We shall begin in doubt….

Posted on November 26, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Things ain’t what they used to be and never were.”

~~ Will Rogers ~~

Pelete delo sogrino, igintelete. Doftole singre ankalatuprofuto! Sporiada se kunka, tele se falluke. Protogat salumbo, te gorte so fahl…..

So, I was sitting here, staring at the screen, when the line above flowed, very gently, from my brain to the screen, transported without comprehension by fingers of steel…. Well, they felt like steel, anyway. And, no, I don’t know what it means, and, in fact, I suspect it is in a language that has been dead since before the sinking of Atlantis, many, many moons ago…. All I really know for sure is that every single word of it was rejected by Spell Checker….

Not that I’m an expert in dead languages, but, I am fairly familiar with the current crop, and this, though it resembles several language’s word patterns, is nothing like any of those I’ve heard…. If anyone out there thinks it might be one they know, please, let me know via a comment…. Google spit at me when I plugged it in to their translator, and my little translation program froze for almost an hour, before telling me to never ask that question again, and what did I think I was doing, messing with a free program like that….

I suppose, at this point, I should just give in, and give up the ghost, in a manner of speaking….. Of course I made it up. What else? You expected, perhaps, some sort of actual phrase from a real language? If so, y’all need to spend a bit more time here, to gather some more info on me, which would have told you to never trust your senses, or to ever, ever take something I say in this intro seriously…. This is where it ALL hangs out, all my weirdness, all my angst, all my silliness…. because it’s all allowed to play with whomever it finds, and to say, and do, anything at all, if it only fills in the space needed to call this legal…..

Hell, some of the crap I’ve pulled here could conceivably have been prosecutable, had any lawyers caught wind of it. Especially with some of the rants I start; they do have a tendency to be somewhat vitriolic in nature when found in this section, with little regard for saying what is legally acceptable…. I guess one could say I’ve been a bit lucky there…. Today’s little blurb is even stranger than usual, as I seem to be slipping in and out of real-time as if it were a raincoat, on a rainy day in town…. On and off, off and on, we have been teasing reality with a bit of fantasy, pushing it for all it’s worth…. In this market, that won’t be much, but, hey, we’re a non-profit organization, so no big deal, eh?

In fact, I see I’ve blathered quite sufficiently for one morning, and may now proceed to fill in the rest of this mess, with whatever comes to mind today…. That, I can tell, MAY be somewhat odd, to say the least…. I’m in an odd mood, to be sure…. For me, that’s saying something, indeed…. We do odd quite well, when we do it at all…. and, when we FEEL odd, well…. It’s probably best not to give too much warning, lest y’all be tempted to ask for a refund, before we get out of the foyer…. In fact, let’s be downright ruthless, okay?…..

Shall we Pearl?

“Yes,” said Piglet, “Rabbit has Brain.” There was a long silence. “I suppose,” said Pooh, “that’s why he never understands anything.” — A. A. Milne

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It probably won’t take quite so long to read today’s post, as it would take to hear all of this collection, but, here is some pretty good music to listen to while reading this blog…. Trust me, Pearls are long, admittedly; I doubt, however, it will take eight hours for y’all to plow your way through it…. But, then, one never knows, do one?….

8 Hours best of Classical Music – 8 Stunden Klassische Musik

http://youtu.be/eVHsOyfq3f8

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“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?”” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

As many of y’all may have realized by now, I hate to be too obvious…. In light of that, rather than a rant on the mess our country has stepped into in Missouri, with yet ANOTHER asinine denial of justice, I’ll go with a rant from the archives, on another subject close to my heart…. Well, actually, in terms of how I feel about it, it’s much closer to my ass, but, we’ll go with heart for now, to maintain our dignity, such as it may be…..

It’s good to remember this issue, because it hasn’t gone anywhere at all…. In fact, it has worsened considerably, as the administration continues to completely ignore the public’s wishes in this, continuing its obsessive quest to expand the degree to which they spy on us…. If you doubt me, just read the damn news…. It’s all over the place….

From 11/4/2013:

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

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

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

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

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

I think he’s done about as well as he could to keep from helping our enemies. What he HAS done, to our own leaders, is embarrass them highly; THAT is what they will not forgive…. To a politician “face” is very important, as are all illusions of appearance; why else would they all wear those stupid ties, all of a “power” color, and that silly-ass flag pin….

They feel they cannot afford to be seen as weak, or indecisive, so they will make ANY decision, no matter how wrong it may be, just to keep from appearing as if they don’t know what to do. They’re incapable of making a decision at all if it would make it seem as if they were admitting to being wrong in any way…. To give Mr. Snowden the credit for what has done, they would have to first admit they have DONE wrong, and they are not willing to do that, more’s the pity….

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

(Note from 2014: This link is still active; I checked. For much more coverage of the issue, go to the UK Guardian website, which broke the original story. They have a full archive of articles examining the subject, from the time the story broke, up to very recently published works…. It’s very thorough coverage, giving a clear picture of the timeline of events….)

I happen to agree with Mr. Snowden’s assessment of the overall effect of his information leaks; I think he has made the world a safer place for all of us, if only because he made it perfectly clear that we are being lied to, right and left, by our own leaders. This is invaluable information, that the public NEEDS to know, if we are to be able to protect ourselves….

It is a bit disheartening, to be sure, to have to protect ourselves from our own leaders, but, hey, it’s better to know than not to know, for sure…. Now that we know, we can act accordingly to bring more pressure on the government to straighten up and fly right; if nothing else, more people have learned that it is important to keep a close eye on those who would call themselves our leaders, to keep them from screwing us around any more than they already are….

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

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

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

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

“To use power is to make yourself infinitely vulnerable to greater powers.” — Bene Gesserit

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As I’ve mentioned previously, this lady’s poetry is, perhaps, my favorite of all, save perhaps that of Alexander Pope…. I post this particular poem about once a year, or more, simply because it is so perfect an example of what poetry should be…. I don’t even have to say “Enjoy!”, because, if one has ANY appreciation at all of beauty, they WILL enjoy it…. Guaranteed, or, your money back…. (Hah! Gotcha there…. How much did you pay?….)

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

It occurs to me, I should add at least a token from Alex, to demonstrate why he is my other favorite poet…. Here is a very short, but clearly superior quatrain, that will give you a good idea…

Lull’d in the countless chambers of the brain,
Our thoughts are link’d by many a hidden chain;
Awake but one, and lo, what myriads arise!
Each stamps its image as the other flies.

~~ Alexander Pope (1688-1744) ~~

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Today’s Pearl is mostly fresh, save for the rant, which is only because I didn’t wish to get started on the Ferguson issue; I could tell, if I started, I may have never stopped…. If I did that, how would this Pearl ever get posted? That wouldn’t do, so, we went to the archives, as is our wont in such cases…. To compensate, I will see if Smart Bee is in a good enough mood to provide us with some good shots at the Asininnies this morning…. That should give y’all a hint as to the parameters, but, no worries, mates…. by the end, it will be clear just whom we are targeting….

” Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarcely in that; for it is true, we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct. Remember this: They that will not be counseled cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you over the knuckles.” — Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) — Maxims prefixed to Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1757

“One generation cannot bind another.” — Thomas Jefferson

“On a throne at the center of a sense of humor sits a capacity for irony. All wit rests on a cheerful awareness of life’s incongruities. It is a gentling awareness, and no politician without it should be allowed near power.” — George Will

“The Pledge of Allegiance says ‘liberty and justice for all’. Which part of ‘all’ don’t you understand?” — Rep. Pat Schroeder (D) Colo.

“Nothing so needs reforming as other people’s habits.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910)

“America’s one of the finest countries anyone ever stole.” — Bobcat Goldthwait

“A truly great man will neither trample on a worm nor speak to an emperor.” — Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Not too shabby, even if we had to resort to bracketing by Ben….. It will do…. It has to, it’s the last section, & we’re NOT starting over….

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“All right, you degenerates! I want this place evacuated in 20 seconds!” — Zippy the Pinhead

I have to confess… It may have been a better idea to create a fresh rant; I’m not sure I cleaned out enough dross and/or drivel to keep me sane today…. Ah well, in our society, insanity is merely another option, one, which, in sooth, is a sane reaction, to an insane world…. If you followed that, you know exactly whereof I speak; if it is a bit unclear to you, well, that’s pretty damn insane of you, so, good on ya…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, whether you got that, or not….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Absolutely more fun than clotted cream….

Posted on November 25, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

~~ Zen proverb ~~

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A dream, weeping….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Basho ~~

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So be it…. gigoid has spoken.

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

No job for a gentleman….

Posted on November 20, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I count religion but a childish toy … there is no sin but ignorance.”

~~ Machiavel, from The Jew of Malta ~~

~~ Christopher Marlowe ~~

Mei stumbled under the load she carried, as she climbed the path to her parent’s cottage, set upon a small hill just outside the town where they lived…. The town sat on the road leading to the great city of Peking, where the Emperor held court with the great nobles and beautiful ladies Mei saw each day, passing by on the Great Road leading into the city from the south. Mei liked to watch them pass by, seated in their swaying palanquins, distant and aloof, as they stared indolently out at the gaping crowds along the roads, wishing she could see the court, where the bright clothes and sparking jewels of the courtesans were said to outshine the sun…. She just knew it would be the most beautiful sight she would ever see….

Bah, humbug…. I’m already bored with little Mei; I’m pretty sure she’ll end up as another fashion maven, or courtesan, doomed to a short life full of the misery so common to the lower classes in ancient China…. or, at least, if the Emperors back then were of the same ilk as today’s ruling classes, it would be so. I don’t think human nature has undergone any particularly startling changes over the last couple thousand years…. No, the depths of human stupidity are boundless, and I don’t think there are enough of us who can see what is happening to be able to change the direction we’ve taken, one sure to lead us to places we do NOT want to end up….

But, sadly, the Asininnies who run the planet are no smarter than the rest of us….. They refuse to see beyond the needs of their own avarice and lust for power, blithely assuming their invulnerability…. So, I rant, and make my peace with karma, so as to remain ready for the imminent extinction I see as the only remaining outcome to our current state of affairs…. I hate to be pessimistic, as humans do have the potential to make the necessary changes; I just haven’t seen any evidence that would show there are enough ffolkes willing to make those changes, compared to those who prefer to ignore any and all warnings from reality that their actions are not merely unproductive, but, frankly suicidal….

There I go again…. Damn, I sure wish that wouldn’t happen, but, I suppose if it didn’t, this blog wouldn’t have lasted as long as it has…. There is something to be said for stubbornness…. I’m not certain just what that may be, but, hey, I don’t know everything….. That has been made perfectly clear in the past three-plus years, hasn’t it? I do however, have a small degree of control over this vessel, so, I can utilize whatever exit strategies we may need to get us where we need to go…. Well, I’m authorized to do so, even if it isn’t always physically possible…. we do try, though, honest.

Not only do we make a concerted effort to maintain control, we don’t charge any extra fees for doing it, so, I guess that makes us a bunch of bloody altruists, now, doesn’t it? Not a bad reputation for one old, fat fart with flat feet, and a tendency for his nose to grow red and round…. In fact, I think I’ll take this opportunity to rest firmly upon my laurels, insofar as it applies to the task at hand, which, of course, may be seen to be of the category “not at all”….. In point of further fact, I’m now fully in the process of cheating, which hopefully will take us out of this mess, one rapidly losing all hope of ever being rescued…..

In fact, I’m so officially and completely lost, we’re leaving…. NOW….

Shall we Pearl?

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

~~ William Butler Yeats, “The Stolen Child” ~~

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

After such a strangely apt opening, I think a bit of music to soothe our now-troubled minds would be in order….

Music for reading – Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Debussy, Lizst, Schumann

http://youtu.be/Qc7UzQB8gtI

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

“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.” — From The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, by Robert A. Heinlein

Cognitive Synthesis of Perception. Precognitive Forecasting. Looking At The Big Picture. Multi-tiered thought. There are many phrases/words used to try to describe the process of prognostication of future events in human culture, a pastime obviously fraught with the danger of being wrong more often than not. The future has a past history of surprising us with its unpredictability, almost without fail, as we are not as smart as we would like to believe, IN RELATION TO THE BIG PICTURE.

That last part, you see, is a fatal flaw in all of us; by using our intellect, by removing our minds and thoughts from the plane on which we exist with everything else, spending time in our imagination, we tend to lose the connection we have to what is REAL, thereby failing to account for that source of information/perceptions, and/or its influence on what may come to pass.

In short, we forget to calculate OUR OWN effect on events, which, as is patently obvious, is completely predictable, in its insistence on sticking to a pattern of deliberate stupidity in the face of reality. We humans, as a matter of course, will use all our will to deny reality if it doesn’t fit in with our preconceived notions of what we would LIKE reality to be….

Most of the time, our unwillingness to think puts us, according to those who would have us believe without examination, under the control of supernatural being, who will forever relieve us of any responsibility for our actions, and will never, ever make us try to think for ourselves again, once they have surrendered our will to this delusional entity…. This delusion is particularly powerful in its reliance on “ipse dixit” reasoning, which allows the proponents of the blindness the permission to completely ignore any and all contradictory evidence they may be presented with, whether real, or reasoned…. Nothing will penetrate, because they won’t allow it….

If you think I’m exaggerating, then I offer the following as a relatively strong set of proof, of an ilk even the most ignorant could conceivably find acceptable, in that it’s all direct reporting by other humans, all of whom suffer from the same core set of delusions…. even those who seem to be reporting contradictory evidence…. Very few of them actually express any awareness of THEIR OWN prejudices…. but, one must read SOMETHING in order to find ANY kind of thought stimulus….

Below are a large number of links to articles I read on the Net yesterday…. Most express outrage at the bozoid activities they describe, so, at least those authors have some clue as to what is going on, so, what they report assumes a slightly more acceptable level of what might be held as truth…. My point can be found not by reading and studying each and every article, end to end, (as I MOSTLY did…. sigh, I’m tired, too…), but, rather, by looking at the total picture, the gestalt, as it were, that is suggested by considering them ALL as single pieces of evidence of the problem that exists in humanity’s nature…. Some seem to be good news, some are obviously NOT so encouraging, but, all point to the same conclusion, my friends, using any sort of reasoning method you may choose to apply…

In short, looking at the Big Picture will convince you that THE ENTIRE WORLD HAS GONE INSANE, AND THERE IS NO CURE!

Sorry, ffolkes, but, as far as I can see, all the evidence available points to that conclusion, and I do try to be realistic, if somewhat optimistic at times…. Okay, hell, busted; I’m a cynical old curmudgeon…. Nevertheless, I still don’t see much that convinces me people are going to change, not enough to make enough difference against the inertia created by the mass of STUPIDITY and DELIBERATE IGNORANCE I see surrounding me on this planet…. Meanwhile, well, here I am, stuck on this sorry old ball of mud without my space ship, and no other way to get away before it all goes south….. No hills to head out for, so to speak….

Here, read as many as you like…. There are lots more where these came from, and each one is rant-worthy by itself….. Afterwards, I’ll include a few pearls to help illustrate the point….

http://observer.com/2014/11/breaking-doj-moves-to-disqualify-all-defense-attorneys-who-know-of-govt-misconduct/

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/11/19/3593628/how-did-this-unarmed-schizophrenic-woman-get-killed-by-cleveland-police/

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/11/18/3593645/house-epa-science-advisory-board-bill/

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/18/1345795/-Gov-Mike-Pence-says-not-giving-food-to-the-unemployed-will-ennoble-them?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/18/3593389/congress-postal-service/

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/18/1345753/-About-these-pundits-and-their-fetish-for-bipartisanship-Can-t-they-just-find-a-toe-to-suck-instead?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/11/18/1345751/-McConnell-Boehner-struggle-to-find-a-way-around-another-government-shutdown?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/19/hillsborough-inquest-police-story-forced-gate-liverpool-supporters

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/19/nsa-reform-surveillance-usa-freedom-act-section-215

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2014/nov/19/man-allegedly-tortured-us-ulk-troops-wins-right-sue-damages

http://time.com/3594482/holiday-shopping-black-friday-thanksgiving-christmas-gifts/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29

I would like to point out the sheer avarice our culture encourages as implied by the last article, as well as to have you note that this is an article about buying ‘stuff’ for Christmas, in November, while we are still over a week away from Thanksgiving…. SIGH….

“I never could see why people were so happy about Dickens’ `A Christmas Carol’ because I never had any confidence that Scrooge was going to be any different the next day.” — Dr. Karl Menninger, American psychiatrist (1893-1990), — on the transience of the Christmas spirit.

“There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat and grows old.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act ii, Sc. 4

“We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.” — Dwight D Eisenhower

“The distinction between Freedom and Liberty is not accurately known; naturalists have been unable to find a living specimen of either.” — Ambrose Bierce “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Politics is perhaps the only profession for which no preparation is thought necessary.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

“I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“I think as long as you suffer for your sins, they don’t count.” — Calvin

“I don’t think we should punish the criminal [a rapist] by killing his child.” — Dr. John Wilke, President, National Right to Life Committee, — Search for Common Ground, taped for television 4/89, as quoted in — The Far Right, Speaking For Themselves, a Planned Parenthood pamphlet

To summarize, once more, with feeling, loud enough for those in the rear of the hall to hear…. say it with me now!…..

“Stupidity is much the same all the world over.” — John Stuart Mill

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

Today’s ending quote in the intro section was a bit of a tease, so, here is another bit of doggerel from our old friend, Willie B…..

When You Are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

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

In an attempt to counter-balance the large load of deliberate mendacity described in section two above, here is an old school pearl with advice, comments, and observations about some of humanity’s more sterling qualities, few as they may be….

Know then this truth (enough for man to know),–

“Virtue alone is happiness below.”

~~ Alexander Pope (1688-1744) ~~

~~ Essay on Man, Epistle iv, Line 309 ~~

“My own life has been spent chronicling the rise and fall of human systems, and I am convinced that we are terribly vulnerable…. We should be reluctant to turn back upon the frontier of this epoch. Space is indifferent to what we do; it has no feeling, no design, no interest in whether or not we grapple with it. But we cannot be indifferent to space, because the grand, slow march of intelligence has brought us, in our generation, to a point from which we can explore and understand and utilize it. To turn back now would be to deny our history, our capabilities.” — James A Michener

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter.” — Thomas Jefferson

And it’s just a box of rain
I don’t know who put it there
Believe it if you need it
Or leave it if you dare
And it’s just a box of rain
Or a ribbon for your hair
Such a long, long time to be gone
And a short time to be there

~~ Box of Rain by Lesh, Hunter ~~

“Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look at what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, “Is it reasonable?” — Richard Feyman’s father

“Everywhere the human soul stands between a hemisphere of light and another of darkness; on the confines of two everlasting hostile empires, Necessity and Freewill.” — Carlyle (1795-1881)

The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character.
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings.

~~ The Buddha ~~

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

Today’s Pearl came together rather quickly, given the fact the ranting section was completed yesterday as I perused the news…. There were so many egregious examples of just how crazy the world has gone, it put itself together…. So, here I am, at 0545, mostly done, and no idea what to do next…. The rest of the world won’t be up for a couple hours, mostly, so, I may as well just go back to bed…. I could, I suppose, try to find something constructive to do, but, what fun would THAT be, eh? I think I’ll go find a bureaucrat to torment, if I can find one out of bed this early…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Just for fun, let’s watch it fester….

Posted on November 19, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.”

~~ Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long ~~

Today’s picture is one that gives me a feeling of peace. I found it on the blog of one of my favorite artist/poets, one Mari Sanchez Cayuso, whose bloody brilliant poetry can be found on her own blog site, StarsRainSunMoon…. This image, along with a bilingual poem of hers in accompaniment can be found here: http://starsrainsunmoon.com/2014/11/10/imagine-we-feel/ I like to think this picture is one she took looking out of her back yard, and that she walks over to the small island, for solitude, and to write her poems…. Perhaps it’s a bit fanciful, but, once you read some of her very personal, powerful poetry, you’ll see why she inspires the imagination….

Now, the quote from R. A. Heinlein is, of course, patently true as the day, and really needs no comment, nor any support from me, as it is a statement long accepted by society as truth…. Not that anyone appears to pay any attention…. The way our BRC loves to try to legislate morality, and the way they keep doing the same old shit we’ve seen throughout our checkered past, it’s obvious they aren’t paying any real attention to our history, but, hey, you can’t say they aren’t aware of it…. they’re just too greedy, and stupid, to care….

I am beginning to believe that simple fact; nobody with any real intelligence could do, or say, the idiotic shit our current crop of elected idiots has been displaying of late…. In my mind, nobody could BE that stupid, yet, there it all is, in black and white, on the front of every news paper and digital outlet on the net…. Egregiously stupid, repetitive, nonsensical crap keeps popping up on the screen, and each time, another blazing fool opens his/her mouth, and puts there foot right in it, seemingly with relish for the shitty taste…. At least, by their insane smiles and crazy eyes, they appear to be enjoying themselves, if with a bit of intensity not usual in people having actual fun….

Or, maybe that’s just me, seeing them with clearer eyes than many do…. It often seems to me that some folks just don’t WANT to hear anything that is contrary to the beliefs they hold in their tiny, mostly empty heads, so, they just don’t listen most of the time…. and, I get the feeling also that when they DO hear something, anything, that is at all complex, or scary, or contains the word terrorism, they stuff their fingers right into their ears, start singing “la la la” at the top of their lungs, and desperately remove themselves from the area where they’re hearing it…. fucking cowards, every damn one of them….

Oh well, since I started ranting here in the intro again, despite opening with such a lovely picture, I guess I should at least keep it short, and to the point…. Of course, it’s already too late for THAT, too, but, what the hell, I’ve got the reins, even if the horses are out of control…. and, I have NO IDEA what that means….. You know what THAT means, don’t you? Yep…. I’ve once again lost control of this mess, and will now be forced to dump it all right here, with no further attempts to save any of it, whilst we take our immediate leave, right through this little opening right HERE…..

Shall we Pearl?

“I have a feeling that at any time about three million Americans can be had for any militant reaction against law, decency, the Constitution, the Supreme Court, compassion and the rule of reason.” — John Kenneth Galbraith

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

Here is another concert from the past, from an old favorite of mine, the Righteous Brothers…. but, what I really like is what I found at the bottom of the page on You Tube where this one resides, which is a link to another suggested concert, this one from my first ever heart-throb…. There is a link to a concert by Miss Connie Francis…. which I’ll definitely be including here in a future post…. For now, enjoy the fine harmonies and powerful voices of another set of cultural icons from our past…..

The Righteous Brothers – Legends In Concert

http://youtu.be/5pPlTSAV89o

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

In these past couple of weeks, my life has been more settled, and I’ve spent more time in company than has been the case for close to four years…. This seems to have had an effect on my angst, to the point it isn’t as easy to work up the outrage necessary for a proper rant…. But, since I’ve been ranting for several years now, it isn’t too hard to find an appropriate discussion for the day, which I’ve done today by going back into the 2012 archives…. for this section, and for the old school pearl in the final section… It’s a combo-rant, covering more than one group of Asininnies…. If you’ve read it before, feel free to skip down to the poem….

From 8/7/2012:

“The evidence of the emotions, save in cases where it has strong objective support, is really no evidence at all, for every recognizable emotion has its opposite, and if one points one way then another points the other way. Thus the familiar argument that there is an instinctive desire for immortality, and that this desire proves it to be a fact, becomes puerile when it is recalled that there is also a powerful and widespread fear of annihilation, and that this fear, on the same principle proves that there is nothing beyond the grave. Such childish proofs are typically theological, and they remain theological even when they are adduced by men who like to flatter themselves by believing that they are scientific gents…” — H. L. Mencken

“One of the proofs of the immortality of the soul is that myriads have believed it–they also believed the world was flat.” — Mark Twain

“Convincing yourself doesn’t win an argument.” — Robert Half

Here is an old school Pearl, in a manner of speaking…. These three quotations all say pretty much the same thing, with varying types of expression. Each, to me, seems to express that same idea more succinctly than the one before, leaving out more and more words until the final statement gives the bottom line… which is one that is heavily argued by those to whom it most applies….

It’s funny (ironic funny) to me to hear some of the arguments proposed by the priestly hierarchies in support of their beliefs. Some are couched in formal robes, all dressed up so they appear as reasoned logic, rather than the unwarranted assumptions that they really are. Mr. Mencken’s expression above would be the most effective in engaging these wordy individuals, as it would appeal to the side of them that pretends to being a scientist. They might reject the arguments, since their own arguments are, in the final analysis, subjectively formulated, not based on observations but on induction, as the platform of their entire argument is all based on an imaginary entity’s theoretical wishes…..

“Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so”…. Such an innocent sounding piece of doggerel…. one would scarcely believe it is one of the most insidious examples of blatant propaganda in existence. The proponents of the “Old man in the sky” group start drumming this into the minds of children as soon as they are able to talk, and, as they well know, before they learn to doubt what their elders tell them. Children naturally accept what their parents tell them, almost exclusively for the first few years of life.

This home-schooling form of brainwashing continues once they are of an age to start looking outside their family for knowledge of the world, with teachers, preachers, and kindly old aunts who continue to inundate the young minds with stories of Bible heroes and villains, drilling into the malleable minds the sense of entitlement and elitism that will provide them with the impetus for bigotry later in life. In addition, this period strengthens the brainwashing given earlier, teaching the kids that they should only trust certain people to tell them the truth, and that all the other religions in the world are not only not saved, but are not eligible for saving, due to their own beliefs, which are characterized as villainous, and as enemies, to be reviled and persecuted because they are different….

“The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame.” — Oscar Wilde

This entire process, this systematic, deliberate mental conditioning, is, to my mind, pretty despicable. It denies its proponents any possible way of examining the information that other systems may possess, by convincing them that all other forms of knowledge are not only wrong, but blasphemous in nature, and should be cast aside whenever encountered, without ever examining the information for its relevance, or its accuracy.

Education is learning that you did not even know what you did not even know you did not even know. — Smart Bee

The whole system is designed to continue the delusional system into the future, while keeping the congregation in the dark of ignorance. It has no other purpose…. it is not in place to help or sustain the members of the congregation, but rather to control that population’s thoughts and behavior, ensuring the power and influence of the priests, pastors, preachers, or whatever name they choose to call themselves…..

I can only count myself as fortunate, to have been raised without the brainwashing on a regular basis. We attended a Presbyterian church, probably an offshoot of the old Church of England, where the adage about “cake, or death?” was originated…. The net result of this was that I was able to include other systems in my education, and found the entire construct to be a house of invisible cards, easily knocked down with a single bite of the Apple….

“How come you never see a politician (or a preacher) laugh? Because they know what they’re getting away with, and if they started laughing, they’d never stop.” — Smart Bee

And you know what else?…. I always thought Satan got a pretty raw deal, all for exercising the free will he was given…. and so did Adam and Eve…. Even as a child of five, I always wondered why God had set them up to fail like that…. it’s like, “Here’s the apple…. don’t taste it….” and then making sure we, as humans, had a sense of wonder and curiosity strong enough to disregard the admonition…. Even then, it looked like a set-up, and I could never reconcile the image in my head of a God, supposedly with infinite knowledge, setting up his own creation like that…. it just didn’t seem very God-like, or even fair…. and I still don’t get it, even today…..

With a subject such as this, it’s hard to know when to stop…. the issue has been one that has held Mankind back for two millennia now, preventing us from achieving our real potential as a species. All the progress we, as a species, have made in the last 3,000 years or so has been in spite of the efforts of the priestly hierarchies to keep us as ignorant as possible; at every turn of the wheel of science, the powers that be have thrown sand in the works, to try to slow down the acquisition of knowledge.

“Neither do the ignorant seek after wisdom. For herein is the evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself; he has no desire for that of which he feels no want.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.)

They know that an educated populace, capable of reasoning beyond the limitations placed on the human mind by religious dogma, is the greatest threat to their continued existence as the leaders of Mankind. They know that once people are exposed to knowledge (the flesh of the Apple, remember?), the less they will submit to the brainwashing that is the lot of the common man…. and it scares them to death…..

Doubt. Question authority. Ask the next, deeper question. And never, ever, give up the right to make up your own mind…. In the final analysis, that power is the only one we all have, and the only one that cannot be taken away from us without our consent…. Viva la raza!…..

Oh, and won’t it be nice when you don’t have to give tithes anymore?…..

Though old the thought and oft exprest,
‘T is his at last who says it best.

— James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) ~~

~~For an Autograph ~~

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

Here is another of my poems, from 2012, when my long hiatus at writing poetry ended…. I hope you enjoy it; it’s one of my better poems…. Well, I think so….

Intelligent Crimes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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

I’m a bit lazy today, so here is a pearl from a couple years ago, just for fun…. It’s a good one, too…. When they only have five stars, they’re usually more pointed, thus more effective in making the point….

From 8/6/2012:

It’s time again for an old-school pearl…. these statements all lead to one cogent thought, one that can completely change your life, and how you look at that life…. just let your mind float freely, holding each thought, then adding the next one in, until all have been mixed together thoroughly, to a smooth consistency…. and you will SEE!…..

“Always store beer in a dark place.” — Lazarus Long

Be a hero! Teach your children to think for THEMSELVES! — Smart Bee

“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” — Oscar Wilde, “Oscariana”

“You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.” — Malcolm X

“Once you can accept the universe as being something expanding into an infinite nothing which is something, wearing stripes with plaid is easy.” — Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

And, as it has been said for centuries in the alleyways and hidden streets of the world’s greatest cities,….. there you go. You may now consider yourself a yogini of highest rank….. or was that yogurt? No matter, don’t you feel enlightened? I know I do….. with a nice blueberry aftertaste….

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

Such as it is, there it is…. I can’t say I put the most effort into this one; I don’t seem to have the urge to write as strongly as most days….. Ah well, this has gone on long enough, I know it will change again tomorrow…. It always does, one way or another…. So, there will be more fresh material coming soon…. For now, we’re done here, so, I’ll accept my fate without complaint, and take myself off to contemplate my sins…. (Sure I will….) See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Nuke those gum drops before they’re served, please….

Posted on November 18, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“No falsehood lingers into old age.”

~~ Sophocles (406 BC) ~~

In response to the quote, from Sophocles, I would say, “except, perhaps, those we tell to ourselves.” That simple fact may be part of the problem, wouldn’t you think?….. Ah well….

In coming centuries, should we survive to see them, the Philae lander, (which you see above in an artist’s rendering of its descent to the comet on which it tried to land, taken from Space.com’s coverage of the event), may become the subject of a number of jokes, described as “Philae, the Bouncing Bot”, or other such inane nicknames, a result of the comical way it managed to complete its landing sequence…. Thanks to the unknown physical demands of the landing, onto a comet moving at great speed, the silly thing managed to bounce three times before coming to a complete rest on the surface, a sequence of events not realized until the pictures from the mother-ship had been analyzed….

What a ride, eh? Zooming along through space, trying to land on a rock, only to find itself on a make-shift carnival ride…. Too bad it didn’t have any human riders to give us a play-by-play description of how it felt to be bouncing over the surface of a speeding rock through the depths of space… As it was, we were barely able to find the poor wee ‘bot where it ended up on the surface, finally spotting it shortly before its batteries gave out. The information it was able to transmit to the scientists at the EU Space Center, of the single drilling sample it was able to perform, was sent to the center just before it said “Nighty night”, and went to sleep, perhaps never to wake again….

Since there is only a small chance of it ever doing so, we’ll leave our species’ latest technological wonder to rest in peace, and hope it passes through enough sunlight on its trip around the Sun to be able to wake up & reestablish contact with Earth. Until then, we’ll just tell it, “Well done, little ‘bot!”, and get on with today’s Pearl…. Hey, we’ve got to get started some time, right? Right…. Now seems like a good time….

Since we’ve already come down the page a ways, I think we’ll take what we’ve been given, and run to the bank to deposit what may be left by the time we get there…. Not that we’re going to sweat much over an imaginary deposit in an imaginary bank, but, it deserves a mention, if only to fill in just a few more lines…. Pretty cool the way I slipped those in there, isn’t it? I’m getting fairly adept at this, I think…. Other times, I’m sure I’m deluding myself, and, since I haven’t a clue as to how to figure out which is true, we’ll pretend I never said anything about it, and take the opening into the rest of the Pearl that is looming just ahead…. In fact, DUCK!….

Whew, almost hit the overhead lights on that pass…. Oh well, we made it, and we’re here, so, lets’ get on with it…..

Shall we Pearl?

“In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong.” — John Kenneth Galbraith, Guardian (London, 28 July 1989)

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

I don’t know about y’all, but, I love Van Morrison’s music, always have…. Here’s a bunch of it…. Enjoy this little trip through the past, ffolkes, or else….

Van Morrison- BBC Four Sessions 2008

http://youtu.be/p-lOyh5wBEk

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I’m not late, but, the news is currently pretty boring, and, more importantly, I AM quite lazy…. Hence, another blast from the past…. This one isn’t a rant, per se, though it shows some rant-like qualities…. I think we’ll label this one a ‘discussion’….

From 10/22/2012:

“Don’t ever become a pessimist, Ira; a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun — and neither can stop the march of events.” — Lazarus Long, from Time Enough For Love, by Robert Heinlein

As with many important truths, this one does not comfort one to know it; a common attribute of remarks by Lazarus, who has a tendency to voice the truth regardless of its potential, or even certain, effect on the audience. And, damn it, it is just so much simpler to let all the bad stuff hold sway on our attention, and give in to the depressive urge to berate and chastise the universe for its lack of tact and consideration for human sensibilities. It never listens, anyway….

My semi-rant in section one today is a perfect example of this principle at work; I do try to maintain some optimism in the face of reality; I even have learned to try to explain away all the weird stuff, as being outside the statistical universe under consideration. It’s a lie, but it’s my lie, so I usually can buy into it, long enough to allow denial to set in, and thus preventing the otherwise inevitable depression over how bad things have gotten…..

Actually, right now, it’s fairly simple to stay completely distracted, as we always have the election, and all the shenanigans taking place on that stage, to draw our attention away from the imminent demise we face as a species, or even, more importantly, our personal concerns of everyday living. It’s easy to deny the inevitability of carbon monoxide pollution when we have Mitt the Twitt’s lies to chase down, or Biden’s latest zinger to admire, or Lyin’ Ryan’s latest example of elitism to watch with dropped jaw….. It’s a veritable circus, and the clowns are in full swing….

(Note from 2014: This was written during the 2012 campaign leading to the national election, with Mitt, the Twit, Romney, cluelessly running against Barry the Obama, who was seeking his second term at the helm….)

It’s not just the candidates providing the entertainment, either…. every Tom, Dickwad, and Mary is chiming in with their two cents, on TV, radio, and, most prodigiously, on the Internet, all trying to get SOMEONE to listen to them during the run-up to the election. Those two cents can get very, very strange, as each commenter tries to make the most outrageous statements and/or claims/accusations about all the actors on stage, providing a whole new package of entertainment for us, each one vying for our attention at the top of their lungs, figuratively speaking…..

This is where the metaphor of the circus gains its credibility, although, more accurately, I am reminded by this, most emphatically, of just about any carnival at the County Fairs I’ve been to….. Disheveled, sinister-looking barkers, complete with suspenders and a cigar in their mouth, yelling out the prizes they promise, each one grander than the next, and easy as pie to win: exotic visions that promise endless satisfaction of desires, enormously valuable jewels and objet’s d’art for virtually nothing, and endless illusions to draw the eye away from the seediness and underlying, almost frenetic despair permeating the air….

Yes, indeed, the political scene here in America has always reminded me of a carnival, and the events and activities that prompt my impression of the election as an illusionary device, designed to fool the public into thinking that things will change if they vote, has never been stronger than it is now. I have hope that by voting against the obviously evil side of the campaign, the overall effect on the immediate future will be mitigated to some degree. But, I can find within me very little hope that the eventual outcome is in doubt, and that outcome is not one that anyone is going to like…. at all.

My optimism is fairly natural to me; I’ve always been a hopeful kind of person, and I continue to hold hope that mankind’s future will extend beyond this century, groundless as it may be. My pessimism, unfortunately, has the advantage of having the most evidence in it’s favor right now, even if Obama wins the election, as I expect he will. He is only one man, and the course of human events is very difficult to change once it is headed in a particular direction. My hope is based on the wish that more than just he will learn to make the inner changes needed for us all to survive the storms that are coming…. A slim hope, yes, but hey, it happens to be all we’ve got…..

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Here is a piece of my own poetry, written during a period of contemplation of current events, (of that time, of course….), of the most personal kind, in which I managed to include much of my own philosophy, truncated into verse, right in the very last stanza…. Go figure….

Raging at Aging

As old as you feel, we are told, is old as you are,
custom assures such vision will carry us far.
Reality begs to differ, may it be so bold
it’s really quite painful, and very, very cold.

The power and strength felt in our halcyon youth
desert us with age, yet another unwelcome truth.
Irony rules our time here on this bountiful earth
as we reflect the changes over time since our birth.

As physical powers fade from this fragile shell,
we learn our mind can serve us quite as well.
The strength that once filled our bones and hearts
is now applied by our will, to more arcane arts.

Life’s greatest gift is our freedom of choice
no matter how often we forget, we still get a voice.
Energy, or apathy, by our will we may choose,
failing to do so, our only way to lose.

Each of us lives in the grip of time and space,
always seeking our balance, our own chosen place.
One must accept reality, for it’s true at the core,
all we can do, is all we can do, and nothing more.

~~ gigoid ~~

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As I begin to write this section, I have no clue as to what I’ll find today in SB…. In fact, that may be the way to go…. Right, we’ll do it…. This pearl will be ALL Smart Bee’s choices, on any subject it cares to pick, as long as it makes a point of some kind…. Let’s see what happens with such a loose set of parameters….

“In everything one must consider the end.” — J. de La Fontaine (1621-1695) — The Fox and the Gnat, Book iii, Fable 5

“A multiple personality is in a certain sense normal.” — George H. Mead

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Better be ignorant of a matter than half know it.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 865

“It is not love of self, but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict the world.” — Eric Hoffer

“The world will never starve for want of wonders; but only for want of wonder.” — G. K. Chesterton, TREMENDOUS TRIFLES

A soldier told Pelopidas, “We are fallen among the enemies.” Said he, “How are we fallen among them more than they among us?” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Pelopidas

“Even while a thing is in the act of coming into existence, some part of it has already ceased to be.” — Marcus Aurelius

“This and a great deal more like it I have had to put up with.” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Act iv, Sc. 6, 8, (746.)

Hmm…. Well, I’m not entirely sure what it means, but, I like it. It’s done, too, making it perfect….

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Whew! That went fairly well, all things considered…. Today’s Pearl has been brought to you by the number 2, by the letter J, and by those generous folks three houses down whose internet service I’ve been stealing for weeks…. Just kidding, but. hey, it isn’t unusual for me to be a bit giddy when I’m finished…. Perhaps this would be a good time to make my break for freedom…. Say goodnight, Gracie….

See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

We never thought of corn flakes….

Posted on November 17, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“The reward of a thing well done, is to have done it.”

~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~

The tree you see above is a gorgeous old black pepper tree a few blocks from where I live…. Its massive trunk is of a width that indicates it MUST be over a hundred years old, yet it still drips with the small red colored peppercorns that furnish us with such a basic element of quality to our food…. I for one would NOT like to think of a world without black pepper, to bring perfect balance to the salt our bodies need, and crave, an essential ingredient to make our food taste so much better, there is literally no comparison to food without such enhancement…

Looking at such a beautiful old tree makes me sad, to think about how long it has graced that corner, and its coming death from climate change issues…. which is a perfect lead-in statement for a rant, but, doesn’t promise good things for this introduction. Shoot, I’d been hoping to avoid any such ranting in this section; I’m not dressed for it, for one thing, and for another, I’m still half-bloody-asleep…. the coffee doesn’t seem to be quite doing the trick this morning…. It must be the shoes…

Well, perhaps not…. More likely, it’s just the way it is, on these mornings when my blood sugar is a bit slow to level out…. Hmm, I wonder if that has anything to do with the new diabetic control medicine I’m taking; sometimes it can take a while to see all the effects from a new medication. I doubt it, though… it’s supposed to help regulate the way my body processes sugar, so, it shouldn’t make it take that process too far…. What would be the point of that, when the whole purpose is to stabilize, not send it careening up and down like a roller coaster? None, as far as I can see….

Not that the American medical society would pay much heed to that, if the stats could be manipulated to show the pills work the way they want it to; how many times have we seen the pharmacy companies rush a new drug into production, only to find it has bad side effects? I’m not sure of the exact number, but, let me assure you, they don’t much care if a medicine is dangerous, as long as they can make a nice profit from it before they have to pull it from the shelves…. SIGH…. There I go again, don’t I?….

Perhaps it would be best to just get out of the intro, and get on with the rest of today’s mess, before this turns yet again toward one of the groups of assholes who plague us in our daily lives, and are slowly, steadily, killing us all with their intransigent avarice, greed, and lust for power…. They’re just such a good target, it’s hard to resist…. Well, that, plus their all-too-regular acts of idiocy, and their massively stupid proclamations of intent, have a tendency to bury us, daily, if not more often, in a flood of bullshit, lies, and manipulations, designed to keep us distracted, and too busy being afraid to look too closely at what they are actually doing….

For now, though, my hands are getting numb, and my shoulder is killing me…. so, I’m going to take a short break, while the necessary elements of style, and requisite degree of angst and passion are cultivated, stoked, and harvested, all of which takes some time, as well as concentration…. In short, I’m taking us outta here, now…. Hang on, we’re goin’ in!….

Shall we Pearl?

“When you have secured an area, don’t forget to tell the enemy.” — Murphy’s Military Laws, #19

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

I’ve always enjoyed Rod Stewart’s music, ever since first hearing his breakout hit, Maggie Mae, sometime back in the late sixties or early seventies….. So, here is a concert of his for today’s video entertainment…. I like to go to the You Tube pages for the shows I find, to see what other groups or artists they have in the suggested videos on the side of the pages…. It’s like an endless list of artists from my past, and I never know who I might see over there…. For example, just on this page, you will find other shows by artists such as Do Wop groups from the sixties, seventies, and beyond, Cher, Adele, Lionel Ritchie, Elton John, and a number of others…. Any who, y’all enjoy the show….

Rod Stewart One Night Only full concert Live at Royal Albert Hall 2004

http://youtu.be/aVnfZMTUB7Q

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Ooh, ooh! I found a perfect opening quote for a rant on politics, especially if either our beloved Barry the Obama, or, even better, if the most visible member of the evil empire, the senator from that bastion of ignorance, Kentucky’s own Mitch the Clueless, last of the Dickless Ones, whose last name forever escapes me, (oh, right, it’s McConnell, I think… something like that….) have been living up to their usual level of asininity….

“This ASEXUAL PIG really BOILS my BLOOD… He’s so..so…..URGENT!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Isn’t that just deliciously vicious? And, so vaguely insulting, the pig to whom one might apply it might not, at first, even realize they’ve been insulted…. I can see it now, with some chic reporter from an overseas bureau commenting on some idiotic statement, by asking them why they must be so ‘urgent’ in all their acts of stupidity…. to which either of them may or may not reply…

Right after finding Zippy’s cogent exclamation, I found this great lead-in quote for a nice little rant against those hypocritical manipulators of the public’s fears, our old friends, the dogma dogs….

You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.

— Rev. John William Henry Boetcker

Have you ever seen a more egregiously sycophantic statement as this?… It very nearly stumbles over into pandering, and, if truth be told, serves to remind me of nothing so much as a mental image I’ve had before…. I envision a priest, or preacher, or, as I like to call them, a dogma dog, kneeling in front of a pundit/talking head (or, alternately, kneeling under the desk in front of the talking head), mouth firmly clamped around their private member, head bobbing, with an adoring look in their eyes, chanting “use me, hurt me, make me eat dirt!”…. Meanwhile, the talking head smiles at a camera, & waves politely to the unwashed masses looking on in horror….

To my mind, it’s a perfect representation of the reality our culture presents, with the BRC, owned and manipulated by the corporate snakeheads, blindly propped up in power by fawning religious sycophants, who preach salvation to the great unwashed masses, in solemn trade for obedience to temporal authority, augmented in their efforts by their myrmidons, the police and military, who are ever ready to supply any amount of violence needed to keep the animals in their pens, slaving away at their masters’ behest….

“Power, like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer; it dignifies meanness; to what is contemptible, it gives authority; to what is low, exaltation.” — Smart Bee

Bah, humbug! My urge to rant is strong, and my anger is great…. Unfortunately for me, (though probably good for y’all….), my hands are giving out rapidly again, making the composition of an adequately large number of epithets and specific curses somewhat problematic, from a physical standpoint…. This is, perhaps, lucky for y’all, as I felt a really BIG rant in there…. Instead, I’ll sublimate the urge into putting together an old school indictment of the assholes under discussion….

Here then are the best Smart Bee can find today, all intended to draw metaphorical blood from talking heads, dogma dogs, and/or faceless myrmidons, as they exist in the wilds of Washington D.C., and the larger urban centers in Amurrica….

“Stupidity is not a handicap … ask a Conservative!” — Smart Bee

“Delay is the deadliest form of denial.” — Parkinson’s Law of Delay

“The Founding Fathers warned us about this!” — Smart Bee

“The Texas Legislature, God forbid, will be with us again shortly, thus depriving many a village of its idiot.” — Molly Ivins

“Some writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness *positively*, by uniting our affections, the latter *negatively*, by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last is a punisher. Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one….” — Thomas Paine, opening lines of _Common Sense_ 1776 — *asterisks denote Paine’s use of italics*

“1) Don’t cheat. 2) If you do cheat, don’t get caught.” — Opening lines, US Senate Orientation Manual

“CONGRATULATIONS! Now should I make thinly veiled comments about DIGNITY, self-esteem, and finding TRUE FUN in your RIGHT VENTRICLE??”
— Zippy the Pinhead

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

For two days now, my hands and shoulders have been informing me of their disapproval of the recent temperature and weather changes; in spite of all the medications I take, which includes magic cream, they tend to ache, and ache, and ache some more, much of the day…. This, as you may guess, makes typing somewhat of a challenge…. This, in turn, makes me use my archived material more often, a habit which, while convenient, does little to relieve the pressure inside my head…. It also makes what happens here less than amenable to outside influences… In short, I don’t want to place any of the blame for all of this on anyone else…. Today’s blast is from the relatively recent past, a poem that describes well how this works for me…. or not, depending on how one listens to its message…. It seems long, but, it really isn’t; it’s just long….

Retrospective, defined in folly….

Yesterday
I wrote a poem.

It bled out of my head,
like I’d been struck with
an axe,
right through the artery,
in the neck,
spraying blood around
everywhere,
like a pulsing garden hose….

It hurt, at first,
then came the feeling,

of quick relief,
of timeless beauty,

of pain avenged,
of lust aroused,

of outrage aflame,
of deep compassion,

of endless empathy,
of truest love….

Now it’s gone, cast away
like pearls before twine.

(Grin…)

You thought
I was going to call you
a pig,
didn’t you?

Hah!

Well, you’re not.
You’re a person.

I know, because
you’re reading this poem…
if that’s what it is.
I think it is,
so,
maybe it is.

Or, maybe,
it will be,
someday, when it
grows up,
and learns to rhyme.
Whew…
Just in time…..

That’s all.
Reality often sucks wind,
y’know?

S’okay, though….
It keeps us busy,
and out of some of the
mischief,
so much part
of our
nature.

We all can do
only what we
do.

Or, don’t.

Two sides, one coin.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Today’s old school pearl will be random, harlequin style, with parameters picked out by Smart Bee…. Honest, I had very little to do with this, so, you can’t blame me for it…. Well, not entirely, anyway…..

FOOL, n. A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscient, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught the nations war — founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government. He is from everlasting to everlasting — such as creation’s dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the procession of being. His grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man’s evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live.” — Lin Yutang

“Who does not trust enough will not be trusted.” — Lao Tzu

“I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.” — Thomas Jefferson

“George Washington, as a boy, was ignorant of the commonest accomplishments of youth. He could not even lie.” — Mark Twain

“To the intelligent man or woman, life appears infinitely mysterious. But the stupid have an answer for every question.” — Edward Abbey

“You can lead a yak to water but you can’t teach an old dog to make a silk purse out of a pig in a poke.” — Opus

Hmm…. It seems Smart Bee had a few comments to make on Life at Large….. Not bad, all in all…. it can stay….

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

It seems a trifle strange to consider, given our opening status today, but, I do believe we’ve done it again…. It certainly LOOKS done; I’ll do a quick proof, and get back to you on that, okay?…. I love it when I’m right; since it happens so seldom in any significant arena of existence, I’ll take it. Not only that, but, I’ll take it, and run with it…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, unless somebody talks me out of it….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Hurling epithets at myrmidons seems insufficient….

Posted on November 16, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Doing it the hard way is always easier.”

~~ Murphy’s Paradox ~~

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?

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

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

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

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

Lord Peter Wimsey – Clouds of Witness

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

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

From 12/27/2011:

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

——————

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

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

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

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

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

——————–

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

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

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

———————

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

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

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

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

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

After the odyssey….

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

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

Posted on November 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

~~ Alexander Pope (1688-1744) ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?

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

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

It’s a classical day today…..

Four Seasons ~ Vivaldi

http://youtu.be/GRxofEmo3HA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ the Stilt Man ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Kahlil Gibran ~~

Fine and Good, Good and Fine

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Nuff said….

~~ gigoid, tongue firmly in cheek ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ Smart Bee ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Twice as many diphthongs as needed, or desired….

Posted on November 14, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?

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

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

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

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes: The Three Gables

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unheralded Sagacity…

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

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

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

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

Illumination…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Blood? No. Sweat? No. Tears. Maybe….

Posted on November 13, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Freedom = Responsibility” — Smart Bee

Ooh, I’m late again. You know what that means, don’t you? No? Oh, good, then I can lie with impunity, just like a politician, and we might end up posting this on time…. just as if we were professionals, and had a deadline…. Of course, nobody would believe it, anyway, but, we do like to keep up appearances, even if those appearances are a total fabrication…. When I make it up like that, I’m practicing, for the next time I decide to run for a local office…. God forbid I ever lose my mind so far…

No, it isn’t hypocrisy for me to ask favors of God…. Since I figure He’s an illusion, when not an obvious delusion, there’s really no harm in it, and it often provides just the right phrase, or lament, or other form of communicative effort that is helped by the very fictional nature that generally assumes the focus as our target of disdain…. But, here at ECR, we’re all about equal-opportunity ranting, and are careful in our choice of targets, making sure they are worthy of our vitriol, as well as not real enough to bring suit, or hire a shyster…. The shotgun on display at the entrance probably helps, too….

If you couldn’t tell, I’m in a pretty good mood, if not exactly a frigging ray of sunshine…. I’ve got pain, I’ve got misery, but, I’m damn happy with the world at large anyway, thanks to BBR events that went well, and continue to progress with at a nice rate of advancement…. Who knows? At this rate, I could actually say something nice about somebody, before I caught myself ignoring the rules of curmudgeonry…. Not that I will, naturally, but, I could….

I think I’m going to ignore ALL the rules today…. It might just be our only hope, and I’ve never been one to deliberately take away people’s hopes…. Well, okay, there was that one time, but, I stopped before it made them cry, and did give them a rational option to try; I wasn’t a total butthead… Well, not by the same standards to which we hold our Asininnies, anyway…. I will admit, I’ve shown more ethics in the past, so, my suggestion is, we leave the subject alone, and get on with the Pearl for today….

Won’t that be nice? An actual Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, all for y’all…. I think so…. In honor of the occasion, I’ll even stop blathering now, and simply tell you I found the great picture above. with its message of “Duh!” for all to see, on Facebook somewhere. without any attribution, so, if you want any, you’ll have to find it yourself…. Me, I think it’s a PERFECTLY intelligent observation, if nothing else…. Plus, it got us to this point before any of our random right-wingers could so much as draw a breath to scream their complaints about the term “GAY MARRIAGE”…. Bonus!…. The bloody idiots….

Shall we Pearl?

“When men lack a sense of awe, there will be disaster.” — Lao Tzu, Tao Teh Ching: verse 72

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

By the time this Pearl is posted, the probe from the satellite chasing the Rosetta Comet will be on the surface of the comet (which is about the size of central London, for a scale of reference…). On landing, if it does so successfully, it will begin its programmed series of research experiments and sensory exploration of the material the comet is made of; if it doesn’t make it safely, it will still have been a successful mission, over 10 years long, a veritable epic adventure, to chase, find, catch up to, and orbit the moving object, far away in the Solar System, then land the probe on the surface, the last stage in which we find ourselves today….

Here is a video representation of the landing process, and some links to other places you can see more about this mission; hopefully, by tomorrow, I’ll have another video, of pictures beamed directly from the surface of the asteroidal wanderer…. Late word on that…. No more videos available at this time; at last report, the scientists were still trying to figure out if they will be able to secure the probe to the comet’s surface, after the failure of the landing harpoons to fire correctly, thus making the landing site not as stable and secure as planned…. But, even if the mission fails at this point, it has been a huge success, teaching us a lot about the needed technology for such missions…

Comet-Chasing Rosetta Spacecraft Releases Probe for Epic Landing Attempt

http://www.space.com/27743-rosetta-comet-lander-philae-released.html#ooid=ppY2ducTrsledAwGDHRevs6wAn3UZuG6

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

I could rant, but, my hands aren’t in the greatest of shape today….. plus, I found this old Pearl that just seemed to cry out to be re-posted…. I’m a sucker for a Pearl with a pretty face, or a decent opening, so, I will do as it asks, thus sparing y’all a fresher rant, that may not digest as well…. This one, truncated as it is, will probably go down better, as it is cut into smaller pieces than is now the norm….

from 1/5/2012:

Ffolkes,
Back in the good old days…..well, they weren’t all that good, after all, were they? That phrase has always bothered me anyway. Harking back to better times is a fool’s game; who says they were better? You mean we should go back to having the toilet outside? Or, maybe, dying at age 40 from lack of dental care. Or, dying in childbirth, perhaps. Yeah, they were the good old days, alright. No electricity, no computers, no refrigerators, no indoor plumbing.

Wanting to go backwards is just another way of complaining about one’s lot; happiness isn’t wanting more, happiness is being happy with what you have. But, people will be people, and common sense has never been common. Better I think, to just take things the way they are, and not worry about more, or better. Try harder to NOT be a trained consumer, always wanting something newer and shinier….. you just might find something entirely new to you……self-respect…..
___________________________________

“I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.” — Professor Bernardo de la Paz

This is the truest freedom we have. The concept of duty fulfilled is the hallmark of the free man, it is the only badge he will wear. Everything else assumes secondary importance to whatever task a man sets for himself, for the truly free man chooses his duty, and once chosen, it assumes the central point of his focus, and any other task or request becomes subordinate to the chosen duty.

I find it to be an extremely rare quality in most men these days; boys are not being raised with honor, and so cannot become such, without some kind of guidance from older men. But somehow, the twin concepts of honor and duty have fallen out of favor in modern society. Instead we are encouraged to believe the nonsensical claptrap spouted by self-proclaimed patriots, who haven’t the slightest intention of acting with honor, men who have made self-interest their guiding principle, and spend their days finding new ways to manipulate and degrade their fellow man.

What we need now is for those who still believe in honor and duty to realize that their newest, and most critical duty, is to put a stop to the evil that has crept into our society, and is happily sending us on a suicidal path. It’s time for free men to stand up, time to take back the rights that have been stolen from us, and return society to a path leading to harmony, and survival……

Where are the prophets ?
Where are the visionaries ?
Where are the poets to preach the dawn of the sentimental mercenary?~~ Smart Bee ~~

___________________________________

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” — Aristotle

Aristotle makes an insightful observation here, one that many in the modern world are completely unaware of, due to a relatively new phenomenon. This part of the human experience, the ability to think with great scope and precision, is being driven out of commonly accepted practice, because for the first time in history, an entire generation has been brought up with television and computers.

From the time they were small, these people have been conditioned to accept as truth anything that is put to them by a “talking head”, no matter how fantastically improbable, or how close to truth it may be. (Usually pretty far removed from any such condition….) Kids grow up with the culture of TV land shaping their thought patterns and beliefs, every day from the time they could first understand what was said to them.

First it was Ernie and Big Bird, then Mr. Rogers, then their teachers (who now include televised lectures as part of the educational process, further cementing their dependence on pre-packaged knowledge), and finally, the Six O’Clock News on channel whatever. When people stop thinking for themselves, they become much easier to manipulate.

Our Beloved Ruling Class now is able to just tell the public whatever they want them to believe, while being recorded, sitting behind a desk, with just the shoulders and head appearing, calmly relating a complete report consisting entirely of outright lies. But, most folks will never even know they are being manipulated, because they are unable to hold more than one thought in their head at one time….

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

Very well…. I’m busted…. I’m lazy, and don’t feel like finding a poem, so, here is another of my older poems for today’s offering….

Penance, Made Simple

After all the dross is sent away
a celebration can begin,
time will face up to space, to stay
willing, to shine from within.

Anger and confusion come in to share
brushing reason aside,
eager to welcome all that is fair,
alert to danger, eyes wide.

Re-gift the wicked with their own pain
stand with the just;
fail to partake of the ill-gotten gain,
living in honor, the only must.

Standing fast in the face of wrong
is its own prize and reward.
Holding on to truth makes us strong,
well worth working toward.

Little is left to chance by fate
our lessons are never free of cost.
Seldom does reality make us wait
only when alone, are we lost.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Smart Bee has been pretty cooperative, not to mention generous, of late…. So, here is another group of pearls picked out without benefit of any direction from me, only editing power… It’s another good collection of observations and advice for a Life Well Lived….

“Fill your bowl to the brim and it will spill.
Keep sharpening your knife and it will blunt.
Chase after money and security and your heart will never unclench.
Care about people’s approval and you will be their prisoner.
Do your work, then step back.
The only path to serenity.” — Tao Te Ching

“There are two kinds of truth, small truth and great truth. You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another truth.” — Niels Bohr (1885-1962)

“It was the saying of Bion, that though the boys throw stones at frogs in sport, yet the frogs do not die in sport but in earnest.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Which are the most crafty, Water or Land Animals? 7

“Courage begins when we can admit that there is no life without some pain, some frustration; that there is no tragic accident from which we are immune; and that beyond the normal exercise of prudence we can do nothing about it.” — Victoria Lincoln

“There is no cure for birth and death other than to enjoy the interval.” — George Santayana (1863-1952)

“To be truly conscious of your stupidity is one of the greatest steps you can make toward wisdom. If you know others, you are learned. If you know yourself, you are indeed wise. It isn’t the things that you don’t know that get you into trouble. What gets you into trouble are those things you know for sure that ain’t so.” — Artemus Ward (1834-1867), aka Charles Farrar Brown

But the tender grace of a day that is dead
Will never come back to me. ~~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) ~~

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

I am unable to come to a conclusion regarding the quality of any of the above; I guess the act of writing it took all my resident conscious intelligence. There doesn’t seem to be any left over for the ending…. Ah well, it isn’t as if that hasn’t happened before, now, is it? Nope…. and, since that is the case, I am authorized to say this: We’re done. Go away…. No, just kidding…. We are done, and you may go when you’re ready… There isn’t anything left here to read, anyway…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

gigoid

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

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