Skeptical images go in the bluest bin…. (Spoiler: 94% fresh material…)

Posted on December 9, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I’m often amazed at how much the world can change in one day; never has that been more clearly defined for me than in the past 24 hours, when I took the time to compare that day to the 24 hours that preceded…. The difference, in how I feel, in how I view the world, in the world itself, all are in direct contrast to each other, and serve to send my mind into the realms of thought and introspection…. which is a good thing, mostly, if a bit strange for the average bear…. I’ve never been a particularly average bear, though, so, no worries, eh?….

My condition, both physical and mental, over the last few days was complicated by a certain policy decision I’d made, which, in the light of subsequent events, became, quite obviously, the wrong policy to adopt at this particular time, if ever. Since returning the policy to its former state, all seems to be well, in many respects that were NOT doing well….

This tells me that reinstating the policy was the correct decision, so, once again, that’s a good thing, even if all this is so obscure that even I am not sure what the hell I’m talking about…. But, that’s okay, it’s not really important for any other purpose than my own inner serenity, which is always a bit wobbly, so, we’ll just keep it that way, and let things settle into their most propitious alignments without further interference from me….

Now, wasn’t THAT fun! I could possibly have made that even more obdurately obscure, but, what’s the point in that? I can barely follow it myself, so even the NSA will have trouble figuring out what I’m talking about, even with ALL my meta-data to work with…. They’re missing the key encryption factor, which is located deep within the confines of my brain, in places of which even I am not fully cognizant; I keep it there on purpose, so I can’t tell them if I ever get caught….

Okay, so I’m no James Bond…. I can pretend, can’t I?….. Besides, I’m no real threat, (yet…), to them, other than by what I may write, and that has, thus far, been fairly mild, in terms of actual, practical revolutionary content…. I have yet to actually BUY a gun, (yet…), and haven’t started meeting up with like-minded radicals from other places around the country, (yet…). Nor have I started a newsletter, or published a paper, or any of the other organizational activities one might suspect if I chose to pursue such a course…. (yet…..)

I’ve thought about all of them, and may, someday relatively soon, go about following up on one or more of those impulses; it’s about damn time for some changes in this sad old world, that’s for sure….

But, not yet…. not quite yet….. I’m not convinced at this point as to how many others out there would consider joining with me in such activity, though I suspect there are many more than the BRC would believe…. Plus, when the time actually comes for me to do something practical, do they actually think that I’m stupid enough to tell them about it first? I guess they are, so, we’ll just let them go on believing that, and get on with what we’re doing…. which, at this point should probably involve some diving for pearls…. otherwise, we many never get out of here, and I know I’m low on snack items…. so…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Between the vision and the act lies the shadow.” — T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
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‘Kay…. I’m submitting to the will of Fate, such as it presents itself, as we all must when it does…. Oh, we all like to come up with high sounding rationalizations why our fate is in our own hands, or, we like to pretend it is subject to adjustment, if we hold to a certain set of beliefs, that protect us from its vagaries, but, when it all comes down to the final analysis, we will ALWAYS do what we do, and the WHY has NO BEARING on what will occur….

What will be, will be…. This is something that most people have a hard time coming to accept, myself included….. I’ve discovered, over the years, it is often best to go with the odds, so…. in order to honor the concept of “always cut the cards”, I’d like to talk a bit about the process of getting old…..

“Yep, getting old just plain sux.” — lobotero ( http://lobotero.com/ )

This quote was left as a comment for me on a recent post, wherein I was once again discussing my health, and mentioned that feeling poorly was “getting old”…. My new friend, lobotero, agreed with the sentiment, as he, I know, lives with his own difficult health issues…. But, when he said that, I was struck by the simple fact that, although it is true, as true as the sun coming up each day, it only describes half of the universe in which we live, the living half, and it’s only because we are suffering that the other half, the dying, is so hard to acknowledge…..

“I’d rather die happy than not die at all….” — Bob Weir

Yeah, I’m hating big parts of this getting old shit, most of which is due to the fact that none of it was in the damn manual…. Of course, there was no manual, but, you know what I mean…. When we’re growing up, do the adults tell us, “don’t worry, you’ll be in pain soon, too, dear….”?… No, of course not… It’s all, “Oh, go play, dear, have fun. Use your mind, and your body, just be safe!”, or some such happy shit, never giving a clue, until later in life, that we all should have begun practicing some years ago at those things that will help us later in life…. SIGH… If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was a conspiracy…..

But, I know better than to attribute to malevolence anything that is more likely the result of asininity, or just plain stupidity….. We’re all not the brightest creatures on the platter, you know…. Why else would we still be stuck hanging around some backwater planet like this? There HAS to be somewhere more civilized to go, if only to find an adequate cup of ambrosia….. Logic says there MUST be…. As I am, sadly, no smarter than the rest of the monkeys stuck here, I suppose that means I have to try again to get along with the inhabitants, at least for long enough to get through another incarnation….

I must be feeling a little bit better, as this is the most coherent bit of cogitation I’ve managed for a week or more, as well as the most light-hearted…. I miss my sense of humor when it’s hiding behind the outrage, or the pain, or whatever it finds to stay out of the limelight…. But, one mustn’t spook the muses, now, so, shhh, we won’t talk of it any more just now…. Where was I?

Oh, yes, I was getting old, and, mostly liking it…. I guess that is the thrust of what I’m trying to say here….. I’ve had a HELL of a good time in my life, having managed to do just about all I wanted to do at one time or another, along with, of course, quite a few things I didn’t want to do so much…. But, all of them have taught me something, so, I figure I’m ahead of the game in that respect…. Plus, I just remembered why I MUST be feeling better, and why it’s so…..

When one is using one’s MIND (caps deliberate, to denote I’m really serious here….), when it is fully engaged in doing the work at which it excels, it actually has healing, and recuperative powers, in respect to the rest of the body…. This idea is a commonly held belief in many spiritual circles, and there is medical evidence to support it, as well, so I’m not just talking through my ass (though that has been known to occur…. but, not now….)… Any who, when one is thinking hard, and concentrating, the body has actually been measured, with results that indicate it does not merely STOP AGING, but, in point of fact, will repair some of the damage time wreaks, making us younger…..

For some time now, perhaps an hour or so, I’ve been thinking about what my friend said, above, and the echoes of the thoughts are still reverberating around in my head, stimulating other ideas, bouncing around. colliding with other ideas like a nuclear reaction in full swing, and, in essence, creating conditions in my body that are helping me to get better….. Until, of course, the actual illness itself steps in, to let me know it’s not quite gone… S’cuse me…. break time…. I hope to be right back….

So much for the wishes of a man in the face of fate, or Fate, or even destiny…. To continue…. in that hour that I’ve spent in thinking about how it sux to get old, I have felt better than I have for over a week, and certainly the best I’ve felt since becoming ill, several weeks ago, when I caught a cold for the first time in decades…. But, a full hour of the mind at work, and much of the damage has been, if not eliminated fully, mitigated to a significant degree; you can’t complain about a deal like that, now, can you?…..

So, yes, getting old sux, big time, a lot of the time…. Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story for us humans….. Myself, I have always enjoyed the process of learning, which just so happens to occur at a regular rate as we grow older (as long as we are paying attention….), and wouldn’t trade a single grey hair for those darker tendrils that adorned my head as a youth….. They still grow, grey as they are, a fact that, to me, indicates how things actually are, if we know how to perceive them….

As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned something new with each passing hour; the things I’ve learned make my life much fuller, filled with the feelings and experiences that I enjoy, such as the anticipation and excitement of traveling, or the profound joy of meeting new people, and I don’t believe I’d care to go back to being young, because the trade-off wouldn’t be a fair bargain, for me, or for the world….

I’ll just take things the way they are, and do the best I can to learn to enjoy even the difficult times, as being another kind of lesson….. This one taught me to find my way back to the proper attitudes for my mental and physical well-being, so, I’m content, for the nonce, even though I’m older than I was when I began…..

“You’ve little to fear, brave knight…unless the dragon stops purring.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

At times, all I want is a simple poem, that speaks directly to the truth of life…. Oh, look, here’s one now!…..

A Bottle And Friend

There’s nane that’s blest of human kind,
But the cheerful and the gay, man,
Fal, la, la, &c.

Here’s a bottle and an honest friend!
What wad ye wish for mair, man?
Wha kens, before his life may end,
What his share may be o’ care, man?

Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought, man:
Believe me, happiness is shy,
And comes not aye when sought, man.

~~ Robert Burns ~~

_____________________________

As I was searching the other day, looking for pearls for an old-school pearl I was putting together, a group of another type kept popping up in SB, obviously trying to get me to include them in a post…. I put them aside for the moment, but now will complete the group, and include them here, so they will stop whimpering at me…. Actually, this is looking like it will be a pretty good one….

“People are divided into two groups – the righteous and the unrighteous – and the righteous do the dividing.” — Lord Cohen

EVANGELIST, n. A bearer of good tidings, particularly (in a religious sense) such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation of our neighbors. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“At the beginning there was the Word – at the end just the Cliche.” — Stanislaw J. Lec

“Any system of religion which has anything in it which offends the mind of a child cannot be a true system.” — Thomas Paine

“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.” — Albert Einstein

“All men are born naked.” — Carlos Eduardo Novaes

“If attacked by a lion thrust your arm down his throat. This takes some practice.” — Cyril Connolly

For those who have been reading this blog for a while, you may understand why I recognize this to be one of the finest pearls I’ve ever come up with; for those unfamiliar with how my mind works, (a group that often includes myself….), this will seem like something almost familiar, but, elusive and difficult to pin down….. For what it is worth, a key decryption tool for deciphering the meaning here would be the word, “dogma”; even more useful, the word, “poltroon”…. Of course, if you use the latter, you will need to remember to bring some Windex, or perhaps, a bit of WD-40, to the aftermath party…..
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Today is one of those special days, brimming with the possibility of epiphany, tempered by the patina of age, yet shining with the luster that comes from elegance…. Oh wait, that’s just some oatmeal on my glasses….Whoops! Oh well, I had hopes there, for a moment…. Let’s see if it lives up to any of its promises….

Well, actually, it does…. I like it, and though I’m not particularly hard to please, still, it’s pretty okay…. I know, I’m damning it with faint praise, but, it can’t be helped… If I gush, I seem too egotistical, and, it’s not THAT good…. Whatever it is, I hope y’all enjoy today’s effort, because I enjoyed writing it…. See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

A plethora of pentangular puff pastries….

Posted on November 30, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Surely,” I thought to myself, “surely there won’t be any more fear.” Then, I woke up, only to find that, once again, the screen is blank, and so is my mind…. If I were a writer for a magazine, or a news paper, or some specific job that hires writers, perhaps I wouldn’t face such a conundrum each morning…. I’d have my assignments of what to write already waiting for me, as given to me by my editors, may they rot in hell…. (Sorry, editors, but your reputation precedes you….) The assignments would, no doubt, be as boring as they could make them, but, they’d be subjects, and I wouldn’t have to fret and fuss over finding something to start with….

Of course, I can always go into the “whine and cheese” mode, like this morning, where I just complain about how much of a hassle it all is; it may LOOK like it’s easy to put together, but, it really isn’t, you know…. Trying to do this, while making it sound and look different than all the other times I’ve used this method, well, it isn’t as simple as it may seem…. Of course, nothing about writing on a daily basis is as simple as it seems, either, at least, not as simple as it looked before I began doing it…. The actual doing of it takes more dedication and perseverance than it seems as if it would, when looking at it from the outside….

The advantage to this type of intro section is, naturally, the very thing I complain of, to wit: no restraints on me as to what I can write…. I can do this, I can write a fictional beginning, or I can do something entirely off the wall…. and no comments about ALL of it being off that wall, if you please…. I get that enough from my own head; I don’t need y’all to reinforce that idea any more than it already gets….

If you’ve been watching the last few weeks, you’ll see that I’ve gotten rather good at saying nothing for about four or five paragraphs…. Every day, for some time, I’ve managed to fill in this section with nonsense, or blather, either of which takes up the required space, but, without all the wear and tear on my bone of creativity….. (I only have the one, you know, so it’s kind of overworked….) I’ve been sleeping more in the last week, too, which has also had a small effect on things, though I’m still not certain what that effect might be…. It just makes me sound as if I know whereof I speak, which is important for an op/ed writer….

That is what I really consider myself to be, at the bottom…. I write opinion editorials, which I and many others call rants….. Why? Well, because if I didn’t, all that stuff would sit inside my head, and rot…. The end result of that particular form of chemical reaction is NOT healthy, for me, or for whomever is nearby when it comes rushing out of my head, percolated from merely food for thought, into outright outrage, and justified anger, toward that portion of humanity that preys upon the remainder….. I can’t seem to help it, the evidence is right there in the news, for all to see, and I just can’t let it lie, sleeping dog or no…

So, I’ll keep on keepin’ on, so to speak, as long as the Beloved Ruling Class continues to screw over the rest of humanity….. Given the state of the planet, and the rate at which we continue to pump particulate matter into its atmosphere, that really won’t be all that long…. more’s the pity…. I was really looking forward to seeing the rest of the galaxy, too….

Shall we Pearl?….

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

Though I described above how a pearl will generally include something rantable, or at least, formerly rantable and now archived, it should be noted that I do try to keep things as fresh as possible….. But, it gets hard, especially since the damn horse died…. I keep beating on it, but it won’t get up!…. Nonetheless, the subject matter will remain the same, in general…. the folks who stick it to the rest of us don’t change their spots, so they’re always there as targets…. At the present moment in time, however, my head isn’t quite ready for such vituperation… or perhaps it would be more accurate to say my HEART isn’t in it right now, as the emotions behind the rants are what make them powerful, on those occasions when they do achieve the proper tone of accusation and outrage….

Hence the following harlequin pearl, odd-numbered star variety, gathered fresh today for your perusal and delectation, snatched from the jaws of the Smart Bee to provide y’all with this morning’s food for thought, to go along with all the usual holiday hype we suffer from this time of the year…. I hope you enjoy them, they cost me a LOT of effort today…. Well, I’m assuming they will…. they always do….

“Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.” — Elbert Hubbard

I aske not labored letters which should weare
Long papers out: nor letters which should feare
Dishonest carriage: or a seer’s art:
Nor such as from the brayne come, but the hart.

— John Donne

“It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives… When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered.” — Dorothy Thompson, American journalist, author (1894-1961)

There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.

— Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) — In Memoriam, xcvi, Stanza 3

“I cannot say whether things will get better if we change; what I can say is they must change if they are to get better.” — G. C. Lichtenberg

“Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.” — Socrates

“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” Albert Einstein
_____________________________

In the past few days, I’ve been posting poems that didn’t need any help or introduction from me; the sheer genius they displayed spoke for itself…. Rather than rely entirely upon the works of other people, I’ve decided to spread a bit of the blame onto my own shoulders, so there can be no speculation of discrimination, or lack thereof…. I know exactly how my poetry stands up to the classics; no illusions of grandeur there, believe me…. But, sometimes, I do okay….. If nothing else, the rhymes are almost always consistent, so, I’m happy….

I know I’m in the now, if only…..

Oh, there it is again, fiddle faddle;
Begone, I said, vamoose, skedaddle!
It looked at me as if I were insane:
Scoffed, it did, filled me with pain.

Where does it come from?
Where does it live?
I’d stick out my thumb,
if I had more to give.

If only, should, would, could it be?
It went away again, this time free.
It will be back again, this I know;
or I’m wrong, and it won’t show.

Who cares?
Who hears?
Such goings on wobble the sphere,
I wish it wouldn’t do that here.

I’ve been wrong before…..

~~ gigoid ~~

“Not all men who drink are poets. Some of us drink because we aren’t poets.” — Smart Bee
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“A man who can fool chiefs, and even gods, must still face the monsters he himself created.” — Old Maori saying

Introspection has always been a hobby of mine, but, since turning the ripe old age of 63, it seems to have become even more of a time-consuming process for me than has been true for most of my life…..

I can remember lying on my bed in the state of Washington, when my father was stationed there at Fort Lewis…. I would stare at the bottom of my brother’s upper bunk, and imagine all manner of things, including about myself, and my place in the universe…. Even at the tender age of 8 or 9, as the son of an Army sergeant, I had been many places, and seen more of the world than is usual for anyone other than Army brats…. our proud designation for ourselves…. The quest to maintain one’s personality in the face of all the changes going on around us gave me the impetus to perpetually be aware of more than is the norm for kids of that age; at least, it always seemed so, from what I can tell from my knowledge of others of that age….

Now that I’ve reached an age that completely got skipped in my earlier musings of what life would be like, I seem to be thinking back and forth more often, making connections with the past that explain certain elements of my own persona as they manifest today…. My hair, for example…. (I know, I know, my hair isn’t generally the subject of a rant, but, that’s not really what this is…. this is more of a…. a retrospective, yeah, that’s it…. a retrospective…. so, calm down, I’m not going to get all graphic, or gloomy, or pick at anyone in particular, other than myself…. ‘kay?…. ‘Kay!…..)

So, I was looking at my picture on my About page, and can only say that, well, there I am…. My hair is even longer now, (a bit grayer, too….). as I see no particular reason to cut it…. which is the root thought that stimulated this entire subject today…. A little while ago, I was standing outside a moment, with my hair not yet tied back into the usual ponytail, and the wind was blowing it around a bit….. I started to get annoyed, then realized I could only blame myself for it getting in my face, because the solution to that problem is right over there in the drawer, where the scissors live…. I thought to myself, how many times has someone asked me, “why don’t you cut your hair?”, and realized I couldn’t count that high…

My own reaction to that particular query is to think, (again…), to myself, “Well, actually, the question that occurs to me to ask is, why don’t I NOT cut my hair?”…. It seems to me, when I stop to consider the matter logically, and reasonably, that if the hair grows, as it has always done, it must have some sort of evolutionary purpose for doing so, right? It seems logical to me…. Therefore, it seems logical to ask, as well, “who am I to fuss with evolution?” This line of reasoning, naturally, tends to piss of most of the folks who make the original statement to me…. but, I figure that sort of anger is a personal problem, don’t you? I can’t go around taking the heat for what other people don’t like about me, when their anger is based on THEIR beliefs, not mine….

In a way, I suppose it’s the old hippie in me…. Aha, you say, now we’re getting to the meat of the matter! And, typically, I am supposed to say, at this point, “Just what do you mean by that? I don’t know what you’re talking about….” Then, I smile, and get on with what I was doing, which is explaining why being a hippie is not what most people would think…. I mean, there were a lot of popular misconceptions floating around all during the 60’s (Believe me, it was a very confusing time…. I know, I was there….), when there were a lot of people who thought that there was something wrong, or even evil, about being described as one of those misunderstood knights of the sub-culture….

Yes, I said knights…. Jedi knights, before they were the iconic, eternal, peaceful warrior as made popular in later years…. Hippies were the knights of the 60’s and 70’s, diligently tilting at all the windmills we could find, poking our noses into the business of the military-industrial complex, which I now refer to as the BRC, until they were sick of the sight of anyone with long hair….. Back in the day, even the most rigid of conservative hawks understood that they were witnessing a change of culture, and there was nothing they could do to alter the course that history was taking…. The power of love, and compassion, and freedom swept through the entire world, as well as refreshing American society, with repercussions still being felt today….

One of the most important characteristics of hippies that I don’t think most people understood is that we were only interested in revolution in the sense that revolution means change; no hippie worth the name ever wished to violently overthrow anything that didn’t threaten violence first…. But, it is also true that real hippies have no objection to using violence to defend themselves, a fact which always comes as a big surprise to those who would try to oppress them. As with any tool, honor has to be the regulatory agency for determining which tool should be used, and how…. This, sadly, is a concept that those who prey on other people, who seek power over them, can never truly understand, as it is not a part of their perception of reality….

I see that I’ve reached a point where this must either get very pointed, or fade into the background for the time being….. I’m feeling mellow, due to re-connecting with the halcyon days of my youth, so I’ll show mercy here, and opt for the latter…. Besides, I’m all out of introspection for the nonce, and there’s no telling when it might drop back by…. I’ll leave y’all with one final pearl, to seal the deal….

“Oh, how we fear the metamorphoses through which we truly become fledged humans, real mensches of the species homo sapiens. Yet even if we do not willingly undergo them, changes pursue us just the same. The woman who never bears a child metamorphoses in different ways. We may dig in our heels and dare life never to change, but, all the same, it changes under our feet like sand under the feet of a sea gazer as the tide runs out. Life is forever undermining us. Life is forever washing away our castles, reminding us that they were, after all, only sand and sea water.” — Erica Jong: Parachutes and Kisses
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Okay, housekeeping…. I’m leaving in the morning, to go on another cruise, and doubt seriously if I’ll be able to post on Sunday…. Just too much to do out in the BBR, and no telling how the internet on board this new ship will turn out to be, speed-wise… So far, they’ve all been different…. Most likely, though, I will post on Monday, Tuesday, & possibly Wednesday, but, again, maybe not at all until Thursday…. I’ll just have to wait to see how it all pans out…. Suffice it to say, if it comes down to posting, or interrupting fun, well, we know what will win out, don’t we?…..

Now, let’s see how this came out….. Okay, well, it’s long enough, and it’s not overtly stupid, or mean, so, I’ll call it done, and be done with it…. Lots of stuff to do to get ready…. NOT! I’m ready, for just under 22 hours from now, when I’ll walk out that door, on the way to the airport…. See ya, some time or another, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Our favorite source for eclectic pants….

Posted on November 29, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Again, a poem that requires no ups, no extras…..

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

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well, maybe not always…..

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Even subliminally, it can smell risque…..

Posted on November 28, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I am currently in the throes of putting up the seasonal decorations around my place…. Yes, the lovely new attack dog is going out in the front yard, (right next to the new gun emplacements….), to make sure none of the usual door-to-door sales types will make it up the steps long enough to ring the bell, thereby annoying me…. I’ve gotten one of the latest models, animals trained to hide the body after they’ve run them down and killed them….. You can’t imagine the FORTUNE I’m saving in disposal costs….

I’m also putting up my holiday decorations…. spreading around the chewed-up briefcases and Awake magazines from former sales people who came into the yard, the bloody clothing, the chalk outlines, …… Oh, yeah, and I’m putting the barbed wire over the chimney so that fat asshole can’t get in anymore…. We’ll have the usual crowd of hired thugs outside, too, haranguing whomever walks by, shouting at them to go home, and stop being such well-trained consumers….

Seriously, here it is, just Thanksgiving, and I’m already sick to death of all the Christmas decorations, and the Christmas commercials that have already started dunning everyone on the vacuum tube, reminding them of how little time to spend they have, or what the latest hot item to spend money on looks like, or shouting about how much more they need to spend…..

Constant reminders of how many “shopping days until Christmas” are left to endure rain down on our consciousness at every turn, in stores, by the roads, on the airwaves, on TV, everywhere one looks is another visual and/or auditory barrage upon our senses, applying more psychologically designed pictures and phrases to stimulate the training that we as consumers have been programmed to receive….

I’m sick of it, with still almost four weeks to go to the main event, followed by the after-holiday push to spend more, so that the business ass wipes who run things in the world can squeeze out every possible penny of the disposable income of the middle class, and all the possible extra pennies left in the pockets of the lower classes…. Every little cent that their targeted victims, i.e., EVERYONE, can be persuaded to put toward the foolishness of manufactured desires, instead of using it to buy what is absolute necessity, is what they’re after, and they’ll get it….

But, the commercials don’t care, nor do those who make and pay for the commercials…. They don’t care that the parents of those children they’ve targeted with their ads cannot afford to buy the toy, or other unnecessary item for which they’ve created the obsession, making it so it becomes an issue of status for the child to not have one of the favored items to show in school, or in the park…. The assholes who create this entire commercial frenzy this time of year aren’t going to give up the period of time when they make the most profit, since they can mark everything with a higher price at this time of year, knowing people will buy anyway, because that’s what people do when they’re brainwashed….

Yes, ffolkes, you’re all brainwashed to spend money during the holidays…. There are even articles that help people get over the depression that this brings on at this time of year, depression that actually has a legitimate cause to exist, as it is made clearer to many folks that all of this fuss and bother is a complete fabrication…. The honest truth of the matter is, at this time of year nobody really gives a rat’s ass about Jesus, or compassion, or about anything other than corporate avarice, and making more money this year than last….

The few people who do suffer some qualms about all of this either stay out of it (like me, mostly….), or they get depressed, or they just shake their head, bury their feelings, and try to pretend, along with most everybody else, that they’re really having a good time…. I don’t know about y’all, but, starting now, and right up until the third of January or so, I will be completely ignoring the television, and trying not to even SEE all the ridiculous decorations and signs everywhere, all for the purpose of getting me to spend more money on crap that won’t last beyond the new year….

Oh, and maybe, just maybe, I will try to keep from ranting in the intro section…. even though it does fill up the space rather well….. I have a feeling it’s not the way to pull ffolkes in to read further…. Just a hunch, but, a good one, I think…. Any who, since I’ve once again filled up this section with ranting and complaining about society’s moral compass, or lack of one, there’s no need to carry on any further down that path; we’ll go find a new direction to take, one that, hopefully, will be more entertaining than this…. even if I’m right….

Shall we Pearl?….

“He has half the deed done who has made a beginning.” — Horace

(Around here, this is sometimes a good thing to remember….)
_____________________________

“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depends on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the measure as I have received and am still receiving.” — Albert Einstein

Originally, when I saw this, I thought it would be a perfect start for a discussion of public ethics, or societal morality, either of which could be supported by its premise, logically speaking…. But, then I thought about what I had said above, in the intro, and decided that the two subjects are similar enough to bring tears of boredom to my eyes, as well as, arguably, having the power to glaze over ANYONE’s eyes in a New York minute…. Ethics and/or morals don’t usually make for the most stimulating rants; they tend to be critical enough to tune out even the most hardened DIY’er, such as a graduate of an EST program, or a survivor from a Sterling Men’s Weekend….

But, old-school pearls are a perfect venue for such critical outpourings…. they can deliver the same degree of displeasure and disgust at the acts being described, but in such a way that the humor makes the criticism more palatable for those who are in need of the knowledge… Well, that’s the theory, anyway, which has always held true in the past….

This format just makes it simpler to get the points across, and in such a way that the receiver doesn’t automatically dismiss it, out of hand…. We can hope, anyway, right?…. Right?… Besides, this is more fun, and much easier on my head, my back, and my hips…. Let’s see how Smart Bee is feeling today, shall we?…. Today, we’ll be looking for pearls that point the way to an honorable life, or, at the least, a life of honorable intent….

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

“So you see, the only true proof of what you are is in the way you hear the truth.” — Lemmy Kilmeister

“The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency.” — Albert Einstein

“Whatever became of eternal truth?” — Smart Bee

“I used to wonder about the meaning of life. But I looked it up in the dictionary under L and there it was, the meaning of life. It was less than I expected.” — Dogbert

“There is Moral Sense, and there is an Immoral Sense. History shows us that the Moral Sense enables us to perceive morality and how to avoid it, and that the Immoral Sense enables us to perceive immorality and how to enjoy it.” — Mark Twain

“How’s the wife? Is she at home enjoying capitalism?” — Zippy the Pinhead
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More genius, unadorned….

Death Wants More Death

death wants more death, and its webs are full:
I remember my father’s garage, how child-like
I would brush the corpses of flies
from the windows they thought were escape-
their sticky, ugly, vibrant bodies
shouting like dumb crazy dogs against the glass
only to spin and flit
in that second larger than hell or heaven
onto the edge of the ledge,
and then the spider from his dank hole
nervous and exposed
the puff of body swelling
hanging there
not really quite knowing,
and then knowing-
something sending it down its string,
the wet web,
toward the weak shield of buzzing,
the pulsing;
a last desperate moving hair-leg
there against the glass
there alive in the sun,
spun in white;
and almost like love:
the closing over,
the first hushed spider-sucking:
filling its sack
upon this thing that lived;
crouching there upon its back
drawing its certain blood
as the world goes by outside
and my temples scream
and I hurl the broom against them:
the spider dull with spider-anger
still thinking of its prey
and waving an amazed broken leg;
the fly very still,
a dirty speck stranded to straw;
I shake the killer loose
and he walks lame and peeved
towards some dark corner
but I intercept his dawdling
his crawling like some broken hero,
and the straws smash his legs
now waving
above his head
and looking
looking for the enemy
and somewhat valiant,
dying without apparent pain
simply crawling backward
piece by piece
leaving nothing there
until at last the red gut sack
splashes
its secrets,
and I run child-like
with God’s anger a step behind,
back to simple sunlight,
wondering
as the world goes by
with curled smile
if anyone else
saw or sensed my crime

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

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I’m having a bit of pain this morning, a surprising event, considering all the sleep I’ve gotten the past four days…. Ah well, c’est la vie…. The net effect of that, though, is that I am getting lazier by the moment, and have decided to go in a new direction altogether…. I’ve been collecting links, to articles that I intended to rant about, or use to justify a rant, however one wishes to look at it… Laziness, however, always takes precedence over ranting, so, instead, I’m just going to provide you with some reading material, should you choose to follow the links to their sources….

What you will find is a group of articles that will show you just how avarice, and immorality, and corruption, and, and, and,….. almost every human failing that brings people into conflict with one another, are not just present in modern life, but, have become the standard of our cultural interactions….. Each of these articles discusses a segment of society that is engaged in some kind of behavior that is unethical, or paranoid, or corrupt in some way…. well, except for the last one, which offers a solution, of sorts, to a lot of the tension and stress caused by the manifestations outlined in the other links…. The last one, as radical as it is in its language, its spirituality, along with its author’s mildly abrasive approach, is perhaps the sanest article in the whole lot….

So, read these, if you’ve got the time…. Then go and try some meditation, or whatever method you choose to get back in touch with your center, which is where we all need to learn to exist….. Strange, isn’t it? How such a simple idea, existing at one’s own center of being, is really and truly the key to a happy life…. Yet, there it is, in all its simplicity…. All we have to do is pick it up, and use it….. Hey, it’s worth a shot, isn’t it? Nothing else seems to be working, if these stories are any indication…..

http://news.yahoo.com/eu-lays-down-steps-us-must-protect-data-142411846.html

http://www.sfgate.com/technology/dotcommentary/article/Spying-on-online-sex-lives-raises-red-flags-5017893.php

http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2013/11/27/san-jose-cop-charged-with-writing-bogus-tickets/

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Holiday-shopping-season-begins-on-Thanksgiving-5019245.php

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2013/11/26/meditation-for-the-damned/
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This one took some doing, it did, so it only gets a cursory examination for errors…. which I’m doing now, even though you can’t see me…. Some days, this process shows me more than just the usual justification for its evolved state…. That may sound a bit obscure, but, that’s okay, because we’re done for the day, and it won’t hurt at all, unless you get all huffy and try too hard to figure it out…. Don’t fret, amigo, no está importante….. See ya tomorrow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Lock up the dahlias, I’ll get the peonies…

Posted on November 27, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

There’s a new airline company to choose, next time you plan on traveling a long way from home…. It’s called Porcine Air, because pigs CAN fly, you know?!!! I know for a fact we are all prepared to believe in such a company, as long as the natural laws of our universe have been altered, and the weather reports from Hell are calling for ice and snow…. How else to explain three days of semi-natural sleep, for anyone with the physical conditions that plague me? I have no explanation, or any rational idea as to why or how it might have happened…. and, at this point, I don’t think I ever will, because I don’t care….. Why should I look such a nice horse in the mouth, eh? That would be ungrateful, not to mention tactless; let no one ever say I wore those hats!…..

Joking, or, more accurately in this case, an approximation of joking, aside, I am, once again, flabbergasted, and pleased, I think, to have awakened at what has to be the most normal time to arise that I’ve seen, in, oh, these many moons…. It is now just 0550, military time, meaning this is the AM…. which makes this the latest start for a Pearl in well over six months…. Oh, wait, maybe a bit less than that… I DID get that cold last month, & spent a lot of time in bed; I may have been up later one of those days…. Other than that, which we can blame on exigent circumstances, it’s been a very long time since I got so much sleep in one period, so, I’m not sure just how to react…..

I suppose I could show some remotely professional behavior, ignoring the time of day altogether, but, I don’t think I could carry off the arrogant entitlement such behavior would demand, not this late in the day, and not without my curmudgeon hat….. Becoming one of the BRC, in that respect at least, has always been difficult for me…. I just can’t bring myself to the point where I can allow myself to treat other people like dirt, just as a matter of course, a behavioral trend which seems to be the net result when almost anyone assumes the position of ‘beloved ruler’ in our society…. It’s as if it is assumed, by everyone, that getting elected gives one the right to start acting like an asshole, with the concomitant arrogance that seems to blossom in those who put on that new hat….

Don’t fret, though, ffolkes, this doesn’t signal the beginning of a rant here in the intro section, again…. I’m being quite careful NOT to start one of those this morning; I have one, already on tap & ready to go for section three, and don’t need, or want, to go into that mode here….. This is an event for which, I am quite sure, y’all are immensely grateful, or, at minimum, moderately relieved, at having dodged that particular bullet today…..

In fact, I’ve done so well at blathering so far today, in what is effectively a stealth mode, it is suddenly apparent that I’ve already reached one of the legal minimums for introductory statements, and can abandon all attempts to stretch this any further than it already has been…. That’s arguably a good thing, actually, as I’ve been finding recently, when I do too much stretching of peripheral phrases in these missives, far too many wrinkles show up in the final version, after they’ve dried off, and have been consumed a few times…. So, we’ll surprise y’all again, and stop,… right….. here….

Shall we Pearl?….

“You may not be able to change the whole world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty.” — Katha Pollitt

Well…. THERE’s good news!….. I’ll say it again….. Shall we Pearl?….
_____________________________

The little pearl that I put just above has just assumed favored status among pearls…. I love it! It expresses so well the approach we take here at ECR, in our almost daily battle against complacency and foolishness among the populace…. I often, far TOO often, feel as if it is a futile task, this trying to educate the unwashed masses as to how they are allowing themselves to be screwed over on such a regular basis….

Either I am preaching to the choir, as I think I am, far too often, or I’m shouting into the wind, with no one listening at all… It can be a frustrating feeling, until I remember that I do this not to save others, but to save myself, from sheer insanity….. If I dwell on reality for long, it can lead to outright despair, based on all-too-real issues in the all-too-real world….

In order to maintain a more productive attitude, by eloquently embarrassing as many of the BRC as possible in the fewest number of words, I will now go old-school, which I’ve found to be not merely the easiest way to poke fun at them, but the most effective, by delivering an accurate message to those who are reading what I’ve put before them….

Pictures, even if painted with words, show what is needed to be known far better than words alone, so, I try to use these pearls to create inner visions in the mind of the Gentle Reader, visions that will show them exactly whom to fear, and whom to revile, without as much chance of miscommunication…. Enjoy!….

“You cannot run away from a weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand.” — Robert Louis Stevenson, _The Amateur Emigrant_

“I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not understand. Nevertheless, with what I am, I can reflect light into the black places of this world – into the dark places in the hearts of men – and maybe help change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am . . . this is the meaning of my life.” — Alexander Papaderos

“As those persons who despair of ever being rich make little account of small expenses, thinking that little added to a little will never make any great sum.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of Man’s Progress in Virtue

“Among what he called his precepts were such as these: Do not stir the fire with a sword. Do not sit down on a bushel. Do not devour thy heart.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Pythagoras, xvii

“How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.” — Spanish proverb

BRAIN, n. An apparatus with which we think what we think. That which distinguishes the man who is content to _be_ something from the man who wishes to _do_ something. A man of great wealth, or one who has been pitchforked into high station, has commonly such a headful of brain that his neighbors cannot keep their hats on. In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“And THAT’S the TRUTH! THPPPPPT” — Lily Tomlin’s “Lily Anne”
_____________________________

Genius needs no adornment….

Finisterre

This was the land’s end: the last fingers, knuckled and rheumatic,
Cramped on nothing. Black
Admonitory cliffs, and the sea exploding
With no bottom, or anything on the other side of it,
Whitened by the faces of the drowned.
Now it is only gloomy, a dump of rocks —-
Leftover soldiers from old, messy wars.
The sea cannons into their ear, but they don’t budge.
Other rocks hide their grudges under the water.

The cliffs are edged with trefoils, stars and bells
Such as fingers might embroider, close to death,
Almost too small for the mists to bother with.
The mists are part of the ancient paraphernalia —-
Souls, rolled in the doom-noise of the sea.
They bruise the rocks out of existence, then resurrect them.
They go up without hope, like sighs.
I walk among them, and they stuff my mouth with cotton.
When they free me, I am beaded with tears.

Our Lady of the Shipwrecked is striding toward the horizon,
Her marble skirts blown back in two pink wings.
A marble sailor kneels at her foot distractedly, and at his foot
A peasant woman in black
Is praying to the monument of the sailor praying.
Our Lady of the Shipwrecked is three times life size,
Her lips sweet with divinity.
She does not hear what the sailor or the peasant is saying —-
She is in love with the beautiful formlessness of the sea.

Gull-colored laces flap in the sea drafts
Beside the postcard stalls.
The peasants anchor them with conches. One is told:
“These are the pretty trinkets the sea hides,
Little shells made up into necklaces and toy ladies.
They do not come from the Bay of the Dead down there,
But from another place, tropical and blue,
We have never been to.
These are our crêpes. Eat them before they blow cold.”

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

_____________________________

As I noted above, in the introduction, I had this ready to go…. It is an old rant, sort of, from early this year, but, as might be assumed, it remains relevant today….. else I wouldn’t have used it here…. It’s one of my better rants, too, which is another reason I’ve put it here…. I just don’t feel like I could equal this kind of output today…. Regardless, it’s worth paying attention to, for certain, especially for those who would believe that everything that happens in Washington D.C. is happening for their benefit…..

From January 21, 2013…..

“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” — Justice Louis D. Brandeis, dissenting, Olmstead v. United States, 277 — U.S. 479 (1928)

Finding pearls is sometimes frustrating, but then I find one like this, which is just a perfect representation of what I want to say, and it all seems worthwhile again…. This statement, though written in 1928, could not be more relevant to the present if it were written yesterday. We are observing this principle in action, as the POTUS and Congress thrash around, trying to convince the public they are responding intelligently to the furor over gun control. Of course, there IS no intelligent response possible, but they’ve never let that stop them before, so…..

Gun control will always be a hot-button issue, even after they’ve been taken away. And, you can bet your booties that day is coming, as the BRC and the unseen manipulators who control society will continue to create conditions that produce the mad ones, the ones who ultimately break free of their insanity, to let it loose on the world. This scenario suits the purposes of the ruling class very well, as it allows them to keep the populace stirred up in fear, making them easily led to the place they wish them to go. It is always easier to take away a right, when the people clamor for the government to take it away, out of unreasonable fear…..

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

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

This is often how I feel about my country. I consider myself to be a patriot, in the classic sense; I support the idea of my country, but do not necessarily support the government. I love the idea of America…. a place where men and women are free to work out their own destiny, without the interference of the system they have created to oversee the necessary societal issues, i.e., without being persecuted for their beliefs, whatever they are…. The concept is an ideal, and one that the world has never actually seen before, not in practice. There have been attempts in history, but none so bold as the one made by our forefathers, who managed to create a system with the potential to create a veritable utopia….

But, within moments of the signing of the Constitution, the bankers, the preachers, and the lawyers were all taking their shots at the system, trying to find ways to amend its protections, and weaken the defenses against the very things they are trying to do. Since the Bill of Rights became law, there have been members of the Beloved Ruling Class trying to dismantle them, and reduce the protective qualities they possess. Much of the time they don’t even bother to hide it, but just couch it in terms that distracts the public from examining their claims too closely…

That struggle, to maintain the purity and intent of the original Bill of Rights, continues to this day, and is now undergoing its most fearful threat since the initial days of this country, more dangerous even than the Communist Purge in the 1950’s, during the McCarthy era of our political history. Once again, events have been manipulated to make it appear as if there is great danger, to the public, and most significantly to our children. Emphasizing this danger to our progeny is the most powerful weapon the BRC possesses, and they are making full use of it in the media, you can be certain…. Manifest a threat to children, and the ire of the public is yours to control….. much like Pavlov’s dogs….

I also think that Justice Brandeis was being nice, when he mentions that the BRC may be acting with good intentions, but lack of understanding. I think that the BRC knows EXACTLY what it is doing when it pursues legislation such as the current limits to gun ownership, and I don’t think they care at all that people don’t really NEED their protection or their help to protect themselves from the evil in the world. What the citizens DO NEED is less intrusion by the BRC into their private, or even public, lives.

I don’t care how ethical a government official SAYS they are, I don’t think they are more ethical than me, or the average Joe….. Nor can they be trusted to act in a manner that is beneficial to me, or to any other private citizen; their actions are only concerned with their own private agenda, and anything they say to the contrary is a BIG, FAT LIE! (Sorry, don’t mean to shout at you….)….. This, I think, is an assertion that doesn’t even need me to point out the proof, as it jumps up in everyone’s face on a daily basis…. The BRC LIES TO US, every day, and it isn’t hard to catch them at it, as it happens virtually every time they open their mouths to speak….. What amazes me is that they get away with it so easily….

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

As is obvious, I’m not the only one who is dissatisfied with the BRC, or as some say, the Government. I like to use the BRC, because then I can supply the defined parameters to include ALL of the various types of assholes who are part of that group; lawyers, preachers/priests, bankers, Senators, Congressmen, judges, elected officials, all are charter members of the BRC, and the targets of my ire, as well as the meat for my consumption here on ERC. I guess it would be accurate to say that the BRC consists of all those who seek power over others for their own personal gain, and just let it go at that….

“One of the most difficult of the philosopher’s tasks is to find out where the shoe pinches.” — Ludwig Wittgenstein

There is the pinch-point, ffolkes…. There are essentially two types of humans…. those who seek to have power over other people, and those who seek power over themselves. Anyone who doesn’t fit into those two categories is not living up to their full potential as a human being, and will not in any way have any say in what happens in the world. They are the cannon fodder, the unwashed masses of folks who go through life without ever directing their conscious mind anywhere but right in front of themselves, oblivious to all the evil that occurs around them, as well as unaware of all the beauty that exists.

That is their choice, and I cannot fault them for their lack of courage; it’s a scary world out there…. but, as human beings, I believe we have a duty to our fellow man, and that duty means NOT keeping quiet, NOT letting those who would do evil act with impunity. In my position, all I can do is speak up when I see injustice, or immorality, and issue my objections to what I observe…. It’s all I can do, so I’ll do it all I can… because, as Albert sez…..
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The old saying goes, “the proof is in the pudding”, and though I’ve never known exactly what that means, other than speculatively, it sounds good, and I’m hungry, so, we’ll go proof this, and see if the converse is true at all…. If you followed that logical train, you may have been here too often, but, it’s okay, it’s all tax -free, and tax-deductible, if you’ve got the chutzpah to claim it….. I’ll be right back, hopefully…..

I seem to have completely forgotten an entire range of expressions I once had in my mind to cover situations such as this…. But, since we’re here at the end of today’s effort, rather than the beginning, it shouldn’t be such a problem as it might have been, earlier…. Now that I’ve reestablished connection with blather mode, it’s time to go, before I get started again, which could delay posting another couple of hours… Besides, I’m done here, and having done worse, I’m outta here….. See ya…. 🙂

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

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

Which is Why….

—

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

gigoid

Albert says, “Insanity is relative, too!”….

Posted on November 25, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I never know what to do when I get enough sleep…. It’s such an unusual event, it always takes me by surprise…. That assertion, in and of itself, is NOT a surprise, as I’ve experienced the lack of good sleep for more years than I can count…. At first, it was due to my primary function, as a father, and husband, during those years when I had a wife, and children growing up…. I’m sure any father can empathize with what happens then…. I can’t really explain why, but, I know that I did the same as my own father, in that, I was always the first one up, and almost always the last one to bed….

That was just the way the job works, ffolkes, and I had no strong objections to it, as it was Duty….. As such, it offers no choice as to how it is to be accomplished, (to wit: without fail…. and no excuses….), and that was fine with me….. After my family was grown, I started experiencing the physical conditions that now work to keep me from sleeping easily, or with comfort, for more than a few hours at a time…. I learned to make do on whatever I was able to get, and learned to appreciate the power of napping as a supplement to the sleep I wasn’t getting at night… It’s always worked for me….

Then, occasionally, like last night, I get a night off, so to speak…. I went to bed last night at about 7 PM, having returned from a nice dinner out with milady Patricia, followed immediately by the consumption of my sleep aid (Alice Toklas style…), as is normal activity for a Sunday evening, prior to retiring…. I got really sleepy almost right away, while sitting in front of the computer, (probably from being full from dinner….), so I decided to just go down then, at 7, instead of waiting for the brownie to kick in…. So, I retired, whereupon I fell asleep immediately, proceeding to sleep hard, only turning twice, for about eight hours…. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the clock at 3 AM, as it meant I’d slept like a log for at least eight straight, which happens MAYBE twice a year….

I turned over & got another hour & a half, too, so, I’m up now, just bursting with energy…. at 0500 AM, when there is nothing open, and nothing to do, other than what I’m doing now…. It’s a good thing that I do have this to do now, or I’d be sitting around, twiddling my thumbs, vibrating with all the pent up energy I have available….. It’s probably better for the space-time continuum this way, too, as none of that energy will get used in ways that could affect the balance and stability we are currently enjoying…..

That could change any minute though, so I’d be smart to take what I’ve got here, and run with it…. It’s arguably of the correct length to qualify as an intro section, though some might have arguments to bring, saying it doesn’t DO anything, or SAY anything remotely introductory in nature…. I say to them, “Fuck off, busybody, nobody asked you”…. Well, no, I probably wouldn’t be that rude, though it would certainly pass through my mind as one of my options…. I would however, ignore their criticisms, and use the bloody thing to start off anyway, as I plan to do right now….

There, you see, I’ve done it again…. Another intro with absolutely NO redeeming qualities, nor ANY qualities that could conceivably be construed as appropriate material for either an introduction to anything, or, as an educational event, the only thing that might otherwise qualify it as acceptable for use among the unwashed masses…. That’s unless, of course, one considers all you have learned about me, which was, or is, with no doubt whatsoever, much more than was requested, or expected, or, for that matter, deserved…. But, it’s done, and there’s no going back at this point, so, like all of us here at ECR, you’ll just have to learn to live with it…. such as it is…. whatever it is…. Whew!

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It is our choices … that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” — J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets”, spoken by Albus Dumbledore
_____________________________

Given the accuracy, and potential relevance, of the quotation that ended the intro section, I’d best make a good choice here, or I’ll be seriously in arrears to my karmic responsibility…. What THAT means may be a bit unclear, but, suffice it to say that “I” know what it means, which is, basically, “Get your shit together, and do it right!….. Otherwise, you’re going to be in deeper shit than you can imagine….” I don’t know about y’all, but, I get that sort of thing rather often from the Universe…. Must be the Irish in me…

Since I have to come up to scratch here, with no further fussing about, I’m going to go old-school….. It’s my only hope to achieve some kind of rational balance this morning, since I’ve gone so far off the rails, irrationally speaking….. If I can’t bring this back in line, not even a poem of great power will suffice to balance things out, so, I’m hoping to get some cooperation from Smart Bee, as I depend on it a lot to give me what I need to make these pearls cogent, logical, and filled with beauty…. It’s asking a lot of a dB software program, I know, but, hey, if you can’t trust your shareware, what can you trust?…. With that, let’s see what I can find to turn this away from the Dark side of the Metaphorse, and back into the Light….

“I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter To Francis Hopkinson, Paris Mar. 13, 1789

“Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior.” — Marshall McLuhan

Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head,
And Learning wiser grow without his books.

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book vi, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 85

“Apparently there is nothing that cannot happen today.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910)

“Ask a toad what is beauty?…a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head, a large flat mouth, a yellow belly and a brown back.” — Voltaire (1694-1778)

“When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.” — Things We Can Learn From Dogs

Hah! Bet I fooled ya with the ending, didn’t I? Hell, I almost fooled myself…. 😆 It sure does feel good when a plan comes together….
_____________________________

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

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

Though I’ve seen the name, I had never, before this morning, read any of the work by this poet, Charles Bukowski…. He’s well worth the effort, from all I can see…. I picked one that is a bit long, but, pretty damn powerful…. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did…..

2 Flies

The flies are angry bits of life;
why are they so angry?
it seems they want more,
it seems almost as if they
are angry
that they are flies;
it is not my fault;
I sit in the room
with them
and they taunt me
with their agony;
it is as if they were
loose chunks of soul
left out of somewhere;
I try to read a paper
but they will not let me
be;
one seems to go in half-circles
high along the wall,
throwing a miserable sound
upon my head;
the other one, the smaller one
stays near and teases my hand,
saying nothing,
rising, dropping
crawling near;
what god puts these
lost things upon me?
other men suffer dictates of
empire, tragic love…
I suffer
insects…
I wave at the little one
which only seems to revive
his impulse to challenge:
he circles swifter,
nearer, even making
a fly-sound,
and one above
catching a sense of the new
whirling, he too, in excitement,
speeds his flight,
drops down suddenly
in a cuff of noise
and they join
in circling my hand,
strumming the base
of the lampshade
until some man-thing
in me
will take no more
unholiness
and I strike
with the rolled-up-paper –
missing! –
striking,
striking,
they break in discord,
some message lost between them,
and I get the big one
first, and he kicks on his back
flicking his legs
like an angry whore,
and I come down again
with my paper club
and he is a smear
of fly-ugliness;
the little one circles high
now, quiet and swift,
almost invisible;
he does not come near
my hand again;
he is tamed and
inaccessible; I leave
him be, he leaves me
be;
the paper, of course,
is ruined;
something has happened,
something has soiled my
day,
sometimes it does not
take man
or a woman,
only something alive;
I sit and watch
the small one;
we are woven together
in the air
and the living;
it is late
for both of us.

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

_____________________________

Even though it’s a bit early yet, I’m not in the mood to rant today…. and, as we all know…. (well, I know, so that’s all I need….), any good rant requires some angst; in other words, some kind of strong emotional power source, to drive one’s creativity all the way over into the ranting state…. I got so much sleep, and I’m so mellow this morning, that isn’t going to happen…. Hence, I’ve used that as an excuse to dip into the archives again, this time for a short, but powerful, religirant…. It was first posted in 2012, some time prior to the national election in November….. It’s not the longest I ever did, but, it’s pretty cute, and dead-on accurate, in describing my views, if naught else….. Enjoy!…..

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

“I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.” — Sir Winston Churchill

“….for DEATH awaits you all, with nasty sharp pointy teeth!” — Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Death. The great equalizer. Nobody gets away from it. As a matter of fact, it has been proven, beyond a shadow of doubt, that everyone who breathes air, dies. So, air must not be good for us, right? That’s logic…. Of course it’s logical. It is also, however, not true, and serves as an example of the fact that logic doesn’t always lead to the correct answer to any particular question…. sometimes you gotta just go by what is real….

I like the first quote, by Winnie C., the PM…. When my turn to find out what happens after we die comes around, should the Christian viewpoint turn out to have been true, I would prefer to meet my maker with this same attitude. To my way of thinking, if it (Christianity) IS true, then God has a lot to answer for…… Seriously…. I’m sorry, but I just can’t believe in any deity who would allow his creation to show such perversions as this species has shown. Whenever I bring this point up to a priest, or theologian of any sort, all I get is “God works in mysterious ways….”

Yeah? Is that right? You say there is some hidden purpose to those actions we don’t understand? Well, fuck God then, because he’s acting like an asshole. I don’t care a whit if there is some hidden purpose; there is NO ACCEPTABLE REASON to suppose that a merciful God would condone child molesters, or rapists, or torture, (even during war). I don’t believe it; it is neither logical, nor rational…. Most importantly, it isn’t reasonable….

Claiming that God is beyond our understanding, and therefore we cannot understand his reasons for allowing such actions, is pure bullshit. If he is that far above us, why are his morals so perverted? I don’t care what you say, I won’t accept the rape of a child as being justifiable from ANY standpoint. None. And if God does have some justification, well, I ain’t buying it. No matter what it is, it isn’t right…. And going along with it, believing the lie, is just another cowardly way of avoiding responsibility….

Men are responsible for these actions, not God. Men kill, and rape, and pillage, and manipulate and coerce their fellows into performing acts of heinous nature. Numerous times in our bloody past, this killing has taken place in the name of God, as the fanatical zealots so common to Christianity, throughout its vicious history, carried their own particular brand of oppression to new lands, forcing the natives to swallow their version of reality, regardless of how they felt about it.

This blind, unreasoning zealotry continues today, with the current Republican candidate all set to bring the US right back into the Stone Age, should he. through some cruel quirk of fate, be elected as POTUS. If that happens, I’m pretty sure Armageddon will be close behind, as I don’t think the rest of the world is going to sit still long enough for him to cram his own faith down their throats. Hell, right here at home, should he be elected, I’d be surprised if there isn’t a revolutionary upheaval within a few months of the election. I know I would certainly be considering assassination as a viable political tool…. It is now legal for us to use torture as a resource, why should we balk at assassination?

Ah me…. I guess I got too much sleep. It seems to have awakened my old hippie instincts; I haven’t talked revolution in oh, six or eight months now…. I suppose I’ll just have to wait until November, to see which way to jump…. Let’s hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. That’s always the best policy…. for survival, anyway…. and that may become our primary goal, if things keep on keepin’ on….

“It is hard to free fools from the chains they revere.” — Voltaire
_____________________________

Aha! I see, by the last paragraph in section three, just why this religirant appealed to me…. It happened to get written, and posted, the LAST time I got so much sleep!…. No wonder, then, I suppose…. Like will always call to like, eh?….. Well, it does in my world, where Imagination rules, giving the lie to Reality, which, if one stops to think about it, is subject to change without the slightest notice…. That kind of makes imagination and reality pretty similar, don’t you think?…. Well, maybe, or maybe not; one set is capitalized, the other isn’t, so one has to be right, right?…. It’s good enough for our purposes here and now, I’d say, as it fits right in with today’s theme…. whatever that may be…. Maybe when I go back over this to proof, I’ll figure out just what that is…..

Well, there’s a lot of it, that’s for sure…. I think, if I must make a statement, I’d have to say, today’s theme would be best described as “The Quest for Enough”, with appropriate subtext, best acknowledged by merely stating, “Enough is enough, and more than….”. I hope that isn’t TOO obscure, but, if so, well, sorry, it’s the best I can do today…. I seem to be a little fuzzy these days, no matter how much sleep I get, but, hey, I’m entitled…. Can’t be sharp as a tack EVERY day….. Well, maybe I can…. but, that’s no reason to make things easy on ANY of us, is it?….. 😆 See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Fatuous remarks can create structural instability….

Posted on November 21, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Dark days are coming, ffolkes, there’s no denying it. Hard as I tried to work WITH the humongous bureaucracy that constitutes my HMO, the intransigence so natural to such a beast has dictated, once again, that we must do battle…. This time, I may even need a lawyer to help me, to find and use the part of the law that will MAKE them pay attention to my humanity, instead of ignoring it in favor of their own corporate greed, and their own corporate cowardice…. But, it’s okay, cuz I’m ready to take them on this time…. This time we’re going down to the wire, where I will find a way to force them into compliance with what is best for ME, not for them…. If it kills me, well, then, so be it, I’ll be a martyr for the cause of freedom in our bodies, as opposed to having our medical needs abrogated and altered according to the whims of bureaucratic avarice, and corporate selfishness….

That all sounds pretty highfalutin’, doesn’t it? I thought so, mainly because that’s how I tried to write it…. Now that I see it on the screen, I see that it says a lot, with a lot of force, without really giving any clue as to what the hell I’m talking about…. and that’s okay, too. I’m not really going into it now, as it concerns matters best kept, to some degree, private… In addition, it’s not the right time, or place, for this rant; a better choice for that process is to wait until it is done, and I know the outcome of the battle, or at least the projected, most likely outcome…. At that point, I’ll have a better idea of exactly what to rant about, and for how long I should rant, given the level of built-up angst that is sure to accompany such an event…..

Suffice it to say, now, that this battle will be a major one, with consequences that are potentially far-reaching, that could conceivably have a ripple effect on other aspects of modern culture, and how healthcare organizations are allowed to operate…. I’m hoping, anyway…. If not, if I am crushed under the heel of the uncaring corporate machine, then nothing will change, and the HMO’s of our world will be able to continue to operate as they wish, without any consideration for anything other than their own profit line… Of course, that’s the way it is now, so, you might not notice any difference, except for the fact of my non-existence….

As is normal for me, I am, of course, blowing this up, somewhat out of proportion; it’s a natural tendency to do that when one is trying to pump up one’s own confidence, trying to build up the necessary courage to take on one of the behemoths of our society. I’ve been tilting at society’s windmills for a long time now, off and on ever since my college years, so I have at least a modicum of experience in these matters….. Corporations are not like other kinds of living creatures, even though the law gives them the same rights…. Actually, corporations have MORE rights than the average Joe, since THEY have been given the right to make a profit, which is NOT one of the rights of any other live, flesh and blood citizen….

In addition, it’s a hard thing to fight a corporation, because they’re so amorphous….. Their shape shifts each time one looks at them, to serve whatever purpose they currently pursue…. This makes them appear shapeless, always changing in aspect; the net result of this is, they don’t offer a lot of target area at which to aim and fire…. Also, since they are not really alive, killing, crushing, or otherwise destroying, or, simply excising one part of it barely draws its attention, as it has a million of those parts, easily sacrificed, that it can give up without suffering any real, lasting damage…. The trick is to get their hold on a certain law to loosen, so that society can wrest back some of the control that is seized by such entities when laws are written in their favor….

Ah well, I’m starting to rant, if I haven’t already done so, and I hadn’t intended to do that today…. I’ve got other stuff to rant about, and now I’ll have to review that, to see if it will hold to another day…. Damn! Sometimes, I wish I could learn to shut myself up…. but, that just causes other difficulties, when the angst and dross sits in my mind and festers…. NOBODY likes what happens then, so, I try to get this stuff out of my head, and on screen, as soon as I can…. For now, though, I think I’ll bring this once again meandering stroll through my early morning brain to a screeching halt, and call it an intro for today…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“It is not so much what you believe in that matters, as the way in which you believe it and proceed to translate that belief into action.” — Lin Yutang
_____________________________

So, there I was, cruising through the news site I frequent most often, when I saw the first article listed below, regarding a new public surveillance center being constructed in Oakland…. Apparently, the police forces in that city, who have been losing the battle with criminals in that city for many years, due to the complete and utter ignorance of the leaders of the city, and, a factor completely unknown to the police, their own misplaced, intransigent sense of entitlement, have decided they need to be able to spy on the public much more effectively….

They haven’t a clue as to how to deal with any of the issues that cause the level of discontent in the city, as they are clueless as to their own part in creating those issues, so they figure they’ll just tighten down the screws even tighter…. never realizing that their own actions are the biggest part of the problem….

(Gee, does that sound suspiciously like the foreign policy attitudes displayed by the US federal government?… Why, yes, yes it does…. Why is it so hard for these idiots to understand, when you treat others like dirt, they aren’t going to like you?…..)

So, anyway, the police asked for a center where they could coordinate all the technological data they have been collecting, from publicly placed cameras, license plate readers, gun-shot detectors, radio dispatch calls, car cameras, and whatever else they can figure out to beg, borrow, or steal from the NSA… Apparently, encouraged by the success of the NSA programs at invading the privacy of normal citizens, the embattled officers have asked the city supervisors permission to build this center, so they can increase their data intake, and collaborate to join forces with other police agencies around the bay area, as well as make best use of all the surveillance they are now allowed to use….

It is a chilling story, all in all, not only in its bare tale of truth, but because of the reactions by the city supervisors, who have completely ignored all the public outcry against the new center, completely removing its construction from the public venue, and accepting no public input as to whether it should or should not be instituted as policy for the future… They just DID it, with no public input at all…. THAT, to me, is the most frightening part, and one that should immediately provoke a number of lawsuits against the city, the police, and whomever else will take the suit for consideration…. In addition, if they won’t change anything, then start actions against the courts and legislature themselves…. But, that’s just me, and the way I would deal with such effrontery…. I’m not one to tolerate a fool for long….

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Oakland-moves-forward-with-surveillance-center-4995249.php

The revelations from Eric Snowden regarding the extent of the spying being done by the NSA are reaching well beyond our borders now…. A number of countries around the world have registered strong protests regarding the privacy invasions by our government, with a number of European countries demanding changes from President Obama in the wake of the news that they had been targets of the spying…. Australia, which has used the same data produced by our agency, and applied the spying techniques and data found by our agencies for their own clandestine spying, have so insulted their neighboring countries that one of them has severed all diplomatic relations with them, at least temporarily, in response to the reported breaches of privacy….

Below you’ll find a number of articles describing the extent of the hullabaloo around the world, which will give you an idea of how the rest of the world’s outrage matches our own here in ‘Amurrica’…..

http://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2013/11/20/nsa-australia-spying-on-indonesian-president/

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/19/world/asia/indonesia-australia-spy-row/index.html

No apologies, no tolerance, no way they’re going to change what they’re doing…. Sound like someone else? Someone, say, from THIS country?….

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/05/world/europe/germany-uk-spy-report/

Oops, caught again…. and still no apology, and no indication of any intent to either stop, or alter what they’re doing…

So, how do our police forces respond to all this talk of spying on the public, and to the huge public outcry AGAINST such spying? Well, apparently, they ask for more ways to invade our privacy….

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/S-F-police-seek-cameras-to-capture-whole-picture-4997404.php

Sick, just plain sick…. To protect their OWN asses, they are going to film ALL public interactions…. Can you say ‘paranoia’? Sure you can…

Oh, and what does our government DO with the data they get from their spying? Here is an example…..

http://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/US-drone-kills-5-outside-of-Pakistan-tribal-region-4997699.php

It’s the day before the anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination…. do you know what YOUR government is up to?….
_____________________________

Mining old Pearls is bringing me in touch with a lot of my own old poetry…. Here is another of which I’m fairly proud….

Intelligent Crimes

The value of wit is often said to cause harm,
for those who think, such is its greatest charm.
The new and the bold cannot be fulfilled
if innovation and change is left unwilled.

Society behaves at its base as a mob
conformity and submission its primary job.
Any sign of rebellion against the mob’s rule
is met with resentment, naming such rebel the fool.

Intellect and talent are mostly viewed askance,
expressing artistry stands nary a chance.
To stand out from the rest of mankind
is fraught with danger, for body and mind.

Often I stand to watch in solemn dismay
as beauty and joy are left by the way,
ignored and reviled by the unwashed masses
who prefer darkness, and acting like asses.

With shouts of derision the normals make known
their fear of intelligence, greater than their own.
They hope to stop all semblance of progress;
for thoughts and ideas, they couldn’t care less.

The world struggles on in spite of all opposition,
managing to maintain its advanced position.
Pulling the foolish along in spite of reluctance,
helping each to learn the survival dance.

Hard though it may be to keep up with the future
genius manages its plans to develop and nurture.
In the final analysis, those who live by reason
enjoy life the most, season to season.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

I’ve done my ranting for the day, so now I get to let Smart Bee help me pick out a group of pearls, that will make a statement of some sort, in the old-school style we’ve all come to know and love…. I have a feeling I know what kind of statement it will make today…. but, I’ve been wrong before… in this century, too! Any who, let’s see what happens when I give SB the reins…..

“Annual drug deaths: tobacco: 395,000, alcohol: 125,000, ‘legal’ drugs: 38,000, illegal drug overdoses: 5,200, marijuana: 0. Considering government subsidies of tobacco, just what is our government protecting us from in the drug war?” — William A. Turnbow

“Political truth is libel; religious truth, blasphemy.” — William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

(The battle, begun long ago, goes on today, does it not?…..)

“It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?” — Henry David Thoreau

“A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.” — Mark Twain

“Soap, Ballot, Jury & Cartridge.” — The Four Boxes of Freedom

“The higher we soar, the smaller we seem to those who cannot fly” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“Let’s all face the facts. This world, in which many, if not most of us live, will never be a better place, until such time as it is occupied by a better class of tenants.” — Smart Bee

This last quote stimulated a thought, which I want to share…. I rant here, a lot, about politics, and religion, and how the people who engage in those particular pastimes are, essentially, sick puppies, and mostly just need to be put out of their misery, before they cause any further harm…. What occurred to me on reading the quote above is this: the real culprit responsible for our problems on this planet is not those who engage in those activities, precisely, though they are the outward manifestation of the problem…. The fatal characteristic that is guiding our downfall is a particular flaw in human nature, one that allows us to pursue those activities, but doesn’t give us, or make us use, the most important quality that makes them viable…

This flaw, which is a lack, (of restraint, a lack of ethics, or morals….) more than an actual flaw, is one that each of us, good and bad, possess, and display, at various times; I identify it as that part of us that can determine that we, as individuals, have the right to work our will on others, to seek and use power and resources to make other people follow what we wish to believe, to manipulate others so as to make what we want to happen the only outcome, to the exclusion of whatever others want, or need, or even think…. This power-hunger is all too prevalent in those who take up politics, as well as those who “are called by God” to enter the church (sorry, but being “called” by supernatural entities is deserving of medication and at best, compassion, not worship, or indulgence…) In the quote below, a wise man gives a short explanation of this flaw, and how it can affect all of us….

“Political tags — such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth — are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.” — Lazarus Long, aka Robert Heinlein

Until our species can manage to root out this particular part of our nature, or at minimum, achieve enough control of it so that those who display it cannot affect the rest of us, we, as a species, will never be able to really get any further down the evolutionary road, since the path we are currently following, thanks to this flaw in our nature, which allows the predators to prey on the the rest of us, will only lead us into extinction… and THAT will be sooner than most ffolkes, or folks, believe it will be….

“A certain monk had a habit of pestering the Grand Tortue (the only one who had ever reached the Enlightenment ‘Yond Enlightenment), by asking whether various objects had Buddha-nature or not. To such a question Tortue invariably sat silent. The monk had already asked about a bean, a lake, and a moonlit night. One day he brought to Tortue a piece of string, and asked the same question. In reply, the Grand Tortue grasped the loop between his feet and, with a few simple manipulations, created a complex string which he proffered wordlessly to the monk. At that moment, the monk was enlightened.

From then on, the monk did not bother Tortue. Instead, he made string after string by Tortue’s method; and he passed the method on to his own disciples, who passed it on to theirs.” — Smart Bee

Sadly, neither Tortue, nor his disciple, ever made a copy of the string, and no one now is alive who remembers what it looked like…. SIGH… If nothing else, it might have kept the predatory among us all so busy, (See, that part’s easy… we’d just tell them there was a treasure for them, if they could make the string correctly assume the shape of enlightenment….), they wouldn’t have time to fuck with anyone else….
_____________________________

Well, that was certainly a Pearl, if the way I’m huffing and puffing, and trying to blow down walls is any indication… Of course, the wall is fine, but I’m definitely huffed and puffed out, so I’d best go see just what I’ve done here….. Have some toast and butter, and I’ll be right back….

Once again I’ve created something that is a little bigger than intended, and, in this case, almost up to snuff, conceptually….. It’s certainly fresh, and real, so, if nothing else, it’s probably healthy for you…. or for me, whichever comes first… Let me guess, ah, that would be……. me, of course…. but, I think, if you consume all of this one, it might just healthy for you, too…. Regardless, it’s done, so it’s good to go…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, if my luck holds….

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

Soluble items should be sterilized first….

Posted on November 16, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I’m still in a bit of shock, but, it’s understandable…. It’s not every day the President Of The United States addresses one directly in an email…. Actually, logic, and my ever-alert crap detector, says that even if I DID receive an email that purported to have been written by the POTUS himself, with a real White House logo at the top of the page, addressing me by my first name and all, the real odds are, it probably wasn’t him at all, but one of his staff flunkies, trying to convince me that he actually knows who I am, and gives the tiniest shit about what I might think…. Perhaps that’s why I’m a bit skeptical of the offer to join in on a conference phone call with the POTUS, because, hey, he REALLY WANTS TO KNOW what I think about stuff….

Yep, I got that email yesterday, directly from the White House, and signed (digitally, of course….) by Barack himself…. First, the damn thing addressed me by my first name, as if Barry actually was writing, had been introduced, and was granted the use of my given name, rather than treating me with the respect of using my surname…. Pretty insulting, if you stop to think about it, not to mention presumptuous….

They (or he, as they wanted me to believe….) wanted me to respond by clicking on a link that would include me in whatever propaganda event they have planned for whenever it was…..some kind of group hug over the phone or something…. Sure, I’m going to give them my name again…. they already inundate me with daily emails to try to get me to donate money (begging letters, I call them….), or to involve me in some propaganda spin, or to get me to call Congress (where one may talk to as many answering machines as one wishes….. I know, I’ve tried….)….

To be honest, I only let them continue because I believe in the old adage about knowing one’s enemies, and keeping them close, in order to know what they’re up to….. Originally, back in 2008, when I first emailed the White House, I did it because they advertised that they had set up the email to give them an idea of what the public wanted…. I found out quickly that all they really wanted was a way to gather emails from people who might be supporters, so they could ask them for money and time, to carry out their so-called “grass roots” efforts to “improve the lot of the middle class…..” Since I wrote them ONE TIME, FIVE YEARS AGO, I have been assaulted by ten different organizations who somehow got my name (I wonder where?….), all of whom want me to sign petitions, or start petitions, or join a cause, or mostly, just send some money for them to throw into their black hole….

Move On.org, Greenpeace, the White House, and a host of others now send me emails EVERY DAMN DAY, practically dunning me for contributions, letting me know that, if I don’t personally take the time to support them, the big bad Republicans, or the Tea Party, or some corporate raider, is going to once again make me and the whole rest of the country suffer, just because they are able to raise more money than we are….

Hell, even Al Franken, the former comedian who got himself elected as Senator in Minnesota, sends me begging letters every day, just because they got my email address from Move On (I think….)….. I just delete all of them without reading them all the way through, so I know at least what they’re moaning about now…. If I bothered to click on the “unsubscribe” link in the emails, well, that would just be one more piece of data for them to use, so they could mark me as a known enemy-type to them…. Better to just ignore and delete….

I really hadn’t meant to rant in the intro again, but, as I sat down to write today, it struck me how insulted I was by that email…. For them to think that A) they could manipulate me like that, B) they could get me to join in by making it a personal request by the POTUS, and C) to use my first name, as if I’m some sort of child, or servant…. Well, all three of them are erroneous assumptions, insulting in their familiarity, and in their assumption of my gullibility, as well as being downright asinine in their assumption of my technical ignorance….

In addition it is just plain stupid to think that I would actually believe for even ONE SECOND that the President of the United States would actually address a citizen in such a way, and actually care for even a moment what that citizen thinks…. As if that would alter their own agenda!…. What a crock of bullshit!…. I am tempted, a little, to send back a reply of some sort, just to see if they are paying attention at all to what they receive, other than as a means of mining addresses…. But, I know for a fact that they would just ignore it, as it doesn’t fit into any of the parameters they’ve set up to gather that data….

I guess I’ll just let this one go for the time being, and see if they try to follow up, as they’ve done before, with another invitation to join the call…. Sometimes, they’ll send two or three invitations like this, just to see if I’ll respond…. I don’t generally do anything but delete them, but, it might be time to see if I can trick THEM into some kind of dialogue, until I can pull them in far enough into my game, and deliver to them some of the same kind of CRAP they send me every day….. It’s worth a try, I think, and may keep me amused for a short while…. It also probably won’t affect these Pearls, as nothing else seems to keep me from getting them out, other than my own physical failings….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“.. Should I get locked in the PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE today — or have a VASECTOMY??” — Zippy the Pinhead

Hmm…. Tough choice, there, Zippy…. Having been there, done that, for both, we’ll go on to bigger things…..
_____________________________

I like to think I’ve got a handle on Life, but, as soon as I think that, Life snatches itself out of my grip, so my handle probably isn’t as secure as I’d like to think…. That’s okay, it’s always been a chancy world, with nothing ever guaranteed, but for change….. I like it that way, truth be told.

With that in mind, I’m going to gather together a group of pearls for this old-school version of a daily POVW, as they were created back when I sent them via email to about 200 otherwise bored state employees, who came to view them as their bright spot in the day, whether they opened them when they arrived, or saved them for a quiet moment, as some did….

Since this one was picked out without any particular parameters or paradigms to guide the choices, I can’t predict how it will turn out…. but, that’s Life, right?….

“Virtue consists in avoiding vice, and is the highest wisdom.” — Horace (B.C. 65-8)

“Ten thousand years – a single thought. A single thought – ten thousand years.” — Zen saying

“The first gift of maturity is the ability to look a child straight in the eye.” — John Francis Putnam (1964)

“A God alone can comprehend a God.” — Young

“I’d rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I haven’t.” — Lucille Ball

“Men often believe — or pretend — that the “Law” is something sacred, or at least a science — an unfounded assumption very convenient to governments.” — Lazarus Long

“Life is too short to be taken seriously.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Damn near perfect, I’d say….
_____________________________

Today’s poem is one I’ve used before, though not for some time…. I use it, because I like it, and that’s all there is to it…. I hope you like it, too…..

Pu suan tzu

A fragment moon hangs from the bare tung tree
The water clock runs out, all is still
Who sees the dim figure come and go alone
Misty, indistinct, the shadow of a lone wild goose?

Startled, she gets up, looks back
With longing no one sees
And will not settle on any of the cold branches
Along the chill and lonely beach

~~ Su Tung-po ~~

_____________________________

As I noted yesterday, the new WP function that refers us to older posts has been a real godsend for me…. Here is a wonderful little rant from early this year, that seems quite appropriate today…..

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

From the 2/26/13 POVW, “Don’t bust Your gaiters, boys, it’ll get bigger….”

“We are going to have to find ways of organizing ourselves cooperatively,sanely, scientifically, harmonically and in regenerative spontaneity with the rest of humanity around the earth…. We are not going to be able to operate our spaceship earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common.” — Buckminster Fuller

Bucky said this some time around 1968 or 69; Google would know exactly…. but I remember it well, as part of the argument that first convinced me of the imminence of the danger from overpopulation, pollution, climate change, and all of the other foolish, self-destructive behaviors in which our species has engaged for millennia. The cumulative effects of all of these issues is approaching a flash point, a point that, quite possibly, may already have been reached, and passed, without anyone noticing….

Perhaps the worst example of the entire problem is the movie “An Unpleasant Truth” with former VP Al Gore narrating a summary of these issues, with all the then-currently-available-evidence, all of which, taken together, was rather impressive, as well as fairly well unarguably accurate. In other words, it told the exact truth, and clearly….

I call this the worst example because this perfectly told truth of the matter was ridiculed, reviled, and dismissed, by the governments, and the public, one by ignoring it, and the other by refusing to listen, reacting instead to an unfortunate delivery style. Yet, every word Al spoke in this movie is true, and is being proved today, with the already extreme climate changes we are witnessing on a world-wide scale….

“What are the facts? Again and again and again — what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” — what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!” — Lazarus Long

But, the stupids keep on decrying any changes have happened, and blithely ignore the warmer, dryer winters, the cooler, wetter summers, the shrinking polar ice (at BOTH poles!…), the instability in the biosphere, the tons of carbon monoxide and particulates being added into the atmosphere every second, along with all of the other evidence that PROVES them wrong. It isn’t a matter of there not being any real evidence, it is a matter of the evidence being ignored, or challenged, that is proving to be the hardest obstacle to be overcome, if we are to survive beyond the next 100 years….

Yep, that’s MY estimate, based on all the different time-scale estimates I’ve read about, the evidence I’ve examined, and my take on how society is dealing with all of it…. I don’t see the changes needed happening, not yet, nor is there much indication that a way to stop the assholes in power from their insane intransigence, or their selfish hoarding of resources for their private use, is even close to being discovered, or implemented.

The atmosphere is almost full, and the balance of the gases and elements that make up the air we breathe is, WITHOUT FAIL, going to begin to change, eventually changing into air that will not support our life form, meaning, we won’t be able to breathe it; we will suffocate…. This process, well understood by science, has already begun, and will happen faster with each passing day, once it reaches a certain critical point…. That point, if not already reached, is not far off….

“Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin, the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” — Lazarus Long

Now, I know there is some small hope, and that everyone who reads this will give me positive reasons for that hope…. and I agree with all of them. I don’t want to die, and I don’t want my children, or their children, to have to face the same issues in order to save themselves. I’d much rather just shoot the motherfuckers who are causing all of it right now, and be done with it….

Sadly, that won’t work, (they’ve already proven that, by using that method over the last three or four millennia…), so we’ll have to figure out something else to do…. I am not enough of a genius to be able to figure out exactly what that might be, though I have some ideas that would help, I’m sure…. But, I’m not in a position now to have those ideas instituted, so they are moot, unless I somehow find myself in such a position….

Hope is, therefore, just about ALL I have left….
_____________________________

I must be restless again…. I booked another cruise yesterday, just a short 4 day affair to Ensenada and back, out of L.A., and now am trying desperately to find stuff to distract me from getting all worked up about it, packing two weeks early, and generally driving Pat crazy with my enthusiasm to get out of Dodge…. Now, I’m trying to post this before actually getting it done…. Settle down, there, big fella, there’s still a good 13 days before you get to go, so, you’d best get a grip…. Let’s see how today’s Pearl came out, shall we?….

Not too bad, considering…. It’s good enough to let if fly without any more help, or editing that I can see… I guess that means I have to go now….. Ta then, until tomorrow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Bettie Paige merchandise is on aisle three…..

Posted on November 5, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Serendipity is characterized by its unpredictability; it wouldn’t be what it is if we knew when it was going to manifest in our lives. This may be why it is always such a rush, such a joyous feeling when it drops a gift from the universe in our path. This joy makes it particularly hard to accept that even in such cases as we have serendipitous occurrences happening in our lives, we still need to keep sharp eye out for Mr. Murphy and his myrmidons of chaos, just in case he wants to stick his filthy hands into our business, which, you may rest assured, he does….

I have an opportunity, if I can take it, to go to my home town to visit with several of my classmates, one in particular who will be there on visit from Arizona/Alaska, the places she splits the year between, sensibly avoiding the Alaska winter, and the Arizona summer. Since the recent passing of our mutual friend, Carole, of whom I speak every day in the closing, I’ve felt the urge to go down to the town where we grew up, to visit her grave, and see my other friends still living in the area…. Now, name withheld for privacy, another of our classmates, is going there for a few days this week to do the same, so I’m trying to figure out how I can get there to join in….

Murphy’s presence is noted because, within an hour of receiving the email informing me of all this, I began coming down with a cold, of the kind that kicks your ass right into bed ( possibly, that’s just MY reaction, due to my age…. but, let’s not go there, ‘kay?….)…. The cough I had thought was smoke-quitting related was joined by increased fluid in the head, headache, the general malaise that goes with a cold, and, the kicker, sneezing and watery eyes. I’ve started downing freshly chopped garlic, every four hours, and am living, essentially, on Nyquil and Dayquil clones, in order to keep from just sinking into the morass of illness that threatens to consume me in these cases….

This is going to make it hard to get to the place where we grew up, as it’s about 250 miles south of here…. No matter how I go, there are disadvantages involved that will make it hard for me, in my condition, with the pain, and the cold symptoms, to get there, by any method I choose…. I can ride the bus… It’s fairly inexpensive, and pretty quick, considering, but, uncomfortable as hell for all of the five to six hours it would take… I hesitate to ride the train, for a lot of reasons, one of which being I’m still pretty pissed at them over my trip to Oregon earlier this year. Planes are too expensive to get there, as it is a small place, with no big airports within a hundred miles; the small planes that go there are a lot more money than the regular routes charge.

That leaves renting a car for about four days, then driving down there, being active, then driving back, all without enough time to recover from the exertions I’ll be making, which are far and beyond what is normal for me…. I’m pretty drastically out of shape, physically, and being tired just kicks my butt these days…. If I don’t rest, it can take me several days to get over it when I’m done; I did practically NOTHING for two weeks after getting back from Europe, and this latest cruise, only a seven day affair, was enough, apparently, to lower my resistance to the cold virus….. Bummer, dude….

Ah well, such is life….. At least I’ve got something to think about other than my usual fare…. I don’t know yet how it will play out, but, now that I’ve got my secondary computer, the one I use when on the road, it shouldn’t affect these Pearls, unless I so choose…. I’m sure that my Gentle Readers will appreciate that, though that is probably wishful thinking… I’m not at all sure that I have more than about eight or ten regular readers anymore, if the statistics on my blog are any indication….

I never have known exactly how many readers out of the email group actually reads them, as very few ever send back a comment, so that’s no big; it’s been the same for ten years or more…. But, according to the number of likes, and visits to the site that register in the stats, not very many ffolkes have been stopping by…. which, by the way, is still confusing, as my number of followers continues to grow steadily…. Go figure….

Okay, I think I’ve mined this particular cave for all the ore it contains, so, we can get on with the real business of pearling that we’re here for….. I’ll figure out whether I’m going or not later…. For now, it’s time for a dive, before it’s too late…..

Shall we Pearl?….. Let’s start with a two-fer…..

“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be well-mannered.” — Francois Marie Voltaire
_____________________________

It may be a bit smug on my part, but, ever since the revelations about the spying being done by the US government hit the news, I’ve felt a sense of justification, a result of having all of my suspicions verified by unshakable proof, furnished by the very hands that committed the crimes…. In other words, and, of course, metaphorically speaking, they found fingerprints, and there is no longer any doubt that the lies that are being told have been put to the test, and failed. It’s a fact, and it cannot be denied, ffolkes… the government is lying to us, regularly, and frequently. If you have any further questions, see the news of the day….

In fact, let me assist you…. Here are three articles from yesterday’s news, all from SFGATE…. I am using them because they show up BOTH the culprits in this whole mess, to wit: the BRC themselves, who create the lies for their own purposes, and the news and print media which, albeit unwittingly and unwillingly, nevertheless aid the pundits in spreading their lies to the greatest number of people. I won’t even bother to go through at this point to delineate each and every little untruth, partial truth, made-up crap, or altered data that is used to convey the lie to the public; by now, most of y’all should be able to figure those out for yourselves…. I have excerpted one comment, by Eric Snowden, which sums up perfectly my own feelings on this subject; that summation is in bold italic font, to separate it from the rest of the excerpt….

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/White-House-lawmakers-no-clemency-for-Snowden-4952388.php

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Feinstein-disputes-Snowden-s-claim-for-clemency-4952073.php

“Federal prosecutors have charged Snowden with theft and with two violations of the Espionage Act of 1917. But Snowden, who has taken refuge in Russia, has denied any treasonous intent, saying he disclosed secrets to the news media, not to hostile foreign powers, and did so to push for reform. “Instead of causing damage, the usefulness of the new public knowledge for society is now clear because reforms to politics, supervision and laws are being suggested,” he wrote in Der Spiegel. “Citizens have to fight against the suppression of information about affairs of essential importance for the public. Those who speak the truth are not committing a crime.” ”

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Snowden-seeks-the-world-s-help-against-US-charges-4946049.php

It is a sad day for me, and for this country, when one of its citizens, in the pursuit of freedom guaranteed to him by the Constitution, commits an act of pure patriotism, tells the truth, for the good of everyone, yet, in order to even stay alive, much less free, he must run to another country to hide, and make an appeal to the rest of the world for protection. I do not blame him for doing so; the first articles above make it abundantly clear exactly WHY he has to do it this way; if he didn’t, we would never have known all this…..

If he had attempted to go through “channels” to report any of this, he would have disappeared from view, forever, along with all of his information, and we might never have known exactly what our own leaders were doing to us… Count on that, ffolkes, no matter how many times they would deny it…. With an attitude like the one displayed, no other outcome would have been possible… Remember, no matter how many times it is repeated, a lie does NOT become the truth…

The two most powerful figures in Congress, and the President, along with all their police myrmidons and agents, are dead-set against ANY leniency in this, a sure sign to me that they KNOW they are in the wrong. Strong denial is ALWAYS the first reaction by a politician when accused of wrongdoing, and they will deny, deny, deny, even up to, and past, the point of having the proof shoved in their face, to keep from ever having to admit their own immorality, or that they MIGHT have made a mistake… No, that possibility cannot be allowed in their narrow world-view; they are well aware that if one lie is exposed, it will lead to the exposure of more lies, and they don’t want to let the public have any clue as to how many different ways they are screwing them….

Part of the irony in all of this is that many of these pundits and politicians often BELIEVE their own BS; they really do believe they know best what the public should know, or have, or be allowed to do…. They often, always erroneously, but sincerely, believe they are the best judges of what people should have the rights to do, believing they are making decisions for them “for their own good”….. which, as you, and just about any person with an IQ over 75 knows, is a complete crock of shit…. And not just ANY shit…. sticky, smelly, unhealthy shit at that…. What else could it be, coming from the very source of our worst qualities as human beings….. ambition, pride, and egotistic avarice for power?….

Ah me, it’s all so discouraging most of the time…. I’m a smart guy, and I can see all the shit that is going on right in front of me… Unfortunately, I’m also smart enough to understand human nature, to at least some degree, and realize that it isn’t going to change, not overnight, and, perhaps not at all…. If we, in the expression of our nature, don’t make SOME kind of changes, in how we treat the planet, and each other, well, the consequences won’t be pleasant for anyone, and that is just about as discretely understated as I can make it in English…

More simply, we’re on our way to a living hell, ffolkes, if we don’t change the way the world is going today…. It is a foregone conclusion that if we keep on the way we are, things WON’T change, not for the better; at best they’ll stay the same for a while, but, entropy guarantees that, unmodified, reality will start to fall apart, and will continue until chaos is achieved….. That is the nature of the Universe, and there is not anything in our power, or our imagination, that can change that simple fact…. Me, I’m going to do what I can, when I can, to point out what I see, and what I think may be happening, and hope that somebody in a position to actually do something will take note, and perhaps, begin the process that will save our sorry asses….

I doubt that is very likely, though, so I may as well go have a beer…. Make that an Irish Coffee, please, it’s a bit early for beer….

“And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good,
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?”

— R. Pirsig
_____________________________

In keeping with today’s ranting theme, but, with a bit of contrasting humor to mitigate the sobriety, here is a poem I’ve used before, by one of the twentieth century’s finest poets…..

À Bas Ben Adhem

My fellow man I do not care for.
I often ask me, What’s he there for?
The only answer I can find
Is, Reproduction of his kind.
If I’m supposed to swallow that,
Winnetka is my habitat.
Isn’t it time to carve Hic Jacet
Above that Reproduction racket?

To make the matter more succint:
Suppose my fellow man extinct.
Why, who would not approve the plan
Save possibly my fellow man?
Yet with a politician’s voice
He names himself as Nature’s choice.

The finest of the human race
Are bad in figure, worse in face.
Yet just because they have two legs
And come from storks instead of eggs
They count the spacious firmament
As something to be charged and sent.

Though man created cross-town traffic,
The Daily Mirror, News and Graphic,
The pastoral fight and fighting pastor,
And Queen Marie and Lady Astor,
He hails himself with drum and fife
And bullies lower forms of life.

Not that I think much depends
On how we treat our feathered friends,
Or hold the wrinkled elephant
A nobler creature than my aunt.
It’s simply that I’m sure I can
Get on without my fellow man.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

_____________________________

It’s been a tough morning, as evidenced quite strongly by the complete overpowering dizziness that just stormed through my brain; what a rush! I’m not sure if it is fatigue from denying the cold’s effects, or just my currently strange body chemistry affecting the state of my mind, going through, as it is, the transition from long-term nicotine addiction to a (reportedly….) more healthy life without nicotine…. I’d forgotten that the almost 47 years I abused myself with those fags would demand a heavy price tag to get shut of; goes to show we are ALL adept at NOT looking at things we don’t want to see….

But, now I get to relax, and find some lustrous pearls to fill out this last section appropriately, and that is always a pleasure…. Let’s see what Smart Bee has for us this morning, shall we?….. If I am compelled to comment, those will be in parentheses, just so’s you know….

” Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.” — H. L. Mencken

(Ouch! Boy, I’m feelin’ that one!….)

“The reason the Christians have murdered on such a vast scale and killed anyone and everyone in their way is purely and simply greed… Their insatiable greed and overweening ambition know no bounds; the land is fertile and rich, the inhabitants simple, forbearing and submissive. The Spaniards have shown not the slightest consideration for these people, treating them (and I speak from first-hand experience, having been there from the outset) not as brute animals – indeed, I would to God they had done and had shown them the consideration they afford their animals – so much as piles of dung in the middle of the road. They have had as little concern for their souls as for their bodies, all the millions that perished having gone to their deaths with no knowledge of God and without the benefit of the Sacraments. One fact in all this is widely known and beyond dispute, for even the tyrannical murderers themselves acknowledge the truth of it: the indigenous peoples never did the Europeans any harm whatever; on the contrary, they believed them to have descended from the heavens, at least until they or their fellow citizens had tasted, at the hands of these oppressors, a diet of robbery, murder, violence, and all other manner of trials and tribulations.” — Bartolome de Las Casas, — A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, 1542

(This could easily be the beginning of another rant, against those I believe to be equally complicit with politicians in the rape and pillaging that occurs in society on a daily basis, but, I’ll leave it as just a pearl, and just note this…. It seems, by looking at the date this was written, that the churches and dogmatists have been known as criminals and rogues for a very long time…. By my count, it was around 485 years ago this first appeared…. I haven’t seen a lot of improvement over that period…. have you? Oh, they have better press agents now, and slightly different techniques of modus operandi, but the basic rapaciousness, and misguided sense of entitlement remains in full force, without any doubt…. Now, though, it seems that children are in the worst danger from the clergy, as they have been their primary target of exploitation in the last century….)

“If the lawmakers make a compromise, the place where it will be felt the most is the taxpayer’s pocket.” — Deadlock’s Law

“A politician,… one that would circumvent God.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act v, Sc. 1

(Even Will got it right occasionally; I’ve just never been able to figure out if it was because he wrote SO DAMN MUCH STUFF that sometimes, chance worked in his favor, and he hit something on the head, or if he just stole it from Francis Bacon…. or, just as likely, one of his cronies at the pub next door to the Globe…. )

“Freedom begins between the ears.” — Edward Abbey

(It’s really too bad that this means that most of today’s citizens have way too much space between their ears for freedom to keep from leaking out….)

“We must never permit the voice of humanity within us to be silenced. It is man’s sympathy with all creatures that first makes him truly a man.” — Albert Schweitzer

“In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don’t wobble.” — Yun-Men

I love when serendipity is everywhere!…. Two perfect pearls to close with, and the whole thing comes together, mismatches and all…. I hope you enjoyed this little meander through my head as much as I did, but, I doubt that’s possible…. S’okay, it doesn’t make me anything, other than done…..
_____________________________

Given all that has gone before in this Pearl, it’s probably just as well it IS done…. Let me see how it stands up to scrutiny, even from such an indulgent judge….. Well, that’s certainly a Pearl. Not only that, but, from all appearances, it doesn’t wobble. I’m going to count my blessings, and steal off into the day…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

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

Posted on November 4, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?…..

“The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.” — Socrates (BC 469-399)
_____________________________

“I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.” — H. L. Mencken

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Albert Pike…. another interesting fellow…. If you have a few moments, Google his name, and read the wikipedia article about him… It’s a pretty interesting life he led, and I wonder why he is less of a well-known figure than he is… He was responsible for a lot of good work back in the 19th century, and deserves some of our thanks for all he did to preserve the freedoms we DO have today…. Check him out…)
_____________________________

Political ranting over the news is an exhilarating, if a bit raucous, occupation for so early in the morning, and tends to leave me a bit unsettled, if only in my level of anxiety (No worries, said anxiety is ALWAYS with me, to a slight degree, so it’ not a big issue, or one I’m unfamiliar with….Life goes on, with or without it….)… When I feel this way, I always seem to turn to a poem to bring me back to the center. The poems this lady wrote always fill the bill, for me, to bring me some kind of soothing peace, even when the poem has no apparent connection to anything else I’ve been writing about…. It works for me, and, hopefully, will work for y’all as well…. Enjoy!…

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

____________________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

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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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Death

Skeptical images go in the bluest bin…. (Spoiler: 94% fresh material…)

A plethora of pentangular puff pastries….

Our favorite source for eclectic pants….

Even subliminally, it can smell risque…..

Lock up the dahlias, I’ll get the peonies…

Albert says, “Insanity is relative, too!”….

Fatuous remarks can create structural instability….

Soluble items should be sterilized first….

Bettie Paige merchandise is on aisle three…..

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

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