Tag Archives: Alexander Pope

They want that oil FULLY hydrogenated….

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Ffolkes,

Thanks to the Word Press bot monkeys, who blithely collect and display all of our site stats, posting them where we can see them, if we are brave enough, I know that there were a total of four views of my blog yesterday…. That’s pathetic, even though the people who DID come by are not …. I know them both… the other two visits were from me, as I checked the site during the day…..

People, not even folks, much less ffolkes, but, people at large, are, as I’ve heard said so elegantly, “staying away in droves”, and I’m pretty sure I know why…. It’s the subject matter, and the ranting, that is making it hard for people to get into my writing, I think…. I tend to rant a lot, and my subject matter, while sometimes of interest to all, more often probably just gets old…..

Since it’s been around forever, I can’t see the poetry I include as the most likely cause for the absence of readers…. and, the old-school pearls, while perhaps obscure at times, generally have enough good quotes in them to make them worthwhile to read…. as well as more often containing a modicum of humor…. Levity always plays better than angst…. They’re shorter, too, as a rule…

That leaves the ranting as the major reason people might avoid reading this material…. It’s generally longer than most folks want to read, and I do tend to get a bit vitriolic, I know, in describing some of the public figures that many people admire…. This may tend to cause some ire, as well, because, as I’m aware of, people don’t like to have their icons attacked, especially in ways that show them to be less than admirable people, thus taking away some of the shine that goes with being one of their admirers…..

To this handicap, add also that I tend to repeat my subject matter frequently, according to whatever articles in the news have arisen to stimulate one of my outbursts of outrage…. Considering these factors, one can see why many people might get tired of reading about the same old stuff, even if the insults are fresh, and my complaints are, at minimum, justifiable only in my own eyes… In addition, the mere fact of the truth of what I may say doesn’t seem to matter to some folks, as they don’t want to hear it anyway…. Them, I don’t really give much of a shit about, since they’re already dead, in regards their ability to reason….

But, the people who do come by who NEED to see what I write aren’t going to stay long, once they’ve been exposed to my style of expressing my outrage, as I tend to be rather forceful in my insults of a number of conservative, and liberal, iconic heroes, who, to me, are all the more villainous for their apparent harmlessness…. Their image as smart, caring individuals, with the interests of the common man at the forefront of their concerns, (which is what they WANT folks to believe about them….), gets punctured rather quickly around here, and their avaricious, self-serving, dishonest NASTINESS is exposed, by unassailable evidence (often out of their own mouths….), to show them as the selfish assholes they really are, behind the smarmy smiles, and mouths full of lies….

Ah well…. As I’ve said before, I write this mostly for my own benefit…. If I leave all this angst-filled frustration inside my head, it rots, or percolates into a mishmash of thoughts and ideas that would make anyone ill….. Instead, I write, & get all of it off my chest, into the public marketplace of ideas, the human cloud of common experience, if you will, where there is at least a small chance that someone will see it, & be thereby inspired to think…. It’s a bit frustrating at times, to know that so few are seeing it, especially since I KNOW FOR A FACT there are MILLIONS of ignorant fools out there who NEED to see the information I share every day….

But, I can live with the frustration, because I know that getting this OUT of my head is doing me more good than I could ever get from psychotherapy, or from trying to live the lie so many people fall for…. I know THAT for a FACT….. So, if folks want to keep ignoring what I write, that’s okay…. Maybe a few more of the over 440 ffolkes who signed up to follow my blog will stop in to read, be inspired, and share it around the web…. If even a few people see my words, it could conceivably make a small difference…. and, in the final analysis, isn’t that what we all want?….

Shall we Pearl?

“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.” — Max Planck, 1858-1947

“And waste their music on the savage race.” — Edward Young (1684-1765) — Love of Fame, Satire v, Line 228
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As is often the case, you’ll need to at least skim these articles to get the full effect of the following material…. Don’t worry, I’ll wait….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/medical/article/Arkansas-court-tosses-1-2B-judgment-against-J-J-5334330.php

http://www.sfgate.com/raiders/article/Feds-end-Raiderette-wage-probe-with-no-action-5332287.php

P. What riches give us let us then inquire: Meat, fire, and clothes.
B. What more?
P. Meat, fine clothes, and fire.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Moral Essays, Epistle iii, Line 79

Is there any doubt left, in anyone’s mind, that in this country, if not the entire world, the courts, and the federal government in general, are completely under the control and influence of corporate entities? There is none left in mine, let me assure you, not a dram, nor even a drop….. The links above lead to articles of note on the subject, both of which are merely the reports of two more instances of corporate influence on legislation, just a small piece of a long list of occasions throughout history, where the corporate interests of a large company were protected by a court decision, or, as in the second case, by federal lawyers (?….!!!) from the Attorney General’s office of investigation…. What a crock!

In the case of the Raiders cheerleaders vs. the NFL bullies, what do you want to wager that the law, regarding “seasonal” businesses being “exempt” from the laws the rest of us must follow, was already very familiar to the company before drawing up the contracts for anyone they might hire, such as the cheerleaders, thus saving themselves, literally, hundreds of millions of dollars in operating expenses, from not having to pay for such operational items as oh, say, a living wage for the people who work for the company? (By a living wage, I refer to an amount of money earned that one could actually LIVE on, not what some shark of a CEO thinks is “reasonable”, an amount that is generally minuscule, compared to even the minimum wage now in place; thus, it becomes a figure which protects the bottom line….)

Not only was the company probably aware of the law, I would also wager serious money the lobbyists for the NFL in Congress were instrumental in setting the regulations that are part of the law, when the law was first written…. There is no safer way to protect one’s interests than to be able to say what goes into a law that one’s company will have to obey…. Why not write the law the way they want it in the first place?…. It’s a simple matter of paying ONE, or perhaps a few corrupt politicians in the present, thus saving millions of dollars of future costs….. This, of course, enables the corporation to pocket those millions, since all that money won’t be going to the cheerleaders, or back to the consumers…

As for the J&J decision, well, I guess that one got fixed way back in the mid-eighteen hundreds, when corporations were awarded their “personhood”…. In this case, that protects them from being confused with a “medical facility”, you see, thus making them, once again, “exempt” from any of the laws pertaining to what they actually do as a business…. They are free to do pretty much whatever they want, as long as they remember to set aside enough of what they’ve stolen to pay their lawyers, and the occasional congress person, or judge…. Easy money, from where they’re sitting, wouldn’t you say?…..

(Note: after finishing, a thought…. How many of the lawyers involved in all of the cases in the two articles went to the same law school? Bet it’s more than just a couple…. Between the judges, & their lackeys, lawyers on both sides of the issues, and the politicians, who are what lawyers become after they leave the larval stage, I’d bet one could find a LOT of collusive interactions from past involvements by the players…. but, who’s going to notice, or question that sort of thing, besides ffolkes like me?….)

I began this rant yesterday, when I first read the two articles…. Actually, it only took the first one to piss me off; the second article just made the rant imperative, while adding more fuel to my outrage…. The NFL corporation(s) (along with other massive conglomerates of assholes who exploit games theory, such as the NCAA, the NBA, the NHL, the NTA, and MLB, WBF, WWF, just to name some of those in THIS country…. In the rest of the world, think Rugby, Cricket, Soccer/Futbol, tennis, etc…. Oh, right, and some for the richest gamesmen, sailing races…. Think, literally (look it up…. I did….) billions upon billions of dollars of income from EACH sport, for EACH of those corporations, EACH year….. not counting TV income….) has to be one of the most egregious examples in modern society of how corrupt our government has become, and how that corruption extends into all reaches of Society At Large….

Here is a corporation whose sole purpose is to provide the public with a whole range of time- and money-consuming activities/pastimes that involve the participation and, more importantly, the focus, attention, and MONEY, of literally hundreds of millions of fools, who are thus kept from using a large part of their brain for thinking…. Of course, these are the brains occupying the middle and lower end of the human bell curve of intelligence, but, hey, there are a LOT of these people out there, who provide the massive inertia that makes society so hard to change…. Why? Because everyone is busy watching a GAME, or betting on a game, or waiting for a game to start…..

In addition, and perhaps more significantly, it encourages those millions of people to spend a large part of their income (and thus, the time and energy spent to obtain that money….) in paying for the ‘privilege’ of watching these GAMES, and to buy any number of otherwise USELESS articles that show how engaged they are in supporting their vicarious heroic icons…. Add to this all the other sports leagues in the world, each one controlled by some VERY RICH assholes with no concern for anyone who can’t do something for them, and we see just one of the numerous ways in which the shadowy corporate masters of society have asserted their control over the ignorant, and the greedy….

Billions and billions of dollars are spent each year by the public, to watch their icons bang into each other, or toss around a ball, or in some way compete in such a way as to arouse the same vicarious feelings in the watchers that they felt when personally engaging in those activities, when they were young…. In short, it’s a drug, which soothes the public mind by allowing them to repeat good feelings as many times as they wish, thereby giving up all their individuality, their time, their money, and all of their self-respect (in my mind….), just so they can be part of a crowd of others, all with the same goal of wasting precious time watching other people PLAY A FUCKING GAME!….

I think, if I was asked to do so, I could come up with at least a dozen other ways to spend all that time and money, any one of which would help the world find its way to a better place than we are in now…. and so could you. Almost anyone could…. But, it will never happen, because the Powers That Be like things just as they are, where they have the control over society to do exactly as they wish, and the major portion of humanity will never even know they are being enslaved…. not as long as the Forty-Niners play on Sunday, or the Giants are in the World Series….

Basta…. Everything I’ve said here is true…. y’all KNOW it is…. All the evidence for all these assertions I’ve made is right there in the headlines of the news, every day, if one is alert enough, and clever enough to see it…. The masters of society have enslaved mankind for over five thousand years now, from shortly after the time they convinced everyone else that money was a better thing to use than barter, (It’s not, for a number of reasons, but, that’s a talk for another time….), while the rest of us have the choice to ignore our enslavement, go along with it, with or without ill-grace, or, to know about it, hate it, & complain, loudly, even eloquently, but, to little or no effect (I’m doubtless guilty of the latter….) (…. guilty of complaining to little effect, not of doing so with eloquence….)

At this point, unless there are enough concerned people to band together to expose this issue, which would doubtlessly prompt everyone else to DO something to stop them (they WON’T stop on their own, count on that…), then, by golly, ffolkes, we’re all going to pay the price for THEIR ignorance, when the planet steps in to cleanse itself of all the crap we’ve thrown around during our short tenancy….. Won’t THAT be fun?…. Well, you’re probably right, it won’t be….

“The truth cannot be tidied up.” — Hugh Prather
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It’s a long rant today, I know…. Sorry, but, that had all been building up a while, & needed to be lanced before it got infected, or festered, as we like to say on colloquial side of the street…. Besides, it’s all true, and needs to be told, so, I’m not going to apologize for doing what I consider to be my duty as a citizen of this country, one who is free, educated, and patriotic, without being blinded by sentiment, or faith-based nonsense.

That being said, I would normally use one of my own poems here, so all of this doesn’t sully the name of some other poet by people’s unfortunate tendency to form associations that aren’t real, merely due to circumstantial presence, rather than any similarity of thought…. But, I decided that I wasn’t going to give in to that sort of ignorance today, because I WANT something good here, and my own stuff can’t necessarily be judged so, not without giving up all objectivity….

So, in order to indulge myself, I’m going with a classic poet, whose reputation is such that mere association with MY work could never adversely affect HIS reputation…. It’s been too long in place, and is too accurate, to ever change…. Society will always admire this man, in spite of himself…. In a race of creatures whose one major claim to fame is that each is a unique individual, this man stands out, and always has…. Enjoy! I intend to do so….

My Voice

Within this restless, hurried, modern world
We took our hearts’ full pleasure–You and I,
And now the white sails of our ship are furled,
And spent the lading of our argosy.

Wherefore my cheeks before their time are wan,
For very weeping is my gladness fled,
Sorrow hath paled my lip’s vermilion,
And Ruin draws the curtains of my bed.

But all this crowded life has been to thee
No more than lyre, or lute, or subtle spell
Of viols, or the music of the sea
That sleeps, a mimic echo, in the shell.

~~ Oscar Wilde ~~

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Oh boy…. I can relax now, and have a bit of fun…. I’ve been so focused this morning, on getting the rant just right, as well as, I admit, making a complete mess of the intro, that I lost track of the fun button, so my blood level is running a bit low….. Since I’m so sober, I’ll try to bring a bit of balance to the Metaphorse, and use a simple, single parameter for the following pearl, to wit: the following quotes have all been determined to display the essence of bozoid tendencies in some fashion, to be determined at the time of consumption…. Enjoy them, please…. if you don’t, I’ve failed, again….

😳

“I think a good gift for the president would be a chocolate revolver.  And since  he’s so busy, you’d probably have to run up to him and hand it to him.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“Ignorance is never out of style.  It was in fashion yesterday, it is the rage today, and it will set the pace tomorrow.” — Franklin K. Dane

Born Again Christian = “I guess I myth’d again.” — Smart Bee

“Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing, right in your ear.” — Dave Barry

— How many Canadians does it take to change a light bulb?  Twelve. Four to form a Parliamentary study committee to decide how to solve the problem, one Francophone to complain that I didn’t translate this joke into French, one Native Canadian to protest that the interests of Native Canadians have been overlooked, one woman from the National Action Committee On the Status Of Women to say that women have been underrepresented in the process, one to go over the border to the Niagara Falls Factory Outlet Mall and buy a new bulb and not pay duty on it on the way back, one to actually screw it in, one to collect taxes on the whole procedure so the government can afford it, one to buy a case of Molson for everybody to drink, and one to drop the puck.” — Smart Bee, eh?

“If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.” — Wittgenstein

“Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 50

Oops! Sorry…. it took a kind of radical turn at the end there, didn’t it? Oh well, it kind of works, and I have a special contract with Marcus Aurelius…. his quotes ALWAYS stay, no matter what the parameters, just because, for being over 1800 years old, they are consistently the most correct, insightful, and relevant statements that can be found…. Seriously, he never seemed to miss, not if it got written down…. and, if you do stop to think about it a little, it even fits into the group it is part of, as a sort of closing, summarization sort of thing…. sort of…. Hey, even if not, it’s still a brilliant thought, right? How can you lose?…. Right…. you can’t…. Even the darkest cloud can have a silver lining…..
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Well, that took forever, it seems….. a feeling the clock confirms, as I’m two entire hours later than usual getting this done…. That might have something to do with not getting up until almost 0500, which has to do with consuming massive quantities of sleep aids in various manifestations, so it isn’t necessarily surprising, or alarming….. just different, I suppose one could say, and be correct….

There, a quick hundred words or so to say a bit more NOTHING, and we can bring this mess to a close….. I tried several new techniques today, behind the scenes, & I’ll let y’all know how they worked another time…. For now, I suppose I’ve held you captive to my whim long enough, and should let y’all be on your way into the day…. SIGH…. Okay, but, this power over others stuff is addictive, y’know….. See ya tomorrow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

We’ll find some in the bargain basement….

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Ffolkes,

    Hello there… When I lay down last night to sleep, at 8:00 PM, or thereabouts, I had little idea I’d be up now, at 2:00 AM, asking myself why I ever thought I liked cats, or where I put the damn squirt bottle, so I could soak its evil little ass with sulfuric acid… or, with just the water in the bottle. The acid will have to wait until I catch it, preferably by the throat….

At approximately 1:45 AM, I was awakened by some hard-to-identify, weird scratching noises, coming from somewhere in the bedroom…. Investigation found the cat, underneath the laundry basket, digging at the carpet, just for fun, I guess…. I chased her out of the room, & decided to just get up, as I was now fully awake, thanks to the middle of the night search routine…..

This is fucking early, ffolkes, even for me…. I’ve been sitting here staring at this mostly empty screen  now for a good twenty-five minutes, with nothing but static running through my mind….. Great….

Now I’m stuck awake, without the boon of being able to write, or even thinking about writing, to help pass the time until the rest of the hemisphere gets going…. I’m smart enough to remember that the ffolkes on the other side of the world are already up…. as well as, obviously, too stupid to outwit a four-pound feline with a brain the size of a walnut….

I swear, though, this IS the cat from Hell you hear about so often….. She seems to have a direct line to Murphy’s office, where she gets advice on timing her acts of instigation to perfection…. I’ve never seen one better, as she seems to get us when we are least expecting it, every time….

She has her morning wake up routine down to a science, knowing she can get me up anytime at all, as long as it is AFTER my lady has gone to bed, so it will wake her up, too…. For some reason, the cat likes BOTH of us to be awake whenever she is, even if it is the middle of the night…. Neurotic little asshole…

Ah well, at least she’s stopped her old trick, of “accidentally” clawing one’s toes at night while stretching….. I declare, I really don’t miss that particular habit she used to display…. Waking up from sleep to excruciating pain in one’s toe is not what I’d call conducive to a restful night, and she used to get one or the other of us a couple times a week, before apparently giving it up….

I guess she must have gotten tired of flying out of the bedroom, as opposed to walking out under her own power…. I can be a bit irritable when awakened like that, and show a strong tendency to throw whatever comes to hand….. hard…. I know its cruel, but, hey, at that time of night, whatever comes to hand is gone before my mind registers what it might be…. living or inanimate, doesn’t matter at that point…. it’s going to fly….

Well, since there doesn’t seem to be much else to do at this time of the day, and, I’ve apparently blathered about nothing much for long enough to fulfill the local requirements for such documented insanity (too bad I can’t get a discount for how early I had to start….), I may as well get a head start on the dive for the day…. Of course, I won’t be diving right off, as today’s first section is set aside for a new-format pearl, but, I’ll get wet a bit later, for section three’s old-school pearl…. Whatever, right?….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Yow!  We’re going to a new disco!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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So, today, we’re going to use the newest format for a pearl of virtual wisdom…. This is the one where I show you a link, to an article that, to me, demonstrates one (or more) facets of how bad, weird, strange, and/or screwed up the world has become, (or, as in one case today, how good things CAN be, if well-written), followed by a comment or two from yours truly, to highlight whatever point has been dug from the article’s subject matter for discussion…. Easy, right?….. Well, I like it, so let’s give it a whirl, okay?…..

Our first article is a discussion that shows, once again, just how low the butt heads in the cyber-security sector of our government will stoop to protect their asses from prosecution…. and just how far they’ll go to spy on whomever they can…. regardless of WHO it might be…

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/S-F-judge-blocks-destruction-of-NSA-phone-records-5305045.php

I’m encouraged by this decision; it’s one of the first that indicates there might just be hope of putting a stop to their machinations, at least in this particular arena…. It’s getting harder for them to hide what they’re up to, thanks to our über-patriot, Eric Snowden, may he be forever blessed for his sacrifice…. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m just a little pissed off at the administration and the PTB** for their harassment of this man, and hope he is able to find some peace…. I also hope that, someday, he will be able to return home, to the hero’s welcome he deserves….

** To be clear, the “administration and the PTB”, along with their myrmidons, the NSA and other cyber-security agencies that steal data, or acquire and use the data gathered…. are the “their”, and the “they” of whom I speak above, (“their machinations” “to hide what they’re up to”), who are illegally spying, or manipulating data, or making false statements to attempt to deny or cover up their guilt….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Former-Christie-aides-to-judge-Quash-subpoenas-5305649.php

When I saw this, my first, immediate reaction to hearing these assholes say they don’t want to have to ‘fess up to what they’ve done was, “Oh, those POOR babies! They’re being SO persecuted…. and all they did was a) commit felonious activities while in a position of authority, for the purposes of political punishment, and b) act like the guiltiest bloody assholes they could when caught, attempting to cover up the incident, instead of just admitting to their foolishness…” As might be surmised, I’m not terribly sympathetic to their pain, as they are getting exactly what they deserve….

I can only hope that the shit they flung around in their mad attempts to hide their guilt gets all over that major asshole, Chris Christie’s, shoes and coattails, and is dirty enough that he will be forced to drop the insane idea that he is an appropriate candidate for a major office…. I don’t think the rest of this country is quite ready for a New Jerseyite in the White House…. That particular state has always had its own strange methods of political action, which is, quite simply, too frigging crazy for the mainstream….

Think about it…. it would be like “Goodfellas” in lock step with a Tea Party Congress…. Brrr…. the very thought makes me shudder….

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/Continents-roam-people-come-and-go-5304865.php

As usual, Jon Carroll applies his particularly acute vision and his very personal, companionable writing style to say a lot of the same stuff I’ve been ranting about over the last few months…. and says it more engagingly, and much more clearly than I…. I’m not ashamed to say he’s better at this than I am; I’m a realist, and I’ve always appreciated his intelligence, and his very balanced outlook on reality….. A good piece, well worth a read….

http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Feinstein-blasts-CIA-over-torture-probe-documents-5307500.php

I’m not sure how to take this article…. Dianne the Gargantuan has been one of the most vocal supporters of this administration’s policies on the subject of illegal surveillance, even going so far as to throw her support behind the potUS, making a number of supportive statements as part of the program (pogrom?) of persecution against Mr. Snowden….

Now, however, it seems the table has been turned, and she, along with her oh-so-powerful committee members on the  Combined House and Senate Intelligence Committee have been the targets of the outrageous spying being done, this time by the CIA, in conjunction with the NSA, the FBI, and all the other federal agencies who have a hand in the “War on Terrorism”…. They’ve been messing around with trying to hide documents that prove their complicity in torture during numerous interrogations, which occurred, naturally, under the Shrubs….

Now that this sacrosanct committee has suffered at the hands of these out-of-control dogs-off-their-leash, who aren’t afraid to steal from, and manipulate, whomever they see as an enemy, she’s all a-flutter, and very angry that this agency, an arm of our own government, has been spying on, and manipulating data at the expense of their own governing members!!   Me, I wonder why she is so surprised, even if I understand why she is so mad…. Welcome to the club, Di-Fi…..

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/San-Jose-police-officer-charged-with-rape-5306907.php

I really don’t think I need to comment much on this…. It’s pretty clear that this is just one more example of how the police forces in this country attract the most aggressive, angry individuals, with the accompanying sense of undeserved entitlement, to work for them, refusing to consider that their recruiting tactics, and their own lack of ethical discipline, are the very reasons they continue to have these kinds of incidents take place….

It is my firm opinion that the job of police officer, military officer, fireman, or any other type of public service job that has people put into positions of authority over the public, should ONLY be filled by people who have passed certain psychological tests, to weed out those people who will, if given a chance, take advantage of their position….

I believe this should be the case now, and should have been the case for a at least 50 years, since our knowledge of psychology advanced to the point of being able to test for these attributes in people….. If we tested applicants for these kinds of public service jobs for the possibility of  aggressive patterns of behavior, it might just prevent some of the problems that NOT testing has created, to the point now where over half the police on the ground are what I would term as, if not insane, neurotic as hell, with issues of low self-esteem, aggressiveness as their first response to crisis, and a lack of ethical discipline….. As a point of evidence, I would submit this question…. When was the last time you saw a police car use a turn signal correctly?…. Think about that for a minute, and you’ll begin to understand whereof I speak….

I found myself having to stop gathering more articles, as I could have kept collecting them all day…. Then, we’d NEVER get out of this section…. As it is, I’ve taken it upon myself to end this here, with just the following as a closing thought for today….

“Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.” — George Carlin
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I decided I wanted to put in a poem of my own today, one from further in the past than most of what you’ve seen lately…. I found these two, from a couple of years ago, and couldn’t make up my mind…. so, being the egotistical fool I am, you get them both…. I hope you enjoy them….

Dreaming, I wait….

In the most patient moments of rationality
kindness flows smoothly in a special milieu,
fallow thoughts speed first from equality
to give no anxious fever, anger to eschew.

Indignant mothers and step-sons in-law
shall fade simply from brilliant to grey,
intoning ritual dogma, fresh, avid, and raw,
falling, falling, in massive pastoral disarray.

Safety lives not, save brightly in ignorant bliss,
it follows us all, silent and infinitely frail,
foremost too often, soft as a virgin kiss,
alive, always eager, willing, and pale.

Intimate knowledge finds only the bold few
with courage and virtue to gift, unbidden.
No solemn royal version may pass in review,
true love for man, never to remain unhidden.

Sweet feathers of Emily’s hope uplift,
calm, drowsy episodes bursting with light,
With final glad cries we set ourselves adrift,
swimming in the oceans of natural delight.

When sorrow is banished, in ages yet to come,
roots solidly anchored, cold and remote,
Ample supplies of kindness sit silent and dumb,
and the old stranger shrugs on his faded coat.

Dreaming, then, I wait with shadows in the night
aspiring to inspire, a message from the muse’s heart
Never forgotten images, framed in color bright,
tempt me only, grieving, steeped in serenity’s arcane art….

~~ gigoid ~~

Random Visions/Coloring Between the Lines of Grief

Everywhere is dark, and shining,
    with points in dissonant pain.
Sharp, senses dull past divining,
   tears burn, a torrential rain.

Escape! Flee within to cower,
    find an unconscious cave.
Call on Morpheus’ power
    deny reality’s beckoning wave.

Light breaks, drawing the inner eye,
    leading to the slippery slope.
Risk is critical, we may only sigh,
   yet welcome, for bringing hope.

Sanity seems far out of reach
    Insanity’s a stronger friend.
Decisions made will merely teach
    our way toward Death to wend.

Lost, while still on familiar ground,
    the future yet undesigned.
Making way on paths unfound,
    to Now, as yet undefined.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Now comes the fun part, for me…. I’ve written rant-like material, and poemed, so now it’s time for an old-school pearl, to loosen up the old mental muscles, for those among us who enjoy keeping those muscles in the same kind of condition that any world-class athlete enjoys…. To keep any muscle conditioned it takes regular, consistently challenging exercise, that pushes the muscle to its limits before slacking off, preferably for just a bit longer each time, to increase stamina… The mind, though not composed of the same kind of tissue, nevertheless responds to the same sort of challenges; they are simply of a different nature than those that work the muscles attached to our skeletons….

I only wish I could still use those other muscles, the big ones on my body, to stay in the physical shape I was in until my mid-forties, when my injuries began the progressive decline I’ve seen, in my strength, and stamina. Now, sadly, my mind is in much better shape than the rest of me, though I’m still pretty tough…. I just have no stamina, and trying to use my strength and/or skills as if I were younger, stronger, and still limber is more expensive than it is worth, in terms of the pain that comes after such use. As I’m fond of saying, I can still do anything I used to do, but now I pay a much higher price to do so…. So, mostly, I don’t do so…. Now, I’m more likely to say, “I spend my time avoiding pain…”….

I’m uncertain as to how this devolved into a short intimate discussion of my frailties, but, since it did, we’ll just have to ignore it the best we can, and go on to bigger and better things, if that is still possible…. I think if I can just shut myself up for a minute, I can jump in the water before any further incidents of sharing TMI can occur….. Like, right now… Just for the record, no known parameters were used in the collection or inclusion of any of the following pearls…. They’re all fresh from the oyster, just as Mother Nature intended them to be…

“Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.” — Albert Camus (1913-1960)

“Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Roman Apophthegms, Cato the Elder

“He is the best of men who dislikes power.” — Mohammed

And wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book xiv, Line 520

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

“The art of government consist in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens and giving it to another.” — Voltaire

“We have only two things to worry about:  That things will never get back to normal, and that they already have.” — Smart Bee

Well, in today’s case, parameters might have been a good idea…. But, since this one is done, and it’s fairly decent, all in all, I think we’ll let it fly…. I mean, they can’t all be immediately obvious, or for that matter, indelibly relevant…. All they have to do is make you think, and NOT make you feel bad about anything that doesn’t deserve it…. Which, I suppose is what Life is all about, yes?…. Hey, I’ll take whatever metaphor that presents itself, and turn it right into an assertion of consensual reality…. it’s what we do here….
_____________________________

Okay…. I’ve stretched this process until it screamed…. I’ve taken breaks… (in fact, I’m taking one now…. I’ll bet you didn’t even notice…)…. I’ve perused the news, I’ve searched SB for the best pearls I could find. I’ve pre-edited & pre-proofed, which means there will be, without doubt numerous errors in syntax and/or typos which will drive me batty when I find them after I’ve posted this… I’ve racked my brain to find something new, and funny, or compelling to write, which was obviously unsuccessful in the extreme…. I’ve subjected myself to reading a number of my own poems, along with several of Emily’s, and Keats’, before settling on subjecting y’all to a two-fer of my own…

All of that, and it is now 5:09 AM…. The wind here in Northern California is currently blowing at a good semi-typhoon speed, swinging our plant and wind-chime all over where they hang on the porch…. The cat continues to seek out whatever mischief she can find, and I am desperately wishing I could fall back asleep…. Alas, that isn’t to be, at least, not for a while yet…. I may as well post this, and get a bite to eat…. Then, having completed all the tasks involved in my day, I can begin another, while everyone else is up, too…. SIGH…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

Measuring infinitesimal increments may take a while….

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2

Ffolkes,

I’m tired….. in my head…. I’m tired of writing, tired of sitting, tired of not being able to do enough to keep my mind from chewing on itself. I have a mind that requires rather a lot of stimulation, to feel as if it is being utilized in a way that maximizes its qualities, which are extensive, to be sure, although never as much so as could be wished…. In other words, I’m smart enough to have a strong need to keep busy, but, not so smart as to have all the answers I’d like to have…. Just smart enough to know how much there is still to learn, is the way I like to think of it….

My tiredness is, I think, a result of having written this blog each morning, with only a few minor failures, every single day for almost three years…. In that time, I’ve made some changes to the structure, and tweaked it until I pretty much have it how I like it….. and, according to the WP stat bots, I keep getting new followers…. Just yesterday, two new names showed up as new followers of our blog here at ECR, one of which is an old blogging friend, who just now followed, after almost 3 years of visiting the site, and leaving an occasional ‘Like’….. So, I know that there are at least a few ffolkes who read it every day…. Out of the 375 ffolkes who have hit the button to follow, at least a few MUST come by each day, right?….

In addition, I send the Daily Pearl out via my own email to 47 others who have been receiving them now for over a dozen years…. When I worked for the State, it was sent out each day for about six years to almost 400 employees at NSH, all of whom were addicted to receiving them in their morning email, to start their day….. Conceivably, I could still send them to those people…. but, it annoys their IT folks, as 400 emails sent in a group tends to burn up a lot of bandwidth, causing a spike in their traffic, and the possibility of a network slow-down…. Of course, I figure that’s their own damn fault for not spending enough on infrastructure to handle the traffic, but, hey, they’re friends, so I don’t fuss with them….

All in all, I’ve been writing A LOT for the last couple of years, since retiring…. which, in the ultimate sense, is a good thing…. But, I’m tired of the frustration of constantly feeling as if what I have to say is extremely important for mankind at large to be aware of, but, never having that message heard by anyone who NEEDS to hear it….

If we are to have any real chance at surviving the upcoming events in the environmental arena, all of which are a result of our own foolish asininity, (speaking from the viewpoint of one who knows quite well what NEEDS to be done, but, has no clue as to how to get people to get off their asses to do it….) well, if we ARE to survive, we’ll need to first admit the need to do so…

As you are well aware, if you’ve been here previously, I write a lot of such “gadfly” rants, exhorting the public to wake up, to pay attention to what the corporate assholes, political assholes, and religious assholes have been up to, because what they’ve gone and done is going to kill all of us if we don’t put a stop to it, NOW….

It needed to be done yesterday, and, it certainly won’t help to do it tomorrow; tomorrow, (metaphorically) we’ll be DEAD (literally).

We, as a species, need to get off our collective asses and kick the stupid, selfish, ignorant bullies, who are busily killing us all, straight into the ocean, where their sorry, no-doubt bitter-tasting carcases can at least provide the sea life with some little bit of extra protein…. which would comprise the FIRST useful, unselfish act of their lives….

These rants are generally justified with evidence, or, if nothing else, a link to where such evidence may be found; I try not to make assertions without some sort of proof, as I’m unwilling to base them merely on articles of faith…. a habit of writing and communicating which, I may point out, is more than you’ll ever get from a political pundit, a preacher, or some corporate asshole….

THEY will all expect you to believe whatever comes out of their mouths, without ANY sort of proof, other than their version of the Bible, or, hilariously enough, their “word” as to it’s veracity…. We’ve all heard a pundit on TV, saying “Trust me!”, with the obvious sub-text of, “I’d never lie to you!”…. which, of course, is the first lie….

My rants, however, in spite of the number of followers who evidently stop by only now and then, are not getting into the mainstream consciousness of society, which is where the need for them is strongest…. The message I’m putting out is one that isn’t going to help much unless it is seen or heard by a very large number of people, who would then, hopefully, use the information and stimulus contained therein to form the nucleus of a movement, that eventually would lead to the eradication of the centuries-long oppression of mankind by the slave masters, and our eventual survival on this beautiful planet….

Or, the message will be lost, as are, thus far, ALL the other common sense messages that might be of help to us, buried in the cacophony of noise that is always roaring in the background of TV, radio, and the internet, never to be of any help, or aid us to survive beyond the next hundred years or so that are left to us….. all because of the insane blindness of those who have usurped human culture for their own purposes….

I’d rather there was a greater chance for us to survive, but, there’s not a lot I can do about it…. People are gonna do what they WANT to do…… That seldom means anything intelligent…. and, sadly, that’s just the way it is….

Shall we Pearl?…. We may as well, we’ve got nothing better to do…..

“Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy,and it isn’t original sin. He’s born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. A lot of people don’t have the courage to do it.” — Helen Hayes
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Obviously, the intro section this morning fulfills any ranting requirements that may be in place, anywhere…. So, that means I can go bananas in this section…. Well, maybe not fruit, but, perhaps, a rutabaga, or other vegetable would do?….. As you can see, my bozo wants to come out to play, and, it’s best all around if I don’t get in the way of that…. So, I’ll give that side of me the reins, and we’ll see what SB can do for us today, in the way of a group of pearls to start us off in the proper direction to get us where we need to go….. where it will, hopefully, come to a halt….

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

“A student brings something to discuss, saying, “I don’t know whether this is really good, or whether I should throw it in the wastebasket.” The assumption is that one or the other choice is the right move.  No.  Almost everything we say or think or do  — or write — comes in that spacious human area bounded by something this side of the sublime and something above the unforgivable.” — William Stafford

“Actions lie louder than words.” — Carolyn Wells

“I never understood why God decided to endow the military man with His big brain when bone and marrow are all that he needs to execute his purpose.” — A. Einstein – Ideas and Opinions

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” — HAL 9000

“Do you think there’s a God?” “Well, SOMEbody’s out to get me!” — Calvin & Hobbes

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

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

Well, it’s a tough one, I’ll admit, but, those are always the best kind, you see, because, hey, challenge?….. Believe it or not, it IS a good one…. just a trifle abstruse…. In fact, upon reflection, it’s a lot like that word, abstruse….
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In truth, I suppose, the translator of this poem is the one who deserves a lot of the credit for the power, and the clarity, of the images and language that make this so compelling a poem…. Whomever is responsible, it is one of my all time favorite poems, and I include it today, again, with great pleasure….

Shui Tiao Ko Tou

Will a moon so bright ever arise again?
Drink a cupful of wine and ask of the sky.
I don’t know where the palace gate of heaven is,
Or even the year in which tonight slips by.
I want to return riding the whirl-wind! But I
Feel afraid that this heaven of jasper and jade
Lets in the cold, its palaces rear so high.
I shall get up and dance with my own shadow.
From life endured among men how far a cry!

Round the red pavilion
Slanting through the lattices
Onto every wakeful eye,
Moon, why should you bear a grudge, O why
Insist in time of separation so th fill the sky?
Men know joy and sorrow, parting and reunion;
The moon lacks luster, brightly shines; is all, is less.
Perfection was never easily come by.
Though miles apart, could men but live for ever
Dreaming they shared this moonlight endlessly!

~~ Su Tung-p’o ~~

_____________________________

This was already an old rant last time I posted it, in June of 2013…. and, since I spent all of my fresh angst in the intro section today, this will have to suffice, to fulfill any other legal standards that may apply…. I think it will do, just fine, as it remains as valid today as the day I first wrote it….

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

“Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt (1759-1806) speech on the India Bill, Nov. 18, 1783

I had not intended to start with a political rant, but this just came up, so here we go…. This is as true today as it was in 1783, perhaps even more so. Since 9/11/01, when those fanatic idiots carried out their insane delusions of grandeur on the world stage, the “necessity” for Homeland Security has been the watchword of the political pundits who unfortunately are in charge of the legislative and executive branches of our government. Bill after bill after bill keeps coming down the pike and bulling their way through into becoming law, or even worse, is created by executive order, without the benefit of review by Congress, useless as that may be.

The entire incident that happened that day was blown completely out of proportion by the media. Yes, it was a tragedy, in which something over 3000 American lives were lost, in three separate incidents. The videos of those planes hitting the buildings in New York must have been replayed a thousand times before noon, all over the country, until every American, and for that matter, anyone in the world, who had access to a TV was informed of what had occurred….

The American media, and the political machinery that manipulates it so effectively, then proceeded to flood every channel with the after-effects, making sure that the sorrow and fear of every person they could find willing to speak of it on camera was put on the evening news, thus, ensuring that no rational, dispassionate examination of the events would take place. Before the first day had passed, the national reaction had been whipped to a frenzy, stirring the fears of every paranoid in society, and making it seem as if the entire nation was filled with anger and vengeful righteousness. Though I didn’t join in the paranoia, I could feel it happening all around me, as normally intelligent people became so angry they lost all sense of proportion, or for that matter, all sense of truth.

In the ensuing months and years, whenever the politicians have wanted to distract the nation from what they were actually doing, all they needed to do was mention the words “terrorism”, or “national security”, to immediately pull the attention off of them, pointing it firmly at the pitiful  group of fanatical Muslims they blamed for the attacks (completely ignoring all the valid reasons those same politicians had provided those fanatics  in the first place, reasons specifically designed to stimulate an attack….). Thus, the Hunt for Osama bin Laden was on! (“We’ll get him, by God”… We did, of course…)

In this country, as a result of those attacks, approximately 5000 American lives were lost (that figure is larger, by quite a lot, than the actual number, purposely…. it is near enough to correct to make the point…). At this time, in the quest to find Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, over 50,000 Afghan civilians have been killed. In Iraq, which we somehow decided to invade, even though they had nothing to do with 9/11, well over 250,000 civilians have died to soothe our national pride.

(Note from 2014; the number of casualties in both arenas has, naturally, grown on all sides, with the greatest number of deaths, by far, having been suffered by the Afghan and Iraqi civilian populations, just as the number of our American casualties remains, by many thousands of deaths, the smallest of any of the participants…. This amounts to, literally, millions of Afghan and Iraqi deaths, and fewer than 10,000 Americans…. go look at them yourself if you don’t accept my figures….)

In that same period, WE lost another 1000 or so soldiers in fighting and bombings. And, as a side effect, the US Bill of Rights has been effectively eliminated, by Executive Order, disguised as Homeland Security (June, 2013 — Now authorized by what is so laughingly called the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012…. signed by President Obama on New Year’s Eve of 2011, while everyone was partying, not paying any attention to their so-called “rights”…..)

“Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated” — George Bernard Shaw

So, what is my point here? My point is this…. those pathetic fanatics killed more, of people THEY considered to be the enemy, than they had ever been able to kill, one time….. ONCE….. Since that one time, our country has killed more than 300,000 civilians in retaliation (amendment from 2014: make that >1 million…).

You can call it what you like, I call it nothing more than schoolyard revenge by bullies. The events of that day provided every politician in this country the opportunity to wrap themselves in the flag, not to proclaim their patriotism, but to manipulate the unreasonable fear they created in the public to keep them from realizing the truth of the matter.

That truth is this: we are in no real danger from Al Qaeda,  or from any other splinter faction terrorist group, nor have we ever been in any real danger.  We never really WERE in MUCH danger….

Oh, sure, they may be able to pull off stunts such as this one occasionally, but for the most part, the world has gotten pretty good at either catching them in hiding, or stopping their plots before they actually carry them out. Governments have a LOT more resources than terrorists, no matter how rich they may be personally. Most times, their piteous efforts kill a handful of people, and destroy a building or two, and that is the extent of it….

No, the pathetic, desperate people who become terrorists, in direct concatenation of intent, action, and responsibility, are actually created by those same political pundits, who, after bombing their villages, killing their families, and destroying their homes, are now reviling them as monsters, using all their bloated resources in hunting them down.

The terrorists I see in the news are not a real threat to anyone; they don’t have the wherewithal to perform more than one act of violence at a time; they cannot wage a war, they can only try to act as guerrilla forces, at best. Mostly, they are just sad schemers, planning glorious (in THEIR twisted minds….) deaths, that ultimately have no meaning, other than to provide the Western politicos another unreasonable fear to use against the American public, in order to continue the raping and pillaging among their own people.

The entire issue is one that is repugnant to me; I have watched in horror, not as terrorists have been hunted, but as the rights of the American people have been taken away in the name of “security”. Security from what? We don’t need more security from terrorists; the techniques for dealing with it are well-established, and effective, as they employ the very same methods used by the fanatics to achieve their ends, and many more not available to them, because of the depth of their resources, and their lack of morality. (Note from 2014: See, Eric Snowden, NSA, “US Cyber-Security Forces”, etc….) No, we need more security from our own pundits, who have utilized these tragic events for their own benefit, to the everlasting regret of every true patriot….. Bloody fucking assholes, every one of them…..

“I have formed a very clear conception of patriotism. I have generally found it thrust into the foreground by some fellow who has something to hide in the background. I have seen a great deal of patriotism; and I have generally found it the last refuge of the scoundrel.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Judgement of Dr. Johnson, Act III

So be it…. gigoid has spoken….

3/8/2014: This rant has been updated and edited to conform with the most current version of Reality, including, but not limited to parenthetical comments, and actual textual edits to improve the flow of thoughts… I also have to say, with this one, I hit the nail right on the fucking head, so, I can say, without any doubt whatsoever…

So be it…. gigoid has spoken, again….
_____________________________

I’d suppose it’s a function of having done this repeatedly for a relatively long time, but, gosh, Wilbur, I think I’m getting the hang of this…. Even if not, it feels as if I am, so, I’ll take comfort in axiom #1, to wit: “I think I am. That’s close enough.”….. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, if YOU’RE lucky….

Just kidding…..          🙂

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

Hardly softened, barely covered, finally started, & completely unfinished….

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1

Ffolkes,

“Darling!”, cried the woman at the next table, “You look fabulous! Where did you get your hair done?” As she continued to gush at her companion, I tuned out her voice, while looking toward the door, hoping to see my own appointment waiting there. No luck there, so I let my eyes scan the dining room of the very upscale restaurant in London’s East End, idly noting the few other early diners at tables around the room, several of which sat in front of windows overlooking the busy street below. Catching the eye of a roving waiter, I ordered a drink, and sat back to await the arrival of the man who was going to provide me with the means to destroy millions of people, over a very fine dinner…. I couldn’t wait….

Well, that’s quite enough of THAT….. I’m no more impressed than you probably are, or aren’t…. Not my best effort, to be sure, in spite of the copious amounts of blood that accompanied its creation…. That one HURT to get out, and, after reading it, I can see why…. My sub-conscious mind, having already made its judgment of this little piece of crap, tried to clue me in the entire time I was writing, but, I was determined to finish it, with the result, as you can see, that I’ve managed to completely waste my time, and possibly yours…

S’okay, though, we’re all good…. Even though my morning routines seem to have been wiped out, and I’m operating totally on instinct today, I’m sure I can fix this, and make it into what will someday be called an ordinary Pearl…. I say ‘ordinary’ because it will have 1500-3000 words, with some ranting, a poem, and some pearls of virtual wisdom to chew on…. The quality of that content is, as you know, subject to a wide range of both good and bad, and, since such judgments are entirely personal, anyway, I won’t even bother to consider that when performing the fix….

How, you may ask, am I going to save this? I’ll admit, it won’t be easy, or simple, and it may just leave me with a lot less blood than I started out with today…. But, I’m committed, and ready to make any sacrifices I must, to save this Pearl from becoming just another blog…. Of course, this may mean y’all will have to walk home, but, I don’t mind sacrificing the Reality-Mobile, if we can get this Pearl to breathe again….

Oh, wait, that’s right, I forgot…. Y’all could take the zip-lines back to the mainstream, if you have the cojones to zip five miles from the heights of reason down to the mundane flats of complacency….. The lines are free to all, they’ll supply y’all with free gloves, and there’s a shuttle to the top of the line from here…. it’s not far, only a couple of miles up the mountain….

There, with that taken care of, I can now concentrate on the delicate matter at hand…. While I do this, please stay back a few feet…. even the noise of your heartbeats can frighten the ‘puir wee beasties’, and they’re skittish enough today…. Okay, here we go…

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I don’t mind occasionally having to reinvent a wheel; I don’t even mind using someone’s reinvented wheel occasionally.   But it helps a lot if it is symmetric, contains no fewer than ten sides, and has the axle centered.  I do tire of trapezoidal wheels with offset axles” — Joseph M. Newcomer
_____________________________

“The truth is on the march and nothing will stop it.” — Emile Zola (1840-1902), “J’Accuse!”

I found the following article in the news a day or two ago, and set it here to form the nucleus of a rant I planned to write, on gun control, and the 2nd Amendment issue at large…. However, while waiting for today to arrive, I found the following rant from last year, and decided it says part of what I wish to say very well, so, I’ve put it immediately after, as a prelude to any fresh comments…. if I can find any in this less than completely cooperative text editor I call my mind….

For now, please read the article, keeping an open mind about both sides of what this implies…. If those sides aren’t clear to you, the key words to look for that will identify the players for each team are words such as “critics” or “supporters”, or more simply, “cops”, and “victims”….. (Sorry….. please,  DO try to keep an open mind, even if I tend NOT to practice that myself, quite so well as I may preach…. a perfectly human habit, I might add…)….

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/6-San-Francisco-police-officers-indicted-5273906.php

From April 20, 2013:

Quis custodiet ipsos Custodes? [Who guards the Guardians?] — Smart Bee

This is the perfect opening for a discussion of gun control, for me, as I believe strongly this is the bottom line issue for that particular subject…… Sure, taking guns out of the hands of people who are insane is a good thing; nobody, I think, can argue that. The problem lies in figuring out WHO gets to decide what sanity is, the same issue that comes up in discussing getting rid of firearms altogether.

You see, I’m sorry, but, I just can’t bring myself to trust the Beloved Ruling Class to decide who is sane, and who isn’t. Part of this stems from the fact that I don’t consider anyone in public office to have a very tight grip on sanity to begin with…. How effective can it be to have insane people making the rules for deciding who is insane? Not very, I suspect….

Yet, I read many articles that profess the belief that the police, and the army, who naturally would have to have guns (Why? If nobody is supposed to have them, why would they need them?), are more trustworthy than the common citizen. I’m sorry, but, just what planet did you say you came from? It certainly isn’t Earth, because, last time I looked,  here on Earth, all the police, and all the folks in the army, and the folks who tell them what to do, are all PEOPLE, just like anyone else…..

They’re all suffering the same fears, the same delusions or preconceptions, and the same lack of morality, as does the average joe on the streets. In fact, in light of my experience observing and identifying psychiatric symptoms common to the insane, I can honestly state I see a higher percentage of police and military personnel who display a distinct lack of a strong, internalized moral compass, based on  a rational compassion for others, than I see in the general public.

Part of the problem is exemplified by what I DO see, which is, police and military institutions, as they are organized and run, become attractive to the type of person who enjoys having power over others, whose self-image requires them to be in a position of authority, in order for them to be able to view themselves in a positive light, to see themselves as successful individuals. They equate money, and the power to control other people, with the concept of success, thus gravitating naturally to those sectors of society that deal in those commodities.

Normal, stable personality types seldom need to exercise power over others, and never do so out of a personal neurotic need, and so avoid such pastimes as bullying, or aggressive interactions as a rule of thumb…. To the selfish, and the sociopathic, however, the police and the army are seen as a path to what they term as success. If you see a flaw in this logic, please, enlighten me…. Until I see some evidence to the contrary, though, I find this to be a valuable, and accurate summation of the situation, thereby affording myself the opportunity to avoid the majority of their machinations, at least in a directly personal sense….

We all have to deal with them eventually though, so it’s good, I think, to be aware of the above arguments, as it will forewarn anyone who absorbs it, and takes it to heart, allowing them to defend themselves from the worst of the BRC’s attempts at repression, or oppression, if not all.  Maintain a high level of doubt when considering announcements and decrees, stay alert to the news, and the meaning behind what you see there, and be ready to jump when the balloon goes up.

Things out in the Big Blue Room are getting a little bit pretty damn serious in spots, with potentially disastrous possibilities being threatened on a lot of different fronts, so, for those of us who wish to survive, it would be a good thing to be ready for whatever may take place, no matter how insane…. And remember, guard yourself, against the Guardians themselves, if need be…..

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift; the rational mind is faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” — Albert Einstein
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We return now to the Consensual Reality currently in place today, March 1, 2014….. no better, and much worse off in general, than we were when this was first written, eleven months ago….. If I were to begin here, taking this rant to the places it conceivably could go, we’d all be here far longer than any of us wished…. Me, because I’d have to speak to the other implications of gun control, and I’m already burnt out for today…. and you, because you, too, have, no doubt, had quite enough of this, thank you very much…. One can only be serious so long before one requires a bit of a break, what?

Well, I do….. require a break, that is…. So, onward…. Stay alert, ffolkes, and keep your powder dry, because you just can’t trust ANYONE who SAYS they have YOUR best interests at heart…. unless, maybe, it’s your mum, dad, brother, or sister, or loyal lover….. and they could still get it wrong, right?…. Nobody’s perfect….

“We make so much sense around here it’s frightening!” — Smart Bee
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I’m afraid y’all have pulled my covers, but, only because I’m such a shameless egoist I encourage such humiliations; I consider it part of curmudgeon training, adding just the right tones of bitterness and resentment on my part, and righteous indignation and disgust on yours…. which hopefully does not also get on your shoes…. There, now you can’t say I never make myself look foolish….

Staying with that theme, I now present to you my entry for the 19th day of April last, during the National Month of Poetry Challenge, when writers all over WordPress, and other blogging sites on the Web, all committed to write and publish a poem a day for the entire 30 days…. I missed a day or two, but, managed to write a lot of not-too-shabby poems, and several excellent haiku, if I do say so myself…. which, obviously, I have just done…. duh…..   Enjoy, please….

From April 19 , 2013:

Haiku VIIThe sun has come up,
once more we rise, and then shine.
Standard issue day.

~~ gigoid ~~

Fatal Supplication

But what becomes of our deepest dangerous dreams?
Does fantasy rescue any part of life’s imperiled favor?
Reality becomes but silvery pairs of mismatched teams,
Dining with affable elegance, such diffident waste to savor.

Who decides what sorrows to carry bravely to term?
Will fragrant moments of sanity make hasty manifestation?
Only Time’s patient mutability sends messages so firm,
Yet salient impersonal vexation lends credence to ripe imagination.

Can folly bring out sadness and rampant visions of beauty?
What kindness can be found in distant open relations?
With countless faces the dead disturb with dire impunity,
From separate caches of wisdom come simple stylish privations.

Shall shallow emotion serve to provide such explanation?
When does avaricious intensity assume primary focus?
Plain answers slide softly through with multiple mitigation,
While conceptually indignant concepts engage a fatally personal locus.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

The die is cast, and reality has taken the shape it will hold, until it changes again…. All we can do is go along with what the universe has in store for us, helpless to make changes anywhere but in our own minds, to our own character…. Reality itself, in spite of our delusions to the contrary, is NOT amenable to our desires, and only matches them randomly….

It’s best to learn to get along with that piece of information, because it is one that isn’t going to ever change…. In fact, our own inability to change reality may possibly be the only thing in the entire universe that is NOT subject to change… Hmm… That will take a bit of deeper thought, I think, before we can call that one a truism…

Philosophical, and/or metaphysical, or even metaphorical, considerations aside, it’s time for an old-school pearl, if for no other reason than my own wish to keep from having to rant overmuch…. I’m trying to cut down, for my health… so to speak…. For now, let it suffice to say, shall we dive for some pearls?…. I think it would be for the best….

“Within the oyster’s shell uncouth
The purest pearl may hide,
Trust me you’ll find a heart of truth
Within that rough inside.”

— Mrs. Osgood

“I don’t want to die! Existence is one of my stronger points!” — Ron Warren Evans

Remembrance and reflection how allied!
What thin partitions sense from thought divide!

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 225

“Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.” — Charlie Chaplin

It’s got to be the goin’,
Not the gettin’ there that’s good.

— Harry Chapin

“The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter.” — Mark Twain

Are there not, dear Michal,
Two points in the adventure of the diver,–
One, when a beggar he prepares to plunge;
One, when a prince he rises with his pearl?
Festus, I plunge.

— Robert Browning (1812-1890) — Paracelsus, Part i

Perfect! A pearl, book ended by two pearls about pearls, creating a pearl of pearls, with the power to cause ecstatic cognitive trance states at the drop of a metaphor!…. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did….
_____________________________

Well, THAT was fun…. sort of…. Actually, I did have a bit of fun today, and nobody got hurt, that I can see…. I call that a good day of writing. Whether or not that is something that reality can agree with is, at this late point in the process, rather moot…. Which, convoluted as it may or may not be, is merely another way of saying, it’s done, and, I’m outta here…. See y’all tomorrow, most likely….

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

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

Which is Why….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.gigoid the dubious

dozer3

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

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Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Jackdaw, (Translation from Vincent Bourne)
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It seems the BRC has captured one of the world’s most dangerous drug cartel leaders, El Chapo, the Dude, of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico…. I have included below a link to the article announcing the capture, and included below that some “interesting” phrases and words used by the anonymous spokescops (who are never authorized to talk to journalists….. but, they do anyway….)…. The italicized words are the ones I’d like to point out to y’all, with a comment or two about them as an addendum…. Read the story, then, we’ll talk…..

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

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

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

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

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

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

intelligence from a Homeland Security Department investigation also helped

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“For me, all I can do is spit in the eye of my fears by living each day with as much passion and commitment as possible to what truly counts, such as love and justice. To give the into the fear and hopelessness would be to declare defeat, something I am not ready to do while there is still the will to struggle.” — Lawrence Paradis
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Whew! That was an epic rant, to be sure…. it just kept growing on me…. Now I need something soothing, with overt hints of extreme beauty, with some irony to spice it up, to realign the wobbly portions of my dubious spirit…. When in doubt, I always prefer to turn to a genius, even, or, in truth,  especially  a genius whose mind has spent so much time in an alternate version of Reality from the rest of us…. In this woman’s case, she went so far in that direction, she BECAME eight other distinct personalities…. Incredible talent here, ffolkes, all in one whose own mind was more than she could easily handle….

Soliloquy Of The Solipsist

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

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

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

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

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“For him who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will be the greatest enemy.” — Bhagavad Gita (c. B.C. 400)

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

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

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Ffolkes,

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

— Deng Ming-Dao

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle ii, Line 13
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“Alienation without must be accompanied by alienation within; that is the law for every social level, even individuals. To harm one’s fellows, even one’s enemies, harms you, takes away some essential element from your self-respect and self-image.” — Greg Bear

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back in the Future: 2/22/14

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No Man Is An Island

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

~~ John Donne ~~

_____________________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

Crash test dummies don’t do it….

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Ffolkes,

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

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

This excerpt is one I’ve used previously, in a Pearl from long ago… Other than not knowing the title of that particular Pearl, or what was in the pearl in which this was used, I remember it very well, in that, the verse held the same meaning for me then, as it does now. In essence, this expresses how I feel a lot of the time, when I consider myself in relation to my fellow man….

Often, I feel as if I am seeing something in the what the world presents for our perception that they don’t, that I am perceiving more details than most people….These perceptions, because they are different, and more extensive in many cases, cause me to entertain thoughts and ideas that always seem to shock or surprise others, because of their dubiously exotic, yet obviously valid nature, which is, all to often, in direct contrast to their own perceptions and thoughts.

The most common reaction I get from folks when I offer an insight into an issue out in the BBR somewhere (in line in a store, in a restaurant, etc….) is a puzzled expression, and/or a question about either “why” or “how” I came to the conclusions I’ve offered…. In many cases, I’ve learned to just stay out of situations where I could possibly help, because people get upset when it is offered; I guess they think that accepting the offer of help is tantamount to giving up, or seeming incompetent, so they get all grumpy and sober, insisting on fixing whatever the problems without assistance.

This little behavioral fillip is one that most humans have, to one degree or another, when their own mental acuity is put into question, either by circumstance, by someone’s tactlessness or cruelty, or by the bozoid nature of their own efforts….

Me, I just keep tumbling along the road to freedom, wherever it may lead me, keeping my thoughts mostly to myself, as I’ve found the public doesn’t want to hear it, unless you’re wearing a power suit, a red tie, (with stripes is good…. blue, if you can get ’em….), and a flag pin, while talking on TV…. Now, dress up like that, get on TV, speak nicely to them in small words, and they’ll believe just about anything they’re told….

Tell them face to face, in words of more than two syllables, and they will slam shut the doors to their minds like the closing of a bank vault; at that point there is no reason, and no rhyme, they will ever allow in…. Change can be scary, you know; people are well aware that when they allow themselves to learn something, something always changes on them…. and they don’t like it….

Perhaps this is why I find this blogging experience to be cathartic…. It allows me to say what I have to say, that would otherwise sit inside me and cause trouble, without it getting to the point of being burdensome, while at the same time, offering to the world some of the diligently imprudent, yet occasionally wise thoughts that have passed through my head over the years…..

Some of it is pretty good stuff, very helpful in living a life well lived… Other parts of it may not be quite as useful, or particularly attractive to those who don’t enjoy using their minds for anything other than finding food and companionship, but, hopefully, what I create will entertain and/or amuse y’all as much to read as it does me to share….

And, if not, well, there’s always the pearls to get you through the day…. They’re pretty infallible in their wisdom, you see, having been around long enough to have withstood the test of time, having long since proved their worth, as good advice, or solid logic…. or, merely as beautiful…. Whichever it may be, these pearls, and the Pearls that they form, will be here long after I am, and I hope they give someone pleasure to read, as they do me to write…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“All I kin say is when you finds yo’self wanderin’ in a peach orchard, ya don’t go lookin’ for rutabagas. — Kingfish
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A year ago, in January of 2013, my life was much different, in several ways, too numerous to mention now, obviously, or we’d never get anywhere…. However, if we use the following old pearl from a Pearl I posted early in that month as an indicator, one can see my thoughts haven’t traveled far in a different direction at all…. This sortofarant is one I wrote the second day of the month…. I was pleased with it back then, and am even more so now, for it saves me a shitload of work this morning, and my back, in its current state, thanks me…. I hope you enjoy it, too….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From 1/2/2013:

“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 can always trust Oscar Wilde to display both elegant wit and intelligent insight, though, to be sure, many of his most closely held views were somewhat divergent with what was commonly held to be true, philosophically, by many in the mainstream of society. 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 to say 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, so 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 painful issue in human history, and current society, the issues that cause people to suffer pain, oppression, perpetual struggle, and will most certainly ultimately lead to the extinction of our species, on this planet, at minimum….. I’m pretty sure we don’t have time to mount any significant exodus to another planet, to save at least some of the species, before our own stupidity catches up to us, in a fatal sense….

That piece of our nature is the unfortunate characteristic, in a number of humans, to be able to put aside all conscience, to act solely in their own self interest. All of us, of course, possess this quality 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.

(Note from 2014: In fairness, let’s add those criminals in the world who prey on the weak and poor, like the mafia, the drug cartels, etc…. We’ll include anyone who involves themselves in prostitution or the sex trade in any way, or otherwise abuses women and/or children out of their own misogyny and greed…. A lot of the poor, who are resentful at the treatment at the hands of those in the same category, who disguise their evil behind the public face of politics or religion, become of the same nature, losing the connection to their own humanity, using violence, and physical power over others to survive in the world created by the corporate masters, and their dupes and myrmidons, in the established powers that be….)

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, we may find it is 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”
_____________________________

Again, to maintain integrity, rather than shuffle off any of the blame for today on anyone else, here’s another of my old poems, one that talks about the chronic pain, and the emotional lability that PTSD brings, that I live with…. a poem which, in its own sardonic way, expresses the joy those bring….. NOT… I’m pretty sure I wrote this when I’d forgotten to take any meds for too long, and was feeling the result of that….Or, it could have been a day when the meds weren’t working very well, or the pain was too much for it…. Either way, it’s real….. or, rather, it was real when written, a reality that remains, as it always will, a threatening potentiality….

Pieces of broken spirit….

Deep within the inner abyss, tears lay in wait
Ever on the verge, tending to infuriate.
Real moments of sadness cracking our need
Swift, deadly waves of appalling terror freed.

Memory hurts badly when visiting now
Leaving me alone, forgetting even how
Killing the sunshine still pouring over all
Darkening all spirit, holding it in thrall.

Knowing no blame seems almost to heal
Yet healing is blunted, plainly not real.
Innocence is pointless compared with pain
On the soul it tattoos an indelible stain.

Hours become days, days turn to a year
Serving up only a compendium of fear.
Blind groping for light finds only dark
In caverns of terror, angry and stark.

Trails of endless sorrow fill up the nights
Confounded at last by unfathomable sights.
No hope can find its way to the fore
Never to sail safely, lost forever more.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

For some unknown reason, today, my mind keeps finding reasons NOT to compose…. I suppose it might have something to do with the fact it’s Sunday…. Nah, that doesn’t make sense, as I often don’t know what day it is until after noon, when I look at my calendar, or happen to notice when I look at my phone…. Ah, I know, more coffee…. Hold on….

Okay, well, better, but still no burst of creative urges billowing up from my subconscious mind…. I guess we’ll have to settle here for an old-school pearl, or we’ll never get done…. (You KNEW that was coming, didn’t you?….) Let’s see what Smart Bee has for us today, shall we?…. Hey, cut the complaints! It’s this, or you’ll be sitting through a half-baked, ill-considered, badly written rant, to no particular purpose, which I will make sure to take AT LEAST two more hours to write…. So, settle down, or I won’t distribute the Valium until we’re in the air…

“It is ridiculous to suppose that the great head of things, whatever it be, pays any regard to human affairs.” — Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) — Natural History, Book ii, Sect. 20

“I don’t pretend to understand the universe–it’s much bigger than I am.” — Einstein

“If Shaw and Einstein couldn’t beat death, what chance have I got? Practically none.” — Mel Brooks

“Nobody ever complains that you are treating them like a child when you listen to their stories, encourage their dreams, and tell them how special they are.” — Callan Williams

“To certain individuals of small minds and overweening ambition, there is no greater insult than to be proved wrong.” — Thomas H Dyer 1984

“The most virtuous of all men is he that contents himself with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.” — Plato (B.C. 427?-347?)

And taste
The melancholy joy of evils past:
For he who much has suffer’d, much will know.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book xv, Line 434

Well, who knew? A comment on Life at Large, its ever-present counterpart, Death, and, how to cope with both… Not bad for off the cuff…
_____________________________

In spite of factors that have precluded much fresh material today, I think this is probably done, anyway. Oh, right, we’re here at the ass-end of section three, so it HAS to be done…. because I’m not going back to do it over now…. With that little piece of deliberately factoidal wordplay as my excuse, I’ll just slip out this door over here… See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Bump the aardvarks to the second seating….

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Ffolkes,

So much for planning…. It seems that I will have to wage war with my HMO to be able to live with any dignity; so be it. They’re the ones who are refusing to be flexible, or to make honest decisions based on rational reasons. So, I’ll take them to the court of public opinion over the next few months, and see how THEY like being raked over the coals of societal anger….. If I can get society on my side against them, it might work…. That being said, just as obscurely as I could, we can go on to bigger and better things….

Epiphany is, I find, an experience I’m finding hard to pin down to actual codification. No worries, though, as they don’t disappear, even if not immediately acted upon, as they usually insist upon; they come complete with enthusiasm, and their own sort of energy, created by the sheer exuberance of the manifestation experience. The one I had the other night, when conversing with my old friends, is shifting in outline the more I examine it, with the only clear issue coming to light being what I’m going to call The Search for Innovation….

Normally, I’d start ranting right there, detailing the idea I’m presenting, and taking a few well-earned shots at the Asininnies I hold as responsible for our plight today. Since, however, I’m not normal, I’m going to put that particular piece aside for a time, and let it percolate, because it doesn’t feel as if it’s quite done yet…. needs a few days more to cook in there.

Not only is it unwise to use food before it is well cooked, it is also unwise to use ideas before they are fully developed, lest they turn on us, and become toxic in themselves, just like a slab of meat we leave out too long…. No, I’m going to allow this epiphany to bake at the correct temperature, for a sufficient time to allow it to get done, all the way to the center….. Nobody likes a gooey center, do they?…. Not in a robust, world-saving concept they don’t…. They want it done all the way to the middle…

Now that I’ve completely mixed all the metaphors I could find, just to tell you we’re NOT ranting first off, and NOT yet detailing the inner workings of my recent ideas, but, rather, trundling along with no real direction or purpose, I am authorized to tell you we are nearing the end of today’s intro section, oddly enough, and will be heading off into the wilds of ECR in just a few moments….

Any hopes, dreams, or obsessive desires you may have acquired upon this short journey are completely your responsibility, and the management can not be held liable for any that are not fulfilled. Please leave the 3D glasses in the seat back in front of you, and exit to the rear when we come to a complete stop…. We hope you’ve enjoyed this small detour through the lobby, and hope you enjoy the rest of your day with us….

Shall we pearl?….

“…only here did the human soul in a higher sense acquire depth and become evil – and these are the two basic respects in which man has hitherto been  superior to other beasts!” — Friedrich Nietzsche
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Unbeknownst to you, or me before I began today, my work space is operating with a handicap. The overhead light has burnt out, and, since I have worn out over half of the keys on my keyboard, to the point where the letters are no longer visible, it’s getting really hard to see which letter I’m hitting…. Now, of course, if I were a typist of classical excellence, it wouldn’t matter, because my hands would always be in the correct position to strike the appropriate keys…. but, I’m not, in the ultimate sense… I do type well, and classically, most of the time, but, when composing, it’s a different matter, as there are pauses to think, or edit, or fix typos, which can break up the smooth flow of the words onto the screen…

So, here we are, a large paragraph later, a hundred words or more, simply to tell you that I’m not going to rant in this section, but will instead fill this one up with an old-school pearl, of unknown, and heretofore unseen, parameters…. Enjoy!….

— Bother! said Pooh, as he kicked Piglet’s ass. — Smart Bee

“Not only is life a bitch, it has puppies.” — Adrienne E. Gusoff

“Everything becomes a little different as soon as it is spoken out loud.” — Hermann Hesse

The Eternal is empty (like a bowl),
It may be used but its capacity is never exhausted.
It is bottomless, perhaps the ancestor of all things.
It unties its tangles,
It softens its light.
It becomes one with the dusty world.
Deep and still, it appears to exist forever.
I do not know whose son it is.
It seems to have existed before the Lord.

— Lao-Tzu (fl. B.C. 600)

Chiefs who no more in bloody fights engage,
But wise through time, and narrative with age,
In summer-days like grasshoppers rejoice,–
A bloodless race, that send a feeble voice.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Iliad of Homer, Book iii, Line 199

“Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but habituate yourself to something else.”  — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — How the Semblances of Things are to be combated, — Discourses, Book ii, Chap. xviii

“God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.” — Gaiman and Pratchett, Good Omens
_____________________________

I’m in an odd frame of mind today, all things considered…. There is only one poet to whom I turn, on days such as this….

Delight becomes pictorial
When viewed through pain,–
More fair, because impossible
That any gain.

The mountain at a given distance
In amber lies;
Approached, the amber flits a little,–
And that’s the skies!
 
~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

_____________________________

Below the line under this short paragraph, you will find a relatively ancient Pearl…. from October of 2011, it is in the format I used at the time, which consisted of an introduction section, where any comments, or ranting, I had on tap were placed, followed by a group of pearls forming another pearl, with a short closing…. This structure, in this exact form, is how the Daily Pearls looked back then….. Today, it is saving me the effort of searching out another old-school pearl, since, hey, here’s one right here…. Enjoy!….
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From 10/7/11:

Ffolkes,

The nature of Reality is a fascinating subject, due in part, I believe, to that part of its nature that is amorphous, ever-changing and unpredictable. It is also hard, uncompromisingly immutable, and always the same. In these two facets, it is much like us, coexisting on the edge of light/dark, sharp/dull, sweet/sour, pleasure/pain. As we feel, so our view of what is real changes to suit those feelings. But though our view of it will alter to fit our whim, reality itself is immune to such manipulation. Its nature is to provide the truth that our illusions keep us from seeing, not to change at our direction. But it too will change, for entropy is the rule for which exceptions exist (see below), and entropy cannot be denied.

Thus even though our nature is but a mirror of Reality, it is not Reality itself, wish as hard as we might that it would be so. We are left with only our reasoning mind to cope with the dichotomy. And that is fine, for we are also dichotomous by nature; all of our senses obtain their information from the universe by registering presence/absence of substance (touch), molecules (smell), air waves (hearing), more molecules (taste), and photons (sight). So dichotomy is something with which our minds are comfortable.

But, though we can be comfortable with perceiving Reality, we still must be cautious, because danger, by its nature, is duplicitous, and can hide right out in the seemingly open. Our perceptions require us to review their veracity on a regular basis, lest surprises occur. Surprises, while nice coming from one’s boy- or girl-friend, can be rather unwelcome coming from Reality.

Especially those little conundrums that Life always seems to hand us that have their roots in the past; old debts, old friends, old enemies, all have a tendency to show up in our lives just when they are least welcome. Goes to show, I guess, that the old saw about an ounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure makes a lot of sense when considered in that respect. Leading us back to another old saw…..be alert! The world needs more lerts. And so do we…..

“I went in search of my art, often in danger of my life. I have not been ashamed to learn those things which to me have seemed useful — even from vagabonds, barbers, and executioners. For we know how a lover will go a long way to meet the woman that he loves. How much the more, then, will the lover of wisdom be tempted to go in search of his divine mistress!” — Paracelsus

“The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears.” — John Vance Cheney

“I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We’ve created life in our own image.” — Stephen Hawking

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

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

“To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence;  supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.” — Sun Tzu (fl. c. BC 500)

“If for every rule there is an exception, then we have established that there is an exception to every rule. If we accept “For every rule there is an exception” as a rule, then we must concede that there may not be an exception after all, since the rule states that there is always the possibility of exception, and if we follow it to its logical end we must agree that there can be an exception to the rule that for every rule there is an exception.” — Bill Boquist

Well! I don’t know about y’all, but I feel MUCH better!…… y’all take care out there…..
_____________________________

I’d say, more or less, this Pearl is pretty much typical for the breed…. Why I’d say that, I don’t know for sure, but, it FEELS true, so, we’ll go with it, and pretend it is, even if it isn’t…. Isn’t it amazing, how I can pull so many words out of an insane, completely useless piece of introspective nonsense?…. Well, I think so….

As long as nobody shoots me, or hauls me away to some dingy, freezing, rat-infested back room in some fleabag hotel, to beat me with a rubber hose, in a vain, forlorn attempt to force me to retract my strong words, against the BRC and the churches, bless their little black hearts and souls, well, I’ll be back tomorrow…. Okay, so, MAYBE I’ll get struck by an attack of common sense, or perhaps extreme embarrassment, but, otherwise…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Moustachioed cheerleaders have feelings, too….

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2

Ffolkes,

 

Saved by the WalrusEpisode I

In Which The Author Abandons All Pretense of Consensual Exploration of Reality in Light of Current Events, Acknowledges the Failure of The Current Model of Society, and Prepares the World to Save Itself.
Sort of.


Did you hear that? I did…. It’s the delicate “ding” that sounds at the precise moment an epiphany makes itself known to us, generally accompanied by a slap of the hand to the forehead, and a loud exclamation, that sounds suspiciously like, “Doh!”….. . It’s also a monumental instance of the triumph of reason and hope over despair, in addition to whatever other benefits may manifest themselves.

This evening, in close consultation with Jim, and our old friend John, I believe I may have solved the entire set of problems with which mankind is plagued at this juncture in time…. I’m not certain yet, but, I’m pretty positive that the idea(s) that stormed through my mind tonight will, if nothing else, give me hope….. If, however, I can make them at all real, they COULD even give us a small chance of prevailing against our own stupidity…. Just possibly, they may help us to survive the impending environmental meltdown the we are slated to experience at this point….

I know that’s a bit obscure, but, I don’t want to issue a complete spoiler…. let it be enough to say that I’ve discovered a way that we MIGHT just be able to utilize the fringe talents of humanity to save the great unwashed masses of the rest of us…. Zen Taoism. Peruaosophy. You tube. The Internet. Witches. Empaths. Telepathy. Chemistry. Physics. Asininnies. Ffolkes. Folks. Crystals. Plants. Insects. Animals…..  All of these, and more, will be of use, if what I’ve envisioned can be realized in the real world, in a more imaginative and creative way than has been heretofore the case….

Life, Hope, Love, Compassion, Art, Music, Poetry, all the finer, more beautiful aspects of our nature, and our world today, will be preserved, if what has come to me can be accomplished. I am, as yet, unsure, but, what I see as a possible course for reality to take, with the proper application of the inherent abilities we have to inflict our own will to change reality, is one that just might save us from our own ignorance….

We have tried the way to approach life as evidenced in recorded history, which has, by all accounts, always relied upon brute force, ambition, and self-interest as the primary factors that influence the direction of our species’ development, in both a physical, and a spiritual sense…. We see now the result of that direction chosen, which leads inevitably, and, irrevocably, to a long time period of severe travail for the entire world of living creatures on this planet, likely ending in the death of all living species, with the only hope for life the chance to start over, in a biological sense….

This path also means a period of time for humanity, BEFORE we all pass into history, when we will suffer terror, despair, and depredations of hardship previously unknown, as the weather changes, along with our ability to adapt,  and, verily, the planet itself, begins to cleanse itself of the pollutants and chemical catalysts, pumped into the air by our insistence on a profitable bottom line…..

This is a process that, as scientific evidence has already proved, includes the certainty, over time, of unalterable chemical changes, that will eventually turn our atmosphere into a completely foreign composition, compared to what we now know, until we are no longer able to breathe it; it will have become poisonous to us…. There are a hundred reasons I could present you to try to demonstrate just how bad the situation is, but, they all lead to one conclusion, and that is that our time will be over on this plane of reality very much sooner than anyone had thought, or realized, unless something VERY drastic occurs to change what is now taking place, in both a physical, and a spiritual sense….

You see, the next evolutionary stage for humanity is one that not all of us will be taking…. I know that is a hard thing to think about, especially if it must be applied personally…. Not even those of us comfortable with what may happen after we die are completely easy with the whole idea of dying…. It remains a pretty scary unknown, all in all….

In addition, none of us like to think about the death of our loved ones, or our descendants… After all, our entire purpose as a species is to try to ensure the continuance of that species, so, thinking about the almost-certain end of that is, to say the least, a bit difficult to accept as real….

Which brings me back to the epiphany…. Reality is capable of changing under the influence of the human will… This is, perhaps, an assertion without full proof in hand, but, in light of my own experience, and of the many instances in recorded history in which the human will played a large part in how the final picture appeared, I think it can be used as a working theory, if nothing else, for the purposes of this discussion…. which, I see, has already grown far beyond my original intent when I began…. This, after all is just the beginning… If my epiphany is not a drug induced fantasy, it may just change the course of human events, and alter reality as we know it in ways that even I cannot imagine…..

If that isn’t an intro, hell, I don’t know what is….. and, a hell of an intro it is….

Shall we Pearl?….

“The problem … is that we have run out of dinosaurs to form oil with. Scientists working for the Department of Energy have tried to form oil using other animals; they’ve piled thousands of tons of sand and Middle Eastern countries on top of cows, raccoons, haddock, laboratory rats, etc., but so far all they have managed to do is run up an enormous bulldozer-rental bill and anger a lot of Middle Eastern persons.  None of the animals turned into oil, although most of the laboratory rats developed cancer.” — Dave Barry, Postpetroleum Guzzler
_____________________________

“The time has come,” the Walrus said,
“To talk of many things:
Of shoes–and ships–and sealing-wax–
Of cabbages–and kings–
And why the sea is boiling hot–
And whether pigs have wings.”

~~ Lewis Carroll ~~
from Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872

When I close my eyes, sometimes, I can hear it…. Maybe you can, too. I hope so, The more of us who can, gives me hope for those who don’t….

I can hear the murmuring voices, too soft to make out any words or sense, but, always there, in the background of my mind’s attention to what I perceive…. It takes a bit of concentration to hear it, at first, but, with time, it becomes more of a real perception, and thus, subject to both reason, and will….

What do I hear? I hear mankind, suffering in silence. I hear everyone’s inner self, alone, crying out for company, and the comfort of simple touch, in a terrifying universe full of indifferent powers we don’t understand, desperate to know there is another mind out there that feels, that is afraid, that wants more….. I hear the cries of innocents, and the screams of the oppressed and abused. I hear the bombs and guns singing their song of death and destruction. I hear the hissing grunts as the bankers count their gelt…. I hear my own voice, telling me, time and time again, how hopeless it all is, that it’s too late…. And it hurts to know it’s true….

Yet, what I hear is possibly our salvation, as well….. Mankind exists on a bell curve; I’ve said this before, and it remains true. Much of human progress has always been accomplished according to the efforts of those on the curve who live at the ends, whether they are very, very smart and/or with extraordinary abilities, or very, very simple, with other types of abilities, not always appreciated, but there, nonetheless… I believe that the key to our survival as a species is now dependent upon how well we can learn to utilize those fringe abilities to our advantage….

Mankind has many mental strengths which we seldom use; this is patently obvious, given the state of affairs in the world. Reality has proven to be malleable to the human will, when it is applied in the correct manner; used poorly, the universe just plows on under its own power, and will flatten anyone getting in its way like the proverbial pancake. But, when we learn to use our will in the manner in which it works best, then we can accomplish amazing things, altering Reality according to our desires and/or needs….

The key to utilizing the untapped power we have to change reality is not to be found if we continue, as a species, and culture (as amorphous as it may be with so many different parts to that culture world-wide….), to put our physical and personal wants and needs ahead of our spiritual and communal needs. We need to acknowledge that allowing self-interest to guide the decision making process can only lead to the horrors we are now facing. It is now not merely desirable, but, imperative that Mankind develop a connection to the inner spirit which we possess, but, not with the delusional submission of that spirit to an imaginary supernatural friend, but, with clear, open eyes and compassionate intent for all guiding both our perceptive capabilities, and our actions….

In other words, we need to look inward, and connect with those others in our species who are similarly inclined, to search for, and, hopefully to find, a way to unleash the power of the mind on the problems we face, even though the immediacy of those problems will not make it easy….. As  I see it right now, we don’t have many options at all, and if placing some hope on the human talents that are now hidden, or poorly understood will cause change, any change, in what people are DOING, then, I’ll do all I can to promote that campaign… Hell, as I said, and, as I see it, we don’t have much choice, so, why the hell not?….. Let’s go find some magic, and some telepaths, and a dragon or two, to help us turn the tide against the forces of stupidity that have ruled our society since the beginning of our history….

So, that’s what I’m going to do as my new project, out in the Big Blue Room, and here on the internet…. I’m going to look for the fringe elements of our society and culture, those that have a connection to the true nature of reality, and have shown it in the past. I figure at least one or two of them ought to have an idea, if only of where to look next, and if it helps me find and pull together the resources that are necessary, then, it’s worth a shot, in my mind…. and, it will give me something to do other than worry about how much time is left to get it done…..

Wish me luck…. If I’m right, and succeed, at all, there is hope…. If I don’t, well, nothing will change, and we all know how that story is going to end, don’t we?…..

“Until the pain of remaining the same hurts more than the pain of change, most people prefer to remain the same.” — Richard D. Dobbins

“A process which led from amoeba to man appeared to the philosophers to be obviously progress – though whether the amoeba would agree with this opinion is not known.” — Bertrand Russell

Those oft are stratagems which errors seem,
Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Criticism, Part i, Line 177

I won’t say I’m sorry, because, hey, I’m not…. but, the 3-star pearl finish is just because I really like all three, and, upon inspection as a whole, fit the above rather nicely…. “Onward”, he said, with obvious delight at the serendipity….

_____________________________

Only one poem will do today, and if I have to say what it is, I’ve slipped somewhere in the assessment of my Gentle Readers…. so, here ’tis, with no ado at all…. Oh, well, okay, one ado…. It’s a link, and a short excerpt consisting of the first four stanzas, because the entire piece is too long to put in here, and still expect everybody to get to the rest of today’s effort…. Most have read it at one time or another, so, just remember, please, it’s a great read, and, just now, seems to be more than just a bit of scary in it’s apparent power of prediction, or premonition, in a metaphorical sense, if not literal…. If the stanza above doesn’t EXACTLY describe Reality in 2014, then I’ll be looking for the letter, from the government, offering to hire me to train the pigs…. Enjoy, ffolkes!….. As you know already, this is genius at work….

The Walrus and The Carpenter

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright–
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

The moon was shining sulkily,
Because she thought the sun
Had got no business to be there
After the day was done–
“It’s very rude of him,” she said,
“To come and spoil the fun!”
glass20-small walrus & carpenter
The sea was wet as wet could be,
The sands were dry as dry.
You could not see a cloud, because
No cloud was in the sky:
No birds were flying overhead–
There were no birds to fly.

The Walrus and the Carpenter
Were walking close at hand;
They wept like anything to see
Such quantities of sand:
“If this were only cleared away,”
They said, “it would be grand!”

~~ Lewis Carrol ~~

http://www.jabberwocky.com/carroll/walrus.html


_____________________________

I wouldn’t say my work above is a rant, particularly, but, it’s long enough for one, and has some juice to it, so, we’ll count it as one…. Besides, this way, I get to put out an old-school pearl, which, for me, is much simpler to produce, given my restrictions as to time spent in a chair….. Don’t fret, no whining, just lustrous, gorgeous, well, unknown, pearls, whose single unifying characteristic, today, is that they all are there, in the group…. That’s it…. they’re there….

“If there are self-made purgatories, then we all have to live in them.” — Spock, “This Side of Paradise,” stardate 3417.7.

“It has been said that there are two theories of history: conspiracy and blunder. If there is some truth to that, it is surely equally true that blunder seldom receives all the credit due it as an explanation of complex events.” — Michael Scully

“Not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole.  — Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) — Letter to Bolingbroke, March 21, 1729

“… and the first lesson is: Never lose the alternative way out of sight.” — Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

“Blessed is he who has learned to laugh at himself, for he shall never cease to be entertained.” — John Powell

“A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes

“You cannot learn to fly by flying. First you must learn to walk, to run, to climb, to dance.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

At this point, this is a very fine seven-star pearl, of excellent luster…. but, the following just insists on being included, and I didn’t have the heart to say no….

“For my own part I have never had a thought which I could not set down in words with even more distinctness than which I conceived it. There is however a class of fancies of exquisite delicacy which are not thoughts and to which as yet I have found it absolutely impossible to adapt to language.  These fancies arise in the soul, alas how rarely, only at epics of most intense tranquility when the bodily and mental health are in perfection, and those mere points of time when the confines of the waking world blend with the world of dreams. And so I captured this fancy where all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream….” — Edgar Allan Poe
_____________________________

Having not looked at the entire piece yet, I don’t know how long this came out…. probably quite…. ‘S okay, though, cuz it’s all real, and all fresh, even counting what I wrote last evening, after my conversation with James and John. The poem, of course, is not fresh, but, it may yet be again, who’s to say? Not me…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

 

 

gigoid

dozer3

A very private Bozo in most respects….

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4

Ffolkes,

Thirty-some minutes later, I woke up, and tried again…. It’s pointless for me to get upset now; the damage is done, and mostly cleaned up, so no further time needs to be spent on this morning’s major flare-up of Murphyism, or in this instance, my own bozoid tendencies interacting with Murphy’s due diligence…. Hmm… that’s even more obscure than I intended, and is perfect proof that this entire process may not be a good idea today…. At the rate things are progressing, by the time I can finish a Pearl, or even a pearl, I’ll have lost a limb, and the house will be on fire….

I can’t chance it, ffolkes…. I’ve just completed the final clean-up task to be accomplished, and reality is up in active arms against me. Every action is being challenged, somehow, by another little piece of the environment, or maybe it’s by the coming to fruition of a long period of ripening potentiality, having been planted and nurtured by Murphy’s myrmidons while I slept. Thirteen years ago, when I first began to send out Pearls, I called what I was doing Gigoid’s Folly; (This was before I decided ‘gigoid’ was NOT to be capitalized… It’s easier to avoid ego-involvement without that kind of reminder each time one types it….)….. I’m thinking, now, perhaps, I should go back to that….

Nope, not necessary, nor is any of the above of any cosmic, or even mundane, significance to speak of…. Not that such matters matter, but, I do try to keep in at least what SEEMS to be minimum contact with at least a small portion or reality…. I also realize that isn’t always possible for me, so, just try to keep an open mind, and we may just get somewhere today….. Or not, the choice is not yet made, thank goodness….

Your guess as to where we might get to is as good as mine…. Take a second or two, and clear your mind…. Please… Now, re-read that last paragraph, without any context to the one above or below…. Now, tell me what it means…. That’s right, ffolkes, you’re correct…. I’ve slipped my moor completely…. My boat is drifting in the current, heading out to the open sea with no one at the tiller…. I’m going to have to resort to some pretty heavy-duty techniques now to get us back on the right path….

I know, we’ll use those time-tested politician’s tools, emotional manipulation and denial…..

I have no idea what you’re talking about, and I don’t know that woman; your lack of faith in me is very hurtful!…. I’m only here to get this Pearl fixed, so quit bothering me, will ya?….. Sheesh, what a man will do for less than minimum wages….

As you can now tell, it’s all gone to hell, and there is no further hope of achieving any sort of coherence now, or even rationality. I may have to send out for some completely outsourced material…. Ah well, at least I’ve screwed around long enough to call this an intro…. It doesn’t mean anything, it’s too long, and it’s almost believable, if one completely ignores the fact of its existence altogether…. Kind of Zen existentialist fundamentalism, you know?  Let’s see if Smart Bee is going to be of any help, and get on with this….

Shall we Pearl?

“Wise to resolve, and patient to perform.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book iv, Line 372
_____________________________

“Naturally the common people don’t want war. But after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy of a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. all you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.” — Hermann Goerring, Reich Marshall at the Nuremberg trials after WWII.

Sound familiar? It should; it’s been a matter of public record for over 65 years, and gets reiterated rather regularly when our government once again jumps into another “police action”, or “aggressive negotiations”, or some other form of what would otherwise be called war. I first saw it during the protests over the war in Vietnam, again for Cambodia, then Nicaragua, then Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, and all the other military action our troops have seen since the end of the Korean Action in 1950.

Funny how that little clause in the Constitution has been pretty thoroughly thrown out the window in that time, isn’t it? We haven’t seen a Congressional declaration of war for many, many years, in spite of the Constitutional decree that our troops were not to go to battle without such a decree…. The presidents from Eisenhower to Obama have ignored any such requirement, and have been supported, both tacitly and overtly, by the Congress, and the Courts, who have completely ignored any and all challenges to those actions….

The above statement, by Goerring, comes up on my computer screen at times, as part of the slide show I use as a background for the desktop…. Almost every time I see it, I am reminded of not only the World Wars, and the Korean War, but of all the “non-wars” that this country has been forced to become involved in since 1953 or 54, after Korea had stabilized into its modern format. In the intervening 60 years, all but two American Presidents have engaged in some kind of clandestine warfare, complete with deployment of troops, weapons, and ideology, forcing that ideology on some other part of the world, and justifying it by saying that we, the American people, were under attack by someone, or something….

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” — H.P. Lovecraft, ‘Supernatural Horror in Literature’

“Creeping Communism” was what they were afraid of back then, when I was a kid, but, the people who need to have a war going to maintain their bottom line (I’ve previously called them the shadowy corporate masters…. Goerring just called them the leaders of the nation…) have sought, and found, any number of other targets for their accusations, pointing their panicked fingers at whomever they had on tap for their vitriol….

Mao Ze Dong, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, Kruschev, Che Guevara, Al Qaeda, Hussein, Khomeini, Qaddafi, bin Laden, all these, and/or whatever ideological fantasy they wished to cook up, all have been rotated through the public’s consciousness as the various villains of the moment, as the one’s I’ve labeled the Asininnies continue to use them, to direct the fears of the populace, so they can continue to sell arms, spy on everything and everybody without constraint, and, in truth, play their silly-ass game of Risk with the entire world….

Guess who loses at that game? Yep…. you, and me, and all of them, too….

Given the morning I’ve had thus far, I’m astounded I was able to rant at all, much less coherently…. but, there it is…. I hope it helps you enjoy your bagel this morning…. I know it isn’t cream cheese, but, it’s corny, it’s got some juice, and it’s fresh, so….

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil.” — Old Testament — Isaiah v, 20
_____________________________

A three-fer, from a twentieth century societal poet, a brilliant man, with too much heart for the world….

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can’t readily accept the God formula, the big answers don’t remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command or faith a dictum. I am my own God.
We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” — Charles Bukowski

Nirvana

not much chance,

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

Pull A String, A Puppet Moves

each man must realize
that it can all disappear very
quickly:
the cat, the woman, the job,
the front tire,
the bed, the walls, the
room; all our necessities
including love,
rest on foundations of sand –
and any given cause,
no matter how unrelated:
the death of a boy in Hong Kong
or a blizzard in Omaha …
can serve as your undoing.
all your chinaware crashing to the
kitchen floor, your girl will enter
and you’ll be standing, drunk,
in the center of it and she’ll ask:
my god, what’s the matter?
and you’ll answer: I don’t know,
I don’t know …

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

_____________________________

I’ve reached this section with a finite amount of time to finish this Pearl before the outside world intrudes…. so, this will be (should be) a quick, random harlequin pearl, old school variety, and I hope it works….

“You did then what you knew how to do. When you knew better, you did better. You are spirit who did what you had to do, but you are not that thing.” — Maya Angelou

“Fear is not in the habit of speaking truth.  When perfect sincerity is expected, perfect freedom must be allowed;  nor has anyone who is apt to be angry when he hears the truth, any cause to wonder that he does not hear it.” — Tacitus

“There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous.” — Hannah Arendt

“If there is happiness on earth, it must be sought in the abode where we live.” — Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) French Philosopher

“At present there are such goings-on that everything is at a standstill.” — Sir Boyle Roche

REALITY, n.  The dream of a mad philosopher.  That which would remain in the cupel if one should assay a phantom.  The nucleus of a vacuum. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“..  Now I think I just reached the state of HYPERTENSION that comes JUST BEFORE you see the TOTAL at the SAFEWAY CHECKOUT COUNTER!” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

In posting this Pearl, I acknowledge my own culpability, except to say, the standards usually applied herein were completely absent today, so, use caution in using any of this as either true wisdom, or actual entertainment beyond the 3rd grade level…. Other than that, I think we’re good to go, typos and all…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3