Tag Archives: Alexander Pope

Here, we hold Doubt to be sacred….

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Ffolkes,

“I see from your coat, my friend, you’re from the other side.

There’s just one thing I’d like to know: 

Who won?”

~~ David Crosby ~~

Supernova M81

    This gorgeous picture is from Space.com, an artist’s rendering of a massive supernova somewhere out in space…. It’s beauty make a very apt counterpoint to the line from David Crosby’s song of revolution, written in the 1970’s, during the Vietnam War demonstrations, when revolution was in the air…. as it is again these days…. The same forces in society that were being exposed then are still at work, destabilizing the world, widening the income gap, as the rich become richer, the poor become poorer, and the middle class slowly disappears, a very few of them joining the ranks of those who have more than they need, while the rest rejoin the poverty level folks they once pitied and scorned….

As is clear, ranting has become almost second nature to me, as I seem to be able to relate almost anything to what is going on in reality, with particular emphasis on showing all who read this blog just how slimy, how dishonest, and how sociopathic the so-called “leaders’ of society really are, in their true selves…. In sooth, it has become almost too easy, as the slimy bastards don’t seem to care any more if they are exposed…. They seem to feel so secure in their power (with good reason, I may add….) they are no longer as concerned about keeping all of what they do behind the scenes…. I mean, how much grief has this president been given for starting yet another illegal war? None….

I’m not going to rant here; I’ve promised I’d keep myself from doing that in the intro, and I do try to keep my promises…. It’s tough, though, as they parade their insanity in front of me every day, with what now seems to be alarming candor, for they know now they will not be held accountable for any of what they do…. They’ve already trained the public to accept anything they say as truth, in spite of the reams of proof to the contrary….. It’s as if the American public no longer WANTS to know the truth, because it’s too disturbing to their peace of mind to think about it…..

Ah well, and me? I’m still preaching to the choir…. it’s frustrating, but, hey, since I refuse to stop, or shut up, it will keep on coming, whether anyone likes it, or not…. At least I will be able to sleep with a clear conscience, and will still be able to look myself in the mirror in the morning….. To me, that’s worth any sort of crap anyone wishes to throw…. and, they should know that any crap flying my way is quite liable to reverse its direction of flight, and end up right back in their own laps…. or faces….

On that note, I should probably use my new technique, and get us out of here, to find something more entertaining to do….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Only those who leisurely approach that which the masses are busy about can be busy about that which the masses take leisurely.” — Lao Tzu

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“No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.” — Taoist Proverb

Below you will find a number of links to articles found in the UK Guardian yesterday, 9/29/2014 (but for one, from 9/23/2014). I picked articles that provide some weight to add to the evidence I have presented in support of my assertion, to wit: There is a LOT wrong with today’s culture/society, so much so, it is no longer necessary to rant…. All I need to do is give you the links, where you may read more about how bloody INSANE the world has become…. Even the most positive news herein related is WEIRD (see the story re: the folks in Kansas, at the Westboro Baptist Church, and their neighbors….). The rest are simply redolent with stupidity, at its worst…..

The saddest part…. look at the last part below, before the pearls begin…. It’s a list, of the five most viewed stories for the day…. which shows just how insane are those doing the reading….. I’d say it’s a toss-up as to which group is the most insane…. Those being reported upon, those doing the reporting, or those reading the reports….. all three groups exhibit a similarity of, well…. insanity, or worse, that does not bode well for the long-term continuance of our presence on this plane of existence, much less providing much hope, even for the immediate future….. SIGH…. Here, take a look, read it (c’mon, don’t be a sissy! It will only take, what, five minutes, to get the drift of all of it….) (If it takes longer, you need more online bandwidth….)

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/29/obama-guantanamo-bay-force-feeding-hearing-secret

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/29/yes-means-yes-california-sexual-consent

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/29/us-air-strikes-isis-syria

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/28/ferguson-unrest-police-officer-injured-in-shooting-as-violence-flares-again

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/23/westboro-baptist-church-equality-house-kansas-truce

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/29/sunday-mirror-must-answer-mp-sexting-nicky-morgan

I counted at least five links to various stories on the Clooney nuptials…. More articles on that than on ANY other subject….

The five most viewed stories for 9/29/14 on the Guardian, in order: 1)  Donald Trump getting pranked on Twitter. 2) Sunday Mirror to answer for sexting entrapment of MP. 3) One of the Clooney wedding stories, re: websites & FB. 4) “Why American politics doesn’t work” by some British TV writer 5) Sunday Mirror editor defends entrapment of MP as in public interest.

This information was taken from a web site that is fairly trustworthy, in terms of what it puts out there…. It IS, of course, a media outlet, and has its own flaws, but, for the most part, even the governments respect the ethics this organization uses in its quest for the truth…. Those governments don’t LIKE them much, but, they respect them for their ethics, more so than most of the available outlets, such as the aforementioned Mirror, and the former Sun, both of which will do just about anything to get a story, even to the point of creating them….

Let’s let Smart Bee finish off these thoughts for today, with some appropriate comments regarding the state of the world at large…..

“An Oak Park, Illinois, ordinance forbids frying more than one hundred doughnuts in a single day.” — Smart Bee

“To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.” — Gustave Flaubert

hardcore signature virus: “As a juror in a Trial by Jury, you have the right, power and duty to acquit the defendant if you judge the law itself to be unjust.” — John McPherson, mcpherso@macvax.ucsd.edu

“If you surveyed a hundred typical middle-aged Americans, I bet you’d find that only two of them could tell you their blood types, but every last one of them would know the theme song from the ‘Beverly Hillbillies’.” — Dave Barry

“How many things, both just and unjust, are sanctioned by custom!” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Heautontimoroumenos, Act iv, Sc. 7, 11, (839.)

“There is nothing so small that it can’t be blown out of proportion.” — Ruckert’s Law

Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

~~ Alexander Pope  ~~
(1688-1744)
— The Dying Christian to his Soul —

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The movie in today’s embedded video player is part one of three; links to part 2 and 3 may be found by following the link you see just above the player. Alternately, allowing part 1 to run to the end, in full screen mode, will bring the two other parts on screen, as options to choose for another playing, along with other similar choices for other Wimsey movies, all of which were based on, and, accurately adhered, to the plots of the books by Dorothy L. Sayers, a scholar of the mid-twentieth century, a graduate of, I believe, Oxford University….

Hmm, maybe I should geek that…. I will…. meantime, y’all enjoy the program…. Too late, I did the geek; Mrs. Sayers DID attend Oxford, ‘taking a first’, in medieval histories, when she ‘walked down’ for Somerville College; moreover, at the time of her birth, her father was a minister there, so she was actually born at Oxford, in the Headmaster’s House of Christ Church Cathedral…. (I also geek-fixed her name, above, so you can click on it, to be taken to the Wikipedia article on her…..)

This book was the next to last in the Wimsey series, (though two additional volumes were written after her death, from notes she was working on when she passed away….), with one other to follow, called Busman’s Honeymoon, an account of the marriage and first days of the Wimsey/Vane romance’s conclusive events, with, naturally, a corpse in the honeymoon cottage to liven the occasion… This movie, and book, though a more complex, intense piece, has only one death, at the very beginning, before the main events take place…. I hope you enjoy it, it’s a grand movie, altogether, excellently acted in spots, and wonderfully true to the character of the time…. the perfect period piece…..

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Well, it seems odd, but, apparently, this sort of thing happens even to the best of us….. Here is one from my favorite poet…. to whom I turn any time I feel like something to fill me up…..

A thought went up my mind to-day

A thought went up my mind to-day
That I have had before,
But did not finish,–some way back,
I could not fix the year,

Nor where it went, nor why it came
The second time to me,
Nor definitely what it was,
Have I the art to say.

But somewhere in my soul, I know
I’ve met the thing before;
It just reminded me–‘t was all–
And came my way no more.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~


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I know I ranted above, sort of, but, this rant from the past fits in so well with today’s inadvertent theme, it has to be included, or I’ll feel wrong, all day…. If you’re too tired, just go on to the closing…. if you’re a regular, you’ve probably seen it before, anyway…. If not, well, it’s always a good idea to see what there is in it; it COULD produce an epiphany…. one never knows, do one?….

From 1/2/13:

“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.” — Oscar Wilde

One may always trust Oscar Wilde to be both elegantly witty and intelligently insightful, though, to be sure, many of his most closely held views were somewhat divergent with what was commonly held to be true, philosophically. This divergence was, I believe, mostly deliberate on his part, as he tended to mock that which he did not respect, and he never had much respect for…. well, anything to do with human nature vs. reason and rationality. He mistrusted most people to act morally, and was unafraid of saying so; this, of course, made him both famous, and infamous….. His infamy, I’m sure, ultimately was his undoing, much to society’s loss; as is said so often about our brightest minds, “only the good die young….”

I often wonder, (well, maybe not so often, as much as I’m wondering now…) what the world today would be like, if somehow, some of those bright stars in history had lived to an age where their accomplishments, in relation to the advancement of human thought, and the betterment of the human condition, had a broader, and more lasting effect than their absence has left us. What if Keats had written poetry until he was 85? How many more inventions would have come to us from Nicolas Tesla, had he lived long enough for the rest of the scientific world to catch up to him, instead of hounding him to an early grave? How much more good music, and art, and literature would be available to all of us, if not for this tendency for the best of us to live as a burning meteor, flaming brightly through the sky, until burned out and lifeless?

It is a sad commentary for society to know that it is often the very brilliance of these people that brings about their downfall, at the hands of the ignorant, and the avaricious…. What is even sadder, to me, is that this demonstrates another part of human nature that is responsible for almost every issue in human history, and current society, that causes people to suffer pain, oppression, perpetual struggle, and will most certainly ultimately   lead to the extinction of our species, on this planet, at minimum, if not completely…..

That piece of our nature is the unfortunate characteristic, in a number of humans, to be able to put aside all conscience, and act solely in their own self interest. All of us, of course, possess this to some degree; it is an outgrowth of having a will to survive. To these few others, it is their primary modus operandi; they simply do not take other people, or their concerns, into account when deciding what they are going to do, and are not hampered by the consideration of any suffering they may cause other people, animals, or things.

As is patently obvious, to my mind, every elected official, every high level preacher, every corporate magnate, and a great many lawyers, are all of this ilk, and have, for nearly 230 years now, been quietly and efficiently plundering the pockets and rights of the American people (and those of every other country in the world, for that matter…. it is a HUMAN condition, not just American…. Ours are just some of the most obvious about it….), while simultaneously lying, cheating, and otherwise acting to secure their stranglehold on society.

Anyone who disagrees with this assessment, quite simply, isn’t paying enough attention to the world around them….. Sorry to be so blunt, but the facts are all laid out, right there, almost every day in the news media, if one knows how to look at the larger picture it presents, rather than the individual facets of that picture. Focusing on the little shit is just what those in power wish for people to do…. it keeps them busy not noticing other, more incriminating stuff they are carrying out, in the darkness where they mostly live….

“… change depends on individual acts of courage and commitment. Most such acts are private, invisible, and uncelebrated. But some find a place in the public spotlight; and their influence goes far beyond mere example.” — Arthur C. Clarke & Michael Kube-McDowell,  The Trigger, 1999

Each and every one of us, in the face of what we know about reality, is responsible in some way, and to some degree, for both the way things are, and the way they will be in the future. If you don’t believe that, well, discussion is, for you, probably useless, and little hope remains. For anyone with moderate insight, however, this is plain, clear truth, and we all need to accept it before any significant progress can be expected against those who are sociopathic, which I define, and hereby name, as homo suicidus, those who would kill us all…. But, it is imperative that we act soon, for the damage we have done, and continue to do to our world, is at a point where the effects are nearly irreversible, and even if we manage to wrest control from the beloved ruling class,it may be too late to save our lives….

“In regard to disagreeable and formidable things, prudence does not consist in evasion, or in flight, but in courage. He who wishes to walk in the most peaceful parts of life with any serenity must screw himself up to resolution. Let him front the object of his worst apprehension, and his stoutness will commonly make his fear groundless.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, _Essays_, Prudence

It is my hope, small and pale though it be, that we WILL speak up, that the rational among us will rise up, and take back the control of our destiny from the hands of those who would see us all die, rather than give up their own control. It will only happen when men of courage, as defined by Mr. Emerson, stand up to those who would render us all impotent, for their own benefit. The only hope that exists for the rest of us lies in enough of us showing this kind of courage, and overcoming the fear that keeps us in thrall…..

“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

Myself, I don’t want to die ignominiously, gasping for breath, because I didn’t have the courage to speak up, and to fight back against the immoral, avaricious assholes who dominate society….. Instead, let’s create a whole new world, without a beloved ruling class, at all….. Who knows? We might just find out that anarchy works!….. Worth a try, I think….. And, if it doesn’t work, well, we can always try a technocracy, which we have yet to do in history….. With a bit of foresight and planning, it might just be what we need to survive our own foolishness… Maybe, Richard Brautigan had the truest prophetic vision, when he wrote “All watched over, by machines of loving grace….”

“Every act of creation is first of all an act of destruction.” — Pablo Picasso

History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.

 — Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning”


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Well, it came out long again, but, that’s okay…. nobody ever got hurt from learning too much, did they? Unless, of course, they stopped learning at some point…. Any who, all I can do is all I can do, and I’ve done all I can for one day….. So be it, gigoid has spoken…. See y’all tomorrow, he said with a wry expression….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

“The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.”

Kowabunga!

À bientôt, mon cherí.

 

Living Life Large….

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Ffolkes,

“Belief is the death of intelligence.” — Robert Anton Wilson

Horsehead Nebula( IC 424)

    The picture you see above, an excellent study showing the area of space containing the Horsehead Nebula, the obvious design you see above the very bright globular cluster surrounded by blue gas in the lower left corner. This nebula, because of its obvious shape, has been known for many years to astronomers; this photo, however, was taken by a 10 year-old amateur astronomer, and was chosen as this year’s Youth category winner, in Space.com’s yearly contest of astrophotography…. Excellent, excellent work for any age….

That said, the picture also serves, if not as proof, at least as evidence in favor, of the truth stated just above the photo, by Robert Anton Wilson…. Although I didn’t really become aware of the depth of his writing, or the direction of philosophy he pursued during his life, what I’ve learned of him tells me our paths traveled on many on the same roads, or, at least, ended up at the same places…. especially when I see he is responsible for the above statement, which closely mirrors my own words, to wit: doubt is the beginning of wisdom….

Another, less elegant, but, perhaps more cogent way to get the same point across, it seems to me, would be, “better out than in”…. which is, in my world, one of those things that is true for all time, except in those rare occasions when reality ripples, and it can be temporarily suspended, for the good of all….. otherwise, reality has determined that that statement shall apply without exception, to all things human…. especially those issues and events that are typically determined by their mind set…. in ALL such cases, ’tis better out than in…. and any arguments to the contrary simply provide their own proof of the assertion…. by coming out.

There, how was that for a bit of logical Twister…. good thing we weren’t using the fast music, or we may have ended up with some severe strains, possibly a fracture or two…. and the insurance geeks would have killed me. Dodged a bullet there, boy howdy….. Since there is little alternative at this point, I’m going to pretend none of the above ever happened, other than to acknowledge that, somehow or another, we got this far down the page, and are now legally allowed to get on with today’s post, regardless of how well if flies, or, indeed, if it makes any sense at all…. I’ve finally received my master’s license for reality stretching, so, we’ll just reach around this corner, grab this little lever, and yank it good and hard….. This is what happens…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“You know what it’s like to be dead.  It’s just like it was before you were born.  Remember what it was like before you were born?” — Evan

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Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,
Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

(1688-1744)

— The Iliad of Homer, Book xiv, Line 251 —


Today’s Pearl of Virtual Wisdom (see disclaimer…. I know I put it someplace… oh, hell, we’ll worry about that later….y’all know how I think, by now….sort of…. If you’ve had a clue at all, you know, if you just pay attention, you’ll get there….), will contain a new type of pearl, consisting of pearls, but, of a different nature, pearls from new waters, shall we say? Rather than our usual diet, culled from the waters known to Smart Bee, Ambrose Bierce, Daniel Bowen, and others, we will try to find something that is of a slightly different spin than our usual fare, which can tend to lead into sober, depressing, if altogether accurate discussions of what the news says….

“To light a candle is to cast a shadow.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Wizard of Earthsea”, 1975


We all know, also, the news companies tend to concentrate on stories with drama, which will sell papers, or ideas, or whatever else it is they may wish to sell; people have always been drawn to drama, the gorier the better, and be damned with whomever has to suffer to provide the reports of their troubles….. Whether it be bloody bank robberies, starving African children, dying animals in receding wetlands and rain forests, creatures dying in the oceans, or, oceans dying, people being shot, and dying, or bombed, and dying, or strangled, stabbed, beaten, or otherwise killed, so their deaths may be served up with all the other random deaths each day, reported on the news as if it is the way it is supposed to be, and that life is just a series of catastrophes punctuated by random, periodic deaths….

“To light a candle is to cast a shadow.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Wizard of Earthsea”, 1975


I do not even touch upon the other derivative incidents and reportable events, all of which vary only in the degree of drama implied by the events described, or the number of casualties, listed in deaths vs. survivors….. Derivatives include sporting events of every nature, where the drama, though vicarious to the actual viewer, and reporter, still offers the drama of conflict, between good and bad (home and away), and for the joy of each winner, there is the misery and failure of the loser to report, just as heavily as the victors. Financial news, to those who have money, or want money, presents the same sort of derivative violence, where those who make the ruthless choices tend to win out over those who choose to try to be honest in business, and that conflict, also inherent in the process, makes for great drama….

“To light a candle is to cast a shadow.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Wizard of Earthsea”, 1975


The drama of course, is there to distract the reading public from any of what is actually going on behind the scenes, politically, financially, religiously…. all those institutions are operating with most of their inner workings invisible to public sight, in spite of laws that SEEM to say otherwise…. But, they always seem to find a legal rationale to cover their clandestine activities….. all of which makes for a wonderful addendum to the way the rest of the world is lying to everyone who tries to live a normal life, without any of the weird shit these pundits, corporate snakes, priests, police chiefs, military officers, and of course, the other side of society, the tongs, the mafia, the criminals who prey on those that the governments mostly leave for them, meaning all of them…. making them not necessarily worse, but, slimier, even more so than the corporate snakes, the absolute worst sort of person alive….. in my less than humble opinion.

“To light a candle is to cast a shadow.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Wizard of Earthsea”, 1975


Now, you will see the newest format for pearls…. Rather than go any further on the road toward making targets of those responsible for the state of the world, I will merely provide, through the auspices of those doing the ridiculous dance themselves, links to articles that tend to exhibit some sort of indication of something not quite right going on in the world, whether from a sarcastic point of few, an approving squint with a bit of a wink, a nudge-nudge to the ribs, or as in the second one today, an “it’s an about damn time” sort of way. You may possibly even come across something you’d label as ‘good news’…..  Oh, and I guess there’s one more category, that of the first article below, which can best be stated as “DOH!”…..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11121843/Decorated-soldier-quits-army-saying-hes-sick-of-being-treated-like-an-idiot.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11125717/Bishop-of-Arundel-resigns-after-admitting-breach-of-vows.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/11121922/George-Clooney-and-Amal-Alamuddins-wedding-in-pictures.html

The last one there must be real important stuff…. I didn’t look at even two of them, but there were reportedly more than 50 photos, just to show the celebrities arriving for the wedding, and pre-wedding “Bond Style” Bash…. I’m happy to say, Blooney, er, Cloony, was the ONLY one I recognized without having to read the caption to see who it was…. and he’s getting so old & salt & peppery, sometimes he blends in…. with the text…

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/27/chelsea-clinton-announces-daughters-birth-on-twitter-and-facebook

Oh. My. Gosh….. this is news? Oh, right…. never mind…. must have been a slow news day….

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/26/north-korea-kim-jong-un-ill-health

Okay, if you aren’t weirded out after reading those, you’re a better man than I, Gunga Din…. The world is a very strange place ffolkes, which is probably why Epictetus said what the did, about being able to accept those things we cannot control…. besides, it makes it easier to laugh at all of them, and the whole picture… Once you can let go, learn to appreciate the irony, or sardonicism, or, at the very least, the futility of fighting against it…. well, there will be the bemusement, and serenity, you seek….

“When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.” — La Rochefoucauld

“Credulity is the man’s weakness, but the child’s strength.” — Charles Lamb

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Eureka! I have found a treasure trove of old Sherlock Holmes movies and TV episodes, mostly on BBC, or from late night cable packages, all found on You Tube, our world’s newest repository of contemporary cultural knowledge, all in digital video format…. I now have enough new finds to defeat ANY bout of insomnia I may get…. The player will show you the titled story; the link will take you to the page where I found it, which has links to many more Sherlock videos, all based on the stories by A. C. Doyle…. Timeless human drama set in fascinating times in our past….

Sherlock Holmes — The Six Napoleons:

 http://youtu.be/QR1X5pMTbg4

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We haven’t seen anything from this Americam poet for some time; here is one I think of as one of his best….

A child said, What is the grass?

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
    hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it
    is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful
    green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we
    may see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe
    of the vegetation.

Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,
And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow
    zones,
Growing among black folks as among white,
Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the
same, I receive them the same.

And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.

Tenderly will I use you curling grass,
It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,
It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;
It may be you are from old people and from women, and
    from offspring taken soon out of their mother’s laps,
And here you are the mother’s laps.

This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old
    mothers,
Darker than the colorless beards of old men,
Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.

O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!
And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths
    for nothing.

I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men
    and women,
And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring
    taken soon out of their laps.

What do you think has become of the young and old men?
What do you think has become of the women and
    children?

They are alive and well somewhere;
The smallest sprouts show there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait
    at the end to arrest it,
And ceased the moment life appeared.

All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,
And to die is different from what any one supposed, and
    luckier.
     
~~ Walt Whitman ~~


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I wasn’t sure this pearl would come out okay… As it grew, it seemed to wobble all over the place, though with some indications of directing the fall, when it came…. Somehow, out of left field, it seems, it managed to bring itself to a close, on a note with which no argument is possible, which manages to, congruently, give one the appropriate key for both understanding, and for coping with, ignorance…. Don’t worry, don’t force it….. it will come to you. Or, it won’t, in which case, just go with the last line, and you’ll do fine….

Remember, ffolkes, they’re just pearls, merely euphemisms and metaphors, taken from virtual oysters…. so, there’s nothing to be afraid of… besides, once I’ve removed the pearls, with some garlic, wine, butter, and a bit of fish sauce, we can turn the oysters into a slice of heaven, and still have the pearls, all shiny and precious…. so, enjoy, either way you need to think about it…. as elucidation leading to epiphany, or lunch…. I’ve had good reason to choose both at one time or another, so no worries, mates, it’ll all come out in the wash…. Now that I’m mixing so many metaphors at once, on to the pearls….

“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.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1972)

“One of the most devastating enemies of the family is radical sex education in the public school. It is more explicit than necessary for the good of the child.  Too much sex education too soon causes undue curiosity and obsession with sex.” — Beverly LaHaye, President, Concerned Women for America, in her newsletter, 4/81, as quoted in The Far Right, Speaking For Themselves, a Planned Parenthood pamphlet

“What UNIVERSE is this, please??” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

“Any religion…is forever in danger of petrifaction into mere ritual and habit, though ritual and habit be essential to religion.” — T.S. Eliot, Selected Essays, 1927.

“Old places and old persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them, have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable, precisely, the balance and wisdom that come from long perspectives and broad foundations.” — George Santayana

“An it harms none, do what thou will.” — Wiccan Credo

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Having avoided any efforts from Murphy’s band of rogues, by finishing much of this yesterday, it’s only right I get it up and out before he can affect it at all… so, with no further fufera (alternate spelling for fooferaw….), we’re outta here…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

“The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.”

Kowabunga!

À bientôt, mon cherí.

 

The final price of foolishness is quite stiff…

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Ffolkes,

Many of y’all might have noted there was no post yesterday…. This is easily explained, if a bit of a pisser for me…. I awoke in the middle of the night before last with the vertigo I’ve been fighting once again reactivating, bringing with it the usual severe dizziness, and lack of balance, with a touch of nausea thrown in to make it fun….. or something. Any who, upon arising, even with what I’d already completed, there was no way to get it done at the usual time…. Then, I spent a very long time battling with Kaiser to even GET any treatment, so, it ended up I stayed at the hospital for most of the day, seeing my own doctor, and another Physical Therapist, who essentially sentenced me to a few more days of this….

Happily, they also came up with a stronger drug to deal with the dizziness, so, once that takes full effect, the process of re-calibrating my brain to accept the altered signals will be a bit less problematic, with no so much dizziness to deal with…. It’s also sedating, so, I should sleep better too, for a few days anyway…. Yay…. So, with that all cleared up, let’s go on to the Pearl which didn’t get posted yesterday….. it’s be a bit odd, I’m sure, for having suffered such a scattershot approach to getting it done…. Oh well, it will be fine, I’m sure…. Let’s get to it….

I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie.

I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave.

And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.

~~ H. L. Mencken ~~

Glasgow-Greenock Port 028

    ‘Twas a very nice, warm, clear, spring day in Greenock, Scotland, (pronounced grĕn ŏck, spoken together, quickly, by the inhabitants…) when I took this picture. I’d taken a tour given by local volunteers, to a hilltop viewing point, from which one could see the entire waterway protecting the town, on the coast near the better known Scottish town of Glasgow, 20 kilometers further inland. The orange flowered brush you see in the foreground is ‘gorse’, common to much of Scotland, a hardy brush, with stiff woody branches, and very sharp thorns protecting the flowers you see…. No fun to fall in, according to reports….

I suppose, given the excellence of the sentiments expressed in the opening quotation, I could have come up with something a bit more esoteric, or profound than a mere discussion of the picture…. but, it’s one of my favorites, as it reminds me of one of the best days I experienced in Europe, in several ways, so, hey, sue me, I went for the travelogue style opening, and the mildly humorous observation, rather than depending on myself to come up with profound while still working on my first cup of coffee…

It means this pearl won’t be anywhere near normal, so, please bear with me…. At this point in time, I can use all the help I can get….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Ignorance of one’s misfortunes is clear gain.” — Euripides

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This space intentionally left blank…. because I don’t have any of the usual means of stimulating a rant, nor the internal wherewithal to write anything particularly cogent just now….. So, you’ll have to wait for your rant, or step over to chuq’s site for one….. He’s pretty adept at it, too…. His site is here:

http://lobotero.com/

Enjoy!…..

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

For anyone who knows, or plays the blues, these two men need no introduction. For those who don’t, well, sit back & relax, and listen up, for you are about to be enlightened about the blues by two masters….

Stevie Ray Vaughn & Albert King, In Session, 1983

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZB57b3lPQE

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I’ve shown this poet’s work here before; powerful images and deep feelings are her forte…. this is here latest, which you find on her site, here:  http://maggiemaeijustsaythis.wordpress.com/2014/09/25/skull-crushed/    Her name is Maggie Mae, and she is one whose poetry will, I believe, someday be required reading for all who study poetry…. Her web site is called, appropriately, maggiemaeijustsaythis….. Enjoy….

Skull Crushed

He mounts himself before me
un-zips his stiff skin,
wraps his violent arms around me – to crush

against his ribs. I brush his chest,
boiling veins coil through me,
eyes bulge from my head.
His affection is silent. I see through
muscles and bone – his frail components.
They cannot move. He refuses.
I lay my soft nature over his void.
He is unaware. His nourishment is silent.
He moans. I am starved.
He is heavy in hand and heart, dangles his love on a brick,
then hits me with it. I swell – with thirst,
hungry for his deep devotion,
for his full, dark desire to tie me to him,
vein to vein,
lung to lung,
bone to bone
forever.

~~ Maggie Mae ~~


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Below you’ll find a pearl that came up from the depths of human experience…. It covers a lot of ground, ending with a quite appropriate suddenness…. I enjoyed it, and, I think, so will you….

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the  absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.” — Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”

“Creation science” has not entered the curriculum for a reason so simple and so basic that we often forget to mention it: because it is false, and because good teachers understand exactly why it is false.  What could be more destructive of that most fragile yet most precious commodity in our entire intellectually heritage — good teaching — than a bill forcing honorable teachers to sully their sacred trust by granting equal treatment to a doctrine not only known to be false, but calculated to undermine any general understanding of science as an enterprise?  — Stephen Jay Gould, “The Skeptical Inquirer”, Vol. 12, page 186

“It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God but to create him.” — Arthur C. Clarke

For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate’er is best administer’d is best.
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can’t be wrong whose life is in the right.
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind’s concern is charity.

 — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle iii, Line 303


“The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

“Of what use is political liberty to those who have no bread?  It is of value only to ambitious theorists and politicians.” — Jean Paul Marat (1743-1793)
“And thereby hangs a tale.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Taming of the Shrew — Act iv, Sc. 1

“Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife – chopping off what’s incomplete and saying: “Now it’s complete because it’s ended here.” — Muad’dib

Sometimes, I’m glad when it comes together so easily…. especially when my head is spinning around like a top….

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In the interests of getting done, in this section, appropriately named the closing section, we shall take our leave in short order. In fact, I’m gone…. see y’all tomorrow, if events do not once again intervene to prevent me from doing so…. Me, I’m done with it all, so, bye bye….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

“The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.”

Kowabunga!

À bientôt, mon cherí.

 

Oh, that’s just ducky, Penelope…..

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Ffolkes,

~~  A wonderful poem by Audrey Hepburn  ~~

Written when asked to share her “beauty tips.”
It was read at her funeral years later.

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.  For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.  For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.  For beautiful hair, let a child run his/her fingers through it once a day.  For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.  People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone.  Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.  As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands; one for helping yourself, and the other for helping others.

audrey h

    I’m hoping no one ever asks me where I got this, because I just don’t remember. I know when I found it, I made sure I had it saved in a way allowing me to eventually print it, but, that’s all. Just as well; I’m hard pressed at times to accept the ragging I get for being such a romantic. Being a romantic sort, though, doesn’t prevent me from recognizing truth, and beauty of spirit, and Ms. Hepburn, with this statement, proves she possessed both, in ample measure…. It’s also a good way to start today, with the subject matter in section one being somewhat appropriate to the sentiments expressed here, i.e. compassion, kindness, and love…..

On a personal note, I am in the throes of relieved joy; my vertigo has finally passed away, with no lingering background noise in the nerves, and no lingering dizziness. It has been said, “True relief is the release from pain.”, and I am here to testify, it also works on what may be called malaise, that pervasive sense of WRONGNESS that slithers along the nerves, like static on a phone line, keeping us a bit edgy & jumpy, without even knowing why we feel that way, a miserable condition most know from having a cold, or the flu, when that misery feels as if it has settled into our very bones….  That sort of nervous edge is exhausting, as we fight against it, muscles tensing & releasing in sympathetic fervor, until we are completely drained, without having exerted ourselves at all….

When it goes away, the relief is immense, seemingly leaving us joyful and elated, again with little obvious reason…. I have to say, it is quite a relief, which doesn’t make itself felt until the condition is no longer bothering us…. It also allowed me to get some actual, restful sleep, so, that’s something, right? Right…. I might even figure out a way to make this pearl better because of it…. NAH! Never happen, but, it’s nice to consider now and again…

Actually, I’m going to be a bit on the ruthless side this morning, as this will be the last of the intro paragraphs… not that I’m really concerned with making things better; I feel like I’ve hit my peak, at least writing-wise…. but, that doesn’t alter my mood, which is determined and resolute in its determination to make serious changes around here. I find myself, these last few days while my movements have been curtailed again by my physical condition, thinking a lot of what is going on with my body, with all the new and annoyingly repetitive breakdowns of my various bodily functions…. Pain, chronic fatigue, joint stiffness, vertigo complicated by old concussions (as I finally found out….), all are becoming far too familiar, and, essentially, are keeping me from doing what I WANT to be doing…. and, I say….. BASTA!

Enough! I’m done being a cripple, and an invalid. I’m tired of allowing my body to prevent me from doing what I want to do, and I’m not going to put up with it any longer…. I’ll be going into healing meditative trances, dieting (correctly), performing katas and forms,  and otherwise establishing a routine of physical maintenance the like of which I’ve avoided for about twenty years now, since learning of the first of the physical conditions that are plaguing me…. including, less time here at the computer, as sitting so much certainly is NOT helpful…. In the interests of encouraging the will power it will take to see myself through to the other side, I’ll end this intro now, so we can get on with the day…. as I mentioned, I believe, rather ruthlessly….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“A priest asked: What is Fate, Master?
And he answered: It is that which gives a beast of burden its reason for existence.  It is that which men in former times had to bear upon their backs.  It is that which has caused nations to build byways from City to City upon which carts and coaches pass, and alongside which inns have come to be built to stave off Hunger, Thirst and Weariness.
And that is Fate?  said the priest.
Fate … I thought you said Freight, responded the Master.
That’s all right, said the priest.  I wanted to know what Freight was too.”

— Kehlog Albran, The Profit

No, it means nothing…. or, possibly, even less than that….. I just thought it was funny…. which it is…. If y’all don’t think so, well…. Okay….. I do….

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

“To be ignorant of what happened before you were born is to be ever a child.  For what is man’s lifetime unless the memory of past events is woven with those of earlier times?” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), Orator

Our culture is sick. It has been so for millennia, though many would argue that point, being, as I’ve said before, asininnies at the core, and not able to admit they don’t know…. thus, they are perpetually unable to learn…. We live in a sick society, ffolkes, one that, in great part, is suicidally determined that we shall NOT survive as a species…. Only a species determined to die would allow one half of its members to continuously, and irrationally, abuse and oppress the other half of the two genders, as if the wildness of our nature holds complete sway over any ability to reason we may show…..

This pervasive abuse, of women, by men, is far too ubiquitous to ignore, or deny, yet, the largest portion of people alive today don’t even know they are fully trained and indoctrinated, minds controlled absolutely, by their acceptance, and belief in a set of delusions, that keep us from ever reaching the potential we may have as a species, as they forever keep the two sexes from understanding one another…. In the past, I’ve written a number of posts on this subject, which tends to get my juices flowing rather well…. Whenever I think of how some men treat women, it only strengthens my feelings of anger, and my desire to go buy a gun, to start eradicating at least a few of the problems…. or, rather, the physical manifestations of the problems, otherwise known as pimps, or snakeheads….

A couple of days ago, Emma Watson, the young woman who grew up playing Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies, gave a speech at the UN, addressing the delegates to announce the formation of a new organization, called HeforShe, at http://HeforShe.org/, dedicated to stopping the historical pattern of misogyny and abuse by men, calling on all men, (in my mind, all REAL men….) to join the fight to save their sisters, mothers, and lovers from the habitual sexism and unconscious patterns of abusive behavior and attitudes that have held us ALL back for so long…. Only when men are as aware of the issue as are women, can there be any hope of making the needed changes in society….

Below, I’ve placed four items to note…. the first is a copy of the text of the speech made by Ms. Watson at the UN, the official UN released copy…. also included is a link to the YouTube video of the speech, as well as a YouTube player, so you can watch the speech yourself, right here, if you wish…. All I ask is that you either read it, or watch it; it isn’t long, but, it is VERY IMPORTANT that everyone alive be aware of this issue….

So, please share this link with others, and help spread the word to the snakeheads and pimps…. their day is done, and the good people of society are coming to get them gone, or get them dead, whichever they prefer….. Listen up ffolkes, and pay heed….. This one is for real…. The fourth item, of course, is a pearl to finish the points to be made…..

“It is easy for men to talk one thing and think another.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 322

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“A man who carries a cat by the tail is getting experience that will always be helpful.  He isn’t likely to grow dim or doubtful.  Chances are, he isn’t likely to carry the cat that way again, either.  But if he wants to, I say let him!” — Mark Twain

“So many jerks, so little ammunition.” — Smart Bee

Well may your hearts believe the truths I tell:
‘T is virtue makes the bliss, where’er we dwell.

~~ William Collins  ~~

— (1720-1756) — Oriental Eclogues, 1, Line 5 —


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Today’s video is not musically oriented; instead, for your entertainment, a movie, in five parts, a BBC production of Dorothy L. Sayers’ novel, Clouds of Witness, with actor Ian Carmichael playing Lord Peter Wimsey, the Edwardian Age’s modernized version of Sherlock Holmes, the aristocrat detective, in a delightfully complex, dreadfully British, well-acted, authentic, drawing room comedy/murder mystery, worthy of its reputation as one of the detective novel genre’s most influential works, considered on a par with any of Agatha Christie’s stories….

In this case, we find Lord Peter and his man, Bunter, running about, feverishly, in the search to find evidence to clear his brother, the Duke of Denver, who has been  charged with murdering their sister’s fiancé, gathering the necessary facts from Paris, to New York, to Yorkshire, to London, all with a veneer of polished inanity covering a brilliant story…. Enjoy….

Oh, right, almost forgot….  you can find the next four installments by using the link, which takes you to the You Tube page of the first episode, where all of them are listed….

Lord Peter Wimsey, Clouds of witness, part 1 of 5: 

 

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In certain instances, my mood goes into some strange places…. when it does, I find one poet most often seems to have a poem that fits the mood I feel…. Emily Dickinson, of course…. Plus, this seems like one to go well with today’s message/theme, as it is one of Emily’s sadder pieces…. Well, it makes me sad, anyway…. but, it also makes me feel as her work always does….. human….

I cannot live with you,
It would be life,
And life is over there
Behind the shelf

The sexton keeps the key to,
Putting up
Our life, his porcelain,
Like a cup

Discarded of the housewife,
Quaint or broken;
A newer Sevres pleases,
Old ones crack.

I could not die with you,
For one must wait
To shut the other’s gaze down,–
You could not.

And I, could I stand by
And see you freeze,
Without my right of frost,
Death’s privilege?

Nor could I rise with you,
Because your face
Would put out Jesus’.
That new grace

Glow plain and foreign
On my homesick eye,
Except that you, than he
Shone closer by.

They’d judge us–how?
For you served Heaven, you know
Or sought to;
I could not,

Because you saturated sight,
And I had no more eyes
For sordid excellence
As Paradise.

And were you lost, I would be,
Though my name
Rang loudest
On the heavenly fame.

And were you saved,
And I condemned to be
Where you were not,
That self were hell to me.

So we must keep apart,
You there, I here,
With just the door ajar
That oceans are,
And prayer,
And that pale sustenance,
Despair!

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~


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

Do not attempt to find any deeper meaning in this pearl than you may see on the surface; it is deliberately shallow, intended only as an example of mankind’s obvious tendency to engage in activities that range from the sublime to the ridiculous, not as a journey of one direction, either way, but, more like a bloody yo-yo, up and down, up and down, over and over again, just as if we had no memory at all…. Enjoy!….

“There is nothing that is meritorious but virtue and friendship; and indeed friendship itself is only a part of virtue.” — Pope (1688-1744)

“The purpose and function of government is not to preside over change but to prevent change. By political methods when unavoidable, by violence when
convenient.” — Edward Abbey

“I know the road, I know where it goes; that’s why I’m going so slow…” — Smart Bee

“Cogito, ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am)” — Rene Descartes

“Cogito sum. Circa de basta. (I think I am. That’s close enough.) — gigoid, Peruaosophy, axiom 1, 1986

“Now I’m concentrating on a specific tank battle toward  the end of World War II!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Hmph! Seriousness.  Hmph! Sobriety.  A Jedi craves them not.” — Yoda, Jedi master, a long, long, time ago, in a galaxy far away….

See? Even in the state I’m in, I can do this with my eyes closed…. and, probably should do so more often…..

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In spite of myself, I seem to have finished this Pearl…. huh. When I began, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do so….. I suppose I’m in a bit of a flutter, as it is raining (a complete, though welcome, surprise….), and I feel (relatively) good, both of which aren’t usual around here of late… I’m going to do the sensible thing, and go enjoy that, so, I’d best bring this to a close…. With no further ado, I declare this Pearl of Virtual Wisdom to be complete, and give y’all leave, to, well, leave…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. for now….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

“The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.”

Kowabunga!

À bientôt, mon cherí.

 

Saved… by the Belle of the Ball….

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Ffolkes,

“It’s like brother Nietzsche said–being human is a complicated gig,

so give that dark night of the soul a hug and howl the eternal yes.”

— Chris in the Morning —

DJ on the TV show, Northern Exposure

ghetto beauty

 

    “Hut! Two, three, four; hut! two, three, four…” The cadence rang out from the grizzled old sergeant, while alongside his ramrod-straight, hard-striding form, marched a column of grim-faced warriors, all tall, rangy specimens with bristling weapons strapped at various places, each one bearing scars from a hundred battles, brave circlets of gold circling arms, brows, and belts, to signify survival. Each somber face held the same eyes, a piercing blue that sharply contrasted the black hair all wore, in long braids tied down for convenience.

From the small knives worn on the belt and calf, to the laser-sword at the belt, to the long-range blasters, mortars, bazookas, and grenades, strapped to the belts worn crossed over the chest, this troop of warriors exemplified the best of the best, trained enforcers of the emperor’s will, the most dangerous soldiers in the galaxy…. Spoken only in a hushed whisper, their name, chosen to bring fear to all, implies the terror of….. the Emperor’s Arm….

We’ll leave the Arm to ready itself for its next battle, while we give a hug to the dark night, and howl with brother Nietzsche, an eternal YES! That sounds marginally better than trying to continue to come up with words I gave up, as part & parcel of my own life, a long time ago…. I have, in my life, had much more than my share of violence to deal with, in spite of having cleverly avoided getting caught up in the illegal warfare this country has been engaging in since before the day I was born…

In fact, the US was involved in its first, though certainly not last, incidence of this country going to a warlike state, but, without having any wars declared by Congress in which to engage, ON the day I was born, in 1950; we’d been in Korea with the UN for months by then…. Then, in 1954, our imperialist corporate masters were having a hard time keeping control of the heroin trade in Southeast Asia, so, we sent Air America, and a bunch of “advisers” to Cambodia, South Vietnam, and Thailand, to protect those corporate interests there…. Ten years later, in 1964, the covers got pulled, so Johnson, Nixon, and the crew sent over a few hundred thousand of our finest young citizens, to die for their corporate masters in the jungles of the Asian continent.

That, of course, kept us busy for a long time, only coming to a halt in 1975, when we finally had to admit defeat, for perhaps the first time in our history…. Well, of course, for our hawks, that certainly wouldn’t do, so, we started to see where in the world we could interfere with the locals, in order to keep our arms dealers happy, and making a steady profit, selling us bombs, and tanks, and all that nice weaponry and vehicles…. which, now that a bunch of it is out of date, is being sent to the police forces in America, to arm them beyond all reason or need….

Since leaving Asia, we’ve mainly been using our armed might to “fight terrorism”, a convenient ghost to chase, distracting the public from how much is being spent on the OTHER undeclared wars we’ve had in the last twenty-five years…. Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq again, now Syria…. It makes no sense, except to the arms dealers…. Since WWII, this country has been at war, pretty much constantly, for the entire time period from then to now…. and, I would wager serious money that we’ve spent over 100 trillion dollars, on just arms and ammunition, (planes and bombs add up quickly, at $75 million/day….), WITHOUT EVER DECLARING OURSELVES TO BE AT WAR!….

SIGH…. I really hadn’t planned to rant in the intro today…. that’s why I started with a fictional opening…. But, my talent for finding yet another piece of the crap with we are inundated each day by those assholes in charge of the world is greater than my ability to distract myself, apparently, and it just sort of happens…. Oh well, it got us down to here, & that’s the purpose, anyway, so, I’ll take it…. In fact, I’m going to be ruthless, an unusual state for me…. I’m usually pretty phlegmatic. But, since we’re right here, we’ll let it take us away, just as if we meant to do that….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.” — Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

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Back on 9/18/14, four days ago, I posted a Pearl, the first section of which was comprised of an excerpted rant from a post dated 12/21/2012…. at the end of the part posted, it seemed confusing, having spoken of another part of the rant, which I know now was missing…. It should have been included, at the point where it became confusing… if it had been, there wouldn’t have been any confusion…. To try to alleviate that, or at least soothe my feeling of guilt for having fallen prey to my own bozoid tendencies, I’m reprinting it now, right below this line…. This is the second half of what you should have seen back then….

——————————————–

Here’s a good rant from the archives; it’s a summary rant, with a lot of issues to address…. I would say “enjoy”, but, it would be inappropriate, not to mention, in this instance, more than a little tacky….

From 12/22/2013:

Over the last three years, I’ve been ranting, off and on, about three, or four, groups of people in society whose actions have been causing the rest of us a hard time, continuing to do so, in spite of our best efforts to ‘persuade’ them to cease and desist….. These groups, which I’ve labeled with various derogatory names, just to keep them straight in my mind, and yours, are that part of our species that regards the rest of us as prey….

To these assholes, other people are on this planet merely to see they are supplied with all they wish to have, no matter how those others may feel about that….. Now, I could go into a lot of psychiatric, and/or psychological reasons for all of that, but the plain and simple truth is that they are assholes…. They were born that way, and have never been anything else, society having encouraged them to be so all their lives…. Why they are that way, still, is another matter altogether….

Normally, the universe, in the guise of parents, will supply people with good reasons NOT to be assholes… Sadly, many people never get exposed to those reasons, because their own parents don’t believe in them, having, instead, an enormous, false sense of entitlement, which, in their minds, despite its actual invalidity in reality, gives them the right to walk all over other people to get what they want…. This entitlement arises from one or more of several ideological sources, each of which, though based on completely delusional material, is so compelling, and so attractive to the mind that embraces cheating and immorality, that it has been solidly in control of the society in which we exist for the entire history we have endured….

The shadowy corporate masters who control society, who have done so for millennia, are VERY adept at concealing their presence from all but a few, of whom they have complete control, and nothing to fear…… In this way they have manipulated society for all that time, holding the majority of resources and money under their control, thus giving them very real control over the rest of us, as we all have to eat…. it’s that simple…. That, combined with their willingness to use violence, without any compunctions, or compassion, to achieve their ends, has provided them with the means to maintain their control, as well as the means to keep the rest of mankind in ignorance….

Now, however, their own ignorance, stupidity, and lack of foresight is going to kill them, and there is NOTHING AT ALL they can do about it….. Read this, please, and take heed of what it implies; note especially what it says between the lines of the statistical facts presented…. In other words, read it critically, so you will understand that to which I’m referring…..

http://www.thenation.com/article/177614/coming-instant-planetary-emergency#

This is it, ffolkes…. I’ve been predicting this moment for a long time, though I’d hoped to be wrong for the entire time…. But, it cannot be denied any longer, not now that we have the concrete evidence of our own imminent demise…. I’ve spoken often of a date when a certain flash point will have been reached…. That point has to do with how fast the temperature of the planet is rising, and the changes this will cause to the atmosphere THAT WE ALL BREATHE….

It is my incredibly sad duty to announce, that flash point has been reached…. The new evidence quoted in this article, regarding how fast the permafrost is melting in the Arctic environments, is not merely scary, it is downright terrifying…. It is clear evidence of that flash point I was referring to, and tells us, without doubt, that our time has come….

Do you know what this means, ffolkes? We are talking about an atmosphere that WITHIN FIFTY YEARS FROM NOW, WILL BE DEADLY FOR US TO BREATHE….. That estimate, of MAYBE fifty years, is now ensured of becoming reality….. That’s all, fifty years….. At that point, we all die, ffolkes, and there is no respite, no relief to be found, because, Hey, IT’S TOO FUCKING LATE!…. That’s correct, ffolkes, it’s already too late….

The flash point has come, and gone, and the chemical imbalances that our species has created on this planet will now proceed to kill us all within the next 100 years… Once the process of change reaches the point of parabolic increase, it is IRREVERSIBLE; it cannot be stopped….. And, yes, that figure is right….. I said a hundred years….. That’s if we’re lucky, and scientists DO find some way to slow the process down, once enough people have panicked enough to start trying to fix what we’ve done…

It can’t be done, though….it’s too late, and there is nothing in our technological bag that will fix what we have broken…. For many years, I held out the hope that, no matter how bad it got, we would find a way, through the magic of science, to fix things…. Sadly, that hope was never realized, things just went from bad to worse, and, now, have progressed to the worst-case scenario…. I’d hoped that this little aphorism below would be true…..

“If the Catholic church couldn’t stop Galileo, then governments won’t be able to stop things now.” — Carlo de Benedetti of Olivetti on the folly — of trying to regulate information technology

But, it wasn’t true, because, without us knowing it, it was already too late, by the time we got the computers….. It’s a sad thing, one that threatens to make me pretty angry…. So angry, in,fact, that I may even consider breaking some of my own personal commandments, and spending some of my remaining years hunting…. Since I’m sure you won’t misunderstand me about that, and, to also make sure I’m not jumping the gun, so to speak, let me say this…. I am pretty pissed off about this…. None of what is happening was NECESSARY, or even likely, not without deliberate ignorance of the assholes who put themselves in charge of everyone else, trying to grab all they could for themselves…. If those assholes had learned to share, like everyone else, we wouldn’t be having these issues at all….

But, nooooo, because the fucking Christians feel entitled, or better than anyone else…. or because the richest assholes on the planet can’t share…. or because the whites  hate the blacks and browns, who hate the yellows, all of whom are afraid of the greens, we have been doomed, sentenced to a gasping, unpleasant death at the hands of our own planet, and our own people….. It’s enough to make a strong man want to give up, and start blasting away…. an event that may very well occur before too long….

I’ll be ranting about this again, ffolkes, and may not stop until I get enough ammo to start my hunting…. Now, don’t get me wrong… I know my hunting won’t fix anything, other than soothing a few of my own feelings about all of this…. But, maybe, just maybe, the game I bring down just MIGHT slow things down, even just a little, and that won’t be a bad thing….

Of course, we’re all going to have to come to terms with the fact of our own demise, and sooner than we had thought…. THAT should be an interesting show, to be sure…… Actually, I’m kind of looking forward to the time when all those asses realize what they’ve done to themselves…. I hope I’m around long enough to see some of them get their comeuppance…..

“This ain’t no technological breakdown. This is the road to hell.” — Smart Bee

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

Here is the second half of the Royal Albert Hall reunion concert by Cream, in 2005, to finish the concert begun in day before yesterday’s post….

Enjoy!….. Hell, this is good enough to drive the depression from the preceding rant out of your head….. Ginger Baker’s drum solo is about 2/3 of the way in…. forgot to note down the exact time, but, hey, getting there is half the fun….

Part 2, Cream: Live at the Royal Albert Hall, 2005

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

I’ve been following the work of this poet for three years now, since first finding her blog on WordPress….. She is one of those poets whose attraction I can’t explain; her poetry is very randomly structured, seldom rhymes, and is heavily influenced by her feelings, obviously….. But, it is so powerful, I find it is impossible not to read, and feel…. and, I find, almost impossible to describe….

Sometimes, you just know, without being able to say why, or how you know…. Mari’s poetry does that to me consistently…. A link to her site is listed after the poem, if you wish to see more of her work…. I can recommend it highly….. Oh, and, read the About section; she is a very interesting woman, who has lived an interesting life…..

I SWEAR I DID

Lived too long in the dark woods

The gallantry of a mouth
My teeth, crouching,  clenching

It is you, your incomparability
At least that is what I tell my soul

Your essential morn
Banishing these little birds

From flying just a bit higher

A dazzlemenent,  my imagination

~~ Mari Sanchez Cayuso ~~

http://starsrainsunmoon.com/2014/09/20/i-swear-i-did/#comment-11461


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

Ffolkes…. THIS is a pearl….. I worked hard on this one, to make certain it all was correctly arranged…. I may not be the most objective judge in this case, but, I think this is a grand pearl or virtual wisdom…. Y’all are welcome to think whatever pleases you….. you see, the first line allows that sort of thing for us….

“A gentleman can disagree without being disagreeable.” — Rules of a Gentlemen, addendum 1.1

“Where pain predominates, agony can be a valued teacher.” — Frank Herbert

“Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it…. Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 29

“Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt.” — Graham Greene, The Human Factor (1978)

“I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” — E. M. Forster, Two Cheers for Democracy

How lov’d, how honour’d once avails thee not,
To whom related, or by whom begot;
A heap of dust alone remains of thee:
‘T is all thou art, and all the proud shall be!

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

 — To the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, Line 71 —


“To leave this keen encounter of our wits.’ — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Richard III — Act i, Sc. 2

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

Having worked on this ahead of time, I find myself in a position to be done in a very timely fashion, while still having time to edit thoroughly for mistakes…. which means, no doubt, you will find them everywhere you look today….. It’s just the way it works for me…. In fact, I’m going to go against my principles today, and NOT edit or proof…. It’s going out “as is”, and y’all will just have to take it that way…. I’m sure you can do it; you’ve had a lot of practice, even if you’ve only been here once or twice…. And, on that note, I shall take my leave…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. stay alert, & don’t let the Asininnies getcha…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

“The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.”

Kowabunga!

À bientôt, mon cherí.

 

No, no witch doctors…. I’m fine. Just a scratch….

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5

Ffolkes,

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark;

the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”

~~ Plato ~~

Day the next 013

    ‘Tisn’t every day I start off with a trip to the ER, so, I suppose that makes today special, at least in that respect. So, rather than sitting here, trying to decide how to use the quote from Plate, in conjunction with my lovely picture of the sunset over the Northern Irish Sea, off the coast of Scotland somewhere, I am sitting here, trying desperately to ignore the dizziness that fills my head whenever I move it too quickly…. According to the nice young doctor at the ER, it is merely vertigo, a condition that can strike anytime, and is treatable, mostly, with medications to combat the two main symptoms of dizziness, and the nausea that goes with it most times.

For now, I’m just holding as still as possible, to prevent the dizziness…. and hoping I can hold it together long enough to get this done…. Fortunately, I had completed a good deal of it yesterday, during the breaks between sleeping to catch up, and battling the bones, which took up much of the day…. In at least one way, all this is a good thing for y’all, as it means the total amount to read will be much less than usual, and, minus any fresh ranting, as I am just not up to that now….

That being said, I’m going to also cut this intro to a degree unprecedented in previous Pearls…. In fact, we will be leaving this section very shortly, and going on to what is below… In actual fact, that is happening NOW….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, v, 6

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

Phocion compared the speeches of Leosthenes to cypress-trees.

“They are tall,” said he, “and comely, but bear no fruit.”

~~ Plutarch  ~~

— (46-120 AD)  Phocion —

Day 3 and 4 013

    Above, you see my version of the typical tourist shot, of the British Houses of Parliament, including, of course, Big Ben, along with a glimpse of the obligatory double-decker bus, in this case, one of the tour buses, the “Hop on, hop off” variety prevalent in so many international cities now, as it makes a perfect way for tourists to see a great deal of a city in a short time, with the opportunity to get off to look more closely at something seen, and get back on when ready to go on getting the lay of the city…. I, naturally, had “hopped off” one of them, in order to walk out on the Bridge (never even asked which one it was….), to take the photo….

Today, it is here to show just one of the meeting places of the Beloved Ruling Class, this time in England, where that particular group of running dog lackeys has been shape-shifting, or, in their natural state, writhing sinuously around and through British culture, always managing to keep themselves in positions of authority and entitlement, for many thousands of years…. Many of them came to America in the early days, where they’ve been insinuating themselves into the US government since soon after its inception….

But, for centuries, aided by the natural Celtic tendency toward gullibility when confronted with claims of supernatural mandate, combined with an inherent national characteristic, or, if you will, curse, of possessing the emotional range of a teaspoon, and, an unbelievable stubbornness about ever admitting to being led by the nose, these latter-day Wizards of Oz continue to hide in plain sight, allowing their subjects to have complete (apparent) freedom, while, in truth, carrying out the same agenda as the elitists in this country have adopted, though for a shorter time, to wit: the long term con involved in converting the democratic forms of government, (call them Republican Democracies, or Democratic Republics, or, even, Constitutional Monarchies…. all same-same….) supposedly in place in both countries, into open Oligarchies, or the rule of the rich….

Now, I’m depressed again…. I’ll be back….

Obviously, I had planned to finish this today, after getting up…. Since my brain/body had different ideas for how I would start my day, I’ll have to leave it as is…. In looking it over, it is actually done enough; the point was made, and y’all will just have to do without the usual following verification/augmentation of the supporting evidence for my contentions…. I do see that I managed to put together an old-school version of a pearl, to act as a closing to this section…. so, we’ll take advantage of my forethought, and use it, here and now…. trusting to my instincts to see that it all flows together without any major welding required….

Whatever comes previously to this paragraph in this section, in the way of a rant, or discussion, or outburst of frustration and angst, sans rationale, or, whatever has tickled my fancy at that point, the following pearls will be included…. This group put itself together, at SB’s behest, apparently, as a means of poking some fun and sharp sticks at our alleged leaders in society…. Most of them are either obvious statements of how politicos think, if what they do can be so named, subtle indictments of their character, advice on how to deal with them, or Smart Bee’s take on what they want from y’all….

Also included, however, are two quotes from Thomas Jefferson…. One is included, patently, to provide contrast, and to demonstrate how the current crop of elected asininnies does NOT live by the same rules as did Jefferson…. The other is one of the warnings, or predictions, Jefferson issued to the people of this country who followed him, in his usual vein, which tells us to protect what they left to us…. His words have been preserved very well; the freedoms to which most of them referred? Not so well…..

“Vote Republican. It’s easier than thinking.” — Smart Bee

“A bone to the dog is not charity.  Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.” — Jack London

“It is not honorable to take mere legal advantage, when it happens to be contrary to justice.” — Thomas Jefferson, POTUS III

“It had all the earmarks of a CIA operation; the bomb killed everybody in the room except the intended target.” — William F. Buckley

” We should declare war on North Vietnam.  We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas.” — Ronald W. Reagan

“A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.” — Thomas Jefferson

“Vote Democrat. It’s easier than thinking.” — Smart Bee

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

Yesterday, over the course of an hour or so, I was able to put down the following poem, ripped out of me whilst in the middle of an episode of intense pain from arthritis, in my hands, shoulders, hips, and UNIVERSE…. It may not be a traditionally formatted poem, and, as far as I know, it doesn’t rhyme, as I wasn’t thinking at all about that sort of expression… This bled out at a pace at which I was challenged to keep up, complicated by having to write in short spurts, as the hands were the worst…. Any who, I don’t care if anyone enjoys this, or not; I had to write it, or go mad, with no visible path on which to return from the trip…..

Of course, there will be some folks, and even, possibly, some folks, who will automatically place me into the “unsaved, and incorrigible” category, which is fine; it’s exactly where I prefer to be, if I must be in a category at all…. I forget who once said, “Not all poets are mad, but, it helps.”…..
Though I don’t remember who said it, I do tend to agree….

Elemental, dear Watson….
Don’t worry,
it’s not me
you hear
screaming.

It is
only
my bones,
giving in,
to
cowardly,
pathologically,
repetitive,
fucking,’
complaints
of
past abuse,
and
all the fun
we had.
playing,
hard.

I don’t mind
too much;
I can spend my
TIME
in another space
in my head,
pretending
my bones
don’t
exist….

It
is,
indeed,
a shame
they
always
come
back….

Fuck.

It
hurts.

More proof,
I guess,
either
God isn’t,
or,
He  is.

IF

He isn’t?
Oh,
Well….

Ante up.
Deal.

IF

He is?
Then,
I don’t fucking care
who
doesn’t like it,

I say,

He
is
a bully,
a coward,
a hypocrite,
and,
truly,
an enormous asshole.

I suppose,
God
 is
what comes,
to,
and
from,
People,

because

they
feel
a need,
for
someone
to
blame
for
a
Universe
they
cannot
understand
or
accept.

I
will
take the complaints.

After all,
they
are
my bones.

~~ gigoid ~~


Generally, I let the poem stand alone; today, in searching for a quote to put above the picture at the top of the page, Smart Bee presented me with the following, which provides some rather compelling evidence of the validity of the stanza in the poem, which begins with, “I suppose”….. This monumental delusional tendency haunting the species. homo horribulus, (that’s us, ffolkes….), on this planet has apparently been manifesting itself for quite some time…. since the early days of our history, to be exact…. This one shows it to be present over 2700 years ago….

“For full indeed is earth of woes, and full the sea; and in the day as well as night diseases unbidden haunt mankind, silently bearing ills to men, for all-wise Zeus hath taken from them their voice. So utterly impossible is it to escape the will of Zeus.” — Hesiod (c. 700 BC) — Works and Days, Line 101

Sorry, but, I’ll still take the complaints….

~~ gigoid

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

“Any ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforth have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.” — Augustine Birrell

This section is the only one incomplete as I begin today’s post…. I’m going with my gut on this, and will put some additional pearls, to accompany the rather fine sentiment above, and to finish off this post, one of the more fractured Pearls to ever come down the pike…

“The long historian of my country’s woes.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book iii, Line 142

“Gort, klaatu nikto barada.” — The Day the Earth Stood Still

“Nothing can be produced out of nothing.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Diogenes of Apollonia, ii

“If good intentions are combined with stupidity, it is impossible to outthink them.”
— Marion J. Levy, Jr.

“Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.” — H.L. Mencken

“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.” — Seng Ts’an, Third Zen Patriarch, — from Hsin Hsin Ming, Verses on the Faith Mind

“…and I get on my knees and pray we don’t get fooled again.” — Pete Townshend

Wow…. SB is being really nice today…. Those seven pearls came one after another, with only two extraneous and useless quotes mixed in with them… Most excellent, as it went really quickly, as hoped…. Now, we’re done…. yay!….

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

“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.” — Bob Dylan

I get the feeling I am not the only one who feels like Bob…. But, all that is for another day. I’m done, and I’m outta here, to go hold still, and think of how to get through another day, with this added complication to adjust to…. SIGH…. Life is grand, isn’t it? See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

Kowabunga!

 

Thirteen metric tons of bio-hazardous waste? How droll….

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7

Ffolkes,

“If the life of natural things, millions of years old, does not seem sacred to us, then what can be sacred?” — Edward Abbey

lunch

    I’m sorry, but, the woman just looks too clueless for this to be a real picture…. not to mention the rather frozen look in the dino’s eyes… though it DOES look to be frozen in delight, at what appears to be LUNCH!…. But, as I said, even taking the perspective into account, if the dino were real, she wouldn’t have been able to avoid SMELLING him, or, more accurately, its breath, as the carrion- and fresh-carcase- eating predator it was…. Whew, can you imagine the pungent stink attached to a huge creature’s mouth like that? Awesomely toxic, I would imagine, not to mention the mere presence of Eau de corpse, an odor that would make it hard to miss, for any creature with a half-way efficient nose…..

Oh, and, by the way, the quote from Ed Abbey? Brilliant, and, in many ways, if it is the only thing you take away with you from today’s post, you will not have been wasting your time…. Just sayin’, y’know?   ….

So, where was I, before my silly parenthetical mind hopped over a couple of dimensions, to take up a totally different subject, than that with which we began? Oh, hell, it doesn’t matter, anyway; this will get all twisted around if I try to justify any of it. That happens every time I forget….. with the new Tardis, I may never actually know, precisely, or, with any degree of confidence at all, just when I am…. Not where, when…. I could be writing this last week, or next week, or, in a previous life; I most likely, will, or did, or plan to, or well, you see the problem, right?…. Since the advent of the powers of a Time Lord. I’m having to learn a completely new and different way to both talk, and write, not to even mention think….

So, since it no longer matter at all where we started, I’ll just go on…..

“What’s the metric unit of pain? The Angstrom.” — Smart Bee

It took me about 10 seconds, but, once I got it, I just about FOMCL, because IWLSHICLCOMMO, y’know? Get it? Pain? Angst(rom)? (*** See below for acronym definitions…) Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Classic, and priceless, this almost killed me…. it’s just so ME!….. On this scale, I live at approximately 12 Å, ( “Å”, naturally, is the symbol for angstroms, an actual scientific scale, though normally applied to measure the brightness of light on the electromagnetic scale that describes the rainbow of colors that make up the light we see….), on a scale of 27 Å as maximum (think massive tooth impaction/infection, or, childbirth…. either wodl hit around 27 Å…), with daily forays into the twenties….

Probably, I’m running an average daily rate of about, oh, right now, factoring in the arthritis flare-up the last few days… about 18-20 Å….. As I type, that’s about where we are, which is just at the upper limit of what I can control, and still be able to type without whimpering piteously, as is the case when it goes past twenty….

All that said, people may wonder why I still have to write this blog every day, or, why I have to say so much, if it hurts so badly…. Well, that, to me, is simple…. and, can be expressed by three pieces of graphic art, that just happen to be in my archived files…. I suppose you could say that the following three entries comprise a statement of purpose that is as close as I’ll ever come to making up a mission, or vision statement….. with one caveat, which merely says this:

I’ve lived with, and played with, pain, all of my life one way or another; it is not something I will ever allow to completely dominate my decisions about how to live, or what I am capable of doing. Pain may be my enemy, but, it is an enemy whom I have long held at bay, consistently battling it to a draw, throughout all the years of my life; I don’t intend to allow that to change at this late date…. Giving in & letting it control my life is unacceptable….

Onward….

A Gentleman Is

 

When I am unsure of how to proceed in any given situation, I imagine my father standing behind me, observing me. If I hesitate, he will whisper a number in my ear, from this list of Rules he taught me, that tells me how to approach whatever it is that confronts me….

everywarrior-coelho
A Warrior of Light never gives in, and never gives up…. to do so not only would destroy all honor, but would nullify all our previous efforts…. This last graphic, below, from Albert, gives you the last piece of me, that keeps me writing this blog, taking pot-shots at the BRC and the Asinnnies, the true perpetrators of evil, just so I don’t have to place myself in the latter group, thus ensuring I can look myself in the eye each morning in the mirror…..

Albert E & true sin

*** Acronyms from above:

“almost

FOMCL = Fell out of my chair laughing….

because,

IWLSHICLCOMMO = I was laughing so hard I completely lost control of my medulla oblongata….”

So be it…..

gigoid has spoken.

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

From January 29, 2013, as the intro to the intro:

At the age I’ve reached, one of the best lessons I learned, long ago, is/was the value of routine. Developing a routine of efficient activities to organize the start of the day  is one of the most important tools one can find and use in the work-a-day world. It allows one to get to work on time, with everything in hand that is necessary to the day, and with mind and body prepared for the tasks ahead, without undue stress or worry.

When this routine is disrupted, it can affect the tenor of the entire remainder of the day, like ripples in a pond spreading out from the point of impact, or a mathematical error in computing an orbit, an infinitesimal flaw that grows bigger with each new computation, at an alarming rate, faster with each passing nanosecond…..

I’m starting to believe that even Murphy is not immune to the power of schedules and routines. When I was younger, and still going to work daily, if I observed the details of my routine with enough concentrated attention, he seemed to stand back and not bother with me, waiting for other times to step in with his decidedly infantile sense of humor. If he was very, very clever, he sometimes could affect a small part of the routine, and cause a bit of uproar, but generally, I’d get so focused on carrying it out, he couldn’t get me to pay any attention to him, so, off he’d go, to find someone more vulnerable…..

All of which means that there is a hidden power, involved in the acting out of routine behaviors, carried out time after time until they are ingrained, a power of organization and will, that, somehow, is able to resist the oppositional power of chaos that Murphy so adeptly subjects us to whenever he can….

**Note from 2014: the above is here to supplement yesterday’s recounting of Murphy’s latest escapade here at gigoid’s house, at gigoid’s expense… Sorry, do I still sound pissed off? I guess I do…. Ah, well, I’ll get it out right now… & be done with it all….

When Murphy got me yesterday, and, to give him his due, he got me good, I had fallen into the mental trap, whose reasons for existing at all are connected to my own thought patterns, and the exercise of my will used to control those patterns, of taking the power of routine for granted; I placed too much credence on its ability to keep Murphy occupied elsewhere, if my own state of mind was not focused enough for it to work…. THIS is why I got caught yesterday with my pants not down, but, in danger of bursting into flame, so to speak, and to mix metaphors horrendously…. In short, I was a complacently oblivious Bozo, this time to my dismay, not my pride, or even bemused acceptance…

That said, since I now know how to avoid any repetition of such events, we can move on for the day, content this section served at least one or two socially acceptable purposes to good effect…. I’m going to continue my campaign to keep things lighter, and shorter, by going directly into an old school pearl, filled with good thought, advice on living, and general, all-around good stuff, as we call it here, when we can’t think of any good words, and the thesaurus is buried somewhere…. Enjoy!

“The test of all happiness is gratitude.” — G.K. Chesterton

“Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.” — Robert A. Heinlein

“Curiosity may have killed the cat, but where human beings are concerned, the only thing a healthy curiosity can kill is ignorance.” — Smart Bee

“You are not thinking.  You are merely being logical.” — Neils Bohr to Albert Einstein, during a debate on Quantum Mechanics

“Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue i, Line 136

“No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.” — Taoist Proverb

“To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Short History of England, Ch.10


Wow. That’s it. Just…. wow. Now, THAT is a great pearl….. a group of some of the finest gems in our language,  presented and arranged for your sublime delectation, in a wonderful display of serendipity, as Smart Bee just laid them out, one after another, in less than three minutes…. Bonus!

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

I’m in a mood…. what kind of mood is, at this point, undetermined; being human, however, I’m sure I’m in one. The sign are all there, and clear…. This means, if I do as I intended, and try to write a fresh poem, it would probably reflect that mood…. Quite simply, at this juncture, I don’t trust my mood enough to allow that to happen; the results could conceivably cause me to cease writing altogether, and then where would my sanity be?

Nowhere, that’s where…. So, I’ll go for someone else’s work, and be done with it, knowing my mood will direct whatever choice I end up making…. I just hope it doesn’t explode, which has happened in the past, to our chagrin, not to mention surprised shock and awe…. Well, whatever it may end up as, try to enjoy it, okay? I DO generally go with classic, so, that may help…. We’ll see, I suppose…. Wish me luck…. Ah, thanks, that worked; here’s one of my favorite all time poems, by my all time favorite poetess, which will do just fine….

A bird came down the walk

A bird came down the walk
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,-
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~


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

I promised I’d keep from ranting so often, and have decided that graphic art, from other sources, may be at least part of a solution… Here is one attempt to see if it works….. On the UK Guardian web site, they have a link to a complete series of stories around the original leaks by Edward Snowden, re: the illegal spying by the NSA, that is STILL FUCKING HAPPENING. Oops, was that too loud? Sorry, it continues to annoy me, as you can see, just a LITTLE FUCKING BIT… Any who, on that page at the Guardian.com, are links to this artist’s take on the issues, using her/his comic persona, Brenda the Civil Disobedience Penguin, to do so…. Enjoy, ffolkes…. this is bloody brilliant….

nsadog

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Well, all thing considered, that went well…. which it very possibly may not have done, given the usual state of affairs here in the morning…. Today the new Time Lord powers helped quite a bit, so, I guess I’m getting a little further along the learning curve on that…. It will do, since this one, even shortened as it may be, exceeds the average by a good portion…. Whatever, right? I’ll be going now…. See y’all tomorrow, most likely…. The odds on that are looking good….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

Kowabunga!

Eleventeen of one, twelve dozen of the other….

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Ffolkes,

“Brigadier, a straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting.”

 ~~ Doctor, The Time Warrior ~~

A frog at lift off of the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer

    No, the picture has not been Photoshopped, nor is it touched up in any way…. according to the report I got it from…. It’s an official NASA photo, taken as a matter of course for the records they keep; in looking them over, as is their habit, to look for potential problems in the lift-off sequences filmed, they noticed the frog, which, according to its trajectory through the photos, fell into the picture from the sky…. So, this means the rocket took off while it was raining frogs…. According to the report, this was NOT part of the day’s weather forecast….. which goes to show, I guess, that the Doctor is speaking with the confidence of experience in dealing with Reality….  and, I might add, doing so with an admirable, and considerable aplomb….

Of course, using a picture such as this, while opening a number of potential directions for exploration, in truth, leaves me in a tight spot, in terms of, how in the world can I follow THAT? It’s interestingly weird, offers the opportunity for developing a discussion in several potential areas, hits the ECR approved standard for strange, while still providing the Gentle Reader with an amusing and comfortable entrée into today’s post…. which makes it, for this blog, completely unique in its degree of efficiency AND effectiveness…

In short, I’ve already done all that needs to be done for the blog to go on….. But, if you look more closely, it becomes clear that we haven’t actually said anything particularly significant, or gone anywhere that approaches the places we need to be… wherever that may be; as you may know, that’s always pretty much a crapshoot here, and the odds aren’t with the house.  Hence, my confusion, although, to be perfectly honest, that’s nothing new, or out of the ordinary, any more than it is unusual for me to be lost in space and time…. Especially when dealing with this introductory section….

All that being said, to little purpose, I’m sure, now what the hell am I going to do? I’ll have to think about that…. (Between these marks, witness the passage of a vast, seemingly unending stretch of TIME…. hour upon hour pile up, one upon another, bludgeoning the sensibilities until all thought ceases, to fall into the black hole of the universe’s apathy, never to be found again…..until, at last, off in the distance, growing larger, and larger, we see salvation…. Finally, TIME once again speeds up, to deposit us softly, back in our original space, once more, ready to Pearl…..)

I believe I’m starting to feel a bit of Fall in the air…. The sun is setting earlier, and it’s getting cool more quickly once it has sunk below the horizon, after the nightly colorful show the sky puts on for us, with colors never before seen by anyone…. That’s because the chemical composition of the air has changed over time, as we humans have pumped a dizzying variety of them up into the atmosphere over the years, in quantities never before seen on this planet… thus, when we see the sunset, it is with a filter of chemicals that is all new, changing every day, showing us shades of the colors we are accustomed to, that not only have WE never seen, but, have never been seen before by the eyes of man, in all our history….

Amazing, isn’t it, how I can turn a simple discussion of the weather into a rant? I think so; it’s a bit inconvenient at times, such as here, in the intro, but, sometimes, I am so concerned, and so angry, it slips out at times when I’m not ready for it….. I figure it could be worse; I could be one of those folks who actually thinks anyone cares what I think…. Most people, me, you, and everyone else I can think of, don’t really care much about others; we are all naturally self-centered, to some degree. That is normal, and necessary, as otherwise, how would you be able to tell yourself from anyone else? Not so easy, is it?

Stop…. That is an instruction to myself, not you…. I’m typing away, here and now, making up nonsense, and my hands are falling asleep, the precursor to becoming extremely painful due to the arthritis flaring up…. I’m having to stop ever few words to shake them back awake…. This will NOT do…. How am I going to get all this stuff out of my head, if I can’t type? The voice recognition software available isn’t quite good enough to consider switching over to completely, not yet, so, this is a conundrum of a different color, to be sure…. Time out….

I’m going to have to shift, shuffle, and dance my way to the end, now….. I declare this intro done, and we’ll get on with the rest of today’s Pearl. The poem is already in place: I found a good one yesterday. The rest, well, I’ll have to figure that out, but, you may end up seeing something from the archives today, so, be prepared for that… For now, I’d best be on my way to the next section…. I even have the closing lines of this done, also from yesterday, when I found an appropriate set of closing pearls…. So, before my hands fall of the end of my arms…..

Shall we Pearl….

Today, to close the intro section, y’all get a two-fer, just because they go together so perfectly, as examples of both hacker/geek humor, and, pretty good all-around advice, on how to approach Life at Large….

“Beware the lightening that lurketh in the undischarged capacitor, lest it cause thee to bounce upon thy buttocks in a most untechnician-like manner.” — The First Commandment for Technicians

“Speed kills. Slow just infuriates…” — Smart Bee, in hack mode

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“Private enterprise, indeed, became too private.  It became privileged enterprise, not private enterprise.” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945)

I collected this yesterday, before I knew my ability to type was going to be compromised, intending to use it as the segue into a formal rant on the privileged elite, the group of Asininnies who comprise the shadowy corporate snakehead category of that group. (A ‘snakehead’, in slang, is a slaver, one who captures/abducts women and/or children to sell on the slavery market, which, in spite of what you may have been told, exists quite comfortably, right here in the USA, and all over the world…. believe it.)

However, due to circumstances which, this time, are out of my control, I’ll not be ranting; not freshly, anyway, until this crap with my hands eases off, and that is completely unpredictable, at least, at this point… So, you get lucky, because that means this will be an old-school pearl, with parameters set to find quotes/aphorisms that resemble the first one, above, or, are wearing similar clothes, thus looking the same…. Enjoy!….

“Washington, DC: 26 square miles surrounded by reality.” — Smart Bee

“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Madison, 1787

“INFLUENCE, n.  In politics, a visionary _quo_ given in exchange for a substantial _quid_.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

LAWYER: Someone who can get a sodomy charge changed to “following too closely.” — Smart Bee

“A fool and his money are soon elected.” — Walton’s Law of Politics

“As long as the United States Government exists, there is no real accomplishment being a humorist.” — Smart Bee

“Reagan:  He’s not the president, but he once played one on TV.” — Smart Bee


I knew it! Look at that pearl! It’s perfect! It takes shot after shot, each one hitting the net harder and faster than the last…. and, it has Smart Bee anchoring it at all three critical points; it isn’t often THAT happens…. So, I thought, since it looked so good, I’d try centering it, and sure enough, it is also balanced that way; note the pattern it forms visually, looking at all seven at once…. beautiful symmetry…. I’m glad I went looking for this one; it was well worth the effort….

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This doesn’t need much introduction; it is one known to many people, at least, to those who have made any study of poetry at all, beyond the little bit they dole out in public schools… It is only a small part of the epic poem by Pope, An Essay on Man (in several Epistles). That poem, in itself, is very possibly the best ever of its type, due in part to the very deep insight Pope seems to have had, augmented and enhanced by his skill at putting that insight into beautiful verse…. Enjoy this little piece of the epic, and, if you ever have the chance, go read the whole poem; it is well worth the time it takes….

From an Essay on Man

Heav’n from all creatures hides the book of fate,
All but the page prescrib’d, their present state:
From brutes what men, from men what spirits know:
Or who could suffer being here below?
The lamb thy riot dooms to bleed today,
Had he thy reason, would he skip and play?
Pleas’d to the last, he crops the flow’ry food,
And licks the hand just rais’d to shed his blood.
Oh blindness to the future! kindly giv’n,
That each may fill the circle mark’d by Heav’n:
Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’d,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

Hope humbly then; with trembling pinions soar;
Wait the great teacher Death; and God adore.
What future bliss, he gives not thee to know,
But gives that hope to be thy blessing now.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin’d from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor’d mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul, proud science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk, or milky way;
Yet simple nature to his hope has giv’n,
Behind the cloud topp’d hill, an humbler heav’n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac’d,
Some happier island in the wat’ry waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold.
To be, contents his natural desire,
He asks no angel’s wing, no seraph’s fire;
But thinks, admitted to that equal sky.
     
~~ Alexander Pope ~~


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

As we all know, Life is tough, and it plays no favorites; no coupons, no discounts, and no mercy is given, at all. We deal, or we don’t, it is that simple…. In the face of such indifference, and not lack, but, absence of any compassion, as shown by the Universe at Large toward all Life, not just us  homo bozoidus’s…. (Hmm…. on THAT coined word, ‘bozoidus’, it seems I may have to turn the Spell Checker completely off…. it really, really doesn’t like the word, and refuses to add it to the dictionary…. Does your software ever do that to you? Just wondering….)

Any who, here is a pearl, made up of some damn fine pearls, to give the proper tone and flavor to the rest of today’s Pearls…. (a sentence which accurately gives y’all the definitions of all three types of pearls, as I use the terms here on ECR; it might make future references a bit clearer, now that you understand the hierarchy, and their relation to each other as part of the same lexicon of coined words used on this blog….) Whatever the hell they are, or whatever the hell I THINK they are, they’re pretty useful, if given half a chance….. Now, do I have to tell you to enjoy it, or them? Or, can you get there on your own?  Ball’s in your court….

“Happy is the house that shelters a friend.” — Emerson

“To be good, according to the vulgar standard of goodness, is obviously quite easy.
It merely requires a certain amount of sordid terror, a certain lack of imaginative thought,
and a certain low passion for middle-class respectability.”

~~ Oscar Wilde ~~

“Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don’t let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity.” — R. I. Fitzhenry

“If you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

“In comparison with heaven and earth, man is like a mayfly.”
But compared to the great Way, heaven and earth, too, are like a bubble and a shadow.
Only the primal spirit and the true nature overcome time and space.”

~~ Lu Yen ~~
(fl. 800 A.D.)

“Beware of the man whose god is in the skies.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

“To survive, one must be able to adapt to changing situations.” — Tyrannosaurus Rex


As noted above, pearls are often different; thank goodness…. This one, as far as I can see, defies explanation…. Thus, I shan’t try to explain it, but, rather, I’ll just play it as it lies, so to speak, and be done for the day….. How ’bout THEM apples?….

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

Apples or no, I’m done, and, just in time, before taking the computer, and Smart Bee, and all the rest of it, with me as I throw myself out the window, in an attempt to get away from the pain in my hands, shoulders, and hip(s). However, rather than whine about it, and make you witness my grand finale, we’ll call it a draw, and just go home…. or, in this case, off to the medicine cabinet, to find SOMETHING that will put me back to sleep, where my hands won’t bother me for a while…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, provided I don’t opt for excision of the faulty parts…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Kowabunga!

Paltry remnants of boldly patterned briefs….

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Ffolkes,

“I was not born for one corner. The whole world is my native land.”

~~ Seneca ~~

laniakea-galaxy-supercluster-art

    I obtained today’s picture on Space.com, from an article reporting the latest information regarding our universe, as compiled by astrophysicists working on mapping what we are able to see with the current technology, including the Hubble Deep Space telescope in orbit around the Earth. The red dot you see in the picture represents the Milky Way Galaxy, a part of a group of galaxies known as the Local Group, consisting of many thousands of CLUSTERS of galaxies, that are the closest to ours…. The rest of the picture is an artist’s view of how the rest of the universe is arranged, and each of the tiny little dots you see are galaxies, or galactic clusters, each one with millions of stars of their own….

Whew! Makes one get a feeling for the perspective of the BIG picture, and, the relative microscopic size of just our galaxy, in which our star, Sol, is but one of hundreds of millions of other stars, a great many larger, and brighter than our own…. We, as humans on the face of this planet, around that star, are, in comparison, many times smaller than viruses seem to be here on Earth… so small, we would rival molecules for tininess…. I mean, in relation to the whole universe, our mere existence, our oh-so-powerful civilization, and all its works, is but a nanosecond’s worth of a blink in history, and, just an insignificant afterthought to the apparently infinite nature of time, and space….

Kinda gets ya, right here, doesn’t it? I know it makes me get a grip, whenever I start to feel like I’m some sort of hot shit… I can only wish that more people, all of whom happen to….. wear blue suits, white shirts, red ties, a flag pin, spend too much time indoors, worry incessantly about their “image”, and make entirely too much money for doing not very much…. well, I wish they would have the same sort of reaction as I do, when confronted with such undeniable evidence of our insignificance in the Real World, and how “entitled” we should feel to call ourselves the “Lords of Creation”, when we are far less important in the scheme of things than we would like to be, and so far less than we THINK we are, it is silly to contemplate at all….

Maybe, just maybe, if they could cram their egos in a smaller container, and get rid of some of that smarmy sense of their own infallibility, they’d start to have a bit more care about how they act, and think…. Of course, history, even our very short one, has already given me ample evidence that no such thing will happen, nor will anyone to whom I refer ever respond to such information with anything other than instant, intractable denial…. Count on it….

Oops…. did it again, didn’t I? Turned a nice, simple picture, and a short lesson on astronomy, into a mini-rant, once again flipping the intro section ass over tea kettle, and causing the Gentle Reader to, no doubt, reach for the aspirin bottle…. Honest, when I started, I had no intention of firing off those shots; they just sort of went off on their own, before I even noticed what my fingers were doing…. That can happen this early in the morning, especially when it is the afternoon before….

If you caught that, you’re a better man than I, Gunga Din…. Not really, but, you do have a sharp eye, and a ready mind, which is somewhat gratifying. It means that someone is reading who has been here before, and knows enough to keep their wits about them…. I would, however, appreciate it if you didn’t pull my covers, as it is one of my best new devices, a direct result of the Time Lord training I received when I got my Tardis, and, I still haven’t even finished opening the rest of the new stuff they sent…. So, just chuckle softly to yourself, and let us get on down the road to the next item, which could, conceivably change the course of that history we are so familiar with, into a new, and better time-line…. if we get lucky, I’d say….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“HEY! There IS something more important than money…..it’s called breathing.” — Smart Bee

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

I had some time on my hands, but, wasn’t feeling strong enough to kill it quickly well enough to go surf, so, I did my dance with Smart Bee, getting lucky enough to come up with the following seven-star pearl, which hands out some damn fine advice, as well as some solidly useful thoughts on how to live, so well, so powerfully free, even Death weeps when you are done with Life….

” … you see, God — whatever anyone chooses to call God — is one’s highest conception of the highest possible.  And whoever places his highest conception above his own possibility thinks very little of himself and his life.  It’s a rare gift, you know, to feel reverence for your own life and to want the best, the greatest, the highest possible, here, now, for your very own.  To imagine a heaven and then not to dream of it, but to demand it.” — Kira Argounova

“All people smile in the same language.” — Smart Bee

“One who is to enjoy the purity of both body and mind walks the path to enlightenment, breaking the net of selfish, impure thoughts and evil desires. He who is calm in mind acquires peacefulness and thus is able to cultivate his mind day and night with more diligence.” — Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

“Life is best done awake.” — Smart Bee

“Therefore, be ye lamps unto yourselves, be a refuge to yourselves. Hold fast to Truth as a lamp; hold fast to the truth as a refuge. Look not for a refuge in anyone beside yourselves. And those, who shall be a lamp unto themselves, shall betake themselves to no external refuge, but holding fast to the Truth as their lamp, and holding fast to the Truth as their refuge, they shall reach the topmost height.” — Buddha

“Have the courage to live. Anyone can die.” — Robert Cody

“It is better to deserve honours and not have them than to have them and not to deserve them.” — Mark Twain

Though the concept it expresses is true as the day, I am compelled to comment after the last quote; can’t help myself sometimes…. Mark Twain, aka Sammie the C, definitely had a talent for the turn of a phrase, and, I’ve see him given credit for this one many times…. while every time, smiling and chuckling to myself, because I’ve also noted that this quote is a shameless paraphrasing of a quote by Plutarch…. and, Aristotle…. and, I believe, if I’m not mistaken, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, also had a word on this, that was very similar to the others…. but, then, Mark T was pretty shameless about all of his plagiarisms, usually recounting them in the preface, or in the introductions to his works….

Since all of them are men, it was probably Sappho, a woman poet, who pre-dated ALL of these men, who originally made the observation on the nature of honor, and humility…. That would be typical, and consistent with how men have treated women since the dawn of time…. even going so far, when making up the myths of creation so many of them seem to hold so dear, regarding that old saw about the Garden, and God, Adam, and, Eve, the poor fall guy, who had to take the rap, even though she was set up by God, and snitched out by Adam….

I find it telling, and typical, that the woman, representing ALL women, is made into the villain of the story, the one with the weak will, and the lack of honor…. when, to my way of thinking, (which I’ve thought since the age of four, after first hearing the story….) God was the one at fault, for setting up the system so both Eve, and Adam, had no other options, but to fail…. and, in the process, serving Eve up, as the one to bear the guilt of “original sin”…. Plus, you will note, please…. The very term, “original sin” is agreed to refer to taking a bite from the fruit of the tree of knowledge…. in other words, for thinking independently…. This is the concept, and the reality, religion tries to eliminate from the people who follow their line of reasoning…

And, that, too, is pretty telling, isn’t it? Things haven’t changed much since then, as far as I can see…. The churches don’t want us to think, so that the government can lie to us more easily, to convince us they are telling us the truth, when they actually are merely carrying on the traditions present in our culture from the inception of the whole idea of a supernatural power as being responsible for all that is real, a scam, to control the general public, with threats of hell, and promises of heaven, in the next life, if only they will submit to giving up their free will… Quite a bargain, you would think….. unless, of course, one actually knows how to think….

Just sayin’…..

gigoid has spoken…. so be it…..

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It is well known that I’m a wimp; since my PTSD reached a point where, mostly, it is under my control, the only real symptom I experience is that of bursting into tears at the slightest provocation…. Hallmark commercials, little kids hugging, or hugs of any kind, or any sort of emotionally touching issue will bring me to tears, without any say in whether or not I WISH to cry right then…. Whenever my old dog, Noah, comes to mind is one of those occasions, so I try to avoid stepping into such situations….

I had forgotten this poem, which, upon stumbling across it while looking for a specific piece of Pope’s Essay on Man, brought me instantly to the point of weeping…. and, has kept me weeping for this entire paragraph, in spite of not having anything wrong, with me, or with the universe at large…. SIGH…. I don’t mind being a romantic, but, sometimes, I wish I wasn’t such a wimp about it…. It IS a great poem, though, so, please, don’t mind all the salty water on the screen, (try not to weep yourself, at the last line, I DARE you!….) and, enjoy!….

Argus

When wise Ulysses, from his native coast
Long kept by wars, and long by tempests toss’d,
Arrived at last, poor, old, disguised, alone,
To all his friends, and ev’n his Queen unknown,
Changed as he was, with age, and toils, and cares,
Furrow’d his rev’rend face, and white his hairs,
In his own palace forc’d to ask his bread,
Scorn’d by those slaves his former bounty fed,
Forgot of all his own domestic crew,
The faithful Dog alone his rightful master knew!

Unfed, unhous’d, neglected, on the clay
Like an old servant now cashier’d, he lay;
Touch’d with resentment of ungrateful man,
And longing to behold his ancient lord again.
Him when he saw he rose, and crawl’d to meet,
(‘Twas all he could) and fawn’d and kiss’d his feet,
Seiz’d with dumb joy; then falling by his side,
Own’d his returning lord, look’d up, and died!

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

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I came across the following pearl, from 2011, not long after beginning to post on WordPress…. In those days, what you see below was an entire Pearl, but, today, with our new, improved format, it is an acceptable pearl for one section…. You should thank me for this…. it’s pretty funny, in spots, and, bonus, it ISN’T a rant….

😉

From 8/30/2011:

Ffolkes,

It may be harsh, but it must be said….Ben Franklin was a sanctimonious ass, and I mean that in its’ basest, most derogatory sense. Who else but an ass would say things like “Early to bed and early to rise,  make a man, etc….” or “The early bird gets the worm”?  As one of my favorite sci-fi authors, Bob Heinlein, said, approximately, “…. all the aphorism about the worm proves is that the worm should have stayed in bed.” And, early to bed, etc., is fine for those who fall asleep instantly, from having the benefit of no worldly problems, (or, like our friend Ben, no conscience…. Have you ever read about his love life?…. By what I could tell, from what I read, he was, quite simply, a lout, and a cur…. and, that’s being nice….); those who, once asleep, are able to remain asleep throughout the night, probably due to having no imagination, to speak of….

I’m 60 years old, and I can’t remember the last time I could count on falling asleep easily, without first consuming a significant amount of my adult beverage of choice, or, staying asleep for more than a couple of hours, before some one of several available physical prompts has me up and heading off to the bathroom, or just laying in bed, aching, wondering how long it will be until morning. As far as I’m concerned, Poor Richard can take his little Almanac, and his advice, and place them forcibly in one of his orifices, preferably, one where the sun don’t shine…..  just as it is NOT shining,  here in my little hole, at 0530, as I sit to compose this, having once more awakened at 0515 for no apparent reason.

Wise man, my dying ass…..

I dove for these Pearls yesterday as I was in the throes of extra-pyramidal side effects, due entirely to the asinine ordering requirements dictated by Kaiser Permanente for dealing with a controlled drug, an opiate. Thanks to those obscene regulations, I have spent much of the last three days with dyskinesia, malaise,  and an intermittent, splitting headache, just for good measure.

In case you are not a former PT, dyskinesia is that condition of muscular and nervous agitation that makes one’s muscles twitch and dance, constantly, combined with a feeling of restless dread, and diffuse anxiety, that makes the nerves hum like a redneck with a kazoo. Add in the headache, (of the ilk that blurs the vision, causing strong men to whimper, piteously), and, well, you can imagine how difficult it is, to not only refrain from biting myself, but to refrain from biting anyone who crosses my path.

All this, of course, is then complicated by trying to deal with people who have become bureaucrats, who have no conception of anything outside their own little sphere of inattention, and whose sole purpose is to keep anything from getting done. It’s enough to give one visions of mayhem and violent death for all bureaucrats, preferably by my own hand.

(Note from 2014; This is still true for me…. Does anyone else get mental images of the Russian revolution, as a film noir battle scene, in full color, though, filmed in Red Square showing huge mobs of starving peasants with scythes, Molotov cocktails, and rocks, attacking Imperial police, or in front of one of the Russian Imperial palaces, lit up by flames, with aristocrats screaming, smoke everywhere, explosions…. all playing in your(my) head, whenever they use the word “bureaucrat”? Is it just me who visualizes themselves as if in that movie, with a machine gun, firing away at a huddling, terrified group of clerks at a local federal office, or do others NOT get this kind of response, just thinking about those stultified cretins? Just wondered….)

Sorry about the above rant……well, actually, I’m not. I could actually care less right now what anyone thinks, about anything. Nonetheless, I do think that the following Pearls will strike some good chords in many folks, and even more in those ffolkes who are familiar with this process, and how it provides some fine rules for life, or at least for looking at life in a different way. Regardless, they are what they are, and I hope you enjoy them…..much as I can hope anything at all……

“I sometimes think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a, star to steer her by,
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a gray mist on the sea’s face and a gray dawn breaking.

— John Masefield, Sea Fever, first stanza.

Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow but a vision.  But Today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore to this Day. — Sanskrit proverb (I like this one a lot; it covers a lot of bases….)

“It’s not denial. I’m just very selective about what I accept as reality.” — Calvin (“Calvin and Hobbes”) (Calvin is actually a sociopathic idiot, but Hobbes, I firmly believe, will someday be considered one of the 20th and 21st centuries’ most cogent philosophers….)

“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth, more than ruin, more even than death….Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967), “Selected Papers”

“So live that you can look any man in the eye and tell him to go to hell.” — Smart Bee

Well, there you have it. That’s the best I can do, under the circumstances that currently prevail. My greatest desire just now is that tomorrow will be different, if only I can survive until then without committing any acts that would land me in jail. Wish me luck…..and, y’all take care out there……

Again from the future…. Not too bad, eh? It showed some promise, which I’ve since seen evolve into something I can be happy with…. I’m still around to create them, so, I guess that makes it all worthwhile…. For me, anyway, and, hopefully, for y’all, too….

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

It’s probably a good thing I got up late today; indeed, it’s just as well today’s Pearl was mostly done by last night, with only a poem to find today to finish up…. I say that because it’s true…. but, if I got into the reasons for it, it would be both TMI, and ill-conceived egotism, so, we’ll just leave it at that, and y’all can consider yourselves fortunate….

Besides, I’m done for the day now, so I can go on to my next task, to wit: surviving one day, until my portion of the dole, which I set aside for my golden years, arrives at my bank, from wherever our Beloved Ruling Class keeps the money they are “protecting” for us…. It’s also too late to start ranting, so, I’ll just say, “see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes”, & make my way to the door, with a big smile on my face…. Okay, so, it’s a grimace…. grimace fits better, anyway, right now….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Kowabunga!

 

All those attending the apocalypse, board here….

Posted on by
3

Ffolkes,

“It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won’t go.”

~~ Bertrand Russell ~~

9-1-2014 005

    What vivid, beautiful morning glories! (Well, I THINK they’re morning glories; if not, can a gardener tell me what they are? I’m clueless about plant ID’s….) I’m happy with this shot, simple as it is, because of the colors that came through in the final result…. gorgeous plant, it was, and the only pictures I managed to get on that walk, were of it, and its flowers…. Out of the four or six shots I took, (shaky hands, couldn’t get one centered…. I was on my way to the magic cream shop, in dire need of their products….), this one, and a study of the whole plant, which was in a yard next to a store, were lovely enough to use for today, and tomorrow’s Pearl…. sufficient reward for the misery I had to endure to get to the store….

And, you are NOT going to believe this one…. Last night, I slept (yes, slept… Me, gigoid, sleeping….  quite a concept, eh?) for ten hours, straight and solid, with only two awakenings, to take the scheduled opiate…. I feel GREAT! (Well, I’m discounting the hips and shoulder, which are in their standard state, but, a bit of the ol’ magical topical cream, and I’m good to go…. You may have already noticed how my mood is at a level of, oh, I’d say, a good three steps from usual…. I really don’t know what to do with it; I haven’t suffered this much ‘good will toward men’ in ages…. Maybe I should go out tonight, & try my luck at meeting somebody new…. Nah, I’ll just enjoy the glow….

Besides, by 10 AM, if the world’s routine hasn’t altered significantly, my arthritis should be kicking in, and I’ll be back to the steeplechase, running as slowly as I can, chasing after the pain, trying to knock it down far enough to stop, if nothing else, the whimpering, which tend to embarrass me, even though nobody can hear me when I cry out…. SIGH…. It’s been a tough week, if you couldn’t tell….

Enough whining, though, I feel too good to be pessimistic about how long it will last… I’ll just take advantage of the moment, and enjoy feeling relatively normal, at least for a while…. Plus, look, it gave me enough to fill in this space, which means we can use one of the emergency release mechanisms we have in place, to get us out of here, and onward into the rest of today’s mess, er, missive… Whattyathink, eh? Shall we use #4? It IS sitting right there, ready…. Okay, we’ll do that….

Shall we Pearl?

” — I’d love to, but…  I have to study for a blood test.” — 79 of 101 Easy Ways To Say NO

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

“Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.” — Nietzsche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”

I’ve been writing a lot recently on this subject; one reason makes itself obvious today, or, more accurately, was demonstrated yesterday, as several stories in the news caught my attention, stories that demonstrate the ubiquitous seriousness of the issue, that of the militarization of the police, with the concomitant result, and motivating factor, of the elimination of the basic rights as covered in the original US Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution…. If you think, even for a moment, that you have all those rights by law, in today’s world, then, ffolkes, and, folks….. y’all just aren’t paying close enough attention to what is happening, right in front of you….

In support of that obviously arguable contention, I offer the following discussion, with two appropriate expressions as a preface:

“No sheath shall hold what finds its home in flesh.” — Proverb

“The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Measure for Measure — Act ii, Sc. 2

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Fast-food-protests-expected-in-push-for-higher-pay-5732532.php

Oh…. I get it now…. We, the citizens, are now allowed to protest, without fear of arrest by overzealous police forces, UNLESS we are “disruptive to traffic”, or refrain from “blocking streets”, as a way to express our grievances, to petition the government for redress of those grievances… Sounds to me like the same line of reasoning used by the large communication companies, such as Verizon, or AT&T, (as well as just about ALL companies these days…. they all saw how well it worked for the big guys, & jumped right on that wagon…), who make it impossible to even SPEAK to an actual live person, to try to address any issues of customer service….

They all say their primary goal is customer satisfaction, or, in the case of the police, the protection of the rights of the public, but, have arranged matters (i.e., passed laws…) that enable them to refuse to speak, or listen to anyone who wishes to obtain any such thing…. Same same attitude, in my book…. They don’t want to talk to us, and they don’t want to listen to any complaints about that, or about anything else…. so, they’ve made it damn near impossible to exercise the right we were allegedly guaranteed by the sacrifices of our ancestors….

“The simple rights, the civil liberties from generations of struggle must not be just fine words for patriotic holidays, words we subvert on weekdays, but living, honored rules of conduct amongst us…I’m glad the American Civil Liberties Union gets indignant, and I hope this will always be so.” — Senator Adlai E. Stevenson

(Obviously, by the evidence of this, and other quotes from the good Senator, and, because I was around to watch the rest of the established incumbent politicians of the era, who were, ostensibly, his peers, deliberately and ruthlessly destroy his credibility, and his reputation, with lies, innuendo, and political skulduggery, thus effectively shutting him up, and preventing him from causing any real harm to them, or their incumbency, it’s clear, to me, and to many others, Adlai was one of the rare exceptions to the established rule….)

http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2014/09/03/black-oakland-firefighter-says-white-cop-held-him-at-gunpoint/?cmpid=hp-hc-bayarea

According to this one, the officer involved was acting “within policy”…. So, by that standard, it’s okay, policy-wise, to profile, to NOT call for backup, to use intimidation as a method of controlling a situation, and to assume that the officer saying, “Sorry” for being a total asshole, is sufficient reason to ‘overlook’ his behavior from the police’s obviously expert, objective viewpoint….. Right…..

“If our behavior is strict, we do not need fun!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Doesn’t this bother anyone else, but me? Why is it okay for the police to act like this, without any consequences at all for the officer involved, and the department that encourages this sort of asininity? Can ANYONE explain this to me, any way at all? I’m pretty smart, and will be able to understand just about anything that makes any sense, from any objective standpoint, based on a full understanding of the intent of the founders of the Constitution when they created that document, and a pretty extensive knowledge of human nature, so, any sort of evidence will do….

“Pluck out the heart of my mystery.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act iii, Sc. 2

I’m willing to bet, some serious money, that there is no one who will, or can, respond to those questions, at least, not in any way that will lessen the responsibility for immoral, unethical, and illegal actions of the policeman, and the department that echoes the WRONG attitudes of almost every other force in this country, and all over the world…. I say this because I’ve looked for any such evidence, already, many times, and have yet to find anything to alter the way I look at it, not by the analysis of the available FACTUAL evidence….

Ever since the middle of the nineteenth century, the government of this country, (and, by that, I am including all three branches, which are supposed to balance each other’s powers, thereby protecting us, the People….) has been under the influence and control of corporate interests, which translates as the monied elite, who have, and will protect viciously, all the “legal” rights they now possess, rights to the control of almost ALL the resources available to society…. With this influence, hard-won by the bribing of a major Federal Court judge in the mid-1800’s, some legal rulings were made, rulings that defined corporations as “persons”, with the legal rights of a person, and, more, providing a legal precedent for future flunkies, er, judges to fall back on….

PRECEDENT, n.  In Law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, in the absence of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority a Judge may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task of doing as he pleases.  As there are precedents for everything, he has only to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuate those in the line of his desire.  Invention of the precedent elevates the trial-at-law from the low estate of a fortuitous ordeal to the noble attitude of a dirigible arbitrament.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

This opened the door to other rulings, all of which, over the years, based on the original decision, and, all of which, essentially, give more and more of the rights we flesh and blood citizens have to those “corporate persons”, such that, now, corporations not only have MORE rights than any single citizen, composed of mere flesh and blood, but, have extended their control, using the same basic method of bribery, to the other two branches….. They did so in Congress, by convincing that august body to vote itself the right to make laws that were separate from those that were Constitutional, thereby making them not subject to the same restrictions that now define that document…. In other words, they voted themselves the keys to the treasury….

(Some time, if you get a chance, check out the health plan that the members of Congress, and other Federal government elected officials, are set up with when they get elected, along with their retirement plans…. You will be shocked at what they have given themselves over the years, all without even notifying any of the public what was going on…. Most of the American public is not even AWARE that a member of Congress, when they leave that august body, get to keep their health plan (much better than any available to the public, more extensive coverage, and free of any out of pocket cost to them….), AND their congressional salary, now in the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS range….. FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES….. even if only elected to one term…. Pretty good deal they’ve handed themselves, eh, what?….. If you are ANYTHING like me, it will convince you to go buy a gun, and to use it…..)

The Executive Branch, while attempting to maintain the appearance of independence and proper assumption of its Constitutional duty, fell in with those same shadowy corporate snakeheads on Wall Street, and came up with the simple concept of “Executive privilege”, giving themselves the power to make laws, bypassing Congress, and, thus, the people, altogether…. Cute, eh? And, clever, too, for making it all seem as if the White House, Congress, and the Courts, were, and are, all doing their jobs, providing balance to the powers of government…. when, in fact, the people of this country have NO ONE representing their interests, in any level, in any branch of our government….

There are 455 very rich, white men, (with a very few exceptions to that particular description….) who determine the course of life in this country…. add it up yourself. Their average income is over a million dollars…. the average, mind you… Many of them are multi-millionaires, many times over…. What do they know of the lives of the common man? How can anyone believe they would have the same set of interests to pursue, or that the agendas they hold are, in ANY way, concerned with making things better for anyone but themselves….

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” — Mark Twain

As I said, there are a very few exceptions, who, basically, are powerless to change any part of the big picture…. too much money, power, and inertia working against them… Plus, every one of those at that level, who accidentally make it to the national stage, and are those who would work for the people, sincerely and honestly, are always isolated by the rest, to make them completely ineffective…. witness the only moral president of the last century, Jimmy Carter…. from the current crop of Congressmen with any honor at all, I’d say Al Franken comes closest, and he is under massive political assault, by the Republican Party, the Tea Party, AND the Koch Brother’s Super PAC, Citizens United….)

Ah yes, Citizens United…. that famous Supreme Court decision, which makes my contention, about the bought-and-paid for servile indenturing of the Supreme Court, not so very hard to believe, giving, as it did, the very clear message the Court’s belief in the sacred status of corporate personhood, and the inviolability of corporations to do whatever they must to protect and preserve their bottom line, which is the profit they make on all the predatory hoarding of resources, and the control that gives them over society and culture at large…. Anything at all that interferes with smooth flow of money into their coffers is not to be allowed….

There is a bill now in the Senate, awaiting a vote, that, if passed, will do away with the decision by the Court re: corporate donations to political campaigns; it is a Constitutional Amendment, which was the ONLY way to stop the decision from becoming the law of the land. It will prevent the corporations from having completely unlimited power to influence elections, by removing the restrictions they, as corporate persons, to political campaigns, effectively halting the formation and continued existence of Super-PAC’s, such as Citizens United….

You know, the one owned by the Koch brothers, ultra-conservative billionaires, with a sense of entitlement you have to see to believe…. incredible assholes, both of them…. Sorry, just can’t stand people like that, who have no compassion or “fellow-feeling”; in my estimation, they do not deserve to be called human, and, to be honest, I consider them to be a total waste of sperm….

This government, as it now exists, has NOTHING to do with the Constitution that allegedly forms the basis for its existence…. Almost every statement in the Constitution, especially in the amendments that make up the Bill of Rights, is no longer in force, essentially, and we can no longer count those rights as anything but a memory….

The experiment in government started by our founding fathers, who wanted a government that would protect and support the people, not oppress them, as every other government in history has done to its citizenry; once in power, every human being alive seems to fall prey to the urge to put aside all of their compassion, all of their integrity, and all their altruism, whereupon, they begin to make changes, that will ultimately server their ends, which are ONLY concerned with meeting their own needs, not those of the people…. It has happened EVERY TIME….

I challenge ANYONE to find an example, anywhere in the past 5000 years, of a government that demonstrated any appreciable degree of care for the people, ahead of what was important to the ruling class…. Just one will do, because even that will provide hope that it can be done….  but, I’m a pretty well-read guy, and I can’t think, or remember, any government in history who were considered to be any such thing as “compassionate” or that actually made life better for its citizenry….

As one of the Shrubs said one time, “Bring it on….”

I think that’s all…. I cant, at this point, think of anything more to add to this discussion, so, why don’t we give it up now, and move on….

“Sorry, my mind was on edible underwear today.” — Smart Bee, providing gigoid with an excuse for the above….

Whoops! How’d that get in here? Oh, I remember…. After the somber sobriety of the above politirant, I went to look for an appropriate pearl to close with, whereupon I found this, & couldn’t resist…. Okay, here is a proper thought with which to end this piece….

“May you have eyes like a hawk and a spouse with warts.” — Smart Bee, being a smart ass….

Sorry, I’m  not taking the rap for that one; it’s on SB…. It just showed up when I pasted the right pearl, I THOUGHT…. THIS is the proper ending I was looking for, when I was so rudely interrupted, by a bloody database!……

“A conqueror is always a lover of peace.” — Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)

~~ from “On war”; copied by Lenin in his notebook, with notation, “Ah, Ah, witty”. ~~

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

Whew! Good thing the first half of that rant was already done, or I’d have been there forever this morning…. After that, I need something to cheer me up a little bit…. no, make that a LOT…. I know…. In this mood, some pure, cold, clean, powerful brilliance is just the ticket…. Since none of mine quite fit that bill, this one will do just fine….

Witch Burning

In the marketplace they are piling the dry sticks.
A thicket of shadows is a poor coat. I inhabit
The wax image of myself, a doll’s body.
Sickness begins here: I am the dartboard for witches.
Only the devil can eat the devil out.
In the month of red leaves I climb to a bed of fire.

It is easy to blame the dark: the mouth of a door,
The cellar’s belly. They’ve blown my sparkler out.
A black-sharded lady keeps me in parrot cage.
What large eyes the dead have!
I am intimate with a hairy spirit.
Smoke wheels from the beak of this empty jar.

If I am a little one, I can do no harm.
If I don’t move about, I’ll knock nothing over. So I said,
Sitting under a potlid, tiny and inert as a rice grain.
They are turning the burners up, ring after ring.
We are full of starch, my small white fellows. We grow.
It hurts at first. The red tongues will teach the truth.

Mother of beetles, only unclench your hand:
I’ll fly through the candle’s mouth like a singeless moth.
Give me back my shape. I am ready to construe the days
I coupled with dust in the shadow of a stone.
My ankles brighten. Brightness ascends my thighs.
I am lost, I am lost, in the robes of all this light.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

“Poetry is the eloquence of truth.” — Joseph Campbell


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

Boy…. reading Sylvia is certainly a roller-coaster of an experience, isn’t it? I feel lots better now; all the lingering dregs of angst and resentment at the shenanigans of the BRC, and the rest of the asininnies,  have departed, forthwith, leaving me relatively normal, in re: all-around feelings of contentment with life…. Since I’m 63 years old, I know that won’t last forever, or even very long, so, I’m intent on enjoying every minute of it….

Do be, do be, doo….

Okay, that’s enough normal for me…. I’m going to do what I do, which is put together a fresh, random harlequin style pearl, with parameters set at the extreme end of SILLY, right smack up against the backside of INSANITY…. Should be fun!…. Let’s go annoy Smart Bee for a while, okay? Okay! Let’s go!….

“It is a mistake to think of all demons as being exactly alike. Some are short while others are tall; some are yellow, others are blue; some are nasty and others are extremely nasty. Some of the nastiest are quite fast as well. Should you encounter one of these, it is a mistake to think at all. Much more appropriate are such responses as running, screaming, and the very rapid formation of a last will and testament.” — The Teachings of Ebenezum, Vol. IX

“Reality does not exist – yet.” — Smart Bee

“If I kiss you, that is a psychological interaction.  On the other hand, if I hit you over the head with a brick, that is also a psychological interaction. The difference is that one is friendly and the other is not so friendly. The crucial point is if you can tell which is which.” — Dolph Sharp, I’m O.K., You’re Not So Hot

“Being normal is driving me crazy.” — Smart Bee (who obviously was listening all those times gigoid was talking to himself…. he thought….)

“The mind is everything,” wrote Proust. No doubt true, when you’re dead from the neck down.” — Edward Abbey

“Fear always springs from ignorance.” — Smart Bee, and, the Bhagavad Gita, paraphrased

“For I never have seen, and never shall see, that the cessation of the evidence of existence is necessarily evidence of the cessation of existence.” — De Morgan (1839-1917)

— Bother! said Pooh,as he rolled over into the wet spot.

(Oops, sorry, that was supposed to go somewhere else…. oh, well, we’re on fun mode, so, I’ll let it stay….)

“The only very marked difference between the average civilized man and the average savage is that the one is gilded and the other is painted.” — Mark Twain

“Before you criticize people, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’ve got a mile-long head start. And you have their shoes.” — The Lion

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.” — ee cummings

“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” — Henry David Thoreau

When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit,
‘Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet;
Nor ever ever shall, until that I die,
For the longer I live the more fool am I.

 — “Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy” (1684)

Okay…. I know, I went a bit overboard, again; chalk it up to having so much energy, after my marathon sleep last night…. Bonus: You have, and I have, without realizing it, witnessed the creation of the very first 13-star pearl…. I have no clue as to how it happened, other than forgetting where I was while collecting…. The clipboard appends each quote, but, doesn’t allow me to look at it, to count, before pasting… It doesn’t matter, at all, really, because, in this case, it worked, just fine, which is a word we could easily use to describe this pearl… Without getting overly wordy, or overly long, these 13 ideas present us with some fine entertainment, and a few pokes in the conscience, as well as a good portion of silliness… I like it….

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

So much for serendipity and planning…. In spite of the sleep, and, in spite of the plan my unseasonably clear mind came up with this morning, I’m running a little late…. this, even though over half the rant was already done… But, when I sat to go over it, it just got me going again…. Then, the long pearl in section three got going…. Happily, it’s done, and I’m not going to fuss with it…. I will see y’all tomorrow, with who knows what new and exciting ideas, given an entire day of relative clear-mindedness? Not me, certainly, though I’ve got as much chance as anyone of guessing…. But, where would be the fun in that?…. Bye, for now….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Kowabunga!