Tag Archives: Death

A green Corvair and two six packs…..

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Ffolkes,
Tired phrases trudge past my inner eye, row after row of regimented words in straight lines, stepping in time. As each row passes, it turns away, as if in shame, never falling out of step, never breaking free from the pattern. I search each row, looking for the words to grab attention, words of power, and grace, words to inspire, to bring laughter and joy…. though I search in vain, hope remains, quiet and reserved, but nonetheless strong, hope that this new day will bring something good….. or at least something less bad….

For anyone who has never experienced clinical depression, it is hard to understand how one’s feelings can turn into an enemy. It is hard to explain, too, even for those of us who experience such feelings on a regular basis. The exact process is subjective in nature, which means that much of what is felt cannot be explained in terms that mean anything to someone else; each of us is unique in this respect. Our feelings are our own, and though everyone has similar feelings, they can never be exactly the same. This makes the process of understanding what someone else goes through difficult to pin down, since all of us have our own set of preferences and prejudices. What stimulates one person to rage is seen as humorous to another; what makes one person feel good may cause another to feel real emotional pain.

Thus, the fight against depression becomes very solitary, at least in this respect. We cannot KNOW what another feels, or why those particular feelings cause such distress. In this we are each alone, and must come to our own resolution. But, each of us, while ultimately alone in our battle, can feel supported, and even loved, as long as we allow ourselves to let other folks in. One doesn’t have to have the answer in order to help, one just needs to be empathetic and compassionate.

Dogs and cats know this; when we feel down, our pets will often come sit by us, not interfering, but just being there, a comforting presence. They can supply no words to soother our pain, but just by being there, and showing their love, they are showing how each of us can help each other in times of stress…..

I’ve been fighting my depression, and pain, for several days now, with only moderate success. It’s kind of a vicious cycle, hard to break free, that starts with increased pain in my lower back and hips. As the pain rises, my mood sinks, and I get cranky. When I’m cranky, I tend to isolate myself, as I don’t want to alienate anyone by biting them, figuratively, or literally, so I keep to myself.

Being a social creature, this further annoys me, as I begin to think about why I am so alone (thanks to my ex-boss’s bureaucratic blitzkrieg, I was forced to leave work, never had a chance to contact any of my friends from work… and in the process lost all contact with them….). This becomes a downward spiral, emotionally, and I get increasingly withdrawn, which makes it harder to want to be with other people….

Eventually, I hit bottom, and begin the long climb back up to normalcy, or as close to that as I ever get…. and one of the things that helps me climb is the process of creating these Daily Pearls of Virtual Wisdom. Just being immersed in profound thoughts and words of wisdom from history’s wisest thinkers has a beneficial effect on me; reading of any kind is good therapy to my spirit. Writing helps too, even if what I write isn’t connected to what I’m experiencing, as it is today; just the process of discussing a Pearl is cathartic for me….

So, that all being said, in such a long-winded fashion, I think it’s time to Pearl…. Shall we?….. I know it will make me feel better, and I hope it does the same for you…. let’s go!…..

“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.” — Alan Watts
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And Death Shall Have No Dominion

And death shall have no dominion.
Dead man naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
Under the windings of the sea
They lying long shall not die windily;
Twisting on racks when sinews give way,
Strapped to a wheel, yet they shall not break;
Faith in their hands shall snap in two,
And the unicorn evils run them through;
Split all ends up they shan’t crack;
And death shall have no dominion.

And death shall have no dominion.
No more may gulls cry at their ears
Or waves break loud on the seashores;
Where blew a flower may a flower no more
Lift its head to the blows of the rain;
Though they be mad and dead as nails,
Heads of the characters hammer through daisies;
Break in the sun till the sun breaks down,
And death shall have no dominion.

Dylan Thomas

Given the state of my state, I needed something strong like this…. one may or may not agree with what D.T. is saying here, but it cannot be disputed that he says it strongly…. enjoy!
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INTRODUCTION, n.  A social ceremony invented by the devil for the gratification of his servants and the plaguing of his enemies.  The introduction attains its most malevolent development in this century, being, indeed, closely related to our political system.  Every American being the equal of every other American, it follows that everybody has the right to know everybody else, which implies the right to introduce without request or permission.  The Declaration of Independence should have read thus:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident:  that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, and the right to make that of another miserable by thrusting upon him an incalculable quantity of acquaintances; liberty, particularly the liberty to introduce persons to one another without first ascertaining if they are not already acquainted as enemies; and the pursuit of another’s happiness with a running pack of strangers.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

In the last 11 months of posting every day, the concept of the introduction has been one of close interest to me, since I am compelled by the nature of the beast to come up with one every day. Now, at at last, I have a bit more understanding of why the process gives me such a hard time…. or, at the least, why Ambrose thinks it  does…..

I know, I know, he’s talking about a different type of introduction altogether…. but this is English, and I can make whatever specious, tentative connections of meaning I want, as long as it’s not misspelled. Besides, having to read my introductory paragraphs may just be as unpleasant an experience as having to meet someone you never wished to meet, but had to in order to remain friends with someone….. Of course, there is no such constriction here, so maybe it’s all an illusion, and this is a huge waste of time and energy….. ya think?

Nah…. we’re not going there…. there IS a purpose to this. I just lost track of what it was, and have been merrily typing away for about two and a half paragraphs now, trying to see if the idea I had would settle back into my consciousness. But, I note that Murphy has not yet made an appearance today, so this must be his opening salvo, and I can blame him for taking my idea and hiding it where the sun don’t shine…. which guarantees that I’m not going to go looking for it.

And neither are you, so just forget it…. we’ll go on to the next pearl, and leave this one where it can do no more harm…. in the past…..
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“Make no mistake: the weeds will win.  Nature bats last.” — Robert Pyle

I love it when I find one like this. Ten words. Infinite wisdom….. For some reason, which is quite clear to many of us on the other end of the spectrum of human experience, a large portion of folks cannot understand this idea, or do not try to understand it. The latter part of that statement is probably the more accurate; most people just don’t think at all.

But, regardless of why they do not comprehend it, the fact remains that homo sapiens is a part of Nature, not separate from it;  everything that happens to Nature happens to us, and vice versa. Our species has a niche on the evolutionary scale of life, a niche that overlaps with those of a great number of other species. We all use the same physical resources, consume the same foods, breathe the same air, and inhabit the same space…..

However, our species, as noted above, is fragmented in terms of how we view the ecosphere. An unfortunately large number of people view the rest of the planet as their own property, to do with as they please. They do not take into account the other life forms that are present on that planet; they also refuse to acknowledge the finite limits to the  physical resources they are planning to plunder, consuming them at a rate guaranteed to use them all up within a very few more years.

In the process of consuming these physical resources, our species is also making changes to the environment, by the pumping of solid waste gases into the atmosphere, causing the ambient temperature of the planet to rise. With this rise in temperature, we are now experiencing the beginning of major climate changes that will increase exponentially over time, and will raise the water level on the planet by melting the polar ice caps, until much of the current land will be covered in sea water.

These observations are not speculation. The beginning effects are already being observed, and are simply more proof of the accuracy of the speculations. The tipping point may have already been reached, and there may not be anything we can do now to reverse the process. So, what we will see in the next 100 years is the opening battle of the real war for survival, a war which we have caused ourselves, by insisting on carrying out policies that are ultimately self-destructive. To use the analogy correctly, it is now Nature’s turn at bat. And Nature always wins….. Even if, or rather, when we lose, Nature will still be on the field…..
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I never know what will happen when I am in this state of mind. Sometimes it comes out well, other times not so much…. and because I’m in this state, I’m no judge of which it may be…. Ah, well, c’est la vie…. It’s all good, as my son is wont to say…. we don’t always see it, but it’s always all good….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Highest quality stress in town….

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Ffolkes,
Knowing it will be like this doesn’t make it any less annoying when it is; it just makes it worse, actually. But, being the trooper I am, I will do my best to look beyond it, and act as if it isn’t important. Which, cosmically speaking, it is not, nor will it ever be. Important, that is. If it was, maybe we could get a better one, but it’s not, so that’s wishful thinking. As we normally do, we will use what we have, the best we can, and hope it will be enough….

Of course, having no idea whatsoever as to what “it” I am speaking of, the previous paragraph really has no meaning, other than finding the means to fill up space. Having stared into space for a good 10 minutes without a single worthwhile thought rising to the surface of my mind, I figured I’d best get started, and just trust that the words would come. Well, they came, even thought they weren’t particularly aroused, Heck, they weren’t even breathing hard! The fact that there is no meaning to any of it has no bearing on reality, other than as a means of getting started on today’s Pearl….

I suppose I’m going to need to take my own advice, quit being lazy, and get some material organized for use in the introduction section. A few pearls, some brainstorm ideas, and an outline ought to do it, and won’t bore me to tears (hopefully). I find myself falling into this position too frequently of late, of being short of anything for the intro, so I may as well be proactive and take away my reasons for complaining. Not that the complaining ever does me any good; it just annoys me more than I already am when faced with such blocks.

Until then, you’ll just have to put up with my pissing and moaning…. or not, as you wish. I do try to make the rest of the Pearl more attractive, but don’t always hit that mark as well as I’d like. And, I think my inability to figure out how to get to other ffolkes blogs is causing me to lose some readers; site traffic has been limited to a few faithful followers in the last couple of weeks since WordPress decided to make it difficult for me to access any blogs.

Ah well, I’m not in this for competition, but for self-therapy, so it doesn’t matter too much…. I just miss being able to read all the great stuff on the other blogs, especially my poetesses, and the other curmudgeons with whom I banter at times…. SIGH…. Shall we Pearl?……
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“I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.” — Chang-tzu, Taoist

So, as it turns out, I am a coward. What I mean by that is, when it comes to emotional pain, I will go through all sorts of contortions to avoid it. I will distract myself, I’ll deny, I’ll forget…. all time-tested methods of putting something unpleasant aside. I can say in my own defense that a) I’ve already experienced enough turmoil in my life, and don’t need more, and b) I have yet to start lying to myself about being a coward in this area…..

How does the butterfly koan apply? That’s for me to know, and you to figure out…. No, really, sorry, I didn’t mean that, just fooling around. It applies because the world exists in duality; we perceive that universe by defining and evaluating those dualities according to their relation to each other (light/dark, etc.) as well as according to our own preconceptions and/or preferences. Sometimes what we perceive is clear and readily defined, while at other times, one can make no “heads or tails” of what we see, hear, taste, smell, or feel. And sometimes, the perceptions are just so powerful that we cannot easily deal with what we are perceiving, so we retreat from them. Or I do, anyway….

Now, my cowardice in this respect is, perhaps, justifiable. I put myself through a lot of hard times during certain times in my life, and the emotional toll was heavy. I am now more in balance, but the feelings and thoughts I had can come back in full force, at unexpected moments… Such is the case when I read about the sex trade, and think about how many of my sisters in the world are still being abused, physically and mentally, by the misogynistic assholes that perpetrate the atrocities.

I have previously re-blogged several articles from blog sites written by women who have survived, and left, the sex trade. The stories they tell, and the insights they have achieved, are incredibly powerful, and wrenching to the emotions. It is a rare thing for me to be able to stop myself from crying after reading the first paragraph, and it can take me ten minutes to read a two page article, as I have to stop and compose myself before returning to the story being related. I am always astounded by the strength of mind it took for them to get where they are, and I grieve for the pain and misery they still must contend with as survivors with PTSD (my old friend….).

Reading their stories also have the effect on me of wanting to buy a gun, and start eliminating some of the traffickers from the planet. This urge arises out of my anger and guilt, for it is males who perpetrate the  atrocities, and I am ashamed of how low others of my gender can sink. But, alas, until I CAN afford to buy one, that little dream will have to wait…..

All I can do is to try to make people aware of the extent of the problem, by directing them to the stories told by the women who have lived through that Hell, with re-blogs and pearls such as this one. That is why I say I’ve been a coward, because my mind cravenly hid the awareness that connects to the outrage I feel when I get started on this issue, not being brave enough to put my emotions up on that higher level….and used the technical glitch I’ve been having with WordPress as an excuse (I’m currently unable to connect to any other WP sites if I’m signed in… I just get sent to a blank page while the browser falls into an infinite loop….).

Hence this somewhat dispassionate discussion of the issue. I’ve managed to get through this without bursting into tears, so I’ll consider myself lucky, and make myself a promise to re-blog for them as soon as I can get there to do so…. and I’ll not let myself chicken out…. This is an issue that will not go away; we men will never be free until we free our sisters from this bondage….

To read some of these articles yourself, use the WordPress search function to find these three sites, by blog titles….  Diary of A Dublin Call Girl, rmott62- Are We Not Human?, and Stella Mar, a Manhattan Call Girl…. all three have powerful messages that need to be spread around the planet….
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Here is an old school pearl, just because…. all these came up while perusing the dB today, so I figured, why not? They all have something to say that is applicable to today’s society. Sadly, none of it is particularly positive in nature…. It just goes to show that is it easier to find the negatives in life, because they are so numerous. Fortunately, the positives are much more valuable on a per capita basis, so it all balances out in the end…. One must only be patient in coming to that end…. BTW, there IS a hidden message in this grouping of pearls, but there is no need to try to decipher it, as it won’t be on the quiz….. But if you do, it will bring some extra clarity to the group’s purpose….

“Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.” — Thomas Jefferson

“It’s said that ‘power corrupts’, but actually it’s  more true  that power attracts the corruptible.  The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.  When  they do  act,  they  think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is  insatiable, implacable.” — David Brin, The Postman

“Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders.” — Sloan Wilson

OCCIDENT, n.  The part of the world lying west (or east) of the Orient.  It is largely inhabited by Christians, a powerful subtribe of the Hypocrites, whose principal industries are murder and cheating, which they are pleased to call “war” and “commerce.”  These, also, are the principal industries of the Orient.  — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual & silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” — James Madison, Virginia Conv. 1788

“Crime does not pay … as well as politics.” — Alfred E. Newman

“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)

See? The last line brings balance into the equation…. Don’t forget to register and vote this November, ffolkes. It’s important this time, for the forces of evil are gathering their powers to make a run at total world domination…. yup, it’s THAT serious….
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Dreamland

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule-
From a wild clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of SPACE- out of TIME.

Bottomless vales and boundless floods,
And chasms, and caves, and Titan woods,
With forms that no man can discover
For the tears that drip all over;
Mountains toppling evermore
Into seas without a shore;
Seas that restlessly aspire,
Surging, unto skies of fire;
Lakes that endlessly outspread
Their lone waters- lone and dead,-
Their still waters- still and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily.

By the lakes that thus outspread
Their lone waters, lone and dead,-
Their sad waters, sad and chilly
With the snows of the lolling lily,-
By the mountains- near the river
Murmuring lowly, murmuring ever,-
By the grey woods,- by the swamp
Where the toad and the newt encamp-
By the dismal tarns and pools
Where dwell the Ghouls,-
By each spot the most unholy-
In each nook most melancholy-
There the traveler meets aghast
Sheeted Memories of the Past-
Shrouded forms that start and sigh
As they pass the wanderer by-
White-robed forms of friends long given,
In agony, to the Earth- and Heaven.

For the heart whose woes are legion
‘Tis a peaceful, soothing region-
For the spirit that walks in shadow
‘Tis- oh, ’tis an Eldorado!
But the traveler, traveling through it,
May not- dare not openly view it!
Never its mysteries are exposed
To the weak human eye unclosed;
So wills its King, who hath forbid
The uplifting of the fringed lid;
And thus the sad Soul that here passes
Beholds it but through darkened glasses.

By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have wandered home but newly
From this ultimate dim Thule.

Edgar Allan Poe

It has been a long time since I read any of Poe’s poetry; his stories are so good, one forgets he also was an excellent poet. This is a perfect example of that talent…. and I needed a beauty break….. enjoy!
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Rats! Thought I was done…. Today’s effort was just that…. an effort. But, perseverance has carried the day once again, so I’m putting myself into the hands of Fate, and letting this go out for consumption…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Riding forth with the myrmidons….

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Ffolkes,
Wow…. I didn’t realize one could actually fall asleep at the keyboard. It was just like falling asleep at the wheel of a car, but instead of almost crashing, what I found on the screen was zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz  You get the picture, I’m sure….. I could go back and delete all of it, but who knows? It may just be a new style of prose writing, called minimalist, or some such…. I’ve seen worse….

“Will this never-ending series of PLEASURABLE EVENTS never cease?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Yes, life is just one big party here at Ned’s house. I managed to stay up until 9 PM last night, which means I’m up today at 5 AM, almost awake. It’s a toss-up as to whether I keep typing or go back to bed….. and I can hear my pillow softly calling my name…. Okay, I’ll be back in a while….

I’m back… it is now almost three hours later. I guess I got up too early the first try. And now that I have no doubt bored you all to tears with my morning play by play, I think we should Pearl… shall we?…..

Be on your guard against a silent dog and still water. — Latin proverb (Good advice…)
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The Men That Fought At Minden

A Song of Instruction

The men that fought at Minden, they was rookies in their time —
So was them that fought at Waterloo!
All the ‘ole command, yuss, from Minden to Maiwand,
They was once dam’ sweeps like you!

Then do not be discouraged, ‘Eaven is your ‘elper,
We’ll learn you not to forget;
An’ you mustn’t swear an’ curse, or you’ll only catch it worse,
For we’ll make you soldiers yet!

The men that fought at Minden, they ‘ad stocks beneath their chins,
Six inch ‘igh an’ more;
But fatigue it was their pride, and they ~would~ not be denied
To clean the cook-‘ouse floor.

The men that fought at Minden, they had anarchistic bombs
Served to ’em by name of ‘and-grenades;
But they got it in the eye (same as you will by-an’-by)
When they clubbed their field-parades.

The men that fought at Minden, they ‘ad buttons up an’ down,
Two-an’-twenty dozen of ’em told;
But they didn’t grouse an’ shirk at an hour’s extry work,
They kept ’em bright as gold.

The men that fought at Minden, they was armed with musketoons,
Also, they was drilled by ‘alberdiers;
I don’t know what they were, but the sergeants took good care
They washed be’ind their ears.

The men that fought at Minden, they ‘ad ever cash in ‘and
Which they did not bank nor save,
But spent it gay an’ free on their betters — such as me —
For the good advice I gave.

The men that fought at Minden, they was civil — yuss, they was —
Never didn’t talk o’ rights an’ wrongs,
But they got it with the toe (same as you will get it — so!) —
For interrupting songs.

The men that fought at Minden, they was several other things
Which I don’t remember clear;
But ~that’s~ the reason why, now the six-year men are dry,
The rooks will stand the beer!

Then do not be discouraged, ‘Eaven is your ‘elper,
We’ll learn you not to forget;
An’ you mustn’t swear an’ curse, or you’ll only catch it worse,
For we’ll make you soldiers yet!

Soldiers yet, if you’ve got it in you —
All for the sake of the Core;
Soldiers yet, if we ‘ave to skin you —
Run an’ get the beer, Johnny Raw — Johnny Raw!
Ho! run an’ get the beer, Johnny Raw!

Rudyard Kipling

I can imagine a platoon of English army soldiers, sitting in a dark, smoke-filled, crowded tavern, somewhere in India, singing this song at the top of their lungs, as they slosh more ale down their throats from the tankards they wave about in time to the song. Gig Young, or Errol Flynn plays the part of the officer of the troop, with all those wonderful British character actors playing the soldiers. They all die in the end, of course…. that’s the common lot for British soldiers in India at that time…. Any who, I like the poem a lot, it made me think of the word “rollicking” and is worth reading just for that….  🙂
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“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…. 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. 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….

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. At times in history, this killing has taken place in the name of God, as the fanatical zealots so common to Christianity throughout its bloody 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 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 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…..
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How admirable,
he who thinks not,
Life is fleeting,
When he sees the lightning!
— Basho

Future Shocked:

Weeping, I wake;
waking, I weep, I weep.
I weep for the ages to be lost,
for children never born.

Time comes calling, strident and spare,
nudging us toward the future with bony hands.
No pausing, no waiting, always away,
Frantic hearts unseen, unheard.

Spirits are dark, afraid.
And the Beast hunts, hungry and cruel,
seeking out the weak, and the foolish.

We all weep now…..

gigoid
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Well, that turned a little dark on me, didn’t it? I guess that is all one can expect when speaking of Death; things often turn a little dark in his/her presence….. But, a little dark only serves to contrast with the light, making us more aware of both…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Hordes of unqualified gowns….

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4

Ffolkes,
Yesterday morning’s fiasco, although handled adroitly, apparently has had repercussions. I’ve received notice from some lawyer that my Inspiration is suing me for abduction, kidnapping, cruel and unusual abuse, and calumny, whatever that is…. The little shit decided to call a lawyer on me! What nerve!

First, he fails to live up to the agreement we made when we first started working together, as he spent more time at the local bars than giving me ideas. When he did work with me, he was surly, uncommunicative, and generally a pain in the ass. Then, just because I needed him to work yesterday, and wouldn’t let him leave, the little asshole sues me…. typical, I’d say. He must have been listening to Murphy….I’ve seen them huddled together several times, pointing at me and laughing….

Ah well, I think I’m going to fire him anyway; he just wasn’t very good at his job. Now I can do it without any guilt… I’m not worried about the law suit; I had him on contract, and it’s all documented. Still, I hate to fail at anything…. but, he never would invest anything into his work, and motivation for Inspiration isn’t my expertise, or my job, once they’ve agreed to sign the contract.

So, I’m not worried; more disappointed. He wasn’t a bad person, and occasionally gave me some good stuff, but I can’t deal with deliberate laziness. I’d rather beat my head against a wall (my usual form of finding inspiration…) than try to get a lazy person to work.

So, having made that decision, we can now move on to the business at hand, that being the composition of pearls of virtual wisdom (remember, VIRTUAL wisdom; don’t try this at home, kids…)  Shall we Pearl?…..
___________________________________

Life! we ‘ve been long together
Through pleasant and through cloudy weather;
‘T is hard to part when friends are dear,–
Perhaps ‘t will cost a sigh, a tear;
Then steal away, give little warning,
Choose thine own time;
Say not “Good night,” but in some brighter clime
Bid me “Good morning.”

— Mrs. Barbauld (1743-1825) — Life

I’m not sure why I put this here, except that I like it. I’m not sure, either, why I like it. It’s simple, and with a nice cadence, but the content is merely average. I guess I just like the sentiment, which is, to my eye, pretty positive in its outlook. Being cynical and rather curmudgeonly by nature, I admire those who can maintain a positive outlook on Life, and for some reason, this poem gives that to me. You can’t ask more of a poem….
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We continue today with an old school pearl…. here are six quotes, all on the same general subject. They lead one on a short, meandering path to a very valuable lesson. That lesson is left, for the nonce, as an exercise for the Gentle Reader…..

“There is nothing which cannot be answered by means of my doctrine,” said a monk, coming into a teahouse where Nasrudin sat.  “And yet just a short time ago, I was challenged by a scholar with an unanswerable question,” said Nasrudin. “I could have answered it if I had been there.” “Very well.  He asked, ‘Why are you breaking into my house in the middle of the night?’ — Smart Bee

It would be nice to be sure of anything the way some people are of everything. — Smart Bee

“The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of the self breeds pride and arrogance.” — Eric Hoffer

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness — II Timothy 3:16

If the Bible proves that God exists then comic books prove the existence of Superman. — Smart Bee

“The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his Father, in the womb of a virgin will be classified with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated Reformer of human errors.” — Thomas Jefferson

There you go….. I think the lesson here is a valuable one, so I’m hoping that everyone picked up on it. It may just help the status of society at large; the more people who know this concept, and actually live it, the better of we will be, and the longer we can put off our imminent extinction….
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The Suicide’s Argument

Ere the birth of my life, if I wished it or no
No question was asked me–it could not be so !
If the life was the question, a thing sent to try
And to live on be YES; what can NO be ? to die.

NATURE’S ANSWER

Is’t returned, as ’twas sent ? Is’t no worse for the wear ?
Think first, what you ARE ! Call to mind what you WERE !
I gave you innocence, I gave you hope,
Gave health, and genius, and an ample scope,
Return you me guilt, lethargy, despair ?
Make out the invent’ry ; inspect, compare !
Then die–if die you dare !

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Suicide among teens in this country has reached pandemic proportions in the first decade of this century. It seems to be connected to the apparent rise in “bullying” in schools, and online; many of the teens who kill themselves reported having been abused and bullied, usually for being gay, or obese, or just for being different in some way.

I can acknowledge from my own teenage years that the kids who get the best grades are often bullied and/or discriminated against by the other kids for just that reason (I wore glasses, too, and can’t count how many times somebody called me “egghead”…). I was fortunate, in having a strong ego that could stand up to the bullying, and push back, and by also being a good athlete, which gave me an acceptable ticket into the society of my peers. Many people don’t have those advantages, and they must internalize their pain and anguish, which eventually leads to their demise.

It is a very difficult problem to address, as the root cause lies in human nature. People acting in groups are not as predictable, or as reasonable, as a single person. And they often turn to action based upon the lowest common denominator of the group, which generally is fear…. fear of the unknown, which a person who is different represents in their eyes.

It’s sad, it’s pathetic, and it’s all too true; humans in groups tend to pick on those who are viewed as a threat to the group, whether the threat is real or not (usually not). And all too often it is the young gay person, or the artist, or the one with weight problems who is viewed as a threat, even though there is no rational basis for believing that.

I don’t know the exact answer. I know that being able to stand up to a bully will usually get them to stop, but not everyone has that kind of strength; their uniqueness may be in another aspect of human nature. I think most likely, the change, if it is to come, will have to start the same place that society needs to start to change, to wit: human nature, or at the very least, human morality. When parents teach their children to appreciate the diversity of life, instead of fearing all that is not the same as them, then this type of behavior will become irrelevant. It won’t be an issue, because the bullying won’t happen in the first place….

All of us know about the experiment with the rats, and how, when placed in conditions of extreme over-population, the rats behavior deteriorated, and became counter-productive in a survival sense. They began to be irritable, even violent with each other, and eventually got to a point where they were killing and eating one another.

Guess what folks? We are rats, we are in a cage, and we have begun showing the symptoms of severe over-population. And it isn’t going to change, unless we can find a way to change our inner lives, and begin to look at the world as something we are a part of, not its master….. and in essence, if we don’t change, we will end up dead, having committed suicide, because of our own nature’s predilection for irrational behaviors in the face of fear of the unknown…..
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In retrospect, this didn’t turn out too badly. What with the situation with my Inspiration, and the amount of pain I woke up with today, I was a bit concerned I might not be able to write well enough to satisfy my inner critic. But, it’s good enough…. it’s way better than government work, for sure….. Y’all take care out there, and may the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

The Sacred Word for today is “Nosh”…..

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6

Ffolkes,
Yesterday, having so readily turned into a clusterf__k, leads steadily to today, which promises to be better, if only because it can’t be worse. Without getting into a huge rant or whiny outburst, let’s just say that I’m not looking forward with any great anticipation to the next six months of limbo, a word that oh so accurately describes my current state of existence. In fact, I’m dreading it, but there is, as usual, not a damn thing I can do about it, except learn how to wait, even more than I have already learned….. It is said that all things come to he who knows how to wait…. well, it would be nice to see a little proof of that. I’ve done, and continue to do, the waiting part of the deal….. so, where is the “all things” that are supposed to come?…..

Ah well, it’s bad enough believing in Murphy, and his power over me. It’s probably a good thing in this instance that I don’t believe the traditional dogma on God, as it would just be a pisser to think that God had anything to do with this…. By all reports, though, He is pretty vindictive and jealous, and putting me through this kind of trial probably wouldn’t be unheard of…. Look at what He is supposed to have done to Job, that poor idiot…. I guess having to spend some months scrambling for food isn’t much, compared to plagues, crop failures, losing sons and daughters, and generally getting shat upon by God…..

With that relatively morbid, but encouraging thought in mind, I guess we should go Pearl…..
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“Of the two smartest creatures on the earth, man and the dolphin, each thought they were smarter then the other. Man thought he was smarter because he built many things and did much work, when the dolphins just played all day. The dolphins thought they were smarter for the same reason.” — Smart Bee

Perspective is everything, eh? I still think the dolphins got the better deal…. Actually, this just goes a long way toward showing the inappropriateness of the sense of entitlement that most humans feel. Having been granted “dominion” over the rest of the world’s creatures, said dominion, of course, self-granted, we hunt, and kill, every other animal on the planet, often just for the sake of killing, to see if we can….

I never understood the concept of “hunting” animals while using a high-powered rifle, unless those doing the hunting issued rifles to the game. I always thought that if one wished to hunt and kill a wild animal, then they should be limited to the same weapons the animal has… e.g. deer have antlers, which cannot be thrown, so the human gets one knife, which must be used without throwing.  Bears have teeth, claws, strength and speed, so let’s make it even, & give the hunter a nice, sharp spear, AND a knife. Even bows & arrows aren’t fair play, to my mind, as they allow the human all the advantage of being able to injure or disable from a distance.

“I’m pretty good with people on an individual basis, but in groups, I really can’t stand the bastards!” — George Carlin

If hunters were limited to that sort of rules, designed to make it more fair, then perhaps I could feel more okay with it. But, the whole idea of killing for sport seems to me to be a bad habit to foster at all, from a wider ethical viewpoint. Killing, while natural to us, is not our most attractive feature, and our tendency to use it on each other is part of why we are so close to extinction. Killing, whether it is killing of animals or humans, also kills the spirit of the one doing the killing. Every time one takes the life of another creature, a little piece of their soul is damaged, and deadened. If carried on, the spirit becomes completely callous, immune to the pain of empathy for the creatures they kill. They become….. politicians…..

Ronald Wilson Reagan is an anagram for Insane Anglo Warlord. — Smart Bee

Now that might seem like a stretch of the imagination, but I challenge anyone to disprove my contention. Politicians don’t care about anyone but themselves; their spirits are dedicated to lying, stealing, and taking advantage of their fellow man. What kind of soul does it take to carry out those activities? One that is dead to empathy, that cannot feel the pain that others feel…. and that is a politician, by any other name….

“They [preachers] dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live.” — Thomas Jefferson

Okay, so that connection is a little dubious. But, it’s not really all that far off the mark; one could add preachers to the list of those who wear and/or display the hunter’s mask, as they are the ones who started the whole entitlement nonsense in the first place. Boy, if that wasn’t one of history’s greatest con jobs!

Getting folks to buy into that Garden of Eden story, straight out of somebody’s feverish imagination, was one of the best snow-jobs ever, for sure…. Of course, it does feed right in to that human desire to be special, but still, it took a lot of chutzpah to pull it off, and to continue to run the “long con” by establishing churches and priestly hierarchies. Nasty as it is, ethically and morally, I still have to admire the way they pulled it off….

“God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos; He will set them above their betters.” — H.L. Mencken

I guess what this means in the large picture is that the human evolutionary change that Mankind needs the most is a change to our morals. When given a choice, most of Mankind opts to choose the easy path, the path of least resistance, and gives up the power of choice to others, in order to also give up responsibility. This is what needs to change. Mankind must learn to grow up, to take responsibility for the damage we have caused, and stop giving in to our baser nature. We need to cultivate the ethically higher parts of our nature… our reason, our empathy, our compassion. All of these need to become our motivation, rather than mere gratification of our base desires.

“Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

Ah well, one can hope, even in the face of probable disaster, and I’ll keep on hoping…. foolish, I know, but what else can one do?….
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ICONOCLAST, n.  A breaker of idols, the worshipers whereof are imperfectly gratified by the performance, and most strenuously protest that he unbuildeth but doth not reedify, that he pulleth down but pileth not up.  For the poor things would have other idols in place of those he thwacketh upon the mazzard and dispelleth.  But the iconoclast saith:  “Ye shall have none at all, for ye need them not; and if the rebuilder fooleth round hereabout, behold I will depress the head of him and sit thereon till he squawk it.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

Ah, at long last…. Finally, a complete definition of what I attempt here on “gigoid– Exploring Consensual Reality”…. I can’t think of a better way to put it than this…..

A common criticism that is used to try to negate the effect of a writer, or a protester, or an iconoclast, by any other name, is that all of what they say is so negative, that they propose no solutions to the problems they lament. This is usually shouted, or at least delivered with a sneer, intended to convey dismissal of what has been said, as if it is of no importance, by supporters (worshipers) of the icon under discussion, or often, by the icon themselves. Those delusional figures of self-proclaimed importance always greet such attacks, no matter how true, or how justified, as if they are of no import; it is part of their sociopathy to dismiss all that does not fit into their rigid set of standards….

“Have integrity. Make your deeds follow your words. Keep your commitments to self and others, speak the truth.” — Smart Bee

Which is why I enjoy using the Truth to puncture their balloons; irrefutable evidence produces the most amazing faces on those who don’t want to believe it. But, even icons cannot deny what is staring them in the face, so they attempt to deny its relevance, or distract from its presence by a counter-accusation, or best of all, claim there is an attack from outside.

(I don’t know about the rest of the world, but the timing of the attack on 9/11/01 was fairly suspicious, considering how close the Bush administration was to being exposed for having manipulated the election results in 2000.  Shortly after articles appeared stating there was solid physical evidence of chicanery, in the form of vote tampering in the results from three pivotal states that got Bush elected, the attack on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and Flight 93 took place, completely drawing the public’s attention from the possibility of a reversal of the election, by the sudden, shocking attack from the outside. I was suspicious of it then, and I remain suspicious now…. the timing was just too damn convenient for the Shrubs…..)

So, any who, the most obvious iconoclastic target for me at this point is Mitt the Twitt. He’s not a particularly challenging target, as he pretty much furnishes his own BS, and stumbles over his own words, and trips over his own ego, and generally craps in his own shoes. It’s almost too easy…. but fun, to be sure, as he really can make an ass of himself, without half trying, and that is pure fun to watch and report. I don’t really trust the Democrats either, but I do have respect for the office of the President, and so for the man in the office I show the respect of saying nothing, even though I could….

Of course, should the Twitt, through some unthinkable mistake, get into that office, I won’t be showing that respect, as it won’t have been earned. The only chance he has of winning the election is to use the same tactics as the Bushes, and cheat…. Funny how certain voting machines break down right at election time, isn’t it? And only in certain districts? Hmm…. Well, you can be sure, if he does, my respect for the office will not only be gone, but it may just turn the tide, and light the fuse under the ass of the American people to rise up and kick their sorry asses right off the planet, so we can get some serious work done on solving the problems we already have…. Again, all I can do is retreat into hope……
___________________________________

Summer Sun

Great is the sun, and wide he goes
Through empty heaven with repose;
And in the blue and glowing days
More thick than rain he showers his rays.

Though closer still the blinds we pull
To keep the shady parlour cool,
Yet he will find a chink or two
To slip his golden fingers through.

The dusty attic spider-clad
He, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
And through the broken edge of tiles
Into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

Meantime his golden face around
He bares to all the garden ground,
And sheds a warm and glittering look
Among the ivy’s inmost nook.

Above the hills, along the blue,
Round the bright air with footing true,
To please the child, to paint the rose,
The gardener of the World, he goes.

Robert Louis Stevenson

I’m often unsure how to take Stevenson’s work. He was a complex man, living during an historically volatile era, yet his work is very romantic and simple, at least in appearance. But, that’s okay, too…. there is room for everyone at the Inn of the Inner Eye….
___________________________________

I’m not sure what to think of today’s effort….. I’m going to take a moment or two to do just that; excuse me, I’ll be right back…..

I must say….. whew! That’s quite a wild ride! I knew I was all over the place, but didn’t realize the extent of the issue until I went back over all of it at once…. Okay, here’s the thing, I could give a warning, to be cautious today, and take breaks while digesting all of this. But, we’re all the way back here at the ending, so you wouldn’t see it in time…. hmm, another conundrum. What to do, what to do….

Ah, there we go…. I’ll end this here, remind you to go wash up, in case any of it got on your clothes, and take an aspirin for the headache it caused before you lie down….. okay? Okay!

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

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

The cashews don’t usually complain….

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5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Silence is the language of complicity. — Smart Bee

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Richard Brautigan

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

The title line of this poem produces an image in my mind that offers me a lot of solace, for it is an image that could only become real if Mankind manages to keep from devolving into extinction, as we seem hell-bent on doing. A lot of his poems are the same, with a very strong, real connection to the current world, to reality, colored by the mind of a genius….
___________________________________

Well, that was satisfying…. I remembered Richard at the last moment, just when I was getting discouraged at the lack of pearls to be found…. Serendipity strikes again….. I’m hoping the fog burns off this morning, as that will ensure a nice, comfortable afternoon; I’ve been trying to get a walk in each day in the afternoon, in hopes of conditioning myself well enough to stand up to the traveling I want to do…. Having to take a nap each day like a four-year old is fun, and feels good, but, as the Scots say, it’s time to be living, for I’ll be a long time dead…. I’ll have plenty of time then for naps…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Buried alive in faint praise…..

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13

Ffolkes,
Intro, intro, who’s got an intro?…. Fuck it… I’m not in the mood for this…. Since I can’t think of anything to put here to draw you in, I’ll just have to dive right in, without any intro…. We all have to learn to live with disappointment, don’t we? Me, I’ve learned to not expect to either get up, or get through a day, without pain. You, well, you’ll have to live without today’s intro…. Feel lucky, that it isn’t doing without something you actually need….. shall we Pearl?….
___________________________________

“Everything has been figured out, except how to live.” — Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980)

Hunger… real hunger. Hunger you can feel, in your empty belly, in the trembling in your arms and hands, in your light head, in your absolute focus on figuring out how to make it go away…..

How long has it been since you last felt that feeling? Or, if you did, how long did it last? How long did it take for you to assuage your hunger pangs? An hour? A day? More? Less?…. If you are in America, the most likely answer you will give would be the last. We are fortunate that the quality of life lived by the majority of people in this country allows them to be able to never feel the kind of hunger that lasts more than an hour or so…….

This month has been one with some unforeseen financial events, and my supply of food here in the last 10 days of the month is getting a bit slim. Oh, I’m in no danger of starving, by any means; just dying of boredom from eating the same stuff every day.  I do have more resources than many, many people who are less well off than I. But, if I don’t discipline myself, I will surely be stretching my imagination the last few days to scrape up enough carbs to fill me up sufficiently to avoid prolonged hunger pangs. It sounds bad, but really isn’t too much so, due to some thoughts I had today while I was busy and couldn’t get around to eating, until I was pretty hungry…..

I thought about my hunger pangs…. They don’t hurt, at first, they are merely there, in the forefront of one’s attention, insistent and unrelenting in letting one know that the body is short of fuel. Occupying oneself with anything remotely interesting is enough to drive it out of the front of the mind, and just hang around in the back until you aren’t busy, whereupon it surges forth again, to let you know it isn’t happy.  After a while, one has to decide whether to find something to continue to distract the attention, or do something about eating. Fortunately for me, it was just a matter of getting home from the pharmacy, and I could eat…..

In stark contrast, there are many people out there in this country, and the world, who can’t do anything at all about their hunger pangs, except endure them, for days at a time…. I wish I had an answer to this issue…. Well, I do, but it is the same answer as the solution to global warming, overpopulation, and the other issues about which I’ve previously ranted.

That answer lies in making changes to human nature, changes in the attitudes of the beloved ruling class, and all those ignoramuses who support them. Without those changes, the necessary changes to society will not happen, and we won’t have to worry too much longer about getting hungry….. breathing will have assumed primary importance by that time….

“Any fully matured science of ecology will have to grapple with the fact that from the ecological point of view, man is one of those animals which is in danger from its too successful participation in the struggle for existence.” — Joseph Wood Krutch
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A Dying Tiger—moaned for Drink—
I hunted all the Sand—
I caught the Dripping of a Rock
And bore it in my Hand—

His Mighty Balls—in death were thick—
But searching—I could see
A Vision on the Retina
Of Water—and of me—

‘Twas not my blame—who sped too slow—
‘Twas not his blame—who died
While I was reaching him—
But ’twas—the fact that He was dead—

Emily Dickinson

I don’t know about y’all, but when I was reading this poem from Emily, the face of the lawyer I dislike the most kept floating over the face of the tiger…. strange, but not particularly mysterious, considering…… enjoy!
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If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper? — Smart Bee

Now, THAT’S funny! Some folks think that making fun of lawyers and those of the same ilk, (self-serving, avaricious, completely without compassion….) isn’t nice. They believe that lawyers and IRS agents are sincerely trying to help people with their problems. These are the same people who go to church on Sunday, listen to a sermon about the starving children in third world countries, and go home to sit down to a table full of food with no feelings of guilt. The same people who rant and complain about illegal immigrants, but won’t deign to work in the fields to harvest the food they eat, or will pay one of those illegal immigrants less than minimum wage to clean their house.

I say, FUCK THEM!!! Fuck the lawyers who use the misery of others to line their own pockets. Fuck the IRS agent who sweats some poor slob for thousands of penalty dollars because he made an inappropriate exemption claim on his form, so he could maybe get a dollar or two back on his return, instead of paying twice as much, percentage-wise, as any millionaire. Fuck the 1%, too, those greedy assbites.

Fuck the preacher/priest, who doesn’t pay any fucking taxes at all, and counsels obedience to worldly authority. And fuck the fucking politicians, who have set up and continue to take advantage of a system that keeps the honest, hard-working citizen on his knees, and rewards lying, cheating, bullying, and stealing from the public treasury….. Fuck them all, hard, in the place it will hurt the worst….

Sorry about the vulgarity; all of a sudden, the anger I feel at the world’s situation these days built up beyond my ability to contain, and it needed to come out somewhere….. this was handy. Anger, I know, is often counter-productive, but in this case its underlying cause, the desire of mine that is denied, can be laid directly at the feet of those I mentioned above.

What I want is for everyone to have a fair chance to be happy. That’s all, and that would be enough. That is what our Constitution was supposed to provide, but those perverted assholes who actually run things have done all they could to see that purpose is not fulfilled. The average Joe today doesn’t have a chance, unless he is willing to give up all of his humanity in the search for wealth and power. IT FUCKING MAKES ME CRAZY!

Okay, that’s enough on that for one day. I could easily write another five or six paragraphs giving examples of the egregious lying, cheating, and stealing going on in front of us, but that would no doubt end up boring us both. Instead I’ll ask you to go register to vote, to make sure that, for this election at least, there is a chance to push back the forces of ignorance that once again threaten our way of life…..Register, and make sure to vote……
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Well, I feel better, if not altogether good. I always find a good bit of ranting to be cathartic, and actually helps keep me from biting some other innocent fool later in the day…..  🙂   Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Which is the silliest objective?

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1

Ffolkes,
After a certain amount of time, reality becomes hard to hold on to with a sure grip. Stuff happens. (Don’t ask….)  And when that stuff is happening, our grasp of what we thought was unchangeable grows tenuous, at best. Most folks just breeze right through these moments, never realizing that their entire universe is mere seconds away from crashing about their ears. These are the fortunate ones. For those of us who regularly battle with reality to keep it in even a semblance of normalcy, these moments are terrifying challenges, fraught with the danger of imminent death of life and the universe as we know it, or at least, indigestion……

The brain is broken this morning. I tried to use it earlier, and got no response at all. Now, I sit down to write, and you see the result…. Pathetic. Indigestion, indeed. I’ll give me indigestion…. hell, I do that on a regular basis anyway, just by reading the news; it takes no special effort. Try to convince a broken brain of that though….

I’m not sure how to proceed. I’ve never really had to deal with a full break before; there have always been some peripheral functions that remained intact. But this seems to be a complete system-wide shut down, and I’m not sure if it is a hardware or software problem, so it makes trouble-shooting a bit of a facer, what?

Sorry, been watching English mini-series’ movies of Lord Peter Whimsy’s mysteries, and I’m still speaking in English drawing room comedy language…. quite the thing, don’t y’know? It’s so very…. British…. Such a wonderful vehicle for sarcasm and comedic facial expressions, and all of the characters are archetypal representations of the various English types…. to the manor born, the butler, or “gentleman’s gentleman”, the vicar, the blacksmith, the sexton, the farmer, etc.  And they all wear the most sensible shoes….

Well, as can be seen, things may wander a bit today, so I’d best start wending my way toward the end….. the beginning will have to cope on its own at this point; I can do no more for it, and will just let it die a natural death….. let’s go Pearl….
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Fate steals along with silent tread,
Found oftenest in what least we dread;
Frowns in the storm with angry brow,
But in the sunshine strikes the blow.
— Cowper

Writing about Murphy’s Law can be a delicate, tricky process, since the mere use of his name is generally enough to draw his attention, something all of us learn to avoid at an early age. At least, all of us who retain any sanity at all have learned to avoid his ministrations, except when forced to accept them. So, writing about his place in the scheme of things can take on the aspect of a nightmare, a terrifying one, one that not only wakes one up, but remains real when awake. The only possible way to avoid this is to make the piece you are writing as glowingly positive as you can….

One doesn’t write about how little Murphy’s presence is hated; we point out how his benign humor keeps us humble. We don’t tell how his latest escapade has put us back several years in our plans for life; we acknowledge his wisdom in keeping us with our nose to the grindstone. And we certainly don’t complain about how much of an asshole he is, or he will most certainly turn what we write into the biggest pile of crap that ever was assembled in one place.

Ah, fuck it. I hate the asshole. His perverted sense of humor has caused more heartache for humanity than Hitler. He thinks he is a celebrity, like Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny, but his degree of fame, or, more accurately, infamy, is more on the order of The Swamp Thing, or Freddy Kruger, without the advantage of their cultish chic.

If there were any part of reality as it exists that I would change, it would be to remove Murphy’s head from his shoulders, and consign him to one of the deepest parts of hell, where he would forever be subjected to just those kinds of incidents that he is so fond of perpetrating on the unsuspecting members of society…. Bloody prick…. I know that all cultures have their Murphy…. he may be called Loki, or Kokopelli, or some other name, and even may be counted as a god. But, fuck him anyway, he’s an asshole; I don’t have to like him…. and I don’t..

Popular consensus says that reality is based on popular consensus. — Smart Bee
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“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it… Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher.  But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings — that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.” — Buddha

This idea is almost unknown in Western society, and if you require evidence, just look at the TV Guide for this week. Every minute of every day the airwaves are filled with blatant attempts to influence what people think about, what they buy, or should want to buy, how to relate to other people, or who they should vote for in the next election. I don’t think there are more than one person out of a hundred thousand who has an original thought in their head, one not generated by some excited announcer giving them the latest way to waste their time and money.

In addition to the wasteland that is TV, we have religion, always prepared to jump into people’s lives and tell them how they are doing it wrong, and how the only way to get to heaven is to buy into the product they are selling, thereby handing over the keys to their own minds, and checkbooks. If one looks at it objectively, it’s a pretty good gig, this preacher business.

All you have to do is be able to tell people what you think is true with a straight face, and stand back and watch the money pour in. Hell, anybody with the chutzpah and the patter can become a preacher; it doesn’t even require a license, though it does help to file the certificates and forms that make it so your church doesn’t have to pay taxes. That’s always a bonus item in favor among the truly religious.

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

L. Ron was as good as his word…. He was talking to Robert Heinlein one day (they were old friends, having attended Annapolis together in their youth….), and complaining about how his science fiction wasn’t selling as well as Bob’s. He made Bob a bet, that he could start a religion, one that had no basis in reality outside his head, and could become richer than Croesus without having to lift a finger…. Bob took the bet, and L. Ron wrote “Dianetics”, the book that is now the basis for the Church of Scientology.

This “religion” has become a reality, with millions of members worldwide, all of whom are firmly convinced of the truth of what is in their bible; in reality, their bible was a load of crap nonsense that came straight out of L. Ron’s head, and has no actual relation to anything in the real world…..Imagine, a religion based on Science, without a single number or equation to be found anywhere in its precepts. I find it to be one of history’s finest jokes, and the shenanigans of the constituents of the “church” provide me with endless entertainment…. Brilliant!…. And, of course, just desserts for those who have adopted such an asinine philosophy, all based on a joke bet….

“It’s hard to decide if T.V. makes morons out of everyone or if it mirrors Americans who really are morons to begin with.” — Martin Mull
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And God said: “Let there be cats!” and He was promptly ignored. — Smart Bee

I don’t often write about cats. I’m not sure why that is, because I love them just about as much as I love dogs. Mankind, in his history on this planet, has engaged the help and companionship of purpose (i.e., life…) of several of our mammalian relatives. Dogs, cats, horses, pigs, sheep, cattle, all have agreed, passively or actively, to join us in the struggle to exist here on Earth. We all provide different life skills that we possess to the mix, skills that complement each other, affording us the strength that arises from group effort. In essence, we have contracted with each other to provide services for actions that we cannot accomplish alone.

Each of those animals who chose to live with us, sharing our food and campfire, shelter and company, have their own motivations for doing so, not all of which are self-serving. In fact, I would say that the reason that dogs and cats often appear to have for their continued relationships with us can mostly be attributed to love. People develop very close, affectionate relationships with those two types of creatures, and the love we feel for them is obviously returned. No other explanation makes sense for explaining why a dog or cat will save a human’s life, by warning of a fire, by attacking an aggressor, or why they will come to us and offer comfort in times of sadness and pain.

Cats are perhaps more independent in their relations with us, but their love is continuously demonstrated, even in those actions that apparently are rude, such as their ability to ignore us when they so desire. I see those times as being the moments when they are defining the limits of their personal space, their need to maintain dignity at all cost. It’s a cat thing. Sometimes their love only shows in the fact that they continue to stay with us, and deign to accept our attentions. After all, in ancient Egypt, cats were worshiped as gods, and I don’t think they’ve ever forgotten…. Bless their pointy little ears…..

I can’t imagine living without dogs and cats. I prefer to have both as companions; often the relationship that develops between the two diametrically opposed species is deep and caring, and observing how they learn to get along with each other is a constant lesson that our political “experts” would benefit from learning.

Before I was summarily dismissed from my last relationship, Noah and I lived with a cat who firmly believed that Noah was his big brother. The cat, named Tony, would follow Noah around, play with him, and preferred to sleep with him at night (I have pictures….). He knew Noah was old, and took care to treat him gently (he was a big, powerful cat…. about 17 lbs, and no fat….). When Noah was struggling to walk upstairs, Tony would walk behind him, swatting at his tail end, spurring him to get up the steps….

It broke my heart when Noah and I were told to move, never to see Tony again. Noah would often wander around the new house, looking for something, then come and look at me as if to ask where Tony was…. it was tough, believe me, and still hurts…. Which goes to show,I like animals much more than I like most humans…. and for good reason….
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“One can’t complain. I have my friends. Someone spoke to me only yesterday.” — A.A. Milne’s Eeyore

Aye, indeed, one can’t complain. Though I live a life of solitude, I am not often lonely. I have my friends, who, though they live elsewhere, are ever as close as the phone. These are the kind of friends of whom I know that even if they call me at 3 AM, or if I would call them at such an hour, they wouldn’t say, “Why are you calling so late?”, but rather, “What do you need?” I count at least 8 people among those I know who fit that definition, and that is wealth indeed….

One of them called me yesterday, just to chat. In turn, I called one of them, who was celebrating her birthday (quietly, as those at our age are wont to do….). Both calls were enough human contact for me. I don’t miss work, or having to deal with the general run of human interaction at a high level; I have to admit, this whole retirement thing fits right in with my preferred style of living. I get to decide how much I deal with people, and that is another form of wealth that is seldom counted…. a true freedom, the freedom to say “no”…. We first learn the power of “no” around age two, but we seldom actually think about how powerful a word it is….

“No, I don’t want to do that…” now has much more meaning and strength when I say it, because I know that it is all my decision. Of course, this makes me fully responsible for what happens, but that is true anyway, and can thus be discounted as a motivating factor. It just helps me to be more careful in the decision-making process. “No, I won’t….” No, you can’t…” All of these options now have more force in my life, and it is a heady sort of power. It isn’t surprising that so many folks, as they get older, take more and more advantage of this power; it is perhaps their first time at feeling in control of their lives….. Unfortunately, this often leads them into becoming negative in their outlook, which causes other problems….

But, for me at least, it’s nice to be able to tell the world to go take a hike now and again. And it sure makes practicing to be a curmudgeon easier!….. No, no, no, I won’t!…..   🙂
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It’s only cheating when you get caught! — Smart Bee

One never knows when a rant will strike…. I almost cruised past this, as I have innumerable times when I’ve seen it before. But then I stopped for a moment and thought about it…. and got angrier and angrier the more I considered it.

My anger arises from my obstructed desire, of course, which, in this case, is the desire to see the morality of mankind become, shall we say, less self-serving, and leave it at that? I’d like to see more honesty in the world, as I see the lack of it, or worse, the active denial of it, as the worst affliction society suffers. The willingness of the wicked to lie and cheat, and the willingness of the general populace to condone it by their indifference to those lies, is the root of almost all the other problems facing our species.

This idea, that it is okay to cheat if nobody is looking, has been adopted as truth by most people. Even the most apparently incorruptible people will cheat to achieve their ends, using the rationality, or the charity, or the innate rightness of their goals as justifiable reasons for the dishonesty in action. It’s called fighting fire with fire, and while it may work when dealing with conflagrations in a forest, the analogy does not translate accurately to the raging fires in human society.

The acceptance of this concept, of the inherent value of cheating, is based on a concept from martial arts, the practice of deception, of movement, of strategy, of information. In a war, or battle, being able to misinform one’s opponent of one’s true disposition and plan is invaluable as a strategy. Control of information is vital in war. Those who do not learn this practice can never be successful in battle, for they have lost before beginning.

Modern politics, the art of war against the people by their rulers, is rife with this strategy. Politicians routinely lie, not just to the people over whom they wish to rule, but to those who rule with them. The entire system of political strategy in this country is based on who can get the voters to believe the lies they are handing out, while simultaneously accusing their opponents of using the self-same tactics. Whichever one convinces the most fools wins the chance to loot the public treasury for the next few years, when we are again subjected to the cycle of lies and cheating….

Ah hell…. it’s a nice looking day outside, and here I am ranting about assholes who aren’t going to change anyway…. something wrong with that picture, so I guess I’ll go do something more constructively fun than this… though I have to admit I feel better…. It always helps me to call Mitt Romney an asshole…. makes my whole morning….
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This turned on me a bit…. it became something of a small ordeal, but, I won…. I’ve fought through to the end of another morning’s ramblings, and it looks like a pretty far-ranging ramble indeed…. Well, such as it is, here it is…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Layered in pugnacious pyjamas….

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11

Ffolkes,
I’m beginning to think that my habit of writing an average of 1500 words every morning is depleting my store of inspiration; if not, it is at least getting weary, and hiding from me more often. I can’t really blame it, as I’ve asked it to perform miracles almost every day, turning pearls, and what is in my head, into something worth putting down on paper (note: that phrase is rapidly losing all meaning, as computers become more ubiquitous….). That’s a lot of miracles in just about 300 days.

“This writing business. Pencils and whatnot. Overrated, if you ask me.” — Winnie the Pooh

But, having set myself the goal of posting a Pearl every day (set long ago, and too late now to worry about changing…), I feel duty-bound to make the best effort I can to meet that goal. So, I carry on, in spite of the increasing difficulty. I suppose it has to do with how writing is not for the weak-minded, or for those with no staying power to their will. Since I’m now not a chef, or a psych tech, or an executive assistant, writing is what I do, so I’ve left myself with very little choice but to keep on keepin’ on, as Jerry and the boys would have said….

I see my life go drifting like a river
From change to change; I have been many things –
A green drop in the surge, a gleam of light
Upon a sword, a fir tree on a hill,
An old slave grinding at a heavy quern,
A king sitting upon a chair of gold –
And all these things were wonderful and great;
But now I have grown nothing, knowing all.
Ah! Druid, Druid, how great webs of sorrow
Lay hidden in that small slate-coloured thing!
— William Butler Yeats, “Fergus and the Druid”

What does that mean for this process? Well, nothing really…. but it got me two more paragraphs of semi-literate, if relatively meaningless discussion of a personal problem, and a great pearl from Yeats, and that ain’t nothing…. so, we’ll just use that as a very, very loose segue into today’s dive for pearls…. shall we Pearl, then?…..
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“I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round.” — John Lennon

Men are afraid of women… hence all the jokes about them taking over, over slyly ruling us without us knowing it. Men’s fears of just that thing are what cause him to hate women, because they do not understand them, and fear arises out of lack of understanding. Here are a few examples of such lies, the lies that perpetuate the war between the sexes…..

“My notion of a wife at 40 is that a man should be able to change her, like a bank note, for two twenties.” — Warren Beatty

A lady is one who only shows her underwear intentionally. — Smart Bee

— Yo momma……so fat she has to buy two airline tickets. — Smart Bee

“A beautiful woman is paradise for the eyes, hell for the soul, and purgatory for the purse.” — Smart Bee

“Passionate kiss like spider web, lead to undoing of fly.” — Confucius say (No, he didn’t, but liars don’t care….)

Really, really sexist, misogynistic, and paranoid, yes? Yes….

The mere existence of these jokes, and others like them, indicates clearly what men are afraid of in women, and that is their sexuality. We… well, men, not necessarily we men, because not all of us hate them… No I don’t understand them, but that doesn’t make them any less fascinating or wonderfully different. I am aware of my own self, and my own powers, and they have naught to do with what women can do; I feel no need to compare the two, or to assume one is stronger or better. They are just different, and what is different about women is not to be feared, even if not understood. It is just to be learned, and appreciated, that’s all….and the learning is a totally awesome trip, I assure you….

But, back to the sexuality that men fear. Their fear exists because these men have never learned to understand themselves, or their place in the scheme of things; that makes them unable to understand women, and turns their ignorance to fear, and from thence to hatred and abuse against them.

Men cannot stand the thought that a woman might be more important than him, and that is a certain sign of lack of confidence, and of ignorance.  Men who know their place in life, and who are confident of their own ability to cope with that place and its demands, have no need or desire to be more important than anyone; they are complete within themselves….

Too many men in this world don’t come anywhere close to this kind of self-knowledge; most go through life without exercising more than two neurons at once, and those tend to lose function whenever the blood goes elsewhere than the brain (such as during an erection). Most men are so afraid of women that they spend half their life telling jokes like the above, and spreading the nonsensical lies that perpetuate this atrocity.

Yes, atrocity, because it is this fear and loathing, of both themselves and women, that leads to issues such as domestic abuse, sex trafficking, prostitution, and abuse of children. The only women who are actively engaged in these activities are those who have been brainwashed to believe the crap they’ve heard all their lives, and who have given up their own humanity; they are very few in number. Otherwise, it is men who perpetrate these vile actions on women…. all because of their own fear and ignorance…. I say, shame on them, for they are not men, in my world…. They are vicious, irredeemable beasts, and should be put down like the dangerous creatures they are…..

“In the dark colony of night, when I consider man’s magnificent capacity for malice, madness, folly, envy, rage, and destructiveness, and I wonder whether we shall not end up as breakfast for newts and polyps, I seem to hear the muffled cries of all the words in all the books with covers closed.” — Leo Rosten
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“The power of a bold idea uttered publicly in defiance of dominant opinion cannot be easily measured. Those people who speak out in such a way as to shake up not only the self-assurance of their enemies, but the complacency of their friends, are precious catalysts for change.” — Howard Zinn

I would like to take a moment here to acknowledge a very honorable, and brave, act by the President of this country, Barack Obama. Yesterday, in a press conference, the President put the power of his office behind the defense of human rights, by stating that his administration was fully convinced that legislation that denied marriage to gay couples, or to anyone else, was directly in opposition to the Constitution by which we live. He made this a national announcement, and set the stage for what is sure to be a fire-storm of protest from the political and religious factions that have made this issue their rallying cry.

The idea that marriage between people who are not male and female is acceptable is one whose time has obviously arrived. Current polls nationwide have borne out the fact that a large majority of the population agrees with that assessment. But it doesn’t detract from the bravery required to mount that horse at this time, for it had to be known that it would be a decision that would create a lot of noise from those who feel differently.

So, I am, for once, proud of what a President has done; it is something I cannot recall ever happening in the past, at all. Most of the time I am forced to shake my head and hide my face in shame, agreeing fully with the Dixie Chicks when they apologized for Bush to the rest of the world.

Let us all take this time to appreciate how this President has taken the reins of leadership firmly in hand, to direct our country toward a future where human rights are more important than living in fear and ignorance…. Yay, Barry!…. Good Job!

“A commitment to diversity is not a commitment to blacks or gays or any other group. A commitment to diversity is a commitment to respect and value each individual employee (person) for who they are, a commitment to help them become the best they can be by honoring their nature.” — Callan Williams
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OPERA
For centuries now, Opera has been the foremost method of humiliation available to the security forces. It began in the late 1600s, when peasant rebels were made to dress up as ridiculously fat people and get up on wooden planks in front of hundreds of their peers and shout the same things over and over and over, to a musical accompaniment. By the time the French Revolution came rolling along, it was the aristocrats who were forced to the stage to sing, gesticulate wildly and loudly perform plays devised to spread Revolutionary propaganda.  Nowadays, Opera has been driven underground, but is still carried out by the perverse, the deviant, and those with very big tits (both men and women), their audiences made up almost exclusively of establishment figures. — Daniel Bowen’s TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA

That’s what I’m talking about! Opera, to me, seems like a perfect example of how a lot of folks get all worked up over something that everyone else says is cool, but really has nothing to justify that opinion. Sure, there is some good music that came out of opera, and a few cool songs (far fewer than any opera buff would have us believe…), but for the most part it is just a bunch of hype that normally smart folks seem to fall for on a regular basis, just because a consensus says they should. It seems to me that anything that anyone does because they ‘should’ gets exactly what they deserve, i.e., twaddle… and a good portion of it.

So, don’t fall for this nonsense folks. Remember, friends don’t let friends go to an opera… unless they’re mad at them….
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Underneath this sable hearse
Lies the subject of all verse,–
Sidney’s sister, Pembroke’s mother.
Death, ere thou hast slain another,
Learn’d and fair and good as she,
Time shall throw a dart at thee.
— Ben Jonson (1573-1637) — Epitaph on the Countess of Pembroke

And as she looked around, she saw how Death the consoler,
Laying his hand upon many a heart, had healed it forever.
— Henry W. Longfellow (1807-1882) — Evangeline, Part ii

“For good men but see death, the wicked taste it.” — Johnson

“Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead.” — Scottish Proverb

Mankind has always had a fascination with Death, which, I suppose, is natural, considering it is one of the few things in this universe that all of us will experience at the same time in our lives. It is the Great Equalizer, in its finest sense; no one escapes. There are probably more books and treatises on Death, or involving some manifestation of Death, than of any other subject, save perhaps Love, another subject that deeply affects us all.

My writing about it probably enters the realm of superfluousness, but I found these great pearls, so I couldn’t resist…. Besides which, as I move ever closer to my own time to have a face to face with the Reaper, I find myself turning my thoughts to the subject, somewhat morbidly I’m sure….

How each of us faces that particular moment is about as personal as things can be, for we are all ourselves, little as we may understand that phrase, and the things we have learned in our lives are what will determine whether we are able to greet Death with dignity, or pitch a fit of major proportions….

I’m not going to go any further into this at this time, as I’m not so close to my time as all that. But, I will say that I hope that I can approach my own demise with some aplomb; I really hate to make a scene. It’s so embarrassing to wash one’s dirty linen in public, and I hope I have more panache than that…. I guess we’ll see, won’t we…. like we had a choice in the matter….  🙂
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“Most people want security in this world, not liberty.” — H.L. Mencken

Mr. Mencken has put his finger firmly on what I see as wrong in our culture today, to wit: the average person in this country has assumed the “slave” mentality, and has adopted security as their preferred state over that of being free. Far too many of my countrymen, and women, have given up the right to think for themselves, opting instead to let the beloved ruling class decide for them what they may think, and what they may do.

They have given up this right for the illusion of security; I say illusion for the word ‘security’ has no meaning in Reality. One can never be completely secure; it just isn’t possible in a world where there are so many people devoted to taking advantage of one another.

Most folks who allow this degradation of their own liberty don’t realize that they have chosen an illusion. They believe that the people who have promised them security can not only give it to them, but are doing so because they care about what happens to their constituents. This, of course, couldn’t be further from the truth, for not only are they NOT doing it for their constituents, they are deliberately lying to them to get them to believe it.

The actual danger of being taken advantage of does not come from outside our country, but from those very folks who tell us we need to be secure, rather than free.  The very people who they think are helping them are the ones who are ripping them off with both hands….

“Any body of men who believe in hell will persecute whenever they have the power.” — Joseph M. McCabe (1867-1957)

It’s enough to make a man want to drink… a lot…. At least when I’m stone cold drunk I don’t feel so bad about it. Of course, in that state I don’t feel bad about anything, so it’s obviously not a solution, but it does offer some temporary relief from having to watch it happen. Ah well, so much for the American Dream, eh?…..
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Well, I must say, this has been one of the most interesting, and chaotic Pearls that I’ve ever composed. It seemed to go all over the map as I was writing, taking me from subject to subject willy-nilly, and having a grand time about it. On looking back over it all, it seems to have held together fairly well, so I’m going to go with it once again without trying to make any sense out of why…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

 

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

Kowabunga!

Sad songs get put next to the Edsel…

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Ffolkes,
Today is May Day…. I think I’ll be skipping my usual dance around the Maypole this morning, attractive as that sounds. Without giving TMI on the last two lost days, I’ll merely say that today is better…. not yet good, but better, and hopefully up to a Pearl. I may have to start making Pearls a bit shorter, as the 1000-2000 words I’ve been putting out on a daily basis may no longer be practical for me to get done in one morning, since I can’t sit for as long as has been my wont. Ah well, perhaps, perhaps not…. I’ll just have to see what the day brings, as far as pain goes, and make that decision when it becomes critical. For now, I intend to just Pearl, so let’s get started with no further delay…..

“Life is too short to be taken seriously.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
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“Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt (1759-1806) speech on the India Bill, Nov. 18, 1783

I had not intended to start with a political rant, but this just came up, so here we go…. This is as true today as it was in 1783, perhaps even more so. Since 9/11/01, when those fanatic idiots carried out their insane delusions of grandeur on the world stage, the “necessity” for Homeland Security has been the watchword of the political pundits who unfortunately are in charge of the legislative and executive branches of our government. Bill after bill after bill keeps coming down the pike and bulling their way through into becoming law, or even worse, is created by executive order, without the benefit of review by Congress, useless as that may be.

The entire incident that happened that day was blown completely out of proportion by the media. Yes, it was a tragedy, in which something over 3000 American lives were lost, in three separate incidents. The videos of those planes hitting the buildings in New York must have been replayed a thousand times before noon, all over the country, until every American who had access to a TV was informed of what had occurred…. We, as a nation, are not accustomed to being attacked on our own ground, though why we should be any different than those we attack is unclear to me.

The American media, and the political machinery that manipulates it so effectively, then proceeded to flood every channel with the after effects, making sure that the sorrow and fear of every person they could find willing to speak of it on camera was put on the evening news, and ensuring that no rational, dispassionate examination of the events would ever take place.

Before the first day had passed, the national reaction had been whipped to a frenzy, stirring the fears of every paranoid in society, and making it seem as if the entire nation was filled with anger and vengeful righteousness. Though I didn’t join in the paranoia, I could feel it happening all around me, as normally intelligent people became so angry they lost all sense of proportion, or for that matter, all sense of truth.

In the ensuing years, whenever the politicians have wanted to distract the nation from what they were actually doing, all they needed to do was mention the word terrorism, or national security, to immediately put attention off of them, and onto the pitiful  group of fanatical Muslims they blamed for the attacks (completely ignoring all the reasons those same politicians had provided those fanatics with to attack in the first place….). And thus, the Hunt for Osama bin Laden was on!

In this country, as a result of those attacks, approximately 5000 American lives were lost (that figure is larger than the actual number, purposely…. it is near enough to correct to make the point…). At this time, in the quest to find bin Laden in Afghanistan, over 50,000 Afghanis have been killed. In Iraq, which we somehow decided to invade, even though they had nothing to do with 9/11, well over 250,000 have died to soothe our national pride. In that same period, we lost another 1000 or so soldiers in fighting and bombings. And, as a side effect, the US Bill of Rights has been effectively eliminated, by Executive Order, disguised as Homeland Security.

“Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated” — George Bernard Shaw

So, what is my point here? My point is this…. those pathetic fanatics killed more than they had ever been able to kill, one time. Since that one time, our country has killed over 300,000 civilians and military in retaliation (you call it what you like, I call it schoolyard revenge by bullies), and every politician in this country has wrapped themselves in the flag, not to proclaim their patriotism, but to manipulate the unreasonable fear they created in the public to keep them from realizing the truth of the matter.

That truth is this: we are in no real danger from Al Qaida, or from any other splinter faction terrorist group. They may be able to pull off stunts such as that one occasionally, but for the most part, the world has gotten pretty good at either catching them in hiding, or stopping their plots before they actually carry them out. Governments have a LOT more resources than terrorists, no matter how rich they may be personally.

No, the pathetic, desperate people who become terrorists are created by those same political pundits who are reviling them and hunting them down. They are not a real threat to anyone, as they don’t have the wherewithal to perform more than one act of violence at a time; they cannot wage a war, they can only try to act as guerrilla forces, at best. Mostly, they are just sad schemers, planning glorious deaths that ultimately have no meaning, other than to provide the Western politicos another unreasonable fear to use against the American public, in order to continue their raping and pillaging among their own people.

The entire issue is one that is repugnant to me; I have watched in horror, not as terrorists have been hunted, but as the rights of the American people have been taken away in the name of “security”. Security from what? We don’t need more security from terrorists; those techniques for dealing with it are well-established, and effective, as they employ the very same methods used by the fanatics to achieve their ends. No, we need more security from our own pundits, who have utilized this tragic events for their own benefit, to the everlasting regret of every true patriot….. bloody assholes, every one of them…..

“I have formed a very clear conception of patriotism. I have generally found it thrust into the foreground by some fellow who has something to hide in the background. I have seen a great deal of  patriotism; and I have generally found it the last refuge of the scoundrel.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Judgement of Dr. Johnson, Act III
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“Always store beer in a dark place.” — Lazarus Long

At first look, this does not seem like much, does it? A short statement that apparently has to do with beer, and how to best keep it. But, by applying just a tad of metaphor, it becomes much more…. Perhaps the easiest way to show this is to ask a simple question, to wit: Why? Why should beer be kept in the dark? Well, that is pretty simple to check out…. just put some beer in a bright place, and wait a while to see what happens….

So, what happens? Well, the results vary a bit, depending on just how much light we are dealing with. For just a little light, the effects are minor; just a slight change in the flavor of the beer, but a change that is NOT an improvement. Also, after time, in the light, the carbonation in the beer will tend to dissipate, making it flat, which, as we know, does NOT improve the beer. It’s the reason it comes in dark containers, to reduce the effects of light on the beer.

The most dramatic effect, though, can be seen by leaving the beer in the direct sunlight, whereupon, after a minimal amount of time, it blows up! Boom, the tops fly off, and the beer fizzes itself right out of the bottles, due to the too-rapid heating of the gas in bubble form. A tragedy, and a terrible waste of good beer….

Thus we can see that this little piece of home-spun wisdom is much deeper than it seems, especially when one uses the metaphor previously mentioned, likening human relations to beer. (I know, a bit of a stretch, but not so much as trying to believe that a small number of delusional fanatics are capable of seriously harming this country….) And if nothing else, it will help you to keep your beer safe, and stored correctly until you want it for your evening libation….. still in the bottle…
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Ode to an Indispensable Man

Sometime, when you’re feeling important,
Sometime, when your ego’s in bloom,
Sometime, when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room;
Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow this simple instruction
And see how it humbles your soul.
Take a bucket and fill it with water;
Put your hand in it, up to the wrist.
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is the measure of how you’ll be missed.
You may splash all you please when you enter,
You can stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you’ll find in a minute
That it looks the same as before.
The moral in this quaint example
Is to do the best that you can.
Be proud of yourself, but remember –
There is no indispensable man.
— Smart Bee

I’ve also heard one that says, “If you are feeling important, try telling someone else’s dog to do something.”  This is here solely because it is good advice…. no embellishment needed, just pay heed…. it will save you a lot of grief in the long run….
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Always we hope
Someone else has the answer
Some other place will be better
Some other time it will all work out.
This is it.
No one else has the answer
No other place will be better
And it has already turned out.
At the center of your being
You have the answer;
You know who you are and what you want.
There is no need to turn outside
For better seeing.
Rather abide at the center of your being
For the more you leave it
The less you learn.
Search your own heart and see
the way to do is to be.
— Lao Tzu

This is another piece that needs no additional comment, as with many of the precepts in Taoism. The Way that can be known is not the true Way, is it?….
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“I wish to say what I think and feel today, with the proviso that tomorrow perhaps I shall contradict it all.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph hit a nail right on the head with this one…. It’s part of being human to change our minds, and this merely acknowledges that. I can relate, for sure, in at least one sense. Since our minds are the only thing in Reality that we have the power to change, then it behooves us to be aware of both the desirability and the danger of just that. In the end, all we really have is what we think; everything else is ephemeral, even more so than we are, and will pass away. Asi es la vida, si? Si….
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It is a strange morning, to be sure…. I’ve made it through to the end of this Pearl, and know not what I have done. Well, I know, but I don’t care… Shortening the Pearls may be a good idea, if only temporarily; I find myself fighting myself to get it done before I cannot sit any more, which distracts me from giving this my full attention. But, enough of my whining…

I’m going to let this fly, though in some ways it is not up to my usual standards. The rant is pretty good, though it could use a bit more filling. Or maybe some sauce. And it’s hard to beat Lao Tzu for providing food for thought. So, the rest of it will just have to do as it exists now, because, stick a fork in me, I’m done…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!