Ffolkes,
I made a small tactical error this morning…. Before I started to write this, I read an email, and took a few moments to consider what it had to say….. It was yet another unwelcome begging letter from Organizing for Action, the grassroots fund raising organization formed after Obama’s second election victory… This organization sends me at least two emails every day, each with another call to action, based on whatever political dust-up is currently on tap, followed by a request for money. The calls to action lately relate mostly to the news of what is happening in Congress regarding the current budget mess….. Each email tells me how critical it is that I send them money, or the big, bad Republicans, who have already raised more money than we have (“we” being the good guys, the White House myrmidons as opposed to the Republican myrmidons….), will shut down the government…
I’m torn at the prospect of seeing the massive bureaucracy we call our government grind to a halt; if nothing else the NOISE that is generated is offensive, consisting as it does of the cries of innocent victims, the cacophony of outraged citizens, the outlandish accusations and blame-throwing by both political parties, and the wails of frustration from ffolkes like you and me, who cannot comprehend the depths of ignorance that are being displayed on a daily basis in Washington D.C….. However, on the other hand, as Will Rogers said, the people never suffer so much as when Congress is in session, so, having the whole ball of wax inactive could conceivably do some extensive good, just by not doing anything….
My mistake, as you can see, was allowing the email’s content to get under my skin…. Here we are, government shut down, everything in society at sixes and sevens, and the best they can come up with is, send us $5, so we can fight back?…. What a crock! How stupid do they think people are? Obviously, pretty stupid, as they just continue with their begging, no matter what is going on, or how much they’ve collected…. I guess, for every million emails they send out, they probably have a couple thousand assholes who would send money to Mars, if the politicians asked them to, so they just keep sending them out, relying on the power of statistical percentages to keep the money flowing into their coffers…..
This whole situation is one that brings me to a point where my only reaction is “So? They’re screwing us again? So, what else is new?” I am not only outraged, frustrated, and sad at the ignorance and sheer idiocy currently on display in Washington, I am becoming bored with it…. The same old bullshit, not even dressed in new clothes, keeps falling at our feet, disgorged on a daily basis by people who seem to be congenital liars, thieves, and just plain assholes, ‘scuse my French, which I’m allowed to say because their actions indicate nothing else…. As I said…. BOORRRING…..
We are hearing the same old story, told at the same old stand, by the same old shameless people, insulting us with the same old lies…. I’d be angry, but, it’s more depressing than it is enraging, because of the simple fact that most people in this country not only don’t know they’re being lied to, but, when it is pointed out to them, they try to rationalize, rather than reject…. Rather than admit they have been in error, they’d rather try to justify being wrong, and refuse to change….
It’s saddening, and maddening, to see the LACK of intelligence and independence of spirit that once characterized this country and its people… The American public has turned into a massive crowd of willing slaves to their corporate masters, proud of their ignorance, filled with a false sense of both their own worth, and their entitlement to rights and privileges not earned.
Hmm… I see that I’ve again usurped the intro section to vent… If I have any hope of completing this Pearl by the usual time, I’d better get on with it…. Just consider this your starting point, and I’ll dive in here to begin the search for some outsourced wisdom for us to consider this morning….
Shall we Pearl?…..
“If you are beginning to doubt what I am saying, you are probably hallucinating.” — The Firesign Theater, _Everything you know is Wrong_
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“It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn’t in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.” — Charles Kuralt
Mr. Kuralt, while correct in his statement, mostly, forgets to include one stupidly large, important group connected to the groups he mentions above, to wit: the huge number of IDIOTS among the unwashed masses who support the politicians, admire the celebrities, and regard the criminals as just another form of entertainment, unless it touches on them directly. It is a disturbing thought to realize the number of people who believe that politicians are honest, who think celebrities are role models, and who regard TV as the closest approach to reality they intend to tolerate…..
In part, he IS right, though…. There ARE people who don’t hurt others as their basic modus operandi…. There are people who don’t vote for thieving assholes (Though that’s a tough one to avoid, given that practically everyone who runs for office falls into that category…. I guess I mean that a lot of people vote for someone on the ballot, without fully realizing they are being lied to…. Mostly, I think they have suspicions, but vote anyway, because they can’t imagine any alternatives….)
Society does not consist solely of those who monopolize the news every day; it is simply the case that those people don’t fit into one of those categories that make compelling news stories, so they aren’t ever written up like those who lie, cheat, and steal, whether that criminality is expressed in Washington D.C. in an office building, in a sound studio, or on the mean streets… Actors end up in this group because they show the unwashed masses what the politicians and criminals are up to in stories and films….
“You could drop a leaflet or a Hubbard squash on the head of a person in any land, and you would almost certainly hit a brain that was whirling in small, conventional circles.” — E. B. White
Hence, due to what sells the best, those three groups end up on the news, in theaters, and on our TV’s, phones, and computers, all day and night, with all the bells and whistles they can figure out how to hang on them…. Since that is all there is to see, it is easy to start to believe that these are all there is, and the world is nothing more than one big illusionary collection of people and events that has no direction, other than straight to Hell in a Hummer….
Yes, there ARE other people in this country other than those three groups…. but, they aren’t making the news, are they? They’re watching it, and, sadly, mostly keeping their mouths shut…. which is pretty much why Hell is only a few miles away now…..
“Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How’s that again? I missed something.” — Robert A. Heinlein
This will be a short rant, since I count it as merely a continuation of the first section; it’s a slight change of subject, but, not much, if one looks closely…. Besides the entertainment value of ranting, for me, it’s also my indictment of the very people who are dominating today’s headlines, so, I’m good with however it comes out, to be honest…. I’m disgusted, and disappointed, and a large number of other adjectives that indicate similar feelings, directed at the ‘assholes on parade’ we’re forced to watch… So disgusted, I am going to stop here, because it’s just making me crazy, and want to break things….
“In a cruel and evil world, being cynical can allow you to get some entertainment out of it.” — Daniel Waters, screenwriter of HEATHERS
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For me, poetry has as much, or more, power to take my mind away as does the best prose, or the best films, and runs a parallel course with the words of someone I love, in how strongly I can be affected in my emotions….. In that light, my favorite poets are favored, not because of how popular or famous they are, but because of how I feel when I read them… From this poet, I always find both the power of elegance and beauty, and hope for the spirit we entail as humans….
As once the winged energy of delight
carried you over childhood’s dark abysses,
now beyond your own life build the great
arch of unimagined bridges.
Wonders happen if we can succeed
in passing through the harshest danger;
but only in a bright and purely granted
achievement can we realize the wonder.
To work with Things in the indescribable
relationship is not too hard for us;
the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,
and being swept along is not enough.
Take your practiced powers and stretch them out
until they span the chasm between two
contradictions…For the god
wants to know himself in you.
~~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~~
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What you will find below is a Classic pearl… It chose itself, which is the primary characteristic that sets this type apart; when I furnish the parameters for inclusion, the outcome is of a different nature. For some reason, probably having to do with magic, or something, this kind always comes out stronger, and stranger, and more beautiful in execution of the humorous parts, if not always more elegantly attractive due to the identifiable sources involved….
If any of that is comprehensible to you, I think you could consider yourself to be a regular…. It’s clear that you have a “different” sort of mind, for which logic and compassion dictate that one suggest, it possibly would be smart to make an appointment with your psychiatrist, should you have one…. If you don’t, I’m bound to remind y’all, the law requires you to engage one, if you spend more than the recommended amount of time pearling; you can get around that requirement by keeping your certificate of sanity at hand, as provided to you at birth, and again at your graduation from high school….. That IS what they gave us, right?…. I lost the one I got at birth, but, I just thought they gave me a new on at the commencement exercises in 1968…. Oh, well, no es importante, si?…
Just so it’s all clear… If it doesn’t say who said it, I found it in Smart Bee without any attribution….. and Google didn’t know either…. or possibly, it didn’t care…..
“It’s so clean. It’s certainly uncontaminated by cheese.”
“My main reason for adopting literature as a profession was that, as the author is never seen by his clients, he need not dress respectably.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
“Some professors asked a monk to lecture to them on spiritual matters. The monk ascended a podium, struck it once with his stick, and descended. The academics were dumbfounded. The monk asked them, “Do you understand what I have told you?” One professor said, “I do not understand.” The monk said, “I have concluded my lecture.”
“A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice.” — Thomas Paine [Author of the Declaration of Independence and even more, but no politician.]
“Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.” — Brendan Gill
“I hope I never get so old I get religious.” — Ingmar Bergman
NLTDB 🙂 🙂 :-): Nothin’ Left To Do But Smile, Smile, Smile.
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“Okay,” he said, self-consciously, “not bad.” Small cough…. “Not bad at all….” Larger cough…. “I wonder if anyone will read it?”, was his next plaintive question, so I kicked him out of my head…. But, after I caught my breath from coughing, I realized that, yes, it wasn’t bad at all, so, I can quit now, which is probably for the best, for all of us…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes…
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.
gigoid
gigoid 