Tag Archives: Bertrand Russell

Evolution is charged prix fixe….

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Ffolkes,
It’s a long road to Tipperary, so it is said…. It is certainly taking me long enough to get there. Of course, I’ve been somewhere near there every night, it seems, in dreams, but it just isn’t the same. I’m guessing that the fact that traveling to Ireland is so much on my mind has to do with wanting so badly to be able to do so, or, for that matter, to be able to travel ANYWHERE!….. I’m going stir crazy sitting here in one place for so long. I’ve traveled enough in my life to know that it is perhaps my greatest joy, if one doesn’t count my children, or love. Take those out of the calculation, and it wins, hands down, as my absolute favorite thing to do…. and don’t even go there…. I know what you’re thinking, but this is a family blog, and children will read it (hopefully….)….. So, pull your mind out of the gutter, and we’ll go on….  🙂

No doubt, this is related to the fact that I love to learn, and travel is by far the best way to do that, right in front of, or perhaps next to, a good book. Meeting new people, seeing new lands, experiencing new cultures, all are sheer ambrosia to my mind, and I can barely contain my desire to be off whenever I think of it….. But, until Social Security decides to get off their collective ass and award me the money I have in their bank, that I’ve been pouring in there for damn near 50 years, I’m stuck here in Vallejo, scraping for food each month, and not enough to even go to the City, much less to Oregon to see my friend, or even Sonoma to see my kids, a half-hour away… it is indeed a pisser, to borrow a mild word from the darker side of today’s street culture…..

End of whine for one day…. even I get tired of it….. Plus, I can always tell when I’m short on material, as I start writing about personal stuff…. it’s the egotist in me, I suppose, or an outgrowth of the blog state of mind. Whatever it may be, it is a bit embarrassing, so I’ll take myself off into a different subject area, and leave the personal behind for now. I’m sure there must be SOMETHING to write about…. A dive for pearls should take care of things….. Shall we Pearl?….

(Even if I don’t agree with Henry David about traveling, and I don’t….. what he says here is true, but only as far as he takes it…. I’ve always thought that he would have been a lot better philosopher, and a happier guy, if he had just gotten away from home now and then, and compared his own thoughts to what he saw in the world…. But, his own ego either could not stand the comparison, or was delusional in believing itself to be superior, just because he held it apart like he did….. He sure did have a way with words, though…..)

“Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought.”  – Henry David Thoreau, “Walden, Ch. 18 Conclusion”
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Naturally, the first pearl in this morning’s dive that I come across stimulates a cascade of memories, all personal…. let’s see where it takes us…..

the average person is average
the common people is common
the straight people is straight
you gone be the crooked weird
rare intelligent bird creep type
that what you gone be, honey
— A. R. Ammons

I’ve never heard or seen this before, but it perfectly describes how I felt a lot of the time when I was a kid, from my first year in school. I guess I wasn’t supposed to learn to read before I started…. But, I had, so they were stuck with me. Besides, there I was, and there all those books were, and there was no way they were going to get me away from the library, once I had discovered it. I distinctly remember the thrill when I checked out a book for the first time….

Any who, that little idiosyncrasy sort of set the tone for the rest of my life, in many ways, so I’ve learned to be pretty flexible when dealing with people, as there are so many different reactions I encounter to my oddities (I won’t bore you with an extensive list; trust me, there are enough to cause talk….). I am somewhat aided in that I really do like people, in general, and individually. It is mostly when they are acting as a group that my issues with standards of behavior arise, so as long as I don’t get into crowds too often, nobody suffers…..    🙂 

Of course, it must be understood, when I say I like people as a rule, we are not talking here at all about either politicians, or preachers; as you know, to me, they belong to an entirely different segment of humanity, separate from the rest of us, and subject to separate standards of behavioral expectations…. the assholes…. but, I digress….

I’m strange, I admit it. I also admit that I enjoy it, and actively pursue ways to augment that strangeness, making it, hopefully, as much of an attraction as it is a shield, or barrier, to others. Being an odd duck doesn’t preclude having the same need as other folks, and ffolkes…. i.e., the need for approval from our society’s other members…. it just makes that need a bit harder to fulfill at times. But, one can cultivate and express eccentricity without engendering fear, and that is my goal…. I don’t want to scare babies, I just don’t want to be a clone of anyone else….. thus becoming predictable, God forbid!

(Is it legal for me to say that? I don’t know for sure, maybe it is, maybe not…. I know Church and State are still theoretically separate, but there may be areas of overlap, as occur so frequently when the idiots in Washington, and/or Sacramento, decide they want to take another shot at legislating morality…. I am merely unsure whether it is currently allowed by statute for us atheistic, agnostic, doubting Thomas types to use such epithets, as used by the devout…. I know it creates an issue of irony, or perhaps, sardonicism, or even, GASP!, unintentionally congruent plagiarism, but to my knowledge, there are still no laws against those. But, you never know, in these days leading up to the world’s demise, anything can happen…..)

Now that I’ve most likely lost everyone, or at least confused them…. including myself….. I just wanted to say a few things about being ‘the crooked weird rare intelligent bird creep type’ (I’m not sure I like the ‘creep’ part; the rest is very cool….)…. because it is a role I’ve always embraced with enthusiasm. I’ve never seen any point in being Normal; the further one gets from Normal, the more odd Normal becomes, as it is dragged, willy-nilly, in the direction of each extreme, by each person who goes there…. that is what makes it ‘Normal’, you see? So, I’m just doing all I can to make sure ‘Normal’ is constantly in flux, and doesn’t, in and of, and all by itself, become too predictable….. This is not to imply that Reality really needs my help, but, I try to go with the flow, know what I mean?…..

“Normativity (sic… but I like it…) is like a brown paper bag — you never know what’s inside.  It could be apple pie or a ticking time bomb. Give me a world with colorful packaging so I can glimpse the contents inside.” — Callan Williams
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For two or three days now, I’ve felt a poem percolating somewhere in the dark regions of my head, but it doesn’t seem to be ready yet for me to open up a vein and let it out, and nothing else is floating up to the surface that I have been able to put into anything that passes my crap detector…. So, you’ll have to settle for someone else…. since I’m sitting at home, I don’t yet know who that might be, as it could change by the time I get access to Google and the Net. Whoever it is, I’ll try to keep it within the parameters of today’s apparent theme of the Strange, and avoiding the Normal….. maybe some Ogden Nash, he’s the prototype for that….  Enjoy!…..

A Caution To Everybody

Consider the auk;
Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk.
Consider man, who may well become extinct
Because he forgot how to walk and learned how to fly before he thinked.

Ogden Nash

Perfect!
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In keeping with today’s theme, as it evolved, I offer these pearls…. each is, of course, a stand-alone thought, but I let my whimsy dictate which would go well together to further demonstrate my devotion to illogic and it’s concomitant companion, crooked reasoning…. which, crooked though it may be, still has a direct link to Reality…. especially in today’s society, which goes much further than I have ever gone down the path to Strange….

“No matter how much cynicism you have, it is never enough to keep up.” — Lily Tomlin

“But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in Church and State.” — Thomas Jefferson, [letter?] To S. Kercheval, 1810

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.” — Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals

“Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

“The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it should have done.  Calculate that one rebellion in 13 states in the course of 11 years, is but one for each state in a century and a half. No country should be so long without one.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), in letter to James Madison, 20 December 1787

‘But he hasn’t got any clothes on,’ a little boy said. — from The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen

“Remember that man’s life lies all within this present, as ‘t were but a hair’s-breadth of time; as for the rest, the past is gone, the future yet unseen. Short, therefore, is man’s life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iii, 10

Well, there you go…. If you can’t make heads or tails of it, don’t sweat it. None of it will be on the Quiz….. But, if you let your mind drift as you consider the parts of the pearl as a whole concept, you just might find that you’ve hit upon a very deep, very ancient, immensely valuable insight into not only the nature of Man, but your own nature as well…. and if not, well, have some chocolate, and you can at least feel the same way…..
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All things considered, this Pearl achieved a certain degree of salvation…. Perhaps because the subject matter morphed into one of my favorite areas of discourse, i.e. the world’s propensity to encourage odd ducks, as a balancing factor in the overall Reality of human nature. Or, perhaps because the coffee kicked in, and my brain caught up to…. well, never mind, it wasn’t that, obviously……  I discover, as I type, that I’m still a bit behind…. That’s okay, I’m used to being out of step, so all is well. It must be, because I’m done…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Quantum mechanics isn’t for sissies…..

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Ffolkes,
Time passes, as do tears…. at least this morning, depression is not the first thing that hit me upside the head. So far, the only bad thing I’ve had to deal with is the half & half that looks weird in the coffee because I had to freeze it to get it through the month. Well, that and the urge for a cigarette I don’t have, & can’t afford to buy…. okay, morning whine finished, I’ll go on to a more bracing set of ideas….. I found this whine to be lacking in body, and the bouquet sucked….

So, living with PTSD is fun, what? Between that and the general sense of hopelessness that is conjured in one by the ever-present poverty in which I’m existing, it gets hard to hold onto hope, or even just a resigned acceptance. There are times when I want to go back & exact revenge upon the person I hold responsible for my status, and those thoughts are sweet. But, my karmic adviser is always telling me that is not a good idea, and will end up hurting me more than her. This is not a valid argument, considering the amount of crap I go through. I can deal with it, and better, if I knew that some of it was falling upon her like a horde of Mongols entering Peking (now Beijing….. and the Mongols now come there as homeless beggars…..)  But, my plans for that are not completed yet anyway, they’re still maturing…..

I’d like to think I’ve gotten beyond what was done to me, but I see that I haven’t, and I guess I’ll have to do something about that….. soon, I promise. For now, it is these thoughts of revenge, intangible as they are, that get me through the worst of the moments when I’m hitting the bottom. And that is enough of this depressing subject…. I’m going to go look for some pearls to write about, and try to shake off the strangely adhesive feelings that have been dogging me since yesterday…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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SIGH…. the only reason I did not write this in 1988 is that I did not see it until today….. it is never a good policy to suffer a fool gladly, so my code of honor demands a response…. this begins the tale, but by no means ends it….. be warned, and be nervous, if not afraid…..

“I don’t know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they  be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.” — George Bush in Free Inquiry magazine, Fall 1988

Actually, George, the Pledge of Allegiance has no legal standing, in relation to the Constitution of this country, or for that matter, in relation to what our forefathers were thinking when they founded the nation. In fact, what was said here by such an upstanding Constitutional scholarly type, is, in reality, completely contrary to everything that makes a true patriot, or an American citizen. The part in the pledge, (which no one at all is legally required to take, or state…), that says “under God” was only added in the middle of the twentieth century, by the same Congressional idiots who perpetrated McCarthyism, and the Red Scare, on the American public. It has nothing to do with the Constitution, and in fact, could be construed as a Constitutionally illegal statement, considering the intended separation of church and state that is the backbone of what our forefathers wished us to have as our legacy…. True freedom, not Christian usurpation of freedom….. A person’s religious belief, or lack thereof, is protected by the Constitution, and a patriot is one who supports the Constitution, not a church, or a corporation…..

And if his name be George, I ‘ll call him Peter;
For new-made honour doth forget men’s names.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King John — Act i, Sc. 1

(I know, I don’t much like Will’s stuff, but, law of averages, remember?….. Give me a break, it was the only George quote I could find….)

This kind of thinking from the Shrub, whichever one it was, Junior or Senior, is the same kind of narrow-minded fundamentalism that the colonists were escaping from in England back in the 16-1700’s when they came to the New World. The churches and corporations, both of which were singled out as dangerous to the republic by Jefferson, Franklin, Paine, Adams, Hamilton, and many of the other founding fathers, have tried to usurp the Constitution ever since it was ratified. Their writings, to each other, and in public venues, were filled with precautionary admonitions about allowing corporations and preachers to have access to, or influence over, members of government. And, their fears were justified, as we now are facing just the situations they predicted….. corporations are manipulating our “professional thieves”, otherwise known as politicians, to vote for laws that favor them (really, “corporations are people?”… I don’t think so…), and the ranks of our leaders are rife with fundamentalists and religious nuts of all varieties.

“Men tend to have the beliefs that suit their passions. Cruel men believe in a cruel God and use their belief to excuse their cruelty.  Only kindly men believe in a kindly God, and they would be kindly in any case.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967)

It’s difficult sometimes to tell which ones are more dangerous, or more disgusting: the corporations who buy votes from those who fit the definition of “good politicians” (…. a good politician is one who stays bought…..), or the religious demagogues who want to oppress everyone who doesn’t believe the same set of dogmatic constraints as they do. Neither one is particularly hard to spot, but they are protected by their tame dogs in Congress, who will do and say anything to make sure the cash keeps flowing…. right into their pockets.

As indicated by the almost 500 words yesterday, and again today, you can see that the Romney/Ryan ticket disturbs me; I have no problem ranting without end right off the top of my head about the lies and distortions of reality that continuously fall from their lips. As I mentioned yesterday, a lot of people are catching on to this, as Ryan was roundly booed offstage at the AARP meeting he attended to try to sell their rape of Social Security (Smart? No. Arrogant? Completely.). But, even this is disturbing to me, as it shows just how little they care, that they are showing themselves to be only interested in lining their own pockets, and the pockets of those who own them. They aren’t even trying to hide their lies anymore; they just keep repeating them, even after having been shown to be false, believing that if they repeat the lies enough, people will buy it….

“Men are most apt to believe what they least understand.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book iii, Chap. xi

Unfortunately, they are right, to a large extent. Millions of people in this country, who have hung on to their prejudices and bigotry with desperation as the minorities have become majorities, are supporting these assholes, merely because they are white. They don’t realize, or seemingly care, that these are the same assholes who will be screwing them over completely as soon as they get sworn in, preferring to trust in the lies, because it soothes their fears of having a black President.

Beware of the half truth.  You may have gotten hold of the wrong half. — Smart Bee

This is why I keep reiterating that this election is bringing this country to a crossroads. The outcome will show whether we intend, as a nation, to continue to fight all attempts to curtail the freedoms that were bought and paid for by our forefathers, with blood, sweat, and tears, or will become just another religious, corporate-controlled entity, with a nation consisting of slaves and their masters. I don’t know about y’all, but I’ll be at the polls as soon as they open, and will urge everyone I know to do the same…. vote early, and vote often (just joking…), but vote. We need to send a message to these fools, that there are still patriots and citizens of this country who believe in the vision embraced and established by the men and women who began this noble experiment in self-government…..

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” — Aldous Huxley
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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

Now back to the normal confusion we count on around here…..
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“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence…  From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable….  The very atmosphere of firearms every- where restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” — George Washington (bogus?)(who cares? I don’t, it doesn’t make it any less true if it was said by someone else…..)

I am constantly hearing people these days spouting off about gun control, and how guns should be outlawed. This is a viewpoint that I have never understood, because it makes a totally unwarranted assumption (more than one actually, but one that is most important….), i.e., guns cause violent behavior, and if people couldn’t legally own them, violence would stop. This is naive, and unreasonable, given that there is absolutely no evidence to support such a contention. There is no evidence whatsoever that violence is NOT part of human nature; this is a psychological FACT, not subject to debate. People have violent tendencies, and violence is the primary response of a great many people who have never learned how to use their reason to control their emotions.

Though I’ve never owned or carried a gun, I am a firm believer in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, in its most literal sense. Without the right to bear arms in our own defense, we, as citizens, would be at the mercy of whomever was in office at the time, and would have no recourse at all to any redress of grievance against those officials, since they could not be forced to comply with law. I do NOT trust any elected official to act in MY best interests; human nature also decrees that they will act in their OWN interests first, with no compulsion to even consider anything else. Making it a law that only police and government lackeys could legally be armed is a sure way to guarantee that the average citizen would be at the mercy of these so-called leaders, mercy being a quality that they have never heretofore demonstrated in any fashion.

As I said, I don’t own or carry guns, yet. I’ve trained myself to be dangerous without the use of them, and feel no fear that I cannot deal with an armed man to my benefit; this is simply because it is the person holding the gun that is the danger, not the gun itself. Speed, power, and accuracy are the key elements to controlling a violent situation, along with some forethought and preparation, and the ability to keep a clear mind when under duress. When a person is holding a gun, they feel ten feet tall and invincible, but they remain human, and humans can be controlled with superior strategy and tactics. It does no good to hold a gun, when the target won’t sit still, or even remain visible….. and in these cases, that sense of imperviousness becomes a liability to the gun-wielder.

However, most Americans do not have this sort of skill set, nor the state of mind that makes it work. In the hands of a skilled warrior, a gun becomes a dangerous weapon indeed, for it will be used to achieve the warrior’s goals, as any weapon would, and not employed to merely bully others into doing what is desired, which is the usual use of these kinds of weapons in the hands of the ignorant and deceitful. And politicians, by the very nature of their sociopathy, do get rather deceitful in the pursuit of their self-centered ends. The desire to be in public office, to me, is a sure sign of a sick mind, as a healthy one has no need to assume power over others, being content to be in control of themselves.

So, I would say to those who would get rid of or alter the intent of the Second Amendment, get a grip on reality, and shut the fuck up….. truly, your lack of sophistication and knowledge of human nature gives you no right or reason to speak……
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Well, that turned into quite a little rant…. I guess I needed to get that out. In reading back over it, I have nothing to regret, for it is all the plain and simple truth. So, I’ll send it out there, with the ever-present invitation to come back at me with any thoughts you that may occur to you….. Arguments, for or against, are welcome and appreciated. Constructive criticism is also welcome, wherever it is deemed to be warranted; ignorance will be ignored if harmless, or ruthlessly exposed for what it is if not, at my discretion. But, please don’t get upset if I don’t answer a comment; I intend to answer all comments, and try to get to all of them, but my internet time just now is limited, and I’m probably missing some comments.

Flaming, or fanaticism, or personal attacks will be either cheerfully deleted, or prosecuted/persecuted, depending on the severity of the idiocy therein….   🙂   Oh, and keep always in mind that I pay little attention to my attempts at humor, other than as an artistic tool; making fun of it can only improve it, I’m sure…..   😉

Not your standard disclaimer, but I think it works….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Dozer

Kowabunga!

This absinthe is perfectly unacceptable….

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12

Ffolkes,
First, the strings….. violins, violas, cellos, basses, all start to softly play a slow melody, gently persuading the ear and mind to follow. For a moment the soft sound is all you hear, then, very insidiously, the woodwinds begin to softly play the counterpoint melody with the strings, so that together they are slowly and gently playing a mellow, but happy tune….. After a couple of bars of this, the horns start to add in their pointed notes to the rhythmic tune of the other instruments….

Now we have a lively tune, starting to fill up the area with sound.  As the woodwinds gather speed and urgency, the percussion section begins to keep the beat, with deep bass notes filling the bottom bass line, and the snare drums, and the tom toms adding their syncopation and fast, randomly spaced riffs to the spaces between the notes of the rest of the orchestra.  More and more instruments join in, guitars, mandolins, piano, harps, until the entire thrilling sound of an orchestra in full flight grabs hold of the soul, and lifts the listener up to the heights of feeling, into higher realms of thought, into pure feeling….. until, with unbound joy, the author quietly begins to weep…..

Wow…. I had no idea that was in there. I started to write the above paragraph, with the intent of trying to emulate the feeling one gets listening to a live orchestra as it begins to wind its way through a symphony….. and had no idea that it would be so real that I would burst into tears at the climax….. I don’t know if it is just me, or if what I wrote is that powerful….. Perhaps you could let me know if it has the same effect on y’all?….. Every time I go back to read it, so far, it gets me, and I start to leak….. It’s probably just me, with my softened emotional status, and feelings that are always close to the surface….. but, it could be the paragraph, too, so if it has that effect on anyone else, I’ll know I’m on the right track with what is written there….. thanks in advance to anyone who comments….

Well, that was an unusual start to a day…… it’s been a long while since I burst into tears of joy like that…. The last time I can remember that happening was about 5 years ago, during a morning commute…. I was driving, and came up over a hill between Sonoma and Napa, where I worked…. as I broke over the hill, and came from behind the hill that was blocking the morning sun, I burst into a scene of such imposing dramatic beauty that I literally burst into tears of joy at the sight.

The sun was just rising across the lower end of the Napa Valley, and as it broke over the opposite hills to the east, it lit up the sky and clouds with an unearthly bright light, with the clouds assuming a golden, shining hue, outlining each cloud, making the grey appear like noble pewter and silver, surrounded by gold, patterned across the electric blue of the sky.  The incredible beauty of the scene just tore through all my thoughts and  emotional callouses, and brought up a burst of joyful tears…. It was an incredible sight, and an incredible feeling, one I’ll never forget….

I don’t think I’ll be able to top that feeling this morning, but we may as well give it a try. Tears of joy, here we come……. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Okay, so here’s the deal…. I started this Pearl, and this pearl, some time ago this morning, and everything since the beginning has undergone some sort of morphology, or sinuous, serious lack of stability, and everything changes….. again. This started out as a rant, morphed into a ramble, then changed again…. now, it is an old school pearl, with several quotes all pointing at the same idea, though some are pointing with a finger, and some with a sausage… but, I like sausage, so that works for me…. in any case, the idea being pointed out can take the heat…. enjoy!

“As I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity.  I collected some of their Proverbs.” — William Blake (1757-1827), The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-1793)

“Governments which suppress freedom of speech… act like children who shut their eyes in order not to be seen.” — Ludwig Boerne, _Die Freiheit der Presse in Baiern_, 1818

“Bigotry dwarfs the soul by shutting out the truth.” — Edwin Hubbel Chapin

“What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967), “Sceptical Essays”, 1928

“Consequences, Schmonsequences, as long as I’m rich.” — Daffy Duck, from Looney Tunes Ali Baba Bunny (1957, Chuck Jones) (Also stated by Mitt Romney, 1997)

“We start this life alone and we end this life alone, it is what we do in between with the people and the world around us that matters.” — Larry G. Smith

“Oh dear, now I’ve made a terrible mess of things.  And all I wanted to do was rule the universe.” — Dr. Zachary Smith
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We may not know much, but one thing’s fo’ sho’:
There’s things in the cosmos that we cannot know.
Shine light on electrons — you’ll cause them to swerve.
The act of observing disturbs the observed.

Which ruins your test.     But then if there’s no testing
To see if a particle’s moving or resting
Why try to conjecture?        Pure useless endeavor!
We know probability — certainty never.

— Smart Bee

That’s right, Smart Bee…. there was no attribution with this delightful little poem, so it must have been some random hacker who donated it to the database I use ( to wit: Smart Bee….) It is a perfectly logical presentation of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, one of the touchstones of modern physics, and one with which all hackers are familiar, since they need the math that is involved in expressing Heisenberg’s principle to write their programs, to create their “hacks”, as it were….. I love it! Perfectly cadenced and rhymed, it says what is true, and does it in an entertaining way…. I’m jealous…..   🙂   Hmm…. I’m jealous, but I feel a poem coming on……

Parenthood

Alternative questions always get in the way,
figuratively speaking, rudely barging around.
Still, no question is stupid, no matter what they say
An answer shall be given, a penny for a pound.

How else can our little ones learn to think,
than by asking direction, to show them the way?
They ask us to answer, with a smile and a wink,
To give them our wisdom, with all that we say.

No question too little, nor too large for them to ask,
and no given answer ever thought out of line.
Knowledge is their legacy, and their given task,
to pull wisdom’s nuggets from that eternal mine.

~~ gigoid

Okay, not the best, but not bad…. I think there is more of it still in my head, percolating, so it might reappear some day, in a slightly expanded form….. meanwhile, I hope you enjoy my little rhymes….

“If a little knowledge is dangerous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of danger?” — Thomas Henry Huxley

Wouldn’t you know it? Just when I finish a pearl, more appropriate quotes keep popping up on the same subject I thought I was done with….. here’s a bit more basic wisdom on poetry, and knowledge, and education….

“No one can go very far in the discerning enjoyment of poetry who is incapable of enjoying any poetry other than that of his own time and place. It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us to escape – not from our own time, for we are bound by that – but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our own time. ” — T.S. Eliot
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In life’s small things be resolute and great
To keep thy muscle trained: know’st thou when Fate
Thy measure takes, or when she ‘ll say to thee,
“I find thee worthy; do this deed for me”?

— James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) — Epigram

Yes, yes, this pleases cute owl!….. *see photo, below…. It pleases me, also, dear Readers. This is old fashioned wisdom, but only to those to whom Duty remains a primary motivating factor in all their actions; or, if naught else, serves as a touchstone for determining the relative importance of differing choices of action. I especially like the metaphor of the muscle for the power of reason and will, and how it must be used, and used thoroughly, in order to remain in prime condition for action when needed. Which is to say, hopefully, always….
Aye, this pleases cute owl, completely…. remember axiom # 7 of Peruaosophy, which says, “Do your Duty.  Respect Life.  Share Your Love.  Honor the Truth.”   That’s all you really need……
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“Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts: The sight of the deep-blue sky, and the clustering stars above, seems to impart a quiet to the mind.” — Edwards

Well…. I have no idea what to say….. It is my custom, and habit, to go back over each day’s pearls/Pearl and read it straight through once, to get the overall effect that a reader would/will get by doing so. Today, I can report that I have done so, and I remain speechless, hard as that is to believe. I have no idea how this all came about. I don’t even remember half of it, and I wrote it….. But, speechless or not, it is done, and all I can say is, “So be it”……  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

It’s the sordid truth for you, boyo….

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3

Ffolkes,
Say what you will about it, moving from one house to another is upsetting to the psyche. Maybe it’s just me, but I am, to say the least, discombobulated. (And isn’t THAT a great word?….) Plus, I’m really tired of being poor. I sure wish there was a way to stimulate the federal bureaucracy in such a way that one specific part of it would stop acting as if it is doing us a favor by doing their job in a timely fashion. I applied for my SS last year some time, and keep getting told stuff like “the department responsible for those forms is 148 days behind in their work,” which translates into “nothing is being done, and won’t start being done until we feel like it, 6 fucking months from now.”

Okay, enough whining. Lots of folks have it much worse than I, so I’m the one who ends up sounding the twerp here. Any who, I’m alive, and that’s all that really matters…..

“I’m having an emotional outburst!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

There, I think that is enough drivel for one morning; any more and it will be piled so high I won’t be able to see the keyboard….. Shall we Pearl?….

— “Bother!” said Pooh, as he ripped the fabric of Time and Space. — Smart Bee
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“There is a higher law than the Constitution.” — William H. Seward (1801-1872) — Speech, March 11, 1850

After searching awhile, I was getting the feeling there wasn’t anything worth ranting over this morning. Then I saw this….. Have you ever encountered this? I call it “mouthing platitudes”, and see it most often in the speech of faith-based individuals, especially those of a political bent. Candidates for public office make many speeches filled to the brim with this type of insidious lying, couched in language that makes it sound as if it should be true. I regard this practice as completely reprehensible, fit only for the criminal mind to consider using in real life……

Paul Ryan’s speech at the recent RNC was a perfect example of this type of statement, along with just about every other type of lie he could come up with; lying by omission, lying by generalization of a specific, lying by making it up, lying by taking out of context, and just plain old lying through his teeth, he hit them all. It was masterful, in a way; one seldom witnesses such complete lack of truth in one convention, much less in one speech.

In THIS country, there is no higher law than the Constitution. Our forefathers made sure of that when they deliberately kept Church and State as two separate entities; they had the experience of kind of trouble that is found when the two are conjoined. That is why they came to these shores in the first place….

Mouthing such untruths as above, in the mistaken assumption that saying it as an assertion proves its truth, the speakers are trying to undo the separation of the two institutions, as they, the bankers, the priests, and the beloved ruling class, have tried to undo the Constitution’s precepts since the moment they became law.

That attempt to return the populace to slavery continues today, with the advent of two individuals who are under the complete influence of their religious beliefs, and are determined in their efforts to take over the government, effectively sending us back to the middle ages.

What they have brought forth as their platform resembles very much the same kind of law that was in place in the years prior to Christ’s birth two thousand years ago; it’s quite Old Testament flavored. One can only hope that there are enough citizens who are immune to this type of persuasion, and will hopefully come out to vote in record numbers, to show the rest of the world that not all Americans are idiots, trying to live with their heads so far up their ass, they taste their coffee twice….

If not, well, it’s a big world out there, and there must be a few places left where a man can live without having to constantly be on guard against fools…. there MUST be! And if there is, I’ll find it, as will many others, I would assume.

Ah well, I suppose by now I should be used to this; it’s been going on a long time, and the folks who spend their lives trying to avoid personal responsibility for everything are everywhere. All my life I’ve had to watch the show in the public arena as it goes through the contortions and reconfigurations every four to eight years. In a way, I suppose it just goes to show the accuracy of that old saw, “For every new foolproof invention there is a new and improved fool.” Or something like that…. it all boils down to “Stay alert out there, ffolkes”, and be sure to vote this November, whether you are voting to return to the 1700’s, or to find our way further into the 21st century…..

And never, ever forget….. Jesus was killed by a Moral Majority……
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Piraeus calls me, silently

Sizzle, sizzle, crash, bang, boom.
Intellect burning with subsequent doom.
Lingering long over decisive style,
Whistling up chaos all the while.

Such frozen thoughts may shatter,
Should we infer, but, no matter.
Firing blanks is children at play
Blooded sages all gasp in dismay.

Nonsense is good sense at times
Mundane idols trip lightly in rhymes.
Fallen angels dance on a pin
Until each sinner enters within.

Fast moments with natural rain
Bring ashes, yet still must remain.
Final thoughts clamor for more
Find them only on a far distant shore.

~~ gigoid

Hmm….. weird. Subtle, and well-rhymed, but weird, nonetheless. I’ll take it….. wrap it to go, please…..
___________________________________

Old school, old school, just follow the bouncing thought…..

“Christ believed in hell. I do not myself feel that any person who is really profoundly humane can believe in everlasting punishment.” — Bertrand Russell

“Facts are stubborn things.” — Alain Rene Le Sage (1668-1747) — Gil Blas, Book x, Chap. i

Faith:  not wanting to know what is true.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

Hail holy light! offspring of heav’n first-born. — John Milton (1608-1674) — Paradise Lost, Book iii, Line 1

“If I had a plantation in Georgia and a home in Hell, I’d sell the plantation and go home.” — Eugene P. Gallagher

“Half a bubble off plumb.” — attributed to Mark Twain
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If this material is offensive to you, and admittedly it will be offensive to someone, than you should take time out to contemplate this truth. Seriousness is the refuge of the truly shallow! — Smart Bee

I’m pretty certain I can do more damage, so I’m cutting it off here. It’s been real, if nothing else, eh? Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Entropy is easy; it’s Chaos that’s tough….

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5

Ffolkes,
I’m still deep in moving mode today, at least theoretically. The help I was told I was getting from my landlord seems to be morphing into no help, so I’ve had to,  so far, do it all myself. I’ve been lucky, and careful, and haven’t hurt my back yet, but much more, and I’m pushing the odds. Hopefully, he will come through today…..

I’m finding myself completely justified in my previously stated dislike for moving. One full day of it, and I’m emotionally, and physically exhausted. I remembered the worst part…. after one has finished getting stuff out of the old house, and taken it over to the new, then the work begins. All that stuff I’ve just moved has to find a new home in the new place, and I have no idea at this point what is going where, beyond knowing whether it’s kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, or other stuff. Plus, I’ll be moving it into a smaller total space, so it has to be ruthlessly organized, or it’s not going to fit…. Wouldn’t that be fun? Get everything over there and find out some of it has to go, because it won’t fit. Looking forward to that….. not!….

Okay, I done whining now. I’ll just finish up here with a Pearl, and get back to the drudgery to come….. Shall we Pearl?……
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“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human  mind to correlate all its contents.   We live on a placid island of ignorance  in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should  voyage far.  The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little;  but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.” — H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Sometimes, I think we have already arrived at this point in time….. but, if not, then we are not far away…… with this firmly in mind, please find the following, all of which lead one gently to an idea that may, or may not, make you feel better. Which, of course, is NOT the purpose…. nonetheless, the conclusion framed by these quotes is one you NEED to know……

“It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have  been searching for evidence which could support this.” — Bertrand Russell

“Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace.” — Dalai Lama

As a man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian (politician’s too!) can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose. — Bhagavad Gita

“Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance the shimmy, and you’ve got an audience.” — Diogenes

“Anyone who isn’t confused doesn’t really know what’s going on.” — Edward R. Murrow

“The only real failure in life is the failure to try.” — Smart Bee
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Buddha in Glory

Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet–
all this universe, to the furthest stars
all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
Illuminated in your infinite peace,

a billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Rilke is a poet fairly new to me; I first read one of his pieces a couple of years ago. I like most of what I’ve read; it seems very accessible, very personal, and quite insightful in places…. all of which make him a good poet, in my mind….. Enjoy!
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[A small difference of opinion on the U.S. Supreme Court in ‘Texas v. Johnson’ 491 U.S. 397 (1989)

“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” — Justice William J. Brennan, writing for the majority

“Surely one of the purposes of a democratic society is to legislate against conduct that is regarded as evil and profoundly offensive to the majority of people; whether it be murder, embezzlement, pollution or flag burning.” — Chief Justice William Rehnquist, dissenting

Yeah, that’s a bit of a difference in those positions, for sure. The second one, by Justice Rehnquist, is somewhat disturbing, in that it attempts to justify the Mrs. Grundys of the world, and gives the sense that the majority does not have to accommodate any minority. It is just another way of trying to legislate morality, a practice that has proven, through thousands of years of history, to be a futile pastime. Laws, and the threat of punishment for breaking them, have NEVER been effective in getting folks to act right, and they never will.

The dichotomy described by these two opinions on the Court reflects pretty well how society is breaking down in the upcoming election. The Democrats are trying to spend another four years cleaning up the mess left by the last Republican president, possibly the worst president we’ve ever had, in terms of both foreign policy and economics.

The incumbent president, Barack Obama, has spent four years trying to get us out of two wars, and trying to return some of the social aid for the poor and vulnerable, along with having to deal with economic policies from his predecessor that put a stranglehold on the middle class. He’s done fairly well, considering the Republican party has thrown up every obstacle they could to keep him from doing anything at all. They have not even come close to fitting the label of “loyal opposition” but have insisted on turning the issues into a social battleground at every turn.

The election in November will, I hope, sustain my image of my country’s basic intelligence. I am hoping that all the apathetic middle class voters who generally don’t vote, due to their feeling that it doesn’t matter who is elected, will pull their heads out of the sand (or their ass, wherever it resides when they are hiding from reality….) and come out and vote the liberal ticket…..

The Republican ticket wants to turn back the clock, and go back to giving all the perks and tax breaks to the rich, while reducing the services that are now available to seniors and the poor. This doesn’t even mention the all-out war they’ve declared on women’s rights regarding healthcare, and their right to vote. If they have their way, the only thing they want a woman to be is a brainwashed, barefoot, baby-making machine.

There are other issues. of course, but these are the main ones I see as being decided by the two separate poles of voters, and I would really like to see a good turnout, to let the conservative idiots see just how much of a minority they are. If they somehow manipulate matters so that the Romney/Ryan two headed beast is elected, they will work to consolidate and strengthen their hold over the rest of us, destroying the middle class, until all that is left is the 1% rich, powerful beloved ruling class, and the 99% poor, vulnerable, and disenfranchised in this country.

If that happens, there is no telling what may occur next….. We could easily see a period of assassinations, coups, and civil skirmishes, as the true patriots in this country are liable to take up arms against such deep encroachment on their rights. I know I am tempted to buy myself a rifle, and a scope, and go hunting….. and I wouldn’t be hunting squirrels, let me assure you…… Oh, and  forget trying to make me believe that violence never solves anything, because that is just delusional…. ask Alexander the Great, or Ghengis Khan whether violence worked for them….

Stay alert ffolkes, there are strange times ahead….. things are going to get interesting, in every sense of the word…..
___________________________________

Not a very uplifting Pearl, needless to say. I’m glad I put the poem re: Buddha in the middle…. kind of lessens the sting of the last political pearl. I guess it all reflects my own state, one of, shall we say, less than complete satisfaction with the world at large….. SIGH….. such is life….. Wish me luck getting a Pearl out tomorrow; it may not happen, if all does not go well today…… Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Platitudes are shown in red, not plaid….

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2

Ffolkes,
I am speaking to you now from deep within the moving mode…. The move is going swimmingly, aside from that one incident with the car alarm…. and I still say it wasn’t my fault….. As might be guessed, I’m a little pressed for time, so this Pearl will probably suck…. If not, well, we can chalk it up to some good luck, which is generally in short supply around here…. But, we do know what it looks like, theoretically, so that’s something…. Well, I gotta get going, so I’ll cut this short, as I had originally intended, before I got off into whatever tangent this is…. Shall we Pearl?…..

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

Mr. Russell has touched on one of my most firmly held beliefs, and shared some valuable insight into the common human experience. A great many issues that currently are causing mankind to continue to suffer can be directly attributed to this failure of human nature. People in general are lazy, and would rather choose to believe an obvious lie than to use their own mental acuity to examine an issue.

I see examples of this every day in the news, items that tell of women who are so afraid of themselves and their own sexuality, that they parrot the vile, misogynistic views espoused by the new Republican platform for the 2012 election. I have a hard time rationalizing how these women can even consider supporting men who obviously hate and fear women, as is plainly the case with Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan……

O Lord, grant that we may always be right, for Thou knowest we will never change our minds. — Old Scottish Prayer

This is a pretty accurate take on the two Republican candidates; they’re official now, having received the benediction at the Republican National Convention, after some initial delays due to Hurricane Isaac, which is currently pounding the Gulf Coast with high winds and torrential rains. Those Gulf states should be getting used to this by now, and if nothing else, it will prepare them for a life under a Republican administration, should that particular nightmare of mine come true.

I can’t see how it would, as long as all the people out there who ARE aware of how much these two lie bother to go vote. If they do, it should be a landslide, which is what I see as necessary, so as to show all the fundies supporting the congenital liars on the political right that there are more people in this country who think than there are that don’t…..

At my age, I should be accustomed to the extent to which human stupidity permeates society. But, I am continually amazed at the crap that normally intelligent folks will buy into, just to soothe their own unrealistic fears. As I perused Facebook for a few minutes yesterday, I was struck by how many posts there were from this one particular “Friend”, ALL of which were based on lies told by Romney or Ryan.

About 75% were criticisms aimed at the current President, each of which has been a talking point for the right for weeks now; each and every one of those criticisms were based on a lie told by the Republicans, lies that are readily shown to be untrue, by the very statistics they think they are quoting. They never do any fact checking, it seems, as one minute taken to check the truth reveals the lies…. But, they don’t seem to care….. as long as the black man gets defeated, they don’t care at all how many lies they have to tell to get it done…..

Ah well, hopefully there are enough of us on the other side of the issues to keep these two from ever getting within shouting distance to the Oval Office…. if not, well, the civil war that judge from Texas is afraid of might not be such a far-fetched idea after all…. though it wouldn’t be the United Nations invading Texas, it would the Oregonians…. along with the Californians, the Idahoans, and the residents of several other states that are not caught up in the web of lies that constitutes the Republican platform…. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but it remains an option, even if only one of last resort…..

“Don’t overestimate the decency of the human race.” — H.L. Mencken
___________________________________

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, ‘O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless–of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.’ That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”  — John Keating, Dead Poet’s Society

Here is my verse….. one of them, at least….

Destiny’s Vote

It was a special day, written on tablets of stone
with fanfare, and crepe paper, a symphony of lies,
played with verve, but discordant, and alone,
never more the grand parade, no more apple pies.

Heated dialog full of prejudice, hatred, and fears,
fills up the airwaves, a cacophony of callow untruth,
playing up to ignorance, bringing anguish, and fearful tears,
while Nero’s fiddler sits down, in the only open booth.

Watchful and afraid, I see the coming conflict
clouds of ignorance and intellect, preparing to fight,
one to fight with darkness, and abject fear to depict
opposed at the base, banishing fear with truth, and light.

Seeds of anger and bigotry are planted very deep,
growing best in darkness, hiding in shame and fear,
waiting for moments of trouble, its destiny to keep,
looking for weakness, seeking to draw its victim near.

Sing not yet a funeral dirge for tolerance,
that particular die is not yet cast,
there still remains a very good and honest chance,
our common dream of freedom may yet hold fast…..

~~ gigoid

History usually clarifies stupidity. — Smart Bee
___________________________________

So, the boxes are calling me, and I am out of time…. gotta go get started moving. I am out of material, as such, so below I have put several of Will Shakespeare’s most obscure little sayings, that so many idiots use to sound like they are educated…. When I hear stuff like this, educated is not the term that comes to mind…. I’ll be nice, and not tell you what does come to mind…. Besides, these pretty much speak for themselves, and what they say is  “NOTHING!”…

A joint of mutton, and any pretty little tiny kick-shaws, tell William cook.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act v, Sc. 1

Except I be by Sylvia in the night,
There is no music in the nightingale.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Two Gentlemen of Verona — Act iii, Sc. 1

Thank me no thanks, nor proud me no prouds.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Romeo and Juliet — Act iii, Sc. 5

I am all the daughters of my father’s house,
And all the brothers too.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Twelfth Night — Act ii, Sc. 4

I had rather have a fool to make me merry than experience to make me sad.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), As You Like It — Act iv, Sc.1

The very staff of my age, my very prop.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Merchant of Venice — Act ii, Sc. 2

I think that should get the point across…. if anyone can tell me just what was meant by any of this, please do. Otherwise, you can do like I tend to do, and try your best to ignore it when it comes up….. SIGH…. people are so strange sometimes….. and Will proves that very well….
___________________________________

Such as it is, it is done…. I kinna do no more! So be it….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

The cashews don’t usually complain….

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5

Ffolkes,
So, the weather here is showing signs of the effects of global warming, by altering the normal pattern for this time of year. Yesterday was sweltering, relative to the past few weeks… not too hot, only around 90 or so, but it felt like descending to the upper levels of hell after all the mild weather of late. I still had the fan on when I went to bed last night. This morning, I had to get up & shut the windows, and turn on the heat for a bit to warm it up, as it was freezing inside and out. I looked outside and found a completely overcast sky, & chilly temperatures.

Now, that in itself is not unusual for Northern California’s SF Bay Area;  nightly fog acts as a sort of air conditioner most days, lasting until about 1100 before burning off for a normally warm summer day. But, prior to global warming, the switch from spring weather to summer generally took more than one day…..

“I’ve developed a new philosophy… I only dread one day at a time.” — Charlie Brown

Ah well, the intro is too early to rant about global warming, or anything else. I’m kind of getting a bit discouraged anyway; my ranting, while cathartic for me, and possibly enjoyable for those few who read it, isn’t having much of an effect.

It would be nice to wake up one day, and see that things have changed….. the government issued emission control guidelines strict enough to work, or a Republican came out for gay marriage, or General Motors announces it is converting to all electric vehicles running on solar power. You know, just some small token, to let me know that my rants are not just shouting into the wind.

“Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967)

Alas, I’m afraid that will never happen, unless by some fantastic turn of chance my blog goes viral, and the ranting I carry on reaches the ears of a significant number of people, a number large enough to be able to have a real effect on reality. I’m still waiting…..

Ah well, since that probably is out of the question as well, I suppose I’ll just get on with today’s effort…. shall we Pearl?…..
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“Control of the dissemination of information (or misinformation) is one of the principal sources of political power. Political power is what the discussion of the Internet is really about, not home-made bombs or pornography.” — Michael Goldsby — Letter to Communications of the ACM, Nov 95

Mr. Goldsby has hit upon a very significant piece of information here, one that is completely accurate, and is sure to be the target of the beloved ruling class, as something to deny, and/or distract away from the attention of the public. The people who seek to hold political power have a lot of practice at hiding what they are doing from the public, and the Internet, because of its currently unregulated nature, is a distinct threat to that policy.

Numerous political talking heads have been introducing legislation to Congress in attempts to curtail the free flow of information on the Internet, seeking to prohibit all sorts of exchanges of files and information between people over which they have no control. They do, of course, hide their true intentions behind some other reason for wanting to control that flow….

The bills they will introduce will say that they want to protect intellectual property rights, they want to protect the rights of corporations to make a profit, they want to keep kids from having access to pornography, they want to protect National Security…. all these are the reasons they will give for the legislation, but the true purpose remains there, behind all the distracting BS…. They want to control ALL the information that is sent out; only then can they be sure that the public will only see what they want us to see….

Silence is the language of complicity. — Smart Bee

They won’t stop trying to establish their own controls on the flow of information; it is against their nature to allow the “sheep” to determine where they will go to pasture. If we are to continue to enjoy the Internet as it is, with no restrictions to the flow of information, we will need to be alert to the attempts by the beloved ruling class to take it away.

Recent attempts have been defeated, partly due to the power of the Internet itself, as millions of users emailed their legislators, or signed online petitions, urging them to vote against the legislated attempt at shackling the Net…. and it worked! The response was so strong that even the legislators who supported the bill were forced to vote against it, or face the wrath of their constituency….. It was a beautiful example of how the public can fight back….

The Internet is now the best tool the public has to maintain awareness of those threats to our liberty that are being carried out on a daily basis by those who would have us believe they are acting in our interests. It is also the best tool we have to make sure that those same narcissistic power-mongers can’t hide from us; when the information is flowing freely, there is no place for them to hide. They know this, and that is why they are working so hard to neutralize the Internet, to pull its fangs, so they will be free to continue their program of lying, cheating, and stealing from the public….. and I say FUCK ‘EM!…….
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“Is this the region, this the soil, the clime,”
Said then the lost Archangel, “this the seat
That we must change for Heaven, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
Who is now sovereign can dispose and bid
What shall be right: farthest from him is best,
Whom reason hath equaled, force hath made supreme
Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields,
Where joy forever dwells! Hail, horrors! hail,
Infernal World! and thou, profoundest Hell,
Receive thy new possessor – one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
A mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what should I be, all but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence;
Here we may reign secure, and, in my choice,
To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”
— John Milton, “Paradise Lost”

Ironic, is it not? This is merely a piece of the epic poem by Milton, with its most famous line. The entire poem is one of the most revered pieces of literature in all of Mankind’s history, and the last line is indubitably one of the most well-known, and most often repeated, lines of all.

The irony, to me, is to note that, almost any priest/preacher would find the last line to be extreme heresy, yet it remains the favorite of all man’s works to date. This indicates to me that the inner spirit of most people knows crap when it hears it, and the dogma that most religions embrace most certainly falls into that category. Our innermost selves can see this, in spite of all the indoctrination into the dogma it may have endured, and can only agree with the sentiment, “Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven…..

SIGH…. I know that pieces such as this one tend to disappoint certain members of my family, on those rare occasions they actually read this many words at once; many of them are firmly ensnared in the dogmatic trap of born-again cultism. (I always have to wonder what was wrong with the first time they were born?….. I mean, it’s kind of disrespectful of our Mom to regret one’s birth…..)   But, that’s okay, they never understood me very well anyway, but they are family, so they make an attempt to love me, heretic that I am….they have to, they’re family…. But they don’t have to like it, and they don’t…. Así es la vida loca, si?
___________________________________

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky.

Richard Brautigan

Richard Brautigan wrote much of his poetry about, and during, the time when he, and I, lived in Berkeley, in the Sixties. (I know, but I’m atypical…. I was there, and I remember all of it, even though I partook of EVERY activity that characterized the time…..) He was a few years older, but what he wrote destroyed any differences that might have existed between our spirits; I recognized him at first read.

The title line of this poem produces an image in my mind that offers me a lot of solace, for it is an image that could only become real if Mankind manages to keep from devolving into extinction, as we seem hell-bent on doing. A lot of his poems are the same, with a very strong, real connection to the current world, to reality, colored by the mind of a genius….
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Well, that was satisfying…. I remembered Richard at the last moment, just when I was getting discouraged at the lack of pearls to be found…. Serendipity strikes again….. I’m hoping the fog burns off this morning, as that will ensure a nice, comfortable afternoon; I’ve been trying to get a walk in each day in the afternoon, in hopes of conditioning myself well enough to stand up to the traveling I want to do…. Having to take a nap each day like a four-year old is fun, and feels good, but, as the Scots say, it’s time to be living, for I’ll be a long time dead…. I’ll have plenty of time then for naps…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Frankly blank, she pondered swiftly….

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4

Ffolkes,
With reluctance, I approach my keyboard, shaking and nervous. There is something hidden in there, I know it. I can feel it, desperately poised to leap out and grab my fingers, making them form words from I know not where. If I give in, where will we go? How will I know if what is written will fly, or even walk? Will there be poetry? There is no way to tell, and the time is come to decide, for good or ill. I am afraid…. I am very afraid…..

Okay, now that is out of my head, we can get on with this morning’s normal business, or as close to normal as we ever get around here….. Sorry about the first paragraph; that stuff comes out and jumps onto the screen before I can get my head together. I think it is probably some part of me that wants badly to be paid for writing, as opposed to most of me, who just wants it outside the boundaries of my head, and I don’t care whether it’s rewarded in that respect at all. All I want is a bunch of “Likes” from my friends, and I’m good to go…. Considering how much I write, nobody’s going to want to pay me by the word, that’s for sure; they’d go broke in no time….

It’s all moot, though, so we’ll just get on with the daily Pearl…. always best to let the stuff that first comes out fly freely away, and get itself out of the way. It’s best not to mix that stuff with real pearls…. shall we dive?…..
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“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.” — Helen Keller

Coming from anyone else, this would have less meaning; from Ms. Keller it assumes the aspect of eternal truth. If there is anyone in the world who suffered more to achieve self-hood, I have never heard of them, in all of my long years of reading and learning.

Having experience in working with the deaf, though never when combined with blindness, I can say without fear of contradiction that it takes a strong will and perseverance of unusual depth to be successful. Those who face the world with only three of the usual five senses of perception face a much more difficult path than those of us who can see and hear, and those who succeed, as did Ms. Keller, have indeed learned to be both brave and patient, in the finest sense of those words…..

Nothing more needs to be said about this, really. It is a powerful truth, given to us by someone who paid the full, complete price to learn that truth, and as such, it behooves us to listen, and to pay attention….
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“His ignorance covers the world like a blanket, and there’s scarcely a hole in it anywhere.” — Mark Twain

This year’s presidential election promises to be, if nothing else, an interesting spectacle. I am completely amazed at how the Republican nomination process has shaken down; the winnowing process was filled with ignorance, misguided appeals to fringe conservative groups, in-fighting, and all the usual nonsense that all the pundits go through during these events. In the end, they came up with….. Mitt Romney?

Yep…. perhaps the most dishonest politician ever to partake of the banquet of money the public payroll provides ( he has used his elected positions unmercifully to increase his own private wealth, taking advantage of insider knowledge and the “good-old-boy” circuit to the maximum) to come down the pike in many years. Well, not so many years, I suppose…. we did have an ex-CIA chief in the POTUS office not too long ago, and we all know how honest those folks are….

But, Romney? I’m sorry, it’s almost as if they have given up, and have acknowledged that there is NO ONE in the mainstream of the Republican pantheon of potential candidates who has any real connection to the American people. Romney is firmly entrenched in the 1%, and no matter how often he says otherwise, nobody is buying his assertion that he is not.

Not only have the rest of the party’s pundits given in, they seem to be letting him continue his policy of shooting himself in the foot every other day, by uttering some new lie. His repeated attempts to perform damage control are necessary, as he doesn’t seem to be able to speak without making something up. I know of two websites whose sole purpose consists of identifying each one of them, as they fact-check what he says every day, and every day find new instances of deliberate untruths…. It’s amazing, and would be amusing, if it wasn’t so scary….

It’s scary because, in spite of all his lying, in spite of his flip-flopping on policies according to whatever audience he is addressing, and in spite of his obvious lack of qualifications to BE president, his political machine keeps right on trundling down the public path to the Republican Convention, where his status as the latest incarnation of “The Great White Hope” will be formalized. The Democratic Party is, no doubt, celebrating almost every night, as he is doing their work for them…. They don’t have to say a word, just smile and point to Romney’s latest gaffes, of which there are legion…. Easy money, as far as I can see….

Now, as long as he doesn’t manage to fool enough of the voting public to make it close, we’ll be fine, and come December, all of this will be a memory of just another bad dream…. and if not, well, we can always call Al….

“He probably just wants to take over my CELLS and then EXPLODE  inside me like a BARREL of runny CHOPPED LIVER!  Or maybe he’d like to PSYCHOLOGICALLY TERRORIZE ME until I have no objection to a RIGHT-WING MILITARY TAKEOVER of my apartment!!  I guess I should call AL PACINO!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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“Just remember–when you think all is lost, the future remains.” — Robert Goddard

This is one of those pearls whose depth of meaning and relevance are not apparent at first glimpse. But, in examining it further, I have come to believe that this is something I hope that I gave to my own children, as it is an idea that can save one’s sanity, and one’s hope, in the face of whatever challenges life may present to us. Nothing that happens, no matter how all-encompassing it may be, can ever take away this simple fact; the future remains.

It is often the case that we spend a lot of useless time lamenting those events in our lives that set us back on our road to our goals, or in trying to fix whatever has gone wrong. When we are in that state, we are not looking at the entire picture that is there to be seen; we are focused on just what we are doing. It becomes easy to forget that by acknowledging the future, and its possibility for change, we limit our effectiveness at what we are trying to do, thus increasing our own difficulty.

By accepting the presence and power of change, we can use it as an aid to our progress, rather than as an obstacle to be overcome. Simple, like most deep truth, and effective…. the greatest gifts come in the smallest packages, it is said, and in this case, it is perfectly true…..
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“I have tried lately to read Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me.” — Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

It seems I’m not as alone as I had thought in my lack of enthusiasm for Shakespeare. It’s heartening to know that someone with such a logical mind sees, as do I, Shakespeare’s deliberate obscurity as a vice rather, than the virtue it is made out to be in so many quarters.  I freely admit that some of what he wrote is wonderful, in spots, but 80% is crap, plain and simple, and I can only hope that he wrote it on deadline, and didn’t get paid much for it…. That would explain a lot…..

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.” — Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals

I offer in proof of my assertion the following excerpts from various works of his; if you can explain to me either their relevance, meaning, or artistic merit, please do so… I am listening…

“I will show myself highly fed and lowly taught.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), All ‘s Well that Ends Well — Act ii, Sc. 2

“One draught above heat makes him a fool; the second mads him; and a third drowns him.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Twelfth Night — Act i, Sc. 5

“All his successors gone before him have done ‘t; and all his ancestors that come after him may.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Merry Wives of Windsor  — Act i, Sc. 1

“A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I ‘ll not march through Coventry with them, that ‘s flat: nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There ‘s but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like an herald’s coat without sleeves.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act iv, Sc. 2

“Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine,
His honour and the greatness of his name
Shall be, and make new nations.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry VIII — Act v, Sc. 5

That’s probably enough… pile too many of these in the same place and the odor is incredible!  Besides, more proof can be found almost anywhere…. there’s a lot of this kind of crap floating around the pool…. My invitation stands, by the way; if you can show me how this stuff is any good, please do so! Otherwise, thanks for listening to my gripes….  🙂
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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land
And on the strangest sea,
Yet never in extremity
It asked a crumb of me.

— Emily Dickinson

I needed this…. While searching for something else, I came across this…. I’ve used it before, months ago, but it never pales. I don’t really have any comments, except…. thank you, Emily…..
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What an odd Pearl! I am sure of only one thing after this…. I’m done with it. Beyond that, I will make no prognostication. Probably a good thing, all in all….

Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Several handsome acolytes boarded the Pequod….

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9

Ffolkes,
The gloves are coming off today; I can feel it already…. My curmudgeonly side is awake and eager to dive into today’s Pearl with a vengeance, and my radical side is right behind, goading him on.  Throw in my current lack of anything to lose, other than my life and dignity, and a dash of outrage, and it makes for a quite volatile package.  It promises to get interesting, for sure….

That being said, in fair warning, let us warm up with a bit of phantasm, eh?…..

As he moved up the steps from the street to the door of home, Samuel Beck could only feel relief and fatigue. Visions of a warm fire, a comfortable chair, and a bracing snifter of Napoleon’s finest merged happily in the forefront of his mind as he fit his key into the lock. Comforting visions vanished away, instantly, as the door slowly swung open before he turned the key, revealing a scene of such horror, of such vicious terror, that it would never fade completely from his memory.

A body, of a mid-sized man in all-over black clothing, lay about 10 feet from the door, obviously dead as a result of the neat bullet hole in his forehead. Whoever he was, he had not died easily, for furniture lay all around the foyer, and into the visible parlor, smashed and strewn about, just as if two or more men had fought a pitched battle in the rooms, destroying many of the less sturdy pieces. In the parlor, there was evidence of further mayhem, as blood was visible in several areas on the floor, enough to show that more than one person had been bleeding there.  Reddish-brown stains also showed in several places on the walls. Though apparent that more than one person had been there, only the one body remained…..

Not as shocked as might have been assumed, Samuel gazed at the destruction, both of his house, and of his daydreams of a comforting welcome home from what had been a very difficult journey. With a sigh of resignation, he stepped into the foyer, and remarked to himself, “Well, it looks as though they didn’t break the brandy bottle, anyway. I wonder if any of the glasses have survived.” On that note, he closed the door behind him, and prepared to deal with whatever had taken place while he was gone…. He was beginning to regret ever becoming an assassin…..

Aha! So, that’s where the assassin came from! Now we know his name, and that he likes Napoleon brandy…. I wonder where he stashed the little girl?  Ah well, no matter, we have other fish to fry, so to speak…. let us Pearl, shall we?….
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“It is the final proof of God’s omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.” — Peter De Vries

“It is certain because it is impossible.” — Tertullias

The above two statements, each of which reflects the other, are commonly used as arguments in favor of the existence of God. Though tautological by nature, people seem to accept this type of argument readily, and clasp it tightly to their mental bosom, never to let go. I suppose this is a factor of that part of human nature that prefers to be lazy, and not have to think overmuch about anything, much less about such subtle, convoluted treatises on the existence of their chosen deity.

It has always seemed to me, since the age of 14 or so, when I first began to examine what I had been taught in a critical light, that the religious beliefs of most people are based on this factor. I noted as well, when one has accepted the premise of God’s omnipotence, then one’s own sense of responsibility becomes a moot point. No matter how egregiously immoral, no matter how unethical one’s actions may be, these folks have the ultimate get out of Hell card; divine forgiveness by the Son of God….  It is a quite convenient way to justify even the most insane, cruel, and viciously antisocial acts, when committed in the name of the Lord, or for the glory of the State.

Even the most immoral of acts of a personal nature, such as theft, infidelity, or casual cruelty to those weaker, are forgiven. Though all the Christian sects have some form of forgiveness in place, Catholics seem to have the most efficient system for relieving any possible guilt over such acts. They are given the opportunity each week, or even daily, to confess these “sins” and receive absolution that guarantees there will be no lasting or important consequences for their acts, other than having to recite some canonical platitudes they were made to memorize as a child, to help speed the process along…..

Ah, but I forget! Religion, along with almost every other subject of a complex nature that requires an expenditure of mental energy to comprehend, is not based on logical reason, or even structured thought of any kind… it is based on fear. Fear of the great unknown, Death. The folks who become preachers & priests are those who, in different circumstances, would be salesmen and shop clerks, selling their goods for the greatest amount of profit they could squeeze from an unsuspecting public, while maintaining that their shoddily made goods are of the finest cloth.

Instead, they offer relief from the ever present fear of Death, with a poorly constructed, but flashily dressed system of beliefs that offers not only (illogical) proof of victory over Death, but takes away all responsibility for one’s actions here on Earth. With an attractive hook like that, how else could people choose?….. They make it very easy to jump on the wagon, and only those who can think, and prefer to do so, can see the fallacies in what they are offering, and that the wheels of the wagon are about to fall off….

“It is possible to pray hard enough that water will run uphill. How hard? Why, hard enough to make water run uphill, of course!” — Lazarus Long (Robert Heinlein)
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“…I am opposed to all attempts to license or restrict the arming of individuals…I consider such laws a violation of civil liberty, subversive of democratic political institutions, and self-defeating in their purpose.” — Robert A. Heinlein, in a 1949 letter concerning “Red Planet”

“You cannot conquer a free man, the most you can do is kill him.” — Lazarus Long (Robert Heinlein)

“An armed society is a polite society.” — Robert A. Heinlein, ‘The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress’ (Think about it….)

“An hour’s perusal of our national charter makes it hard to understand what the argle-bargle is about. The First Amendment forbids infringements of the freedom of speech “except for commercials on children’s television” or “unless somebody says ‘****’ in a rap song or ‘chick’ on a college campus.”  The Second Amendment states that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be  infringed,” period. There is no mention of magazine size, rate of fire, or to what extent those arms may resemble assault rifles.” — P. J. O’Rourke

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” — James Madison

I’m sensing a theme here… I’m sure I could find and include a great many more such quotes from famous historical Americans, but there seems to be a consensus, so we’ll leave it at five for now. I’m also not going to discuss this further, at this time, as I believe I’ve already made my feelings and thoughts on this matter quite clear. These folks have all said it at least as well as I can, and in most cases, better. So, I will only ask you to consider what they say, and think about it….. if you have any thoughts to contribute, well, I am a firm believer in the power of dialogue, so please feel free to comment where appropriate….
___________________________________

“An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.” — Simon Cameron (1799-1889)

The mere presence of this quote in the literature of Man is disheartening, to say the least, for it implies that the condition it describes is so prevalent that it requires statement, and acknowledgment of its truth. It is sort of like all those strange laws one finds in the old archives of some of the states, like “There will be no sheep allowed to wear makeup”, or other such nonsense. The scary part is that one knows that the law was written because somebody was actually DOING that….. so we know, by deduction, that the statement about politicians exists only because it is already true…..

It is not only the mere existence of this concept that is annoying to me, and to all of society; it is the truth it proclaims that is so hard to accept. We, as a society, know this to be true, yet we continue to act as if it were not. We vote for the fools who parade their ignorance in front of the crowds who, for some reason unfathomable to me, flock to hear and see these sociopathic liars in person, to hear their outrageous claims and idiotic platforms straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

I sometimes wonder if they expect that the pundits and talking heads will tell the truth, if what they say is uttered right in front of them. Of course, there is no evidence that will support such belief, but, people believe all sorts of things that aren’t true, that is for sure…. As a matter of fact, I often feel as if people don’t WANT to hear the truth, because they never, ever make any attempt to ascertain whether or not they have. In fact, the more outrageous and false the claim, the quicker and more deeply it is believed, so it seems. I guess we should chalk that up to human perversity…. nothing else explains it, as it is a completely useless state of mind, from a survival standpoint….

I’m not sure that a solution to this issue is possible. There doesn’t seem to be any way to convince the general public to make any effort to rein in their elected officials.  Hell, sometimes the American people act as if they are enjoying their increasing slavery…. they certainly are making very little effort to stop any of its advances upon their rights and privileges as a free society.

But, that, I suppose, is just desserts, in a way…. and they will deserve whatever happens to them…. Unfortunately, it will happen to the rest of us as well, and that is unacceptable to me…. so I’ll just keep my powder dry, my head down, and my ears wide open to hear the sound of approaching tyranny…..

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.” — Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals

“The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.” — Henry L. Mencken
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“It was a saying of the ancients, “Truth lies in a well;” and to carry on this metaphor, we may justly say that logic does supply us with steps, whereby we may go down to reach the water.” — Dr. I. Watts

That is to say, logic does do so, if it is used by a competent mind. In the hands of someone less perceptive, logic can be a WMD, in the vernacular of the 1990’s.  ‘Tis also unfortunate that the folks who fit the latter category tend to use it all too often, and having done so, look about them at the destruction they have wrought with a smug, self-satisfied air, totally ignorant of the increase in entropy they have engendered with their blundering about…..

On the other hand, when used well, logic can be a very powerful tool for finding Truth, even if buried at the bottom of a well. The trick is to use logic like a scalpel, to cut away extraneous facts to reveal Truth, not as a cudgel, to beat Truth into submission. If more of mankind were competent in the use of logic, and not of its abuse, perhaps we would not be facing quite so many difficulties as now exist…. It’s worth a try, in my opinion…. unfortunately, it is also my opinion that it’s never going to happen, because using logic takes mental effort, something the average American will avoid to the best of their ability…..

“Do not speak of what men deserve.   For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead Kings, and we each  of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger.   Have we not eaten while another starved?  Will you punish us for that?  Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate?  No man earns punishment, no man earns reward.  Free your mind of the idea of *deserving*, of *earning*, and you will begin to be able to think.” — Odo, The Prison Letters (Ursula LeGuin, _The Dispossessed_)
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Look back on time with kindly eyes,
He doubtless did his best;
How softly sinks his trembling son
In human nature’s west!
— Emily Dickinson

Emily is included here for the intellectual version of comic relief. Compared to religion, politics, the Second Amendment, and the search for Truth, a discussion of time, or poetry, could be considered a bit tame. But, the power of Emily’s mad little rhymes can, in my estimation, stand up next to any subject and look them right in the eye.

This particular verse is one I’ve never seen before, and completely lives up to my expressed opinion. In four lines she expresses ideas and concepts that an hour-long lesson in a university classroom would be needed to cover if discussed in prose. Time, human nature, even compassion, all in such a compact little vessel; it makes one wonder what Emily would have done, had she ever applied her hand to Haiku…. Sheer beauty, incredible power, and deeply meaningful thoughts given in 17 syllables, would be my guess as to results. Ah well, what she did leave us is more than could be hoped for anyway….

And, if nothing else, reading this will banish most of the darkness that may have covered our eyes after reading and considering the previous sections…. so, enjoy!…..
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Well….. though serious enough, I suppose the gloves never came all the way off… My knuckles aren’t bloody and scraped up, so the blows I threw struck soft tissue, for the most part. But, a shot is a shot, and I got a few good licks in, so I am content for the nonce….. and I always enjoy having a chance to use the word “nonce” in a sentence… Such a fine word, and so seldom used I like to give it as much exposure as possible, lest it pass completely out of usage…. Now that you are completely convinced of my oddity, if not insanity, I will bring this to a close…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Until Bob returns, no cha-cha, & no rhumba….

Posted on by
30

Ffolkes,
As I sit here, laughing at myself, I have to admit, my Bozoid tendencies are in full swing this morning…. I’ve been steadily plugging along, filling in the blanks as I go through the morning routine, for about 35 minutes now. Got a lot done too, on starting a Pearl. I even had the intro section completely done, and was dutifully searching for pearls, when I was confronted by my own silliness and failure to be a Lert….. or, if you insist, alert…..

I started to paste a poem below, and realized I was posting it into tomorrow’s Pearl template. This is also where I had already composed and written an intro section leading into the Pearl….. see my problem?  Complete time distortion ensues…. Now I’m dazed again, much like the first 5 minutes of being up, before the first sip of coffee kicks in enough to raise the eyelids a fraction, and will need to take a minute here to regroup…… I’ll be back in a few, when I have caught up to reality again….. mumble, grumble, phtt….

I have re-established contact with reality, and we can now move on to bigger and better things…. if that particular phrase can be considered to apply to this process…. as the old Dead song says, “head’s all empty, and I don’t care….”   No worries, we’ll just go now and find something with which we can fill it up…. shall we Pearl?……
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C:\> erase c:\reality.sys; copy a:\pern\*.* c:

This pearl is a bit of a test…. What I’ve written here is, of course, a DOS command line. (I wrote ‘of course’ before I fully realized that it is ‘of course’ only to those who are familiar with DOS, which may not include the more modern users among us. For those ffolkes, just think of it as double clicking on a program you want to use…..) The test is to tell me, in the comment section, if you know what the command tells the computer to do….

It’s quite a simple command, though the .exe installation file it points to is VERY complex…. and that is your only clue….  Let’s see who’s paying attention, as well as who is well grounded in both computers and literature….. luck won’t be needed, and wouldn’t help in any case, but, good luck!  If no one figures it out before tomorrow morning’s Pearl gets written, I’ll reveal the answer then….
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The only point in the following entry is to preserve my sanity. In looking over the last few Pearls, I found a disturbing lack of poetry. Oh, there was some there, but not enough to suit my needs…. if I don’t get enough of the grace and beauty that good poetry provides, I get testy, to say the least. That probably accounts for the 800-1000 word rants in the last couple of posts. That has actually worked out well; I was able to publish two of those rants to another site as solitary articles. But, in the process, I’ve built up a need for the serenity that a good poem gives me…. so, here are three of them, all capable of filling my need, and, hopefully, yours….. enjoy!

Weep no more, nor sigh, nor groan,
Sorrow calls no time that ‘s gone;
Violets plucked, the sweetest rain
Makes not fresh nor grow again.
— John Fletcher (1576-1625)  — The Queen of Corinth, Act iii, Sc. 2

How fading are the joys we dote upon!
Like apparitions seen and gone.
But those which soonest take their flight
Are the most exquisite and strong,–
Like angels’ visits, short and bright;
Mortality ‘s too weak to bear them long.
— John Norris (1657-1711) — The Parting

But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Don Juan, Canto iii, Stanza 88

I don’t know about you, but I feel better…..

Oft in the stilly night,
Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Fond memory brings the light
Of other days around me;
The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood’s years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone
Now dimmed and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken.
— Thomas Moore (1779-1852) — Oft in the Stilly Night

I know, I know, I said three… but this one popped up in front of me, glommed onto my leg before I could dodge, and insisted that I include it with the others. Then I looked at it, and was sunk…. It’s not like I jabbed you in the eye with a stick, now, is it?…… Don’t worry, it won’t hurt you to have another; they’re calorie free……
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“The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower.  To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha — which is to demean oneself.” — Robert Pirsig, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”

I like this. I liked it when I first read the book, more years ago than I care to think about, and it still clicks with my way of looking at things, as if Buddha himself was talking directly to me…. I admire it so much, that’s all I’m going to say on the subject. This can speak for itself……
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“If fifty million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” — Bertrand Russell

We are now experiencing first hand the beginning effects of the proof of this proposition. Our world-wide society has succumbed to the truth in this statement, and are actively, and obliviously, pursuing foolishness en masse. One need only look through the daily news to see this demonstrated; article after article explores concepts and events that illustrate the full and complete absence of critical thought that is rampant in our culture. No matter how outrageous the statement, no matter how silly the proposal, no matter how egregious the lie, if a talking head on TV says it, fifty million people will jump right up and cheer its arguable (to any minds but theirs…) merit, and give it their unquestioning belief.

Do I really need to point out examples? Oh, right, evidence is good…. Okay. Easy money. How about….. Mitt Romney?  Here is a man who has spent the last 10 months or so running around the US to various political electoral farces, er, functions, and has repeatedly lied, or pandered to special interests in the face of another, or alienated entire segments of the voting public (such as women, and the poor), or changed a position one day after claiming it as his own, so many times there are a number of web sites that are devoted just to keeping track of his contradictory and/or fictional statements, of what he has the temerity to call facts.  I’m not picking on him; it’s all out there in black and white for anyone to see.

Yet this man is the apparent next candidate for the Presidency of this country as the Republican choice. If we are to believe it, he has the support not only of numerous officials and “important public figures” in his party, but of millions upon millions of folks who seem unable or unwilling to examine any of his public statements for truth or accuracy. It’s almost as if he were a talking fundamentalist Bible…. He said it, they believe it, and that’s that…… possessing, as they apparently do, steel traps instead of minds. Anything that gets in, isn’t getting out alive, that’s for sure and for certain… As a bonus prize in the foolishness category, the folks who generally fall for this kind of chicanery have the following attitude as well…

“When you are sure you’re right, you have a moral duty to impose your will upon anyone who disagrees with you.” — Robert W. Mayer

And people wonder why I’m cynical…… here is a short verse that laments the absence of the kind of men I wish were running this country…. and I am saddened by the fact that I can think of no man, or woman, in office or out, who fits this mold…..

Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere,
In action faithful, and in honour clear;
Who broke no promise, serv’d no private end,
Who gain’d no title, and who lost no friend.
— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Moral Essays, Epistle to Mr. Addison
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But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!
Did ye not hear it?–No! ‘t was but the wind,
Or the car rattling o’er the stony street.
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iii, Stanza 22

So, I needed another hit of exquisite….. so sue me… I’ll add an extra pearl, okay?….
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Wedding March:  19th Century, England

“The traditional church wedding features two bridal marches, by two different classical composers. The bride walks down the aisle to the majestic, moderately paced music of the “Bridal Chorus” from Richard Wagner’s 1848 opera “Lohengrin”.  The newlyweds exit to the more jubilant, upbeat strains of the “Wedding March” from Felix Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

The custom dates back to the royal marriage, in 1858, of Victoria, princess of Great Britain, and Empress of Germany, to Prince Frederick William of Prussia.  Victoria, eldest daughter of Britain’s Queen Victoria, selected the music herself.  A patron of the arts, she valued the works of Mendelssohn and practically venerated those of Wagner. Given the British penchant for copying the monarchy, soon brides throughout the Isles, nobility and commoners alike, were marching to Victoria’s drummer, establishing a Western wedding tradition.”

It seems at first glance that this entry has little significance in relation to what usually passes here for subject matter. Admittedly, it is less of an issue than my usual pick of stuff upon which to rant. Calm yourselves, I’m not going to rant about this…. I have included it for one reason only, and that is to demonstrate that the power of celebrity has its roots further back in our cultural history than might at first be apparent. This short historical note on weddings clearly shows how the famous in society influence the culture as a whole, and have done so since well before the advent of radio, news delivery over international distances, TV, and the internet.

The actions of one woman, the most visible public figure of her time, were sufficiently of interest to the rest of society as to institute a new custom, which persists to this day, and not just in the British Isles. Public opinion can thus be seen to be manipulable by the simplest of means, to wit: if the public likes it, they’ll buy it…. simple, yet effective, and obviously well-known to those who manipulate others as a rule of policy….. funny, sometimes where one can find evidence of humanity’s vulnerabilities, isn’t it?…..

“It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.” — Goethe
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As another morning’s musings draw to a close, I find myself a trifle melancholy. I’m sure it is temporary, and merely the result of finishing what has been fun to create. Since I’m happy with it as it is, we’ll get on with the rest of the procedure, and speed this on its way to cyberspace, and your perusal….. enjoy!  Y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!