reader’s attention for this morning, with that less than attractive image of my fat old man body squirming at the end of a fishing line, with a hook through my leg, screaming my head off, I think I’ll slink off into the remainder of today’s effort…. I seem to have gotten lost here in the intro today, starting one place, heading off to another, then screwing the entire morning’s work with an ill-conceived trip into descriptive imagery, and have no idea at all how to get back to anything remotely dignified, or compelling….

It’s a shame, really, as I had high hopes for today…. I found a good rant yesterday, and fitted it together with one that jumped up and bit me yesterday afternoon, so I already had part of this one done…. which left only a poem to find, or write, and an old-school to gather up…. piece o’cake. But, no, I had to try to be tricky in the intro, and get all finillibrated, (yes, I just made that word up…), and turned around, so that I end up apologizing, instead, for yet another trip through the back alleys of my brain…. SIGH…. I’ll get it right one of these days…. Until then….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“If you are out of trouble, watch for danger.” — Sophocles

All us hippies know this one, because Jerry and the Dead told us, way back in the day, in Uncle John’s Band…..

“It’s a buck dancer’s choice, my friend,
don’t you worry any more….
for when Life looks like Easy Street,
there is danger is at your door….”

— Jerry  Garcia and Robert Hunter

Stay alert, ffolkes, it looks like rain…. and I’m not talking about water from the sky…..
_____________________________

Okay, here is the old-school pearl I promised…. I’m putting it first, because the rant is enough to tire anyone out, and I wanted y’all to have enough at the end to be able to think about it a bit…. so, let’s see what Smart Bee has in store for us today, to put us in the correct mood for an epic rant…. Shall we dive?….. C’mon, let’s go…

“Time will bring to light whatever is hidden; it will cover up and conceal what is now shining in splendor.” — Horace (B.C. 65-8)

“We scientists, whose tragic destiny it has been to make the methods of annihilation ever more gruesome and more effective, must consider it our solemn and transcendent duty to do all in our power in preventing these weapons from being used for the brutal purpose for which they were invented.” — Albert Einstein, Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, September 1948

“I guess you guys got BIG MUSCLES from doing too much STUDYING!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Neither do the ignorant seek after wisdom.  For herein is the evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself; he has no desire for that of which he feels no want.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.)

“A man that expects to train lobsters to fly in a year is called a lunatic and is locked up. But a man that thinks people can be turned into angels by  legislation is called a reformer and allowed to walk free.” — Mr. Dooly

“All science, even the divine science, is a sublime detective story. Only it is not set to detect why a man is dead; but the darker secret of why he is alive.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Thing

“Don’t take life too seriously; you won’t get out of it alive.” — Hubbard’s Law
_____________________________

Pity this busy monster, manunkind, not.
Progress is a comfortable disease.

— e.e. cummings, One Times One

It is difficult at times to find the works of Edwin Estin in their entirety, due to copyright issues…. for today, though, I’ll use this little piece of one of his best poems, as an appetizer, so to speak, with this little gem from Alfie to follow as a main course…. Enjoy!….

All Things will Die

All Things will Die

Clearly the blue river chimes in its flowing

Under my eye;
Warmly and broadly the south winds are blowing

Over the sky.
One after another the white clouds are fleeting;
Every heart this May morning in joyance is beating

Full merrily;
Yet all things must die.
The stream will cease to flow;
The wind will cease to blow;
The clouds will cease to fleet;
The heart will cease to beat;
For all things must die.
All things must die.
Spring will come never more.
O, vanity!
Death waits at the door.
See! our friends are all forsaking
The wine and the merrymaking.
We are call’d–we must go.
Laid low, very low,
In the dark we must lie.
The merry glees are still;
The voice of the bird
Shall no more be heard,
Nor the wind on the hill.
O, misery!
Hark! death is calling
While I speak to ye,
The jaw is falling,
The red cheek paling,
The strong limbs failing;
Ice with the warm blood mixing;
The eyeballs fixing.
Nine times goes the passing bell:
Ye merry souls, farewell.
The old earth
Had a birth,
As all men know,
Long ago.
And the old earth must die.
So let the warm winds range,
And the blue wave beat the shore;
For even and morn
Ye will never see
Thro’ eternity.
All things were born.
Ye will come never more,
For all things must die.

~~ Alfred Lord Tennyson ~~

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Below, you will find the rant to which I referred above…. it’s another long one, thanks to the support I again found in the archives, but, it’s worth the read, for it will all point toward the rant I’m planning for tomorrow, one that will be a culmination, and a summarization, of all the rants I’ve done up to this point…. For today, please read, and pay attention to this, as it will end up being important for all of us…. a point which I hope to make clear tomorrow….

In order to achieve the proper understanding of this issue, and the following discussion, aka a ‘politirant’ of first magnitude, the article attached to the following link should be read first…. It contains some interesting information that is critical to the dialogue that may ensue, or, in any case, for a full data set to use for analyzing the issue at large…. Go ahead, we’ll wait here….

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Judge-NSA-program-is-likely-unconstitutional-5068946.php

It isn’t often this happens twice in a row, but, since I’m always attuned to the possibility of serendipity, it did…. happen twice, that is…. Below, you will find a rant I posted back in early March of this year, which, given the information contained in the article attached to the above link, is astoundingly accurate as a response to the actions demonstrated by the administration in this entire scenario….

First, let me say that I’m very, very happy that a federal judge had the courage and integrity to stand up against the tide of administrative pressure, which, as we all should realize by now, originates from the dens of the shadowy corporate masters, and special interest groups who dictate society’s course to suit themselves…. If you haven’t noted this from what you see happening everywhere in the public sector, well, I can’t convince you, but, it remains, nonetheless, the truth, well-documented in the news….

The government, of this country, and just about every other in the world, is in the control of the corporate special interests who control virtually ALL the money, and, along with that, ALL the resources needed to keep society working. It has been this way for millennia, and they are only getting better at the controls they possess over the happenings in the world around us, honed by centuries of practice and deception…. They are so good at it, virtually nobody even realizes the true nature of their control, or the extent of it…. and, that is just how they like it….

But, there are moments when a bit of progress is made in keeping at least a minimum of mankind free of much of their influence, and this ruling in a federal court is one of those moments in history…. It still remains to be seen whether the rest of the federal courts, up to and including the Supremes, will continue to see the actual truth, or whether they’ll begin to color it, too, with the paint provided by the special interest groups, in whose best interests lie the abrogation of the amendments…. For the moment, though, we can be encouraged, at least a little bit…

I was especially heartened by two parts of this report…. First, the judge acknowledged James Madison, as one of the framers of the Bill of Rights, speaking of his obvious and well-placed mistrust of just this scenario, of corporate interests dictating the abrogation of civil rights, such as in this case, the Fourth Amendment, by those in power, and how Mr. Madison would be “aghast” at how far it has come true today….

Second, I was encouraged to see the steadfast dismissal of the reasoning by the administration’s lawyers on the basis of constitutionality, as it goes to prove the contention by Eric Snowden, that the laws and policies being perpetrated by the NSA would be found to be such, to wit: illegal according to the Constitution of the United States…. which would, in turn, prove his innocence under the laws of our country, which, theoretically, rewards those who speak the truth in defense of their fellows….

Good to know SOMEONE is paying attention in the judiciary system…. even if one of the Shrubs appointed him… That, apparently, didn’t turn him away from the Constitution, unlike the POTUS who gave him the job, who was on record as thinking some of the Bill of Rights went too far in giving people certain rights….

Further than that, the arguments presented below are the correct response to the above, which also goes to prove one small point, to wit: even nine months ago, I knew something was wrong in the pictures I was seeing out in the real world…. Enjoy!….

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From 3/2/13:

He who imitates evil always goes beyond the limits of the example, whereas he who imitates what is good, always falls short.” — Confucius

Perfect! If ever a quote could be applied to fit one group of people, this one would; it fits the folks who occupy elected office in this country like the proverbial glove. Ooh! Ooh! Here’s another one….

“Ignorance: When you don’t know something and somebody finds it out.” — Jethro Burns

Okay, that’s a good start…. Now, we all know that politicians lie to us…. It’s what we’ve taught them to do, by our calm acceptance of all the other lies they’ve told, from the very beginning. We expect them to lie…. then, when we catch them at it, there is this huge public outcry, as if it had never happened before….. (Shakes head, sighs….)

Sometimes, the behavior of the American public toward the political beast reminds me of a shark…. to wit: no memory of the past to slow down their willingness to rush into dangerous situations…. For millions of years, sharks and dolphins have lived together in the oceans. For just about all that time, whenever a shark attacks a dolphin, it gets killed, unless the dolphin is injured in some way, or, it is a baby inadvertently left alone. Always, if things are even, the shark dies, because the dolphins are smarter, and faster swimmers.

After millions of years, you would think the sharks might learn to let them alone, but, they don’t, which is evidence of their lack of ability to learn. The American voting public has the same problem…. they never learn to expect to be lied to, and always seem surprised to learn that their elected officials are, shall we say, less than perfectly honest? It, quite frankly, drives me nuts…. What is it about people that does that to them? Why are they so unwilling to use the mind that sits between their ears, rather than just carrying it around from toilet to toilet, which is all most folks seem to do with it?  I wish I knew….

“There is one way to find out if a man is honest – ask him. If he says yes, you know he is crooked.” — Groucho Marx

I’m starting to feel a bit of anger, actually, and I have a hard time not letting it out on the voting public, the idiots. But, it really isn’t all their fault, as the people who run for office are the ones who are actively imitating evil, and, obviously, exceeding the limits of their example. And the voting public can’t help never being able to quite reach the good for which they reach. This is why I get angry about it…. The folks who run for office tell the public they are going to work for the people when they are elected; we all know they are lying, but we elect them anyway. Now, how stupid is that? Pretty stupid, in my book….

On the one hand, the stupidity displayed by the politicians is deliberate, in its adherence to principles of theft and prevarication; on the other hand, the stupidity displayed by the voting public is, perhaps, not deliberate, but at minimum, misguided, and, ultimately, just as evil, in placing its trust in evil people. In the dispassionate view held by the universe, stupid is as stupid does, and the sentence of death is the same for both types of stupidity, deliberate and unconscious. It doesn’t care about why, it only looks at results….

What can be done about this? Not a damn thing…. Not only do I find that most people are unconsciously stupid, but they are stubborn about it, even when it is clear how being stupid is hurting them. Rather than use their minds to find a new way of dealing with these issues, they retreat into platitudes and dogma, and run right back out to vote for another idiot who promises them manna from heaven, or, more accurately, from Washington D.C. If confronted with their idiocy, they become even more stubborn, as they are unwilling to accept they might be wrong, and refuse to either examine any evidence of being wrong, or, will deny its existence altogether. (See quote # 4 in section one, above… Plato knew this about people, hundreds of years before Jesus was born….)

The politicians, who choose to live in stupidity, by lying and cheating and stealing from their own people, don’t even WANT to choose otherwise. Why should they? They’ve got it easy, with a ready supply of host bodies on which to practice their symbiotic parasitism, a body that not only accepts all their lies, but encourages them to even further depredations with their complete acquiescence with whatever the politicos want. All the politicians have to say is that the public is in danger, from this, that, or the other, and the public will allow them to do whatever they choose, as long as they feel safe from whatever fictional fantasy they have been told is dangerous….

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” — Albert Einstein

It’s an interesting spectacle to observe from the sidelines, but it arouses in me a strong feeling of sadness, with the anger underlying, as I watch, day after day, as so many millions of foolish people get taken advantage of by a few assholes. It definitely makes me want to buy a gun, even though I would only use it if pressed; I have a feeling I may get pressed some day, if I continue to make noise about all this.

I’m fairly well protected thus far by a lack of notoriety; the BRC and the PTB aren’t going to worry about me until I have an audience a lot larger than a couple of hundred folks, of which perhaps fifty regularly read my work. If what I am saying began to gain popularity, and was being read by millions, I’d be in danger; until then, I’m as safe as I can make myself with the tools at hand; which, if I say so myself, are not entirely inconsequential….. If I said any more, I’d be giving away my precautions, and that wouldn’t do, so, just rest assured…. I am ready to deal with anything short of assault weapons, with what I have on hand….

“Many, if not all, of my presidential opponents are certifiable idiots.” — Miriam Defensor Santiago — The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 1993

See? I’m not completely alone! Actually, if you pay close attention, you will note this was uttered by a politician, about their peers, so it really doesn’t count as support of what I’m saying here. What, exactly am I saying here? Hmm, okay, since I’ve already written about 1200 words or so on this, it’s a good place to wind it up…. so, here goes….

Ffolkes, you are being lied to, daily…. hell, more like hourly, by those who have been elected to office to look out for your interests. I hate to tell you, but those folks never intended to do anything of the sort. So, it would be a good thing if everybody in this country would OPEN THEIR FUCKING EYES AND GET A DAMN CLUE!!!!!….. I don’t think I can say it any clearer than that…. That’s all, for now….

“Ignorance kills daily. “– Smart Bee
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I know, I know, I’ve been getting carried away the last couple days, letting my inherent loquaciousness get the better of my self-control…. But, it’s all stuff that I feel compelled to say, since the stuff that prompts it keeps happening, right there in the news….

Ah well, it’s all getting to be a moot point, as will be seen by my post tomorrow….. It’s not one I’m looking forward to, for it will discuss some hard truths….. As will be seen, however, it’s all stuff that can wait no longer to be said…. With that teaser delivered, I’ll give up on today’s effort…. It’s an epic, and will fly, even with all that weight to carry up into the upper reaches, where the cool breeze of reason flows….. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Only the finest of hydrogenated motor oils served here….

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Ffolkes,

Though my morning hours are becoming more regular, my brain is not, and the fear, unwelcome, unwanted, yet remains…. Paralyzing, unreasonable, it strikes me each day, as I gaze in terror at the blank screen, wondering how the hell I’ll come up with something new and fresh, when every thought in my brain feels old and wilted, like a three day old salad…. I probably resemble that remark more than I realize…. I’m not green, yet, though…. I’m guessing that’s something about which to be encouraged…

Encouragement seems to be the only positive to be found just now, so, we’ll take it and run with it…. I’ll just keep repeating this affirmation to myself, “I’m not green yet!”…. I’m not green yet!”…. I’ll say that over and over to myself, and somehow, about an hour from now, I’ll believe it… Of course, I’m going by what I’ve been told by some New Agers, followers of some guy named Jack Handey, who’s supposed to be the newest guru of the self-enlightenment crowd…. Having achieved my own enlightenment many years ago, while sitting under a baobab tree, I …. wait, that wasn’t me, that was the Buddha!…. What was I thinking?….

Hah! I guess I fooled you this time, didn’t I? You thought I was going to take credit for the Buddha’s enlightened words, didn’t you? Hah! So there! You can’t catch me like that! I’ve been boasting, er, sharing, yeah, sharing, that’s it…. sharing my knowledge of enlightenment, for many years now, and you won’t catch me so easily as that! You may as well go look for some other lightweight, sucker….

Where were we? Oh, yeah, enlightenment…. Yes, many years ago, I found inner peace. I was actually looking for some aliens I heard had landed near there, but found it laying under a rock…. I sold that batch to a guy on Forty-seventh Avenue for forty bucks, which bought me some very nice ganja uptown. The next time I found it, I couldn’t find a buyer (it was during the Bush recession, the first one….), so I just tossed it in the river, as it wasn’t doing me any good there on the streets….

Sometimes, I actually feel as if a lot of people in today’s world would react the same way as I did, if they did happen to accidentally find inner peace…. Hey, many of them most likely wouldn’t be able to recognize it anyway…. Today’s modern person lives under such pressure, with so many mental distractions from the internet, TV, radio, and now smart phones, they would find it hard, first, just to know they were in need of some inner peace, and second, what to do with it if they found it….. But, not me…. I happen to know there’s a good market for it on the street… the hard part is finding a sucker, and one of those comes along every few minutes, especially in the parts of town where I hang….

For now, though, shall we Pearl?….

“An infallible method of conciliating a tiger is to allow oneself to be devoured.” — Konrad Adenauer
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Today’s Pearl was partially constructed ahead of time, due to an irresistible need to rant that snuck (that’s my new/old replacement for the just-plain-silly “sneaked”…..) up and struck me, right upside the head, of all places, all of a sudden, yesterday, just after noon…. Since the rant that spewed out onto the page at that time inarguably fulfills any possible requirements for length, by a factor of about, oh, three or four, I’ll just put together a bit of an old-school pearl here, of the random, harlequin style, which I’ve found to be the set of parameters that best fits the need for a fresh, yet well-balanced pearl that we have here today…. Balance, as we know, is the key, as is timing…. hence, I give you this fine little grouping, freshly picked from only the finest of oysters…..

“There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), “Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant”

“Truth and falsehood are both whatever, and simultaneously not so, rather than not.” — Tim Larkin, March 31, 1993

“Faith does not offer the least support for proof of truth.” — Nietzsche

“I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too.” — Thomas Jefferson

“It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.” — Agnes Repplier

“We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.” — Albert Einstein

“There is the state religion of mindless consumerism, which is the real message of all advertisements. The state religion is more powerful than any other force; the wise person practices patience and stealth. The wise person creates images that can be unpacked to deliver other messages.” — Jon Carroll, S. F. Chronicle, March 7, 1996

Aha! I see that it turned out to be a Miss Manners pearl, giving advice on how to live with honor, dignity, and a bit of good, clean fun, taking pot shots at political and/or religious pundits at every opportunity….
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There is just something charming and attractive to my mind about the image that Li Po presents, historically…. An amiable, brilliant, always drunk poet, wandering around the Chinese countryside, observing the world in his own inebriated way, composing poems from the depths of his genius, poems describing the beauty he saw, in all he saw, for the rest of us to enjoy…. which we have, for the past thirteen hundred years, or more…. Even if he lived a life completely different than the stories one hears, it wouldn’t matter, for his poetry is timeless….

Alone And Drinking Under The Moon

Amongst the flowers I
am alone with my pot of wine
drinking by myself; then lifting
my cup I asked the moon
to drink with me, its reflection
and mine in the wine cup, just
the three of us; then I sigh
for the moon cannot drink,
and my shadow goes emptily along
with me never saying a word;
with no other friends here, I can
but use these two for company;
in the time of happiness, I
too must be happy with all
around me; I sit and sing
and it is as if the moon
accompanies me; then if I
dance, it is my shadow that
dances along with me; while
still not drunk, I am glad
to make the moon and my shadow
into friends, but then when
I have drunk too much, we
all part; yet these are
friends I can always count on
these who have no emotion
whatsoever; I hope that one day
we three will meet again,
deep in the Milky Way.

~~ Li Po ~~

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I intended to write a rant about the following article (see link below….), about how the White House has been yanking the chain of the American people over this whole issue right from the start of the problem, when Eric Snowden first released the information he took from the NSA (an act of sublime courage, with full knowledge of how he was affecting his life, destined to be labeled a criminal by his own country, in turn itself engaged in criminal acts, on a much larger scale than his alleged theft……), thereby embarrassing the administration….. THAT is the offense for which they cannot forgive him, as it undermines their license to lie with impunity….

I like to follow up on any intentions that I believe to be righteous in nature, so, let’s rant….. Mr. Snowden’s release of information, reportedly taken from his former employer, the NSA, is, because of the nature of the information, in my mind, and the minds of many Americans, not an act of treason against the people of this country.  Rather, it was an act I believe to have been one of high patriotism, based on his concern over what the government was doing to normal people like him…. I would love to see him get the civilian equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, though I know it will never happen….

So, how does the administration respond when his act of courage brought on an outcry of indignation and anger, from the public, from Congress, from other countries and their leaders? They promised to form a committee, to “review the signals intelligence policies” that they have been using SINCE 2008! Ooh, boy, that’s going to resolve the issue, isn’t it? A committee…. Well, I suppose it COULD be considered a start toward a resolution… except that a committee, no matter what it finds, has no legal binding on the administration’s actions….

This committee was picked by that administration, no doubt with the intent of hearing a favorable report, but, instead, the group managed to come up with a report that showed, essentially, that A) they lied, and continue to lie B) they exceeded their authority and C) they need to consider  stopping…. However, since the administration PICKED them, they aren’t bound by any law to follow their recommendations…. an event whose unlikeliness to have EVER occurred approaches the infinite…. Face it, ffolkes, they never meant to stop, or in any way discontinue what they’ve been doing without compunction for five years now….

Ffolkes, this administration, which promised to be the “most transparent ever” has been spying, much more than they want to admit, for the entire time they’ve been in office… This, despite the clear mandate by the American people that they wanted a “change” from the policies of clandestine activities and secrecy that characterized the previous administrations, run by a former CIA director, and his son….

Instead, they not only adopted the Bush policies on spying, they increased them tenfold, all by having the NDAA, the underlying authorizing document for the spying, signed as an executive order, on New Year’s Eve, with Congress recessed, and the nation drunk, at the behest of the retailers…. all without the authorization of Congress, or the courts, or the voters…. just the POTUS and the now unassailable, hidden commanders of the NSA, the Cyber Command, and the ever present CIA….

They won’t discuss any leniency or immunity for Snowden, not when they won’t even ADMIT they’ve done anything wrong…. see the language used by the White House yesterday, when it met with all the leaders of the tech giant companies who have been the biggest victims (in terms of amount of data stolen) of the spying…. There was no admission at all of any wrongdoing on their part, or that they may have gone too far…. none. They don’t intend to do anything but stonewall this, and hope the public will forget, as is the usual case…. Well, not this time, not if I can help it…. I’m really pissed off at all of this, and am really tired of having the people in whom I expect a high standard of behavior, as the recipient of my trust as indicated by my vote, essentially and regularly, piss on my trust….

By now, I suppose, I should know better than to place ANY trust in ANYONE running for an office, but, I had hopes during the last two elections, that perhaps things might just have a chance to change for the better…. I have to say, however, that hope has been pretty thoroughly dashed by the revelations of the past three or four years, more so by the reaction of the administration, than by any of the revelations themselves…. The denial, the refusal to accept responsibility, the repeated and ever-increasing lies, the stubborn refusal to see or accept the public’s displeasure and disgust at their actions, all of this has been more disturbing than the actual information presented…. because it is ALL making them look even guiltier than we know they are, yet they don’t seem to care….

There is a simple reason, ffolkes…. and I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell y’all…. It doesn’t matter… They will do what they will, and there isn’t a damn thing we can do about it, because WE ALREADY GAVE THEM THE POWER…. and, guess what? They won’t be giving it back, that’s for sure and for certain…. not without a severe struggle…..

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/White-House-task-force-urges-limit-on-NSA-snooping-5074958.php

If y’all don’t see, from the tone and words used by the White House, that they know they’ve got the upper hand, then, I encourage you to go back to wherever you have the little piece of sand, where you have the hole in which you prefer to hide your head in the presence of danger, and put your head in there for a good long while…. Things out here in the real world aren’t bound to change, except to follow the course away from liberty, as it has been doing for some time now, all with the approval of the most ignorant set of voters to ever grace a planet…..

Okay, so, today, you get a two-fer…. The above rant was based on the article, but, the thoughts and some of the evidence isn’t new; it’s old, like I’m getting to be, with some reluctance, but hopefully, some dignified acceptance for the process, if not the end results…. where was I? Oh, right…. the following rant is constructed upon the same base, but using the thoughts going through my head in July of this year…. I had intended to use them to support the article, but, that seems to have stimulated its own support, so, just view this as “more thoughts on the same subject”….

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

“One of the merits of democracy is quite obvious: it is perhaps the most charming form of government ever devised by man.  The reason is not far to seek.  It is based on propositions that are palpably not true — and what is not true, as everyone knows, is always immensely more fascinating and satisfying to the vast majority of men than what is true.” — H. L. Mencken

With this statement, Mr. Mencken has put his finger on the pulse of America, that is for certain. It goes a long way toward explaining why so many people in this country are so willing to believe the outright, egregious lies that are told to them every single day by the officials they elect every year at the polls that characterize our alleged republic…. They do lie, you know, with almost every statement that comes out of their mouths….

They begin with the most important lie they tell, from which all the others spring, and that is the lie they tell when they tell you that they want to be elected so they can work for YOU! Each and every politician learns early in their career, if they are at all to be successful, they MUST portray themselves as a public-spirited, honest, and tireless worker whose only purpose is to make life better for their constituents….

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth…. NONE of them are at all concerned with any of that nonsense; they are there to carry out their own agenda, which has very little to do with what is good for the general run of mankind…. No, they are there to serve the interests of the men and women who pay them, those lobbyists and special interest representatives who run the businesses of the corporate masters.

The people on the street cannot provide them with the perks, or the cash, that the clandestine rulers are able to come up with, other than peripherally, by electing them in the first place…. Once elected, their true colors come out into the light of day, and it can be easily seen how their actions are never congruent with what they have promised to the people who elected them….

It’s all about power and money to these folks, not service. In my entire life of observing politics around the world, I have yet to see a single elected official who could be shown to be honest, not at the national level. The one who came the closest was Jimmy Carter, and his presidency was marked by how little got done, because he was so honest that the true politicians in Congress blocked every reform he tried to institute during his time in office. His actions during that time showed him to be the exception to the usual rule for politicians, which is why, I believe, he was so ineffective as a legislator….

“Invest in America — Buy Japan!”– Smart Bee

Other than Carter, I have seen concrete proof that EVERY President of this country has lied to the American people, not just once or twice, but continuously, about nearly everything. Time and time again, public outcries are heard or seen in the news about some new revelation regarding something some politician lied about, just like it is breaking news or something, when it is actually the normal state of affairs….

I don’t know why it is, but if a man on a TV set, wearing a suit and tie, makes a statement to the public, the general public will believe it, sometimes fanatically, without ever examining it for whether or not it is true…. Then, when it turns out they were lied to, they get all upset and vocalize their displeasure, never once admitting it was their own cupidity that allowed the lie to occur in the first place…. It makes me wonder what happened to people in this country, to make them go soft in the head….

“Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.” — Anton Chekhov

Did you ever notice how many politicians were lawyers, first? Most of them, as it turns out, for the simple reason that learning to be a lawyer gives a politician two advantageous types of training…. One advantage is that law school teaches the student how to lie in every imaginable way, in order to ascertain which kinds of lies are legal…. The other advantage is their primary motivation….

If asked, a very large percentage of lawyers will tell you their reason for becoming a barrister in the first place is that it is a good way to get rich, (without mentioning, of course, that this is true only as long as one doesn’t give a shit about other people, and what that might do to them).  In other words, they make their money by taking advantage of people’s misery, holding them as hostages against their own destiny, in order to gain resources, i.e. money, and its sidekick, power….

Then the lawyers realize that their training is perfect for politics…. The ability to lie with facility comes in very handy to anyone who wants to be in the public eye, as that is how one gets elected in the first place…. Tell people what they want to hear, and they will vote for you, every time, coming back to the same trough to eat, even though they get screwed, time after time…. Having the facility to ignore what happens to others, due to their own actions, is the other skill so important to the political set, and the training one receives as a lawyer fits right into that category….

“Watching the democratic party in a presidential contest is like watching a washing machine with a defective bearing:  It starts up smoothly enough, but soon, it begins to wobble and shake, jumping violently from place to place, until it tears itself to pieces, spewing dirty laundry all over the room.” – Smart Bee

Some people will say that there ARE some good lawyers out there, and I won’t argue that…. but, they’re still lawyers, not politicians, aren’t they? They’re doing what they can to help ffolkes find their way through the morass of our legal system to get what they need, even occasionally finding some justice…. But, they aren’t going further, and going into public service, are they? They’re still in place, where they can help, but, they are so few and far between, they are hard to find, and so are very busy, seldom having the time or resources to work against their less honest colleagues. Plus, they really are very few in number, as altruists seldom become lawyers in the first place….

I can see that this has evolved into a full scale rant, and we’ve just begun the day, so I’ll call a halt here. I often feel as if I’m preaching to the choir, anyway, when I go through this stuff again…. It’s all familiar material around here, so it isn’t as if I’m presenting new ideas for your examination…. No, this is all old stuff, and, sadly, doesn’t seem to ever create the outrage that I feel in very many other ffolkes…. which is too bad….  I forget who said that “if you keep on doing things the same ways as you always have, things will always be the way they’ve always been….”, but, they were absolutely correct…. We are on a path to our own destruction, clearly, but, nobody seems to care.

Nobody, that is, who seems able to DO anything about it, and they are the ones who will need to make the changes…. The people in authority over the rest of us are wearing blinders in this respect…. The idea that what they are doing is wrong, and will eventually kill us all, doesn’t fit into their world-view, so they won’t believe it, and will continue to refuse to make any of the changes needed to re-direct our steps onto a path less dangerous.

It is up to the rest of us to get it done, and that may entail overthrowing the current crop of rulers, either by the vote, or by the less agreeable option of using the necessary force, while making sure the new crop will act in OUR best interests, rather than their own…. If it does happen, it will be the first time in history, which is fine with me…. just as long as it is not the LAST time in history….

“… democracy is not something you believe in, or a place you hang your hat, but it’s something you do.  You participate.  If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles and falls apart.” — Abby Hoffman
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Well, I seem to have a problem with stopping, once I get started on a rant, don’t I?…. Today, I even extended the guilty piece with an even longer supporting piece, that, despite its length, is of such good fit, I can’t bring myself to leave it out…. it just makes the whole thing complete. I can see, though, that some ffolkes may not get all the way through it, which is okay, just this once…. Next time, it will ALL be on the quiz….

Besides, what I wrote today is of the category that people really need to think more about, because if they don’t start paying attention to what I’m saying, they’re going to reap the rewards of the inattention they’ve been putting into their lives, in regards their beloved ruling class, and the degree to which they allow them to victimize the public without consequence….

And there I go, right back into the rant…. Let’s go proof, and see if this is ready to fly…. One thing is for sure…. nobody can accuse me of not getting it all out…. which, as we know, is exactly WHY I do this…. Better out than in, I always say…. But, they also say, say what you have to say, then, shut up… so, I’ll do that now, so nobody can say I can’t take advice…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Fighting dogma is EVERYBODY’S responsibility…. Only YOU can fight the forest fires of ignorance, with the cool water of Reason!….

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Ffolkes,

Hidden from sight by a looming, ominous hedge, mellifluous sounds of Mozart, played expertly on a well-tuned piano, escaped into the quickening night air, tossed away in the gentle breeze blowing from the woods beyond the hedge. Soft sounds of talk and laughter joined the music, filling in the picture of genteel life in the country.

As the silent man, dressed all in black, turned around the hedge, the party came into view; women in floating, soft-colored dresses and large floppy hats, men in leisure suits, with pale pink shirts, and the occasional short sleeve. White jacketed servers, unobtrusive, wound their way  between the formally clad attendees, offering hors d’oeuvre, or champagne in elegant flutes….

The sound of the Uzi’s safety release, followed instantly by the unmistakeable sound of the weapon being cocked, cut sharply across the conversation and music, stunning all into silence, until the man’s voice rang out, clear as a bell, ” Okay, everyone, strip!”…..

Damn! I am SO GLAD that is over! I started to write it, and it started to change on me, turning into the most boring piece of crap I’ve ever had the temerity to put on paper (metaphorically, of course….) I suppose it’s alright, from a technical standpoint…. that was the problem….. I wrote it, then went through it, cleaning it up, polishing it, making it flow….. until I realized what a pile of shit it really was….

By then, of course, my anal-obsessive nature had hold of me, and I had to finish it…. But, it’s over now, and I can go on to something perhaps less classy, but way more comfortable…. What a cock-up! And I hope I’m getting the meaning right there…. it SOUNDS right for the occasion, but, if any of my British or Euro friends have any idea of correct usage, I’d appreciate a head’s-up on that…. Thanks in advance for that….

This is, so far, a unique Pearl…. in one way only, so far, but, it remains to be seen as to whether that changes, or not. It’s unique because of the time it’s being created, which is well past any stretch of normalcy for me; it’s after 8 AM, almost 8:30, and I slept until 0749, meaning I got another nine hours of sleep last night, again….. This is such a new event, I’m not even going to try to analyze it at all, I’m just going with the flow, even if it is a very strange flow thus far…. I have lots of energy, in a relative sense, but, still little to do with it other than put it into this…. a good thing, for the most part, but, a bit limiting in other ways. I like to be active, and this getting old, in the sense of it limiting my ability to get around easily, is keeping me down more often than I’d like. I’m dithering aren’t I?

I can feel it…. I’m starting to dither, flipping from one subject to another, in my head, so fast that I can’t keep up, and neither can reality…. It gets a little confusing at times, but, sometimes, some of my best stuff gets done when this happens…. It’s a matter of balancing the creative flow of ideas that are thundering down, like a waterfall over the edge of my mind, with some intense, yet subtle, mind-control techniques, hidden, but effective,  that allow me to surf along the edge of the water, letting it take me wherever it wishes to go…. Since I’ve blathered again for long enough to suit the authorities who give a shit about that sort of thing, we can get on with today’s dive, late as it may be in getting started…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places

yes is a world
& in this world of yes live
(skillfully curled)
all worlds”

— e.e. cummings
_____________________________

“Late, I’m late, for a very important date…” — The White Rabbit

This could very well become the iconic statement for today’s post, were we at all interested in appointing one…. Since we are not, I’ll just explain that starting this now has given me the heebie jeebies, and it could affect what comes after…. just so’s you know, okay?…. I’m going to go right into another pearl now, as I think it would be in all of our best interests to keep moving, and hope we can get out of here without any serious injury…. This way, ffolkes, and for heaven’s sake, stay together!…. Whatever you do, stay on the path!….

“Vivid words hook misquotes in the mind.” — Keyes’ Rules of Misquotation, Axiom 1, Corollary 1A

Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all.

— Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639) — The Character of a Happy Life

“Time and trouble will contain an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.” — Dorothy Sayers

“Gentleman: A man who knows how to play bagpipes — and refrains.” — Fred Tart

“Perfection of means and confusion of ends seem to characterize our age.” — Albert Einstein

“Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know.” — William Saroyan

“How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life wouldn’t you say?” — James T. Kirk, “The Wrath of Khan,”  stardate 8130.3.

Sorry about using J.T. in the ending…. if you wish, attribute the line to the screenwriter who wrote it for the movie, which, as we all know, is a cult classic for the competition between Kirk and Khan to see which could sustain the stiffest acting pose throughout the movie…. “Khan! Khan!….” It’s really kind of cool, with both of them vying to be the more convincing Macbeth, while playing characters in a science fiction space opera….

The line, nonetheless, is the perfect ending to what turned into a fairly decent pearl…. What, you weren’t paying attention? Ah…. Well, your loss…. though there is no charge for going back to read them again, should you so choose… Just don’t let the one by Ms. Sayers throw you off…. it fits, if you’re flexible enough…. If not, well, just try to keep up, we’re running late, as might be expected today….
_____________________________

Yep….. ’tis, indeed….

Shoes

when you’re young
a pair of
female
high-heeled shoes
just sitting
alone
in the closet
can fire your
bones;
when you’re old
it’s just
a pair of shoes
without
anybody
in them
and
just as
well.

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

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I don’t care what the contract says, it’s my blog, and I can change things around if I want….. Anyone who doesn’t like that, well, they can walk back to the main office, and welcome… I’m going old-school again for this section, for two reasons…. One, I want to….. any questions, or problems with that? Good…. Second, it will end the agony sooner….

Whoa, wait a minute, no need to knock me over in your enthusiasm…. I get the picture now…. the sooner, the better, eh? Well, if that’s the way you feel about it, I guess I have no alternative but to carry on with what consensual reality demands, which is a speedy end to this, yes?….. Besides, I don’t feel up to ranting, and the BRC has been suspiciously quiet in the last few days…. I guess the cold weather is slowing everyone down right now…. but, not Smart Bee, thankfully…..

“Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn’t there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.” — Robert A. Heinlein

On a huge hill,
Cragged & steep, Truth stands,
and hee that will Reach her,
about must, and about must goe;
And what the hill’s suddenness resists, winne so.

— John Donne

“We judge individual man and women as we do nations and races–by the character of their achievement and by their achievement of character.” — Edward Abbey

Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.

— William Butler Yeats

“It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Just how normal are we? Just who are the people we nod our hellos to as we pass on the street?  A rather good question to ask–particularly in the Twilight Zone.” — Rod Serling

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

“The way to keep you from becoming foolish is to never think you are clever.” — Smart Bee

Well, I tried, and that’s the important thing, isn’t it? I keep hoping so…. Besides, no animals were hurt, or used for testing without their permission, during the filming of this commercial…. unless, of course, Eddie’s been losing at the track again…. but, that hasn’t happened for a long time, and he’s on vacation, anyway….
_____________________________

It’s probably best if, at this point, I DON’T make any moral or ethical judgments; I’ll just read it, and weep….. I think I’m going to pass on the weeping, because, it ain’t too bad…. It’s good enough to suit MY standards, for sure and for certain, so, we all know what that means…. Which also means, bye bye, then…. until tomorrow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Moments of intentional rapture, guaranteed….

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Ffolkes,

Whether we speak metaphorically, or realistically, I’m screwed. Well, maybe not all the way screwed, but well-pinched, as it were, by the nearness of the approaching deadlines….. Yep, deadlines, those horrible self-drawn handcuffs of steel we voluntarily apply to ourselves, to play hell with our heads and hearts during the already busy holidays.

For me, it means the deadline of my son’s birthday, which falls ahead of Christmas by a week, but shall forever remain separate, by decree, and justifiably so. No, no worries here about the actual date, I’ve always known that’s coming…. it’s not knowing what to get this time that is causing the issue….

My son is no longer a boy, so the latest toys aren’t going to cut it; I know he doesn’t have much time for Xbox or other games right now, not with two or three jobs to get to, and a boy to raise, and I don’t know what his current reading habits are like, so I don’t know if he’ll like a book, if I get one…. I’ve never had this trouble for him, before, but, then, I’ve been totally unable to buy gifts at this time of year, for several years, so actually having to think about it is sort of new, too…

Oh well, I know I’ll end up using my same old method, of going to a store with a variety of stuff, and wandering around until I see the right thing….It always seems to work, and they always like what I find, so, I’ll go with that, and hope for the best…. As I believe I said, and if not, am now saying, it’s nice to be able to think about buying a gift without a feeling of panic or depression, which was the case for three or four years running….

It’s funny, too, how my income, now, at retirement, is set at a level well above where it was for much of my working career… That isn’t a complaint, for sure, as I need it now more than ever, what with the medical expenses that I can expect to climb steadily over time….. it’s merely a surprise, to see that I planned better than I knew…. No telling how well off I might have been, had someone actually TOLD me about this getting old business… but, hey, none of us got that memo, and who among us would have paid attention to it, anyway?….. I know for a fact that, until I turned 35 or so, I was completely invulnerable…. or, so I thought…

As I am well aware, now, I’m not anything of the sort, the proof of which I live with on a daily basis…. and life goes on, as it does for all of us…. Since I’ve already meandered and blathered for a sufficient amount of time and space, we’ll be nice, and go on to other events, which will probably be a lot more entertaining than this pile of dross…. I can’t even bring myself to call it drivel, as it doesn’t quite make it there, either….

Oh well, I should have known all this sleep would have some kind of effect on things… I just thought that effect MIGHT be positive…. Hope springs eternal, I suppose, only to be crushed again…. SIGH…. Damn that Murphy, anyway…. Since going back to bed is out of the question, I may as well go for a dive….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.” — Herodotus

Sometimes, we know it quite well….
_____________________________

Creating Pearls of Virtual Wisdom is not as easy as it may appear from the outside… This, though a truism, is not something I can explain to y’all, not by using words…. To really understand the process, it must be experienced…. Unfortunately, I’m not sure I can tell you enough to get it to work for you, and I don’t know if just having you tag along as I do it is going to quite give the correct information, either…. It’s quite the conundrum, and we are thankful to God for giving it to us to solve….

As you may know, if you spend time hanging around here much, the last statement was NOT serious, as we don’t waste a lot of time around here giving thanks to imaginary figures; we find that to be less productive than the regular application of rational thought…. No, it was a just a joke, only there to see if y’all were paying attention this morning…. Since you were, mostly, I can get on with this….

This one, as I was getting around to saying above, before I decided to go wonky on you with the test mode, will be an odd pearl, gathered at different periods of time over a couple of days, looking for just the right ones to make the point at which I’m pointing… Let’s see how it came out, after all my work…

“The artist’s job? To be a miracle worker: make the blind see, the dull feel, the dead to live….” — Edward Abbey

“When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.” — Albert Einstein

“If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture – that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves.” — Edward Abbey

“Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.” — P.J. O’Rourke

Death in itself is nothing; but we fear
To be we know not what, we know not where.

— John Dryden (1631-1700) — Aurengzebe, Act iv, Sc. 1

“Depend not on fortune, but on conduct.” — Publius Syrus

“For some Reason, reality is an illusion.” — Smart Bee

Hmm… I have the feeling I could have just used my index finger, and been done with it…. Oh, well, onward….
_____________________________

Sometimes, poetry hides itself inside another piece of literature…. Here is a poem, stuck inside a chant from an Indian tribe; without Googling, I’ll assume it came from the either the eighteenth, or the nineteenth century, during the time when Europeans and New World Indians were first meeting, culture to culture…. The poem I see in this describes a world view that indicates a people whose moral and ethical degree of advancement was obviously much greater than the European culture against which it came into conflict…..

The poor white devils couldn’t begin to understand, much less appreciate,  the finer sentiments of these children of nature…. so they had to destroy them…. For several hundred years now, this has been the typical reaction of most Caucasian cultures to societies different than their own…. The saddest part is that the Makah Indians, if they were as gentle as their words would indicate, probably forgave them… which I cannot do….

Do not stand by my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am a diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle Autumn rain.
When you awake in the morning hush.
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft star-shine at night.
Do not stand by my grave and cry.
I am not there… I did not die.

 — Song of the Makah Indians


Smart Bee had originally listed this as a ‘prayer’ of the Indians, but, I don’t believe it was meant as such, as much as it was a song, one that their children sang, to learn about what their people believed, not to indoctrinate them with dogma, or with the useless memorization of lists of sins…..
_____________________________

Hardware met Software on the road to Changtse.  Software said: “You are the Yin and I am the Yang.  If we travel together we will become famous and earn vast sums of money.”  And so the pair set forth together, thinking to conquer the world.

Presently, they met Firmware, who was dressed in tattered rags, and hobbled along propped on a thorny stick.  Firmware said to them: “The Tao lies beyond Yin and Yang.  It is silent and still as a pool of water.  It does not seek fame, therefore nobody knows its presence.  It does not seeks fortune, for it is complete within itself.  It exists beyond space and time.”

Software and Hardware, ashamed, returned to their homes.  — Geoffrey James, “The Tao of Programming”

This koan reminds me of the tale of how the guard at the city gate prevented Lao Tzu from leaving the city until he had written down the 88 verses of the Tao Teh Ching…. It also reminds me that too much is too much, and I should just let the story teach the lesson, without any comment… So, I will… Just read the above, ffolkes, and think on it a while… You’re bound to get something good from doing so, even if it’s only a few moments of quiet contemplation….

“The truth is always the strongest argument.” — Sophocles (496-406 BC) — Phaedra, Frag. 737
_____________________________

As I awoke this morning, I thought I was hallucinating; the clock read 0619, a time I have not seen from bed for a very long time. I even felt some mild anxiety at getting a Pearl done in good time, but, I should know by now they’ll get done when they’re done, and not before…. no matter how late I sleep. It seems, also, that I’m right, because, hey, here we are at the end, and I think it’s done…. Let me see just how done it is….

I’d say that’s done, and done fairly well, for all its assumed gravity, and in direct contrast to the rather pathetic plea for understanding that underlies the entire set of assertions and tentative conclusions…. In short, I think it will do, as long as I don’t think about it too much…. I’m going with that, anyway, even if it IS the wrong decision…. I’ve been wrong before, haven’t I?….. I know I have…. See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Skeptical images go in the bluest bin…. (Spoiler: 94% fresh material…)

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Ffolkes,

I’m often amazed at how much the world can change in one day; never has that been more clearly defined for me than in the past 24 hours, when I took the time to compare that day to the 24 hours that preceded…. The difference, in how I feel, in how I view the world, in the world itself, all are in direct contrast to each other, and serve to send my mind into the realms of thought and introspection…. which is a good thing, mostly, if a bit strange for the average bear…. I’ve never been a particularly average bear, though, so, no worries, eh?….

My condition, both physical and mental, over the last few days was complicated by a certain policy decision I’d made, which, in the light of subsequent events, became, quite obviously, the wrong policy to adopt at this particular time, if ever. Since returning the policy to its former state, all seems to be well, in many respects that were NOT doing well….

This tells me that reinstating the policy was the correct decision, so, once again, that’s a good thing, even if all this is so obscure that even I am not sure what the hell I’m talking about…. But, that’s okay, it’s not really important for any other purpose than my own inner serenity, which is always a bit wobbly, so, we’ll just keep it that way, and let things settle into their most propitious alignments without further interference from me….

Now, wasn’t THAT fun! I could possibly have made that even more obdurately obscure, but, what’s the point in that? I can barely follow it myself, so even the NSA will have trouble figuring out what I’m talking about, even with ALL my meta-data to work with…. They’re missing the key encryption factor, which is located deep within the confines of my brain, in places of which even I am not fully cognizant; I keep it there on purpose, so I can’t tell them if I ever get caught….

Okay, so I’m no James Bond…. I can pretend, can’t I?….. Besides, I’m no real threat, (yet…), to them, other than by what I may write, and that has, thus far, been fairly mild, in terms of actual, practical revolutionary content…. I have yet to actually BUY a gun, (yet…), and haven’t started meeting up with like-minded radicals from other places around the country, (yet…). Nor have I started a newsletter, or published a paper, or any of the other organizational activities one might suspect if I chose to pursue such a course…. (yet…..)

I’ve thought about all of them, and may, someday relatively soon, go about following up on one or more of those impulses; it’s about damn time for some changes in this sad old world, that’s for sure….

But, not yet…. not quite yet….. I’m not convinced at this point as to how many others out there would consider joining with me in such activity, though I suspect there are many more than the BRC would believe…. Plus, when the time actually comes for me to do something practical, do they actually think that I’m stupid enough to tell them about it first? I guess they are, so, we’ll just let them go on believing that, and get on with what we’re doing…. which, at this point should probably involve some diving for pearls…. otherwise, we many never get out of here, and I know I’m low on snack items…. so…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Between the vision and the act lies the shadow.” — T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
_____________________________

‘Kay…. I’m submitting to the will of Fate, such as it presents itself, as we all must when it does…. Oh, we all like to come up with high sounding rationalizations why our fate is in our own hands, or, we like to pretend it is subject to adjustment, if we hold to a certain set of beliefs, that protect us from its vagaries, but, when it all comes down to the final analysis, we will ALWAYS do what we do, and the WHY has NO BEARING on what will occur…. 

What will be, will be…. This is something that most people have a hard time coming to accept, myself included….. I’ve discovered, over the years, it is often best to go with the odds, so…. in order to honor the concept of “always cut the cards”, I’d like to talk a bit about the process of getting old…..

“Yep, getting old just plain sux.” — lobotero ( http://lobotero.com/ )

This quote was left as a comment for me on a recent post, wherein I was once again discussing my health, and mentioned that feeling poorly was “getting old”…. My new friend, lobotero, agreed with the sentiment, as he, I know, lives with his own difficult health issues…. But, when he said that, I was struck by the simple fact that, although it is true, as true as the sun coming up each day, it only describes half of the universe in which we live, the living half,  and it’s only because we are suffering that the other half, the dying, is so hard to acknowledge…..

“I’d rather die happy than not die at all….” — Bob Weir

Yeah, I’m hating big parts of this getting old shit, most of which is due to the fact that none of it was in the damn manual…. Of course, there was no manual, but, you know what I mean…. When we’re growing up, do the adults tell us, “don’t worry, you’ll be in pain soon, too, dear….”?… No, of course not… It’s all, “Oh, go play, dear, have fun. Use your mind, and your body, just be safe!”, or some such happy shit, never giving a clue, until later in life, that we all should have begun practicing some years ago at those things that will help us later in life…. SIGH… If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was a conspiracy…..

But, I know better than to attribute to malevolence anything that is more likely the result of asininity, or just plain stupidity….. We’re all not the brightest creatures on the platter, you know…. Why else would we still be stuck hanging around some backwater planet like this? There HAS to be somewhere more civilized to go, if only to find an adequate cup of ambrosia….. Logic says there MUST be…. As I am, sadly, no smarter than the rest of the monkeys stuck here, I suppose that means I have to try again to get along with the inhabitants, at least for long enough to get through another incarnation….

I must be feeling a little bit better, as this is the most coherent bit of cogitation I’ve managed for a week or more, as well as the most light-hearted…. I miss my sense of humor when it’s hiding behind the outrage, or the pain, or whatever it finds to stay out of the limelight…. But, one mustn’t spook the muses, now, so, shhh, we won’t talk of it any more just now…. Where was I?

Oh, yes, I was getting old, and, mostly liking it…. I guess that is the thrust of what I’m trying to say here….. I’ve had a HELL of a good time in my life, having managed to do just about all I wanted to do at one time or another, along with, of course, quite a few things I didn’t want to do so much…. But, all of them have taught me something, so, I figure I’m ahead of the game in that respect…. Plus, I just remembered why I MUST be feeling better, and why it’s so…..

When one is using one’s MIND (caps deliberate, to denote I’m really serious here….), when it is fully engaged in doing the work at which it excels, it actually has healing, and recuperative powers, in respect to the rest of the body…. This idea is a commonly held belief in many spiritual circles, and there is medical evidence to support it, as well, so I’m not just talking through my ass (though that has been known to occur…. but, not now….)… Any who, when one is thinking hard, and concentrating, the body has actually been measured, with results that indicate it does not merely STOP AGING, but, in point of fact, will repair some of the damage time wreaks, making us younger…..

For some time now, perhaps an hour or so, I’ve been thinking about what my friend said, above, and the echoes of the thoughts are still reverberating around in my head, stimulating other ideas, bouncing around. colliding with other ideas like a nuclear reaction in full swing, and, in essence, creating conditions in my body that are helping me to get better….. Until, of course, the actual illness itself steps in, to let me know it’s not quite gone… S’cuse me…. break time…. I hope to be right back….

So much for the wishes of a man in the face of fate, or Fate, or even destiny…. To continue…. in that hour that I’ve spent in thinking about how it sux to get old, I have felt better than I have for over a week, and certainly the best I’ve felt since becoming ill, several weeks ago, when I caught a cold for the first time in decades…. But, a full hour of the mind at work, and much of the damage has been, if not eliminated fully, mitigated to a significant degree; you can’t complain about a deal like that, now, can you?…..

So, yes, getting old sux, big time, a lot of the time…. Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story for us humans….. Myself, I have always enjoyed the process of learning, which just so happens to occur at a regular rate as we grow older (as long as we are paying attention….), and wouldn’t trade a single grey hair for those darker tendrils that adorned my head as a youth….. They still grow, grey as they are, a fact that, to me, indicates how things actually are, if we know how to perceive them….

As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned something new with each passing hour; the things I’ve learned make my life much fuller, filled with the feelings and experiences that I enjoy, such as the anticipation and excitement of traveling, or the profound joy of meeting new people, and I don’t believe I’d care to go back to being young, because the trade-off wouldn’t be a fair bargain, for me, or for the world….

I’ll just take things the way they are, and do the best I can to learn to enjoy even the difficult times, as being another kind of lesson….. This one taught me to find my way back to the proper attitudes for my mental and physical well-being, so, I’m content, for the nonce, even though I’m older than I was when I began…..

“You’ve little to fear, brave knight…unless the dragon stops purring.” — Smart Bee
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At times, all I want is a simple poem, that speaks directly to the truth of life…. Oh, look, here’s one now!…..

A Bottle And Friend

There’s nane that’s blest of human kind,
But the cheerful and the gay, man,
Fal, la, la, &c.

Here’s a bottle and an honest friend!
What wad ye wish for mair, man?
Wha kens, before his life may end,
What his share may be o’ care, man?

Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought, man:
Believe me, happiness is shy,
And comes not aye when sought, man.

~~ Robert Burns ~~

_____________________________

As I was searching the other day, looking for pearls for an old-school pearl I was putting together, a group of another type kept popping up in SB, obviously trying to get me to include them in a post…. I put them aside for the moment, but now will complete the group, and include them here, so they will stop whimpering at me…. Actually, this is looking like it will be a pretty good one….

“People are divided into two groups – the righteous and the unrighteous – and the righteous do the dividing.” — Lord Cohen

EVANGELIST, n.  A bearer of good tidings, particularly (in a religious sense) such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation of our neighbors. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“At the beginning there was the Word – at the end just the Cliche.” — Stanislaw J. Lec

“Any system of religion which has anything in it which offends the mind of a child cannot be a true system.” — Thomas Paine

“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.” — Albert Einstein

“All men are born naked.” — Carlos Eduardo Novaes

“If attacked by a lion thrust your arm down his throat. This takes some practice.” — Cyril Connolly

For those who have been reading this blog for a while, you may understand why I recognize this to be one of the finest pearls I’ve ever come up with; for those unfamiliar with how my mind works, (a group that often includes myself….), this will seem like something almost familiar, but, elusive and difficult to pin down….. For what it is worth, a key decryption tool for deciphering the meaning here would be the word, “dogma”; even more useful, the word, “poltroon”…. Of course, if you use the latter, you will need to remember to bring some Windex, or perhaps, a bit of WD-40, to the aftermath party…..
_____________________________

Today is one of those special days, brimming with the possibility of epiphany, tempered by the patina of age, yet shining with the luster that comes from elegance…. Oh wait, that’s just some oatmeal on my glasses….Whoops! Oh well, I had hopes there, for a moment…. Let’s see if it lives up to any of its promises….

Well, actually, it does…. I like it, and though I’m not particularly hard to please, still, it’s pretty okay…. I know, I’m damning it with faint praise, but, it can’t be helped… If I gush, I seem too egotistical, and, it’s not THAT good…. Whatever it is, I hope y’all enjoy today’s effort, because I enjoyed writing it…. See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

A plethora of pentangular puff pastries….

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5

Ffolkes,

“Surely,” I thought to myself, “surely there won’t be any more fear.” Then, I woke up, only to find that, once again, the screen is blank, and so is my mind…. If I were a writer for a magazine, or a news paper, or some specific job that hires writers, perhaps I wouldn’t face such a conundrum each morning…. I’d have my assignments of what to write already waiting for me, as given to me by my editors, may they rot in hell…. (Sorry, editors, but your reputation precedes you….)  The assignments would, no doubt, be as boring as they could make them, but, they’d be subjects, and I wouldn’t have to fret and fuss over finding something to start with….

Of course, I can always go into the “whine and cheese” mode, like this morning, where I just complain about how much of a hassle it all is; it may LOOK like it’s easy to put together, but, it really isn’t, you know…. Trying to do this, while making it sound and look different than all the other times I’ve used this method, well, it isn’t as simple as it may seem…. Of course, nothing about writing on a daily basis is as simple as it seems, either, at least, not as simple as it looked before I began doing it…. The actual doing of it takes more dedication and perseverance than it seems as if it would, when looking at it from the outside….

The advantage to this type of intro section is, naturally, the very thing I complain of, to wit: no restraints on me as to what I can write…. I can do this, I can write a fictional beginning, or I can do something entirely off the wall…. and no comments about ALL of it being off that wall, if you please…. I get that enough from my own head; I don’t need y’all to reinforce that idea any more than it already gets….

If you’ve been watching the last few weeks, you’ll see that I’ve gotten rather good at saying nothing for about four or five paragraphs…. Every day, for some time, I’ve managed to fill in this section with nonsense, or blather, either of which takes up the required space, but, without all the wear and tear on my bone of creativity….. (I only have the one, you know, so it’s kind of overworked….) I’ve been sleeping more in the last week, too, which has also had a small effect on things, though I’m still not certain what that effect might be…. It just makes me sound as if I know whereof I speak, which is important for an op/ed writer….

That is what I really consider myself to be, at the bottom…. I write opinion editorials, which I and many others call rants….. Why? Well, because if I didn’t, all that stuff would sit inside my head, and rot…. The end result of that particular form of chemical reaction is NOT healthy, for me, or for whomever is nearby when it comes rushing out of my head, percolated from merely food for thought, into outright outrage, and justified anger, toward that portion of humanity that preys upon the remainder….. I can’t seem to help it, the evidence is right there in the news, for all to see, and I just can’t let it lie, sleeping dog or no…

So, I’ll keep on keepin’ on, so to speak, as long as the Beloved Ruling Class continues to screw over the rest of humanity….. Given the state of the planet, and the rate at which we continue to pump particulate matter into its atmosphere, that really won’t be all that long…. more’s the pity…. I was really looking forward to seeing the rest of the galaxy, too….

Shall we Pearl?….

“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)
_____________________________

Though I described above how a pearl will generally include something rantable, or at least, formerly rantable and now archived, it should be noted that I do try to keep things as fresh as possible….. But, it gets hard, especially since the damn horse died…. I keep beating on it, but it won’t get up!…. Nonetheless, the subject matter will remain the same, in general…. the folks who stick it to the rest of us don’t change their spots, so they’re always there as targets…. At the present moment in time, however, my head isn’t quite ready for such vituperation… or perhaps it would be more accurate to say my HEART isn’t in it right now, as the emotions behind the rants are what make them powerful, on those occasions when they do achieve the proper tone of accusation and outrage….

Hence the following harlequin pearl, odd-numbered star variety, gathered fresh today for your perusal and delectation, snatched from the jaws of the Smart Bee to provide y’all with this morning’s food for thought, to go along with all the usual holiday hype we suffer from this time of the year…. I hope you enjoy them, they cost me a LOT of effort today…. Well, I’m assuming they will…. they always do….

“Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.” — Elbert Hubbard

I aske not labored letters which should weare
Long papers out: nor letters which should feare
Dishonest carriage: or a seer’s art:
Nor such as from the brayne come, but the hart.

— John Donne

“It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives…  When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force.  When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered.” — Dorothy Thompson, American journalist, author (1894-1961)

There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.

— Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) — In Memoriam, xcvi, Stanza 3

“I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.” — G. C. Lichtenberg

“Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.” — Socrates

“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” Albert Einstein
_____________________________

In the past few days, I’ve been posting poems that didn’t need any help or introduction from me; the sheer genius they displayed spoke for itself…. Rather than rely entirely upon the works of other people, I’ve decided to spread a bit of the blame onto my own shoulders, so there can be no speculation of discrimination, or lack thereof…. I know exactly how my poetry stands up to the classics; no illusions of grandeur there, believe me…. But, sometimes, I do okay….. If nothing else, the rhymes are almost always consistent, so, I’m happy….

I know I’m in the now, if only…..

Oh, there it is again, fiddle faddle;
  Begone, I said, vamoose, skedaddle!
It looked at me as if I were insane:
  Scoffed, it did, filled me with pain.

Where does it come from?
Where does it live?
I’d stick out my thumb,
if I had more to give.

If only, should, would, could it be?
  It went away again, this time free.
It will be back again, this I know;
  or I’m wrong, and it won’t show.

Who cares?
Who hears?
Such goings on wobble the sphere,
I wish it wouldn’t do that here.

I’ve been wrong before…..

~~ gigoid ~~


“Not all men who drink are poets. Some of us drink because we aren’t poets.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

“A man who can fool chiefs, and even gods, must still face the monsters he himself created.” — Old Maori saying

Introspection has always been a hobby of mine, but, since turning the ripe old age of 63, it seems to have become even more of a time-consuming process for me than has been true for most of my life…..

I can remember lying on my bed in the state of Washington, when my father was stationed there at Fort Lewis…. I would stare at the bottom of my brother’s upper bunk, and imagine all manner of things, including about myself, and my place in the universe…. Even at the tender age of 8 or 9, as the son of an Army sergeant, I had been many places, and seen more of the world than is usual for anyone other than Army brats…. our proud designation for ourselves…. The quest to maintain one’s personality in the face of all the changes going on around us gave me the impetus to perpetually be aware of more than is the norm for kids of that age; at least, it always seemed so, from what I can tell from my knowledge of others of that age….

Now that I’ve reached an age that completely got skipped in my earlier musings of what life would be like, I seem to be thinking back and forth more often, making connections with the past that explain certain elements of my own persona as they manifest today…. My hair, for example…. (I know, I know, my hair isn’t generally the subject of a rant, but, that’s not really what this is…. this is more of a…. a retrospective, yeah, that’s it…. a retrospective…. so, calm down, I’m not going to get all graphic, or gloomy, or pick at anyone in particular, other than myself…. ‘kay?…. ‘Kay!…..)

So, I was looking at my picture on my About page, and can only say that, well, there I am…. My hair is even longer now, (a bit grayer, too….). as I see no particular reason to cut it…. which is the root thought that stimulated this entire subject today…. A little while ago, I was standing outside a moment, with my hair not yet tied back into the usual ponytail, and the wind was blowing it around a bit….. I started to get annoyed, then realized I could only blame myself for it getting in my face, because the solution to that problem is right over there in the drawer, where the scissors live…. I thought to myself, how many times has someone asked me, “why don’t you cut your hair?”, and realized I couldn’t count that high…

My own reaction to that particular query is to think, (again…), to myself, “Well, actually, the question that occurs to me to ask is, why don’t I NOT  cut my hair?”…. It seems to me, when I stop to consider the matter logically, and reasonably, that if the hair grows, as it has always done, it must have some sort of evolutionary purpose for doing so, right? It seems logical to me…. Therefore, it seems logical to ask, as well, “who am I to fuss with evolution?” This line of reasoning, naturally, tends to piss of most of the folks who make the original statement to me…. but, I figure that sort of anger is a personal problem, don’t you? I can’t go around taking the heat for what other people don’t like about me, when their anger is based on THEIR beliefs, not mine….

In a way, I suppose it’s the old hippie in me…. Aha, you say, now we’re getting to the meat of the matter! And, typically, I am supposed to say, at this point, “Just what do you mean by that? I don’t know what you’re talking about….”   Then, I smile, and get on with what I was doing, which is explaining why being a hippie is not what most people would think…. I mean, there were a lot of popular misconceptions floating around all during the 60’s (Believe me, it was a very confusing time…. I know, I was there….), when there were a lot of people who thought that there was something wrong, or even evil, about being described as one of those misunderstood knights of the sub-culture….

Yes, I said knights…. Jedi knights, before they were the iconic, eternal, peaceful warrior as made popular in later years…. Hippies were the knights of the 60’s and 70’s, diligently tilting at all the windmills we could find, poking our noses into the business of the military-industrial complex, which I now refer to as the BRC, until they were sick of the sight of anyone with long hair….. Back in the day, even the most rigid of conservative hawks understood that they were witnessing a change of culture, and there was nothing they could do to alter the course that history was taking…. The power of love, and compassion, and freedom swept through the entire world, as well as refreshing American society, with repercussions still being felt today….

One of the most important characteristics of hippies that I don’t think most people understood is that we were only interested in revolution in the sense that revolution means change; no hippie worth the name ever wished to violently overthrow anything that didn’t threaten violence first…. But, it is also true that real hippies have no objection to using violence to defend themselves, a fact which always comes as a big surprise to those who would try to oppress them. As with any tool, honor has to be the regulatory agency for determining which tool should be used, and how…. This, sadly, is a concept that those who prey on other people, who seek power over them, can never truly understand, as it is not a part of their perception of reality….

I see that I’ve reached a point where this must either get very pointed, or fade into the background for the time being….. I’m feeling mellow, due to re-connecting with the halcyon days of my youth, so I’ll show mercy here, and opt for the latter…. Besides, I’m all out of introspection for the nonce, and there’s no telling when it might drop back by…. I’ll leave y’all with one final pearl, to seal the deal….

“Oh, how we fear the metamorphoses through which we truly become fledged humans, real mensches of the species homo sapiens. Yet even if we do not willingly undergo them, changes pursue us just the same. The woman who never bears a child metamorphoses in different ways. We may dig in our heels and dare life never to change, but, all the same, it changes under our feet like sand under the feet of a sea gazer as the tide runs out. Life is forever undermining us. Life is forever washing away our castles, reminding us that they were, after all, only sand and sea water.” — Erica Jong: Parachutes and Kisses
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Okay, housekeeping…. I’m leaving in the morning, to go on another cruise, and doubt seriously if I’ll be able to post on Sunday…. Just too much to do out in the BBR, and no telling how the internet on board this new ship will turn out to be, speed-wise… So far, they’ve all been different…. Most likely, though, I will post on Monday, Tuesday, & possibly Wednesday, but, again, maybe not at all until Thursday…. I’ll just have to wait to see how it all pans out…. Suffice it to say, if it comes down to posting, or interrupting fun, well, we know what will win out, don’t we?…..

Now, let’s see how this came out….. Okay, well, it’s long enough, and it’s not overtly stupid, or mean, so, I’ll call it done, and be done with it…. Lots of stuff to do to get ready…. NOT!  I’m ready, for just under 22 hours from now, when I’ll walk out that door, on the way to the airport…. See ya, some time or another, ffolkes….

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

dozer3

Even subliminally, it can smell risque…..

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2

Ffolkes,

I am currently in the throes of putting up the seasonal decorations around my place…. Yes, the lovely new attack dog is going out in the front yard, (right next to the new gun emplacements….), to make sure none of the usual door-to-door sales types will make it up the steps long enough to ring the bell, thereby annoying me…. I’ve gotten one of the latest models, animals trained to hide the body after they’ve run them down and killed them….. You can’t imagine the FORTUNE I’m saving in disposal costs….

I’m also putting up my holiday decorations….  spreading around the chewed-up briefcases and Awake magazines from former sales people who came into the yard, the bloody clothing, the chalk outlines, …… Oh, yeah, and I’m putting the barbed wire over the chimney so that fat asshole can’t get in anymore…. We’ll have the usual crowd of hired thugs outside, too, haranguing whomever walks by, shouting at them to go home, and stop being such well-trained consumers….

Seriously, here it is, just Thanksgiving, and I’m already sick to death of all the Christmas decorations, and the Christmas commercials that have already started dunning everyone on the vacuum tube, reminding them of how little time to spend they have, or what the latest hot item to spend money on looks like, or shouting about how much more they need to spend…..

Constant reminders of how many “shopping days until Christmas” are left to endure rain down on our consciousness at every turn, in stores, by the roads, on the airwaves, on TV, everywhere one looks is another visual and/or auditory barrage upon our senses, applying more psychologically designed pictures and phrases to stimulate the training that we as consumers have been programmed to receive….

I’m sick of it, with still almost four weeks to go to the main event, followed by the after-holiday push to spend more, so that the business ass wipes who run things in the world can squeeze out every possible penny of the disposable income of the middle class, and all the possible extra pennies left in the pockets of the lower classes…. Every little cent that their targeted victims, i.e., EVERYONE, can be persuaded to put toward the foolishness of manufactured desires, instead of using it to buy what is absolute necessity, is what they’re after, and they’ll get it….

But, the commercials don’t care, nor do those who make and pay for the commercials…. They don’t care that the parents of those children they’ve targeted with their ads cannot afford to buy the toy, or other unnecessary item for which they’ve created the obsession, making it so it becomes an issue of status for the child to not have one of the favored items to show in school, or in the park…. The assholes who create this entire commercial frenzy this time of year aren’t going to give up the period of time when they make the most profit, since they can mark everything with a higher price at this time of year, knowing people will buy anyway, because that’s what people do when they’re brainwashed….

Yes, ffolkes, you’re all brainwashed to spend money during the holidays…. There are even articles that help people get over the depression that this brings on at this time of year, depression that actually has a legitimate cause to exist, as it is made clearer to many folks that all of this fuss and bother is a complete fabrication…. The honest truth of the matter is, at this time of year nobody really gives a rat’s ass about Jesus, or compassion, or about anything other than corporate avarice, and making more money this year than last….

The few people who do suffer some qualms about all of this either stay out of it (like me, mostly….), or they get depressed, or they just shake their head, bury their feelings, and try to pretend, along with most everybody else, that they’re really having a good time…. I don’t know about y’all, but, starting now, and right up until the third of January or so, I will be completely ignoring the television, and trying not to even SEE all the ridiculous decorations and signs everywhere, all for the purpose of getting me to spend more money on crap that won’t last beyond the new year….

Oh, and maybe, just maybe, I will try to keep from ranting in the intro section…. even though it does fill up the space rather well….. I have a feeling it’s not the way to pull ffolkes in to read further…. Just a hunch, but, a good one, I think…. Any who, since I’ve once again filled up this section with ranting and complaining about society’s moral compass, or lack of one, there’s no need to carry on any further down that path; we’ll go find a new direction to take, one that, hopefully, will be more entertaining than this…. even if I’m right….

Shall we Pearl?….

“He has half the deed done who has made a beginning.” — Horace

(Around here, this is sometimes a good thing to remember….)
_____________________________

“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the measure as I have received and am still receiving.” — Albert Einstein

Originally, when I saw this, I thought it would be a perfect start for a discussion of public ethics, or societal morality, either of which could be supported by its premise, logically speaking…. But, then I thought about what I had said above, in the intro, and decided that the two subjects are similar enough to bring tears of boredom to my eyes, as well as, arguably, having the power to glaze over ANYONE’s eyes in a New York minute…. Ethics and/or morals don’t usually make for the most stimulating rants; they tend to be critical enough to tune out even the most hardened DIY’er, such as a graduate of an EST program, or a survivor from a Sterling Men’s Weekend….

But, old-school pearls are a perfect venue for such critical outpourings…. they can deliver the same degree of displeasure and disgust at the acts being described, but in such a way that the humor makes the criticism more palatable for those who are in need of the knowledge… Well, that’s the theory, anyway, which has always held true in the past….

This format just makes it simpler to get the points across, and in such a way that the receiver doesn’t automatically dismiss it, out of hand…. We can hope, anyway, right?…. Right?… Besides, this is more fun, and much easier on my head, my back, and my hips…. Let’s see how Smart Bee is feeling today, shall we?…. Today, we’ll be looking for pearls that point the way to an honorable life, or, at the least, a life of honorable intent….

“I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

“So you see, the only true proof of what you are is in the way you hear the truth.” — Lemmy Kilmeister

“The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency.” — Albert Einstein

“Whatever became of eternal truth?” — Smart Bee

“I used to wonder about the meaning of life.  But I looked it up in the dictionary under L and there it was, the meaning of life. It was less than I expected.” — Dogbert

“There is Moral Sense, and there is an Immoral Sense. History shows us that the Moral Sense enables us to perceive morality and how to avoid it, and that the Immoral Sense enables us to perceive immorality and how to enjoy it.” — Mark Twain

“How’s the wife?  Is she at home enjoying capitalism?” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

More genius, unadorned….

Death Wants More Death

death wants more death, and its webs are full:
I remember my father’s garage, how child-like
I would brush the corpses of flies
from the windows they thought were escape-
their sticky, ugly, vibrant bodies
shouting like dumb crazy dogs against the glass
only to spin and flit
in that second larger than hell or heaven
onto the edge of the ledge,
and then the spider from his dank hole
nervous and exposed
the puff of body swelling
hanging there
not really quite knowing,
and then knowing-
something sending it down its string,
the wet web,
toward the weak shield of buzzing,
the pulsing;
a last desperate moving hair-leg
there against the glass
there alive in the sun,
spun in white;
and almost like love:
the closing over,
the first hushed spider-sucking:
filling its sack
upon this thing that lived;
crouching there upon its back
drawing its certain blood
as the world goes by outside
and my temples scream
and I hurl the broom against them:
the spider dull with spider-anger
still thinking of its prey
and waving an amazed broken leg;
the fly very still,
a dirty speck stranded to straw;
I shake the killer loose
and he walks lame and peeved
towards some dark corner
but I intercept his dawdling
his crawling like some broken hero,
and the straws smash his legs
now waving
above his head
and looking
looking for the enemy
and somewhat valiant,
dying without apparent pain
simply crawling backward
piece by piece
leaving nothing there
until at last the red gut sack
splashes
its secrets,
and I run child-like
with God’s anger a step behind,
back to simple sunlight,
wondering
as the world goes by
with curled smile
if anyone else
saw or sensed my crime

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

_____________________________

I’m having a bit of pain this morning, a surprising event, considering all the sleep I’ve gotten the past four days…. Ah well, c’est la vie…. The net effect of that, though, is that I am getting lazier by the moment, and have decided to go in a new direction altogether…. I’ve been collecting links, to articles that I intended to rant about, or use to justify a rant, however one wishes to look at it… Laziness, however, always takes precedence over ranting, so, instead, I’m just going to provide you with some reading material, should you choose to follow the links to their sources….

What you will find is a group of articles that will show you just how avarice, and immorality, and corruption, and, and, and,….. almost every human failing that brings people into conflict with one another, are not just present in modern life, but, have become the standard of our cultural interactions….. Each of these articles discusses a segment of society that is engaged in some kind of behavior that is unethical, or paranoid, or corrupt in some way…. well, except for the last one, which offers a solution, of sorts, to a lot of the tension and stress caused by the manifestations outlined in the other links…. The last one, as radical as it is in its language, its spirituality, along with its author’s mildly abrasive approach, is perhaps the sanest article in the whole lot….

So, read these, if you’ve got the time…. Then go and try some meditation, or whatever method you choose to get back in touch with your center, which is where we all need to learn to exist….. Strange, isn’t it? How such a simple idea, existing at one’s own center of being, is really and truly the key to a happy life…. Yet, there it is, in all its simplicity…. All we have to do is pick it up, and use it….. Hey, it’s worth a shot, isn’t it? Nothing else seems to be working, if these stories are any indication…..

http://news.yahoo.com/eu-lays-down-steps-us-must-protect-data-142411846.html

http://www.sfgate.com/technology/dotcommentary/article/Spying-on-online-sex-lives-raises-red-flags-5017893.php

http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2013/11/27/san-jose-cop-charged-with-writing-bogus-tickets/

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Holiday-shopping-season-begins-on-Thanksgiving-5019245.php

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2013/11/26/meditation-for-the-damned/
_____________________________

This one took some doing, it did, so it only gets a cursory examination for errors…. which I’m doing now, even though you can’t see me…. Some days, this process shows me more than just the usual justification for its evolved state…. That may sound a bit obscure, but, that’s okay, because we’re done for the day, and it won’t hurt at all, unless you get all huffy and try too hard to figure it out…. Don’t fret, amigo, no está importante….. See ya 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

dozer3

Lock up the dahlias, I’ll get the peonies…

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Ffolkes,

There’s a new airline company to choose, next time you plan on traveling a long way from home…. It’s called Porcine Air, because pigs CAN fly, you know?!!! I know for a fact we are all prepared to believe in such a company, as long as the natural laws of our universe have been altered, and the weather reports from Hell are calling for ice and snow…. How else to explain three days of semi-natural sleep, for anyone with the physical conditions that plague me? I have no explanation, or any rational idea as to why or how it might have happened…. and, at this point, I don’t think I ever will, because I don’t care….. Why should I look such a nice horse in the mouth, eh? That would be ungrateful, not to mention tactless; let no one ever say I wore those hats!…..

Joking, or, more accurately in this case, an approximation of joking, aside, I am, once again, flabbergasted, and pleased, I think, to have awakened at what has to be the most normal time to arise that I’ve seen, in, oh, these many moons…. It is now just 0550, military time, meaning this is the AM…. which makes this the latest start for a Pearl in well over six months…. Oh, wait, maybe a bit less than that… I DID get that cold last month, & spent a lot of time in bed; I may have been up later one of those days…. Other than that, which we can blame on exigent circumstances, it’s been a very long time since I got so much sleep in one period, so, I’m not sure just how to react…..

I suppose I could show some remotely professional behavior, ignoring the time of day altogether, but, I don’t think I could carry off the arrogant entitlement such behavior would demand, not this late in the day, and not without my curmudgeon hat….. Becoming one of the BRC, in that respect at least, has always been difficult for me…. I just can’t bring myself to the point where I can allow myself to treat other people like dirt, just as a matter of course, a behavioral trend which seems to be the net result when almost anyone assumes the position of ‘beloved ruler’ in our society…. It’s as if it is assumed, by everyone, that getting elected gives one the right to start acting like an asshole, with the concomitant arrogance that seems to blossom in those who put on that new hat….

Don’t fret, though, ffolkes, this doesn’t signal the beginning of a rant here in the intro section, again…. I’m being quite careful NOT to start one of those this morning; I have one, already on tap & ready to go for section three, and don’t need, or want, to go into that mode here….. This is an event for which, I am quite sure, y’all are immensely grateful, or, at minimum, moderately relieved, at having dodged that particular bullet today…..

In fact, I’ve done so well at blathering so far today, in what is effectively a stealth mode, it is suddenly apparent that I’ve already reached one of the legal minimums for introductory statements, and can abandon all attempts to stretch this any further than it already has been…. That’s arguably a good thing, actually, as I’ve been finding recently, when I do too much stretching of peripheral phrases in these missives, far too many wrinkles show up in the final version, after they’ve dried off, and have been consumed a few times…. So, we’ll surprise y’all again, and stop,… right….. here….

Shall we Pearl?….

“You may not be able to change the whole world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.” — Katha Pollitt

Well…. THERE’s good news!….. I’ll say it again….. Shall we Pearl?….
_____________________________

The little pearl that I put just above has just assumed favored status among pearls…. I love it! It expresses so well the approach we take here at ECR, in our almost daily battle against complacency and foolishness among the populace…. I often, far TOO often, feel as if it is a futile task, this trying to educate the unwashed masses as to how they are allowing themselves to be screwed over on such a regular basis….

Either I am preaching to the choir, as I think I am, far too often, or I’m shouting into the wind, with no one listening at all… It can be a frustrating feeling, until I remember that I do this not to save others, but to save myself, from sheer insanity….. If I dwell on reality for long, it can lead to outright despair, based on all-too-real issues in the all-too-real world….

In order to maintain a more productive attitude, by eloquently embarrassing as many of the BRC as possible in the fewest number of words, I will now go old-school, which I’ve found to be not merely the easiest way to poke fun at them, but the most effective, by delivering an accurate message to those who are reading what I’ve put before them….

Pictures, even if painted with words, show what is needed to be known far better than words alone, so, I try to use these pearls to create inner visions in the mind of the Gentle Reader, visions that will show them exactly whom to fear, and whom to revile, without as much chance of miscommunication…. Enjoy!….

“You cannot run away from a weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand.” — Robert Louis Stevenson,  _The Amateur Emigrant_

“I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not understand. Nevertheless, with what I am, I can reflect light into the black places of this world – into the dark places in the hearts of men – and maybe help change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am . . . this is the meaning of my life.” — Alexander Papaderos

“As those persons who despair of ever being rich make little account of small expenses, thinking that little added to a little will never make any great sum.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of Man’s Progress in Virtue

“Among what he called his precepts were such as these: Do not stir the fire with a sword. Do not sit down on a bushel. Do not devour thy heart.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Pythagoras, xvii

“How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.” — Spanish proverb

BRAIN, n. An apparatus with which we think what we think.  That which distinguishes the man who is content to _be_ something from the man who wishes to _do_ something.  A man of great wealth, or one who has been pitchforked into high station, has commonly such a headful of brain that his neighbors cannot keep their hats on.  In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“And THAT’S the TRUTH! THPPPPPT” — Lily Tomlin’s “Lily Anne”
_____________________________

Genius needs no adornment….

Finisterre

This was the land’s end: the last fingers, knuckled and rheumatic,
Cramped on nothing. Black
Admonitory cliffs, and the sea exploding
With no bottom, or anything on the other side of it,
Whitened by the faces of the drowned.
Now it is only gloomy, a dump of rocks —-
Leftover soldiers from old, messy wars.
The sea cannons into their ear, but they don’t budge.
Other rocks hide their grudges under the water.

The cliffs are edged with trefoils, stars and bells
Such as fingers might embroider, close to death,
Almost too small for the mists to bother with.
The mists are part of the ancient paraphernalia —-
Souls, rolled in the doom-noise of the sea.
They bruise the rocks out of existence, then resurrect them.
They go up without hope, like sighs.
I walk among them, and they stuff my mouth with cotton.
When they free me, I am beaded with tears.

Our Lady of the Shipwrecked is striding toward the horizon,
Her marble skirts blown back in two pink wings.
A marble sailor kneels at her foot distractedly, and at his foot
A peasant woman in black
Is praying to the monument of the sailor praying.
Our Lady of the Shipwrecked is three times life size,
Her lips sweet with divinity.
She does not hear what the sailor or the peasant is saying —-
She is in love with the beautiful formlessness of the sea.

Gull-colored laces flap in the sea drafts
Beside the postcard stalls.
The peasants anchor them with conches. One is told:
“These are the pretty trinkets the sea hides,
Little shells made up into necklaces and toy ladies.
They do not come from the Bay of the Dead down there,
But from another place, tropical and blue,
We have never been to.
These are our crêpes. Eat them before they blow cold.”

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

_____________________________

As I noted above, in the introduction, I had this ready to go…. It is an old rant, sort of, from early this year, but, as might be assumed, it remains relevant today….. else I wouldn’t have used it here…. It’s one of my better rants, too, which is another reason I’ve put it here…. I just don’t feel like I could equal this kind of output today…. Regardless, it’s worth paying attention to, for certain, especially for those who would believe that everything that happens in Washington D.C. is happening for their benefit…..

From January 21, 2013…..

“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” — Justice Louis D. Brandeis, dissenting, Olmstead v. United States, 277 — U.S. 479 (1928)

Finding pearls is sometimes frustrating, but then I find one like this, which is just a perfect representation of what I want to say, and it all seems worthwhile again…. This statement, though written in 1928, could not be more relevant to the present if it were written yesterday. We are observing this principle in action, as the POTUS and Congress thrash around, trying to convince the public they are responding intelligently to the furor over gun control. Of course, there IS no intelligent response possible, but they’ve never let that stop them before, so…..

Gun control will always be a hot-button issue, even after they’ve been taken away. And, you can bet your booties that day is coming, as the BRC and the unseen manipulators who control society will continue to create conditions that produce the mad ones, the ones who ultimately break free of their insanity, to let it loose on the world. This scenario suits the purposes of the ruling class very well, as it allows them to keep the populace stirred up in fear, making them easily led to the place they wish them to go. It is always easier to take away a right, when the people clamor for the government to take it away, out of unreasonable fear…..

A mighty pain to love it is,
And ‘t is a pain that pain to miss;
But of all pains, the greatest pain
It is to love, but love in vain.

— Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) — From Anacreon, vii, Gold

This is often how I feel about my country. I consider myself to be a patriot, in the classic sense; I support the idea of my country, but do not necessarily support the government. I love the idea of America…. a place where men and women are free to work out their own destiny, without the interference of the system they have created to oversee the necessary societal issues, i.e., without being persecuted for their beliefs, whatever they are…. The concept is an ideal, and one that the world has never actually seen before, not in practice. There have been attempts in history, but none so bold as the one made by our forefathers, who managed to create a system with the potential to create a veritable utopia….

But, within moments of the signing of the Constitution, the bankers, the preachers, and the lawyers were all taking their shots at the system, trying to find ways to amend its protections, and weaken the defenses against the very things they are trying to do. Since the Bill of Rights became law, there have been members of the Beloved Ruling Class trying to dismantle them, and reduce the protective qualities they possess. Much of the time they don’t even bother to hide it, but just couch it in terms that distracts the public from examining their claims too closely…

That struggle, to maintain the purity and intent of the original Bill of Rights, continues to this day, and is now undergoing its most fearful threat since the initial days of this country, more dangerous even than the Communist Purge in the 1950’s, during the McCarthy era of our political history. Once again, events have been manipulated to make it appear as if there is great danger, to the public, and most significantly to our children. Emphasizing this danger to our progeny is the most powerful weapon the BRC possesses, and they are making full use of it in the media, you can be certain…. Manifest a threat to children, and the ire of the public is yours to control….. much like Pavlov’s dogs….

I also think that Justice Brandeis was being nice, when he mentions that the BRC may be acting with good intentions, but lack of understanding. I think that the BRC knows EXACTLY what it is doing when it pursues legislation such as the current limits to gun ownership, and I don’t think they care at all that people don’t really NEED their protection or their help to protect themselves from the evil in the world. What the citizens DO NEED is less intrusion by the BRC into their private, or even public, lives.

I don’t care how ethical a government official SAYS they are, I don’t think they are more ethical than me, or the average Joe….. Nor can they be trusted to act in a manner that is beneficial to me, or to any other private citizen; their actions are only concerned with their own private agenda, and anything they say to the contrary is a BIG, FAT LIE! (Sorry, don’t mean to shout at you….)….. This, I think, is an assertion that doesn’t even need me to point out the proof, as it jumps up in everyone’s face on a daily basis…. The BRC LIES TO US, every day, and it isn’t hard to catch them at it, as it happens virtually every time they open their mouths to speak….. What amazes me is that they get away with it so easily….

“I believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the measures of the Government are directed to the purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.” — William Henry Harrison

As is obvious, I’m not the only one who is dissatisfied with the BRC, or as some say, the Government. I like to use the BRC, because then I can supply the defined parameters to include ALL of the various types of assholes who are part of that group; lawyers, preachers/priests, bankers, Senators, Congressmen, judges, elected officials, all are charter members of the BRC, and the targets of my ire, as well as the meat for my consumption here on ERC. I guess it would be accurate to say that the BRC consists of all those who seek power over others for their own personal gain, and just let it go at that….

“One of the most difficult of the philosopher’s tasks is to find out where the shoe pinches.” — Ludwig Wittgenstein

There is the pinch-point, ffolkes…. There are essentially two types of humans…. those who seek to have power over other people, and those who seek power over themselves. Anyone who doesn’t fit into those two categories is not living up to their full potential as a human being, and will not in any way have any say in what happens in the world. They are the cannon fodder, the unwashed masses of folks who go through life without ever directing their conscious mind anywhere but right in front of themselves, oblivious to all the evil that occurs around them, as well as unaware of all the beauty that exists.

That is their choice, and I cannot fault them for their lack of courage; it’s a scary world out there…. but, as human beings, I believe we have a duty to our fellow man, and that duty means NOT keeping quiet, NOT letting those who would do evil act with impunity. In my position, all I can do is speak up when I see injustice, or immorality, and issue my objections to what I observe…. It’s all I can do, so I’ll do it all I can… because, as Albert sez…..
Albert E & true sin_____________________________

The old saying goes, “the proof is in the pudding”, and though I’ve never known exactly what that means, other than speculatively, it sounds good, and I’m hungry, so, we’ll go proof this, and see if the converse is true at all…. If you followed that logical train, you may have been here too often, but, it’s okay, it’s all tax -free, and tax-deductible, if you’ve got the chutzpah to claim it….. I’ll be right back, hopefully…..

I seem to have completely forgotten an entire range of expressions I once had in my mind to cover situations such as this…. But, since we’re here at the end of today’s effort, rather than the beginning, it shouldn’t be such a problem as it might have been, earlier…. Now that I’ve reestablished connection with blather mode, it’s time to go, before I get started again, which could delay posting another couple of hours… Besides, I’m done here, and having done worse, I’m outta here….. See ya….   🙂

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

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

Which is Why….

—

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Albert says, “Insanity is relative, too!”….

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Ffolkes,

I never know what to do when I get enough sleep…. It’s such an unusual event, it always takes me by surprise…. That assertion, in and of itself, is NOT a surprise, as I’ve experienced the lack of good sleep for more years than I can count…. At first, it was due to my primary function, as a father, and husband, during those years when I had a wife, and children growing up…. I’m sure any father can empathize with what happens then…. I can’t really explain why, but, I know that I did the same as my own father, in that, I was always the first one up, and almost always the last one to bed….

That was just the way the job works, ffolkes, and I had no strong objections to it, as it was Duty….. As such, it offers no choice as to how it is to be accomplished, (to wit: without fail…. and no excuses….), and that was fine with me….. After my family was grown, I started experiencing the physical conditions that now work to keep me from sleeping easily, or with comfort, for more than a few hours at a time…. I learned to make do on whatever I was able to get, and learned to appreciate the power of napping as a supplement to the sleep I wasn’t getting at night… It’s always worked for me….

Then, occasionally, like last night, I get a night off, so to speak…. I went to bed last night at about 7 PM, having returned from a nice dinner out with milady Patricia, followed immediately by the consumption of my sleep aid (Alice Toklas style…), as is normal activity for a Sunday evening, prior to retiring…. I got really sleepy almost right away, while sitting in front of the computer, (probably from being full from dinner….), so I decided to just go down then, at 7, instead of waiting for the brownie to kick in…. So, I retired, whereupon I fell asleep immediately, proceeding to sleep hard, only turning twice, for about eight hours…. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the clock at 3 AM, as it meant I’d slept like a log for at least eight straight, which happens MAYBE twice a year….

I turned over & got another hour & a half, too, so, I’m up now, just bursting with energy…. at 0500 AM, when there is nothing open, and nothing to do, other than what I’m doing now…. It’s a good thing that I do have this to do now, or I’d be sitting around, twiddling my thumbs, vibrating with all the pent up energy I have available….. It’s probably better for the space-time continuum this way, too, as none of that energy will get used in ways that could affect the balance and stability we are currently enjoying…..

That could change any minute though, so I’d be smart to take what I’ve got here, and run with it…. It’s arguably of the correct length to qualify as an intro section, though some might have arguments to bring, saying it doesn’t DO anything, or SAY anything remotely introductory in nature…. I say to them, “Fuck off, busybody, nobody asked you”…. Well, no, I probably wouldn’t be that rude, though it would certainly pass through my mind as one of my options…. I would however, ignore their criticisms, and use the bloody thing to start off anyway, as I plan to do right now….

There, you see, I’ve done it again…. Another intro with absolutely NO redeeming qualities, nor ANY qualities that could conceivably be construed as appropriate material for either an introduction to anything, or, as an educational event, the only thing that might otherwise qualify it as acceptable for use among the unwashed masses…. That’s unless, of course, one considers all you have learned about me, which was, or is, with no doubt whatsoever, much more than was requested, or expected, or, for that matter, deserved…. But, it’s done, and there’s no going back at this point, so, like all of us here at ECR, you’ll just have to learn to live with it…. such as it is…. whatever it is…. Whew!

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It is our choices … that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” — J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets”, spoken by Albus Dumbledore
_____________________________

Given the accuracy, and potential relevance, of the quotation that ended the intro section, I’d best make a good choice here, or I’ll be seriously in arrears to my karmic responsibility…. What THAT means may be a bit unclear, but, suffice it to say that “I”  know what it means, which is, basically, “Get your shit together, and do it right!….. Otherwise, you’re going to be in deeper shit than you can imagine….”  I don’t know about y’all, but, I get that sort of thing rather often from the Universe…. Must be the Irish in me…

Since I have to come up to scratch here, with no further fussing about, I’m going to go old-school….. It’s my only hope to achieve some kind of rational balance this morning, since I’ve gone so far off the rails, irrationally speaking….. If I can’t bring this back in line, not even a poem of great power will suffice to balance things out, so, I’m hoping to get some cooperation from Smart Bee, as I depend on it a lot to give me what I need to make these pearls cogent, logical, and filled with beauty…. It’s asking a lot of a dB software program, I know, but, hey, if you can’t trust your shareware, what can you trust?…. With that, let’s see what I can find to turn this away from the Dark side of the Metaphorse, and back into the Light….

“I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself.  Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter To Francis Hopkinson, Paris Mar. 13, 1789

“Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior.” — Marshall McLuhan

Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head,
And Learning wiser grow without his books.

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book vi, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 85

“Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910)

“Ask a toad what is beauty?…a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head, a large flat mouth, a yellow belly and a brown back.” — Voltaire (1694-1778)

“When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.” — Things We Can Learn From Dogs

Hah! Bet I fooled ya with the ending, didn’t I? Hell, I almost fooled myself….   😆    It sure does feel good when a plan comes together….
_____________________________

I stood
Among them, but not of them; in a shroud
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iii, Stanza 113

Though I’ve seen the name, I had never, before this morning, read any of the work by this poet, Charles Bukowski…. He’s well worth the effort, from all I can see…. I picked one that is a bit long, but, pretty damn powerful…. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did…..

2 Flies

The flies are angry bits of life;
why are they so angry?
it seems they want more,
it seems almost as if they
are angry
that they are flies;
it is not my fault;
I sit in the room
with them
and they taunt me
with their agony;
it is as if they were
loose chunks of soul
left out of somewhere;
I try to read a paper
but they will not let me
be;
one seems to go in half-circles
high along the wall,
throwing a miserable sound
upon my head;
the other one, the smaller one
stays near and teases my hand,
saying nothing,
rising, dropping
crawling near;
what god puts these
lost things upon me?
other men suffer dictates of
empire, tragic love…
I suffer
insects…
I wave at the little one
which only seems to revive
his impulse to challenge:
he circles swifter,
nearer, even making
a fly-sound,
and one above
catching a sense of the new
whirling, he too, in excitement,
speeds his flight,
drops down suddenly
in a cuff of noise
and they join
in circling my hand,
strumming the base
of the lampshade
until some man-thing
in me
will take no more
unholiness
and I strike
with the rolled-up-paper –
missing! –
striking,
striking,
they break in discord,
some message lost between them,
and I get the big one
first, and he kicks on his back
flicking his legs
like an angry whore,
and I come down again
with my paper club
and he is a smear
of fly-ugliness;
the little one circles high
now, quiet and swift,
almost invisible;
he does not come near
my hand again;
he is tamed and
inaccessible; I leave
him be, he leaves me
be;
the paper, of course,
is ruined;
something has happened,
something has soiled my
day,
sometimes it does not
take man
or a woman,
only something alive;
I sit and watch
the small one;
we are woven together
in the air
and the living;
it is late
for both of us.

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

_____________________________

Even though it’s a bit early yet, I’m not in the mood to rant today…. and, as we all know…. (well, I know, so that’s all I need….), any good rant requires some angst; in other words, some kind of strong emotional power source, to drive one’s creativity all the way over into the ranting state…. I got so much sleep, and I’m so mellow this morning, that isn’t going to happen…. Hence, I’ve used that as an excuse to dip into the archives again, this time for a short, but powerful, religirant…. It was first posted in 2012, some time prior to the national election in November….. It’s not the longest I ever did, but, it’s pretty cute, and dead-on accurate, in describing my views, if naught else….. Enjoy!…..

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

“I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” — Sir Winston Churchill

“….for DEATH awaits you all, with nasty sharp  pointy teeth!” — Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Death. The great equalizer. Nobody gets away from it. As a matter of fact, it has been proven, beyond a shadow of doubt, that everyone who breathes air, dies. So, air must not be good for us, right? That’s logic…. Of course it’s logical. It is also, however, not true, and serves as an example of the fact that logic doesn’t always lead to the correct answer to any particular question…. sometimes you gotta just go by what is real….

I like the first quote, by Winnie C., the PM…. When my turn to find out what happens after we die comes around, should the Christian viewpoint turn out to have been true, I would prefer to meet my maker with this same attitude. To my way of thinking, if it (Christianity) IS true, then God has a lot to answer for…… Seriously…. I’m sorry, but I just can’t believe in any deity who would allow his creation to show such perversions as this species has shown. Whenever I bring this point up to a priest, or theologian of any sort, all I get is “God works in mysterious ways….”

Yeah? Is that right? You say there is some hidden purpose to those actions we don’t understand? Well, fuck God then, because he’s acting like an asshole. I don’t care a whit if there is some hidden purpose; there is NO ACCEPTABLE REASON to suppose that a merciful God would condone child molesters, or rapists, or torture, (even during war). I don’t believe it; it is neither logical, nor rational…. Most importantly, it isn’t reasonable….

Claiming that God is beyond our understanding, and therefore we cannot understand his reasons for allowing such actions, is pure bullshit. If he is that far above us, why are his morals so perverted? I don’t care what you say, I won’t accept the rape of a child as being justifiable from ANY standpoint. None. And if God does have some justification, well, I ain’t buying it. No matter what it is, it isn’t right…. And going along with it, believing the lie, is just another cowardly way of avoiding responsibility….

Men are responsible for these actions, not God. Men kill, and rape, and pillage, and manipulate and coerce their fellows into performing acts of heinous nature. Numerous times in our bloody past, this killing has taken place in the name of God, as the fanatical zealots so common to Christianity, throughout its vicious history, carried their own particular brand of oppression to new lands, forcing the natives to swallow their version of reality, regardless of how they felt about it.

This blind, unreasoning zealotry continues today, with the current Republican candidate all set to bring the US right back into the Stone Age, should he. through some cruel quirk of fate, be elected as POTUS. If that happens, I’m pretty sure Armageddon will be close behind, as I don’t think the rest of the world is going to sit still long enough for him to cram his own faith down their throats.  Hell, right here at home, should he be elected, I’d be surprised if there isn’t a revolutionary upheaval within a few months of the election. I know I would certainly be considering assassination as a viable political tool…. It is now legal for us to use torture as a resource, why should we balk at assassination?

Ah me…. I guess I got too much sleep. It seems to have awakened my old hippie instincts; I haven’t talked revolution in oh, six or eight months now…. I suppose I’ll just have to wait until November, to see which way to jump…. Let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. That’s always the best policy…. for survival, anyway….  and that may become our primary goal, if things keep on keepin’ on….

“It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.” — Voltaire
_____________________________

Aha! I see, by the last paragraph in section three, just why this religirant appealed to me…. It happened to get written, and posted, the LAST time I got so much sleep!…. No wonder, then, I suppose…. Like will always call to like, eh?….. Well, it does in my world, where Imagination rules, giving the lie to Reality, which, if one stops to think about it, is subject to change without the slightest notice…. That kind of makes imagination and reality pretty similar, don’t you think?…. Well, maybe, or maybe not; one  set is capitalized, the other isn’t, so one has to be right, right?…. It’s good enough for our purposes here and now, I’d say, as it fits right in with today’s theme…. whatever that may be…. Maybe when I go back over this to proof, I’ll figure out just what that is…..

Well, there’s a lot of it, that’s for sure…. I think, if I must make a statement, I’d have to say, today’s theme would be best described as “The Quest for Enough”, with appropriate subtext, best acknowledged by merely stating, “Enough is enough, and more than….”. I hope that isn’t TOO obscure, but, if so, well, sorry, it’s the best I can do today…. I seem to be a little fuzzy these days, no matter how much sleep I get, but, hey, I’m entitled…. Can’t be sharp as a tack EVERY day….. Well, maybe I can…. but, that’s no reason to make things easy on ANY of us, is it?…..    😆   See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

In politics, the cost of doing business is always integrity….

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Ffolkes,

As I watch, entranced, the cranes dance…. formal, elegant, feathers spread to show off color, they dance around, spinning and cavorting with glee, mirroring each other with intense concentration and focus, in complex patterns of incredible beauty, never meeting eyes, yet completely in sync. No other creature is near, to witness their amazing dance of love, and lust for life, but for me….  To honor that life, to honor being allowed to witness such treasure, I concentrate on feeling every nuance of what I’m seeing, and experiencing, to save the beauty, if only in memory….

Okay, that’s enough of that…. Nice as it is, it doesn’t really suit my mood right now…. which is, sad to say, a bit rough and curmudgeonly…. It’s bound to happen when I awake at a few minutes before 3 AM, knowing I’m not going back to sleep…. So, here I am, at 3:13, dutifully pounding away at the keyboard, hoping to find it within me to write well enough to warrant being up now. Living with PTSD is so much fun….

I say “dutifully” because I can’t think of any other reason why I would put myself through this, other than my sense of duty; nothing else could convince me that it isn’t one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done. I mean, how much inspiration am I going to find at this hour, I ask you? Not much, that’s for sure and for certain, unless by some outlandish chance, I turn a corner and find the corpse of Murphy lying on my floor…. that would be inspiring, fer shure, man….

Since it’s not likely I’ll be coming across any dead forces of nature anytime soon, I suppose I’ll need to turn my head toward something a bit more mundane, like a rant, or something…. I’m not sure at all how that is going over, though in the last week, my output has jumped again…. I’ve been ranting so hard, my daily word average has jumped up into the 2750/words/day range, which may, or may not, have something to do with the reduction in the number of readers again….

I try not to pay much attention to the stats, but, it’s frustrating to think that I’ve been putting out so much effort to tell people of the danger they are in from their Beloved Rulers, and nobody is seeing it…. Yesterday, only one person, as far as I can tell, came by, and this person is perhaps my most faithful reader, in terms of visiting daily; I love seeing his icon, but know I’m again preaching only to the choir…. I guess it’s frustrating because I feel as if I’ve been doing some of my best ranting….. logical, yet not stiflingly so, with some biting humor, and bitter indictments, with evidential supportive proof, of the outrageous BS perpetrated every day by those assholes who lie to us for their living…… Jefferson, and Mason, and Paine, all warned us about “professional politicians”, but did we listen? No, we didn’t….

I often wonder about the wives of the politicians we see on TV…. I mean, it’s no secret that most women are smarter than their husbands; that is a statistical FACT, established many years ago by repetitive, and conclusive evidence, provided by scientific research…. So, how does it make them feel, to be married to, and thus give the impression that they approve of, the world’s most obvious, and most accomplished liars…. How frustrated THEY must feel, to be connected to such men, men with no basic integrity…. Yet, to say so would be to admit they made a mistake, (to marry them….), and making that admission is one thing a fundamentalist, a preacher, a politician, or a politician’s wife will never do….

I see that I’ve again fallen into a mini-sized sort-of-a-rant in the intro, when I had promised myself I wouldn’t…. So much for plans at this hour of the day, eh? It’s still shy of 4 AM, and I’ve about finished an intro; what comes next will be up to chance as much as planning on my part, I think…. It’s just the way of things around here when I start doing this before my brain has really engaged completely….. Of course, that isn’t a guarantee of success, either, but, chances are better, anyway…. I am starting to get the feeling that, at this point, I’d better just say….

Shall we Pearl?

“All the magick of creation exists within a single, tiny seed.” — Magi

“The difference between tragedy and humor is whether it is happening to you.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

I just spent about 20 minutes online, looking for a news item about which to rant…. I found a couple that might do, but, it would have been a stretch to make them work, as it was a matter of beating on an equine in very poor health, to wit: the government shutdown. That subject is getting a bit shopworn, since the politicos themselves are now going out to the public and drumming up support for their own particular viewpoints, thereby tainting perfectly good public displays of public protest with their lies and silly attempts to court favor….

I saw where a couple of organizations got together in protest marches, and forced open one of the National Parks in Washington D.C., the WWII Memorial…. Then, at some point, they were joined by Ted Cruz, the young Republican hotshot, that party’s last best hope for relevance, who is a Senator from a western state or something, where the populace is severely confused by a Latino Republican, mostly voting for him out of surprise, or, of course, out of ignorance…. Sarah Palin, that paragon of fundamentalist ignorance, and one of the Tea Party’s darlings, (apparently because she isn’t afraid to be seen as “bat-shit-crazy” for the idiotic statements she makes, which are generally so ridiculous, even her own state ignores her….), also dropped by the protests to mouth some outlandish comments, per her usual public display of ignorance…..

Both pundits, usually seen as talking heads on TV, were pounding the pavement in person, taking photo ops and doling out their talking points heavily, even though they, and their cohorts, are the very people responsible for the mess we are seeing…. Ballsy, to say the least…. Their appearance at the protest tells me that most of the politicos are now in spin-mode, full-time, trying to find things to put before the public that will shore up the bad press they’re all getting right now….

In the process of doing so, they are completely ignoring the fact that they are NOT doing their jobs, and every day this shutdown continues will erode public sympathy even more… The part I like the most about all this is that it has become clear, even to those who don’t want to see it, that ALL OF THEM, Democrats, Republicans, and ALL of their supporters and co-conspirators, (lobbyists, bankers, corporate puppeteers, judges, police, military, religious leaders, all of them….) are guilty in this matter, and the trust they had is now less than it was…. thank goodness!….

But, none of what I saw in the news is worth a full-scale rant today, so, I’ll take the easy route, and go old-school…. Here is a pearl with some basic parameters, to find statements, or quotes, that will show the BRC and/or all their supporters in their true colors…..

“I love Saturday morning cartoons, what classic humour!   This is what entertainment is all about … Idiots, explosives and falling anvils.” — Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson

“The writers who have nothing to say are the ones you can buy; the others have too high a price.” — Walter Lippmann, “Preface to Politics”

Foul deeds will rise,
Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act i, Sc. 2

“To see what is right and not to do it is cowardice.” — Cervantes

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Letter to Gay, Oct, 6, 1727

“A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires sooner or later always leads to bitter disappointment.” — Albert Einstein

Quemadmoeum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est. – [A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killers hands.] — Lucius Annaeus Seneca “the younger” ca. 4 BC – 65 AD
_____________________________

Often, such as today, poetry needs no adornment…..

Apologia

Is it thy will that I should wax and wane,
Barter my cloth of gold for hodden grey,
And at thy pleasure weave that web of pain
Whose brightest threads are each a wasted day?

Is it thy will–Love that I love so well–
That my Soul’s House should be a tortured spot
Wherein, like evil paramours, must dwell
The quenchless flame, the worm that dieth not?

Nay, if it be thy will I shall endure,
And sell ambition at the common mart,
And let dull failure be my vestiture,
And sorrow dig its grave within my heart.

Perchance it may be better so–at least
I have not made my heart a heart of stone,
Nor starved my boyhood of its goodly feast,
Nor walked where Beauty is a thing unknown.

Many a man hath done so; sought to fence
In straitened bonds the soul that should be free,
Trodden the dusty road of common sense,
While all the forest sang of liberty,

Not marking how the spotted hawk in flight
Passed on wide pinion through the lofty air,
To where the steep untrodden mountain height
Caught the last tresses of the Sun God’s hair.

Or how the little flower he trod upon,
The daisy, that white-feathered shield of gold,
Followed with wistful eyes the wandering sun
Content if once its leaves were aureoled.

But surely it is something to have been
The best belovèd for a little while,
To have walked hand in hand with Love, and seen
His purple wings flit once across thy smile.

Ay! though the gorgèd asp of passion feed
On my boy’s heart, yet have I burst the bars,
Stood face to face with Beauty, known indeed
The Love which moves the Sun and all the stars!

~~ Oscar Wilde ~~

_____________________________

“…the greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor. It is the one thing that cannot be learned from others; and it is also a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in dissimilars.” — Aristotle, _Poetics_, 22, 1459a 5-7

Yet another piece of proof of the value, and validity, of these Pearls of Virtual Wisdom…. Here at ECR, we are well aware of the power of metaphor (May the Metaphorse be With You….), though I prefer to speak more plainly when targeting the talking heads, preachers, and myrmidons…. It’s easier, and causes fewer misunderstandings if I just call them spades, rather than trying to be cute, or erudite, by calling them by the name they choose to hide behind, i.e., spades….

At this point, you may be saying to yourself, “Huh? What the devil does THAT mean?”, but, really, you should know by now that if you don’t keep up, well, too bad, you’re on your own, because this train won’t stop to fix those kinds of disillusionments without falling completely off schedule, which eats into the profits…. Well, it would, if we made any profit from this…. Since we neither charge, nor collect, any kind of fees, it’s moot, anyway…. The point is, it’s all just a metaphor for life, which, if you stop to think about it, is pretty much what blogging is all about…. A large, amorphous metaphor for existence, spread willy-nilly across the far-flung reaches of the world wide net,  providing not merely metaphor, but, also, some damn fine prose….

All of which tells you nothing important, or even compelling; it’s all just a lead in, anyway, to another old-school pearl, picked this time at random, with no parameters other than what seemed appropriate at the moment in time… This kind of pearl is probably my favorite kind to put together, and seems most often to produce the the finest, shiniest, metaphorical pearls of virtual wisdom….

I’m required by law to remind y’all at this point that these are pearls of “virtual wisdom”, and should not ever be used as if they are true wisdom…. If they are, we are not responsible for the ensuing consequences, up to and including the use of nuclear weaponry…. Enjoy!….

“Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles. What do we live for if not to make the world less difficult for each other?” — George Eliot

“An improper mind is a perpetual feast.” — Smart Bee

“Don’t look back — something might be gaining on you.” — Satchel Paige

“If your advance is going well, you’re walking into an ambush.” — Sun Tzu

“If the person you are talking to doesn’t appear to be listening, be patient.  It may simply be that he has a small piece of fluff in his ear.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

“The one unforgivable sin, the offense against one’s own integrity, is to accept anything at all simply on authority.” — Maureen Johnson Long (Lazarus Long’s mother….)

“How to paint a perfect painting — make yourself perfect and then just  paint naturally” — Robert M. Pirsig
_____________________________

Well, ffolkes, there you have it; one more trip down the pike on gigoid’s dime. Such as it is….. Let’s see what happened here….. Considering the state of my mind at this point, I’m going to let this go without a struggle, or even a qualm…. Never did like giving up qualms, anyway…. Damn! It’s really early still… 6:01 AM and all done, except for posting… which I will proceed to do now…. See ya 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

dozer3