Tag Archives: Albus Dumbledore

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
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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….
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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 ~~

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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!…..

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“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
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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

Soft visions, of viscous pale faces, at dawn….

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Ffolkes,

I’m afraid I’m going to have to make an executive decision today; given the number of typing errors I made to get that partial sentence done, it’s a good thing, too! I’m on the road, and I’m exhausted. I’ve got stuff I NEED to do while I’m here, or I take the risk of making the trip a waste of time. I have to go meet people, and make nice, neither of which is currently on my list of stuff that excites me. Actually, though, seeing old friends doesn’t really fall into the same category as with other people I have to make nice for ; with old friends, it is NOT an obligation, but rather, an opportunity….one I enjoy…

But, given my levels of pain, the cold I’m still fighting, and my exhaustion from the effort to stand upright, to function while fighting gravity long enough to get where I’m going, it’s getting hard to pretend I do want to meet and speak to anyone, or to otherwise act as if I wouldn’t actually rather be in bed, moaning piteously, and feeling sorry for myself…. I’ve gotten pretty good at that part…. The upshot of all this self-indulgence is that I will be cheating again today, pulling stuff from the archives to fill in what I don’t have the wherewithal to produce…. Well, maybe I’ll have enough in me to create one pearl, for section one, but it will have to be a fully automated sort, or it won’t get done today…

Any who, in the interests of saving my energy for the stuff I have to do, I’ll also cut this intro short, and NOT subject y’all to an interminable meander through the empty halls of my mind….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Any idiot can face a crisis.  It’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.” — Anton Chekhov
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Okay, so we’ll try to put together one pearl, to see if it can be done without bloodshed…. Hopefully, Smart Bee is in a good mood, and willing to help….

“After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” — J.K. Rowling, The Man with Two Faces,  — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 1997, — spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

“A man is not aware of his virtues (if any). Nevertheless, one hopes that they exist.” — Edward Abbey

“Don’t get hit.” — First rule of fighting

“Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul.” — Mark Twain

“Anything you do can get you shot, including nothing.” — Murphy’s Military Laws, #15

Hmm… not bad, but, it needs a two-fer, to round it off…

“The years teach much which the days never know.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Experience”

“Nothing endures but change.” — Heraclitus (540?-480? B.C.)

Well, points ought to be awarded for the effort, even if SB faded on me a bit at the end…. The two-fer is a trifle weak, but, it will do…. I can say for sure this isn’t the worst pearl to ever come down the pike, while still admitting it won’t win any Pulitzer Prizes….
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To avoid sullying the reputation of any others in today’s post, I’m including a poem of my own, so nobody else gets any of the no doubt well-deserved blame for any of this….

After the odyssey….

Portraits of iconic symbols, crashing, singing, forgotten;
evolving into mature innovation, as yet pale, and rotten.
Still water justly breeds, impenetrable primal verses resound;
unholy moments tarry, emotion swirls in passion unbound

Spiritual ovulation precedes each pregnant pause;
gravid, time moves on, following destiny’s cause.
Cast adrift on waves of confusion, to a final, damp landing;
salvation beckons sweetly, fed well on understanding.

Dreams directly fall, in night’s grey bower, unbidden;
lingering flavors in simple taste, lovingly, cleverly hidden.
Childish laughter sounds, joyful, bright, and clear;
no need ever to hide, no more monsters to fear.

Temper most foul arrives under unregistered mail;
forgotten taunts live on, lashed by an ancient flail.
Plain dealing delivers such lasting specks of honest hate;
savage in retrospect, never hasty, always running late.

Forever, cries an ambient lover of the pending night;
his pale, weak issue forms its own failing light.
Still, fortune favors such as those who apprehend;
Sweet love of Gaia, let it never end.

~~ gigoid ~~

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I found the quote below while perusing SB a couple days ago, saving it for a future rant… I’m not sure now when that might happen, so I’m putting it here, then following up with an appropriate related discussion, from a Pearl first posted in April of 2012…. enjoy!

The truth is that Christian theology, like every other theology, is not only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is also opposed to all other attempts at rational thinking. Not by accident does Genesis 3 make the father of knowledge a serpent- slimy, sneaking and abominable. Since the earliest days the church as an organization has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was the apologist for the divine right of kings.” — H. L. Mencken

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“Hurting other people unnecessarily is the only “sin”. All the others are made up nonsense. Hurting one’s self isn’t a sin, it’s just stupid.” — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Original sin…. who said it was? And why does anyone believe it?

I saw Robert Heinlein’s quote, as related above, about sins the other day, and it got me to thinking about the concept upon which much of Christianity is based,  to wit: Original Sin. Supposedly, as a metaphor, God made a snake, which talked Eve (whom God had refused to warn about snakes, merely saying “do as I say”) into talking Adam into taking a bite of the apple, which oddly enough (it’s hard to indicate a raised eyebrow in prose), was the metaphor for the knowledge of Good and Evil…..

Then, when they had done so, this merciful god proceeded to punish them, with a most severe sentence for a first offense, for disobeying his decree (thereby blaming them for what he, being omnipotent, already knew would happen…. He set it up that way, in a lose-lose scenario; you can’t claim omnipotence and say he didn’t know it was likely…..). What a cruel, hateful set-up! It all sounds so….. human, doesn’t it?

To my way of thinking, this always seemed like a petty, small-spirited, even vicious thing for God to do…. very childish, in most ways that count.  And don’t give me all that crap about free will and choosing God’s love…. it’s not free if one is punished for using it. You also can’t tell me that God loves Man, not if he goes around setting him up to lose like that.

Please also note, the knowledge that this merciful, loving God didn’t want us to have was the knowledge of Good and Evil… knowledge which, if we did not have it, we could not judge whether what God did to us was good, or evil, now could we?  In other words, God did not want us to know that He was playing us for fools…. another scenario that, according to the creationists, was completely his idea….

I remember distinctly when I first heard the story of the Garden of Eden, when I was about four years old, or so… and I remember thinking, at the end, why did God put the apple tree in Eden, if he didn’t want Adam or Eve to eat from it?  I didn’t know anything about the metaphorical nature of the story then… even I wasn’t that precocious, smart as I am. But I do remember thinking that it didn’t seem quite fair to put it there, and then tell them not to eat it. (Fairness is an important quality to a child, especially to a child from a large family….)

Even at age four, the question “Why?” was at the forefront of my thoughts when I heard the story, but nobody would ever answer me when I asked, other than to parrot the eternal evasion, “God works in mysterious ways….” The whole charade left me with the distinct impression that, not only was God not all he was cracked up to be, but, the adults who were telling me the stories seemed to be playing the same game with me, that God was playing with Adam and Eve, trying to get me to buy “a pig in a poke”, in a manner of speaking…

Even a four year old knows a crock of crap when he hears it….. I didn’t fall for it then, and I still can’t seem to find anyone who can give me an answer that doesn’t make God look like a cranky five-year old who needs a nap….

“God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. It says so right here on the label. If you have the kind of mind that can believe all three of those things at once, then I have a wonderful deal in a bridge for you! Cash only, no checks….” — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
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Well, I knew from the start this would be a tough one, and I was write…. oops… I was right, wasn’t I? Any who, it’s done, and I’ll try to get it out to the usual suspects, the get it posted online, so I can just go on to the next thing, followed closely by the next…. See ya…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest 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

“Cake, or death” , as a manifesto, royally sucks wind….

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Ffolkes,

Fair warning, ffolkes…. Today’s effort could conceivably break me, and, in the current state of my mind, that event will (not COULD, but WILL…) produce an explosion roughly equivalent to the one dropped on Nagasaki in 1945…. Not the largest device ever used, but, close enough, and more than enough to level a city of about half a million people, killing at least half of them, reducing the city to a massive pile of rubble and bodies, for the most part, and creating the world’s largest conclave of radiation casualties outside Hiroshima…. If that isn’t enough of a ugly, scary image to start the day with, I can do another…. No? Okay….

I’m in a strange mood, (originally, I said “sort of a strange mood”, but, decided there’s no “sort of” about it; it’s strange….), half-glad, half-sad, and all pissed off, all due, for the most part, to the ongoing display of childishness and stupidity being played out on the national political scene, which, if it isn’t already clear, serves to offer complete and utter proof that NONE of those elected to any of the offices in this government have enough common sense to come in out of the rain, much less enough of that precious quality to be anything but disasters as leaders of a nation…. I’ve stated previously that I believe that ALL of the elected officials at that level are insane, clinically, and demonstrably, and the scenario being played out in Congress right now certainly goes a long way toward providing incontrovertible proof of that assertion….

A small group of disgruntled, (random query: what does a “gruntled” person look like?….) conservative, Tea Party fanatics, goaded on by even more fanatical supporters, who have more money than IQ points, has accomplished the complete shutdown of the US government, in a belated but ongoing protest of a law passed three years ago, without a single thought in their tiny little minds of a) how little what they’re doing will help ANYONE other than themselves, b) how stupid they appear, and c) how much damage to their own agenda they are causing, by their intransigence and stubborn desire to maintain a status that is no longer quo….

I mean, it’s ridiculous to me to see how hard these conservative fundamentalists struggle to deny the reality of the demographics of this country, which, no matter how they feel about it, no longer exists as a white, Christian majority, but, has evolved into a much more diverse collection of ethnic cultures from all over the world, with skin colors to rival the rainbow in their complexity. Caucasians are NOT the majority in America any more, and I say, it’s about damn time!….

The whole problem with these white assholes is they’ve become accustomed to having everything their way, because they have, previously, always had the voting power, and the law, on their side; no historian today will deny the facts of the matter, which clearly show how the last two hundred years in this country have exhibited a definite prejudicial bent, favoring the white, Christian subgroup in this country…. In turn, this ingrained prejudice has led us to some of the problems our society now faces, as that demographic, formerly a certainty, has become less definite, and the voting power has shifted away from its conservative roots, into a more diverse, and liberal outlook, that has evolved along with the mixing of the races….

This mixing, in spite of what the fundies would like to believe, has already happened, ON THE STREETS, although, not in the seats of power; this discrepancy is what is now causing many of the issues that continue to arise over time. As the power base shifts to reflect the more diverse population we now enjoy in this nation, the old forces, used to their entitlements, are throwing tantrums, and trying to maintain a status quo that is no longer feasible, not if reality is to match what we believe it to be…. and, regardless of how much they WANT it to be otherwise, that much social momentum cannot be stopped…

There are just too many powerful social forces at work, changing the face of the American demography, and trying to have everything stay the same only causes pain for those who try to keep from acknowledging the changes. Plus, it should be noted that attempting to deny reality, and fighting against it, are sure signs of insanity in humans, more proof of my assertion regarding political animals, and those who are determined to support them in their insanity….

To my mind, the issue of the sanity of those who seek public office was settled a long time ago; it is obviously quite crazy to believe that ANYONE at all has the ability to successfully handle the issues that go along with a nation of this size and complexity. It is simply too big a job, as are the other positions we elect people to fill, and only someone who has an unreasonable opinion of their own abilities would think they were capable of doing so…. If you believe there is anyone alive who is smart enough, or honest enough, or even cares enough, to be able to deal with all the details and responsibilities that go along with being President, or Senator, or any of the other positions we allow people to assume, then I am sorry to say that you have learned to deny reality as well as they do….

It isn’t a matter of whether what they believe is true or not; it is their BELIEF that they can that is the issue, because, quite simply, and quite demonstrably, they can’t….. But, they won’t admit it; to do so would mean admitting they were wrong all along…. and that is the whole problem, because they believe they can, and, sadly, they are able to convince others that they are right…. This kind of logic is what is called an eternal loop, a closed circle of false ideas that support each other by their denial of reality; in the field of psychiatry, we called it clinical INSANITY!….

Well, I see that once again, I’ve crossed over into ranting, without the slightest hesitation, and without realizing how early I was falling into venting mode…. I can only plead exigency, and a bit of emotional pressure…. All the above has obviously been in there, percolating, and had to come out in order to clear the decks for anything remotely creative to find its way into the light of day. Sort of like clearing the throat before singing, I guess… Oh well, that means that I don’t HAVE to rant in sections one or three, unless I want to, or see something that compels me to enter into ranting mode…. which is probably a good thing for y’all, in the final analysis….

Shall we Pearl?…. Though it’s repeating myself, it’s about damn time….

“‘If everybody minded their own business,’ the Duchess said, in a hoarse growl, ‘the world would go round a deal faster than it does.'” — Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”
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I see by the above that my ranting needs a bit of work…. I’m falling into the mode too easily, and resorting too often to general indictments, without much solid evidence to back it up…. Not that much is needed, or that it isn’t available; the news web sites, and papers, are full of plenty of stuff to support the points I’ve made in my rants….  I have been trying to supply links to such articles, that provide such evidence, when I can….

Howsomever, I don’t want to fall into the less than perfectly moral methods used by the opposition, which can and does regularly include flat out lying, and/or complete fabrication of the truth…. I mean, it is almost impossible for me to go through a single day of reading the news without finding another lie told by a politician, or if nothing else, a piece of truth that somehow got left out of whatever they said….

I also see that I am falling right back into rant mode, and I was trying NOT to do that, even though the current state of affairs out in the BBR (Big Blue Room…. that place outside the room where my computer lives….) is in dire need of being ranted over…. Things are so damn far off the track that we may as well just start building new tracks in the direction we’re going…. That may get us to our extinction faster, but, it couldn’t hurt any to be a bit more comfortable on the way to Hell, could it?….

Any who, I’m going to go with an old-school pearl here, if I can ever break free of this urge to take shot after shot at the politicos today…. Bloody assholes… I’ll try to sublimate by giving Smart Bee some strict parameters for selections today…. These will all point at elected officials, or appointed ones, as they are generally appointed by someone who was elected; taking my best shots, so to speak, in one way or another….

A moral, sensible, and well-bred man
Will not affront me,–and no other can.

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — Conversation, Line 193

“Modern diplomats approach every problem with an open mouth.” — Arthur J. Goldberg

“Prejudice is when you don’t hate an individual, but you hate what they stand for, when without knowing them personally, you decide they are worthy of your derision.” — Callan Williams
(Oops… I guess that makes me prejudiced against people who act stupid in public, doesn’t it?…. Oh, well….)

“Since when is “public safety” the root password to the Constitution?” — C. D. Tavares

“You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time,. And that’s sufficient.” — Rose King
(Ms. King was obviously the teacher of many, many politicians in her time…. and she taught her lesson well….)

“Can’t refute the message?  Attack the messenger!” — Conservative Rule #9

If you want to get the plain truth,
Be not concerned with right and wrong.
The conflict between right and wrong
Is the sickness of the mind.

— Seng-Ts’an

Wow…. it took a while, but, I think it was worth the time spent looking for that final pearl…. which, to my mind, is damn near perfect….
_____________________________

Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet-laureate while he lived; I only heard of him after he died, earlier this year, but, since first reading his work, have come to realize how little that phrase says about his poems, or the way they affect me. It seems he felt many of the same sort of feelings as I do, feelings he was able to set into verse with much more panache and style than I have ever achieved, at least to my mind…. Any who, this poem seems to fit in with my mood today, so, I hope you enjoy it….

Exposure

It is December in Wicklow:
Alders dripping, birches
Inheriting the last light,
The ash tree cold to look at.

A comet that was lost
Should be visible at sunset,
Those million tons of light
Like a glimmer of haws and rose-hips,

And I sometimes see a falling star.
If I could come on meteorite!
Instead I walk through damp leaves,
Husks, the spent flukes of autumn,

Imagining a hero
On some muddy compound,
His gift like a slingstone
Whirled for the desperate.

How did I end up like this?
I often think of my friends’
Beautiful prismatic counselling
And the anvil brains of some who hate me

As I sit weighing and weighing
My responsible tristia.
For what? For the ear? For the people?
For what is said behind-backs?

Rain comes down through the alders,
Its low conductive voices
Mutter about let-downs and erosions
And yet each drop recalls

The diamond absolutes.
I am neither internee nor informer;
An inner йmigrй, grown long-haired
And thoughtful; a wood-kerne

Escaped from the massacre,
Taking protective colouring
From bole and bark, feeling
Every wind that blows;

Who, blowing up these sparks
For their meagre heat, have missed
The once-in-a-lifetime portent,
The comet’s pulsing rose.

~~ Seamus Heaney ~~

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“The goal of all life is death.” — Sigmund Freud

Like the finest pearls, sometimes the smallest ones shine the brightest…. I’ve been thinking about death a lot recently; it’s not morbidity, merely the natural curiosity of all humans as we more closely approach our own end time on this old ball of mud. I don’t exactly fear death, though it’s not a comforting subject to consider…. but, I think that discomfort arises from a somewhat different source than is common for most folks…. You see, I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever about what happens after we die…. I also have no clue as to what that might be, but, whatever happens to us after we die, our consciousness will NOT flicker out, like a candle in the wind….

This belief is not based on some ridiculous notion of supernatural intervention that will determine my “necrodestination”, as Frank Zappa called it…. Rather, it is based on a more rational idea, that, though logical in nature, is nonetheless good, solid reasoning…. My idea is that it doesn’t make any sense for us to assume that, when we die, we no longer exist as a conscious being, because that would be a waste of energy, most simply put, and the Universe doesn’t work that way, so far as all we know about it….

“There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it?” — Lazarus Long, aka Robert Heinlein

One of the laws of the physical universe in which we live is the Law of Conservation of Energy. This law has been known to science for many hundreds of years, and has been the subject of innumerable experiments, ALL of which proved it to be factual. Simply put, it states, “Energy cannot be destroyed, only altered in form.” In other words, any part of this physical universe that can be defined as a form of energy is immortal, in the sense that it never goes away, it only alters its type…. Electric to kinetic, kinetic to electric, nuclear to atomic, magnetic to electric , and vice versa, etc, ad lib, ad nauseam….. It never goes away, it only changes form….

To my way of thinking, consciousness is a form of energy. It is one we don’t completely understand, along the lines of both magnetic, and gravitational energies, both of which, so far, have eluded our full knowledge, and remain mysterious in many ways… Consciousness is in a similar situation; we can perceive it, and define it. There are even some instruments that seem to register its presence, peripherally, if not precisely. We can observe its effect on reality, and we can understand, to a degree, how it behaves….

But, we don’t know anywhere nearly all about it, nor can we do anything other than observe it in action, and only from within its boundaries!  We cannot observe consciousness in ourselves, only in others, and then only by perceiving their actions, not a direct perception of the energy that makes it act, or makes it real…

To a certain extent, this is a handicap, but, fortunately for us, the power of our imagination can assist us to understand its more complex characteristics, eventually…. So far, though, it is not a form of energy that we have under our complete control, and, at this point in our mental development, cannot perceive where it goes, or what form it takes, after we reach the end of our biological lives here on Earth….

“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Lazarus Long, again

All my life, my sense of curiosity, my knowledge of science and philosophy, and a healthy sense of doubt, has kept me from ever falling under the influence of any of the major religions of the world, and I generally tend to take Lazarus’ view of the matter as being the most reasonable one can assume. If people wish to believe in that stuff, well and good, as long as they don’t try to force it down anyone else’s throat, we won’t have any issues….

My own take on the whole matter of life after death is this: it seems to me, whatever happens after we die, it must be more interesting, and more complex than what we are doing here, as it seems to take much longer to be dead than it does to be alive… which makes dying just another adventure, for an inquiring mind….

“After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” — J.K. Rowling, The Man with Two Faces, — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 1997, — spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

Getting all worked up about who has the biggest, most powerful imaginary friend in this world, and who will go to the most attractive place when we die, all based on a delusional system of rewards and punishments for desired, or undesired, behaviors, isn’t the way I intend to spend my time here on Earth…. There’s too much really cool stuff going on in other areas of human existence to make that very attractive as a way to spend time. Instead, I’ll learn as much as I can of what is real, and what is important, and maybe, when I die, someone will be helped in some way by whatever I’ve found out, and left behind as a legacy….

“We are here and it is now.  Further than that all human knowledge is moonshine.” — H. L. Mencken

Blessed Be, ffolkes…. You may as well enjoy life; as the Scots are fond of saying….”Be glad of living, for you’re a long time dead.”….
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Today’s Pearl is the result of a short night’s sleep, and a long morning’s meandering through the fertile, if confusing, fields of my imagination and will…. It promises to be an epic struggle to proof, so I’ll get right on that…. while I still have the wherewithal to do so….

“Epic” was certainly the correct word choice for this Pearl. I know I write a lot, and I know it’s a lot to take in at one sitting; keep in mind it takes me a number of sittings each morning to produce these missives, so don’t feel bad if it’s hard to finish it all at once. But, I think this one is well worth it, as I got a lot of stuff out that has been percolating, and feel like I’ve tidied up a lot of space in my head that needed it….

If nothing else, I feel as if I’ve gotten in a sufficient number of direct hits on the BRC, so, I’m happy, for the nonce…. At least, until one of them goes and does something stupid, again, right out there for all of us to see… Be sure, I’ll point it out for y’all, and do my best to help y’all see some of the humor, and stupidity, that runs rampant in our society….

There, I even got in a little mini-rant in the closing section…. how’s that for going overboard, eh?…. 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

Happy ever after as a plot device….

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8

Ffolkes,
While it is useful for intimidating police, and keeping relatives at an acceptable distance, insanity can be… well, insane, to try to cope with on a regular basis. This characteristic is one of the many that keeps me from just falling into its warm embrace permanently. Once I give in and let meself go, I’m fairly certain I won’t be back, not for many a day, as the song goes….. I’m pretty sure it would be too comfortable…..

In fact, having spent a fair amount of time gracing the company of those who totally give up trying to be normal, those who instead spend their time doing exactly what they are hoping will feel the best, given their already confused state of mind, I KNOW it is more comfortable than anywhere sanity can go.

There is no pressure to be right, no pressure to not be wrong, and those are no small things, in a world that places premium importance on them. The insane, by the nature of their condition, and because of what others think they know of it, are possibly the happiest people in the world, as they don’t have to live up to any of the standards the rest of society is so invested in….

Why, you may ask, would anyone wish to be sane, in that case? That is a good question, not one I can answer without ranting, at least a bit, and I promised I wouldn’t do that in the intro any more. Well, it wasn’t a promise, just an intent, but, hey, almost the same, and I’m sure nobody else wants a rant so early in the day, either, so, back off….

Sanity, as practiced by most of those in society, is not a very comfortable, or easy, state in which to be for long, requiring as it does constant alertness, and regular maintenance, to keep it from falling apart under the daily assaults by Reality, and the kind attention of Murphy and his ilk…..

Insanity, on the other hand, has no stress, no pressure, and no responsibility; whatever one decides to do, no matter how outrageous, or out of touch with the real world it may be, is okay, and allowed. No limits are applicable, so the insane are free to let their imagination have free rein, and the results are incredible, to say the least…. Not always comprehensible, or easy to watch, or to deal with, but incredible, for sure… No sane person will ever be able to create art as powerful as a person whose grip on reality is less firm as their own, as they tend to set limits for themselves, as needed to retain that sanity…. thus shutting out that entire realm of imaginative possibility…

So, next time you have to cope with reality, consider how easy it would be to just let go, and not worry about whether what you are doing is the right thing…. It may not keep you from going down that road, but it may help you find a reason to stay on the road to sanity…. and, in the best-case-scenario, maybe, just maybe, you can learn to let that side out now and again, to find out what there may be there, that can be brought into the world, to share the beauty, or the wisdom, or the love that they know, in a universe with no limits… Remember, all the nicest ffolkes in the world are just a little bit tetched, as my father used to say….

But, for now, I think it’s time to draw this intro to a close, before it assumes epic proportions…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Reality can be hazardous to your health.” — Smart Bee

This one is probably not a surprise, nor is it something that is rare, or uncommonly known. Hell, it only takes a couple of years of living on this planet before this knowledge becomes second nature to us, and we know it almost instinctively. This, I think, is part of why it is always a surprise to us how the process of growing older is much more difficult than we imagined…. It is also why we always end up, at one point or another, saying to ourselves, “Why the hell didn’t anyone tell me this?” It may not be a conspiracy, but the end result is the same, because nobody is talking, and if they had any compassion, they would be….

Your guess as to why this is would be as good as mine, and I’m not sure it matters; what matters is that they don’t, and it isn’t included in any of the manuals we receive about Life and How to Live…. Actually, I don’t know about y’all, but my manuals were all lost in the mail, and I never got any of them… We WERE supposed to get them right? I mean, there is a God, by all reports from the rest of society, and according to dogma and stuff, we’re His responsibility, right? So, where’s my manual?…. Where is yours?….

Don’t try to tell me you’re buying into the Bible as the manual? Have you ever read that thing? It is the most inconsistent, poorly written, manipulative, and just plain most erroneous piece of literature I ever tried to plow my way through… Hell, the first chapter is complete science fiction, or more accurately, fantasy, and it goes downhill from there, in terms of what is believable…. I guess, even if all of the hundreds of different authors WERE connected in spirit, and only channeling the Word of God, it still has to all be based on events that have some basis in reality, or it just isn’t going to hold together, logically, or consistently…. There just isn’t any possible way to get a correct answer when the basis of an argument is false… The principle of GIGO trumps delusional assumptions, at least in the real world….

“The Bible is true this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” — Jordan Henderson

Okay, so if there aren’t any manuals, and the only folks out there offering to help are those who are doing so out of their own desire to control other folks, then how do we learn to accept all the hardships that come with growing older? Well, let’s see…. As I sit and consider that question, it keeps growing larger in scope, and the number of potential answers approaches infinity, so, I guess I need to narrow the focus a bit…. Hmm, break time…. gotta cogitate on this one….

“Men spend their lives in anticipations, in determining to be vastly happy at some period when they have time.  But the present time has one advantage over every other – it is our own.  Past opportunities are gone, future have not come.  We may lay in a stock of pleasures, as we would lay in a stock of wine; but if we defer the tasting of them too long, we shall find that both are soured by age.” — C. C. Colton

Okay, that isn’t a bad insight, all in all…. but, it doesn’t quite fill the bill for our discussion, for while it acknowledges the power of aging, it doesn’t offer any solutions, or advice, other than in a passive, negative sense…. More, please….

“Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.” — J.K. Rowling, The Beginning, — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000, — spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

Hmm… a clue, I think, of the direction we are seeking to find…. a bit more fine tuning, I think….

“Bear, do not blame, what cannot be changed.” — Publius Syrus

Another clue…. we must be on the right track….

“Never give an inch!” — Smart Bee

Okay, we’re almost there, cuz the pearls are getting shorter, and deeper, always a good sign….

“I’m not a lawyer, but I play one on the guitar.” — Smart Bee

Well, see, I told you…. the perfect ending to a discussion of Reality, and how we deal with it over time….. In other words, ffolkes, you can’t really win, in the sense for which we are seeking to find a reasonable justification… The game is rigged, and it’s the only one in town…. But, it also implies that we can still walk away a winner, we just have to change the rules in our own minds….

In short, ffolkes, we’re on our own out here in Reality, and aging can either be a burden to bear, or an advantage to take…. It’s all up to us, ultimately, and we not only shouldn’t worry about whether or not there is anyone who can relieve us of this responsibility, but should understand that the act of doing so only makes the issue more difficult….

So, buck up, ffolkes…. Yes, Life gets tough, but, if we are smart, we can get tougher….

“I love ROCK ‘N ROLL!  I memorized the all WORDS to “WIPE-OUT” in 1965!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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Since I’m just that kind of guy, and I don’t have one of my own ready to bleed out, here’s a two-fer from Master Yeats, with a prologue….  Enjoy!  🙂

“No poems can please nor live long which are written by water-drinkers.” — Horace (65-8 B.C.)

A Drinking Song

WINE comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That’s all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

William Butler Yeats

A Drunken Man’s Praise Of Sobriety

COME swish around, my pretty punk,
And keep me dancing still
That I may stay a sober man
Although I drink my fill.

Sobriety is a jewel
That I do much adore;
And therefore keep me dancing
Though drunkards lie and snore.
O mind your feet, O mind your feet,
Keep dancing like a wave,
And under every dancer
A dead man in his grave.
No ups and downs, my pretty,
A mermaid, not a punk;
A drunkard is a dead man,
And all dead men are drunk.

William Butler Yeats
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“In the words of Shankarachaya, “All impossible things can be made possible save the bringing of the fool’s mind to the point of truth.”” — Hazrat Inayat Khan (Sufi writer)

Sufi is a philosophy whose written words are not very familiar to me, as I’ve never made a study of them, beyond a superficial one, to get a gauge of its scope. I like this, though, and it says a lot to me that the author was able to independently come to a conclusion that is common to many other philosophies I admire, to wit: “Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain.” It is a sentiment that, in a way, defines humanity, while at the same time, points out the fly in the ointment, so to speak….

Our minds, given the power of imagination, are our strength, our greatest tool in the fight for survival in this universe; they are also our greatest frailty, our Achilles heel, as it were. Imagination can show us how to survive, and live; it can also makes us afraid for no reason, other than our own ignorance. Our intelligence is our greatest ally, and our worst enemy…. and it is this contradiction that keeps us from achieving that serenity in society that is possible on an individual basis…..

You see, there are way too many unscrupulous people who DO know how to use their imaginations, to their OWN advantage, who are in positions of influence in society, and they are able to manipulate the vast numbers of people who choose to allow ignorance to rule their existence, all of whom would rather die than try to think their way out of a problem. These “fools” are controlled very easily, as they actually prefer to not have to use what sits on their shoulders for anything other than passing comestibles to their stomachs, and will believe pretty much anything told to them, as long as it is on TV…..

Here on this blog, I rail at this segment of humanity quite regularly, not that it does much to alter the situation. But, it is all I can do at the moment, so I keep on shouting into the wind, and preaching to the choir, because, naturally, the ffolkes who end up coming here are generally those who are already well-practiced at using their minds, or at least, not giving in to the urge to ignore reality. But, someday, perhaps, if and when I ever get off my ass to go try to find an agent, or a publisher, more folks will hear my plaintive cries for sanity, and it may actually have some kind of positive effect on matters…

What the hell, everybody’s gotta have a dream, right? Right…. well, that’s mine….. If I can bring some truth into the world, and spread it around where it can do some good, well, I can die a happy man, because that’s about all one can expect from this cold, hard universe… and it’s enough….

“Baby, after considerable thought I’ve reached the conclusion that the only conceivable legitimate answer to the Universe as constituted is a peal of hysterical laughter.” — Keith Laumer, _Night of Delusions_
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It took some patience, but that final pearl came through just in time, and perfectly closed the third section, with a statement with which I can wholeheartedly agree…. All in all, today’s effort isn’t too shabby, so we’re letting it go as is, sans critical judgment, though proofed and polished as best I may…. which means there is, no doubt, at least one hidden typo, that I won’t notice until it is posted…. Ah well, that’s life in the slow lane, I guess….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Fluent in nearly dead languages…..

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2

Ffolkes,
Apparently, sitting here, staring at the computer screen doesn’t work very well at producing viable ideas about which to write…. (Sometimes, being grammatically correct doesn’t come out very well,either, does it?…..) Who knew? I thought, when I first started creating a daily blog, that ideas would flow like water from a glass,, not knowing at the time that the process resembles more a volcano’s slowly moving lava, which only moves at all as long as it’s hot….. same as an idea. And, gad! Could I be any more simplistic and boring with my example? No, I didn’t think so….

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to read the mail first thing today, rather than keeping a clear mind. The email about the Facebook Class Action Settlement got my head all worked up first thing, before I even had sufficient coffee to grunt in appreciation.

It seems that somebody objected to FB using their images to sell stuff, and sued them to the tune of 20 million or so (that’s the settlement payout, anyway…)…. So, anybody who files a valid claim with the court can get at least $10, and possibly more, if not many people file a claim; the 20 million is to be split equally among the claimants, depending on how many file.

I doubt I’ve got a valid claim, and don’t really care much either way, but somebody could get real lucky, and it’s nice to see a big company get burned for their chicanery…. That doesn’t happen often, and probably would never have happened at all if the company were older, and part of the “good old boy” circle of folks who are rich as Croesus…. They protect themselves, and would never lose such a suit….

(Now, seriously, did you think I’d pass up a chance to take a poke at the BRC or one of the hidden masters of evil? Fat chance….)

The companies that are a part of that group would never have allowed the suit to reach court in the first place, much less allow it to lose….. and if you have to ask how they can do that, you haven’t been paying attention…..

Ah well, such is life in Amurrica, land of the whee….. if nothing else, we have a good time, right? It seems sometimes as if our culture is centered around that idea, i.e., having “fun”. So much of our energy is poured into activities designed to de-stress people after working that it becomes obsessive, and seems to take over.

The quest for “fun” becomes not just a pastime, but an avocation, nearly as important as the work that provides the means to have the fun, which, due to the BRC and our lovely advertising industry, is where most people tend to put their “disposable income”. Partying and seeking a good time are our cultural goals, it seems, and a lot of money goes into that quest, more money than is prudent, no doubt…..

I’ve stumbled into a mini-rant again, it seems, and once again have usurped the intro section for concepts better fitted for a pearl. Oh well…. that’s life here at Exploring Consensual Reality; we never know ahead of time where this whole thing may lead us. That’s why we dress for any type of weather and/or terrain, and always have a towel and an umbrella close at hand. (Not to mention a flask of adult beverage, for emergencies…..) It also explains the odd expressions on the folks who are observing from the shadows, a good thing, in my estimation….. Shadow people should never be catered to, in any fashion, so confusing them suits me just fine….

Now that the ambient confusion level has risen to a satisfactory number, I think it is time to gather up our equipment, such as it is, and dive in…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

Say NOPE (Not On Planet Earth) to NIMBY — Smart Bee

As acronyms go, both of these are pretty typical, but I’ve included them here to make a point about the power of words…. NIMBY, of course, stands for Not In My Back Yard, the cry of the modern suburbanite when confronted with any of the less than savory aspects of society. Prisons, hospitals, government buildings, schools, businesses, churches, anything at all becomes intrusive in their eyes, when it is suggested it be built near where these people want to live. They read the Constitution, back in school, and are firmly convinced of their right to not be bothered by anything they don’t like….. and they certainly don’t want to have to think about any of the issues that necessitate the unwanted neighbors’ moving to their area.

This selfishness is prevalent in many segments of society, and there are a large number of people who think it is perfectly acceptable to make laws that discriminate against certain parts of society, as long as it isn’t their part. These are the people who have embraced the rights that are given by the Constitution, but are not willing to take the responsibility for maintaining those rights for anyone but themselves. They go beyond the intent of the Constitution, in that they assume that the rules therein are written ONLY for their benefit, and not for the benefit of anyone else. They do not, in other words, accept the basic premise of the Declaration of Independence, to wit: ALL men are created with equal rights…..

“Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.” — Albus Dumbledore, in The Deathly Hallows, the movie based on the novel written by J.K. Rowling

The magic that is in the words of the Declaration, in the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution lies in their universal application to human experience. These rules, that we have, by dint of our living here, adopted as our legacy of rights, are only powerful when they are used for all. Every modification of one of these laws, every new law, that lessens that universal validity decreases their power, and their magic, and will ultimately lead to the loss of those rights we now enjoy. And, it will happen because people don’t understand, or are not able to deal with, the power of language and words….

You see, the BRC, and the people in society who are behind the scenes, controlling the media, and the banks, and the news outlets, are very adept at using words for their own purposes. They can lie without a qualm, masking their lies behind attractive phrases that create belief, never letting on that the new words will have the effect of perverting whatever the subject matter is, to a point where any advantage to be gained is gained by those who made the alterations to the original statement.

There are a myriad of techniques to twist words into whatever shape and meaning one desires, as any writer can tell you…. Hell, that’s our gig…. and the BRC knows every one of those techniques, having been responsible for creating most of them. To put it most simply, they lie, and they lie so well that they have been able to control society to their satisfaction for several thousand years now….. This is fact, not supposition, and is demonstrated daily in clear signs, if one is able to interpret those signs…. One of the signs to look for is to wonder what isn’t there…. We see the news that is put out each day, and it can be a very good thing to look at what ISN”T there…. Sometimes the music is made clearer by the silence between the notes, you know?…..

“I finally got it altogether, and found out that rental space for it was far more expensive than anticipated.” — Smart Bee

I can only agree with this, with the caveat that the price is worth it, whatever it is….. This pearl has gone wonky on me…. I had intended to issue a scathing report, chastising society for the daily abrogation of responsibility that I see in so many people, for allowing the BRC and the masters of evil to have such a strong hold over their lives.

But, I find myself in a place where my compassion for a lot of those people outweighs my anger at their cupidity; it isn’t their fault that they get lied to, and I guess I have to say I know it isn’t always their fault they fall for those lies. I would, but I can’t say that I haven’t done so myself, a time or two, and can empathize with the feeling of shame at having fallen for that crap, and not wanting to either admit to it, or even think about it….

So, I can’t really chastise so much as commiserate, and hope that talking about this kind of stuff will stimulate at least a few ffolkes to look around the bunches of stuff they see each day, and try to pick out the lies and perversions to which we are regularly subjected, on so many levels of communication. It’s not like they try to hide it or anything; it’s all right out there, if you know what to look for….. If they say, “Trust me..”, or, “Studies show…”, or, almost anything, you can bet they’re about to tell you a lie…. Hell, with most politicians, just opening their mouths pretty much guarantees one will be lied to…. that isn’t a joke, or an accusation, that’s a matter of public record, checkable by anyone….

I guess all this makes the hardest part of modern life the process of trying to decide who is telling us the truth, and who is lying to us…. and we all have to make those decisions for ourselves. It would probably be a good thing to at least think about how to go about doing that, as it may just end up saving your ass….

Dare to be true: nothing can need a lie;
A fault which needs it most, grows two thereby.
— George Herbert (1593-1633) — The Church Porch
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I’ve wanted to include some of Ms. Plath’s poems for some time, but couldn’t find a site that published them, due to copyright issues, until yesterday….Now that I have, you’ll be seeing more of her work in the months ahead…. She was brilliant!….

Morning Song

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.
The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry
Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival.  New statue.
In a drafty museum, your nakedness
Shadows our safety.  We stand round blankly as walls.

I’m no more your mother
Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow
Effacement at the wind’s hand.

All night your moth-breath
Flickers among the flat pink roses.  I wake to listen:
A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral
In my Victorian nightgown.
Your mouth opens clean as a cat’s.  The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars.  And now you try
Your handful of notes;
The clear vowels rise like balloons.

~~ Sylvia Plath
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“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” — T. S. Eliot

T.S. has put his finger right on an issue that I see as a large factor in the state of affairs in society today, the issue of courage. He recognizes that only having the courage to face the unknown can eliminate the fear that comes with ignorance, and how showing courage is essential to making any progress in life. One cannot enjoy the sunlight and still be afraid of the dark…. I think I said that right…. Regardless, I think you know what I mean…. it takes some strength of will, and a willingness to endure risk, in order to gain the experience needed to come to terms with Reality…. which, as we all know, can be pretty scary….

Most folks, sadly, never find the courage to really question what happens to them. Most folks accept whatever they’re told by those in authority over them…. parents, teachers, politicians, preachers, all are ready, willing, and able to tell them how they should dress, or think, or what they should believe, and whom they should believe, all “for their own good.”

Not only do most people accept what they’re told, they never even consider that there just might be any other way to see the world, because it is more comfortable, and, they think, safer, to just go along with what they’re told. In one respect, it IS safer, in that as long as they continue to go along with the program, they won’t be asked to put themselves out, or have to go through the effort of learning, or thinking….

Our society does not encourage children to think; in fact, our entire system of education is designed to prevent that very thing. Well, perhaps saying it is designed that way is a bit harsh…. A lot of quite moral people do contribute their ideas and talents to the educational process, with good intentions, but their efforts are, and always will be, blunted by the powers that be, none of whom are invested, or have any interest, in having a population capable of critical thought.

Having a large number of people who question authority isn’t in their best interests, and you can rest assured that the systems they set up to educate the young are NOT going to create an atmosphere that encourages any such thing…. As George Carlin so aptly pointed out, all they need is people who are smart enough to operate the machines, but not smart enough to question why they get paid so little for doing so….

The advent of the Internet put a big dent in the machine that the BRC has built over the centuries to keep society under their control, and they are still scrambling, trying to get a handle on the now uncontrollable flood of information readily available to people who never before had any idea that they were so ignorant.

A lot of smart ffolkes are out there in the world, and more and more of them are now able to share their knowledge of what is Truth with the world at large… a lot more than ever before in history. I am positive this makes the BRC and the masters of evil quite nervous, as shown by the daily attempts to curtail the flow of information through legislation and fear mongering over “identity theft” and “national security concerns”.

But, the Genie is out of the bottle, and I don’t think they’ll ever be able to get it back in as completely as before. The world now has access to more knowledge, on a wider basis than ever before in history, and that spread of knowledge is going to have an effect. It may not be obvious yet, but, it will happen, and the world will become a different place, with different rules, none of which can be guessed at now.

The question remains as to whether the changes that are coming to society will happen in time to save us from the physical effects our specie’s foolishness is forcing on us, and as to whether or not the process will proceed without the need for violent revolution. I can’t see the BRC or the masters of evil giving up their grasp on the rest of us without a struggle….

The question, then, is this… do we have the courage to take responsibility for our own lives into our own hands? Or will we just accept whatever Reality subjects us to, without any attempt to gain control over our own destiny?….. Time will tell, and I hope we all are still around to hear the answer….

“We can lie in the language of dress or try to tell the truth; but unless we are naked and bald, it is impossible to be silent.” — Alison Lurie
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I’m really not sure how to look at today’s effort…. While writing it, it felt fragmented, and it seemed to be a struggle to keep on track. After proofing and polishing, I can see it didn’t come out too badly, and managed to make a good point or two… If nothing else, the Morning Song is worth sitting through the rest of it, I’m sure…. Besides, where else could you find so many confident assertions, totally unsupported by facts and figures, but here?… Oh, right, just about anywhere…. Oh, well..

I’m going to go see if I can cause some trouble out in the Big Blue Room. (Don’t fret, to me, trouble = twisting reality’s tail, not anything immoral, or cruel…. just fooling with folk’s minds whenever possible, & inviting them to join me in either thinking, or laughing….Harmless fun, that’s all….)  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Delicate pieces of broken china….

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15

Ffolkes,
Whew! A close call, but disaster was averted, narrowly. Lest I drive everyone away in the first paragraph, before we even get started, I’ll not supply the details, but, believe me, it was very nearly a nasty mess. Let’s just say, hallelujah, and leave it at that….. Well!….

Howdy….. It isn’t every day that begins with such excitement, thank goodness. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t deal with that kind of issue every morning, as I have a distinct dislike for Kleenex, and anything to do with them, due to an accident when I was a child, involving those unreliable tissues, a clown, a policeman, and several large piles of manure. They told me it would probably never go away, so I live in a tissue-free world…. I don’t mind, there’s always TP…..

Hmm…. I suppose that kind of talk might just drive y’all out, too, if I’m not careful, so allow me to cast about desperately for something else to focus this intro section around…. Aha! Okay, how’s this?….. No, I’m not going to go there….. I’ve spent a long time creating just the right ambiance, and the proper standards for this blog, and I refuse to lower (or, some might say, raise….) them now. So, that’s out….

Now what the hell am I going to do?…. Shit….. Sorry, don’t mean to get vulgar, I’m just not accustomed to floundering around quite so ineptly in the morning. Though the process of creating each day’s introduction remains a mysterious one, it is usually a bit more cooperative at providing me with subject matter….. I’m just not used to this degree of chaos, I guess…. I can usually handle it better than this….. I’m tempted to say “gosh”…..

Well, whatever I decide, I’d better do so in the near future, as this is starting to drag into my writing time. Not that this part isn’t writing, but, it is supposed to be a quick, easy process to get this part done, not the long-drawn out affair today has blessed us with. I’m going to make a dangerous decision here, and call this intro off…..

Yep. It is hereby canceled. I’m having too much trouble getting it to even sit still long enough to apply any actual techniques, and it won’t allow me to pin down any particular style…. So, fuck it. We’re going to get radical, and dump the whole thing…. Of course, it helps that I’ve now managed to saddle y’all with five paragraphs of this nonsense….   🙂    It’s a gift…..

Shall we Pearl?…..
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“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__________________________________

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 289

I keep coming across passages from this poem by Mssr. Pope. Most are small six line excerpts like this one, and each one, by itself, is also like this one, a very deep insight into human nature and the nature of Reality. It is an astounding piece of work, and one day I’m going to sit down and read all of it in one sitting…. It is an incredibly long poem, deserving of the title ‘epic”, and, rather than take up the space here, I am providing a link to as much of the entire poem I could find in the allotted time, located on one of my favorite sites to find poetry, PoemHunter.com…. Only two Epistles are included, as the other two were not there, and I didn’t find them in my secondary search. If anyone finds them before I do, please leave a link in the comments…. thanks….

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-essay-on-man-in-four-epistles-epistle-1/

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/an-essay-on-man-epistle-ii/

There you go…. enjoy!…..
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“Precepts and maxims are of great weight; and a few useful ones at hand do more toward a happy life than whole volumes that we know not where to find.” — Seneca

I’d intended to go old school here, due to a dearth of rantable material (according to SpellCheck, I just created a new word…. cool….). But then this little gem from Seneca popped up, and off we go…

Some folks out there in the world would be tempted to say that aphorisms and maxims are a cheap way to show off, and the people who use them frequently are merely insecure about their own knowledge. Hmph! It just goes to show, how trying to think only down to the first level of meaning can be deceptive, and fool people into thinking they know whereof they speak, when in fact, and reality, they are patently full of doo doo…. okay, shit. They’re full of shit, okay? That kind of bogus analysis can only lead to a lifetime of divisiveness and ill-feeling, as it is, from the get-go, just another way to judge someone else by their own standards. Such a habit is not only destructive to serenity of mind, it is hurtful to those who give a rat’s ass for what they think, and that is just cruel…..

Have no fear, that kind of nonsense has no effect on me; I am a devoted believer in the power of maxims. That power lies in the power of the words themselves, and anyone who doubts the power that words have to affect people, and reality, is living in a world of fantasy. As Albus Dumbledore said to such great effect in The Deathly Hallows, “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most powerful source of magic, capable of both inflicting harm, and healing it.” (A word or two may be off there… I’ll check later, and if so, I’ll correct it tomorrow….sorry, got distracted….)  Words, sometimes just a couple at a time, can be put together in such a way as to stir the imagination of entire nations…. Just think of how much the three words, “I like Ike” meant to this country in 1954…..

Then there are those maxims that are common to EVERYONE in our culture, or in whatever culture one lives, such as “Do unto others that which you would have others do unto you”, or “A penny saved is a penny earned”, or any of hundreds of other little bits of wisdom, tied up with a bow of language.

What Seneca says above then becomes much more valid, in light of how our the very basic ethics and morals of our society are passed on from one generation to another by these little information bombs. And the word “bombs” is more accurate than you may think as well, as the effects on the landscape of society from a well-timed aphorism can be seen and felt for a long time, and in many ways…… For example, “Make love, not war.”…..

So, anyone out there who is thinking that the time I spend looking for new quotes is time wasted, well, best of luck to ya. I consider every minute of the time I spend reading, whether reading books, Smart Bee, the Internet, other blogs,  or cereal boxes, any and all of it, looking for lines just like the one that started this pearl, to be time well spent….. It is all data, which my mind gobbles up like a hungry kitty gobbles up Tender Vittles.

The more data I get, the better I feel, and the more understanding I am capable of, when I am confronted by Reality. These little pieces of humanity’s hard-earned wisdom, gathered over thousands of years of experience, and the relation of that experience through literature, are part of what allows me the degree of peace that I am able to find in life, in spite of all the difficult issues it gives us to cope with… It always helps me to remember one of the first aphorisms I ever learned, and took to heart….

“This too, shall pass…..” — Unknown in origin, but ancient wisdom, passed down to us through a million generations of human spirit…..
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Okay, I’ll take it…. Let’s go see how it reads….. All in all, not bad…. A bit of buffing, polishing, and a couple of word changes, and it’s good to go. Since there is risk of spoiling that should I carry on much longer, I’ll end this here, and hope for the best…..   Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Congruent with unpopular opinion….

Posted on by
1

Ffolkes,
“Man the pumps! Run around in circles, yelling, “fire, earthquake, flood, pestilence!” Send the women and children overboard! Throw some fire on that pail of water! Kick the cat! And above all, DON’T PANIC!”….. Or, if you’d rather, you could just pass me the sugar there, in that bowl….. thanks. Now, where were we?…. Oh, yeah….

Buenos dias, amigos…. how’s it goin’? Or, in the vernacular, whassup? Hmm? Oh, that? No worries, it isn’t connected to anything real, so no need to pay any further attention to it. I was just practicing my alarm system…. You know, settling on the final version of what the alarm will do…. Like most ffolkes, I don’t like those beepy, loud, stridently obnoxious noises they use for most alarms. Very annoying, and no class at all…. So, I like to use other sounds…

I used to use some nice comforting musical reminder, but found it didn’t create the right sort of panic to get people moving, like when I had a soft voice, with a nice soft jazzy piano in accompaniment, saying, in the sultry tones and style of Miss Peggy Lee, “Watch out, it’s getting hot, big boy!” So, I’m having the recording changed…. This time, I’m having the above lines set as the message, in a silly, screechy Monty Python voice, I think…. That should get ffolkes going when it needs to!….

I don’t know, though…. What about a nice loud rendition of say, Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries”…. that will certainly get the blood moving, although people may think it’s the start of a movie, and not an emergency…. Ah well, I’ll go with the new Monty Python jobber, that will be a good one…. and it will certainly be different than your average alarm, yessirree…..

Awwww, Spell Checker doesn’t like my word, yessirree…. I don’t know why, I used it all the time when I was a kid, so it’s not like the word hasn’t been around a long time. It’s kind of like that line from “Sleepless in Seattle”, when Tom Hank’s character is talking about geography with his son, and says to him, “I don’t even want to think about what they’re NOT teaching you in school!” How could such an old word, even slangish, not be in there? Makes me feel even older than I am…. S’okay, though, I trust my own head more than I do Spell Checker…. I’m constantly having to add new words to it, that it doesn’t know, and I do…. I know, a bit arrogant, but, hey, it’s true, so….. They (whoever programmed it) should have fed it a bigger dictionary….

Well, I’ve managed to meander all over the place this morning, and have gotten exactly nowhere, in a literal sense, as well as figurative. I mean, that’s okay and all, right? I’m not getting paid for this, other than by the kind attention and regard of the Gentle Readers, so it’s not like there is any strict qualitative standard I’m held to, right? Right. At least, that’s what my copy of the contract says….. If yours is different, well, sorry, I can’t do anything about that, and you’ll just have to deal with the authorities as best you may to achieve satisfaction. That particular item (satisfaction on your part…..) is not my responsibility either, at least from a legal standpoint…. Thank goodness for small favors, eh?….

Now that I’ve completed the process of removing all sense of normalcy from the proceedings, we are officially cleared to dive. The waters look inviting, and I’m sure we’ll find something your uncle will just adore….. oops, wrong group. Sorry….. I’m sure we’ll find something YOU will enjoy…. or die trying…. Well, nobody’s ever died, but we’ll try hard to prevent any serious injury…..  Shall we Pearl?…..
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“I wanted a perfect ending … Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next. Delicious ambiguity.” — Gilda Radner

What a lovely phrase! “Delicious ambiguity.” Such perfect contrast in the words, that together create an entirely new springboard for imagination. Such insight is also very useful in dealing with Reality, with all its innovative transformations seemingly designed to catch us unprepared. In one respect, at least, it reminds me of being a boy in Washington state, where we lived before my father mustered out of the Army.

We lived in that watery, constantly dripping paradise for four years, and one either learned to appreciate and deal with the incessant weather changes, from rain, to not-rain, to rain, or one went quietly mad (the rain drowns out any loud noises….). Aside from the rain, it is incredibly beautiful country, with the rich and varied forests providing endless landscapes of high adventure for young boys, so I got to like it…. but, not all can learn to do so, just like in many other aspects of life…..

I guess this is destined to be a short pearl, because the only other thing that occurs to me to say about this is this: Life and Reality do not always match our expectations, and it is easier to learn how to appreciate the differences in those, and accept that we can change our expectations, than it is to try to change either life or reality. We can only change ourselves, and getting uptight about having to do so only makes us feel worse…. it sure doesn’t change anything…..

“The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.” — Richard Bach
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For some months now, this center section of the three part Pearls has been reserved for poetry. This was a purely personal decision, made simply because I needed it. For much of my life as a “Man” here in Amurrica, it was not considered a manly trait to be overly fond of poetry. Even when I had grown beyond the false and ignorant reasoning that prompted such a custom, it was, by then, habitual to separate myself from frequent acquaintance with those parts of the human emotional scale that is touched by such things. Habitual as well as defensive; I couldn’t afford to be too soft hearted in many of the situations in which I found myself, without courting disaster.

For many years now, though, I’ve been able to present a more realistic face to the world, in the manner of a Samurai of old Japan, or one of the Knights of Templar, whose skills and knowledge are traditionally not restricted to merely those of war, but include Haiku, calligraphy, and an appreciation of the beauty in Life. So, here in Exploring Consensual Reality, beauty, and the magic of poetry, will ever hold a place of honor, and central meaning, whether it comes from a poem of mine (hopefully….), or of one such as this one, that I found floating around Smart Bee. It isn’t, perhaps, the most romantic or strictly beautiful pieces I’ve seen, but, the scansion and rhyme is perfect, and the language simple and clear, so the beauty comes from the structure as much as the content, for me…… Enjoy!

On a lone barren isle, where the wild roaring billows
Assail the stern rock, and the loud tempests rave,
The hero lies still, while the dew-drooping willows,
Like fond weeping mourners, lean over his grave.
The lightnings may flash and the loud thunders rattle;
He heeds not, he hears not, he ‘s free from all pain;
He sleeps his last sleep, he has fought his last battle;
No sound can awake him to glory again!

— Leonard Heath  — The Grave of Bonaparte

As a treat, a little extra, a bonus for your patience and tolerance of an old fool’s foibles….

A Drink With Something In It

There is something about a Martini,
A tingle remarkably pleasant;
A yellow, a mellow Martini;
I wish I had one at present.
There is something about a Martini,
Ere the dining and dancing begin,
And to tell you the truth,
It is not the vermouth–
I think that perhaps it’s the gin.

Ogden Nash
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One of the most elemental pieces of insight I have come to understand about men has to do with our need to have a sense of purpose, a chosen duty, or set of duties, that we must fulfill to keep our self respect. The same principle is operative for women, as well, I am sure, but, not being one, I cannot say to what degree, other than what I may surmise from observation; let us say only that I see it as different, in some respects, and let it go at that…..

Men who don’t feel a sense of purpose are lost, and will find all sorts of ways to give themselves, and an objecting world, a lot of trouble. Of course, the chosen purpose can also have deleterious effects on both the man, and society, especially when the so-chosen purpose is self-serving, or deliberately cruel and ignorant. But, with a chosen duty to act upon, one that serves society as well as the individual, most men become creatures of honor, and can be trusted to do the right thing…..

One of the duties I try to serve is to think, as often and as deeply as I can, and to share what I think with others, while comparing what other historical figures and men of honor and intelligence have left for us to consider. This set of pearls is one that expresses several of my views on thought, emotion, imagination, and purpose, and inspire me to share it with others, if only for what they may find in those historical pearls of wisdom…. Virtual or real, this batch is of some note…. Enjoy!…. Oh, and no quiz today…..

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” — Patanjali (Second century B.C.)

“Any man can work when every stroke of his hand brings down the fruit rattling from the tree to the ground; but to labor in season and out of season, under every discouragement, by the power of truth — that requires a heroism which is transcendent.” — Henry Ward Beecher

“Everyone knows that dragons don’t exist.  But while this simplistic formulation may satisfy the layman, it does not suffice for the scientific mind.  The School of Higher Neantical Nillity is in fact wholly unconcerned with what does exist.  Indeed, the banality of existence has been so amply demonstrated, there is no need for us to discuss it any further here.  The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the purely hypothetical.  They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each nonexisted in an entirely different way …” — Stanislaw Lem, Cyberiad

“Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.” — J.K. Rowling, The Beginning, — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000, — spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

“If little else, the brain is an educational toy.” — Tom Robbins

“Yow!  Maybe I should have asked for my Neutron Bomb in PAISLEY–” — Zippy the Pinhead
(Think about it!…. Neutron bombs kill people without destroying property…. Paisley markings would double the number of tourists who came to see it, thus doubling the kill rate inside  a five-mile radius….. elementary psychology!….)

On that note, I rest my case…..  Q.E.D., as Mr. Malthus might have said……
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Odd, isn’t it, that Sunday would be a day when a deadline becomes more critical than on a weekday? But, it’s a hive of bees, so it must be faced…. Fortunately, I think I’ve done it. If nothing else, it’s done, so it will have to do…. I guess I’ve done worse…. At least it’s inconsistent……   Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Betwixt perilous ideological sideboards….

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11

Ffolkes,
Asleep, I lay dreaming I was awake. Now, awake, I sit dreaming I am asleep. Which is true? Am I awake, and dreaming, or am I asleep, dreaming of being awake? How does one tell, when there are no external sources of evidence to check against reality? If awake, am I really asleep, dreaming? And if I am dreaming, what is real? I confess to being confused….. at this hour, with no one about to whom I can appeal for a different view, the edge between reality and dream becomes somewhat indistinct….. It is most likely a good thing that I don’t weird out at weird stuff, or I would definitely be feeling thoroughly weirded out….. but, since I start from weird, it’s all good. I’ll just sip a bit more of this fine coffee, and wait until reality adjusts itself to a bit more clarified state….. no worries!

There are times when I do wish I wasn’t so strange, in relation to the rest of humanity. (No, no, don’t bother to argue…. I know I’m strange, and there’s no need to try to keep from hurting my feelings about it… I accepted it long ago, and now it’s just another part of me that other folks need to deal with…. at their own risk….) Not that I don’t like being strange; there are distinct advantages to having other people think twice about approaching, much less about asking for favors, or “just a moment of your time”.

No, it’s just that it can make it really hard sometimes to write anything people will look at twice. My words, as indicated by the first paragraph, can touch up against weirdness at the drop of a cliche, and it is getting to be an onerous task to edit such weirdness when I’m already feeling strange, such as this morning.

I’m guessing it’s just another little memo gram from reality, reminding me that any perks I may enjoy, due to my inner oddness, are always going to be counterbalanced by an appropriate kick in the ass, and there is no sense or benefit in either trying to avoid any such boots, or in complaining about them. Hence, I’ll just shrug my shoulders, offer a sheepish grin, and move on…..

One section of yesterday’s Pearl was a discussion on the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. I don’t need to go over that again (not after approximately 800 fairly passionate words….), but did wish to note the usual Murphy effect that accompanies much of what I write…. some time after publishing, I found the following pearl, which, as is obvious, is a perfect summary of the concluding portion of my thoughts yesterday. To keep Murphy happy, (always a good policy with that particular force of Nature), I include it now…..

“I believe everybody in the world should have guns. Citizens should have bazookas and rocket launchers too. I believe that all citizens should have their weapons of choice. However, I also believe that only I should have the ammunition. Because frankly, I wouldn’t trust the rest of the goobers with anything more dangerous than string.” — Scott Adams

That seems to cover it…. let’s go Pearling, ‘kay? ‘Kay!….. Kowabunga!…..
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During his 1956 presidential campaign, a woman called out to Adlai E. Stevenson “Senator, you have the vote of every thinking person!” Stevenson called back “That’s not enough, madam, we need a majority!”

Obviously proving he was part of the minority…. Mr. Stevenson was perhaps the last truly rational man to ran for the highest office our country offers. I’ve seen a number of articles about that campaign, and it’s clear in my mind that his very rationality is what gave the election to the other candidate. He made every attempt he could to try to engage the minds of Americans, naively, as it turns out. His opponent, Eisenhower, just mostly kept his mouth shut and let his slogans speak for him, such as “I like Ike!”, and other such intellectual standards, that appealed directly to the American public’s misplaced sense of national pride.

After four years of post-Korean war economic boom, it wasn’t hard for the Republicans to rest on their laurels, firmly attached to the coattails of a war hero…. There was, and still is, no place on the political scene in this country for rationality, obviously, as Ike and his ilk won in a landslide….

So much for the opportunity to see what a “thinking man’s president” might be able to accomplish…. The chances of such a man being elected today are even slimmer, considering that those candidates who can be the most sly, underhanded, and completely dishonest are those who catch the eye, and the votes, of the great unwashed, uneducated masses that now comprise the voting public…..

“It has been said that man is a rational animal.  All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.” — Bertrand Russell
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FOLLY, n.  That “gift and faculty divine” whose creative and controlling energy inspires Man’s mind, guides his actions and adorns his life.

Folly! although Erasmus praised thee once
In a thick volume, and all authors known,
If not thy glory yet thy power have shown,
Deign to take homage from thy son who hunts
Through all thy maze his brothers, fool and dunce,
To mend their lives and to sustain his own,
However feebly be his arrows thrown,

Howe’er each hide the flying weapons blunts.
All-Father Folly! be it mine to raise,
With lusty lung, here on his western strand
With all thine offspring thronged from every land,
Thyself inspiring me, the song of praise.
And if too weak, I’ll hire, to help me bawl,
Dick Watson Gilder, gravest of us all.

— Aramis Loto Frope — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

Perhaps it is a result of having learned to see around corners at an early age, or that silly prophecy made by that supposed witch who scared my mother a week after I was born.  Perhaps it has to do with spending so many hours and days of my intellectual formative years with my nose buried in a book, generally one that made me a familiar inhabitant of the sleaziest, most disreputable spacer’s dives in every far corner of our Galaxy, surrounded by grizzled old first mates from a dilapidated freighter out of the Pleiades, and a motley group of aliens of all descriptions.

I could probably blame it on being the middle child of five, with a neurotic, if perfectly lovable mother, balanced by a perfectly stable father, and four siblings who had no clue how to deal with me.  Or, it could have been the daily ingestion of frozen, processed vegetables so common on our dinner table during the 50’s and 60’s; as it turns out, the benefits of the vegetables were pretty much nullified by the process of preserving and preparing them for consumption. Who knew?

Whatever the root cause may have been, Folly has long been a fascinating area of study for me, and its influence on my life at large has been extensive. My first attempts at blogging, via email since 1998, then via SFGATE since 2011, were known as “Gigoid’s Folly”, and that was almost used as the title for this blog, as well. But, not wishing to tread, even peripherally, on the estate privileges of Robert Heinlein, even out of respect, I left it at “gigoid” with the subtitle, “Exploring consensual reality” as a tip of the cap to Murphy, and Mother Nature’s fondness for him…..

Folly remains a big part of the process of pearling, and Pearling; if that isn’t obvious, I’m doing something wrong. It has been for me a boon companion throughout my life, ever a contrast and strong defense against the powers of darkness and ignorance, always to be trusted to coax a smile out of me, often in the deepest moments of my despair. If it were not for my Folly, and the humor it infuses into my daily existence, I most likely would have bitten somebody, hard, long before now….  I can only be grateful, and proclaim, “May I and my Folly never part ways, throughout all of my days!”……

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” — Willie Wonka (Roald Dahl)
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If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o’er my ear like the sweet sound
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour!
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Twelfth Night
— Act i, Sc. 1

I’ve been pretty clear in past posts in expressing my lack of enthusiasm for most of Will Shakespeare’s work. To my mind, the greatest part of what he wrote is overblown, heavy with excess imagery and verbiage, and even in the time in which it was first written and performed, must have been a pain to follow just by listening…. sorry, but that’s what I think.

But, at the same time, I can acknowledge, as well, that he was an excellent word smith, and did occasionally write material that is far beyond anything else of its time, or of any time. His sonnets hit that nail squarely more often than his plays, in my opinion, but there are exceptions…. this is one of them.

These few lines of verse possess that timeless beauty that is the hallmark of genius, beauty so great that one can not merely see it in these lines, but is surrounded by beauty that floods every sense. Far be it from me to fail to acknowledge such genius…. I’m no Shakespeare, nor do I consider myself either infallible, nor a critic, but I know what I like, and I like this, a lot…..
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“I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off.  so I ran over and said “stop! don’t do it!”  “Why shouldn’t I?” he said.  I said, “Well, there’s so much to live for!”  He said, “Like what?”  I said, “Well…are you religious or atheist?”  He said, “Religious.” I said, “Me too!  Are you Christian or Buddhist?”  He said, “Christian.”  I said, “Me too!  Are you Catholic or Protestant?”  He said, “Protestant.”  I said, “Me too!  Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?”  He said, “Baptist!”  I said, “Wow!  Me too!  Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?” He said, “Baptist Church of God!”  I said, “Me too!  Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?”  He said, “Reformed Baptist Church of God!”  I said, “Me too!  Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915?”  He said, “Reformed Baptist Church of God, reformation of 1915!”  I said, “Die, heretic scum”, and pushed him off.” — Emo Phillips

(Whew! Whoever transcribed this for the database where I found it was really lazy. They didn’t bother to capitalize the “I’s” or any of the Church names, so I had to go through and put them all in; it’s much clearer to read now, and looks a bit more refined…. but I didn’t change any words, just added capitals, just so you know…..)

Although I had a feeling as to where this would end up, I read it through to the end, and sure enough, it’s worth a full read, just to get to the punch line. My immediate thought was, “What a perfect statement of modern religious philosophy in America!”   🙂

Not trusting my original reaction, I put it down here, then prepared some breakfast, and consumed said comestibles, before coming back to look it over after some inner percolation. It’s still valid, and it still makes me smile, so it stays. No need to embellish any further, either, as I think it pretty well says it all…. Ignorance and bigotry are alive and well, and living in the Mid-West….. in a house, together…..
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Visions of Absolute Truth and Beauty; The Tragedy of Severus Snape

The character of Severus Snape, as revealed in the seven novels that comprise the epic creation by J. K. Rowling, (which I choose to entitle Harry Potter, and The Chronicles of The Infinite Magic of  Love, hopefully with her approval and blessing) is, in my less than humble opinion, destined to become, if not synonymous, at least analogous, with those of Cryano de Bergerac, John Smith the Puritan, or the man from Tale of Two Cities, whose name escapes me (suffering functional disparity as I am from early onset Alzheimer’s, and the subsequent prophylactic application of sour mash bourbon), who said, “It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.” Sounds a little sappy for gigoid, doesn’t it? Well, you know what? I am completely and utterly serious…..

As I do not know Ms. Rowling, other than through her writing, and her public persona, which is carefully controlled, relatively speaking, I cannot say if it was her intent to create a character of such power that he would be forever enshrined amid the most famous of the heroic willing victims of tragedy in literary history. It is moot, anyway, because she has done so….

Here is a man who spent his entire life enduring unrequited love, love that, in his mind, could have been his, had he chosen differently. Yet, knowing that he could never have his deepest desire without destroying that which he loved, he still acted with honor to do all he could to keep the object of his obsession safe, to honor her and the love he felt, even after her death, and in defiance of the threat of his own death. 

He braved the wrath of the most terrifying of villains for almost 20 years, betraying that master of evil at every turn, to do what he could only hold as his Duty; he did this, knowing full well that in the end, he would have to kill the only man in the world who trusted him, and that he would die because of it. And, he knew as well, that his sacrifice would never be known to anyone but the son of the man he most envied in life, the son that might have been his…..

I’ve read a lot of what may be termed as classical literature, and in all that I’ve read, I have never found a character who fit the mold of the tragic hero any better, or more deserved the title of nobility it implies. Though flawed and miserable, Snape makes the hard choices, correctly, at the most critical junctures of his life, all for love of his Lily.

As Dumbledore exclaims when he sees the Patronus that Snape produces, a doe, identical to that of Lily, the only other human being he has ever loved,  “Lily! After all this time?”  Snape merely replies, “Always….”   Now, that is a hero, flawed and unlikeable as he is….. a hero that will go down in history, along with many of the characters from this series of books that will one day certainly be called “classics”……
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Not a bad lineup…. personal foibles made light of to begin, with a bit of housekeeping, a taste of political irony, a touch of whimsy, Shakespeare, a dip into religious humor and more irony, and a discussion of literary archetypes in modern and classical writing. I think we’ve approached the demarcation between reality and esoterica quite adeptly, without completely crossing over where the border guards might hassle us about returning to our regularly scheduled activities here in Reality…… that should definitely make an impression. On whom, I couldn’t say, but, hey, I’ll take it…. Y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Sitting amid the clutter, thinking of marigolds….

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2

Ffolkes,
Someone’s been fussing with the universe again, reality is all messed up this morning. Everything is nothing, and vice versa. It’s enough to make a grown man weep. Boo hoo…..

Okay, there, that’s done. I wouldn’t want to have started before spitting that out; someone could have been injured from the flying innuendo…… things here may seem a bit on edge, or jumpy, today. Pay it no mind, it’s just my depression trying to worm out of the hole I stuffed it in. It could be an ugly scene, so I’m going to go do as much as I can before it catches on to what I’m doing…..
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“If a person offend you and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures.  Simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick.” — Mark Twain, Advice to Youth Speech, 1882

Mr. Twain seems to be advising youth here with his tongue firmly planted in cheek, but is nonetheless spot on with his technique for dealing with those idiots who manage to get under our skin with their displays of offensive ignorance. It is what may be called a reasoned response, and the punishment can be considered proportionate to the offense. Resorting to extreme lengths to discipline in cases like this can come back to haunt you later; society tends to look unfavorably on the maiming, slicing, and dicing of its citizens, even when so obviously provoked, and deserved. And leaving them alive and seriously injured puts a strain on the health care industry to treat them for their wounds, or to perform the 24 hour nursing care for any human vegetables your justifiable anger may create. So temper thy temper with just a bit of tolerance, and only give such fools their immediate desserts, not their final meal……. you’ll feel better for having shown such restraint, while still purging any lingering resentment…..a clear win-win…..
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“A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.” — Eric Hoffer

Aha!  Now it makes sense. I have always wondered how some of these political types can go around, day after day, uttering the same stupid nonsense that they were spouting the week before, in spite of the evidence brought forth that shows it to be incorrect, ill-considered, or a bald-faced lie. They act as if nothing at all has been said, and will even accuse the questioner of bias or discrimination, just to deflect and distract from the subject they wish to avoid. It is as if they completely block out anything said to them, or about them; they act as if what is presented has no existence, and has no bearing on the issues at hand.

This is how Newt Gingrich can continue to deny that his serial adultery has no bearing on his politics, and does not indicate any moral inferiority. He seems to think that it’s okay to turn it around, and blame his infidelity on his wife, or on the one with whom he cheated. It’s how Mitt Romney can casually flaunt his wealth and indifference toward the 99%, and believe that it won’t cause resentment to eat away at his support system, and cause the disillusioned to turn away. It is how Congress thinks it is acceptable to hold meetings on the issue of birth control with a committee that has no women sitting on it, and no women scheduled to give evidence. It’s how Rick Santorum can make outrageous statements that are parroted from the zealotry of the religious right, and still believe that he is popular with anyone else, or that he stands an even chance of stealing the nomination away from the bigger dogs.

Worst of all, this is how the great unwashed masses who vote can, time after time, continue to believe the bullshite that is handed to them, and elect these idiots again. To my way of thinking, this is behavior that wouldn’t be out of place in sharks; they have no memory to speak of, and not much ability to learn. But every four years, the people of this country go forth, and show their support for people who lie to them on a consistent basis, and who have no interest whatsoever in improving the lot of anyone but themselves. It’s not exactly the strongest evidence of intelligence I’ve seen… and is indubitably the strongest evidence of mass stupidity I can think of…..

“It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” — Noel Coward

“There is no point in getting angry, but there is a stupid malignity to all this that does try one’s patience.” — Anonymous
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FIGHTING WORDS

Say my love is easy had,
Say I’m bitten raw with pride,
Say I am too often sad —
Still behold me at your side.

Say I’m neither brave nor young,
Say I woo and coddle care,
Say the devil touched my tongue —
Still you have my heart to wear.

But say my verses do not scan,
And I get me another man!
— Dorothy Parker

No comments needed here. I enjoy Dorothy Parker’s work; it always has a bit of self-deprecating humor to it, yet shows off her immense talent by it’s mere casualness. She was indeed, unique…..
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“Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible form of magic, capable of both inflicting injury, and of remedying it.” Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter:The Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling

I’m going to go out on a limb, here…. I sincerely believe that should society survive the next 200 years, the seven books comprising the Harry Potter saga will come to be considered required reading, as the greatest work of literature created in the latter half of the 20th century. Quotes such as the one above will be commonly held wisdom. as will the quote below. I also think that the character of Severus Snape will be the most widely known and admired fictional character from the same period. The performance by Alan Rickman is flawless; wickedly intelligent, ambitious, and always conscious of his flawed humanity, he brings powerful emotion to a toweringly tragic figure.  Snape will join Hamlet, Othello, and the like as the latest in a long line of tragic heroes, and deservedly so.

The performances of all the perfectly picked cast were well-done, and guided to reflect the characters described in the books. Ralph Fiennes brings a certain chilling insouciance and style to the character of Voldemort, making him more accessible and human, but a human who LIKES being evil.

The translation of the books into movies was well done, thanks to the determined efforts of Ms. Rowling to keep the movies true to the spirit of her work. With only minor changes to the plot lines to satisfy the limitations of movie-making, all eight of the movies were able to bring the fun, the wonder, and the magic of her stories to millions of people who hadn’t read the books.

This was a challenge of no little stature, as the art of movie-making turned its technological eye on making people believe in the magic onscreen. This is harder than it sounds, but with the new power of computer animation and advances in film technology, the challenge was met, and the world now has the entire epic in two formats, written and digitized. I predict that it will remain atop the list of the world’s favorite stories for centuries to come……

“Pity not the living, Harry, pity the dead. Especially, pity those who live without love.” — Albus Dumbledore, ibid
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“Don’t SAY things. What you ARE stands over you the while, and thunders so that I cannot hear what you say to the contrary.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson — Social Aims

In a section above, we spoke about the nimrods who are currently showing off their ignorance on center stage of the nightly news, and how they are oblivious to their own flaws. This famous little snippet from Emerson should be brought to their attention, as it describes perfectly the plot-line of the play in which they find themselves acting out their parts. It could save them, and us, a lot of heartache and wasted time, as well as money.

I am, however, unwilling to wager on whether they will pay any more attention to this than they do to the bald truths they are already ignoring…. I have a feeling that they’ll just look at it, scratch their heads, and walk away from it; that’s their usual response to any truth that doesn’t mesh with their agenda…..
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Well, my schedule is all screwed up, thanks to age-related kinks in the system…. my activity level nears the frenzy level around the first of the month, as I try to dole out a bit of gelt to all those nice folks who say I owe them. It’s a catch-22, for sure, as they dun me for what I’ve already consumed, yet try to get me to consume more of whatever it is, before I’ve finished paying for the old stuff.  Ah well, life in the fast lane, I suppose….. all will be well, in time….. in the meantime, y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!