Tag Archives: Aristotle

Our favorite source for eclectic pants….

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Ffolkes,

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t miss ol’ Gumption…. He was the finest example a man could ever want to see, the all-around best kind of example, of how valuable it can be having a real, verifiable, mother-lovin’ orangutan running your town…. Not to say he was the best dressed mayor we’ve ever had, but, he made up for that by havin’ way more than his share of common sense, and a fine, well-honed sense of humor…. He was real smart about kissin’ babies, too, seemed to just love the little tykes…. and there sure weren’t any worries that he’d be making time with his secretary!….

Of course, it was a mite difficult at times, figuring out just what he was trying to say, but, most of the folks in town got real good at that there sign language he used to use to talk, so that big issue about those campaign promises was sure to blow over, once the right translation got circulated…. It was all a misunderstanding over the sign for “practice”, which, unfortunately, is almost identical to the sign for “masturbation”…. It could have happened to anyone!…. Yep, we’re gonna miss having some Gumption in the town hall, that’s for sure….

However, I’m even more sure that none of us will miss those two paragraphs, now that they’re done…. We can put them firmly behind us, and leave them there, with no regrets whatsoever…. Not only are there no regrets at being done with them, there is GREAT RELIEF, engendered, no doubt, by the realization of just how BAD they are…. Even as I was writing them, I could barely keep myself from tossing my cookies all over the keyboard, which, as we all know, is never a good idea…. It tends to make the rest of the day one of complete and utter chaos…. I don’t know about y’all, but, I’m not going there, not for anything….

Hence, the 360 turn upon completing the second paragraph above….. I mean, the concept of starting off with a bit of humor was a good one, and, in retrospect, actually showed some potential, especially the part about the orangutan in the town hall… Hell, it worked for Clint, right? But, it takes a bit more elegant prose than what I came up with to make it work, even if the elegance may be hard to find while using a southern-fried accent, with all the corn it implies….. The chopping off of consonants at the end of words was making it hard to type quickly, or efficiently, too, so there was that to account for….

What was I thinking? Well, I WAS thinking a bit of change might be nice…. but, I suppose it should be planned out a bit more thoroughly than this, eh? It isn’t quite one of my hidden talents, I’m guessing, to write an intro like that when I’m still in the stone-cold-brain stage of my morning routine…. Oh well, as a scientist, I’m not likely to hold on to the experience too long; no experiment is worth getting all worked up over, especially one that is a complete failure in most respects….

No, indeed, we don’t worry about stuff like failed experiments here at ECR….We just shrug our shoulders, and go on our merry, scientific way, to the next experiment, and the next introductory section, where we LIVE to experiment! Well, maybe not LIVE for it….. but, we definitely LOVE it!

Besides, it always gives me something else to write about, a process which, though it is a constant drain on my creativity, needing all the help it can get, nonetheless makes every word I write worthwhile…. Well…. we like to think so, anyway…. and, it keeps me from thinking about all the idiots out there the world would be better off without, which is what my mind tends to dwell upon, given the opportunity to do so…..

Shall we Pearl?…. Today, I think it would be best to do so, quickly….

“If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.” — Montesquieu
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Day after tomorrow, I’m going on another cruise…. This one is a little short one, just a few days to Mexico and back, out of L.A….. I’ll be trying to post, but, we’ll see how it goes with the internet on board…. Often, the system they have isn’t up to the task of posting anything other than text, which, for me, is the hardest part to produce when I’m cruising…. Pictures I’ve taken are much more fun to put up, but the network on board the ships I’ve seen varies a lot in the bandwidth available for uploading… I had no problems on board the Celebrity ship in Europe, but all the Princess ships I’ve been on have been less than satisfactory, to say the least…. They’re also WAY overpriced, in terms of access charges per minute….

What that means for right now, though, is an old-school pearl for this section, because that’s what I FEEL like doing…. I’m not yet in enough of a state to rant, and don’t feel like it right now, anyway… I’ve got the grump on, for sure, but, don’t feel quite enough angst to carry it off yet…. hence, this paean to laziness…. Follow the bouncing ideas, ffolkes, and let this pearl lead you right where I want you to go, in your minds, which is where I will leave you today, so it will be easier to find your way back…. Enjoy!…. or not…. As always, the decision as to that remains as an exercise for the Gentle Reader….

“He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.” — Henry Ward Beecher

“You can stand me up at the gates of Hell, but I won’t back down.” — T. Petty

“The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness, and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.” — Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

“Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.” — Epicurus

“Even a cabbage may look at a king.” — Smart Bee

(Look at this one again; think on it a while…. There is more here than meets the ear…..)

“It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book i, Chap. ix, Of Liars

— Bother! said Pooh, when he mixed up the Ben-Gay and the K-Y Jelly.

(Oh!… Ouch!…. Sorry,  that just happened…. I’ll try again for a good closer…. Disregard that one, please; it’s a plant, put there by one of Murphy’s myrmidons, no doubt….)

“Truth is merely common sense, says the naive realist. Really? Then where, precisely, is the location of–a rainbow? In the air? In the eye? In between? Or somewhere else?” — Edward Abbey

That’s better….. Sorry again for the disruption, ffolkes, I’ll double my security at the doors…. Oh, wait, I don’t have ANY security at the doors… Hmm, well, since there’s no budget for that, anyway, we’ll just have to put up with the occasional double entry…. If we move on quickly enough, maybe they’ll think we didn’t even notice, and give up…. Sure, that’s the ticket…. Okay, onward…
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Again, a poem that requires no ups, no extras…..

I died for beauty but was scarce
Adjusted in the tomb,
When one who died for truth was lain
In an adjoining room.

He questioned softly why I failed?
“For beauty,” I replied.
“And I for truth,–the two are one;
We brethren are,” he said.

And so, as kinsmen met a night,
We talked between the rooms,
Until the moss had reached our lips,
And covered up our names.
 
~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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When I read a poem like the one above, I get a feeling in me, that if I could die, for beauty, or for truth, I could be content with life…. Perhaps it’s just me, but, given the popularity over time of Emily’s poetry, so I rather think that such is a fairly common reaction to the power of her visions, rather than something unusual in me…. This is true in spite of the funny looks I’ve received all my life whenever I’ve admitted to such feelings in front of my peers….. Being the stubbornly independent sort of cuss I am, such looks only fueled my desire to BE different, instead of persuading me to conform to custom, to “Man Up!”, have another beer, & put down a bet on the next football game…

Well, sorry, dudes, I’m Man enough, and don’t much care for beer any more…. Plus, I’ve been over football for many years, having grown weary long ago of all the commercialism that infuses every level of the sport, from Pop Warner’s five year old linemen to the nursing homes taking care of the 45 year-old NFL veterans with degenerative arthritis, who can’t walk by themselves anymore…..

Football, baseball, basketball, soccer, and, every other kind of sporting endeavor in which people engage, as far as possible in the last hundred years, has been completely commercialized, channeling and shaping society itself into the modern format, wherein a system is in place to find and train the best in each of those sports, over the course of the youth of the player pool in each country, with the full cooperation of government, schools, and society in general.

This system of sports leagues, associations, rules, and advertisement, allowed unchecked in schools, while simultaneously encouraged in society at large, ensures there will be a never-ending supply of talented players for each sport, so that a very small number of people can make a very large amount of money, buying and selling that talent, and packaging it in the glamor of professional sports….

The entire pantheon of sporting figures we are forced to watch on television is, ultimately, just another distraction, encouraged by those shadowy corporate entities who control society from the wings…. They are the perfect way to keep large portions of the populace quiet and occupied, making up fantasy leagues, vicariously living through the eyes of cameras that lionize the activities of the players, who take classes in college to learn how to talk to reporters…. so they won’t embarrass their schools, their teams, or their owners…. who are the final arbiters of what will take place in those venues, of course….

As a former athlete myself, it’s a sad thing to watch….. But, then, most of what I see in society today is pretty sad, as none of what I see acknowledges any of the problems that are so obvious to me… The world just goes on, fussing and feuding, worrying about whether or not their local quarterback will be able to maintain THEIR reputation around the country, as the local papers would have us believe when they parade his latest exploits all over the section devoted to sports news….

I don’t know how I got going on this, but, it seems to have turned on me, into a short, if cogent rant on the state of the state, as it were…. and I don’t see it as a good state…. Of course, there’s nothing particularly new and fresh about that…. The issues I see, and talk about, have been building up for a long time…. many centuries, in fact. But, the difference between what I am saying in my rants and what has gone before is critical, to my mind….

The issues I’m speaking of in my rants are real, and, like it or not, we have reached a point in our history when ALL of the evil that has been done will be coming home to roost…. The acts of deliberate cupidity being enacted by the corporate masters, who believe in their own invulnerability, are going to have serious consequences, for them, as well as for us….

The carbon (monoxide, dioxide, or any other oxide…. doesn’t matter, none of them belong there in such quantities….) being pumped into the atmosphere each SECOND, by industry and vehicles, is going to reach a point of no return; in fact, it may have already done so…. At that point, our survival as a species will become a question rather than a certainty…..

I, for one, am not looking forward to those times, as it may just turn into what we’ve been led to believe Ragnarök, or Armageddon might look like by some of our more visionary, and visually oriented, religions…. Whatever it is like, even the corporate masters aren’t going to like it, because even their money won’t help….

Sorry to be so gloomy…. I just got to thinking about all of this, and decided to let it flow out, to get some of it off my chest…. Maybe somebody who needs to see it will come by, and start the movement to save the world…. If so, great…. if not, well, there’s always tomorrow, right?….

Well, maybe not always…..

“Why, when no honest man will deny in private that every ultimate problem is wrapped in the profoundest mystery, do honest men proclaim in pulpits that unhesitating certainty is the duty of the most foolish and ignorant?  Is it not a spectacle to make the angels laugh? We are a company of ignorant beings, feeling our way through mists and darkness, learning only be incessantly repeated blunders, obtaining a glimmering of truth by falling into every conceivable error, dimly discerning light enough for our daily needs, but hopelessly differing whenever we attempt to describe the ultimate origin or end of our paths; and yet, when one of us ventures to declare that we don’t know the map of the universe as well as the map of our infinitesimal parish, he is hooted, reviled, and perhaps told that he will be damned to all eternity for his faithlessness…” — Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), “An agnostic’s Apology”, — Fortnightly Review, 1876
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I have the feeling this came out okay, but, I can never be sure…. I guess I won’t find out unless I go check it out, so, here goes….. Okay, well, it’s definitely a Pearl, and as such, I declare it done…. This means I can go now, right? Oh, good…. I think I may have hurt myself somewhere…. Oh, wait, never mind, that’s just my pride, which I see I’ve dumped in the trash…..  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

It’s no more than they deserve, you know….

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​

Ffolkes,

It has become apparent to me that I am now a piece of well-done toast…. I’m done, stick a fork in me….. It’s 0615 in the AM…. I’m up, albeit reluctantly, and only because I was coughing too hard to sleep any more. Since I’d crashed again last night at about 7 PM, I was done with laying down, so, my body decided to wake up and goad me into action. Given that all there is to consume, without getting up and leaving, is motel coffee (shudder….), you may guess, I’m NOT a happy camper….

So unhappy, in fact, I’m making another executive decision…. I’m going off line for a day or two, so this will be the last Pearl, probably until Monday, or perhaps, Tuesday, depending on how quickly I recover once I wind my way home on Saturday…. I’ll be leaving the area where I’ve been visiting this afternoon, after a final couple of visits, combined with a short wake for Carole at the graveside in Templeton. I plan to drive until I am about to give out, then stay overnight somewhere, until Saturday, when I’ll make it home, probably in two jumps, with a long rest in between…

This cold is kicking my ass…. Yesterday, I managed only one visit, with my friend Chuck, and that visit, which involved a 30 mile drive, round trip, almost did me in… By the time I got back to the motel, I was done for the day, though I didn’t know it… I talked to one other classmate, then fell out for a two hour nap, followed by a quick, small dinner in the room, and then bed, at 7, as I mentioned….. I’ve deliberately put off calling a number of other friends, just because I’m too tired to even make small talk, or summon any enthusiasm at all… I am NOT used to being so damned weak and old, and, dammit, it’s a pain in the proverbial ass, to be sure….

Even these three paragraphs are more than I expected to be able to write today, as I am just not with it at all… So, I’m going to try to put together a very short pearl or two today, then give up for a couple days, returning when I have the energy to do it right…. or, as right as it ever gets around here…. Hopefully, I’ll still HAVE a reader or two by then….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Dying is a very dull, dreary affair.   And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.” — W. Somerset Maugham
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“Under current law, it is a crime for a private citizen to lie to a government official, but not for the government official to lie to the people.” — Donald M. Fraser

Boy, if THAT isn’t truth, I don’t know what is!….. Since I don’t have the energy to rant, below you will find three links, two of which, the cartoon by Mark Fiore, and the report on the comments by the House of Representative’s chief idiot, should suffice to provide you with enough to know what might have been ranted on…. The third is an example of the kind of nonsense that the media uses to distract us from more relevant material, keeping the public’s attention focused on crap that really has no bearing on much of anything…. Any who, this is all you get, so, please use it wisely….

http://blog.sfgate.com/fiore/2013/11/06/lil-nsa-spy-kit/

(Always spot on, and a good summation of the issue, all in all…)

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2013/11/07/boehners-dismissal-of-gay-rights-bill-frivolous-litigation/

(What amazes me is that these people, these Republicans, still don’t have ANY idea of what they’re doing wrong, or why people are so upset with them….)

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/News-of-the-Day-From-Across-the-Nation-November-8-4966046.php

(Money, money, paranoia, paranoia, paranoia, police killing with more paranoia…. pretty distracting, isn’t it?….)

“Lust of power is the most flagrant of all the passions.” — Tacitus (55?-120?)
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Just a little bit of Emily to start the day….

A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!
Your prayers, oh Passer by!
From such a common ball as this
Might date a Victory!
From marshallings as simple
The flags of nations swang.
Steady — my soul: What issues
Upon thine arrow hang!

    ~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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Here, then, is a final pearl, put together as quickly as possible, as I’m nearing the absolute limit to my morning energy, and still have a lot to do today…. Enjoy!

“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.” — Socrates

“Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.” — Charlie McCarthy

“Ignorance can be compounded, made denser, until the light of our spirits is smothered.” — Deng Ming-Dao

“Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.” — Lazarus Long

“A lady lost her cat, and took the cat in a little casket up to a big church and said, “I want you to bury my cat.” And they run her off. She went to another church, and they run her off. She took the cat to a Baptist church on the edge of town, and told the preacher she couldn’t find nobody to hold a service for her dead cat. And the man talked to her bad. “How dare you think that we bury cats?” She said, “Well, I’m frustrated and I’m prepared to give two thousand dollars to whoever gives a service for my cat.” And the preacher said, “Lady, why didn’t you tell me your cat was a Baptist?” — Jerry Clower

“To err is human. To blame it on someone else is politics.” — Hubert H. Humphrey

“Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.” — Aristotle (384-322BC)

Not bad at all for an eight-minute, seven-star pearl….
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Okay, so there you have it….  If you don’t see any post here tomorrow, or the next day, you’ll already know why…. I’ve done all the damage I can do, so, I’m outta here…. See ya, provided I survive this cold…. I will survive, I’m sure, I just may not enjoy it….

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

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

Which is Why…


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

gigoid

dozer3

For your safety, we use ONLY the BEST metaphors….

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Ffolkes,

Never having been one to deny myself new experiences, here I am, up and writing, wide awake, at 0335 in the AM…. Over the last few days, I’ve been plagued by a physical side-effect of quitting smoking, one that nobody bothers to mention to those of us considering the move; they just wait for it to hit us, AFTER we’ve already learned to do without the surcease to the spirit that smoking supplies…. I’m speaking of the incessant coughing that I’m experiencing, whether I smoke anything or not…. I’ve given up the cigarettes, though not without some trepidation for losing an old friend; the trade-off of twenty extra years of life is well worth it….

I’m not sure that giving up the pipe, in which I have been accustomed to use to consume my marijuana, which I use for relief of pain, low-level, constant anxiety, and sleep enhancement, is going to work, though…. It seems that NOT SMOKING is causing my lungs to attempt to clear themselves completely of whatever is in there annoying them, which entails an almost constant wheezing, accompanied by a following series of spasming coughs, to try to clear the phlegm causing the wheeze, from the air passage…

This can take up to ten or twelve hacking coughs, each one more violent than the last, to get the obstructing culprits cleared out adequately; until they are, I am gasping, coughing, and generally threatening to explode, unable to get a full breath, all the while experiencing the accompanying mild degree of panic that goes with that state….

“No one sings hymns to breath; but, Oh!, to be without it is death!”…. Rama, God of Death incarnate, from Roger Zelazny’s “Lord of Light”

So, here I am, coughing up a lung every few minutes, in a semi-constant state of oxygen deprivation, with no pot to soothe my spirit, or alter my consciousness far enough to keep me from wanting to kill someone every other moment of the day…. I’m amazed I’m not in jail yet, for having wasted a number of people on the street….. Of course, that may be because I’ve been coughing too much to get out on the streets, but, you know what I mean….

It has to be annoying to my lady; it can’t be easy hearing me cough up what sounds like a hairball every few minutes… but, so far, she has only once accused me of sounding like a sick cat, puking in somebody’s shoes for effect…. She’s more patient than she seems…. But, it is no less annoying for me, to have to stop whatever I’m doing, including this process, every couple of minutes, to take the time to catch my breathe, after completely losing it during one of the attacks…. It also makes it hard to consider going into public, as I get a lot of odd looks when I’m trying to clear my chest and throat of the obstructions provided by my own body’s healing process…. or, that’s what I’m assuming, anyway…

If it IS NOT healing, but is rather a sign that it will NOT heal at all, well, then, I’m really up that proverbial creek, named after our digestive products, without a directional steering device for boating vehicles, otherwise known as a paddle…. Oh well, I guess I can only wait to see if, or, more positively, when it passes, to see how my breathing has either improved, or gotten worse for the period of severe coughing…. I hate it when I have to wait like this, but, there is no hurrying the body in its processes…. They happen at nature’s speed, which has no connection to, nor is affected by how we feel about it, or how badly we want it to change….

Well, now that I’ve self-ranted against my own foolishness, for having first gotten hooked on cigarettes when I was 16, and for thinking that giving them up would be easier than it is, I suppose I should go on to something a bit more interesting for y’all…. Sorry ’bout all this complaining, ffolkes, I’m getting old, I guess, and physical issues are assuming a bigger part of my attention these days, since there are SO MANY of them…. most of which were NOT IN THE DAMN MANUAL!!! But, I promised myself I wouldn’t be one of those old people who are always full of complaints, so, let’s just take the above six paragraphs of whining, and be on our way into the day’s dive for some delectable pearls….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.” — Socrates (BC 469-399)
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“I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is  largely a waste of time.” — H. L. Mencken

Eric Snowden will someday be recognized as the honorable Über-geek he really is; more importantly, I am hoping that he’ll rightfully be admired as an American hero. It is already clear that he was just as brave as any soldier on the front lines of a war, for having had the courage and integrity to defy his corporate-controlled, amoral spy-masters, to reveal to the world the illegal and seemingly limitless spying tactics used by the NSA at the behest of our governmental corporate lackeys, knowing full well that by doing so, he was setting himself up to be persecuted by them. This situation is a perfect example of how the government will say one thing in public, and do another in private…. More specifically, it shows how little the government believes in its own need to follow the laws they make…. They seem to feel as if the making of the laws allows them to assume they are exempt from them….

“I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face.  Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance, any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.” — Charles Dickens

We have “whistleblower laws” in place in our country, laws which are SUPPOSED to protect people like Mr. Snowden from being prosecuted when they bring illegal activities into the light of day; theoretically, these laws keep them safe from the people they are accusing, who would otherwise try to harm them to stop the bleeding…. However, our dearly beloved ruling class chooses to ignore all that, and are trying to bring charges of espionage and treason against him, as though he were some kind of spy himself, working for another country….

Eric Snowden was not a spy, unless it was for US, the people; after all, the NSA did hire him in the first place didn’t they? He must have had some technical credibility, and must have been relatively clean of misdeeds, as an über-geek, in order to have been asked to work for them at all, right? I would assume so…. Of course, that makes the arguably incorrect assumption that the NSA has some clue as to what they are doing, as well as at least a small degree of expertise in their chosen field… I could be wrong about that, though…..  😆

I think he’s done about as well as he could to keep from helping our enemies; what he HAS done, to our own leaders, is embarrass them highly; THAT is what they will not forgive…. To a politician “face” is very important, as are all illusions of appearance; why else would they all wear those stupid ties, all of a “power” color, and that silly-ass flag pin…. They feel they cannot afford to be seen as weak, or indecisive, so they will make ANY decision, no matter how wrong it may be, just to keep from appearing as if they don’t know what to do. They’re incapable of making a decision at all if it would make it seem as if they were admitting to being wrong in any way…. To give Mr. Snowden the credit for what has done, they would have to first admit they have DONE wrong, and they are not willing to do that, more’s the pity….

http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-says-calls-reform-prove-intel-leaks-were-114707696.html

I happen to agree with Mr. Snowden’s assessment of the overall effect of his information leaks; I think he has made the world a safer place for all of us, if only because he made it perfectly clear that we are being lied to, right and left, by our own leaders. This is invaluable information, that the public NEEDS to know, if we are to be able to protect ourselves…. It is a bit disheartening, to be sure, to have to protect ourselves from our own leaders, but, hey, it’s better to know than not to know, for sure…. Now that we know, we can act accordingly to bring more pressure on the government to straighten up and fly right; if nothing else, more people have learned that it is important to keep a close eye on those who would call themselves our leaders, to keep them from screwing us around any more than they already are….

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

I believe that not only is Eric Snowden NOT a traitor; I consider him to be a Patriot of this country, deserving of the Medal of Honor, or the Freedom Medal, the highest civilian award possible, for bravery and courage in the face of severe persecution by his own government, and for bringing to light the illegal and immoral acts of our government lackeys. It took great courage, and great commitment to the truth, for him to make the decisions he made, and I, for at least one, thank him with all my heart….

“He who endeavors to serve, to benefit, and improve the world, is like a swimmer, who struggles against a rapid current, in a river lashed into angry waves by the winds.  Often they roar over his head, often they beat him back and baffle him.  Most men yield to the stress of the current…  Only here and there the stout, strong heart and vigorous arms struggle on toward ultimate success.” — Albert Pike (1809-1891)

(Albert Pike…. another interesting fellow…. If you have a few moments, Google his name, and read the wikipedia article about him… It’s a pretty interesting life he led, and I wonder why he is less of a well-known figure than he is… He was responsible for a lot of good work back in the 19th century, and deserves some of our thanks for all he did to preserve the freedoms we DO have today…. Check him out…)
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Political ranting over the news is an exhilarating, if a bit raucous, occupation for so early in the morning, and tends to leave me a bit unsettled, if only in my level of anxiety (No worries, said anxiety is ALWAYS with me, to a slight degree, so it’ not a big issue, or one I’m unfamiliar with….Life goes on, with or without it….)… When I feel this way, I always seem to turn to a poem to bring me back to the center. The poems this lady wrote always fill the bill, for me, to bring me some kind of soothing peace, even when the poem has no apparent connection to anything else I’ve been writing about…. It works for me, and, hopefully, will work for y’all as well…. Enjoy!…

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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It is most likely for the best that the only thing left for me to do today is to go old-school…. It is currently only ten minutes after 5 AM, an early hour for me to be this close to being done with this missive…. I’ll take a short break, to let Smart Bee, and myself, catch our breath, both figuratively, and literally speaking…. In the infamous words of the Governator… “I’ll be back….”

As threatened, here I am, and breathing easily, for a change…. This will be a lifestyle pearl, chock full of the wisdom of the ages, to give us all a clue as to where the next steps on the path to enlightenment might be placed to best advantage… Enjoy!….

“The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it – once you can honestly say, “I don’t know,” then it becomes possible to get at the truth.” — Robert A. Heinlein

“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.” — Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

“Character is much easier kept than recovered.” — Thomas Paine

“It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book i, Chap. ix, Of Liars89

“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” — Paul Simon

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.  We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.  We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle

“After enlightenment, do the laundry.” — Zen proverb

Ooh, ooh, that reminds me… I’m out of clean socks….     🙂
_____________________________

Okay, so they can’t all be perfect….. though that last group of pearls comes pretty close…. Let’s see how much damage I’ve done today…. Okay, that’s surprisingly good, given the handicap I gave myself today by starting so early…. I’ve once again greeted the dawn, and it’s time now to cease my endless chatter, in favor of the pending activities I have scheduled today out in the Big Blue Room…. Rental cars, dentists, stores, doctors, all are in my radar for the next couple days… Wow, it’s almost as if I had a real life!… 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.s

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Apocryphal messages from Betelgeuse, in Swedish slang, ….

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Ffolkes,

Today’s Pearl promises to be a marvel of human endeavor, if only I can get it done, a tribute to the perseverance of the human spirit. Of course, that probably sounds somewhat presumptuous, if not completely egotistical, but, it’s true, nonetheless. Just the effort of getting out of bed today reached monumental proportions, as several physical and mental issues presented themselves to my attention immediately upon opening my eyes…. Then, of course, after summoning the will to get up to an upright position, I had to go to even greater lengths to get myself up to get coffee…. Thankfully, it was ready, and I was able to drag myself over to the kitchen area, get it ready, and choke some down within a few moments of arising, a fact which has, no doubt, saved any hope of going on….

I had a bit of time yesterday when my back pain was tolerable, and got around to a few of my favorite blogs to read…. This was fortunate, in a way, as I found out where Murphy has been the last couple of days….. After reading the blog of susank456 ( here: http://birdsanddogs.com/2013/08/20/the-day-that-shall-remain-nameless/ ), it was clear he had spent the day with her, fussing with her in every possible way…. Though sympathetic to her plight, I had to smile in appreciation at my own fortune, in having at least one day without his miserable presence making itself felt. He spends entirely too much time here already, so, little as I wanted a friend to have a bad day, it was good to know that, in spite of being one of his favorites, I’m not his only target….

He’s back today, though, and though I don’t appreciate his ministrations, I accept them in the spirit in which they are presented, to wit: Life goes on, so deal… And, I will, despite the headache, despite the new knife in my neck, despite the inner ear disturbance making me stagger around like a drunk, and, despite the miasmal overall feeling of impending doom, a gift, no doubt, of my PTSD, which has deigned to leave me alone for some time, but now has decided to manifest itself in this minor way…. It’s annoying, as I KNOW I have no reason to feel unreasoned fear; everything in my life is proceeding apace, and I’m content with how it is going….. Hence, these feelings of incipient doom are just leftover nerve impulses from an earlier time, which my brain has decided to let out now, rather than back when there was need for them….

As mentioned, though, it’s minor, and fairly easily thrown aside, thanks to my basic outlook, which generally doesn’t give much of a shit about that kind of stuff; it’s too familiar to produce the same panic as it once did, so, it’s merely a matter of performing the mental equivalent of blowing one’s nose when it gets too full…. All the excess angst and fear will get blown away into the ether, using the virtual tissue we call a blog…. I hope none of it gets on your clothing; I’ll do my best to confine it to the tissue, but, one never knows exactly how it all will turn out, does one?….

So, today, I would suggest you take advantage of the accessory materials that are provided for you in the compartment just under your seat…. There is a bib, an oxygen mask, and some containers of Jell-o, in case you need a little snack…. Oh, and there’s a flotation device, too, for any water landings that go wrong…. it looks like a rubber ducky, but, when you squeeze the bill, it inflates into a larger version, which is suitable for all bodies of water…. Never say we don’t have style, eh?….

Shall we Pearl?….

But sorrow return’d with the dawning of morn,
And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.

— Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) — The Soldier’s Dream
_____________________________

What with the dizziness, and the fog through which I’m viewing the universe, this is going slowly, requiring many breaks to ease my pain… To make it go a bit faster, we’ll throw in an old-school format, which is less time-consuming, even though no less challenging in nature. We’ll even let Smart Bee take the lead on the search parameters, and see what kind of mischief it can find for us today….  Don’t forget to fasten your seat belts, please; the flight can get bumpy on these fanciful flights into the realms of nonsense and whimsy….

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, omniscience, 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”

“Reality is an obstacle to hallucination.” — Smart Bee

“When late morning rolls around and you’re feeling a bit out of sorts, don’t worry; you’re probably just a little eleven o’clockish.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

“He who learns but does not think, is lost!  He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.” — Confucius

“I’m not black, but there’s a whole lot of times I wish I could say I’m not white.” — Frank Zappa

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Oops! My bad…. we took a turn away from nonsense and whimsy, and ended up over in the critical thinking section…. Sorry, but, somebody left the map taped upside down, as a joke, I guess…. Oh well, nobody got anything on them, did they? Good… we’ll go on, and try to put this out of our minds, okay?… Please?….
_____________________________

Okay, here… I’ll distract y’all with an impenetrable poem…. It’s one I wrote a little over a year ago, and just found the other day…. I believe I wrote it in response to one of the school massacre shootings that happened that year…. It’s a bit thick, but, with some pretty fancy footwork… not too bad, altogether, and certainly worth a read, if for no other reason to get on by it to section three….

Modest sounds of impatient concern….

Crowds converge at the raw and grisly scene,
comatose to compassion, curiosity tugging at the hem
with sharp, oh, sharp tools made obscene,
filing the essence of future hopes in spite of them.

Yet who has won the keys to the treasure,
who whipped up the fear of another brother?
Who spent the dreams of the old in selfish measure,
with such arrogant blindness grave issues to smother?

Fateful decisions may prompt still another pause,
to catch and release collective images of insanity.
Surely legitimate anger arises with ample cause
wallowing in self-made entrepreneurs, fluent in profanity.

A quartet of eternities must pass to guarantee change,
regardless of need, or desire, or autonomous manipulation.
Ancient rules and modern aggression is only passing strange
when golden delusion grasps futilely at its related illusory station.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

I’m not in any condition to sit long enough to rant, and I’m overdue for one, so, I’m resorting to the archives again, since they’re there, and they have over 750 posts from which to pull stuff for today, some of which is actually pretty good, to my mind (well, I DID write it….) Any who, here is a rant for y’all, from December of 2012…. It could  have been written today; the material is that fresh, and the subject is one that seldom undergoes any great changes, at least not of the nature of that part under discussion….

Oh, and consider this… I wrote this BEFORE any of the articles in the Guardian, about the NSA’s surveillance, based on the documents from the NSA itself, leaked by Eric Snowden, had been published, or heard of…. Mr. Snowden, at the time of this writing, was just making, or had just made, his decision to abscond with the information, and was busy figuring out how to get in touch with the reporters he contacted…. I guess my paranoia wasn’t, and isn’t, so out of place, now, is it?…..

Enjoy!…
——————-

“Just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you!” — Smart Bee

Last week, or maybe earlier, another blogger and I were both ID’d as being a bit paranoid, (self-identified, I might add) because we happen to believe at least some of the conspiracy rumors continually floating around the internet. Each of us took comfort from the above sentiment, knowing it to be 100% true, and have mutual agreement in that belief. He seems to be pretty tech-savvy, posting a lot of different types of media on his blog, so he must have similar knowledge as I of computers, and the functions of which current technology is capable. This knowledge, along with a deep understanding of human nature, is the root cause for our paranoia, and, its justification…..

“No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.” — Aristotle

The little laptop computer upon which I type to create these Pearls of Virtual Wisdom is an amazing machine, and fairly representative of what is available to the public these days. It has, quite simply, more computing power in it than was present in the ENTIRE WORLD when the first laptop was on the design boards, when I got my first clunky 386. What this simple fact(oid) implies is this: the government, and its supporters, the bankers, corporations, and churches, has available for their use, enough computing power to record EVERY piece of communication, of EVERY type, created each day in the ENTIRE WORLD. Along with that capability, to monitor ALL communications, it has the capability of mining that huge amount of data for significant words, phrases, and patterns that will inform them of anyone, anywhere, who is speaking in a way that is potentially against their interests.

Yep…. every single piece of published communication, via phone, internet, TV, radio, or any other form of media by which humans communicate, is vulnerable to being overheard by those in the beloved ruling class…. (addendum, 8/21/13: or, for that matter, by anyone with the technological know-how….) Allow me to assure you, the reasons for which they want this information have nothing to do with YOUR rights, or YOUR interests, nor are they going to tell you, either that they are doing it, or how often, or where, or anything about it.

In many public places, with cameras and recording devices, it is possible for them to overhear even the words we speak to each other face to face. If they wish, they can even concentrate technology on a single spot, (such as your car, your living room, or kitchen…..), and listen to every word spoken there, even if they are not within miles of the place. There is, by published report, no place left on Earth where technology cannot penetrate, to listen to what is being spoken, given the opportunity, and the time to employ the needed technology.

So, my friend and I are well aware that what we write and publish here online is perfectly available to those who care about such matters, and they WILL be listening to what EVERYONE is saying, even, or, perhaps especially, us. Since I have a tendency to rant against the very people who are listening, I doubt that my name is missing from several lists of theirs. In fact, I’d be surprised if it was missing from those lists…. if it is, they’re not paying attention…..   🙂

As I’ve said before ffolkes, be alert; the world needs all the lerts it can get. You are being watched, and listened to, whether you choose to believe it or not, so it would behoove you to, perhaps, take that into account. Please, don’t fall into that, “oh, you’re just being paranoid,” attitude, or the “well, if I don’t say anything wrong, they can’t get me,” fallacy…. One of the primary characteristics of those with the power-mongering gene is a certain irrationality that is inherent in their make-up…. They have an unfortunate tendency to act on belief and faith, not on fact, so their actions, while fairly predictable, are somewhat irrationally chosen, and don’t necessarily make any sense to those of us who use our minds for other things than reclining upon…. Remember, as Lazarus Long advises, “Always cut the cards.”…..

I have read and understood the above. 

X ______________________
_____________________________

Okay, I’m happy…. Considering how I felt when I got up, this has gone very well…. Now, if only it reads as well as it flowed out…. Hope springs eternal….

As usual, I was half-right (half-write?)…. It’s not bad, but, again, don’t bother calling the Pulitzer Committee…. It’s good enough for the standards we hold around here, certainly, so, I’ll be off to do that…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Democracy has become a joke in poor taste…..

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Ffolkes,

Bah, humbug! None of it makes any sense, and it certainly isn’t designed for comfort; hence, crankiness rules now apply…. No insults are too cheap, no bad names too vile for us to use, with gusto. Today, come what may, a spade will be called a spade, and outright roguery will be called to task. I don’t care a whit who the target is, or how dignified the office they hold, or how sacred they are considered by worshipful millions, if they piss me off, they’re gonna hear about it, in plain talk, without a single moment’s hesitation, and every effort will be expended to fry them unmercifully on the hot seat of my scrutiny, until their skin crackles,they start to resemble a mutilated raisin, and their screams for mercy are ringing in my ears, making beautiful music….

In order to rant effectively, the above attitude is necessary; without it, one cannot achieve the proper state of curmudgeonry, nor can one possibly reach the depth of vindictiveness that is required to poke at public figures and make it worthwhile…. In other words, one must get in direct touch with their sense of outrage, and allow it to direct, if not control, the feelings of anger, frustration, and betrayal that are so common when the BRC carries out some new, or old, method of screwing us, an event that they tend to consider as their privilege, if not their vocation….

Seriously, those who hold office in the USA, whether it is in the executive, judicial, or legislative branch of the government, think that stealing from us, lying to us, and generally bending us over and fucking us in the ass on a regular basis, are their rights as elected officials of this country, and, to be frank, I’m more than just a little tired of it…. They don’t even bother to use any K-Y Jelly, or even Vaseline…

Of course, it would help if we didn’t invite them to do so, every election…. I mean, we keep on voting the assholes into office, so we really don’t have a lot of stable ground to stand on in that respect…. Of course, we also don’t have any way to tell which ones are lying the most, but, hey, that’s on us, not on them…. We KNOW they’re going to lie, so, it becomes OUR problem when we keep letting them do it….

SIGH…. There I go again, ranting before I’ve even had any coffee, to speak of…. I drank enough to swallow my morning meds, but, then, started typing; once begun, it just ran away with me…. I guess I was dreaming about this, or something, so it was right there on the top for me to use this morning when I booted up. I hope it doesn’t mean I’ll be in crank mode all day… I’ve got stuff to do out in the BBR that will require me to speak to other people without chewing on them, which is hard to do, when all I feel like doing is slapping them silly….. I’ll have to be careful not to let it out on anyone who doesn’t deserve it (though, in general, they do….).

BIG, CHEST-HEAVING, PATHETICALLY DRAMATIC SIGH…. 😳  People are so gullible. It’s a big part of our nature, to believe what we hear, if it is presented in a certain way, from someone who, previously, has garnered our trust, generally by prior statements. Unfortunately, we never seem to learn, at least, not well enough to be consistent about it, to verify those original statements before giving the trust, or attempt to ascertain in some other way whether or not the person’s words are worthy of our trust. This goes for elected officials especially, but, as I just demonstrated, it is true for blogs, as well….

Most of the above rant is Pure Grade A 100% BS, government certified, and if anybody knows their shit, it’s the government. Oh, all the stuff about them, and their unfortunate tendency to lie, cheat, and steal, as an avocation, is true as the day is long. But the stuff about waking up cranky, being a curmudgeon, etc., that’s all BS again today…. Please note that I spoke one piece of truth, to wit: I did drink my coffee before actually typing, and therein lies the critical difference, that should have clued you in to my use of untruth as a literary device, to hook you in, and lead you logically into the ranting portion of the piece.

In short, this has been an experiment, in human psychology, and YOU are part of it! Doesn’t that just make you all tingly with excitement and joy?

Oh…. No?

Well, heck, I thought y’all would like something new and different, but, I guess it should be something that actually engages your interest, rather than tricking you into the same sort of manipulative situation that the BRC is wont to do to you (us), such as lying, and tricking you into believing things that aren’t actually real, or as dangerous and frightening as they are made out to be…… I would suppose, had I not gone so far off-script, we might have called what just happened a morality play, but…. I guess this means we should just call it a minor clusterfuck, and get on with the rest of the day….

Shall we Pearl?….

“I couldn’t remember when I had been so disappointed.   Except perhaps the time I found out that M&Ms really *do* melt in your hand …” — Peter Oakley
_____________________________

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

It always amazes me when I read stuff like this…. Statements like this show me that in the past one thousand, eight hundred, and ninety-three years since Plutarch reportedly died, the human race has made virtually no progress at all in learning how to govern ourselves well. By “well” I mean we have not learned, any better than they did back then, how to govern so that the people are fed, clothed, protected from their less scrupulous peers, made well when sick or injured, and generally operated with the best interests of ALL the people as primary motivation, using all resources equally and fairly, in such a way that the Earth, our only home, is also nurtured and protected, so that we will always have it….

Of course, I have to admit, to be fair, that we had not made any real progress in that when Plutarch lived, either, so, it isn’t as if we had the best examples by which we could practice our lessons to be learned in new ways. But, one would think, after all this time of watching things go wrong, we would have learned at least one or two things we could use to save our asses, now that we’re getting close to losing them…. But, it is obvious, to me, and to many, that we haven’t learned much in all these centuries, because we are still facing the same issues that were plaguing society in the days of Christ, and have continued in all the years thereafter.

I’m ranting again, and I didn’t really want to do that; this is supposed to be an old-school pearl, the first of which is the above quote from Mr. Oakley, which was intended to set the tone…. But, as is common, I couldn’t shut myself up, and had to sing another refrain in my ongoing song of lamentation regarding the state of the BRC, and the world we live in, for now…. Now, however, I’ve caught myself before getting too far into it, and will go search out the proper quotes to bring home the concept that is in my head…. Hopefully, it will be less ponderous, and less pompous, than another rant….. I’m also hoping for it to be a bit more entertaining….    😉

“Do you think sheep know when you’re pulling the wool over their eyes?” — Smart Bee

“Turning and turning the widening gyre,
the falcon cannot hear the falconer,
things fall apart, the center cannot hold,
mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

— W.B. Yeats

“The right of the citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.” — Senator Hubert Humphrey

“Those who fear death most are those who enjoy life least.” — Edward Abbey

“Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap. xii

“Antiphanes said merrily, that in a certain city the cold was so intense that words were congealed as soon as spoken, but that after some time they thawed and became audible; so that the words spoken in winter were articulated next summer.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of Man’s Progress in Virtue

“Uh-oh —  WHY am I suddenly thinking of a VENERABLE religious leader frolicking on a FORT LAUDERDALE weekend?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Okay, so it came out a bit obfuscated…. it’s what happens when I give SB its head…. But, it’s still marginally better than a rant, and does get where it needs to go, so, it will do…. Did I mention you should have your seat belts fastened?….
_____________________________

Yesterday, I spent the day dealing with an age-related physical issue, to wit: agonizing pain, due to a spasming muscle in my neck. The pain, which lasted most of the day, and into the night, was, at times, excruciating, and forced me into bed for most of the day, starting at about 10 AM. It finally eased up, thanks to extreme rest, and extra medication, and is, thus far, not the same issue today…. I hate those days, as they force me to accept the passage of time in terms of what I can no longer do, or count on my body being able to do. But, it does give me a lot of time to spend in my head, a place where I refuse to be uncomfortable, or bored, or anything but happy to spend time, doing what I like doing best, just letting my mind wander through the vast spaces of the Universe as I perceive it….

Hence, Yeats….. with no apologies, and no regrets…..

A Prayer For Old Age

GOD guard me from those thoughts men think
In the mind alone;
He that sings a lasting song
Thinks in a marrow-bone;
From all that makes a wise old man
That can be praised of all;
O what am I that I should not seem
For the song’s sake a fool?
I pray — for word is out
And prayer comes round again —
That I may seem, though I die old,
A foolish, passionate man.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

_____________________________

So, here we are, knee deep in this muddy expanse I like to call my mind’s playground, to wit: consensual reality, and I was thinking to myself, “now what?” Having no good answer, I will once again fall back to my default position, and put together a pearl of the old-school variety, strictly for fun…. What I mean by that is, I intend to have fun putting it together, and I intend it to be fun for y’all to read….

However, we all know about good intentions, and where we can end up by having them, or, more critically, by using them, so, I’ll be careful not to let that get us into trouble…. Not in section three, it’s not allowed that late in this venue…. Bad things can happen to the space-time continuum, so, there are safeguards built in that should keep us relatively safe…. as long as we remember to wear the helmets provided…. Remember, anything that splashes on you should be immediately cleansed away, or…. well, just clean it up quickly, so we never need to see what it does….

“Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.” — La Fontaine

“Holy Hand Grenades, Batman!” — Robin

“Go on, EMOTE!  I was RAISED on thought balloons!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“If it isn’t Scottish…it’s CRRRRRAP!” — Smart MacBee

(Side joke: An American tourist was in a shop in Scotland, with one of those new wallets that uses Velcro to stay closed. When he opened it to pay for his selection, the shopkeeper exclaimed, “Och, now that’s a proper Scottish wallet! It scrreams when you open it!”) (I read that joke in Reader’s Digest, over 25 years ago….)

“No harm can come to a good man in life or death.” — Socrates

“A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone.” — William Wordsworth

“I … reject the argument put forth by many fundamentalists that science has nothing to do with religion because God is not among the things making up the  universe in which we live.   Surely if a necessity for a god-concept in the universe ever turns up, that necessity will become evident to the scientist.” — physicist Ralph Alpher, Theology of the Big Bang, Religious Humanism,       Vol. XVII, No. 1 (Winter 1983), pg. 12

You may have noted that there is no point to this pearl; it’s all about fun, for me, anyway….. and, I’m not done having fun yet, so here, to follow up this wonderful seven-star pearl, is another, a five-star pearl gathered using the same operational motivation…. i.e., none to speak of….

“What’s another word for Thesaurus?” — Steven Wright

“Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.” — Benjamin Franklin

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.” — Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844-1900)
(I use this one a lot…. It’s a big part of what I consider my basic attitude toward life at large….)

“We can do noble acts without ruling earth and sea.” — Aristotle

“If called by a panther…don’t anther.” — Ogden Nash (1902-1971), “Parents Keep Out!”

I rest my case…. and a good thing, too! This may be a new record, for the number of pearls, in the most pearls, in any one Pearl, ever…. If you followed that, you’ve been reading this blog for a long time, and good for you…. For the rest of y’all, just note, please, I’ve once again completely lost my mind prior to the end of this missive….
_____________________________

Well, that was fun! For me, anyway…. Let’s take a peek at what others will see…. Wow! Now, THAT is an epic Pearl, and just chock full of virtual wisdom and humor, or an irrational facsimile thereof….. I can feel myself getting more and more out of control in my head; if I don’t stop typing soon, two things will happen….

First, my back will turn into a mass of muscles in spasm, intent on achieving the same relative hardness as a two-by-four piece of ironwood, and I’ll turn into a whiny, pathetic mess; and, second, I will probably end up saying, or writing something that will get me arrested, or, flamed in vile, misspelled language by some fundie, or other silly shit-for-brains, instead of hearing applause, or intelligently critical, but polite, comments from my esteemed Gentle Readers…. and I’m blathering now, so I’ll stop….

It will do, and it’s certainly enough for one day…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…. Blessed Be…

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

Those corpses died in the wool…..

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Ffolkes,
And then, I woke up….. which may or may not have been a blessing; we have yet to reach a decision on so important a matter. Until we do, I suggest we all just settle down, and let the police do their work. Not that I’d ever get in their way, but, they do tend to get intense when they’ve been without a doughnut for over two hours, don’t they? And since yesterday, when one of the doughnuts bit back at an officer, well, they’re understandably a bit sensitive on the matter…. Silly officers….

Ah, that’s better…. This should improve matters by quite a measure in the next couple minutes; the above was written pre-coffee, so I can’t really claim responsibility for it, as we all know what going without coffee does to me. Now that I’ve had a sip or three (the first ones go down fast….), I may even be able to reach a degree of coherence heretofore unseen in these parts. It’s worth a shot, don’t you agree?

It’s much better than relying on my brain to be intelligible under duress, which is the listed definition of not having coffee, in the dictionary I use…. Murphy or no Murphy, without coffee, the world ceases to make any sense to me, and it is a good thing, for me, and for society at large, that I have arranged to have it within seconds of being awake and up. If not, I don’t know for certain if the space-time continuum would be safe, so it’s a good thing….

Perhaps, if I were less of a compassionate man, I wouldn’t be concerned about the state of the space-time continuum, but, I am, I can’t help it;  if it goes, we all go, so, I’m just doing it for all of you, you see…. Really, I am. Of course, by doing so, I save my own sorry ass, so let’s not forget that little grain of salt, either.

With all that said, you may have guessed that I got too much sleep, and you’d be nearly right, as I got way more than the usual amount, arising at an almost reasonable hour, at 0437, after falling asleep at about quarter past eight. I forced myself to listen to the ball game, which started at 7:15, and it worked to keep me awake for a while longer…. It’s actually quite odd to feel almost normal, but, not surprising, I suppose….. feeling odd, that is, not being normal…. Ah shit, there I go again…. The hell with it….

Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle

For much of my life, since reaching what I like to call the age of reason, at about 10 or 11 years of age, I have been aware of this aphorism from Aristotle. If not the aphorism itself, the principle was clear to me from a young age, and I chose then to always strive to be excellent, in whatever I chose to do. You see, I also found out, it requires a deliberate choice to pursue excellence, because it a) doesn’t just happen by itself, and b) it annoys other people. It is the second factor that dictates the need to make a deliberate choice; most people make the opposite choice, to be average, to not stand out too much, unless it is to their advantage to do so, to control or impress others, not for the state of being excellent.

More explicitly, most people try to excel at tasks, or games, or whatever, in order to promote their own agenda, not for the sake of just wanting to do things right, or to scratch the itch of curiosity, or to be the best person one can be. And society at large is quick to show their disapproval if someone is too different in this respect; the normals are afraid of both of the other ends of the human spectrum, the incurably unintelligent AND those who perceive more, and when most people are afraid of something, they make life hard for it, if not downright unbearable, and/or dangerous. Pink monkeys don’t go over well in a brown monkey tree….. They tend to either leave the forest, live in misery, or dye their fur brown, in short order….

This is why the choice must be made, to pursue excellence; it’s not an easy decision, but critically important. It is also a decision that can’t be made half-way; once committed, it extends to EVERY area of one’s existence, requiring effort and dedication to achieve to any significant degree. I can only speak for myself, but it was the best decision of my early years, and I have never regretted making it, because the rewards are much greater than mere comfort, or any other I can think of that comes with giving in to peer pressure; to live with not seeking all there is to see, hear, and do in life, and do it with style, intelligence, and honor.

“By steadily disciplining the animal nature, until it becomes one pointed, it is possible to establish conscious awareness of The Eternal.” — Lao-Tzu

This is a bit metaphorical, but describes well the intensity and consistency of effort that is required to maintain an excellent attitude about life. It’s hard to keep it up all the time, and I have to admit I’m as human as anyone else, and get tired, not to say just plain frustrated, when I cannot easily, or even eventually, reach the goals I’ve set for myself. Fortunately, I also know that being human is okay, and just because I am not always at my best, does not mean it is not still within me, ever within my reach, whenever my perceptions are clear enough to show me the way. The path to Truth, fortunately, is always well lighted, though it may get confusing, and sometimes seem dark through the power of illusion; it never stops being the Truth, though, and that makes it always attainable….

Perhaps there will be some who will read this treatise, and think it arrogant, or condescending; I hope not, because it isn’t intended to be so. It is intended to be a sharing, of the understanding I have that can be of help to anyone in their life. This understanding is based on what I know to be true, and not on fear, or lack of understanding of what is real, in both Nature, and in people. There is great potential in people, much more than we, as a species, or as individuals, ever achieve…. partly because much of humanity is content to be normal, to sit back and let other people decide how the world should go, because it’s too much work to try to control their own world.

We can be so much more than a society of couch potatoes, sagely listening and nodding our heads in agreement with the talking heads we see on the Tube, or laughing ourselves mindless over the insane, or downright stupid acts of imaginary people meant to be metaphorical, but only seen as role models for a reality that doesn’t exist.

Even the advent of computer technology, with all its nearly unlimited potential for what only twenty years ago would have been called “magic”, has not inspired people to strive to be excellent, in work, in play, or in ethics; certainly not in government. Instead, we are drowning ourselves in fashion apps, or photo apps, or social media apps, and losing even more connection with the real world in the process….

Ah well, I suppose all will turn out how it will, in spite of my objections, or anyone else’s indifference. C’est la vie, as the French would say…. such is life; I think it appropriate that we hear from the ancient sages about that, as we started, to close this series of thoughts and rambles perfectly… well, maybe only one ancient sage…..

“Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle. Some things are within your control. And some things are not.” — Epictetus
Epictetus sez    So be it…. gigoid has spoken.
__________________________________

After writing the above, I believe I have already written a poem that will fit right in with that theme, at least metaphorically, which is our primary defining characteristic around here… Ah yes, here it is…..

A Failure to Germinate

Marking the days in elements of sad disarray
only holds me thrall, as I laugh while I may.
With cold, hard hands so impatient and cruel
pulling me to this vale of tears, a pathetic old fool.

Feelings sit silent, cast in shadows and light
breaking forth to implicate such vengeful might.
Just below the surface they patiently hide
to sally forth bravely, colors bright as they ride.

Tears and pain transform valued assets in hand
while comfort and serenity retreat to a far land.
Bold, bright patterns of hope garnish my ruinous state
until reality enters, full of disdainful portions of hate.

I sort out the illustrious measures of vision gone mild
only to find them transformed, now vicious and wild.
In my deepest desires I find myself calloused and cold
with faithless advocates whose souls have been sold.

My search finds little to support any hope of relief
far too much time has passed to bolster such belief.
The sad becomes real, and real becomes unfounded
until flights of such fancy are all dead, and grounded.

Nature has informed me of the newly hatched crime
that reality has boasted of proudly, time after time.
The last answer we think of is always the best
as we come to terms with fate, our hope at rest.

~~ gigoid ~~

__________________________________

So, here’s the deal…. I cruised SB, looking for quotes that would fit in with today’s apparent theme(s), whatever they are. This group is what my unconscious mind picked out; I didn’t pay much attention, other than as a peripheral check to determine whether it was publishable according to legal standards. Legal or no, here they are, and I’m seeing the whole group for the first time, just like y’all… this could be fun…. or not…. let’s see….

“Every guilty person is his own hangman.” — Seneca

“For the wise men of old, the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality. And the solution has been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. But for the contemporary mindset the problem is how to subdue reality to the wishes of man.” — C.S. Lewis  “The Abolition of Man”

“The mirror sees the man as beautiful, the mirror loves the man; another mirror sees the man as frightful and hates him; and it is always the same being who produces the impressions.” — Marquis D. A. F. de Sade

“When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.” — A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

“A thing is not proved because no one has ever questioned it…Skepticism is the first step towards truth.” — Smart Bee

“It is easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.” — Alfred Adler  “Problem of Neurosis” [1929]

“A possum must be himself, and being himself he is honest.” — Walt Kelly

Not bad, not bad at all…. I’ve seen worse, and not too many better, so, pay heed, because it really does give some good advice…. And, it WAS fun….
__________________________________

Well, let’s see how well I approached normality….. Oh, good, not close at all. Whew! I was worried about that a bit; I haven’t had this much sleep in weeks, and I wasn’t sure how it would affect matters…. Doesn’t seem to have caused too much havoc. It’s good enough to float, I think, so we’ll kick it out there and see….. I don’t know about y’all, but I had fun, so, not to be threatening, or anything like that, but, I’ll be back tomorrow, if the creek don’t rise any further….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

….even with his own hands!…

Posted on by
3

Ffolkes,
And then I woke up….. which, considering the fact that I actually slept, is a good thing, even if it happened at 0300 again. I fell out last night when, all of a sudden, at 7 PM or so, heavy fatigue came crashing down on me, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. It was all I could do to clean up dinner and get coffee made, before I literally fell into bed, and to sleep in no time.

What a great feeling! Even though I’m up again so early, I feel good, and almost back on the Time Zone schedule I should be on. I’m alert, my pain level is reasonable, and all is right in my world…. Well, I wish Patricia felt better, but I think her cold is finally on the downhill side, and I’m thinking, and hoping, she’ll feel better today….

Without going in to detail, Murphy has presented me with my conundrum for the day, and it’s a doozy. One I’ll have to deal with without delay, and which will probably slow down all I want to do today. So much for not being broken….. At least, for y’all, it’s a bonus, because it means I won’t be rambling on forever with this intro, as I need to go do other stuff, and want to get this Pearl mostly done before the world and it’s demands intrude. In short…. Shall we Pearl?….

“In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, simplify.” — Henry David Thoreau, Walden
__________________________________

What do you think? Is it time for a rant, perhaps, a religirant? I think so…. They haven’t done anything particularly stupid in public of late; some of the fundamentalists must have broken down and started listening to their lawyers. They’ve been careful lately about saying stuff that not only infuriates the rest of the country, but are probably legally actionable as slander. But, they’ll still ask you to send money, so they can afford to carry on God’s work…..

“They say give your money to God, but they give you THEIR address.” — Smart Bee

On my recent trip to Texas, I went by a church by the highway, and did a complete and classic double-take when the name on the sign registered. I don’t know if it is the one that keeps getting itself in the news, but it said it was the Westboro Baptist Church, home of the world’s most clueless, hateful, and ignorant preacher. Well, the sign didn’t say the last part, that was mine, but it’s still true, if it is the church that has, for the last three or four years, made itself famous, and the target of every other Christian in the US, for dragging the good name of Christians in general through some pretty dark mud, and flinging the rest of the mud on everyone it can see…..

These folks, and the idiot who leads them into their idiocy, are perhaps the stupidest people on the planet, if a willingness to display that stupidity, time after time, on national TV, is any indication, all in spite of the constant and strident statements from the entire rest of the world that they are not just wrong, but stupidly wrong, in each and every one of their stated objectives. Wrong, that is, according to every other interpretation of the Bible’s words by every Christian scholar in the world, except themselves.

They just refuse to even look at what they are doing, and have no clue of how ridiculous they appear to everyone else in the world. In a way, it is really sad, except for their vicious vindictiveness, and the vulnerability of their victims, the people they label as blasphemers and devils, just for being different in some way. In their ignorant blundering around like bulls in a china shop, they hurt the feelings of people who are already suffering, and do so deliberately…. Not just stupid, the assholes, but cruelly so….

“Some men become proud and insolent because they ride a fine horse, wear a feather in their hat or are dressed in a fine suit of clothes. Who does not see the folly of this? If there be any glory in such things, the glory belongs to the horse, the bird and the tailor.” — St. Frances de Sales

This is their justification, their rationalization for their actions, which they KNOW to be wrong; no one breathing could possibly be THAT stupid as to not know their own cruelty. But, like all Christians do, to at least some degree, in order to maintain faith, they can rationalize anything, as long as it supports their belief in their own rightness…. This is a necessary attribute for anyone attempting to live in reality according to the rules dictated by a delusion, and, in fact, is most likely a purely human characteristic, common to the believers of ANY religion.

“Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.” — Martin Fraquhar Tupper

At this point in this discussion, I think this final quote can point the way out of such a distasteful subject. My hands already will need to be washed thoroughly after this stuff, so I may as well close it by saying this…. The people in the world who have decided to allow fear to dictate their entire approach to Life, have submerged their intelligence in the pursuit of an idea that has no real connection to the real world, in order to spare themselves the effort of dealing with life directly, using their own minds.

That being said, I can finally give them their precise due, and no longer consider them, at all…. which means I don’t have to waste my time talking about them either….. Bully good news for y’all, don’t you think?…. I’m going now, see, I’m already gone…..

“To perceive is to suffer.” — Aristotle, De Anima
__________________________________

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS
 
The broad-backed hippopotamus
Rests on his belly in the mud;
Although he seems so firm to us
He is merely flesh and blood.  

Flesh-and-blood is weak and frail,
Susceptible to nervous shock;
While the True Church can never fail
For it is based upon a rock.  

The hippo’s feeble steps may err
In compassing material ends,
While the True Church need never stir
To gather in its dividends.  

The ‘potamus can never reach
The mango on the mango-tree;
But fruits of pomegranate and peach
Refresh the Church from over sea.  

At mating time the hippo’s voice
Betrays inflexions hoarse and odd,
But every week we hear rejoice
The Church, at being one with God.  

The hippopotamus’s day
Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts;
God works in a mysterious way–
The Church can sleep and feed at once.  

I saw the ‘potamus take wing
Ascending from the damp savannas,
And quiring angels round him sing
The praise of God, in loud hosannas.  

Blood of the Lamb shall wash him clean
And him shall heavenly arms enfold,
Among the saints he shall be seen
Performing on a harp of gold.  

He shall be washed as white as snow,
By all the martyr’d virgins kist,
While the True Church remains below
Wrapt in the old miasmal mist.

~~ T. S. Eliot ~~

__________________________________

No ups, no extras, just the fax, ma’am…. Here is a pearl of the old school, ripped screaming from the archives, from somewhere; early twenty-first century, I think…. Yes, I’m lazy, but there are compelling reasons for it this morning, so, please, allow me my little diversions… I’m in a hurry…. thanks, and Enjoy!….

Hmm… I guess not so much of a hurry as I thought…. but, I think it will work for me, in a strange way, and that is normal, so…. Here is what I found at Pearl Central…. These short, early form Pearls were written at work, sent via email to about 350 people at Napa State Hospital, Monday through Friday, sometime in about 2007 or 08, I can’t be sure…. but, they’re pretty good, in my estimation, and if nothing else, fun for the entire family….

Just plain brutal….

Ffolkes,
Monday’s can be that way, even the best of them. I’m not certain, at least in my own case, just where the motivation to get up & get moving is coming from. Routine is powerful enough to take us in to work, but what then? Coffee only goes so far, then something stronger must come into play, or the week just goes all to  >@#%! (Supply your own curses)  It can be difficult to find a substitute; drugs are illegal, and so is theft. So what do we do? We rely on luck!…..

“Indifference is the strongest force in the universe. It makes everything it touches meaningless. Love and hate don’t stand a chance against it.” — Joan Vinge

Life is short. Get it right.

Those who can, do. Those who can’t, write.
Those who can’t write go to the State Department (of Mental Health).

That’s the ticket….motivation means caring…..Recently on the radio, Hoyt touted a book, and challenged us to send in our own version of what it was about, to wit: describe your life in six words. I liked mine…

“Looked for love, found it everywhere”……six on the button, neh?

Y’all take care out there…..

No, really….

Ffolkes,
….the computer ate my pearl. This is already the third time I’ve rebooted this morning, and the last one ate my quotes; they were all picked out & on the clipboard, when the durn machine went wonky & wouldn’t see the network. Now I have to be creative….so, we will delve once more into the old bag of Trix….

Do not underestimate the power of the Force.

Duct Tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together. The only difference is that “May The Force be with you” sounds a lot nicer than “May you be covered in duct tape.”
— Carl Swanzig

— Bother! said Pooh,
and discorporated.

Believe it or not, there is a lesson here….left, of course, as an exercise for the Gentle Reader…. Y’all take care out there……

Grace notwithstanding…

Ffolkes,
You may or may not have perceived by now that I am, shall we say, not unfamiliar with strange. Whimsy can strike at any time, and though the resulting consequences are survivable, it often requires extra scrubbing to get clean. Today is Wednesday, but it feels like a Tuesday. Hence the following….

“I’m afraid I’m not personally qualified to confuse cats.” — Monty Python

How do I set my Laser Printer to “Stun”?

“The case has, in some respects, been not entirely devoid of interest.” — Sherlock Holmes

The strangest part is, all of these make perfect sense to me, both individually and together. It’s all in the wrist….. y’all take care out there….

Floppy risks….

Ffolkes,
…don’t fret, it’s just a typo. Amazing what one letter can change, eh? I kinda like the image this stimulates….floppy risks. Hmmm….well, where were we? Oh, here we are…..it’s Thursday but it feels just like a Thursday to me. As further proof of my familiarity with things strange, allow me to present more images to round out your mental image of Pooh The Bear (excerpted from “Pooh, the years before Christopher Robin” by Itolda
Lai)  Enjoy!….

Always speak the truth quietly, listen with an open mind when others speak, and remember the peace that may be found in silence.– unknown

— Bother! said Pooh,
as the French Nuclear Testing blew his head off.

— Bother! said Pooh,
as he was reborn as an amoeba.

— Bother! said Pooh,
as Piglet acquired all four Railway stations.

— Bother! said Pooh,
and proceeded to install OS/2 Warp.

— Bother! said Pooh,
Beavis and Butthead are barbecuing Barney!

— Bother! said Pooh,
as he gave Ted Kennedy another driving lesson.

— Bother! said Pooh,
as he switched between Animaniacs and Star Trek.

I always think it’s good to know things about iconic figures, don’t you?  Y’all take care out there…..

never say your true name….

Ffolkes,
It’s an odd morning, and coming from me, that’s saying something! Been following routine, but it feels not quite right somehow. Hmmm…..must be the shoes. They’re probably too tight  and are cutting off the blood flow to my head. Ah well, no big loss, some would say….. here are some humorous observations I found. Not the most inspiring humor, but funny nonetheless…..see ya Monday…..

Baby on board. Just means five more points.

The other planets are laughing at us.

I am serious.  And don’t call me Shirley.

They just pretend to pay us, so we just pretend to work.

You know you’re getting old when it takes too much effort to procrastinate.

Y’all take care out there……(like it or not, you must, because you can’t care for others if you don’t take care of yourself…basic logic, y’know.)

__________________________________

Well, Stan and Ollie would be proud of me. It’s another fine mess I’ve created, and just think, only three days home, and I’m already in full psychotic mode! What fun the next few days will be! Be sure to tune in for the latest news from insanity’s fringes, ffolkes. I can feel a big one coming, and I hope y’all, and the rest of the world, is ready…. I’m not sure I am, but having no choice in the matter, I will be…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

If it would only wiggle, we could save it….

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3

Ffolkes,
And when I woke up, I was in Ireland again….. Morning, ffolkes…. My consistency in posting has been shot all to hell by this trip, and I can’t say I’m too upset by that, because, hey, cruise ship, y’know? My sense of time is completely whacked, other than to know which meal is being served at one of the half-dozen eating venues on board. Plus, yesterday, I finally got my massage, compliments of guest services, to make up for a few little hitches in their service on the first couple of days I was here…. and it turned both my muscles and my mind to mush….

We spent yesterday in Liverpool, the home of the Beatles, and I was kind of looking forward to seeing the Cavern Club, if nothing else. However, the weather decided to turn wintry, with a temp in the low forties, or less, and a drizzle most of the day. I did get off the ship, to walk around the pier and watch the Ferry Cross the Mersey wend it’s way across the river, and the pictures I took are below in section three…. Today we are in Belfast, Ireland, which is actually still part of the British Isles, and uses their currency, the Pound Sterling, rather than the Euro, which is used by the rest of Ireland. If that is confusing to you, think how they must feel living here….

I’m enjoying the cruise much more now, as I’m learning the ins and outs of the ship, and have made my connections with certain members of the crew… meaning I charmed the hostess in the dining room to seat me alone, so I could enjoy the four course meal, with wines paired perfectly, and didn’t have to make nice with six other people whilst doing so…. As you might guess, it is a big strain on my curmudgeon tendencies to be nice to people all the time….

Of course, dining alone has its hazards, as the nearest table was occupied by a crashing bore, who was regaling his mother with every little piece of Beatles trivia he read in People magazine, and criticizing the town, the people, and everything in general at the top of his voice….. I almost got up and hit him with my walking stick…. fortunately, right at that moment, they brought the Grand Marnier Souffle and my B&B, so he got to live…

Enough rambling and boasting…. I feel like actual pearling today, so fasten those seat belts a little tight; we may hit some turbulence, and we don’t want any injuries we haven’t planned for…. Shall we Pearl?…..

“First, I’m going to give you all the ANSWERS to today’s test..  So just plug in your SONY WALKMANS and relax!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
__________________________________

When I say I feel like pearling, what I mean is I feel like an old school pearl, where I pick an idea, and use the quotes to lead the Gentle Reader to that general area, so they can enjoy the thrill of discovery, and hopefully, epiphany…. This group is the first since I re-loaded Smart Bee (again….SIGH…..), and could be a good one…. or not, the odds are about even…. Enjoy, mis amis….

“Expect the unexpected, for it will happen, usually when least expected.” — Smart Bee

“And the wind shall say, Here were decent, godless people their only monument the asphalt road and a thousand lost golf balls.” — T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

“I feel my immortality oversweep all pains, all tears, all time, all fears, – and peal, like the eternal thunders of the deep, into my ears, this truth, – thou livest forever!” — Byron (1788-1824)

“He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.” — Aristotle

“A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.” — Wilson Mizner

“Like strength is felt from hope and from despair.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Iliad of Homer, Book xv, Line 852

“It has long been known that one horse can run faster than another – but which one?  Differences are crucial.” — Lazarus Long
__________________________________

Since both Pope and Byron were included above, it’s only right that our poetry for the day come from that era, and from the period’s acknowledged master…. Keats…. Hmm…. something is up with either Google, or the on-board network, as I can’t get it to go to Poemhunter.com, where I find most of my poetry for use here…. So, you’ll have to make do today with one of mine, written last March sometime….. I like it….

After the odyssey….

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

__________________________________

Okay, they aren’t much, but these are the shots I took of Liverpool….

The view from the deck of the Infinity…
Liverpool 001On the waterfront….

Liverpool 002One of the beautiful buildings across from the docks….

Liverpool 004And a really poor photo of the Ferry Cross The Mersey…

Liverpool 005That’s all for today, ffolkes….
__________________________________

I find the process of creating these Pearls is both enhanced and made more difficult by being on the road, so to speak. But, that is a personal problem, and has nothing to do with you, so don’t fret, all will be well, eventually. I’m off to explore today’s venue, Belfast, Ireland…. Wish me luck…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

The stupidity factor was obviously miscalculated….

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9

Ffolkes,
For most of my life, my favorite activity, above all things, has been to watch people, and try to understand them. I’ve never really known why it pleases me so to just sit, watching people walk by, pondering the ins and outs of the lives and motivations of the people I see pass before me, but, I know that I can no more stop wondering than I could stop thinking, or breathing…. It’s just too fascinating a pastime to resist, for me….

Though I am well experienced at that pastime, I can’t say that I have reached any particularly earth-shattering conclusions about human nature, though I think I’ve seen enough to not be too shocked by anything it can show me in that arena….. I learned long ago never to underestimate the power of human stupidity….

I also learned to never undervalue the potential for human courage, and to appreciate that piece of human nature, I don’t know it’s name, that makes a human rush into a fire to save a child, or step in front of a bullet to save a comrade, or to stand up for the weak against the wicked and evil. even though it may cost their very life….

That part of all of us, that is brought out in such situations in reality, is worth looking for, and encouraging to manifest in other parts of life, for it is a very powerful and inventive quality, of intuitive right action, based on a morality that is unspoken, but no less immediate, and no less compelling, for all that….

There are times when I make myself laugh….. and this is one of them. The above paragraphs, while all true as the day, are about as pompous as I can get, don’t you think? Oh, it’s interesting enough, I suppose, and all correctly punctuated (if one doesn’t count the three dot journalism habit I’ve developed over the years since Herb Caen made it his iconic style), but it’s just too high-falutin’ to be real….

Nobody talks like that, do they? Nope, unless, of course, they are asking ME to explain some sort of astronomy question, which can get me going, and can easily, by its nature, fall into that sort of pattern…. No, it’s written in what I like to call my Imperial style of writing, which, while true in the realest sense, can drive folks away quickly with its arrogant tone, and pedantic presentation…..  Nobody likes someone who talks like a prig, basically…..

To get back to the subject at hand, though, I’ll mention that watching people continues to be my favorite thing to do to pass the time…. When I was about 14 or so, I remember saving up my money for a couple months, to take to the County Fair, to spend on the carnival.    On the day my family went, I’d rush to the midway, play my games, ride some rides, try to win some prizes, and blow my saved up cash in about two hours of fun. 

I never minded it going so fast, because I would then go out to the main plaza, near the entrance, and watch the crowds, for hours on end, an endlessly fascinating parade of families, young couples, old retired folks, kids, the whole panorama of human culture, all right there, passing before my eyes…..

Now, I’m old, and watching people continues to be my favorite way to pass time, when there is nothing else to do to occupy the mind. The human parade is always changing, never the same, and provides an endless supply of food for thought, humor for the soul, and unlimited entertainment, watching how people interact, and live…. As Spock would obviously say, “Fascinating.”……

Since I’m old, I now have a few perks in life, one of which is what I like to call give-a-shititis, the most common attitude among those of us retirees who think…. We are at a point in life where it can no longer threaten us to behave in certain ways, and it’s difficult to make us do what we don’t wish to do…. What are they going to do to us? Make us old? Give us pain? Restrict our movement? Been there, done that….. For many of us, this means that all the things we’ve always been too polite to say, can now be said with relative impunity, as folks give us a bit of leeway in that respect. Besides, I call it what I do because it is what we DON’T do anymore, and that is give a shit what others think about what we say…..

This, as you might imagine, allows us to say stuff that we formerly would have kept to ourselves, and not care about whether or not that person wants to hear it…. It is a heady experience for a lot of oldsters, and can become habitual…. I don’t agree with those who say that is an occupational hazard that cannot be avoided; one’s demeanor toward others is always a matter of choice, regardless of age, and there is no excuse for being rude without cause; sadly, many older folks don’t get that.

They become grumps, quite simply, and find fault with everything around them, making life difficult for everyone with whom they come in contact…. I don’t ever want to be that kind of old person; I imagine one could end up pretty alone with that kind of attitude…. and I have no intention of being alone forever…. it’s lonely!….

So, I’ll work on my attitude, which isn’t too hard for me, because my own habit of watching others has given me a great love and respect for people, and I try to treat others as I’d want to be treated (the Golden Rule ALWAYS works well…. there is a reason it is a classic idea….). It works for me, as it would work for anyone who makes Love a greater force in their lives than Fear…. Fear is humanity’s greatest enemy, the one that steals our intelligence, our courage, and often, our life, when we let it control our thoughts and actions.

Hmm… I just noticed that I’ve been ranting, or at least, pontificating, for some time now, and we’re still only in the intro section…. Sorry ’bout that, I DO tend to get carried away sometimes, don’t I? Just can’t seem to shut up sometimes…. Oh well, c’est la vie, I suppose, and fairly common for this blog. I’m going to do what I usually do in these cases, and ignore the whole thing….

We’ll just leave things where they are, mid-flight, so to speak, and go on to the remaining portion of the program…. It won’t take TOO long, as I have a task to meet today in the BBR (the Big Blue Room, you know, the room on the other side of the doors of the place where your computer lives….)…. I have to visit my grandson, and spend money….   😆

So, to move things along toward completion of today’s task list, we’ll go on….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. (The conviction of the rich that the poor are happier is no more foolish than the conviction of the poor that the rich are.)” — Mark Twain

This has a familiar ring to it, which isn’t surprising, as I’ve used it a number of times in previous Pearls…. It is a good springboard for discussion about society, and human interaction, and quite frankly, would have been a good place to start today’s first pearl….

Unfortunately, during my last break from the chair, I went to take a shower, in preparation for visiting with Zackary, my grandson, slipped on the wet tub, managing to keep from falling by a quick movement and grab at the sink, but, by doing so, gave my back a nasty twist, which is now causing a flood of spasms, massive increasing stiffness, and, a five-step increase in my old friend, Pain…. So…. This paragraph may seem smooth and readable; that comes with a cost, of having to stop to move around, or lie down, every few minutes…. which makes it hard to maintain any continuity of thought, or speech, as manifested by this missive….

This is a pisser, to be honest…. I was supposed to go visit with my grandson today, and now won’t be able to go, as I just can’t face an hour or two on my feet in the park, trying to keep up with a two year old and his father…. It’s one of my high points in life, as I don’t get to see Zack, my grandson, but for a few times a year, and I hate to miss this opportunity…. But, I couldn’t be as involved as I’d like, and I’d just as soon not have any of his memories of me be of an old, frail man who can’t play with him very much, and grunts a lot moving around…. Karma can be a real Bitch sometimes, you know?….

Any who, I don’t want to get into all that today, it’s too depressing, and the pain is enough to deal with…. but, I can’t think very well right now, so I’m going to have to cheat again, and use some of my previous work to fill in…. At least there’s plenty to choose from…. I’ll be right back with a pearl, a blast from the soi-distant past…..

“He who flees will fight again.” — Tertullian (160-240 AD) — De Fuga in Persecutione, c. 10

Okay, I found a perfect pearl, from Halloween of 2012… and it is actually covers the same subject as the one I began today, with the Mark Twain quote, or, sort of… so, since this is already turning into an epic Pearl, for one so broken up by my painful approach to the writing…. enjoy, it’s not bad….

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

And here, poor fool, with all my lore
I stand no wiser than before.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

“This instant is thine; the next is in the womb of futurity, and thou knowest not what it may bring forth; maturity of the unborn is in the keeping of the Law. Each future state is that thou has created in the present.” — Akhenaton? (c. B.C. 1375)

“The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.” — Joan Borysenko

Living life well is a subjective goal, and, as such, whether or not it we are successful in reaching the goal is purely a subjective judgment. This kind of judgment requires introspection, which makes it somewhat of a conundrum for many people, as their skills at that particular activity are severely limited from disuse. Very few people today spend much time in self-examination, from what I can see. If they did, they sure wouldn’t act the way they do, or dress the way they are, or carry on such a foolish, self-destructive course of living….

“The study of the errors into which great minds have fallen in the pursuit of truth can never be uninstructive. . . No man is so wise but that he may learn some wisdom from his past errors, either of thought or action, and no society has made such advances as to be capable of no improvement from the retrospect of its past folly and credulity.” — Charles Mackay

Introspection, however, requires both honesty and ruthlessness, in being able to recognize those things within us that are not of value, and to remove them from our persona. As such, it is what most folks would term as “hard” or “difficult”, and they will avoid it at all cost, laziness being a rather common human trait. It is much simpler, and easier, to just take what all the powers that be, (otherwise known as either the beloved ruling class, or those most heinous of criminal manipulators, preachers/priests), are selling as moral standards, and use them, regardless of whether or not they are truly moral or not…. and I assure you, mostly, they are not….

“Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

I often feel like Goethe, in what he stated above, as I believe myself to be one of the few who actually do use introspection on a regular basis. I believe this because, if other folks were using this process, the world would look a lot different. Women would feel safe walking the streets; old folks would feel cared for; gay, lesbian, and transgender individuals would not suffer discrimination for their orientation; racism would be dead, and religion would join mythology as a piece of mankind’s past, rather than its current status as our jailer/executioner…..

“Being good at being stupid doesn’t count.” — Smart Bee

All of these societal problems (bigotry, racism, discrimination, slavery, entitlement, misogyny, etc. )arise from the attitude of elitism held by those individuals among us who never look within, to see just how ugly their inner selves have become, from using the sick, twisted elitism as preached by the modern religious and political leaders.

We, as a species, cannot afford to listen any more to the Judeo-Christian (note: add Talmudic, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Shinto, etc…. gigoid, 3/24/13) ethic as propounded by the beloved ruling class; this kind of entitlement and aggrandizement has led us to the very brink of extinction, as we continue to treat the planet as our toy, instead of as our home.

We cannot keep pouring millions of tons of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere and expect nothing to happen, because what WILL happen is already happening…. our weather is changing, and not in a good way…. the planet is warming up, and when it is warm enough, the ice at the poles will melt, and everything on Earth will feel the effects….

“The faith in which I was brought up assured me that I was better than other people: I was saved, they were damned … Our hymns were loaded with arrogance–self-congratulation on how cozy we were with the Almighty and what a high opinion he had of us, what hell everybody else would catch come judgment day.” — Robert A. Heinlein

As Akhenaton pointed out over 3000 years ago, what we do in the present will determine how the future will be. What our species is doing now will guarantee that most of us won’t be around to see what happens in that future, because we will be dead within a hundred years, or less, if things don’t begin to change TODAY…. Since it is unlikely that will happen, well, we may as well take the advice given to many school children in the 50’s, in learning to deal with an atomic blast…. to wit: bend over and kiss your ass goodbye….  I hate to be so cynical, but, introspection requires honesty, so….

“You were s’posed to laugh!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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It’s probably a bit egocentric, but, hey, it is MY blog, right?…. Here is a poem I wrote last August, once again on the subject so close to my mind today…. my old friend and constant companion…. Pain….

Denial of Comfort

Baleful chairs become the enemy, heralded in red
seemingly welcome softness beckons with a smile,
waiting, content with slaughter, they are finally led
screaming in agony, deluged in venom all the while.

Desperate distraction becomes such a friendless fire
for all the patterns of autumn’s pale dismay,
leaving sincerely latent trails in spirals of twisted wire,
while memory insists, again, upon failure, palpably evil, and fey.

Fat, jaded tears would have fallen in good time,
if only the suitable suitor had scaled the garden’s wall.
Credence for discounted prices luckily in their prime
bring only fascinated eyes into such a hallowed hall.

Searching for answers is ever a clever portrayal
with studious accouterments to fulfill each common rule.
Arguably patient pictures of science and honest betrayal
shall evermore languish, in light of passion so elegantly cruel.

~~ gigoid

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Okay, so you already know I’m cheating today…. therefore, another pearl from the past isn’t going to fool anybody, unless I try to pass it off as fresh, and I refuse to go there…. Hence, here is another pearl, which may give any newbies more information than they need…. it might scare them off. But, I’m nothing, if not honest…. so, I give you this again too-long, but, too bad, so sad piece from November of 2012….

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

:GIGO: /gi:’goh/ [acronym] 1. `Garbage In, Garbage Out’ — usually said in response to {luser}s who complain that a program didn’t “do the right thing” when given imperfect input or otherwise mistreated in some way.  Also commonly used to describe failures in human decision making due to faulty, incomplete, or imprecise data.  2. `Garbage In, Gospel Out’: this more recent expansion is a sardonic comment on the tendency human beings have to put excessive trust in `computerized’ data. — from The on-line Hacker Jargon File V423

Many years ago, I adopted the user name gigoid, taking it from the above definition, and adding an “id” for, of course, identification purposes; with that suffix, I am assured of human status, i.e. hominid, humanoid, etc.  I chose this acronym because it is the perfect reminder of the basic integrity that is built into all computers, i.e., they can only do what we tell them to do, and cannot lie. Thus, if our results are wrong, the error lies in our input, not in the computer; this automatically cuts in half the number of places to look for the problem.

I like to think that my awareness of this principle characteristic is what has allowed me to use computers without suffering many of the common difficulties such as crashes, freezes, and blue screens of death. Only once have I ever encountered one of those on my own computer, and that was the result of a virus my defenses missed… my fault, of course, I hadn’t updated soon enough…

Oh, I’ve encountered that famous blue screen before, when I worked as a computer tech back in the late 90’s, setting up LAN’s and office systems for H&R Block…. a significant percentage of machines were dead soon after coming out of the factory box. But, on my own computers, I am very careful never to break any of the basic rules that govern those kinds of mishaps…. and I owe it all to a wise choice of user name…. Well, it’s fun to think about it that way anyway….

So, who is gigoid? Well, if you’ve hung about this blog site for long, I’ve certainly given y’all enough of my inner workings to look at, in my rants, and in my old school pearls, as well as in my poetry, which is quite revealing, to me….. but, then, if it wasn’t, I most likely couldn’t write it….

Any who, to give the short answer to that question, I’ll post below some pearls that give insight into what I believe to be true, and how I try to live…. Like any weak human, I don’t always succeed at being as moral or ethical as I can be, but, I do try, and I do feel pangs of regret when I don’t, so cut me some slack, eh? Just kidding…. What I am is all what I am, though I’m not Popeye…. and these pearls are what I see in the mirror…..

“They are able because they think they are able.” — Virgil

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.  We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.  We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle

“An epigram often flashes light into regions where reason shines but dimly.” — E. P. Whipple

It is my firm belief that it is a mistake to hold firm beliefs. — Smart Bee

Computers can never replace human stupidity. — Smart Bee

“Do not confuse “duty” with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.


But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants “just a few minutes of your time, please — this won’t take long.” Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!


So learn to say No – and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don’t do it because it is “expected” of you.) “

— Lazarus Long, from Time Enough for Love, by Robert Heinlein

“Do I look like someone who cares about what God thinks?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Well, that’s enough about me…. Hope this helps clear up any confusion, and if not, well, hey, life goes on…. all we can do is all we can do, and no more….
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I’ve tried to read this over, proofing-wise, and can only say, well, I’ve done all I can do…. I think it’s close to what it should be, and, if you will remember axiom #1 of Peruaosophy, you’ll realize that’s enough for me…. (For the uninitiated, Peruaosophy is the Philosophy of Pearls, as created by gigoid (yep, that’s me….) in 1986…. #1 says, to wit: “I think I am…. that’s close enough.” ) I’ve relied heavily on my past work today, but, given my justification, feel no remorse whatsoever… and neither should you….  😆      Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

An aged, elegant marmoset sat beside the oracle…..

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6

Ffolkes,
The baleful, weary eye of the sun poked itself reluctantly above the horizon to the west, spreading a pale, washed out flood of light over the stunted, ugly landscape. Shadows deepened behind the huddled buildings by the side of the slow moving river, rippling against the cold, dark water, as the weakling sun rose slowly into the angry purple of the lightening sky. Huge, ragged-looking  birds rose in the air, cawing in hoarse, angry-sounding squawks, arguing over pieces of rotten trash. Calls to morning prayer echoed in the alleys and courtyards, along with curses of adults, and the irritated shouts of children getting dressed.  Morning came hard to all of the denizens of planet Malorda, as it did each day, on this world of trouble and woe…..

I don’t believe I’m going to take this any further…. it’s too much like the morning routine around here for comfort…. We’ll leave the poor fools who got stuck colonizing a less-than-perfect choice in planets to their miserable lives, and go on to bigger and better things, right here on Earth….. Lucky us….. I don’t suppose y’all have any cool ideas on tap, do you? I could use a few to punch up this intro section once again, since it seems to have made its usual fast start, and quick death…..

Unfortunately, I’ve already moved beyond the point where anything would actually help; it could even make things worse, should I try now to add ingredients that might not mix well with what is already down on paper, so to speak. In fact, at this point, it could conceivably start a flash fire, and then I’d have to break out the extinguisher, and call the fire department, and…. well, it could end up a real mess. I think not…. I’m not quite in the mood for any such nonsense so early in the day…. Shoot, it’s just barely 0700, no time to play around with potential conflagrations….

If things don’t alter course soon, I’m going to have to use another emergency procedure, and I don’t want to have to do that; I’ve had to use several lately, and haven’t had time to replace them. If I use another one, I’m going to end up with only one on hand for a real emergency, and that would be the one that NOBODY wants to see me use, #9, which involves the use of incubi, enferi, and the invincible armies of Hell, just to clear the way for the real procedure, which, sad to say, involves the end of life as we know it…..

No, I’ll wait on #9, and on # 6, which is what I was going to use today, a rather effective procedure that entails some rather entertaining creatures from a planet halfway across the galaxy, who have a fascinating tendency to explode when they reach a temperature above freezing…. They are a bit tricky to handle, especially in the summer, and expensive to keep frozen between uses. I guess it’s time to stock up again, on #’s 1-5, and #’s 7 & 8, all of which I’ve had to use recently….. Oh, well, it will give me something to do on these long, cold winter nights…. Oops, I live in California; we don’t have any of those here on the coast…. Well, I’ll have to make time somewhere….

Oh, look, it’s an intro section! I wonder how that got here? Gosh, if I didn’t know better, I’d think I designed it this way…. but, we all know better, don’t we? Sure…. Any who, it’s six paragraphs, none of which make any more sense than the one before, and that is enough to fulfill the rather loose standards I’ve come to accept for this section. It’s gotten so that I’ll take almost anything that holds together for that long, as I can’t seem to find a cozy, familiar pattern to follow each day…. Of course, if I did find a method like that, it would bore me to tears within a few days…. Better I stick to what I know, and just babble for a while, before I start diving for pearls….

Speaking of which, shall we Pearl?…..
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“Republican views of the world differ from Democratic views of the world. The reason for this is that these views are based on different compilations of misinformation.” — Smart Bee

There are moments, such as this one, when I believe the people, or person, who put together the database known to me as Smart Bee, is perhaps the most intelligent creature on this planet….. I’ve been ranting about politicians for years, trying to show people how dangerous it is to believe ANY of the stuff that either party is slinging at us to try to convince us they are worthy of our votes. Now, in one short aphorism, of two lines, we are given a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of the crap we hear from them…. Essentially, this says that every one of them is full of shit, and everything they say and do is destined to fail, because it is ALL based on incorrect information, or, to be more accurate, on unwarranted assumptions about reality…..

The most important part of this description is its impartiality of indictment. Both parties are brought into scrutiny, and found wanting, of any real knowledge of the truth, because they are both basing all of their premises on false beliefs, just for starters. Add to that, since they are politicians by choice, their genetic predisposition is to self-aggrandizement, and they show an inherent inability to tell the truth. It becomes rather easily seen why our society has become, well, insane…. It’s a short trip to crazy from where they begin the journey…. and they don’t take any detours on the road….

You see, both parties are convinced of a complete falsehood, one that humanity has been struggling with for centuries…. This lie is so basic, it colors and affects everything they do to try to manipulate the world into going the way they wish it to go. As long as they continue to try to do this, our society is doomed to failure in the long run, for the lie goes against the very nature of reality…. Simply put, these people believe they can legislate morality…. They believe that they can make laws, and people will go against their very nature to follow them, in spite of the fact that the law they propose is contrary to what comes naturally to humans, to wit: self-centered, grasping behaviors that only benefit the perpetrator, and no one else…..

We have laws against stealing…. and the most accomplished thieves we see in our culture wear suits and live in Washington D.C. We have laws against killing each other, but, people still get killed, and, if the killers do so while wearing a flag, or a badge, they are considered heroes, no matter how many they kill. We have laws that supposedly protect women, children, and the aged, from suffering abuse, but, just look around you, and you will see no end to the depredations that society allows to be perpetrated upon these three most vulnerable members of our society, all very much within the legal limits of the public morality, as given in the law books….

“[…] For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner […] on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. […] That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that.” — Carl Sagan

The people who get involved in politics, and religion, for much the same reason, believe they are special, and entitled to take all they can from the universe, because they are the be-all, and end-all of the evolutionary ladder. It says so right there in the Bible….. They don’t care that reality says differently, because their sense of denial has been fine-tuned since shortly after they were born, and they are capable of ignoring facts right up until they slap them in the face…. (Witness the Republican melt-down in the last Presidential election, when the Republican party got slapped in the face by their own lack of contact with reality…..)

In spite of all the massive amounts of evidence to the contrary, these folks believe in their own divine entitlement as the lords of creation, chosen by God to do with this planet as we would, without regard for any of the other creatures that live here with us, or for the beauty and balance of the land that sustains us. As far as they are concerned, other people and animals, and natural resources, are theirs to do with as they wish, with God’s blessing…. The fucking assholes…..

I apologize for the vulgarity, to my readers, but not to those at whom it is directed…. To them, I say, fuck you, and fuck you again…. I regard all politicians, priests, preachers, police, lawyers, judges, and corporate misogynists of all shapes and sizes to be INSANE…. floridly, and viciously insane, without any of the moral standards that the rest of mankind embraces. These assholes are responsible for our imminent demise through environmental destruction of the ecosphere, as well as for the endless preying on the weak and vulnerable to suit their own depravity, and lack of moral fiber.

“All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.” — Joseph Conrad

Sexual slavery, corporate collusion to fix wages and prices, legislative corruption and oppression, judicial malfeasance and more corruption, governmental incompetence, religious repression and collusion with politicians, all serve the purposes of the ruling class to a T, no matter how much suffering it causes to others…. As long as they have what they want, nothing anyone else says or does matters at all….

I hate to be a harbinger of bad news, but, I call ’em as I see ’em, and I see what is real…. None of what is wrong in the world will change, until the major portion of mankind makes a change of spirit, and the people, as a whole, decide that the few among us who are bold enough to act must, in fact, act. The evil among us will not go away, or stop, of its own accord, and waiting for them to come around to a more amenable state of mind isn’t going to work, as that just isn’t going to happen.

If we wish to survive, they have to go, and mankind must find a new way to get along with each other than the out-dated ways we have been trying for millennia… Those old ways leave too much power in the hands of people who will give in to the temptation that goes along with such power over others, and must not be allowed to happen any more, not if we wish to survive to see any future at all….. The universe doesn’t care one way or another, so we’ll have to be responsible for our own actions…. as we have always been, and have always been afraid to admit….

“If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will not produce food either.” — Joseph Wood Krutch
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After a rant, I sometimes NEED some Emily to balance the scales, so to speak… call me Ishmael, or call me crazy, I don’t care…. Any who, here is some Emily that just seemed appropriate, or, if naught else, appealed to my disturbed sensibilities…..

It was not death, for I stood up,
And all the dead lie down;
It was not night, for all the bells
Put out their tongues, for noon.

It was not frost, for on my flesh
I felt siroccos crawl,–
Nor fire, for just my marble feet
Could keep a chancel cool.

And yet it tasted like them all;
The figures I have seen
Set orderly, for burial,
Reminded me of mine,

As if my life were shaven
And fitted to a frame,
And could not breathe without a key;
And ‘t was like midnight, some,

When everything that ticked has stopped,
And space stares, all around,
Or grisly frosts, first autumn morns,
Repeal the beating ground.

But most like chaos,–stopless, cool,–
Without a chance or spar,–
Or even a report of land
To justify despair.

~~ Emily Dickinson
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Since I’ve ranted, and found an excellent poem, I can relax, sort of, and not feel too guilty if I go with an old-school pearl…. They’re less work, and more fun than a rant, though without certain qualities of emotional release that ranting provides. I’m too close to the issue to make a decision as to whether that is a good thing, or not, so, I won’t…. Instead, I’ll follow mankind’s most common tool for dealing with reality, and ignore it completely….

In the meantime, why don’t you enjoy the following group of pearls, once again chosen randomly, as that seems to work the best?…… (I know, the ? mark seems out of place, but, if you’ll look back in the preceding sentence, you will see it IS a query, and the mark is appropriately placed, if a bit awkward…. So says the grammar nazi who hangs out in my head…..)

“Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing.” — Walt Kelly, Potluck Pogo

“We accept every person in the world as that for which he gives himself out, only he must give himself out for something. We can put up with the unpleasant more easily than we can endure the insignificant.” — Goethe, Elective

“Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.” — Aristotle (384-322BC)

“The company of just and righteous men is better than wealth and a rich estate.” — Euripides

“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1972)

” Do you know that disease and death must needs overtake us, no matter what we are doing?   What do you wish to be doing when it overtakes you? If you have anything better to be doing when you are so overtaken, get to work on that.” — Epictetus

“It is inconceivable that a judicious observer from another solar system would see in our species — which has tended to be cruel, destructive, wasteful, and irrational — the crown and apex of cosmic evolution. Viewing us as the culmination of *anything* is grotesque; viewing us as a transitional species makes more sense — and gives us more hope.” — Betty McCollister, “Our Transitional Species”, — Free Inquiry magazine, Vol. 8, No. 1
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Well, it’s about damn time…. that’s better…. Today’s Pearl was brought to you by a special effort, due entirely to my own sense of honor, and how to keep it….. It probably won’t win a Pulitzer, nor will it make me rich; it does, however, please me, and that will do…. I’m not going to tempt Fate any further today, and so, I bid thee adieu until tomorrow….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3