The only universal solvent is Change….

Posted on March 28, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Many men fancy that what they experience they also understand.”

~~ Goethe ~~

Image from Space.com Pictures of the Day, 3/23/2015

For close to four years now, I’ve maintained a routine which gave me the time and space to produce these Pearls each morning. It’s been valuable to me, in at least one sense, if not many; if nothing else, my sanity, while never completely intact, remains sufficiently strong to resist giving in to all the parts of life which might make us unhappy by their complete indifference to our sensibilities. It may not sound like much, but, believe me, being able to find a spot of peace in this life is more of a gift than many folks, or, for that matter, ffolkes, may realize…. I do, and I appreciate it….

However, as today’s title indicates, if there is one thing we all need to stay on top of in life, it is our ability to deal with changes. No matter how much we try to arrange our lives to prevent it, we are all eventually going to have to deal with it, in one part of our life or another, for it is the ONLY universal law we have, in reality; all things must change. Entropy makes sure of it, and, since we can identify it, but, still cannot point to it, there is little we can do to affect it at all.

Most mornings I don’t try to philosophize so early; my brain isn’t usually ready to even think about being organized. With this new routine, however, it seemed to be an appropriate way to start the day. I see, by my words above, I’ve again written myself to a point where I either must expand the discussion, or let it go by; since we are still in the intro section, I’ll let it go, with one final word about the new routine…. These Pearls may not show up as close to the usual posting time as in the past; I’m getting up later, and sleeping better. While both of those aren’t bad things, they do tend to make this process happen later than previously. So be it….

I’m good with it; it’s a simple enough adjustment to make, even for an old curmudgeon like me. Hell, it may even improve these intro sections, which could only be considered a good thing. In the meantime, we’ll employ one of our methods for getting us out of here, before it turns on us, becoming something more than a simple intro, to my undying regret and embarrassment. If y’all could again pull the lever under your seat, the plane will assume the proper landing configuration, and we can get on with our dive….. Thank you, now, hang on…..

Shall we Pearl?

“Anates tuas in acie instrue.” (Have your ducks all in array…) — Latin for everyday use

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Image from Walmart.com via Google stock images

If I had to pick a favorite classical artiste, it might be this violinist. She, and the group of other women violinists she has gathered into the group La Pietà, have brought imagination back into the recording of classical music, using their talents to make classical music more accessible to the common man, through movies and music. Every piece I’ve ever heard them play has produced the same feeling of peaceful, imaginative pleasure, at hearing music played as it should be played, with heart…. Enjoy, ffolkes, there are a LOT of good pieces to hear today….

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Angèle Dubeau & La Pietà – Danse macabre – Camille Saint-Saëns

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https://youtu.be/txUvlfk9BR0?list=PLws4cSjvcS5orMEDja2BF1UDoL-UNbOTT

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Image stolen from Talesfromtheconspiratum.com

I am up late; obviously, this affects the amount of time I’ve left myself to post. As a result, I don’t feel I have enough time to produce a new, fresh rant; whatever I could come up with wouldn’t make the grade, from my viewpoint, given my personal standards. What I CAN do is create a fresh new old-school pearl that takes some rather pointed shots at our usual targets…. That will ALWAYS make the grade, in my book… and, it should do the same to yours…. Now that I’ve completely confused both of us, with that remarkable statement of…. well, I can’t even think of a word for what it was…. Oh well… Let’s make a pearl, shall we? (Oops…. but, it’s okay. That’s not a royal we, just you and me….)….

This pearl takes its shots from a different viewpoint than usual; these come at the target from the side, or from behind, showing up those qualities in which our beloved ruling class FAILS to achieve any standard of ethics, or morality, or, ultimately, virtue….. Some of them show us WHY they are like they are, others merely show us where they fall short…. All are an indictment of what they are, which is, to put it most simply, complete and utter assholes, without an ounce of compassion, or, humanity, in their spirit….

“A guilty conscience never feels secure.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 617

“He knew that insofar as one denies what is, one is possessed by what is not, the compulsions, the fantasies, the terrors that flock to fill the void.” — Ursula K. LeGuin, _The Lathe of Heaven_

“After the first death, there is no other.’ — Dylan Thomas

“Honor is the reward of virtue.” — Cicero (B.C. 106-43)

“… none are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” — Goethe

“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.” — Thomas Paine

“But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” — Declaration of Independence

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Image stolen from The Europa Ice Wolf

No, I don’t know which part of my mind decided this was the right piece of art work for this poem; deal with it, ffolkes, it’s only a picture…. Since there was no rant today, to speak of, this will have to do….

A Few Words of Note

In place of ranting and raving about assholes every day
maybe I’ll try something more fun.
Rather than throwing words at all the assholes on public pay
I’ll switch to shooting at them, with a gun….

Should I actually hit one, purely by mistake,
maybe it would wake them up.
Maybe, if they had to think, or actually cut us a break,
we’d see a chance to win at life, to take a step up.

Our nation, such as it is today, was founded by men who told the truth;
that morality disappeared long ago.
Simple ethical strength so bright, so prevalent in our country’s youth
was soon corrupted, corporate interests now run the show.

Nothing would please me more than to fire off some rounds,
if only to gain their attention.
But, I can no longer run, I’ve gained too many pounds;
so, my keyboard and intellect must serve to fulfill my intention.

I won’t stop, of that you may be sure
I love my freedoms, and the philosophy from which it springs.
Tom, and Ben, and John, and Pat, those patriots pure
gave me their example, and the inner peace it brings.

If bullets won’t persuade our elected liars to toe the ethical line,
I’ll throw my most powerful words…..
If nothing else, it will make them wriggle to escape, or voice their pitiful whine,
thus exposing themselves for what they are…. plain and simple turds.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Since I’m so late, and SB is not as cooperative as I’d hoped, here is an old, old-school pearl from a bit over a year ago…. Enjoy!…. Or, not; the choice is, as it always is, yours….

From 1/6/2014:

Today will be a normal Pearl, insofar as what we do here is able to approach normal at all; all three sections will have the regular, normal inclusions in their appropriate places…. This first section will be an old-school pearl, because I found three pearls waiting for me when I got here, and that’s just the way it is…. As you can see, curmudgeonry is also part of the somewhat random process for deciding things here at ECR….. Any who, these pearls, the ones I found here, all have a bit to say about people, and how they live…. or, in some cases, how they SHOULD live. But, as they say, you can lead a horse to water, but, you can’t make them think…. er, drink….

“Apollo said that every one’s true worship was that which he found in use in the place where he chanced to be.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book ii, Chap. xii, Apology for Raimond Sebond

“An empty man is full of himself.” — Edward Abbey

“If you see a man approaching you with the obvious intention of doing you good, you should run for your life.” — Thoreau’s Law

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

“Life is just a mirror, and what you see out there, you must first see inside of you.” — Wally “Famous” Amos

“I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way.” — Robert Frost

“Go softly, for you tread on my dreams.” — Yeats

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Well, all things considered, not too shabby. Good enough for what we do here, certainly. Since that be the case, I’m outta here to go see what sort of trouble I can cause for the PTB…. See y’all tomorrow, if things go well….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Ode to a Grecian fern….

Posted on March 17, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“His own character is the arbiter of every one’s fortune.”

~~ Publius Syrus (42 BC) ~~

~~ Maxim 283 ~~

3 owls in Russia-Olga Maltseva-AFP-Getty Images

Chased by all the demons of Hell, I awoke. Having spent much of the night running from the hosts of Hell, I awoke, to find myself once again deep in the throes of confusion, made worse by nausea, thanks to my traveling balance crystals, which have chosen this morning to go for a spin. Rather than return to the steeplechase, wherein I was the fox, I got up, stumbled out to boot up, and began to write…. Just my luck the only idea in my head has more to do with murder than literature…. Who do I want to murder? Oh, take your pick, it’s a long list….

I had hoped I’d gotten past this morning angst related to this intro section, but, apparently not. Oh well. I don’t have the chutzpah today to worry about it. Fortunately for me, about half this Pearl got done before I got up, so, we may yet meet our personal demands for publication by a certain hour. Of course, there’s no guarantee, given or implied, we’ll ever make it out of this section, though the odds are in our favor there. Despite all the problems I find obstructing the way during this process, we do get it done each day…. Well, it’s done, as long as we don’t try to call it anything like “good” or even “okay”….. I think “inoffensive” is the best we can hope for….

Nonetheless, here we are, so, I may as well try to make it something worth wasting a bit of time to peruse over your morning coffee or tea. In order to do so, however, I think I’m going to have to make another executive decision as to timing, to get us down to the next section. I know it’s not exactly kosher, but, I’m not of the Tribe, so, that isn’t a factor for me. Besides, I LIKE pork…. and, I like meat on Fridays, too, so, all you priestly types can just forget it…. Forget what? Hell, why ask me? I just type here….

Speaking of typing, I think I’ve typed quite enough for one morning; any more along these lines, and we could find ourselves in court again. I swear, when we started this, we never thought our legal budget was going to take up such a large part of the overall cost of business…. But, I guess that’s life in the modern world; the lawyers are entitled to their cut of my money, according to the rules we all play by…. Well, that’s how they’d like us all to behave, anyway…. Ah hell, see? I can’t even rant effectively right now…. ARGH!

Fuck it, ffolkes. I’m outta here. I can’t deal with trying to make this right, and it’s too late for that anyhow. Hang on to your hats, because I’m telling the pilot to take us in hot…. PUT THAT DOWN!…. That will be enough of that, thank you. Now, if y’all don’t mind, we will now take our leave, and go find something else to do, that won’t make us look so funny, or get us in any worse trouble than we’re already in…. Again, I say, fuck it….

Shall we Pearl?

“I’m not a teacher only a fellow traveller of whom you asked the way. I pointed ahead – ahead of myself as well as of you.” — George Bernard Shaw, “Getting Married,” 1908

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Jennifer Warnes ~ Image from allmusic.com/Google images

http://www.jenniferwarnes.com/

I’m not sure how many ffolkes, or folks, will remember this lady. I know many will know her voice when hearing it, for she was part of a song duet which became a cultural icon during the 60’s, and, in fact, was one of the better known performers of that time, at least, among us hippies. This was because she was a contemporary, and frequent co-performer with many of the biggest names in music of that time, including Mimi Fariña, Joan Baez, Linda Ronstadt, and, her best known collaborator from that era, Bill Medley, of the Righteous Brothers, with whom she sang the duet in the incredible “I Had the Time of My Life”, as revived for the movie, “Dirty Dancing”. She has also collaborated a lot with Leonard Cohen, whose work we highlighted here a short time ago… Enjoy, ffolkes; this lady can SING!….

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Jennifer Warnes

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https://youtu.be/bPlpxHhzSp0?list=PLfb5wJhuBA28GTLiTWlwzMLO8f9Z9v4na

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As noted above, I don’t have much going on this morning that isn’t tinged by a bit of incipient nausea; ranting is out of the question. This one from a few years ago will have to do for today…. Oddly enough, nothing much is changed from when this was first posted…. go figure….

From 6/6/2012:

“Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of a bitter and bloody persecution.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

See! They warned us, and we still didn’t listen! Almost every one of the men who were involved in the writing of the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights, at one time or another in the ensuing years, wrote a letter or essay discussing this very idea. They had just fought a long, hard battle to set up the safeguards for the freedoms we now supposedly enjoy, and were nervous that what they had accomplished would be lost in the future, due to the machinations of those among the human herd who make it their habit to prey on the rest of the group.

Corporations, and the politicians who take their money in return for legislation favoring those corporations, were considered just as dangerous to liberty as were religions; Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, Mason, Adams, and a host of others all wrote their own version of warnings to their ancestors, naming rapacious corporate entities among the most dangerous enemies against which to guard. These men, who had already risked everything to create the nation we live in, had no desire to see that nation fall to internal enemies, and were careful to make sure that we would know…

But, nobody listened, and, now we are reaping what we have sown. Corporations control Congress. If you believe otherwise, you are delusional, quite simply. It is only necessary to go down the list of those who have been elected, and tally up how their votes go on issues that concern the control of corporate activities. It becomes perfectly clear that NO legislation that seriously hinders what corporations are allowed to do in their pursuit of profit will ever be enacted.

If something that appears to be beneficial to the public does get voted in, you can bet there are codicils and amendments to the bill that essentially emasculate any attempts to curtail profit. Congress hasn’t enacted any laws beneficial to the public in over 75 years, that I can see, and I invite anyone to show me one bill that did so. Just one…. then we can discuss how long it took to find it…. and what THAT little item of information means….

Back in the mid-nineteenth century in America, a corrupt Federal judge was paid by corporate interests to make a ruling that, in essence, gave corporations “person-hood”, making them legal entities entitled to all the protection of the laws that govern individuals. Essentially, this gave these businesses the “right” to a profit, and allows them to charge their customers for any expenses they wish, no matter how egregious or outlandish, and their right to that is protected by law.

Every legal decision challenging that personhood has been defeated in the intervening years, on those few occasions when anyone has tried to throw off the chains the law has placed on us all. The amount of money spent on lobbying, to control the laws that get made, far exceeds what is spent on education, healthcare, or almost any other publicly beneficial programs, and in the eyes of the 1%, it is money well-spent…..

Now, PAC’s for both the Democratic corporations, and the Republican corporations (yes, they are…. there is no real difference between the corporations and the pundits they have paid for; they’re speaking the same language, and have the same goals….) are all set to spend BILLIONS of dollars, dollars originally ripped out of YOUR pockets for stuff you don’t really want or need, to spread lies, misinformation, accusations, and prestidigitation around the public airways until we are all sick of it…..

Well, until some of us are…. I’m sick of it already, and they haven’t really ramped it up yet….. I think I’m going to go buy some aspirin to go along with my other pain medications; I can feel a headache coming on, and I don’t think it will let up until December….

“I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare; and I dare a little the more as I grow older.” — Michael de Montaigne

So be it.

gigoid has spoken.

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I don’t know why, but, this one seems appropriate for today’s Pearl….

Accentuated Lessons

Bold statements of calculated intent
Become common rule of the malcontent.
Avarice assumes such attractive wear
Beguiling deception, illusory and fair.

Grasping and pulling with ghostly hands
Legally proper in all the signatory lands.
Seeking and finding each vulnerable soul
Anguish as payment for exacting the toll.

Wraiths of commerce’s invisible dead guards
Still haunt the dreams left in sad empty yards.
While absentee nobles sit in stiffly elegant splendor
Served by sad-faced detainees in abject surrender.

Escape from reality is illusory at best
Often we falter and fail its daily test.
Only when focused on inner strength
Does peace stay with us for any length.

Peace lies within, always…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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This is what I would call a pearl of philosophy, for lack of anything more classy or brilliant. It has been specially constructed to conform to the highest standards of truth, as well as ethically and physically centered for your convenience; the purpose is to encourage using what you read, and ponder, to center your mind, and your spirit…. It can’t hurt to try, now, can it?….. I can tell you from personal experience, if you do it right, it works…. But, then, not everybody CAN do it; nothing wrong with that, as each one will work toward the same purpose in your mind, whether you know it or not…. Truth is like that; yeah, it is….

“Alone, I look down the road. Each must walk one’s own path.”

~~ 365 Tao ~~

“You live and learn. Or you don’t live long.”

~~ Lazarus Long ~~

“I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.”

~~ Thomas Carlyle ~~

“Nothing in human affairs is worth any great anxiety.”

~~ Plato ~~

“Without civic morality communities perish; without personal morality their survival has no value.”

~~ Bertrand Russell ~~

“Don’t be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it’s just death.”

~~ Lena Horne ~~

“To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.”

~~ Buddha~~

“Intellect annuls fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free.”

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~

“Truth needs no flowers of speech.”

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

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“Hopelessly lost, but making good time…” — David Letterman

Boy, that’s us, to a T! However, not only are we hopelessly lost, but, we have arrived, so, we can say we made good time, for sure… Hell, I’m not sure I’m all the way awake yet, so, I can only assume being done is the right thing to do….

Hmm… You know what? In looking back over that last sentence or two, I think it’s just as well we ARE done. Any more of this and we could be arrested for assault with an empty weapon. Since I can’t afford any more time in court, I’m definitely outta here for today. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I can’t figure out a way out of it….

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

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loo.se.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Faceted jewels, hidden in darkness…

Posted on February 14, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Too long a sacrifice

Can make a stone of the heart.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

Public House in Cork, Ireland, with freshly pulled Guinness waiting for your Valentine.

Who is NOT the blond bartender you see in the rear of the pub, more’s the pity.

Somehow or another, the idea of Valentine’s Day got planted in my consciousness this year. Most years, all it takes for me to forget all about it, is to think of how it began, back in the middle of the twentieth century, when that day, along with Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, President’s Day, and probably a number of others I don’t remember, were instituted as official national holidays. The entire reason, well known at the time, was to supply a holiday during those months of the year when there was not a religious, or other well-known date, like Halloween, Christmas, and Easter, to stimulate the sagging economy in those months, giving people a reason to buy gifts…. Not exactly romantic, eh?

This year, I don’t know why, the date keeps popping up in front of me, which is ironic, as I don’t have anyone in my life other than my kids with whom I’d share such sentiments… Plus, I HATE buying useless stuff just because some poor business person isn’t going to be able to keep their cash flow in the black for a day or two. They steal enough of my money, without my helping them out by falling for such egregiously avaricious tricks…. I wouldn’t want to lose my own good self-opinion, now, would I? No, I don’t believe I would…

Ah well, I have now given in to the extent of writing almost three paragraphs about the day, though I wouldn’t say they were particularly filled with joy and happiness at the day’s arrival on the calendar. In addition, in the next section, you’ll find a very indulgent piece, nicely done by some guy with a pair of breeding hamsters (probably wants to start a farm & sell the thousands of offspring to come in the few months they live…), and way too much spare time on his hands…. It’s pretty funny….

But, as far as I can make it so, that’s all the corporations get from me today…. Well, I might reconsider, break down, & buy a Hallmark card, should I happen to walk out of the house and be accosted by a gorgeous, sensual woman, who demand I give her the card, take her out to dinner, then take her home to teach her all I know of the Kama Sutra…. Yeah, sure, like THAT’s going to happen…. So, I’m figuring I’m done with it for the day…

“Now what”, he said, bemusedly. If only he had started out differently; if only some fantastic fictional passage had stormed through his consciousness, ripping control of his fingers from him, to pound the keyboard faster than he could read, filling the screen with gripping, violently graphic, yet, oddly romantic images of intense emotional drama, pitting human nature against itself in an eternal battle of good vs. evil, all the while laughing madly, gleefully drooling all over his own lap, until, finally, he slowed, considered what he had done, and, stopped typing…..

Slowly, he rose, walking calmly to the desk across the room. Opening a concealed drawer, he pulled out a leather case. Unsnapping the fasteners, the case opens to reveal a dark, shiny, evil-looking 9mm Glock automatic pistol. Picking it up, he chambered a round, placed the gun at his temple, and fired one shot right through to the opposite wall, taking quite a bit of brain and bone matter with it, forming a rather striking pattern across the rug and wall….

He then walked over to the computer, sat down, and, naturally enough, typed in the following words….

Shall we Pearl?

“.. I’m IMAGINING a sensuous GIRAFFE, CAVORTING in the BACK ROOM of a KOSHER DELI –” — Zippy the Pinhead

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Well, what did you expect? It IS Valentine’s Day, even if I don’t pay any particular attention to it. The following video, at least, puts it all into the proper perspective…. Thanks to Lou for posting it two days ago, thus, furnishing me with yet another fine pearl…..

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Tiny Hamster’s Tiny Date

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http://youtu.be/rPLiGyWy5bQ

first posted by Lou, at:

https://talesfromthelou.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/tiny-hamsters-valentines-date-200/

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“Things true and evident must of necessity be recognized by those who would contradict them.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Concerning the Epicureans, — Discourses, Book ii, Chap. xx

Ahhh! Bliss…. I’ve always enjoyed the way Epictetus expressed his thoughts. Somehow, his style speaks to me in a way I feel as well as see, and hear, telling me in the simplest, most direct way, how to understand life, and our fellow humans; his sense, apparently, shares commonality with my own. To me, this is an excellent way to show exactly how we can be sure we are being, well, screwed, by those in power…. It is proven true every day, any number of times….

Each day, those in power release some sort of blast of information, designed in some fashion to influence the public in some way. Even when the public KNOWS of this, they still tend to listen to those in power, as they have been trained to do so since entering this world. Still, there is so much of what we are told that isn’t even remotely true, those among the unwashed masses who have not been fully beaten down into slavish acceptance will take note of some obvious discrepancy between reality, and what they are told is reality by those in charge. On the internet, there are literally hundreds of places to find these discrepancies, which clearly show that what we are told is not always true….

Here is where Epictetus’ words come into play…. In order for the officials making the statement to contradict reality in this way shows how it is not possible for them to do so in ignorance of what they do…. By the very act of lying, they prove they know the truth, but, choose to withhold it, to serve some purpose of their own…. Often that purpose is apparent; more often it is not. Either way, I think you could easily say they weren’t doing it for OUR benefit, without feeling as if you were telling a lie yourself….

“Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so Truth be in the field, we do ingloriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Let her and Falsehood grapple: who ever knew Truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter?” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

This is MY solution to this question, and, my intention as one who rants. Given the simple fact of the degree of control already established over our society/world by those who would be king, the Truth is the only weapon remaining to us…. Those who rule have already perverted much of Truth to their own purposes, by the simple expedient of convincing almost everyone they have always told the truth, when they actually merely convinced people what is true was not…. If there is one thing I’ve always believed, with some trepidation, admittedly, it is the Truth will out; ultimately, it will make itself clear, usually in a painful way… I don’t think it LIKES to be hidden, or used to promote evil…. But, in time, it always wins out over a lie… I’m hoping, anyway….

Sounds complicated, but, it’s quite simple actually; the problem is this: once the lies are accepted as truth, the actual truth has no more power to be heard; those convinced they are right, possessing the only right answers, will not listen to any evidence otherwise, even if it slaps them right in the face….. It is one of human nature’s most destructive traits, in spite of also being one of its most endearing faults…. I only wish I knew another way to get through to them, but, they made the decision long ago, to never discover the truth of reality for themselves, but, to allow others to tell them what to believe, to mold the shape of reality for them…. To turn back now, for almost all of them, is impossible….

“It’s called EVIL, kid.” — Smart Bee

SIGH….. We had such promise, too….

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 ~~

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A poem of mine is going to have to do for today. I hope you like it…..

Sharing the Wealth

Lucky are we who live with some adversity,
Such strife to bear leaves us strong and free.
Time is no better spent at a fine university
Teaching us the kind of person we wish to be.

We humans are such contrary creatures
Life lived in ease is our fondest intent.
New perceptions are our strongest features
Learning to cope with troubles we cannot prevent.

Lessons we learn at Trouble’s bent knee
Stay on top in the bag of tools we carry.
Knowledge so earned can keep us free
On our long, strange trip to Charon’s ferry.

Pain is the least favorite of our teachers
Yet such powerful lessons stay forever and a day.
No matter how life presents its features
Strength of will equals what life sends our way.

T’is well to consider such time-tested tools,
To carry them with us as we travel through Life.
Events are less likely to show us as fools,
as we deal with Reality, where peril is rife.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Back and forth, back and forth, like a damn tennis ball; Smart Bee must have been watching tennis on TV or something, during whatever moments this batch of pearls were chosen. All I did was ask for a simple old school pearl already made up, so I didn’t need to think too hard about parameters… This is what came back to me…. I can’t figure it out, other than maybe as a metaphor for Life as a Ping Pong Ball…. Oh, well, at least they’re all one-liners…

“A wise man never refuses anything to necessity.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 540

“If truth is beauty, how come no one has their hair done in the library?” — Lily Tomlin

“Democritus says, “But we know nothing really; for truth lies deep down.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Pyrrho, viii

“Those who do things in a noble spirit of self-sacrifice are to be avoided at all costs.” — N. Alexander

“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” — Mao Zedong, “Quotations from Chairman Mao”, 1966

“Each of us bears his own Hell.” — Publius Maro

“Reality is a sandwich I did not order.” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

Ffolkes, the world has gone mad; not just mad, but, stark, raving mad. I’m not certain, at this point, exactly what I will do about it, but, it’s not going to fix itself; it has made that perfectly clear. Thus, it leaves it to us to try to figure out what the hell we are going to do; given the options, I’m pretty sure what I’ll do; how ’bout y’all? Well, it’s late, or early, or something; you can think about it, and hopefully, there will be a tomorrow, when you might think about sharing that with us…. Meantime, keep your head down, and your powder dry, ffolkes; it’s a hard rain that’s gonna fall…. Hopefully, I’ll see you tomorrow; if not, fare thee well, until we meet again….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Dodge those taxes with dignity and aplomb….

Posted on February 9, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Nature abhors a vacuum, but not as much as cats do.”

~~ Lee Entrekin ~~

Turn it off. Now.

Photo stolen from Wolfie, at:

https://europasicewolf.wordpress.com/2015/02/04/mewling-the-blues-to-the-ancient-mythological-cat-goddesses/

**********************

Anyone who has lived with a cat knows the opening quote to be an exact statement of truth. I have never met, or observed any cat, in my entire life, who did not absolutely resent the mere presence of a vacuum, even if not operating, with every fiber of their being. If even one of them ever acquired a set of tools to suit their paws, I suspect, one morning, we would all find our loud, offensive-to-the-nature-of-CAT cleaning appliances in a small neat pile of metal pieces, covered over lightly with dirt, somewhere outside the house…. That one cat would destroy all he found in his neighborhood, then pass the tools and skills on to the first cat he met, until every vacuum in the world was useless…. If they could use computers, it would happen all that much faster…. probably in a matter of hours after booting up….

Yet, still, in the quiet moments between heartbeats, the soft, lyrical sound of simple peace may steal through the rear window of each person’s mind, to fill the air with the almost-painfully somber melody of broken dreams. Nighttime brings panic and fear, not slumber; terror rules the hours until light. Light brings its own baggage, weighting down each one it touches, bearing them down, down, to the pitted earth, never again to rise with any degree of hope….

Boy, that turned a little dark corner there, didn’t it. I have no idea how what I started as a lyrical fantasy, grounded in peace and beauty, to the nightmare of the fight with inner demons…. I suppose I need to watch the road signs more closely; the turn I took was NOT into the street I thought I was headed for, by a long shot….. Of course, by logical concatenation, since the street signs are put up by the government, they could conceivably be a lie….

Okay, sorry…. I know it’s too early for such a drastically rude shot to the head of a pundit, but, I’ve never been one to pass up a good opportunity like that one. I promise, no more ranting in this section, for today, at least. Naturally, this leaves us once more in the clutches of the dreaded “What the fuck do we do now?” beast, with its slavering jaws of death, smellier than the filthiest asshole in creation. Whew! Powerful stuff! I think I’m going to make an executive decision; this intro has gone completely off the wire, and out of the dimension. There’s no hope now of ever getting back on any reasonable track down the page without some sort of drastic intervention…. Hang on, ffolkes, I’m pulling the switch on #4…..

Shall we Pearl?

“It’s a bit hard to bullshit the ocean.

It’s not listening, you know what I mean?”

~~ David Crosby ~~

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

One can never watch too many cartoons, I say. We all need regular doses of fantasy to balance out the extreme levels of bullshit that permeates almost every level of our lives in this sad old world…. Besides, it’s always good to spend time with old friends….

*********************

Heckle and Jeckle

*********************

http://youtu.be/0Yvdxk9jxOQ

*********************

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

Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?

All fear, none aid you, and few understand.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

~~ Essay on Man, Epistle iv, Line 261~~

Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, as a blog, continues to evolve, along with me, as I become more competent at formatting the text and pictures, learning to take advantage of how they can work together to strengthen whatever points I’m trying to get through to people. Today, rather than a rant, I’m going to use the principle of “a picture is worth a thousand words”, to deliver my usual indictment of the Asininnies, those who have perverted human culture for their own aggrandizement. You’ve seen all of these before on this site; I seem to have collected enough of them to form a pictorial old-school pearl, filled with my entire pantheon of issues about which to rant….. I don’t think I’ll need to say anything more; from this point on, it’s pretty self-explanatory…

Enjoy, ffolkes; it will be a nice break from the 2-3000 words I could have used to speak to all these pictures, each of which highlights part of the problems we face today, threatened with extinction as a species by the ignorant, cruel, selfishly self-centered actions of a precious few extreme assholes, disguised as human beings….. I might add, all of these pictures are taken from REALITY; there’s no speculation involved in any of these issues…. Remember that, next time you hear one of the Asininnies speak about “conspiracy theories”, or, try to deny culpability for all of their chicanery…. It isn’t a fantasy if it comes straight from reality, to slap you in your very real face….. or, shoot you in your very real heart…..

Flulaval-vaccine-insert-no-controlled-trials-640

There you go, ffolkes. The first ever fully-pictorial pearl. Not too shabby, and, it certainly saved y’all a shit load of reading, didn’t it? I kind of like it, but, it’s going to take a while now to collect enough pointed bamboo sticks to create another punji pit, placing some nice atropine on the points of the sticks, to provide that extra touch of agony to their deaths… Then, we’ll need to find a good spot to put it, where it can catch any stray Asininnies passing by, concealed well enough to ensure they take their final fall, about 12 feet down, to meet their chosen fate.

I find it to be only justice to consider such a cruel method of eliminating these human vermin, justice provided by most efficient bamboo stakes, tipped with a poison to paralyze the diaphragm, adding a touch of terror to their agony, hopefully for a good long while, until the numerous holes in their body bleed sufficiently to allow them to die the death they so richly deserve…. This has the added advantage of reducing the number of targets left to destroy in future revolutionary outbreaks, which I consider a pretty sure thing, given today’s state of world affairs…. It’s always a good policy to get a running start on unpleasant tasks, such as vermin control….

Gee! Do ya think I’m a little pissed off? Well…. you may be right…

gigoid, not speaking much, but, enough….

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

After such a compelling graphic rant, only one poem of mine will do….

Geezer to Congress, with Love

Politicos don’t care much ’bout seniors and their ilk,
except for their money, I thinks;
Though they talk as if they’d cozen them in silk,
what they actually do, it stinks.

“The banks are failing, we can’t allow that!”,
steal from the aged, that’s their plan.
“Their life’s ending, that’s plainly where they’re at,”
lie shamelessly, because they can.

Maybe just once, if we all act together,
it couldn’t miss.
Right on their shoes, no matter the weather,
take careful aim, and piss.

Why the hell not?
It’s worth a shot!

~~ gigoid ~~

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

I suppose the only proper way to describe what follows would be to call it a tongue-in-cheek pearl. Each one, which SB gave up in its inimitable style, isn’t actually as shallow as it may seem at first, once one gets past the flippancy, or in some cases, the simplicity…. No matter, they’re fun, and there are plenty of them, so, enjoy…. or not. I like to give everyone a choice, as you know….

“Sinners can repent, but stupid is forever.” — Smart Bee

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

“What is becoming is honest, and whatever is honest must always be becoming.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

“Anything may be divided into as many parts as you please.” Commentary: In this case, ‘everything’ may be viewed as a subset of ‘anything.'” — Law of Arbitrary Distinction

“A closed mouth gathers no feet.” — Finster’s Law

“Ah say, son, you’re about as sharp as a bowlin’ ball.” — Foghorn Leghorn

“Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing can ever be made.” — Immanuel Kant

“Immanuel doesn’t pun, he Kant.” — Smart Bee

Doh! Sorry, ffolkes, I couldn’t help myself. SB threw them out there, & I fell right into the trap…. Okay, here is the correct final pearl for this particular group…

“Never refuse to do a kindness unless the act would work great injury to yourself, and never refuse to take a drink- under any circumstances.” — Mark Twain

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

Thankfully, most of this got done yesterday; getting it all done this morning would have been impossible, given the state of affairs in my body. Though my refusal to submit to any further med reduction has finally reached a point where I am able to get some sleep, I still awake in more pain than I’ve had to deal with for over seven years. Any thanks I may feel for this gift can be delivered directly to the door of a large soulless corporation, care of two doctors/slaves who are carrying out their draconian policy of punishing anyone who may not wish to submit to wearing a collar.

However, rather than continue to rant here in the closing section, I’ll make a 90 degree turn, and merely say, “See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, when we’ll fire off another round of shots, at those insane fools who would kill us all in their cowardly, insane quest for power….”

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Uh oh…. I see dragon poop….

Posted on January 12, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.”

~~ Socrates ~~

Remember the goofy dog in yesterday’s post? This little charmer’s picture came from the same blog post, as attributed in the Pearl previous to this one…. I found it on my friend Lou’s site, in which he shared the link to the original post; just click on the “Previous” button at the top of this blog page, to find them…. Great photos, sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face first thing in the morning, or any time it pops up in front of their eyes…. Just look at that face! Who can resist?…. Any negative answer I came up with would only stimulate a rant, for it would take a very flawed, nasty person, (I can’t use ‘human’; it wouldn’t fit…), to be indifferent to such a charming smile, even if it IS most likely because the poor lad has gas, or just enjoys his cluelessness….

SIGH….. Onward, he said, with considerable ambivalence…

In the apartment where I live, one circuit, visiting each room, with measured steps, covers 50 paces. At about 2.5 feet per stride, that is 125 feet, equal to 41 yards, rounded off. Let’s call it 40 meters, to simplify the multiplication we will use to find the results we seek…

1 kilometer = 1000 meters

1000m/40m = 25 circuits

Therefore, I need to pace one circuit of the house rooms 25 times to walk one kilometer…. Not too bad, though I’d guess the scenery will get a trifle repetitive, after the first, oh, 10 circuits… It’s a nice, even floor though; no big hills to complicate the trip… I suppose I could listen to music as I pace; I seem to be doing a lot of it lately, thanks to the ongoing battle with Kaiser, which is causing me interminable discomfort due to dyskinesia; hence, the frequent need to pace… I’d call it serendipitous, if it didn’t piss me off so much… It will help, I would also guess, with my weight-loss regime, helping to melt off the pounds, even though I’m not yet trying to get aerobic…. Once I’ve lost enough to exercise a little harder, without so much risk of hurting myself worse, the weight should fly away even faster….

This information will help when it’s raining outside, I suppose…. Finding silver linings is an occupation fraught with frequent disappointment, as you can see….

Some of y’all may be wondering what all this is doing here; those familiar with this blog won’t be surprised, but, will probably skip down a section at this point, knowing they’ll be okay, as long as they stay in their seats, and don’t ask for the steward to bring them a fresh drink until we’re done here. They know, too, you won’t quite be convinced of anything until surrendering all previous expectations, thus freeing their imagination to accept the method of expression that prevails on this site….

Of course, y’all can always ignore it all, and just read, but, that carries its own risks; those risks were posted on the entrance, right under the water fountain in the southeast corner of the compound. But, don’t worry, the insurance covers anything short of maiming, so, it’ll all be okay by the closing section, if you just trust us…. You may do that without fear of betrayal, as we have previously proved we have no connection to any form or category of Asininnie, and thus can be trusted to tell you the truth, even if it hurts….

Now that we have wandered so far from any possible hope of finding our correct path, we’ll just dive in right here, where it appears we may do so without the usual fanfare…. Hang on, and, please, use the handrails….

Shall we Pearl?

“The wise man will always reflect concerning the quality, not the quantity of life.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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

During a period of time yesterday spent in the throes of a full-out rage, which I will deal with in my own time, I was compelled to self-administer some rather exotic/esoteric therapeutic techniques, with the intent of bringing me to a more stable emotional state, where I would then be able to use my mind productively, some way other than it wished at the time, which was to leave the house and find some innocent party to torment and destroy….

One of the techniques I employed was to put on some music I knew could distract me, because of its connection to me, and my past…. This is one of the pieces I used, to give me an opportunity to imagine my youth, rather than imagining scenes of bloody violence, or massive destruction…. and, no, it wasn’t much fun…. This, however, will be, so, enjoy, please… John Prine and I go WAY back….

John Prine – Sessions at West 54th (full concert)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvUAu89O95c

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

“He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.” — French philosopher Charles Peguy

Fresh ranting is rather out of the question; I have slept so little in the last three days, I can’t trust my mind to stay within the bounds of polite expression. I do feel, however, the need to express SOME sort of truth, even if it must come from the archives…. Here is a rant from about a year ago, to keep me happy, if not completely sane….

From 1/25/2014:

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

~~ Lewis Carroll ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yesterday will pass from memory eventually, with a great sigh of relief on my part. Without going into details, I’ll merely state that it was a day spent in the state of Misery…. without any desire for company, either. During the time in 2011 and 2012 while I was waiting to obtain my Social Security benefits, I was living in the state of Poverty, with occasional visits from Murphy to give me a little trip to Misery, just for the change of scenery, I suppose… I wrote this after a day much like yesterday, so, it will do fine for today….. I won’t say enjoy; I didn’t enjoy what brought it into existence…. but, it does tell a story, such as it is….

A Failure to Germinate

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

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

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

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

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

Nature has informed me of the newly hatched crime
of which reality boasted 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 ~~

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

This pearl built itself over the course of yesterday’s battle with the forces of chaos; each one showed up individually, mixed in among a host of other quotes that didn’t make the grade in some manner. Each one is a statement about the characteristics of a life lived in search of truth, and honor…. I consider this one a victory of some proportion, for being done, and done so well, given the difficulty involved in its creation; believe me, I’ve done worse, and seldom done better….

“It is the edge and temper of the blade that make a good sword, not the richness of the scabbard; and so it is not money or possessions that make man considerable, but his virtue.” — Seneca (B.C. 3-65 A.D.)

“Great occasions do not make heroes or cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men. Silently and imperceptibly, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or weak; and at last some crisis shows what we have become.” — Brooke Foss Westcott

“Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 17

“The comedy of man survives the tragedy of man.” — G. K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, 2-10-06

“To be alive is to take risks; to be always safe and secure is death.” — Edward Abbey

“He who dies for virtue, does not perish.” — Plautus (B.C. 254-184)

“Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.” — Seneca

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

Having thus completed my self-chosen duty for today, I will take my leave, not without some relief. It has been, and promises to continue to be a difficult time, as I wage war with corporate intransigence, my subconscious mind, and my body’s advancing deterioration; I can only hope, at this point, the results will justify all the effort…. Not a bad metaphor for much of life, eh? On that little note, plaintive though it may be, I will take my leave…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, should fate allow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

“Frabjous day, O Caluca lay!”, expostulated Lord Peter….

Posted on January 7, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

~~ Confucius, “Analects” ~~

Threatened by the imminent arrival of a houseful of relatives, Mickey Stone found himself retreating to his basement “hubby-cubby”, where, in spite of all notions to the contrary, he does NOT perform evil rituals in the dark…. He does, occasionally, watch horror flicks on the 52-inch flat-screen TV late at night, but, that’s about as evil as the Big Mick is capable of contemplating. Shuddering at the thought of four days trapped with cousin Franklin, not to mention the dreaded presence of his mother-in-law, Mickey pulled a beer out of the mini-fridge, dropped into the leather recliner, and prepared to thoroughly insulate his consciousness with alcohol….

Me, I’m going to finish this Pearl, then go for a drive…. once my hands have recovered, that is. Not only do I have a bunch of stuff to accomplish out in the BBR (again), the day and a half break I’ve had from the worst of the pain seems to have been officially ended, as I woke up with aching joints, and a piss-poor attitude…. Thankfully, thinking about poor Mickey’s upcoming torture got me into a better head-space; the pain, however, continues unabated, laughing, as is its habit, at all the powerful medication I consume, as well as complicating this process by necessitating frequent breaks to rest my hands and wrists….

Ah well, such is life, as they say, so, I’m going to once again usurp the usual opening program, which I tried to begin the old-fashioned way, by abruptly ending this section, & moving on to the next. I call it ruthlessness, you can call it whatever you like…. just don’t call it Percy. It HATES that name!….

Hmm… We are approaching severe nonsense way too early for me. I’m getting us out of here, ffolkes, before I lose control completely…. Hang on, & do NOT get up from your seats for the next few moments…. You may never get back into it…. Well, not without a visit to the ER first…. Hold on, ffolkes, we’re going in, ready or not….

Shall we Pearl?

“He was a man, which, as Plato saith, is a very inconstant creature.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — On the Tranquility of the Mind

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

I used to like this show; Bob’s one-sided conversations on the phone were the funniest stuff on TV at the time…. which probably goes to show just how bad TV has always been…. It’s funny, but, with the network censors working overtime back then, it was pretty mild, in terms of social commentary…. But, that was America in the 60’s & 70’s…. Oblivious….

THE BOB NEWHART SHOW – SEASON: 1 EPISODE: 1 – FLY THE UNFRIENDLY SKIES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lM75yO0vM9g

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

As mentioned, busy, busy, busy…. plus, hey, why not?, I’m lazy. Hence, another replacement pearl from the archives…. I’m also going with my “nice guy” costume today, making it a rantish old-school pearl, rather than the usual straight-out rant…. Better for all of us under the circumstances, I think…. Enjoy, ffolkes, it’s a “good” pearl….

From 9/29/2012:

I’ve been very lucky with my latest incarnation of Smart Bee…. it seems to be giving me a higher percentage of usable quotes than it did before I had trouble with it. In fact, so many quotes are worth saving that I’m starting to group them into subject lots…. Here are a significant number of intriguing and/or interestingly accurate observations on modern life in America, land of the marginally civilized….

I swear to the Lord
I still can’t see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me.

~~ Langston Hughes ~~

~~ The Black Man Speaks ~~

Homosexuality is *not* a sickness. Bigotry is. — Smart Bee

“Whether you have an abortion, what you put in your own body, with whom you have sex – these are not the affairs of the state. A government does not exist to control the citizens. When it does, it is a tyranny, and must be fought. The tree of liberty, Jefferson warned us, must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots.” — Gore Vidal

“Government is about coercion. Limiting government is the single most important instrument for guaranteeing liberty. We’re working on a third generation which has little in the way of education about what our Constitution means and why it was written. Thus, we’ve fallen easy prey to charlatans, quacks, and hustlers.” — Dr. Walter Williams

“The discovery of America was the occasion of the greatest outburst of cruelty and reckless greed known in history.” — Joseph Conrad

“Democracy is government by the people with open discussion and free speech. This allows those with no ideas to unload their thinking in the most tedious and lengthy manner. After this, a vote is taken, and the least informed will oppose the most confused. The result, inevitably, will be known as model legislation. In time, it will proliferate, and eventually a commission will be formed to review what has been done and why it isn’t working and it will recommend reforms of the previous efforts. All of this will be published in various government journals and cause great debate. There will be a veritable waterfall of newspaper editorials and Johnny Carson will use the whole thing as a part of his monologue. In the end, the reforms will be defeated. –Smart Bee

“Christianity: Please help find the cure.” — Smart Bee

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist…. A few days ago, as I sat in a shady spot outside, on a beautiful California day, I began to think, for some misbegotten reason, about Christianity in this country. I wondered, no idea why, exactly how many different definitions of the word “Christian” there would be. There are so many different interpretations of the Bible, and so many different definitions of what is “Christ-like”, that I can see no hope of any consensus answer to this question.

A conservative guess would be about 5,000 different churches, each with a different interpretation of scripture; it’s likely that Los Angeles and New York City, alone, contain that many; nation-wide, the number is probably closer to a hundred thousand….. None, I repeat, NONE, of the people who embrace the dogma associated with each of these various cults {yes, cults, by definition…look it up….} are at all willing to even consider any truth in any of the others, and they ostensibly are all worshiping the same dude…. It’s a bit pathetic, when one stops to look at the broader picture…. SIGH… ah well, back to general culture, and our caricaturization thereof…..)

You may be redneck… if you refer to Mason jars as “the good glasses.” — Smart Bee

“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

On that note, we will go ever onward, seeking approbation, or at least hoping for poor aim….

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

When I don’t know what I want, or what I need, I turn to this poet…. every time….

A narrow fellow in the grass
Occasionally rides;
You may have met him,–did you not,
His notice sudden is.

The grass divides as with a comb,
A spotted shaft is seen;
And then it closes at your feet
And opens further on.

He likes a boggy acre,
A floor too cool for corn.
Yet when a child, and barefoot,
I more than once, at morn,

Have passed, I thought, a whip-lash
Unbraiding in the sun,–
When, stooping to secure it,
It wrinkled, and was gone.

Several of nature’s people
I know, and they know me;
I feel for them a transport
Of cordiality;

But never met this fellow,
Attended or alone,
Without a tighter breathing,
And zero at the bone.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

With so much to do today, I don’t much feel up to arguing with Smart Bee over pearls… so, here is a pretty good one from the archives…. Enjoy, ffolkes, it’s a classic….

From 10/9/2012:

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…. Crooked though it may be, there still exists 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…. If not, well, have some chocolate; then, you can, at least, feel the same way…..

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

Not too shabby for an old fart with flat feet and flatulence…. plus, it’s done. Since that state offers no opportunity for improvement, we shall take our leave, post haste…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Absolutely more fun than clotted cream….

Posted on November 25, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“How you do anything is how you do everything.”

~~ Zen proverb ~~

I don’t know about y’all, but, I am certain I’ve never seen an airplane make the maneuver you see in the above picture, ever, unless in a movie, or perhaps a military air show…. The g-force involved in a high-speed 90º turn, without slowing at all, is tremendous; without a calculator handy, I’d guess it to be in excess of 10 gravities, which makes it unlikely to be a passenger jet…. Yet, an hour after seeing it, there is no word on the internet about a mid-air chase by one of our jets…. nor, if jets were scrambled to chase, there would have been more than one….

I’ve watched the skies above this bay for over a year from this spot, and have never seen two jets so closely aligned in path, both on a path I’ve almost never seen any planes travelling…. Nor have I EVER seen any plane, of any kind, make such a hard turn at such speed, a speed, and a turn of which only a few planes are capable…. all military fighter jets.

It will be interesting to see if anyone else noticed it, and what explanations may surface to explain the anomalous flights…. More later on this….

Interesting, if a bit disturbing…. No word at all, not that I could find via Google. I’ll take a look through the news later, but, I don’t know what to think…. I guess, for now, I’ll treat it this just like an American faced with news from the Congressional front…. In short, I’ll close my eyes, sigh, and prepare to deny, deny, deny…. Oops, that’s ranting, isn’t it? Okay, so, I’ll just roll my eyes in frustration, and get on with life, another American habitual response to anything unpleasantly similar to thinking, or taking responsibility….

Oh, gosh, I did it again, didn’t I…. Hmm… well, it seems as if I’m not going to be able to finish this intro section without a short rant…. But, rather than give in so easily, I’m going to use an old technique, still present, but little used…. It’s called ownership…. Yep. I own this blog, lock, stock, and domain name, so, that means I’m in charge, right? Right. So, if I say we’re outta here, that means, we’re outta here…. And, that’s just what I’m saying….. So, we’re outta here, ffolkes…. Remember to hang on tight, and don’t offer your hand to any of the denizens you meet while on this boat, okay? You may not get it back….

Shall we Pearl?

“It is in the character of very few men to honor without envy a friend who has prospered.” — Aeschylus

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

I shall now pull one of my covers…. I’m a Deadhead. Have been for many years. Oh, don’t worry, it doesn’t even show any more, and, it’s been years since I’ve felt the urge to wear tie-dye shirts. But, I still am a member at Dead Net, a registered user there, and still give the occasional Steal Your Face logo cup or t-shirt for gifts…. In addition, I have a large collection of live Dead cuts, taken by their fans at concerts throughout the years, all downloaded from Dead.Net, often during November, which is the month they give away a free download song, or cut (often long jams over 25 minutes….), every day during the month…. I’ve collected them now for three years, and have a wonderful collection of some of their finest shows….

Here then, instead of a video link, which I’ve provided before…. is the link to the page where you’ll find the 30 days of the Dead, with all of the free downloads available via their own link….

It may not be your type of music, but, there are songs that everyone will enjoy, Deadhead or not, so, it’s worth a look, and a listen….. Enjoy!….

http://www.dead.net/30daysofdead?eml=dead/110414/yexy

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

“Things which you do not hope happen more frequently than things which you do hope.” — Plautus (254-184 BC) — Mostellaria, Act i, Sc. 3, 40, (197.)

Yesterday, it was a Monday…. I made the mistake of updating my RSS feed reader, then compounded my error by spending some time reading the news around the Net…. I should have known better, but, I didn’t think;, before I could stop, I’d read article after article, each one more horrifyingly insane than the last, describing real events from different reporter’s viewpoints, all of which served to turn my stomach even more than the vertigo that accompanied my getting up to write…

So, I decided to collect a bunch of them, to put together a new-style pearl, complete with my own comments on the contents of the articles…. I’ll try to keep it short, but, as often happens with this kind of pearl, the size will depend on a) how much insanity is reported, and b) how much I can stomach before reaching my limit of self-abuse…. Let’s see what’s going on out there in the Big Blue Room….

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/24/nyregion/police-tactic-scrutinized-after-accidental-shooting.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

This tragic death can be charged directly to society’s refusal to acknowledge the basic flaws in how police are viewed, and trained, as well as to the failure by society to equalize opportunity for the disadvantaged, preferring, as it always has, to counter poverty with lip-service and charity to keep them quiet, and disenfranchisement of the marginalized, to keep them poor, rather than actually trying to equalize opportunities for all…. There can be no winners in such a society, unless one calls moral and ethical bankruptcy winning….

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/24/us-usa-missouri-shooting-idUSKCN0J80PR20141124?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

More of the same, with the additional insanity of the Asininnies dragging it all out, making the situation more problematic for those in Ferguson; meanwhile, they are preparing the troops to handle the expected outcome when the usual denial of reality produces its inevitable dissatisfaction…. Even if charges are filed, they won’t be adequate, or just, and the public outcry, no matter what happens, will be activated, thus furthering the divisive reactions sure to envelop both sides of the issue…. In short, again, there can be no winners here….

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/24/cleveland-fatal-shooting-fake-guns-brightly-coloured

So, what is society’s response to issues like this one, where another child is killed by a cop without the expertise to tell a real gun in the hands of a dangerous person from a child with a toy…. Why, we’ll blame the guns…. which has previously been likened to blaming wet streets for the rain…. Anything but fixing the problem, which can only be accomplished with by an application of knowledge, not ignorance…. SIGH… I despair often for the human species….

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/23/suicide-bomber-kills-at-least-40-volleyball-match-afghanistan

Do I even need to comment on the degree of ignorance, particularly deliberate ignorance, plainly evident in every aspect of this story…. It is ALL a fucking demonstration of how dangerous such insanity can become if untreated, or left to its own devices by the tacit approval implied by denial of its existence…. Another huge SIGH escapes me, as I contemplate the depths of human perversity, and simple stupidity….

“In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.” — Bertrand Russell

In a separate issue, here is a discussion of a problem I addressed in a rant some few days ago, to wit: Bill Cosby and the societal-wide denial of misogynist behavior in society, including the failure of the media to report accusations against celebrities….

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/25/business/media/calling-out-bill-cosbys-media-enablers-including-myself.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0

“A wise fellow who is also worthless always charms the rabble.” — Euripides, Hippolytus 428 BC

Gee, I hate to say it, but, I did mention the media bias against reporting bad news against celebrities, long ago…. But, then, not many folks read this blog, do they? S’okay, I’ll keep mentioning it, until it changes (not likely to happen soon, in other words….)….

There is a SOME good news, regarding some parts of society who are paying attention to how women get treated as a matter of course in this world…. to wit: abusively, especially for naming their abusers…. as this situation demonstrates clearly….

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/11/24/3596159/oklahoma-high-schoolers-protest/

According to the author of the following article, there remains some hope of overcoming the flaws in human nature that have led us, and continue to lead us today, into ever deeper levels of depravity and insanity as a society…. He talks a good talk, but, I am not sure his conclusions are completely valid, given the stranglehold on reality held by those in the seats of power and wealth…. They will not give up their supremacy without a struggle…. nor do I see them changing their nature at this late date…. But, he (the author….) is young, and not yet worn down as much as I from having observed this circus for so much longer….

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/24/grotesque-inequality-greed-human-nature-capitalism

“Most people in this society who aren’t actively mad are, at best, reformed or potential lunatics.” — Susan Sontag

Now, to finish this mess (what else can we call it by now?….), here is an article that, quite simply, proves positively the world we live in has gone stark, raving nutters…. I kid you not, there is nothing you could possibly tell me to convince me otherwise, when our society blithely accepts the validity of a public discussion of vaginal odors….

If you can stop laughing long enough, feel free to comment…. I’m not sure I’m able to say anything profound at all in the face of such….. hell, I can’t even think of a word for how fucking stupid this is…. See for yourself…. I’ll confess, I gave up reading in paragraph four, as I had to pause for a rush to the commode, just in case I lost my breakfast….

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/24/sweet-peach-vagina-smell-like-fruit-taste-diet-coke-probiotic

In light of such proof of insanity, I leave you with the following, an old observation from one of history’s acknowledged sages, a thought it would do us all well to remember in these trying times….

“No human thing is of serious importance.” — Plato

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

Since everything so far included today is fresh, we are compelled to go with one of my poems, again, to avoid any backsplash onto anyone else’s reputation…. Here is the latest poem I wrote, just a couple of months ago, that seems to fit in with today’s efforts….

A dream, weeping….

“Never a dull moment to spare”, he said
with a crooked grin, and a broad wink.
“Can’t keep Reality hanging by a thread….
what would Chaos, or Entropy think?”

So, we plucked up our dreams of old,
to carry us on, in dutiful, strong arms,
stuffed a candle in the remaining fold,
for luck, and perfect proof against charms.

Storms follow the sun, but, never stay;
lessons round every corner, all free.
Past fleeting doubts, in a sad disarray,
the journey becomes the reason to be.

Simple kindness manifests untold riches,
in defiance of common cause’s demise.
Bold courage, hanging in stitches,
mends wounds that come as no surprise.

Still, waters run deep, ’tis said by many.
Too much pain cannot apprehend
the salient, sharp points of epiphany,
nor, plainly, to wisdom aspire to pretend.

Folly dogs even the simplest truth,
fumes of toxic ignorance and bile,
alienated as a loose rotten tooth;
it often hides itself, for a long while.

Sought after eons ago, we cried out,
to believe, to suffer no more doubt.
But found instead good reason,
for love, and truth, from season, to season.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Below you’ll find a pearl that can only be described as “strange, but, wonderful”…. I am completely clueless as to its provenance; SB picked them out. Nor do I have any idea what it may mean, but, hey, it all SOUNDS good, so, we’re letting it fly solo…. Enjoy, or not, as you wish…

” … for these truths hold good for everything that is, and not for some special genus apart from others. And all men use them, because they are true of being qua being … For a principle which everyone must have to understand anything that is, is not a hypothesis … Evidently then, such a principle is the most certain of all; which principle this is, let us proceed to say. It is, that the same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the subject in the same respect.” — Aristotle

“I know! I’ll transcribe the conversations between the voices in my head and send them to you!!!” — David Borenstein

“Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.” — Smart Bee

“I hear the madness comes slower in the light…” — Killian

“By letting go, it all gets done.” — Tao Te Ching

“As men, we are all equal in the presence of death.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 1

How admirable, he who thinks not,
Life is fleeting,
When he sees the lightning!

~~ Basho ~~

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

So be it…. gigoid has spoken.

Moreover, he’s done so quite enough for one day…. To continue in that vein, we’ll see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Hurling epithets at myrmidons seems insufficient….

Posted on November 16, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Doing it the hard way is always easier.”

~~ Murphy’s Paradox ~~

My routine seems to have altered itself to some degree; I find myself up a bit late again, having slept about an hour beyond my ordinary time to arise. This, of course, isn’t anything particularly new, or exciting, but, hey, something has to come first, right? Besides, for our purposes today, the opening quote from Murphy, which is a truism hard for many to accept, when taken together with the oh-so-poignant picture of the dancing bears of Grateful Dead fame, forms a most pleasant aspect, of deep wisdom, and snarky humor, that just gets me right in the old brisket….

But, that’s just me, and we all know I’m a bit odd, if not off, so, we’ll let that go by the wayside, where it will do the most good, and get on with the creation of today’s mess…. As usual in these cases, you may find some replacement text in some of the sections below, as I harvest from the archives to fulfill the tasks of today with the efforts of yesterday…. It works for me, and it’s all been tested for relevance and truth, so, you have no reason to worry that you won’t get your money’s worth….. and I don’t want to hear anything about having to pay at all….

The price you’re being charged, to wit: zero, has been scientifically determined to represent the EXACT worth of these Pearls, and is certified by the National Curmudgeons Bureau as a necessary part of your morning intellectual diet…. Plus, where else will you find all this, PLUS a toy in every box? Nowhere, that’s where….

On that note, I think I’ll use some of my new-found skills at ruthless decision-making, to take us on down to the first section, where you’ll find today’s video link and player, hopefully (Sometimes, and I wish I knew why, it doesn’t work as it should…. SIGH, I hate being ignorant of ANYTHING….)…. This should make the transition to the rant and poetry a bit smoother, if not any more savory. We’re working on that, in our research labs, but, not much progress so far…. Time will tell… At any rate, our insertion point is approaching rapidly, and a darn good thing, as my hands are getting more numb with each letter typed…. Watch your heads, ffolkes, this looks like a sharp turn…..

Shall we Pearl?

“You’re all insane and trying to steal my magic bag.” — Smart Bee

Really, ffolkes, I found it in SB…. it isn’t mine. I know better, because nobody can steal a magic bag. Everybody knows that…. It’s magic, right? Nobody but the owner can see it….

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

Today’s video selection link leads to Part 1 of a most excellent adaptation of a book, a murder mystery written by Dorothy L. Sayers during the first half of the twentieth century…. This version is in five parts, each of which makes an excellent hour (approximately) of superior entertainment, with Ian Carmichael in the role of Lord Peter Wimsey, the aristocrat detective, in a plot where Lord Peter’s brother, the Duke of Denver, stands accused of murdering their sister’s fiancé…. The last part, number 5, is a masterwork of the genre, with all the plot’s questions answered in elegant, satisfying fashion…. Enjoy!…

Lord Peter Wimsey – Clouds of Witness

http://youtu.be/b-Xw-uEY5kI

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

Since I’m late, and not really in ranting mode, here is an alternative set of short discussions, all semi-connected to each other, from the archives….

From 12/27/2011:

Ffolkes,

In my wildest, most disturbing dreams, I never thought the world would come to this juncture. We stand once again at a fork in the road ahead. Down one road lies extinction; it’s actually the road we are on now, but we have come to the last possible exit, onto a road that continues on into the future, bright with promise. On this road, humanity has new forms of transport, sustainable and clean. The air is clear, the ocean is blue, and all the creatures who share this planet have been welcomed into the circle of Life, wherein we now reside. Everyone is treated the same, and there are no more distinctions drawn between one man and the next. Resources are husbanded and shared equally, and economic manipulation is a dim memory.

Sounds pretty nice, eh? I think so too. I’m just not terribly convinced that the rest of humanity is going to come down that road with those of us who take it. I’d much rather we all went together, but I refuse to choose to continue on the road we have been traveling, just as I refuse to consider killing myself. It’s all so clear to me, I have a hard time understanding why others cannot see what I am seeing. If we don’t stop what we’re doing, we’re going to pay the consequences; that’s not a guess, not a theory. It’s truth. I hope y’all can deal with it….

I think I lost my mind. Please watch where you step.

——————

“Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.” — Josh Billings

“I’m a man of my word. In the end, that’s all there is really….” — Avon

Tough to argue with these; they both are basic elements of my own philosophy. It’s a shame, really, that society in general doesn’t buy into this more. Strong, silent men are in short supply in today’s world, and the twin pillars that hold up our culture, Duty and Honor, have fallen into sporadic use at best. Not enough children are being raised under the moral aegis these concepts provide, and the results are as predictable as they are ugly.

Too many young men and women are reaching the age of reason with no inner strength, no strong morals to guide their way; rather than cloaking themselves in honor and duty, they are approaching life armed only with an imagination whose scope has been severely limited by their moral shortcomings. It can be a tough world out there, and it’s only going to get tougher at time goes on, unless society can find a way to shore up the shaky underpinnings of our culture, before it’s too late to try…..

“Cowardice” and “self-respect” have largely disappeared from public discourse. In their place we are offered “self-esteem” as the bellwether of success and a proxy for dignity. “Self-respect” implies that one recognizes standards, and judges oneself worthy by the degree to which one lives up to them. “Self-esteem” simply means that one feels good about oneself. “Dignity” used to refer to the self-mastery and fortitude with which a person conducted himself in the face of life’s vicissitudes and the boorish behavior of others. Now, judging by campus speech codes, dignity requires that we never encounter a discouraging word and that others be coerced into acting respectfully, evidently on the assumption that we are powerless to prevent our degradation if exposed to the demeaning behavior of others. These are signposts proclaiming the insubstantiality (sic) of our character, proclaiming the hollowness of our souls.” — Jeffrey R. Snyder, Fall 1993 _The Public Interest

——————–

“The very emphasis of the commandment: Thou shalt not kill, makes it certain that we are descended from an endlessly long chain of generations of murderers, whose love of murder was in their blood as it is perhaps also in ours.” — Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Siggy had his moments of clarity amid the nonsense of a lot of his assertions exhibit. This is one of them. Part of what makes a man civilized is to be able to accept this part of his nature, and deal with it in the only honorable fashion; each morning a man must awake and make a conscious decision that, “Today, I will not kill.”, and then abide by it as best he can. Nothing else will work as well, and though it takes no small amount of courage to keep his word, a man of honor will do so, no matter the cost.

I think one of the most disheartening aspects of today’s culture is the lack of honor most people exhibit. When I was brought up, in the 1950’s, it seems like everyone believed in the concept of Honor; it was assumed one could expect others to behave in light of that. As time has passed, I have seen the concept fall further and further out of the public consciousness with each passing year, and selfishness and avarice have assumed the central position in most folk’s attitudes. SIGH……I really do miss it……

———————

“Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind.” — Bertrand Russell, Autobiography

These are wonderful sentiments, and I can only hope that when I die, I can have put on my headstone some indication that I had fulfilled all three of these passions. The ability to share love, the passion for learning, and compassion for the weak and troubled are the highest expressions of the human spirit, and pursuit of them is an honorable task to take up as one’s Duty.

No man could ever hope for a more fulfilling existence, acting in service to those he loves, which includes all living creatures. One can only wish that this attitude was more prevalent in society at large; we might have avoided some of the troubles we’re having. No sense crying over spilled dairy products though…..you just have to hang on to your hope…..

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

From March of 2012, one of my better efforts…..

After the odyssey….

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Well. Smart Bee seems to have something up its butt; it gave me the first six pearls for this section, quite nicely, and reasonably quickly…. It then decided to play nasty, refusing to cough up the final entry (not final in order of placement, but, in finally found…) in spite of three re-boots…. But, I killed that little rebellion with a bit of harsh decision making, and a bit of applied guilt, always a fan favorite…. Anyway, here ’tis, such as ’tis…. a good pearl for introspection, I’d say….

“Dreams are real while they last. Can we say more of life?” — Havelock Ellis

“We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting.” — Kahlil Gibran

“Don’t need to be born again – Did it right the 1st time.” — gigoid, Wednesday 1969

“To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage.” — Lao Tzu

“Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.” — Buddha

“Consciously or unconsciously, every one of us does render some service or other. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger and we will make not only our own happiness, but that of the world at large.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free.” — Lennon & McCartney

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

Aside from a bit of pique from Smart Bee, this went fairly well…. In fact, it went well enough, I’m going to go with it, as is, trusting to luck, and the gods of grammar, to see me through without too many errors…. Fat chance, of course, but, I’ve always been a bit more optimistic than not…. Besides, now it’s done, and I’m outta here…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Last train to Paducah.boarding now on track 13….

Posted on November 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

The ruling passion, be it what it will,
The ruling passion conquers reason still.

~~ Alexander Pope (1688-1744) ~~

~~ Moral Essays, Epistle iii, Line 153 ~~

Well…. Don’t worry, my next words won’t be “and, that’s a deep subject”….. Why not? Simply because I’m feeling more dignified than that; it’s too early to give in for the day already…. Of course, dignity is something all of us are able to do without to survive, but, survival sure feels better when we have it…. I suppose we could say that is true of a lot of things we humans feel, to wit: we feel a lot of things that don’t necessarily help us in our most important task as humans…. But, then, ask any two humans what their most important task may be, and you’ll get at least two answers, if not more….. We’re an odd species, to be sure….

That said, and since I am a member of said fickle, yet charming simian phylum, I think I may also say, we are a sorry bunch of naked apes, and will, no doubt, come to an ignominious end, most likely before most of us have a clue as to the time, let alone the ending time…. It’s a natural state when we spend most of our time in this plane of existence struggling AGAINST the basic rules of the universe, trying to overcome our inner confusion by imposing our own sense of order upon the world…. Since that NEVER works, we spend a lot of time, scratching our heads, wondering what went wrong….

Like this morning, for example…. Here I am, once more typing away madly, trying to fill in this space so we can get to the meat of the matter, but, obviously, I haven’t a clue as to how to proceed with any degree of certainty as to my final destination…. Hell, I can barely remember my name this early, but, here I am, making like a writer, just as it I were one…. And, in point of fact, I am enough of one to realize I should have gone with my initial impulse, to comment on the lions in the picture I took, above….

I mean, look how easy it would have been to talk about it, as the two guardians of the steps react to the presence of the leaf blowing across the yard…. See how they both are focused on it, with paw raised in warning, to tell it to stay away…. But, no, I had to go with my second, more dignified, but less interesting discussion of human nature, and it’s all-too-apparent flaws…. Go figure….

Nonetheless, here we are, down the page far enough to declare victory over the forces of obstruction, aka, Murphy and his myrmidons, at least for the day…. Often, if I can beat him off this early, he’ll go find someone else to fuss with; we’ll see how that goes…. In the meantime, I’m going to get started on getting the rest of this mess done, so, hang on while I use some of my vaunted skills at piloting this weird craft, and take us out of here, into the world of Virtual Wisdom, or a reasonable facsimile….

Shall we Pearl?

“I cannot believe in a God who wants to be praised all the time.” — Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)

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

It’s a classical day today…..

Four Seasons ~ Vivaldi

http://youtu.be/GRxofEmo3HA

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

In place of today’s rant, which isn’t happening, here is what I collected to give it a start, along with the pearls I found to represent the point I’m making by including the articles…. My original intent was to show how the government of this, and every country in the world, mostly, is actively engaged in oppressing the citizens of their own countries…. But, it began to appear like a subject too big for one little pearl, so, instead, I’ve put the appropriate comment from SB, or whomever it delegates, above each link….

After the links, you’ll find an old-school pearl, with some rather pointed remarks regarding those who engage in the public orgy of masturbation as displayed on a daily basis in the halls of Congress, the White House, and the Supreme Court, all of which are in varying stages of corporate enslavement, or are otherwise showing the signs of insanity common to all sociopathic personalities….

“No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the Legislature is in session.” — Lysander Spooner

http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/press-freedom-new-censorship

“A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad… . Freedom is nothing else but a chance to bet better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse.” — Albert Camus, Resistance, Rebellion and Death (1960)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2472148,00.asp

I could have added a number of other headlines, with the concomitant pearl to highlight its point, but, I’ll show some restraint, and confine myself to finding a balanced number of pearls of virtual wisdom, all of which will further expose the assholes for what they are, or, at minimum, take a shot at a vital spot with our barbed missiles…. The first pearl kind of sets the proper tone, with the rest adding in their own melodies, all of which will form a charming little tune, to show the fuckheads for what they are, in the space of a nine-star pearl….

The Three Stooges, the sinking ship, and the lone lifeboat:

Ronald Reagan: “Maybe we should save the women and children.”
Richard Nixon: “F**k the women and children!”
Bob Packwood: “Gee, do you really think we have time?”

~~ the Stilt Man ~~

“Keeping freedom safe from democracy” — Vision statement of the GOP, 2016

“Disbelief in magic can force a poor soul into believing in government and business.” — Tom Robbins

“A government solution to a problem is always followed by the creation of at least two additional problems, either of which was worse than the original problem which the government set out to solve.” — Smart Bee

“A leader leads from in front, by the power of example. A ruler pushes from behind, by means of the club, the whip, the power of fear.” — Edward Abbey

“Men who allow their love of power to give them a distorted view of the world are to be found in every asylum: one man will think he is the governor of the Bank of England, another will think he is the king, and yet another will think he is God. Highly similar delusions, if expressed by educated men in obscure language, lead to professorships of philosophy, and if expressed by emotional men in eloquent language, lead to dictatorships.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967)

“It is more than a crime; it is a political fault,” — Joseph Fouche (1763-1820) — Memoirs of Fouche

“In a democracy you can be respected though poor, but don’t count on it.” — Charles Merrill Smith

Till their own dreams at length deceive ’em,
And oft repeating, they believe ’em.

— Matthew Prior (1664-1721) — Alma, Canto iii, Line 13

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

“Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.”

~~ Kahlil Gibran ~~

Fine and Good, Good and Fine

A pig in a poke’s got nothing on me,
cuz I’m as confused as a man can be.
This ol’ world’s got me spinnin’ around
cussin’ and spittin’, a penny for a pound.

Forty ‘leven times since I was a kid, well,
I’ve fallen in love, ‘least too close to tell.
Every damn time, it all went to crap,
Forty ‘leven times I’ve felt like a sap.

‘Course, each time it happens, I forget the last;
why not? I’m havin’ such a blast….
Livin’ in each moment, filled with joie de vivre,
’til it’s all gone away again, nothin’ left up my sleeve.

Don’t want y’all to think I’m sad or blue,
life’s full of sorrow, lots for me, and/or you..
T’other side of that coin, we can be glad,
is joyful love, and that ain’t at all bad.

My road’s been littered with parts o’my heart,
each one colored with trust, which ain’t always smart.
Yet, long as I don’t lose my connection to joy,
I’ll find my own true love, and be a happy boy.

It’s been some kinda fun, even when I’d take a fall,
and doin’ it over makes no sense at all, at all
Day after day, I keep on keepin’ on, as it’s said;
Guess I’ll keep on doin’ that ’til I’m dead.

‘Nuff said….

~~ gigoid, tongue firmly in cheek ~~

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

As I searched for the pearls found in section two today, these little gems kept popping up at random intervals… Since they all pertain to one particular subject, all having to do, at least peripherally, with an aspect of religion, or those who play with them; I like to call them “dogma dogs”, a term I coined because it gives the proper feel to how I think they should be viewed…. preferably with gloves and mask in place, to prevent any possible inhalation of their spew….. In other words, all of these take a shot at some portion of the dogs’ anatomy…. Enjoy! I did….

ARCHBISHOP, n. An ecclesiastical dignitary one point holier than a bishop.

    If I were a jolly archbishop,
    On Fridays I’d eat all the fish up —
    Salmon and flounders and smelts;
    On other days everything else.
                                                              Jodo Rem

~~ Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary” ~~

“Asked what he gained from philosophy, he answered, “To do without being commanded what others do from fear of the laws.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Aristotle, xi

“Accurate reckoning — the entrance into the knowledge of all existing things and all obscure secrets.” — Ahmes the Scribe (17th cent. B.C.)

“– How many PRESBYTERIANS does it take to change a light bulb? None. Lights will go on and off at predestined times.” — Smart Bee

“What is a church? Our honest sexton tells, ‘Tis a tall building, with a tower and bells.” — Crabbe

God’s plan made a hopeful beginning
But man spoiled his chances by sinning.
We trust that the story
Will end in God’s glory,
But at present the other side’s winning.

~~ Smart Bee ~~

“There is not enough love and kindness in the world to permit us to give any of it to imaginary beings.” — Nietzsche

“Writing science fiction for about a penny a word is no way to make a living, If you really want to make a million, the quickest way is to start your own religion.” — L. Ron Hubbard

“Concentrate on th’cute, li’l CARTOON GUYS! Remember the SERIAL NUMBERS!! Follow the WHIPPLE AVE EXIT!! Have a FREE PEPSI!! Turn LEFT at th’HOLIDAY INN!! JOIN the CREDIT WORLD!! MAKE me an OFFER!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

Well…. What? Did you really believe that of me? That I would end this the same way it began? Okay, busted…. But, having caught myself in time, I’m able to plead not guilty, and use the opportunity to make my escape…. Besides, it’s done, or, as done as it is going to be, so, there’s little point in dragging this out any further…. On that note…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. Stay alert, the world needs all the lerts we can find….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Twice as many diphthongs as needed, or desired….

Posted on November 14, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Diogenes said once to a person who was showing him a dial,

“It is a very useful thing to save a man from being too late for supper.”

~~ Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Menedemus, iii ~~

Time moves on, day by day, whether we pay much attention to its passage, or not; though we seem to be the only creatures we know who bother to formalize its presence, by counting each tick of a second on the Cosmic Clock that rules this Universe…. In fact, I believe we are the only creatures who have bothered to name it, or count each time the clock moves its hands…. For us, it offers us the opportunity to supply meaning to our perceptions, to separate them from all the others our over-active sensory receptors react to at the same time…. In short, we use Time as a convenient way to organize the way we look at the world, thus fulfilling the old saw, common to most cultures, that says Time was invented so everything didn’t happen all at once….

Okay, I know, that was a long, windy method of telling a really old joke, but, hey, what do you expect at 5 AM? Especially on a day when I awake at 4 AM & spend an hour trying to convince myself it’s worthwhile to get up, be cold, grumpy, & half-asleep for the first ten minutes, until some coffee and the heater have some little effect, giving me a chance to slather on some magic cream to the points that hurt the most when I get up…. I suppose it’s getting to the point where the time in bed is more attractive than getting up, which has NOT been the case for a long time….

Yet, I keep arising, and though I seem to get slower each day getting to the point where words I can trust to be coherent flow out of my head, and can begin the process of making a Pearl of Virtual Wisdom…. I suppose this task, though only a self-chosen duty, as opposed to one chosen for a reason other than selfish needs, has assumed an importance greater than my need for sleep, which grows smaller each day, it seems…. Whether I get 8 hours, or 4, I still wake up between 4 and 5, and must arise to consume caffeine, which leads inevitably to typing….

Ah well, though I always enjoy my moments of introspection, it isn’t getting this done, beyond helping to move down the page a bit further than we began…. I can vouch, however, for the quality or ability to draw readers in for the full monty, or in many cases, the lack, or absence of same…. I mean, y’all know as well as I do how often we end up spouting sheer nonsense in this section; it can be a trying time, I’m sure, for those looking for a bit of quiet morning thinking…. but, it saves my ass (figuratively, of course…) quite often, so, deal with it, won’t you?

Me, I’m going to go into Sandbag mode, and drop you right over there, at that convenient, if a bit malodorous space on the verge of the town dump…. Sorry about the odor, it’s the only spot we could find this morning….. they got a new load of some OLD crap dumped there yesterday, and it is beginning to get really ripe…. We won’t be there long though, and, naturally, you’ll find a mouth and nose covering in the seat back in front of you, should you choose to use it…. We aim to serve…. we don’t often hit that target, but, we do aim to….

On that note, I see our opening coming up, so hold on tight to those stanchions, ffolkes, it could get bumpy….

Shall we Pearl?

” …and remember you’re a Man, not just god, and for you there aren’t and never will be any easy answers, only questions, and no reasons, only causes, and no meaning, only intelligence, and no destination and no kindly magic smiling down from above, and no fires to goad you from below, only Yourself and the Universe and what you make out of the interface between the two equals.” — Keith Laumer, Night of Delusions

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

Well, okay, so I’m lazy; this is NOT breaking news…. But, because I am, y’all benefit in this case…. Here is a most excellent, if a bit overacted, classic Sherlock tale, a well-adapted classic tale from the files of Dr. Watson…..

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Three Gables

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-4tsEIUVps

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

“Our Constitution … gives to bigotry no sanction.” — George Washington

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/11/us-observe-armistice-day-more-comfortable-war-than-peace

The quote from our Founding Father above the link was, I am afraid, not just optimistic, but, probably, overly so, given that the attempts to suborn that very principle began within moments of the signing of the Declaration, and the passage of the Constitution…. All of the good intentions of the men who wrote those documents were condemned to memory very soon after the ink was dry on the signed copy, as the corrupt bankers, and the equally corrupt preachers began their campaign to nullify the reforms those documents represented….

Thomas Jefferson knew the dangers, and voiced his fear of the loss of liberty many times over the years, while he witnessed the abrogation of civil rights that each new court decision brought, due to the money to corrupt the federal judges began to flow as soon as the court system was in place…. By the mid-nineteenth century, the federal court system was primed to make any decision desired by those bankers and priests, thus securing the control over the government they had sought since before the actual signing of the Declaration….

That period in the middle of the century was when the now infamous decision was made, to classify corporations as “people”, forever surrendering any hope of liberty or justice that might otherwise have been our legacy….. Proof of Jefferson’s fears? He wrote many letters to friends and colleagues, all of which stated the opinion described by the following….

“…when all government… in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the centre of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1821

Jefferson, like Thomas Paine, like Ben Franklin, George Mason, and many others of the Founding Fathers of this country, was mistrustful of the powers that be, not trusting them to keep from attempting to remove all the reforms they espoused with their revolution. They feared the professional politician, the bankers, and the priest/preachers, who care nothing for the people, beyond what they can steal from them, or use to control them; letters we have today illustrate those fears, which, I may add, have certainly been proven to be justified….

Our government is now run by oligarchs, old, rich, white Christian bigots, who attempt, all too successfully, to railroad their misogynistic, racist, divisive agenda into law…. and, if their latest efforts are as successful, they may be able to alter the laws until ONLY they, and those they are able to manipulate, are allowed to vote, their dream come true….

“In our society, the Republicans set out to prove that the Democrats can not be trusted to run the government. And the Democrats set out to prove that the Republicans can not be trusted to run our government. The real problem here is that both the Democrats and the Republicans have come up with something which is absolutely true and perfectly correct. This means that the people get to pull some sort of horrible trick on themselves and live with their choice for four years.”

The link above. and the quotes I’ve added here between the short diatribes against the Asininnies, will have to serve today as my rant…. I’ve already typed too much, and the pain now enveloping my hands is astounding in its intensity…. Damn this hurts! Ah well, I’ll have to finish up with a few more pearls, and be done with it…. Besides, by now, y’all MUST know how I feel about the corruption and loss of liberty we must suffer to observe, in this country we so love…. If I had my druthers, I’d start picking them off, one by one…. but, sadly, I’m afraid there are too many of them to be of much use acting alone….

Maybe, just maybe, my dearest dream will come true…. One bright morning, very soon, the rest of humanity will wake the fuck up, and begin the process necessary to take back our country, kicking the assholes who have tried to take it all away into the deepest, darkest hole we can dig for them, until we can finally be done with all the bullshit they’ve caused…. Ah well, we all can dream, can’t we?….. Here’s a few well-aimed shots at the assholes now, all perfectly phrased to highlight those we call pundits and preachers…. or, as the FF’s named them, the bankers, priests, and professional politicians….

“There ought to be one day — just one — where there is open season on senators.” — Will Rogers

“People are idiots.” — The Dilbert Principle — Scott Adams, Dilbert creator, author, re-engineering sage, 1996

“Any country with “democratic” in the title isn’t.” — Murray’s Rule

“Liberty is so much latitude as the powerful choose to accord the weak.” — Judge Learned Hand

“Abuse of power isn’t limited to bad guys in other nations.”It happens in our own country if we’re not vigilant.” — Clint Eastwood

(Clint, I hate to be the one to tell you…. we weren’t….)

“[E]lections amount to little more than choosing between the scum that floats to the top of the barrel and the dregs that settle to the bottom.” — L. Neil Smith

“When I’m in office I always keep Members of Parliament talking. If they stopped they might start thinking.” — Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

Well…. there you go…. I might add, these pearls were chosen from an almost unlimited field of appropriate quotes, all in the same vein as these….. which leaves me no choice but to add a final comment from our old friend, Zippy….

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

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

I was up a bit late, and my hands have slowed down the process a bit, so, I’ll once again need to subject you to one of my own poems…. I’ll try to pick a good one, if such exists in my collection….

Unheralded Sagacity…

To many, who will not see beyond their nose
the world becomes a dangerous place,
a bullet in every gun, a thorn with every rose,
no magic comes to save us, reality leaves no trace.

Minds closed, wrapped tight in manufactured fears,
men become clay, easily molded into complacent form.
No chains needed, held in thrall for years,
lies become gospel, when dishonesty is the norm.

Shed the chains you wear in durance, in kind;
Oh, ye of little faith, and much doubt
Strength is found in an unfettered mind,
Cry “freedom” with a great shout.

No help from any gods can hinder so much
as our own lack of confidence;
finding the light within, knowing it as such
confirms us, becoming consequence.

Illumination…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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

I am now so late, I will have to resort to posting an older pearl, from the archives…. Ah well, it’ll be a good one, I promise….

From 7/23/2013, a pearl with message that complements today’s rant/old school pearl in section two…. Enjoy!:

Baffled by my own mind’s attempts at coherency this morning, I digress, as usual. But, I do it so well, you wouldn’t even have noticed, if I didn’t point it out for you…. It’s all just part of the service here at ECR. where we try to make every dish as attractive as the one before, which was, if I must say so myself, damned attractive, for a dish.

Until we can actually achieve anything close to that, however, we’ll have to continue to go with old-school pearls, because, well, because…. Besides, it’s much better than listening to me rant, right?….. Whoa, wait a second, let’s not all shout at once…. Okay, I get the picture…. Sniffle….. Here, then…. Smart Bee is being a butt, so here is a pearl from last year….

“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

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

I have fulfilled my duty, and, shall proceed now to take my leave of you, sans any further to-do…. a turn of phrase, no doubt, several hundred years old, with a meaning that has probably gone through a number of changes, according to current usage on the street…. But, it still works to describe this situation, quite well, actually, so, you’ll just have to accept it the way it is, and not worry about what it may or may not mean…. I see that my tendency to grow pompous at the drop of a cliche has reached new heights of idiocy, so, I shall take my leave before I pull my covers off any further…. I’ll see y’all tomorrow…. well, I will, as long as I continue to be unable to talk myself out of it….. See y’all then….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

gigoid

Ned Moore, aka gigoid, is a 70 year-old, (!!!… When did that happen?….), retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat, most days. His first blog, "gigoid’s folly", has been emailed out to folks he knows for about 18 years now. He still considers it his best defense against angst, and the ever-present specter of sheer insanity..... Due to rigorous curmudgeon training requirements, he has discontinued his Facebook presence, but still indulges in the occasional Twitter session... In essence, he's socialized, but, not overly sociable; all labels and stereotypes are forbidden in his presence... and he doesn't care what anyone thinks about that..... In fact, he doesn't want to talk anymore.... If you feel you MUST contact gigoid, his email address is: alphagigoid@gmail.com You can go read now.... Go on, beat it.... gigoid, the dubious

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