Tag Archives: Democrats

Entirely too much fun for one penguin….

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Ffolkes,
We made it, and now are happily sailing along the coast of the great Northwest, somewhere near Oregon or Washington, perhaps, headed for the Inside Passage. Not much scenery as yet, we’re a bit far from shore, and from the sea, one can see the effects of pollution, as most of the coastline we are passing is covered in a light to heavy haze, and it isn’t fog….. But, the water is calm, the sky is blue, and the food is plentiful…. Score!

This promises to be a wonderful trip, though I may not be as able to post as much as I did from Europe…. I’ve already realized that this time, I’m not alone, and my time isn’t as flexible as when I am…. I have to say, I am much happier with Patricia here with me than I was traveling alone, and not just because I love her, but because it means I can share all the good times….

That’s really all I have right now…. I’ve gotten my internet hookup done, and shouldn’t have a problem there, but, I’m not yet sure about the email version of the Pearls. This new computer is balking at installing Thunderbird, the email browser I normally use, so I may have to access it all online, which I am not sure will work for posting… I can access my yahoo mail, though, so contact is possible, just reduced…. Ah well, travel makes it all a bit more complicated, but, is well worth it…..

That’s all I really have to say today… I don’t have a rant, and I’m having too much fun to break away to write just now, so, I’m afraid y’all will have to wait for fresh material until tomorrow…. For today, I’ll merely dip into the archives for a couple of old school pearls, and find a nice, tasty poem…. Shall we Pearl?….
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Rather than an old-school pearl, I found this rant, from election day in 2012…. it’s a good one….

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” — James Madison

I found this yesterday; I’d seen it before, and it seemed serendipitous that it showed up just in time for the event today (psst!…. go vote!….). In my mind, a good standard for figuring out if a person is a true patriot is to get their take on the Second Amendment, and the idea of gun control by the government. As I’ve stated before, I believe the risk of letting the government restrict our rights in this regard, IN ANY WAY, can only lead to the eventual loss of the right altogether, and that is an event that is completely unacceptable to me. Yes, it means that the world will be a dangerous place, but, guess what, ffolkes, that is something that happened a long time before guns. Taking them away from the general populace is not going to stop mass killings, or unjust, insane use of guns against innocent people. That occurs on a daily basis, anyway, but with the guns in the hands of police officers; that is a fact….. So, don’t tell me that the government is more qualified to use guns than I am, because that is just stupid….

Now that I’ve insulted many of you, we’ll try to go on to the election…. didn’t mean to get off into a rant on that, but, wanted to get it out of the way, so that the discussion may go on to other ways that the government is, quite simply, fucking us left and right…. George Carlin had a lot of good points about the corporate masters and their lackeys, the beloved ruling classes, and the priestly hierarchies. He often pointed out that the world has turned into a massive corporate conglomerate, with all the world governments at the mercy of those few individuals who actually control all the resources, and money. Those are people you never hear about, or see in the news, unless it is by intent…. they don’t allow accidents like that to happen…. But rest assured, they exist, and are perfectly content to let the world believe whatever it wants, as long as their profits, their power, and their control over others continues to grow….

“The rifle and handgun are “equalizers”–the weapons of a democracy. Tanks and bombers represent dictatorship.” — Edward Abbey

But, the invisible rulers don’t like the Second Amendment…. it leaves too much chance for independence in the hands of the people, and in case the people ever find out what they have been up to, they want to be able to know where all the guns are that might threaten them….. Having the general populace of this country continue to have access to any significant firepower is not in their best interests, so they work behind the scenes to get people to believe the nonsense about gun control, and how keeping guns from the hands of the citizenry will make life safer…. which is just so much bullshit… plain and simple.  Ultimately, the only real effect of making guns illegal will be to make a large percentage of the American people outlaws, because I don’t think any of us will give them up without resistance, whether overt, or covert…..

“The right to buy weapons is the right to be free.” — A. E. Van Vogt, The Weapon Shops, — in Astounding Science Fiction, December 1942

How, you may ask, does this relate to the election? Well, it doesn’t, directly…. it’s just a pet peeve of mine, and an example of another of our basic rights that are being eroded by politicians, preachers, and those who ignorantly buy into their lies. I don’t trust the Democrats any more than I do the Republicans; perhaps even less, because the Republicans seem to be far more open about their lack of concern with the rights of the people. In that sense, they are easier to spot, and to resist. The Dems are being more subtle, but that doesn’t make them trustworthy; they do, after all, seek that power over others as well. There just seem to be more of them who are motivated to do so out of some community feeling, and concern for others, and those are trying to encompass reforms that are sorely needed.

“A politician thinks of the next election; a statesman, of the next generation.” — James Clarke

The difference between the two parties that have the only chance at the seats of power is extreme in this election; very seldom has the choice that needs to be made been clearer. One can choose to move forward into a future of change, or one can try to return society to the middle ages, with all of its injustice, and misery. It is that simple, and anyone who wishes to argue with that is welcome to present their views…. I’ll knock them down easily, with headlines from the daily news that, although not exactly unbiased or always true, are nonetheless balanced out by the outrageousness of each side’s contributions.

“Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.” — H.L. Mencken

The facts are all our there to see, and they clearly show one candidate whose only interest is in increasing his own power and wealth, and protecting his cronies on Wall Street, his cultish church, and the ruling class; he cares noting about the common man, and makes his disdain obvious. The other is, well, definitely the lesser of two evils…. on the apparent surface he is a dedicated, honest man, seeking reform and change, but, there are indications of less than stellar activity in his administration, too.  But, he obviously cares about the common man much more than his opponent, and since the common man is the one who will be affected the most by what happens this time, the choice is clear. If you don’t want to have to take up regular use of Vaseline and Preparation H, then vote the incumbent…. If you really want to get a good screwing in the nether regions, then vote the opposition…. it is that simple ffolkes…..

“There is but one element of government, and that is THE PEOPLE.  From this element spring all governments.  “For a nation to be free, it is only necessary that she wills it.”  For a nation to be slave, it is only necessary that she wills it.” — John Adams (1735-1826), Letter to John Taylor, 1814
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I Must Have Wanton Poets

MUST have wanton poets, pleasant wits,
Musicians, that with touching of a string
May draw the pliant king which way I please:
Music and poetry is his delight;
Therefore I’ll have Italian masks by night,
Sweet speeches, comedies, and pleasing shows;
And in the day, when he shall walk abroad,
Like sylvan nymphs my pages shall be clad;
My men, like satyrs grazing on the lawns,
Shall with their goat-feet dance the antic hay;
Sometime a lovely boy in Dian’s shape,
With hair that gilds the water as it glides,
Crownets of pearl about his naked arms,
And in his sportful hands an olive-tree,
To hide those parts which men delight to see,
Shall bathe him in a spring; and there, hard by,
One like Actæon, peeping through the grove,
Shall by the angry goddess be transform’d,
And running in the likeness of an hart,
By yelping hounds pull’d down, shall seem to die:
Such things as these best please his majesty.

~~ Christopher Marlowe ~~

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Here is another good one from a day or two after the above rant was posted…..

“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.  I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.  Life is no ‘brief candle’ to me.  It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” — George Bernard Shaw

Now, THAT is a good attitude toward living! Carpe diem, and all that, don’t y’know? I like to think that I approach life in much this same manner, even though I have my moments spent in depression and despair; those moments I consider to be anomalous, and not fully representative of my take on life in general. Many people may not feel this way, and I cannot disparage them for that, as living often requires more of our attention that can be spared to make sure we are positively motivated; it’s not easy to get by in this world, and maintaining a positive outlook can become secondary to just having the wherewithal to do anything at all. But, George points out a pretty good way to think about it, even if one hasn’t the time or resources to fully appreciate, or apply, the principle as given….. As such, it joins a number of other viewpoints of famous historical figures, all of whom had advice to give to people about how to live well…. below you will find several of these suggestions for living life as well as one is able to live….

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

“Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.” — Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)

“Honor has not to be won; it must only not be lost.” — Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena

In dwelling, live close to the ground.
In thinking, keep to the simple.
In conflict, be fair and generous.
In governing, don’t try to control.
In work, do what you enjoy.
In family life, be completely present.
— Tao Te Ching

“A wise man first determines what is within his control; all else is then irrelevant.” — Epictetus

Well, there you go…. now, all you have to do is put all of this into practice…. sounds like fun, eh?….
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Okay, it’s long, but it’s done…. and being old pearls, I don’t have to proof them, having done so already, last time they were used….  I’m calling it a done deal, and going to go spend more time having fun…. See you tomorrow….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Remnants of patent leather madrigals….

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Ffolkes,
I’ve started to write several times this morning, but each time was forced to begin again, having spewed pure garbage onto the page. Even this honest statement of dismay seems to me to be stilted and stupid; it seems doubtful, at this point, that anything worthwhile is going to be coming forth from the depths of my mind to grace our presence with wit and style. I’d give up, but, I’m stubborn….

Having thus disposed of at least the first paragraph, perhaps I can distract Murphy with my fuzzy brain….. If he thinks I’m already in a state of confusion, he will, sometimes, let me be, allowing me to fuck with myself, which, though no less destructive, is often less bloody, and takes less clean-up….. Funny, isn’t it, what we can learn to live with?…. Besides, even Murphy will have a hard time putting me in a depressed state today…. In a bit under eight hours, I’ll be getting into a limo, which will deliver me, and milady Patricia, to the cruise terminal to embark on our ten day trip to Alaska…. Very little in the universe could make me unhappy at this point….

The only hard part now is getting through these eight hours…. creating this Pearl will eat up some of it, and I’ve got some ideas of how to pass the time quickly…. but, nothing will make the clock move fast enough to suit us. Everything is done, and all we need to do is carry our bags to the curb to be on our way….. I’m so jazzed and excited, even coming up with the BS I can normally spew out on demand is a bit more than I feel easy with….. Oh well, such is life, as they say….

Shall we Pearl?…..
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You knew it would happen today…. and, if you didn’t, you should have…. I had intended to make this a fresh pearl, old-school variety, and rant in the third section, provided I can find a rantable subject….. However, Smart Bee has gone over to Murphy’s side for the time being, and won’t cooperate with the plan…. so, I’m retreating to the archives for a short, pithy rant on religion, or religious philosophy, whatever that might mean…. This was originally posted in December of 2011…

“That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue.” — Cicero (B.C. 106-43)
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Ffolkes,

Just so it’s clear…..I’m not an atheist, per se, at least, not in the classical sense of the word.  I do hold beliefs regarding the subject of divinity and spirituality, but they bear no great resemblance to those espoused by any organized faith, and I don’t discuss them with anyone. It just causes arguments.  I am not a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Unitarian, or a Buddhist, or any other of the virtually countless ‘isms’ people have come up with to try to understand those parts of the universe that we do not comprehend.

I’ve read the holy books of most of the major faiths; Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, the Bibles of several different Christian sects , the Tao Teh Ching, the I Ching, and any other related material I could find. Not that I made a complete heavy study of each, but I learned enough to be able to draw comparisons, and judge the validity of each (which I admit, is purely subjective. But then, isn’t any religious belief purely subjective? Why yes, I do believe it is…..).

It occurred to me, just now, that, maybe, for all these centuries we (that’s the human “we”…. meaning all of us as a group….) have sought to explain what we do not understand, we have been looking at things from the wrong perspective, at least in terms of intelligence, with its defined value to us being such that man considers himself greater than “lower” forms of life. The attitude that we are the pinnacle of creation is a given in almost every approach taken by philosophers and scientists in any explanation of why things are as they are. Since we have not the ability to create worlds (yet), or stars (yet), or universes (yet?), we attribute the state of things as we know them to creatures of vast wisdom and power, as “far above us as we are above bacteria or amoeba.” How often have you heard the last part? Isn’t that part of any definition of a god, or even God, by whatever name one calls him/her/them/it?

But what if the amoeba IS God? Amoeba are the most ancient form of life we know of, utilizing the simplest means of reproduction available (as far as WE know anyway…), and are an essential step in the formation of other life. Perhaps the entire bacterial level is God’s nervous system, and the amoeba are the thoughts of God. And as other forms of life evolved, maybe each entered another part of the symbiotic whole that is life, non-life, energy, matter, and non-matter, all of which must be present in order for our universe to manifest itself.

All of which makes our viewpoint completely backwards; we are the bottom of creation, not the top. Every other part of the universe, and almost every animal and creature on our planet we know of, except ourselves and our vaunted intelligence, are functioning, and functioning well, according to their place in Nature because they have no need to do anything else.  Our intelligence is generally accepted to be that which makes us ‘better’ than the rest of creation, a convenient word to describe something that may not have been created at all, but might just happen to be the way it is, because it wants to be…..at least most of it does….so far we haven’t done too well at learning how to be at one with the rest of creation; quite the opposite, as a general rule…..

Hmmm…..well, I guess that’s one way to look at it…… at least with this credo, there’s no guilt, no shame, no incentives, and no rewards….. other than self-respect……

— How many amoebas does it take to change a light bulb?  One. No, 2. No, 4. No, 8. No, 16. No, 32……. — Smart Bee
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Some years ago, on the occasion of her mother’s passing, Patricia, my lady love, wrote a memorial tribute, in which she put a poem that she wrote for her mother…. I think it is very touching, as well as quite beautiful, and include it here, not to depress anyone, but to celebrate the life of her mother by sharing what Patricia felt when she wrote the poem….. Enjoy!….

She sits quietly,
Eyes in a wrinkled face,
Watching nothing,
Seeing everything.
A kaleidoscope of memories
flickers past.

Laughter mingles with tears,
Fear and sorrow melt into contentment.
A lifetime of joy and passion,
sorrow and doubt pass by.
Don’t hurry so, take your time.
Stop and listen
and she will tell you tales.

Tales of far away lands, great adventures,
great passion and greater trials.

She takes out the memories, one at a time,
Views them re-lives them,
brings them to life for her listeners.

Then tenderly, reverently, she wraps them again,
and places them, one at a time,
into fragile bubbles.

If you look closely, you can see them.

Tiny little flashes in her eyes……
Look close,
See them?

Individual memories encased in fragile bubbles.

In loving memory of June. T. Miller
1919-1998
by
Patricia Miller Larsen

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Okay, it’s time to drop any pretense I have assumed…. Smart Bee isn’t cooperating, and my head just isn’t ready to be creative…. so, once again, I’ll have to dip into the past for the material to complete this Pearl…. So be it…. Here is a rather long, involved pearl from late in 2012… I think it’s one of my best, so, it will do for the moment’s need….. Enjoy!….
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What is the mind? Where is it, exactly? And how does it work?….. These are questions that have been asked throughout time, without ever finding answers on which all can agree…. Oh, there are many ideas, and every sage and his brother’s cousin’s friend’s uncle has a theory about it…. Finding pearls that discuss the matter was pretty simple, actually, as they just kept popping up in front of me…. for example, here are four that I found, all of which have an important part of the idea to discuss…..

“Whether time is long or short, and whether space is broad or narrow, depend upon the mind. Those whose minds are at leisure can feel one day as a millennium, and those whose thoughts are expansive can perceive a small house to be as spacious as the universe.” — Hung Tzu-ch’eng (1593-1665)

“An intelligent mind is a mind which is not satisfied with explanations, with  conclusions; nor is it a mind that believes, because belief is again another  form of conclusion. An intelligent mind is an inquiring mind, a mind that is  watching, learning, studying.” — J. Krishnamurti

“Hypotheses are not to be multiplied without necessity.” — Occam’s Razor (aka, the K.I.S.S. axiom….) (see Hanlon’s Razor, aka Heinlein’s Corollary to Occam’s Razor) (See logic) (See Dick and Jane run….) (Just wanted to make sure you’re paying attention….)

“To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve the problems of life not only theoretically, but practically.” — Henry David Thoreau, American Philosopher (1817-1862) in Walden

You probably noted that one of these four was not like the others (Sesame Street teaches critical thinking well, does it not?….). Occam’s Razor has done more to advance science and philosophy than any unified field theorem, or any other wide ranging thought that mankind has come up with over the years. It cuts through the bullshit, and reminds us to concentrate on what is important, to not to go off on tangents that detract from the final outcome. It’s a way of approaching science and the fields of knowledge, and even Life, that offers the superiority of having been proven true over and over, in every experiment, in every field of science since it’s publication, sometime around the Renaissance period. William of Occam was, reportedly, a mathematician, and no doubt a very good one, as his assertion regarding hypotheses implies a certain impatience with bullshit; he likely wasn’t one to put up with foolishness for long….

Of course, there are always a few who don’t have the intelligence, or the courage, to stand up to Life, and they too have had their two cents worth put in for consideration….

“Do not learn more than you absolutely need to get through life.” — Karl Kraus  (Seconded, I’m sure, by Homer Simpson….)

An obvious proponent of the entitlement crowd, this guy has expressed clearly the lack of courage that it takes to really retreat from life as can be done. These are the Republicans, the non-thinkers, the men and women who prefer to hide their heads in sand rather than meet reality with any dignity or bravery. Ignorance is their status of choice, as they don’t have to bother themselves to ever check things for truth, or even make up their own thoughts…. they just accept whatever the pundits, religious or political, tell them, because those pundits are the ones who are immoral and unethical enough to take advantage of their ignorance, and will tell them anything they want to hear, in order to soothe their bigoted fears, and, as a happy side effect, take all their money…. which they willingly give away, proving the old saw about fools and money…

I didn’t mean to get into a political rant, but I suppose it isn’t an ill-conceived idea at this point. Tonight will be the first of the Presidential debates between Obama and Romney, and a discussion of mind vs. no-mind seems appropriate somehow. We will get a pretty good picture drawn for us tonight, as one of the greatest speakers of our time, the POTUS, faces off in debate with one of the worst speakers I’ve ever seen, Mitt the Twitt, who has a proclivity for dropping bombs, and speaking without evidence of giving any thought at all to what he has just said to some group. This is an occupational hazard for someone who relies on lies and misrepresentations for the major portion of their message; it’s hard to sound true when one is obviously false…. No matter how much it gets dressed up and taught to sing and dance, a pig isn’t going to win any music contests with its squealing…..

“I’m not imaginary–I’m ontologically challenged” — Smart Bee

As might be guessed, the above is a joke, intended to poke fun at those who choose to live their lives without the benefit of using their minds…. to live one’s life in ignorance to me would seem to be the actions of a fool, by definition as well as practice. One may as well BE imaginary, if one is going to retreat from reality to the extent of turning off all curiosity, all doubt, and never using the mind for that which it was designed (if one believes in design….), or happened to evolve into…. The mind is our best, and possibly our only, ally against the harshness of reality, and it would behoove all of us to keep it in good working order, as befits a tool of such high quality…… T’is marginally better than treating it as a red-headed step-child, leaving it out to starve in the cold, harsh light of reality…..
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Without even looking this over, I know it will do…. but, I’m anal about typos, so let’s see how it reads….. Given the handicaps under which I am operating today, it isn’t at all bad…. not terribly fresh, but still stimulating… and, it’s done…. Yay!  Now I can get ready to rumble….. Next time I post will be from the road, so I can’t predict exactly when, but, it will be soon…. count on it…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Pug dogs don’t count as flammable items….

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Ffolkes,
Today, this blank screen holds no fear for me. That is not to say that I have discovered a way to overcome the issue of what to write for the intro every morning; that seems to be a problem with resistance to solution stronger than my creative urges. No, indeed, I see no way out of that particular conundrum, given my history thus far as a blogger, and my insistence on posting every day, regardless of whether or not I am ready to do so. However, today, there are only four days left before I leave to travel again, and no fear can push through the excited exaltation that infuses my spirit at the thought of once more pursuing, and catching hold of, a dream….

Hmm…. it seems that even the absence of fear is not sufficient reason to make this intro any easier to write. Now that I’ve begun the day with a personal note, choosing a direction to take seems like the next logical step. Sadly, I haven’t a clue as to what that direction might be, or even what it could be. I’ve arisen late, and refreshed in both body and spirit (for a change), and I hardly know what to do with myself. I’ve got all this energy, and nowhere to put it yet… which is probably why I continue to babble away, just as if I had something worthwhile to say. “Just look out the window…” you say? Well, it’s worth a try, I suppose….

Well, I looked…. In at least one respect, it was good advice…. by changing my viewpoint, I did find new potential subject matter within purview. Several objects I saw could be turned into at least a short discussion, but, I am not sure how interesting a description of the faded wall of the next house would be, or whether or not I could find a metaphor for the catalog of stuffed animals in the window that would be entertaining or instructive enough to warrant the effort. It’s a good idea, but, too late, I think, to save this particular opening foray against the day’s challenge. In fact, there may not be anything at all to be done about this one; it seems to have died an ignominious death before it ever lived…. It certainly doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere, does it?

Oh well, that’s okay, it’s happened before, and will, no doubt, happen again in the future. Perhaps one day I’ll find my niche, or my template, or whatever it is that will serve as a consistent way to open each day’s post. Perhaps not, in which case, we all will have to learn to deal with whatever I come up with… which, I suppose, is a pretty good metaphor for how to approach life… We have to learn to deal with reality, whatever shape it takes, so learning to deal with an intro section actually shouldn’t cause too much trouble for us, as long as we can translate the metaphor into real action… Piece o’cake, yes?…..

Shall we Pearl?

“A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa, but people still line up to see the original.” — Louis Armstrong
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Of late, I’ve been reading the news online, and in newspapers, and have noted a disturbing trend in what is reported. It is disturbing in several ways, most significantly in its clarity regarding the admissions made by government officials about their own activities….. It seems to me that the powers that be, at almost every level, from local government, to state, to federal, and all the way into the shadow government, consisting of the true rulers of mankind, the ones who control all the politicians and banker-types, telling them what can and cannot be allowed, are no longer trying to hide from the public, but are being seen and reported more often.

Normally, they make at least a token effort to cover up any potentially harmful acts on their part, such as theft, or outright lies, either ignoring questions put to them on those matters, or issuing denials spun in such a way as to imply fault in the question, or merely distracting the questioners with personal attacks; they have, and utilize, a number of effective techniques to spin things so they come out looking good. But, all of a sudden, in the last couple of months, they seem to have given up, at least partially, trying to hide their chicanery, and allowing what appears to be criticism, of what the elected officials have done or said, to appear in the news reports….. Here are two examples of what I mean…

“U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.”  — from SFGATE, 6/24/2013
Link to entire article: http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/NSA-leaker-Snowden-expected-to-fly-to-Cuba-4617974.php

The above was excerpted from the above article, not just because it seemed to me to be the most accurate assertion in the whole report, but, also comes in as the most ironic statement, situated as it was. as the last sentence in the article.

“The deal calls for Loncke and three other plaintiffs representing the class to receive $9,000 each, with the others splitting $639,000. Their arrest records would be sealed and destroyed. Their attorneys would receive $350,000.”
Link to entire article: http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/1-million-payout-in-Oakland-mass-arrests-4619816.php

This one simply astounded me… The lawyers received 33.3% of the total settlement!!! I know it’s rude to use so many exclamation points at once, but, I went into shock, with my mouth dropping open wide when I read that line, which was also the last line in the article (Hmm…. Is there a cynic loose in the SFGATE web editing offices?….)

Now, this points up two distinctly different  issues, of course, but the fact that the articles both contained statements that imply criticism of the BRC is significant. In the first, the BRC overseers didn’t bother to keep the last statement out of the article, even though it clearly states that, not only is the government engaging in illegal or immoral activity, but is also not afraid to talk about it…. The officials spoke, probably admitting to an illegal act on the part of a government agency or official, but did so in direct violation of their own rules….

I know that this particular phrase has been used in the press for a long time, to indicate two things…. One, that the reporter has found out something bad going on in our government, and has managed to trick the administration into admitting it; and, two, some unknown official has bravely taken the side of the people to get the information out…..

Neither one of these is usually true…. The reporter is a shill, reporting whatever their contact tells them to report, and doesn’t give a shit about the people, as long as his or her name is at the top of the report…. Second, the official isn’t on anybody’s side but their own, and are deliberately feeding the reporter what the powers that be wish him to report, which almost guarantees it is a lie, plain and simple….

In the second example, I’ve italicized the significant line…. The lawyers in this case are the only ones who benefited by the verdict, obviously… What disturbs me is that they don’t even care that people are aware of how badly they have ripped off everyone involved….

Allowing the lawyers to make that much off the misery of the participants, misery of which they are a prime cause, is reprehensible enough, all by itself…. But, to publicly report it shows how little respect for the public that either the lawyers, or the ruling classes have for the general public…. They know that nobody can do anything about the way they have things set up, so they no longer care about showing their hands….

The BRC controls Congress, it controls the Courts, it controls the Executive Branch, and, most importantly, it controls the media…. Anyone who believes otherwise is whistling in the dark, and needs to reexamine all they believe about their elected officials, or, for that matter, reality. We are being lied to, and cheated, and having our rights taken away, one by one, under our very noses.

The assholes responsible are even trying to convince us all that it is for our own good, that allowing restrictions to rights is the only way to “protect” us from those evil terrorists…. Terrorists who would not even exist, were it not for those self-same immoral acts that cause resentment and anger….. which is the intent…. The more angry and resentful people are, the easier they are to control… Think about it….

I see that this has grown rather long, and still has a lot of room for expansion… There is no lack of available data to support all I’m saying today, everywhere I look… on liberal sites, on conservative sites, neutral sites, all of them are full of examples, both of how we are being screwed, and of how little it is being hidden any more. They don’t care, ffolkes, and they aren’t going to change…. I’m tired of ranting, even though it is rather self-sustaining, anger-wise, so I’ll cut this short here, and just say this, to the American public…

Wake up! It’s our only chance at survival, and more importantly, the only chance for survival for our children….. Too many of them are already indoctrinated to believe whatever they are told on TV, and that control is insidiously and steadily creeping into the internet…. Eventually, it will kill us all, if we allow it….

“HELLO, everybody, I’m a HUMAN!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

I’m not sure what to think of the above rant…. It’s a bit disjointed, and lacking in discipline, due, I think, to the amorphous nature of the subject under discussion… Precise definition of the human spirit is, to say the least, difficult, and fraught with danger, of inaccuracy, and of obsession. In light of that, I offer this, a poem I wrote a while back, that points out a method by which we can, at least, not become overmastered by reality….

Accentuated Lessons

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

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

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

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

Peace lies within, always…..

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

I’ve ranted myself out, and don’t even have the energy to pull together an old-school pearl…. so, we’ll dip into the archives for one from 2012… enjoy!…..

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

Caution: Old School Pearl Ahead. Gird Your Grids For A Big One…..

“Two babies were born on the same day at the same hospital. They lay there and looked at each other.  Their families came and took them away.  Eighty years later, by a bizarre coincidence, they lay in the same hospital, on their deathbeds, next to each other.  One of them looked at the other and said, “So. What did you think?” — Steven Wright

A monk said to Joshu, “I have just entered this monastery. Please teach me.”
“Have you eaten your breakfast?” Joshu asked.
“Yes, I have,” replied the student.
“Then you had better wash your bowl.”
— Smart Buddhist Bee

“TAPPING?  You POLITICIANS!  Don’t you realize that the END of the “Wash Cycle” is a TREASURED MOMENT for most people?!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“I’ll get you my pretty,  and your little dog too!” — Wicked Witch of the East

“Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

There, that should do it…. I’ve made this as clear as mud, obviously…. Don’t worry, though, it won’t be on the test…. In fact, it won’t even count toward graduation, not that we care about stuff like that…. But, it does make a good point, yes?  Nod your head…..
_____________________________

It all feels disjointed, somehow. Everything seemed to come out in fits and starts, and I couldn’t seem to keep track of direction…. Probably getting the mushy-brain, pre-cruise brain syndrome, where all I can think about is how good it will feel to walk on that ship….. Ah well, gotta stay focused for another few days…. Let’s see how this came out….. Well, not too bad, all things considered… It will have to do, for I’m not doing it over….. Try not to hold it against me, okay?…. Thanks…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Even tax codes are tasty with hollandaise….

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Ffolkes,
“With chattering teeth, wheeling eyes, and muscles tensed, as if in anticipation of a blow, he sits before the object of his reasoned fear, aghast at the level to which feverish apprehension rises uncontrollably. Sheer unbridled terror rules over all courage, bringing the morbid, deathly paralysis that comes to all in such straits. Yet, we see his face harden, and fill with purpose; he reaches up to the table, sets his hands upon the magical keys, and begins, despite, or even because, of his fear…..”

And so begins another day here at ECR, where even the panic inspired by the vision of a blank white screen cannot overcome my unyielding dedication, my purposeful, yet idiotic need to blather out all that is in my head each day. No matter how much sleep it costs me, no matter how little money I make from it, and no matter what anyone says, I will have my way, and will have my say…. If nothing else, it is important, to me, to keep my string unbroken, if a bit frayed. Goodness knows why, but, asking the universe to answer any ‘why’ questions is futile, so we shan’t bother with it…

Not everything in this universe needs an explanation, which I find to be a soothing thought, all in all. It certainly helps me out quite often, as I tend to not worry about the stuff I can’t change, and finding explanations for everything I do gets tiresome very quickly….. It is only other people who wish for us to be up front about motivation, and I’m happy to say, I don’t live by their expectations or desires. That may sound a bit callous, but, in fact, it is not, as I certainly afford them the same courtesy as I demand…. Thus, in my view, and in that respect, the scale is balanced.

I find myself wandering a bit far afield this morning, delving into such a rather abstruse and delicate trend of thought, and I’m wondering if I am quite up to handling it with the required alacrity. My savoir faire, as it were, is not always at its strongest in the mornings, and I’m fairly certain that, if I continue in this vein, I’ll hurt myself…. Since I have no intention of taking any chances of missing my embarkation on Saturday next, (and certainly not because of a failure of savoir faire….), we’ll go on to something a bit less dangerous, from a literary, or even physical, standpoint…. Of course, given the material that usually ends up being presented here, even that may be asking a bit much…..

Oh, well, hell…. Shall we Pearl?…..
_____________________________

“Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.” — George Orwell, 1984

As the story about E. Snowden, the NSA whistleblower, unfolds in the news, I am struck by how the US government is reacting in such a way as to PROVE the accusations that were made, of not merely spying and illegal mining of data from its own citizenry, but of doing so without any oversight, or any legal recourse for its victims.  Even Saint Barack has shed the hooded mantle of secrecy, and is not only admitting that the spying is going on, but is trying to legitimize it in the eyes of the public. At the same time, the legal arm of the government is preparing to bury this young man with a conscience, for blowing the whistle on how far the powers that be have gone, in their quest for absolute control over society.

In the book from which the above was excerpted, 1984, George Orwell painted a vision for us of how things might be, if ever the general public gave up all power to the government…. At the time of its publication, almost all of the things in the book that showed how that worked were not present in real life, except in secret…. However, if one looks at the book now, just about every technological technique used to monitor the populace of the world, is now in play in our world…. Big Brother is now watching us, and if he doesn’t like what we are doing, well, that’s OUR problem, and they will make sure that we are aware of that….

I really want to rant about this today, but, for some reason, my mind is refusing to cooperate… It might have something to do with the fact that this whole scenario makes me almost incoherent with anger…. Anger directed at the government, and at all the lying politicians, and cowardly judges, and  and all of the other assbites who support them, such as the police, the churches, and, sadly, the ignorant and afraid among the citizenry…. I would like to take them all and just shake some sense into them, but, I happen to know they are immune to such treatment, their minds having been indoctrinated into blind obedience before they reached the age of reason…..

“A doctrine insulates the devout not only against the realities around them but also against their own selves. The fanatical believer is not conscious of his envy, malice, pettiness and dishonesty. There is a wall of words between his consciousness and his real self.” — Eric Hoffer

What is most infuriating to me is that the people ALLOW this all to take place…. The politicos put out all their lies and illusions, and the people buy into them, without ever examining any of it for truth, or even relevance…. In the last presidential election, over 48 million people, who otherwise might be considered relatively sane, went out and voted for a man who lied to them consistently for six months.  48 fucking million! That is an incredibly large load of stupid, ffolkes, and makes me afraid all over again….

Fortunately, there were enough other ffolkes who didn’t fall for Mitt the Twitt’s line….  They did, however, fall for the line of a man who is, perhaps, even more dangerous, for he is adept at diverting attention away from what he does in secret, by performing public acts that seem to prove he is aboveboard…. which he is not…. I was, at first, encouraged by the election of a black man as president, hoping it signaled a weather-change in society, but, there doesn’t seem to be much difference, ultimately, in what he has done, as opposed to any other president….

If he was at all different, we would not have had the NDAA signed while the nation’s attention was diverted by a holiday; that happened right after he won the second election in 2012.  If he actually intended to fulfill any of the campaign promises he made, he would have done so by now, but, Guantanamo is still open, people are still being detained and questioned in prison camps overseas, where we cannot observe them, and drones ARE being utilized inside American air space, to spy on our own citizens…. Don’t even bother to try to deny any of that, because the proof is all over the news and the internet…. Moreover, he isn’t denying any of it, as he now knows he cannot be stopped, having fooled everyone into compliance, and secured his position until 2016….

I guess I did end up ranting… anger will do that…. I HATE being lied to, by anyone, but, I hate it the most when I am lied to by elected officials. I don’t know why I hate it so much, except that it has been going on for my entire life, and it is a direct contradiction to the way it is supposed to be. We are, theoretically, supposed to elect the candidates who demonstrate the most honesty and integrity, but, due to the extreme gullibility of the public, we always end up with the candidate who is the most convincing liar, instead…. It drives me crazy, for sure, but, some might say that is a short drive…. I don’t care, I’m too pissed off to worry about it….

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning  ourself.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“I love my country too much to be a nationalist.” — Albert Camus
_____________________________

I’ve left the selection of today’s poem for last, though I found the little excerpt by Cowper earlier, and included it for its relevant beauty…. What I found can only be described as appropriate…. it is strange, disturbing, and esoteric by intent, thus making it the perfect counterpoint to what comprises the rest of today’s effort…. Not that what I’ve created isn’t strange or disturbing; I suppose it is more of a type of trim, than a counterpoint… Whatever it is, I hope you enjoy it, if only for its oddity….

There is a pleasure in poetic pains
Which only poets know.

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book ii, The Timepiece, Line 285

Father Death Blues

Hey Father Death, I’m flying home
Hey poor man, you’re all alone
Hey old daddy, I know where I’m going

Father Death, Don’t cry any more
Mama’s there, underneath the floor
Brother Death, please mind the store

Old Aunty Death Don’t hide your bones
Old Uncle Death I hear your groans
O Sister Death how sweet your moans

O Children Deaths go breathe your breaths
Sobbing breasts’ll ease your Deaths
Pain is gone, tears take the rest

Genius Death your art is done
Lover Death your body’s gone
Father Death I’m coming home

Guru Death your words are true
Teacher Death I do thank you
For inspiring me to sing this Blues

Buddha Death, I wake with you
Dharma Death, your mind is new
Sangha Death, we’ll work it through

Suffering is what was born
Ignorance made me forlorn
Tearful truths I cannot scorn

Father Breath once more farewell
Birth you gave was no thing ill
My heart is still, as time will tell.

~~ Allen Ginsberg ~~

_____________________________

All things considered, it’s been a good morning…. This isn’t to say it hasn’t been without its difficulties, but, I’m trying really hard not to be a whiner, so we’ll pass over all that, and get on with it…. Here is a seven-star pearl for your delectation, lovingly selected over the last hour from Smart Bee, who has been a bit off, but, came through in the end. The point of this pearl is related to the above rant, but, not so’s you could tell at first glance…. Don’t sweat it, it’s all good stuff, even without the point, and who wants a point that’s all belabored, anyway, right?…. So, make sure you have your chopsticks, the protective bib provided for your convenience is in place, and you should be able to get through it without any new laundry bills…..

“You can best serve civilization by being against what usually passes for it.” — Wendell Berry

“All things come round to him who will but wait.” — Henry W. Longfellow (1807-1882) — Tales of a Wayside Inn, The Student’s Tale

“Against those skilled in the attack, the enemy does not know where to defend.  Against the experts in defence, the enemy does not know where to attack.” — Sun Tzu

“What matters today is not the difference between those who believe and those who do not believe, but the difference between those who care and those who don’t.” — Abbe’ Pierre

“If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you; but if you really make them think, they’ll hate you.” — Don Marquis

“I don’t necessarily agree with everything I say.” — Marshall McLuhan

“The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” — Eden Phillpotts
_____________________________

Having thus sharpened my wits as far as possible on the whetstone of virtual wisdom, and, convinced I can do no more damage, I will take my leave, once I’ve checked this over for typos, etc., a statement of intent which you are, no doubt, grateful to hear….. Okay, well, that took a while, but, we’re all good to go now…. Having once more defeated the forces of Murphy, if only for a time, I bid thee a fond adieu… Oh, yeah, only five days to go, four, if one looks at it right, and y’all won’t have me to kick around any more…. Just kidding…. Nixon pops up at the weirdest times; I just meant we’ll be off to Alaska on Saturday, come Hell or High Water…. Any who….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Susceptible to diverse therapeutic models….

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Ffolkes,
Oh, hello there…. come on in, but mind your head on the doorway there…. We’re doing a bit of remodeling, made necessary by an incident that took place late last night. There I was, sleeping peacefully, until about 3 AM, when all of a sudden, every piece of loose paper in the apartment burst into flame, WHOOSH, and I found myself frantically spraying water from the sink all over the place, alternated with beating out licks of flame on every surface…. A real nightmare, for sure, but without the benefit of being asleep….. It’s a real mess, but, I managed to get all the flames out before any of the walls or anything else got involved, so, I’m forced to assume the attitude of “it could be worse”. Which, of course, it very easily could have been, had it actually occurred…

No, that’s right, you heard me correctly…. I’m lying again, or, as we authors like to call it, being creative….. For the life of me, I couldn’t think of anything to start with today; the only thing I could come up with was this little bit of prevarication, which I justified as being acceptable only with the greatest reluctance…. I don’t really enjoy lying, as it challenges all I was taught as a boy by my father, but, how else can one make fiction, if not by a form of lying about reality? Any new story,  or any idea that hasn’t been already used, is, from one viewpoint, a lie, because it doesn’t exist in reality. Even though I know this, it doesn’t help to keep quiet those voices we have in our heads, put there by our parents in our infancy. I don’t know about y’all, but the voices in my head can be quite insistent, and annoying….

I know, I know, there are medications for that, but, these voices aren’t psychotic in nature; I actually heard them, utilized by my parental units, stating whatever advice or warning they  were trying to convey, at one point or another in my youth, so the medicines wouldn’t prevent them from making themselves known. Of course, most of what they say is a repeat of stuff we already know, so it’s not hard to just let it go by without getting worked up, or feeling any guilt, which, when dealing with stuff our parents gave us, is an occupational hazard…. I am SOOO glad I got rid of guilt in my life; I can’t tell you what a difference it has made….

Well, all of that is certainly….. well, it’s done. It’s words in a row, all of which are relatively connected to the ones nearby, which makes for a more pleasant appearance, as well as helping it to make whatever sense it may possess…. In this case, not a lot…. In fact, practically ALL of this intro section, thus far today, could be considered as sheer drivel, were it not for the need to keep some dignity on board. In looking back over what I’ve written so far, I can only hope that I haven’t gotten any of it on any new clothing items, and that nobody takes it seriously…. Even for me, this one is pretty loose, so, please, be careful handling it… it might not have a lot of sharp edges, but it WILL leave a stain….

“One cannot make up stories; one can only retell in new ways the stories one has already heard.” — Carolyn Heilbrun

Shall we Pearl?…..
_____________________________

— Bother! said Pooh, as time unraveled around him.

Boy, don’t you just hate when that happens? I know I do…. and, these days, I feel like time is definitely becoming looser, and less likely to stay in its proper form. This may have to do with how close we are approaching our demise as a species, or with the constant barrage of insanity that continues to be displayed every day in the news…..

Some days it is impossible to keep up with all the stupidly insane, absolutely bonkers stuff that pours out of the mouths of pundits and politicos, preachers and police spokepersons (silly damn word….). It seems to me that government, as we know it, could do with a sense of humor…. Currently, there just isn’t anything funny about what they’re doing, in almost every arena, and I, for one, could do with a break from their implacable stupidity…..

I had intended to rant here, and to some extent, that will hold true…. I suppose the above paragraph could be counted as rantlike, but it needs some direction before it will come close to drawing any blood; I try to make sure it will at least cause a wound that will scar up, or what’s the point? However, at this point, there is just too much to choose from among the issues that are in the public eye right now…..

The Supremes are taking up the question of gaiety, and whatever they say will certainly cause consternation in one camp or another; the Feds are proving their complete lack of a sense of humor, by bringing charges (a euphemism for ‘persecuting’….) against the whistle blower who is hiding in Hong Kong, who had the audacity to tell the truth in public without their permission; civil wars are happening in the middle east again, and even the players can’t tell who’s who; another public circus is being played out in a Floridian court of justice (is that an oxymoron?…), where a paranoid racist murderer is being protected by the system….. I wouldn’t be surprised to see an article about penguins today, just to counterbalance all the disturbing shit being broadcast everywhere….

I can’t keep up with all of it; it’s getting crazy out there, ffolkes, and getting there faster all the time…. Any who… Since I can’t keep up, and can’t decide on what subject I should rant, we’ll try some cosmic Judo, and use my own weight against me…. We’ll go old school, and see what happens… These quotes are…. well, they are what they are, and they say whatever it is they’re going to say…. Deal with it, and enjoy….

“If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five? No, four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” — Abraham Lincoln

“Be patriotic – question authority.” — Bumper Sticker

“An ethical man is a Christian holding four aces.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910)

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”

“I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn’t.” — Jules Renard

That’s it, I give up…. Smart Bee is being a butthead today; this pearl took an inordinate amount of time to put together, for so little result…. but, it works, so we’ll get on with the rest of today’s effort, and consider it all a wash up to now….
_____________________________

Between what I see and what I say
Between what I say and what I keep silent
Between what I keep silent and what I dream
Between what I dream and what I forget:
Poetry.

— Octavio Paz (1914-1998)

Honorable Request

Days, filled to a brim with fluff and time, pass
dimly into memory, bit by combative bit,
ever mournful, yet loud with life and sass,
only in dream do we meet, and dance, and flit.

Souls, spinning ’round in gleeful wonder, comply
as they must, never given a reason,
somberly proper, yet limber and quite spry,
dancing on to greet each bright new season.

Storms, angered by apathetic care, rage
proceeding into ministerial glare, unknown,
clothed in colors, purified solely with sage,
past an infinite future, already flown.

Life, plumbed to its depths and secrets, keeps
flowing with currents, strong and fairly found,
love stands, asking release, as it slowly weeps,
seeking refuge unasked, to stay honor bound.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Section one today turned out to be a bit strange, which, while not unexpected, did screw the format up a trifle. I don’t have a rant left in me, beyond what I’ve already done, and SB is being wonky about giving me what I need… So, I’m resorting to the archives, where I found this little religirant, not too long, and quite fitting, given what has gone before…. Plus, it’s done, and I don’t have to worry about being more creative (not that I lost a lot of sleep over that….)…. Any who, here is a pearl from mid-2012 sometime…..

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

I don’t have an attitude problem–it’s supposed to be like this. — Smart Bee

I like this. It’s what I’ve said to any number of folks who have challenged me regarding my intransigence in the face of ignorant behavior. I am always tempted to add, “I am an American citizen, and it is not only my right, but my duty to challenge authority,”  mainly because I believe it to be absolutely true, thought not an attitude currently favored by most of society, more’s the pity…. We’d be a lot better off if more folks took their duties as citizens more seriously….

“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.” — Thomas Paine

All of our founding fathers were convinced that only an educated populace had a chance of maintaining the freedoms they secured for us. They knew firsthand how unscrupulous churches and governments, working hand in hand, had oppressed and subjugated the people for centuries, and they were determined that it should NOT happen here. So they engineered a system whereby each citizen has the opportunity, and the right, to a complete grounding in basic knowledge, in order that they could make informed decisions regarding the laws with which they would be living….

“The Church hates a thinker like a criminal hates the police.” — Smart Bee (So do politicians…)

For over 200 years now, the beloved ruling class and their hidden supporters, the prelates of the churches and synagogues, have been repeatedly and subtly attempting to undermine the purpose behind educating people, trying to limit the amount spent on education, or luring people into believing the nonsensical alternatives that religion offers in lieu of independence of thought, thus minimizing the effects of the education received outside their influence. They (the politicians and priests/preachers….) continuously bombard the public with lie after lie, until the lies are accepted as truth, just because there is nothing else offered. They then use those lies to further confuse the public as to what is really happening, and go about their business of stealing and grabbing power wherever they find the opportunity….

“I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State.   My idea  is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.” — George Carlin

So, my attitude is not the problem…. the problem is that not enough of us have this attitude, and the PTB have virtually no competition in their fight for our attention; there is nobody allowed on the political stage who is singing a different song than the one approved for public consumption by those who control such matters…. Hell, we’ll know we’re making progress if even one such person ever gets the chance to even speak…. meantime, all we can do is to have those of us who know our duty keep plugging away, calling them out for their lies, and making as much noise as we can, to try to draw some attention to those places where it isn’t appreciated, but needs it the most…..

“Every sensible man, every honest man, must hold the Christian sect in horror. But what shall we substitute in its place? you say. What? A ferocious animal has sucked the blood of my relatives. I tell you to rid yourselves of this beast and you ask me what you shall put in its place?” — Voltaire
_____________________________

I’m exhausted…. That was the toughest Pearl in quite a while… I hope it reads well enough to pass muster; I’d hate to have to go back and start over…..   Well, it will do, I suppose… It may not be Ibsen, but it’s at least Art, or Frank, or Earnest…. especially the last. Plus, it contains no misspelled words, at least according to SpellChecker, and we all know how infallible that is….. Ah well, I have no pride left, so….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Such splendid toast deserves marmalade….

Posted on by
10

Ffolkes,
‘Tis a sad commentary to note one’s entire life boils down to one moment, and in that moment, one realizes that the greatest skill one has developed is the ability to dither, or blather, or, as they used to say, to speak piffle….. Disheartening, to say the least; I had hoped for something a bit more dignified, or at least more useful.  Piffle, as it was called in the previous century, is only useful to those who speak it, and to those who understand and appreciate it…. Most of the rest of society views piffle somewhat askance, as they have no idea either what is said, or what it may mean…. which, ultimately, is their loss…..

Of course, I can’t claim to be anywhere near as good at it as, say, Lord Peter Wimsey, from Dorothy L. Sayers’ novels; her books tend to intimidate as much as educate, as I believe she wrote with the Oxford Dictionary at close hand. Every page she wrote was filled with demonstration of a writer who loved the English language, one who seemed to use ALL of it in her writing. In my most egotistic dreams, I write only half as well as she did, for I don’t ever expect to be able to match her expertise, or her originality. Only someone with such a strong love for, and full understanding of, the language of their birth, could use it in such a way as to make it both ironically humorous, and at the same time, pointedly insulting, or laughingly charming, or quietly inspirational.

SIGH…. To my everlasting regret, I can’t do that, not as well as I’d like. It is a constant disappointment to me that I cannot; it’s one of the few skills in my life that I can say truthfully that I have been unable to master, once I tried. Perhaps, before I pass on to the next dimension, or whatever happens after we die, I’ll get closer to writing better piffle; I hope so. If not, well, I can always go back and read more of Ms. Sayers’ work, though I believe I’ve already consumed all of her Lord Peter stories…. They are the kind of books one can read over and over, finding something new every time….

All of the above is what could be called a distraction. I wrote it as a sublimation of the desire to whine about the intro again, hoping to distract both y’all and myself from the fact that this section once again is filled with material that has no real connection to anything, other than as a means to pass the time until my brain kicks into gear sufficiently to start writing something more nourishing to the mind. There may be those among you who would point out the lack of ANY material here that meets that standard, but, I don’t expect them to speak up; they’ve been threatened about doing so, and have assured us of their silence in this matter….

Of course, I can’t expect that threat to hold them off forever, so it’s probably better to just get on with the business of the day…. According to the stats I’ve seen recently, very few readers will see this anyway…. My number of followers keeps growing, but the number of Likes per day continues to drop…. I’ve averaged about four Likes per day for over a week now, though stats indicate my following is up to 270….

I don’t much care if ffolkes don’t always Like what I write, but, it’s a bit disheartening to think that no one at all cares to read it…. But, it doesn’t really matter, since I don’t much care one way or the other about fame, or money…. only about sanity (my own…), and sanity is the reason I write…. Not that what you see here is particularly sane by normal standards, but those aren’t valid here without permits anyway…..

Shall we Pearl?….
_____________________________

“The rights of one are as sacred as the rights of a million.” — Eugene V. Debs, US labor leader.

(Note: Debs received one million votes in 1920 as candidate for US President, while serving a 10-year jail sentence for having said in June 1918: “Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder…the master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.”) — Smart Bee

This has been sitting around for a couple of days, since I found it in SB. It’s the perfect beginning for a politirant, and the news of late has provided a number of interesting side notes to this idea, so I find myself in the position of being compelled to rant, which is the best attitude to start with….

The recent news has shown a number of items concerned with the revelations just released a few weeks ago, when a former NSA contractor spilled the beans about how the US government has been spying on its own people, collecting personal data from phone records, mercantile records, and from review of emails and other data mined from the internet… The revelations, of course, are in the process of being denied and/or devalued by that government, who are trying to convince the public that the spying is “transparent”, and that the information is NOT being collected to investigate American citizens…. This, of course, is a bald faced lie, and anyone who believes it deserves anything that happens to them….

The government of this country is in the hands of people who are controlled by the corporate masters of society, sometimes willfully, most times without their complete knowledge. They (the corporate masters…) don’t give a SHIT about the rights of anyone else, so the above statement that got Mr. Debs in trouble is shown to be perfectly true. The people who control society don’t believe in the sacred nature of rights, for anyone who isn’t them, so it can be said that the rights of one are as sacred as the rights of a million, because to the 1% (a number that is actually far larger than the number of real masters of society…. that’s probably closer to .001%…..), neither one is sacred at all….

What disturbs me a lot of the time is that there are still a lot of people who believe that, of the choices available in the political spectrum, one side or another is better, and showing support for one of them will direct matters to a more favorable (for the people) resolution…. The fact is, neither the Republicans, nor the Democrats, nor any of the Independents who are in office, or trying to get into office, have any interest at all in doing anything other than establishing their own agenda as the one used by society. Those agendas have nothing to do with helping the general public; they are designed to benefit only those who ascribe to the correct philosophy. No matter which political party or entity you choose, you’re going to get screwed, in the final analysis.

“The art of government is the organization of idolatry.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

If you still think that Barack Obama is going to help the common man, well, I suggest you listen to the crap he is putting out right now about this surveillance. Remember, too, that he signed the law that killed the Bill of Rights, on New Year’s Eve of 2012,  the infamous National Defense Authorization Act, which makes it legal for the government to arrest citizens without a warrant, to hold them in an unknown place, without any oversight or review of rights, and try them in a secret court, without legal representation. It authorized the use of drones in a domestic fashion (which they continue to lie about, and say they aren’t using them…. when reports from all over the country provide relatively incontrovertible PROOF that they ARE using them….), and, most assuredly, authorized the illegal wiretapping and internet data mining that is currently going on, even though it has been exposed.

We may as well begin referring to the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution as the Bill of Former Rights, because, face it, ffolkes, you don’t have them anymore. I’ve heard it said that they are not rights, anyway, as a right is something nobody can take away from you…. More accurately, you have no rights that you are unable to defend…. and the government has slyly convinced most people that they don’t want those rights anyway…. Look how many formerly intelligent people are jumping on the bandwagon about gun control, forgetting all that our forefathers cautioned us about, when they warned about the possible encroachment of big business and the churches into the workings of government…. Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Mason, Franklin, all of them mistrusted the corporate interests and the preachers, having suffered much at their hands, and they tried to warn us against listening to them….

But, what happened to Eugene Debs back in 1919, when he was sent to prison (in direct violation of the right to free speech….) was not the first indicator that things had regressed, and the trend toward government takeover of the rights of US citizenry has continued right up to today. The recent revelations about spying, you will see, will be quashed, and ignored by those in power, as there is now nothing we can do to stop them from doing whatever they want…. According to the laws we let them slip by us, it’s all legal ffolkes…. We are screwed, and the only good thing I can see about it, is that, due to global warming, climate change, and the imminent destruction of the human species by our own pollution, we won’t have long to put up with it….

Books are burning
In the main square, and I saw there
The fire eating the text.
Books are burning
In the still air
And you know where they burn books
People are next.

— “Books Are Burning”, XTC
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The above rant, you may note, was cut short, due to my rising blood pressure; I came very close to losing it due to outrage there near the end. I’m so PISSED at our government, and the crap they’re pulling, it’s hard to keep it from spilling out into other areas…. Poetry will often soothe this kind of angst, and Emily does it quite well… This is a plaintive poem, and not particularly soothing…. It does, however, engage the mind in something other than the shenanigans I can’t stop, even if that which it brings for us to engage is no less serious, just more personal…. Any who, enjoy…. I did….

There’s a certain slant of light,
On winter afternoons
That oppresses, like the weight
Of cathedral tunes.

Heavenly hurt it gives us;
We can find no scar,
But internal difference
Where the meanings, are.

None may teach it anything,
‘T is the seal, despair, —
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the air.

When it comes, the landscape listens,
Shadows hold their breath;
When it goes, ‘t is like the distance
On the look of death.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

_____________________________

Old school, old school…. I’ve ranted, and have Emily in place, so it must be time for an old school pearl, to finish off the day’s effort with a flourish…. I’m not even going to try to figure out any point, though I’m sure there will be one… This one is dedicated to the concept of fun, which I often forget to promote when in ranting mode…. So, I should probably warn you not to put too much effort into figuring this one out; it could cause severe brain function loss, and I’m not going to pay for the nursing bills during the recovery stage….. Otherwise, have fun with it….

Euripides says,–
Who knows but that this life is really death,
And whether death is not what men call life?

— Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Pyrrho, viii

“We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is forever.” — Carl Sagan

“Nothing unreal exists.” — Kiri-Kin-Tha’s Law of Metaphysics

“The common folk have many sayings, all about it being darkest before the dawn and clouds with silver linings and suchlike. We in the magical trade like to express our opinions of these matters somewhat differently. A lifetime of experience will have taught the average sorcerer that no matter how hopeless the situation seems, no matter how painful and fraught with danger his options may be, no matter how close he may be to an indescribably hideous death and perhaps even eternal damnation, still, the good wizard knows, it can always get worse.” — The Teachings of Ebenezum, Vol. XLVI (General Introduction)

“If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.” — Albert Einstein

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

Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle iv, Line 193
_____________________________

Today’s Pearl will possibly come to be known as an example of an average Pearl, if such can be defined. An intro, a rant, a poem, and an old-school pearl; all perfectly fresh (but for the poem, which stands on its own merit…), and none of it possessed of anything resembling normalcy. It isn’t genius, I’d guess, nor is it an example of any overt cognitive deficits, necessarily…. Given all that, let’s see how it reads….. Hmm, it seems I was right, and wrong, too… It’s actually pretty good, and may even lead to further ranting in the not so distant future, provided the news doesn’t let me down (and when has THAT ever happened?….). After some tweaking, I can pronounce it “done, and done well”, with no shame or trepidation…. Well, it COULD use a bit more humor, but, hey, I try, and funny can be a tough row to hoe at this time of the day…. and now I’m blathering again…. I’ll go now….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Tasteful displays of chain mail crafts….

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Ffolkes,
Calamitous noise greeted me today, as what sounded suspiciously like Irish bagpipes assaulted my ears from outside the window, so sharp and  harsh, it seemed as if all the banshees of ancient legend were holding congress in the yard….. Plaintive, chilling notes tried to tear out my heart with penetrating cries of anguish, inexorably pulling me to the window to see what was causing the hullabaloo. I shall never forget the sight that met my gaze, now etched in my memory forever….

There, in the narrow space between buildings, stood a……   Okay, here’s the deal….. This started leaking out as I sat down to begin today, and seemed pretty cool at first. As I continued to put down the path to the strange vision in my mind’s eye, it began to fade away. like fog in a strong breeze, leaving me right where you see, lost, and red of face… For the life of me, I can’t think of anything strange enough to keep it going, so, I’m leaving it to y’all to do that…..

Feel free to leave a comment, if you have something that might work, and don’t mind sharing the idea….. Conversely, you can do what I plan to do, which is to put it out of my mind, forever, and get on with the rest of today’s effort….. I have the advantage of knowing that whatever comes next couldn’t possibly be as lame as this…. Well, I suppose I can’t say that, either, but, I can definitely guarantee it will….. well, shoot…. Now that I think about it, I can’t guarantee anything but correct spelling, so, we’ll just leave it all right there, and get on with the rest of today’s business, ‘kay?  ‘Kay!….

I promised not to whine any more, and I won’t…. but, I will say this…. This daily posting stuff isn’t as easy as it looks from the outside…. The Big Blue Room has once again laid demands upon a portion of my time today, so I’d best get on with this, or it won’t get done…. I don’t know what might happen if I let it go; I’m having a hard time envisioning a day without being able to experience this relief at the outset. I do know that it would jam up my feelings, a state of emotional constipation, as it were, and would probably send me right into total curmudgeon mode.

While that’s a comfortable skin for me to wear, it does tend to alienate others, which tends to complicate life rather than simplify it….. So, I’ll just put it on for long enough to rant, or find an appropriate old Pearl, thereby assuaging any potential build-up of undue angst or anxiety…. Showing one’s asshole face to the world can be fun, but only if let out on deserving recipients, and I don’t plan on hanging out with any of those today, thankfully….

Okay, enough rambling for one morning…. it’s almost 6:30 and I have yet to create a single pearl. Dithering won’t get it done, so….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“You come from far away, with pictures in your eyes.
Of coffee shoppes and morning streets and the blue and silent sunrise.

But night is the cathedral where we recognize the sign.
We strangers know each other now as part of a whole design.”

— Suzanne Vega, Gypsy
__________________________________

“A little sunlight is the best disinfectant.” — Justice Louis Brandeis

In the past few days, I have been ranting, albeit mildly, and without specific target, beyond some telling shots at a large group of humanity, and the moral flaws displayed thereby…. My intent in producing such rants is very aptly stated above by the good judge, showing again that someone can always say better what we try to say ourselves.  But, that doesn’t detract at all from the veracity of what I’ve written, or the need for the light to be shined on those parts of society that most need it…. to wit: the actions of our Beloved Ruling Class, and their owners, the Corporate Masters…. with the complicit support of the Priestly Hierarchies, and, the blindly obedient horde of myrmidons dedicated to following the dictates of the ruling classes, the Police and Paramilitary Wannabes….

Of late, there has been a lot of talk bandied about the internet, regarding the personal data being stolen (no other word for it….) by the government, as authorized by Presidential Executive Order, (a concept I am not sure was ever mentioned in the Constitution…), in its insane, paranoid pursuit of terrorists, and terrorism…. In fact, by writing those words here, I am guaranteeing myself an audience, because they are two of the key words used by Prism, the data mining software in use by the NSA, FBI, and, no doubt many other less well publicized agencies, to mark any communication for further review, with the intent of examination for terrorist tendencies or sympathies…

So, just by mentioning the subject, I know I will have at least one NSA geek, or an FBI agent, who will be reading over whatever I write today…. Actually, the foregoing sentences contain at least eight words that are on the extensive list of such words that will gain their attention, so I guess I’d better make this good….   😆

I am proud of what the NSA contractor did; I agree with his own assessment of his action, as intended to be of benefit to the American people, not as an act of treason, and applaud his courage in the face of knowing he would be subjected to vilification by the ignorant, and prosecution by those in authority. It is very easy these days to label an act such as this as treasonous, given the recent (mostly successful) attempts by government agencies to justify their paranoia. Since 9/11/2001, (See? Another key item for them to target…. I don’t know if I’m brave, or stupid…. or just old enough not to care one way or the other….), it has become the fashion for politicians to wrap themselves up in the flag, and inflame the fears of the common man about terrorism. This includes the naming of anyone who protests the loss of their rights as ‘treasonous’, ostensibly for placing America in danger, by exposing the clandestine gathering of information by government agencies… or, in simpler terms, by shining a light on things that are going on in the dark….

“Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?” — George Carlin

No, they don’t ever mention that…. nor do they mention ANY of the stuff being done out of sight of the public eye. I hold it to be a very dangerous policy to allow government agencies to operate in the dark, to make legal a great number of actions which, if performed by any citizen, would cause intense public outrage, and which, in truth, are ethically, morally, and, most importantly, Constitutionally unlawful. Every one of the rights supposedly granted by the Bill of Rights has now been restricted, in favor of illegal searches and seizures, loss of privacy, rampant police intimidation, and a government that believes it can do whatever it wants, as long as it is in pursuit of “national security”….

Sorry, but, I’m not buying any of it…. But, then, I have suspected for many years that the government of this country has been hiding the biggest part of what they do from the public, for a very long time…. Remember Dwight Eisenhower? He was that President who, back in 1954, sent thousands of American troops to Vietnam, to act as “advisers” to the brave soldiers of South Vietnam, who were fighting their own “war of independence” against the ungodly Communists in the North (right next to Red China, don’t y’know?…)…. Of course, when good ol’ Dwight did this, he didn’t bother to inform anyone; he just sent them over, and ignored the whole issue in public….

Since that time, almost sixty years ago, the government of this country has pursued a policy of “what the public doesn’t know won’t hurt me” in almost every area of national and international involvement. Whenever there is too much clamor from that public about such clandestine activities, or too much light begins to shine on one or more of the shenanigans always taking place somewhere, there is, oops, some kind of terrorist attack, or another shooting at a school, or a plane crash, or an earthquake, or anything at all, some manufactured, others just serendipitous calamities that are part of our natural world…. Any of these will do to distract the public eye away from whatever it is that has been exposed….

I have always wondered a bit about the timing of the attacks on the WTC and Pentagon in 2001…. They seemed to happen right when there was a strong push in the news to investigate the election results of both 1996, and 2000, results that had the Junior Shrub in office, rather than the greener candidate, Gore. In both those elections, there were critical glitches in the vote counting process in key states, oddly enough, the two states that provided the key electoral votes to get Bush elected, despite having lost the national popular vote, twice (Florida in 1996, and Ohio in 2000….) Any who, all of that was very close to coming under intense scrutiny, when, all of a sudden, we are attacked, by an unknown terrorist group (strangely enough, a group whose leader was a member of the Saudi Royal family, who are close friends of the Bushes….)

After the attacks, there was a singularly lackadaisical attempt to ascertain the culprits; none of the information gathered on them ever examined where the money to finance the attacks came from, an omission that is contrary to ANY professional investigation…. On TV police dramas, in the news, and, in the minds of any intelligent person, it is always made clear that finding the guilty will include, if not exclusively use, “following the money”…. It is basic criminology to find out who paid for it when a crime of such a large scope is committed. The very lack of effort in that direction makes one wonder, just a bit….

Well, I’ve now discussed the issue long enough to have used just about every key word in the program that mines data for the National Security Agency, so, we’ll see whether or not any of what I’ve discussed is enough to get their attention…. I think I’ve also managed to mention just about every conspiracy theory out there for anyone to see, ….. If any official response is generated, we’ll know just how badly things have gotten, when a free citizen of this country can potentially become a target for police and security agencies of the government, merely for exercising the right of free speech…. In a way, I suppose you could say this is an experiment, designed to gauge the degree of paranoia that is so obvious in our BRC….

I’m letting it go now, both to get it done, and because it is such a depressing subject…. I think I need some poetry, to soothe my soul…..

Teacher:  “Bart, give us an example of a modern-day paradox.”
Bart:  “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”

— Bart the Genius   “The Simpsons”
__________________________________

“What a lumbering poor vehicle prose is for the conveying of a great thought! … Prose wanders around with a lantern & laboriously schedules & verifies the details & particulars of a valley & its frame of crags & peaks, then Poetry comes, & lays bare the whole landscape with a single splendid flash.” — Mark Twain

A Spirit Passed Before Me [From Job]

A spirit passed before me: I beheld
The face of immortality unveiled–
Deep sleep came down on every eye save mine–
And there it stood,–all formless–but divine:
Along my bones the creeping flesh did quake;
And as my damp hair stiffened, thus it spake:

‘Is man more just than God? Is man more pure
Than He who deems even Seraphs insecure?
Creatures of clay–vain dwellers in the dust!
The moth survives you, and are ye more just?
Things of a day! you wither ere the night,
Heedless and blind to Wisdom’s wasted light!’

~~ George Gordon Lord Byron ~~

__________________________________

“I’m late, I’m late, for a very important date….” — The White Rabbit, in “Through the Looking Glass”

Well, I’m not, but I do sympathize, having once, like all of us, been subject to the whims and demands of others….. Now that I am not, I can pretty much do as I like, so, I do…. which means I get to make this an old-school pearl, just because I can…. Not only can you not stop me, I don’t think you would be that unkind, so, I’m going for it…. I’m not sure what form it will take, but I do know the initial find is a damn good one, so the rest should be fine…. Enjoy, and, if you find you cannot, well, just ignore it, or go back and read the poem again…. that’s the best I can do for you, without resorting to drugs….

“When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.” — Chinese Proverb

“The world is not to be put in order, the world is order incarnate. It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order.” — Henry Miller

“For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation.”  — Rainer Maria Rilke

“People always get what they want. But there is a price for everything. Failures are either those who do not know what they want or are not prepared to pay the price asked them. The price varies from individual to individual. Some get things at bargain-sale prices, others only at famine prices. But it is no use grumbling. Whatever price you are asked, you must pay.” — W. H. Auden — Smith College Commencement, 1940

“Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for lost faith in ourselves.” — Eric Hoffer

“I am quite sure that (bar one) I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices or caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed I know it. I can stand any society. all that I care to know is that a man is a human being – that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.” — Mark Twain  — Harper’s Magazine, September, 1899

“We have come to a place now where our search for Truth must no longer be for the rewards; it must no longer be our seeking a creed to follow, but it must be our living a life.” — H. Emilie Cady

Okay, well, that kind of turned on me, but, don’t worry, I’m not seriously injured, and the bleeding will stop soon, I’m sure….. Y’all be careful there near the end, it’s kind of a tricky little jog in the path….. And the point is kind of sharp, too….
__________________________________

There…. A generous portion of plain speaking, some fine poetry, and a bit of obscure mental gymnastics, all for the bargain price of… well, it’s free, so it’s even more of a bargain….. Now, all I have to do is see if it is palatable, too….  Well, it’s edible, if not palatable…. But, I’d suggest having some antacids on hand….  With no further ado, I bid thee adieu….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Terrified outbreaks of uncontrolled shrugging….

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Ffolkes,
As he sits down to begin, no angels sing, no thunder rings out, the earth remains still, and silent. Only the steady tick of the mantle clock breaks the quiet, until, slowly at first, then picking up the pace, he begins to type, words that have struggled to come forth from earliest memory. Like penitent soldiers, they line up on the page, tired, dusty, line after line, turned out from where they commonly hide, to face the light of day, and the harsher light of regard….. No promises of genius, no hope of publication, no real purpose…. just words, in a row, cast up in denial of repression, and hope of redemption….. Another day dawns, bringing, as always, trepidation, layered thinly with unreasoning hope, challenging all to arise, and survive another day…..

Well, I guess Hemingway doesn’t have to worry much that I’ll be challenging his reputation for powerful prose…. I can’t say the above stinks badly…. In fact, it isn’t bad at all, just rather lacking in direction, which isn’t surprising, since it has none to speak of; none was required, nor desired. All I wanted were some pretty words strung together in a reasonably rational order, just to draw y’all in, and perhaps, give a glimpse of something darker, and deeper, than is first seen… In that respect, it worked okay, I suppose, and, it has the added advantage of being done… Done deals are much handier than stuff left undone, for sure, wouldn’t you say?…. Rhetorical question, obviously, so don’t bother to reply….. unless, of course, you’re the type of reader who talks back to what you read…. in which case, feel free….

Yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah…. If this is the best I can come up with, I may as well start mailing this in…. coming into the office doesn’t seem to be working out for me…. Oh, wait, right, I’m not going in to any office…. SIGH…. Oh, well, I didn’t like having to go, anyway, so it’s just as well, I suppose, that I don’t have to go in anymore. I have a feeling that, in spite of the nasty, rude method used to force me to retire before I was ready, the actual state of retirement was the right way to go for me… As it turns out, my body was done with work; flogging myself to continue toiling away would probably have ended up being a bad idea, prolonging my misery, and making it even harder to deal with the physical aspects of getting old.

Now, I have things exactly the way I like them, with the added advantage of a secure, adequate income, an advantage I did not have, or even seek very hard, during all my previous years. Even when working, my necessary outgo always seemed to exceed my income; now that I’ve reduced my needs and wants to the bare minimum, the amount I’ve managed to retire on is entirely adequate to meet those needs, and still have enough to save up to travel on a regular basis. As long as I’m careful, I should be able to live long enough to see all the places I’ve dreamed about seeing all my life….

I almost feel guilty that things have turned out so well for me…. but, then I think back over the last three or four years, (or, in further retrospect, the last 25 years….) and realize that, hey, much of it has been a miserable time, and any good things happening now can be seen as the Universe acting to balance things out…. Karma is asserting itself, I would guess, and all I can say is, it’s about damn time… I don’t claim, even in my most feverish dreams, to be the best man alive, but, I’ve always tried my best to be honorable, to do my duty and hurt others as little as possible; that has to count for something, right?….

Okay, you can stop laughing now… I didn’t really expect an answer, but there’s no need to be rude, either…..  Just kidding, it’s all good….. I should know better than to ask for that kind of feedback; nobody enjoys feeling dumb, even me…. This intro section, I think, is getting completely out of control, and needs to be given the three finger salute, soon (Control-alt-delete…). Sorry ’bout that, it’s what happens when I get too much sleep, and try to write with a clear head…. I wasn’t paying close attention, and this section turned into a ramble of massive proportion, covering far too many subjects in way too few paragraphs (or, too many, relative to your viewpoint, I suppose….)…. I’ve hardly left any room for normal pearls, whatever those might be.

I think I stop talking now, and see what kind of mischief Smart Bee has in store for me…. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

Well, this is taking a long time, but, so far, it seems to be worth it…. I had to be firm, but Smart Bee finally came up with the first five pearls below, which hang together well, and make a very strong point about living well, or at least living, as opposed to ignoring life as it goes by… Then, as if by magic, the last two came forward, shyly asking to be included…. When I added them on, I was amazed, at how well they fit, and how they enhanced the given concept…. Of course, all that might be just my weird sense of humor, but, hey, it works for me….

“It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

“By space the universe encompasses and swallows me up like a dot; by thought I encompass the Universe.” — Pascal, Pensees, n. 265

In pride, in reasoning pride, our error lies;
All quit their sphere, and rush into the skies.
Pride still is aiming at the blest abodes:
Men would be angels, angels would be gods.
Aspiring to be gods, if angels fell,
Aspiring to be angels, men rebel.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 123

“From out of all the many particulars comes oneness, and out of oneness come all the many particulars.” — Heraclitus

“Truth can be a dangerous thing. It is quite patient and relentless.” — R. Scott Richards

See what I mean? Now, let the mind drift, with only that thought to anchor you to reality for the moment…. then, take in the two aphorisms below, and either grin, or guffaw, in acknowledgment and glee… I did, so I thought you should have the same opportunity….

“The purpose of a fish trap is to catch fish, and when the fish are caught, the trap is forgotten. The purpose of a rabbit snare is to catch rabbits. When the rabbits are caught, the snare is forgotten. The purpose of words is to convey ideas. When the ideas are grasped, the words are forgotten.Where can I find a man who has forgotten words? He is the one I would like to talk to.” — Chuang Tzu

“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” — Baruch’s Observation

Bang! It takes an accurate blow to drive in a nail with one clean strike…. Okay, put down the hammer now, I didn’t mean it…. calm yourselves…. Here, here’s a poem to look at, just give me the hammer, and I’ll put it away….
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If you weren’t able to tell, I’m in a sort of odd mood today…. That, in and of itself isn’t all that odd, and isn’t a problem, but, it does affect the content herein, and nowhere quite as much as in this section… To go with today’s ambiance, I offer the following gem from one of my favorite contemporary poet/artists…..

Tryin’ On Clothes
I tried on the farmer’s hat,                                                  
Didn’t fit…
A little too small — just a bit
Too floppy.
Couldn’t get used to it,
Took it off.

I tried on the dancer’s shoes,                                       
A little too loose.
Not the kind you could use
for walkin’.
Didn’t feel right in ’em,
Kicked ’em off.

I tried on the summer sun,
Felt good.
Nice and warm — knew it would.
Tried the grass beneath bare feet,
Felt neat.
Finally, finally felt well dressed,
Nature’s clothes fit me best.

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

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Below you will find one of my favorite rants, regarding the events in 2001 that have caused many of the restrictions placed on freedoms we, as US citizens, formerly held, restrictions with which we now live, and regard as normal…. I see this as evidence of the accuracy of what is written below, and supports its validity today…..
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“Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt (1759-1806) speech on the India Bill, Nov. 18, 1783

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

The entire incident that happened that day was blown completely out of proportion by the media. Yes, it was a tragedy, in which something over 3000 American lives were lost, in three separate incidents. The videos of those planes hitting the buildings in New York must have been replayed a thousand times before noon, all over the country, until every American who had access to a TV was informed of what had occurred….

The American media, and the political machinery that manipulates it so effectively, then proceeded to flood every channel with the after-effects, making sure that the sorrow and fear of every person they could find willing to speak of it on camera was put on the evening news, and ensuring that no rational, dispassionate examination of the events would take place. Before the first day had passed, the national reaction had been whipped to a frenzy, stirring the fears of every paranoid in society, and making it seem as if the entire nation was filled with anger and vengeful righteousness. Though I didn’t join in the paranoia, I could feel it happening all around me, as normally intelligent people became so angry they lost all sense of proportion, or for that matter, all sense of truth.

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

In this country, as a result of those attacks, approximately 5000 American lives were lost (that figure is larger than the actual number, purposely…. it is near enough to correct to make the point…). At this time, in the quest to find Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, over 50,000 Afghani civilians have been killed. In Iraq, which we somehow decided to invade, even though they had nothing to do with 9/11, well over 250,000 civilians have died to soothe our national pride. In that same period, we lost another 1000 or so soldiers in fighting and bombings. And, as a side effect, the US Bill of Rights has been effectively eliminated, by Executive Order, disguised as Homeland Security (June, 2013 — Now authorized by what is so laughingly called the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012…. signed by President Obama on New Year’s Eve of 2011, while everyone was partying, not paying any attention to their so-called “rights”…..).

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

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

That truth is this: we are in no real danger from Al Qaeda,  or from any other splinter faction terrorist group, nor have we ever been in any real danger. They may be able to pull off stunts such as this one occasionally, but for the most part, the world has gotten pretty good at either catching them in hiding, or stopping their plots before they actually carry them out. Governments have a LOT more resources than terrorists, no matter how rich they may be personally.

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

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

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

So be it…. gigoid has spoken….
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Well, there you go…. Such as it is, it is done, and I’m glad, as it took a supreme effort this morning to stay on track…. Not sure why, but, it no longer matters, as long as it proofs okay….  Which, in fact, it does…. I will reiterate…. So be it.  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Facial reconstruction is gratis only for Federal gargoyles….

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Ffolkes,
At the tone, the time will be…. 0646….. Pretty damn normal, if you ask me, which, I know you didn’t, but, since I’m obsessed with time in the mornings, I told you anyway…. Still, obsessive behavior aside, this is still the latest hour I’ve seen upon awakening in several months, so, I’m sort of jazzed about that. Sleep, or rather, the lack of sleep, has assumed too great a role in my life over the last few years, insidiously creeping up on me, a restless night here, a lost night there, and voilá, full-blown insomnia, with its ever-present gifts, dragging fatigue, and fuzzy head….

When younger, I could chalk it up to the activities of the night before, and throw off the worst of the fuzziness and fatigue, but, now that I’m older, the old reserve fuel tank is never quite full, and one ends up napping during the day like a two-year-old after three hours at a picnic…. Fortunately, I’m retired, and I’m old (well, old enough….), so napping is an acceptable pastime, both to those who might observe, and to me, who appreciates well the opportunity to give in to that particular urge…. I, like most children, fought like hell to grow out of taking naps, but, like most of us, have learned to enjoy the chance to rest and rejuvenate ourselves during the day….

So, sleeping so well that I see a new part of the morning, without having approached it with eyes already open, becomes an event worth celebrating, at least to the extent of acknowledging, and praising, its welcome presence. Of course, none of this really means anything that is worth writing about, but, it does get me a few paragraphs into the day’s effort without having to try to be too creative. Such an effort would, no doubt, be destined to fail, anyway, so it’s just as well…..

All that said, I can chalk it all up as a completed item on the day’s list, and get on with the regularly scheduled program…. Now, all I have to do is figure out what the hell our regularly scheduled program is, and we’re good to go. Since I’m up and relatively clear-headed, we’ll just dive in, and let Smart Bee determine what direction the program will take today…. ranting, joking, profound, or silly, it’s all grist for my mill in the morning, so let’s be off, to find our fates….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Having been lulled into a sense of false security by my late awakening, I should have known that Murphy would stick his nose in somewhere; it’s just too good an opportunity for him to be able to resist. Sure enough, he tried to fool me with some weird little aphorisms that were not merely not profound, but weren’t even pretty, thereby attempting to slow down the process…

Smart Bee, as the loyal software program it is, faithfully resisted Murphy’s ministrations, by slipping in the following group around, and between, the offerings he tried to saddle me with…. For a five-star pearl it isn’t bad, but, with the addition of the final two offerings, it enters another realm of thought altogether, one of great value to the discerning mind, and of great interest to the inquiring mind….. Enjoy! (And, pay attention! It’s all good stuff to know…. separate, or together….)

“The worst fear is the fear of living.” — Theodore Roosevelt

“There is nothing that can be said by mathematical symbols and relations which cannot also be said by words. The converse, however, is false. Much that can be and is said by words cannot successfully be put into equations, because it is nonsense.” — C. Truesdell

“It takes a very long time to become young.” — Pablo Picasso

“It is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.” — Josh Billings

“A platitude is simply a truth repeated until people get tired of hearing it.” — Stanley Baldwin

See? Isn’t that near-perfect? And when you add in these, well…..

“Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds–justification, confirmation–forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the door to a whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the questions and the questioner.” — Anne Rice

“…just when I had you wriggling in the crushing grip of reason, too…” — Calvin & Hobbes

As I have had occasion to say previously, it’s all in the wrist, as is patently clear…. Oh, and the timing, of course, because, as we all know so well, timing is everything….
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su tung-po    “Born in 1036, Su Tung-p’o was a famous Chinese poet. He was also called Su Shih. Born in present-day Sichuan province, Su was from a literary family. During the Sung Dynasty he wrote very simple poems based on Buddhist Philosophy. Su occupied many official posts, rising to president of the board of rites (which regulated imperial ceremonies and worship). He designed the parks surrounding Lake Si in Hangzhou. Five emperors came to the throne during his lifetime. ” — from Poemhunter.com

Shui Tiao Ko Tou

Will a moon so bright ever arise again?
Drink a cupful of wine and ask of the sky.
I don’t know where the palace gate of heaven is,
Or even the year in which tonight slips by.
I want to return riding the whirl-wind! But I
Feel afraid that this heaven of jasper and jade
Lets in the cold, its palaces rear so high.
I shall get up and dance with my own shadow.
From life endured among men how far a cry!

Round the red pavilion
Slanting through the lattices
Onto every wakeful eye,
Moon, why should you bear a grudge, O why
Insist in time of separation so th fill the sky?
Men know joy and sorow, parting and reunion;
The moon lacks lustre, brightly shines; is al, is less.
Perfection was never easily come by.
Though miles apart, could men but live for ever
Dreaming they shared this moonlight endlessly!

~~ Su Tung-p’o ~~

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Y’all don’t really care why, and it really has no bearing on what happens, so I’m going to skip all the explanatory expostulation I normally provide before including something from the archives, and just say this…. I’m putting this here because it is one of my best rants, as it has an actual suggestion for an act, or proposed act, that actually might have a positive effect on the way the world is heading…

It’s a pretty simple idea, too, not terribly hard to institute, should it ever become popular enough to spread over the world, until the powers that be HAVE to respond one way or another to it…. which, I am quite certain, they will be hesitant to do, since it is an idea that holds THEM accountable to the rest of us…. Having thus risked boring you to death with unnecessary verbiage, read on, and think about it…. If you like the idea, share it…. enough said….
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“Integrity is when what you say, what you do, what you think, and who you ARE all come from the same place.” — Madelyn Griffith-Haynie

Okay, I know we are all probably sick to death of politics, and the election, and everyone would like to have a break from talking and thinking about it….. I know I am. So, I’ll try to make this fairly short, and make it the last political diatribe for at least a day or two. It may be possible, if nothing in the news jumps up to stimulate my outrage (which may be on a short vacation itself….. I hope. I could do with the emotional space….).

Any who…. here is what I was thinking when I came across this little gem…. What if we devised a test, that in some way would enable us, as voters, to determine the relative status of each of the candidates according to this rule? A way, as it were, to measure their degree of integrity, which is something I think we can all agree would be a good thing to see in a politician, unlikely as it may be. If we could, say, set up a scale of integrity, and make it law that a person had to score in the top 5% of the scale in order to merely be eligible for office, I think we might see a whole new set of politicians, who had never before been seen in public.

In fact, in thinking about the current crop of those in office, it is entirely possible that ALL of those in office now might not be eligible…. I am not excluding the President, out of fairness, though I personally believe he might score in the top 10%…. I still have questions about some of the stuff he has signed that didn’t seem to be very well publicized, as they didn’t exactly fit with his image….. The newest version of the Patriot Act, the NDAA, that he signed last New Year’s Day comes immediately to mind…. (with the authorizations to view mail, view email, review library use, and other data, to use drones, anywhere, to hold and question US citizens without warrant, or any notification or justification, etc… The Act abridges every one of the Bill of Rights in some way…. This comment added post-publication….)

I don’t care if he did try to mitigate some of the deleterious effects of the law, he still signed the damn thing, thereby seriously endangering a number (correction: ALL…) of the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. Plus, the method he used to keep it from the public awareness was rather suspect, in my mind, and reminiscent of the old days under Nixon, Johnson, Reagan, and the two Shrubs, may they all rot in whatever level of  Hell they are destined to occupy….. (I know, I know…. not being a Christian, that curse has little weight, but, hey, it’s a pretty clear indicator of my opinion of all of them….)

As I suspected it might, this grew to be somewhat more than I intended it to be, so I’ll cut it short here. But, my suggestion above, about the test for integrity that should be a given for political aspirants, is completely serious, and I wanted to get that out. Maybe by the next election, we can get the rest of the country to buy into it…. which should be interesting, and fun. I’ll be looking forward to the expressions on the faces of all the supporters of those now in office, when their people gloriously fail to pass the test…. and to the results it will have on society, should it ever be adopted…. I don’t see any way at all that it could do anything that wouldn’t improve the situation…..

And so I penned
It down, until at last it came to be,
For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.


— John Bunyan (1628-1688) — Pilgrim’s Progress, Apology for his Book

Any thoughts on this?…. Feel free to comment below, or respond on your own blog, or via email
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Late it may be, but, it’s all fresh, or at least freshly commented upon…. “But,” he asked, “how does it read?” Well, let’s see…..  Not too badly at all, that’s how it reads…. So, without judging the content, it meets all necessary regulations and standards, if not all the demands of good taste. That’s never been too great a concern around here, anyway, so… off it goes, and I’m outta here, to go figure out how to spend another Sunday in Paradise, otherwise known as home sweet home…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3

Priceless moments of shared arrogance…..

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Ffolkes,
That was close…. I almost began today’s missive with a song…. Not just any song, mind you, but a particularly bright, bouncy, tuneful one from a particularly perky musical that shall remain nameless, lest I get sued for intellectual theft, or chastised by my readers for excessive tackiness, either of which is unacceptable to me, especially before I’ve finished my first cuppa….. It also saves you from having to go wash out your ears so early in the day…..

Since my morning routine has returned to some semblance of its former normalcy, or mendacity, depending on your relative point of observation, it seems my initial comments are turning on me as well. Not sure what to think about that, or what I should do, if anything….. It’s not as if what I do here in the intro section is written in stone; in fact, nothing like consistency has ever come into the equation at all. It has been both a stimulant, to be more creative, and a hassle, because I’m not always in a creative frame of mind first thing in the morning. I do prefer to write then, as I seem to have more energy than later in the day, but that preference isn’t based on how creative I can be, just how awake I am, and how long I can sit.

None of this is getting me any closer to an introductory section that will do what I wish it to do, which is pull the reader into what is written, like the siren call of the muses…. Oh, well, it’s probably a good thing I can’t seem to find a template for this; if I did the same thing every day, I’d go stark, raving sane, and lose all my sense of humor, most likely, turning this into merely another mass of poorly written garbage, in spite of how pompous and extensive my vocabulary gets, or how accurate my observations…. A conundrum is what it is, and I don’t like it….

Sadly, or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint, my likes and dislikes have absolutely no effect whatsoever on reality, so I’m going to have to just suck it up, and get on with the business of the day, just as if I knew what I was doing, or where I was going. I suppose that could be seen as another metaphor for life in general, but, I’m not in the mood right now for logical, or practical, metaphors, no matter how close to the truth they may be. I’m currently busy feeling curmudgeonly, grumpy because I can’t have my own way, and things aren’t being amenable to my manipulation today, especially my own attitude…. I can see I need to adjust it, so, pardon me if I spilled any of it on you….

I’m going to bring this section to a rapid close now, before I get into anything that could be construed as illegal, or even immoral, which is more of how I judge things in my life…. Not that I’m such that I could be held up as an example of anything other than how to grow old gracelessly, but, I do try to make my decisions based on morals, and/or ethics, rather than laws…. Always have, always will…. Regardless, I have to go now, or “bad things” could happen….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Oooh! Did you see that? Oh, no, I guess not, since you’re not here in the room with me…. I just created a new pearl format, completely by accident, courtesy of Smart Bee, and the principle of serendipity….. The following pearl, composed of four parts poetry and three parts prose, is just about as perfect as it can be, in terms of being a clever and useful concept, artfully brought to light by the way the given quotes direct the mind’s eye, to the correct vision implied by the tenor of the presented metaphorical signs…. All a short, confusing way to say, look, look, it’s a plane, it’s a bird, it’s not any of that! It’s virtual wisdom at its best…..

Curse away!
And let me tell thee, Beausant, a wise proverb
The Arabs have,–“Curses are like young chickens,
And still come home to roost.”

— Edward Bulwer Lytton (1805-1873) — The Lady of Lyons, Act v, Sc. 2

“By the streets of “by and by”, one arrives at the house of “never”.” — Cervantes

The charge is prepar’d, the lawyers are met,
The judges all ranged,–a terrible show!

— John Gay (1688-1732) — The Beggar’s Opera, Act iii, Sc. 2

“The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s
In deepest consequence.

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Macbeth — Act i, Sc. 3

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

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.

— John Donne (1572-1631), “Death, be not proud”

Sniff…. I couldn’t be prouder, and I’d like to thank the Academy, and my director, and my mum and dad, and…..
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I’m in the mood for obscure genius, so…..

Two Lovers And A Beachcomber By The Real Sea

Cold and final, the imagination
Shuts down its fabled summer house;
Blue views are boarded up; our sweet vacation
Dwindles in the hour-glass.

Thoughts that found a maze of mermaid hair
Tangling in the tide’s green fall
Now fold their wings like bats and disappear
Into the attic of the skull.

We are not what we might be; what we are
Outlaws all extrapolation
Beyond the interval of now and here:
White whales are gone with the white ocean.

A lone beachcomber squats among the wrack
Of kaleidoscope shells
Probing fractured Venus with a stick
Under a tent of taunting gulls.

No sea-change decks the sunken shank of bone
That chucks in backtrack of the wave;
Though the mind like an oyster labors on and on,
A grain of sand is all we have.

Water will run by; the actual sun
Will scrupulously rise and set;
No little man lives in the exacting moon
And that is that, is that, is that.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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I am running late, a bit, since I got up at a completely reasonable hour, and have been dawdling over getting this done, letting my mind wake up at its own pace…. and now, I don’t have the time, or the energy, to rant, not effectively…. Once again, though, the archives will come to the rescue…. Here is a politirant I wrote on 7/14/2012, a little less than a year ago, during the run-up to the Presidential election in November of that year….

I remember the piece quite well, and consider it one of my better rants, especially as it continued through two sections, of what, then, were the longer, five section pearls of the old format…. At that length, it’s a bit long, but it’s all quite accurate, and still pretty relevant, given that the political scenery hasn’t altered significantly since it was written… But, then, political scenery never does really change anything but the faces of the people at the top, does it?….. Enjoy, ffolkes, this one is pretty good, and on the mark…. “And that is that, is that, is that.”……
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“Ignore the man behind the screen.” — The All Seeing, All Powerful, Wonderful Wizard of Oz

As the time passes and we draw ever nearer to the election this year, this becomes increasingly relevant. It is important to remember that ALL the political candidates are guilty of using the art of prestidigitation in their communications with the public. Of course, Mitt the Twitt and the GOP are showing particularly egregious new heights to which they are willing to take the art; they have paraded a series of lies before the public that are not even hidden, or palmed like cards; they’re just out there, proven as lies, but ignored. They don’t seem to care; they just deny, ignore, and issue their next false accusation or made up statistics….

‘Shit Happens’ according to… Denialism:      What shit? — Smart Bee

The Democrats aren’t completely free of this syndrome, either; if you believe they are, then you have entered the Twilight Zone, and may have trouble finding your way back to the real world. I admire Obama, much the same way I did Carter; they are both basically decent men trying to do an impossible job, while constantly having to contend with an entire segment of those who are supposed to support him who, instead, are attempting to thwart his every reform, simply for the sake of divisiveness. In their fight to get ANYTHING done, they have had to resort to chicanery of their own. I figure they, at least, feel a bit of guilt about it, whereas I can see no such reaction from Mitt or any of the GOP spokesbozos…. They just deny and ignore any such suggestions of wrong-doing….

Let’s consider Mitt the Twitt for a moment. Here is a man who admits to being rich as Croesus, yet finds it necessary to hide at least half of his real worth, as if it would tarnish his image of someone who can relate to the common man. I think the common man, to Mitt, is someone who only has $50,000 worth of investments, to go along with the house they own, their three cars, and the vacation home in Maine. In contrast to EVERY OTHER candidates policy of publishing their taxes, he continues to refuse to release any returns beyond the last one; there are inconsistencies and red flag items of interest to the public in that one, too, but he refuses to discuss any of it…

This is the same man who tied his dog to a kennel on the roof of a car, and went off on vacation, without ever thinking of how terrified the dog might be, barreling along at 80 mph, with the wind blowing straight through the kennel. He laughs about it, and turns questions about it to other subjects, refusing to even comment on it. This is the same man who, when asked about a serious incident of bullying and gay bashing during his last year in high school, shrugged it off as “youthful pranks and high spirits”…..

This is the same man who…. well, never mind. I could go on most of the day, and not get to all the little incidents from just the last few months that indicate the Twitt’s complete disregard for the majority of Americans, and show clearly how entrenched he is in the 1%, and how committed he is to solidifying the stranglehold that the banks and corporations have on the rest of American society. His total focus is on the agenda of the rich, to the detriment of the poor, and I am totally astounded at just how many IDIOTS are our there in this country supporting him, in the mistaken belief that he gives a shit about them….

No politician is acting in the best interests of the people they govern. None of them. But people continue to act as if they do, and it is driving me crazy! Normal, intelligent people are backing this asshole, thinking that he isn’t going to screw them over. It is incomprehensible to me how people can blind themselves to the obvious so completely that they would fall for this shit….  I will say it one more time, and I hope they can understand it….

And then shall many be offended,… — Matthew 24:10

You are being lied to, by every politician who is currently seeking office, and by every one currently in office. If you don’t see that, if you don’t believe that, then you are deliberately fucking yourself in the place it will most hurt, and apparently, enjoying it…. The man, the party, and 99% of everyone you see on TV is LYING TO YOU!!!!! They are doing so every day, every hour, every minute, and you are accepting it like you are a starving sheep and what they are saying is manna from heaven.

WAKE UP!…..  I’m stopping here, my blood pressure is spiking. That’s how worked up I get when I think of how deliberately stupid people can be…. I don’t so much mind the stupid part, but the fact that they have to CHOOSE to not see what is right in front of their face just sets me off…. and so much indignation, righteous or not, is giving me indigestion….. stay alert, ffolkes, the politicians are coming, and they’re dangerous when unregulated….
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Certain passages in several laws have always defied interpretation, and the most inexplicable must be a matter of opinion. A judge of the Court of Session of Scotland has sent the editors of this book his candidate which reads, “In the Nuts (unground), (other than ground nuts) Order, the expression nuts shall have reference to such nuts, other than ground nuts, as would but for this amending Order not qualify as nuts (unground)(other than ground nuts) by reason of their being nuts (unground).” — from the Guinness Book of World Records, 1973

I’m almost speechless. (I know, you’ll believe it when you see it…. I did say ‘almost’…. that’s something…) It’s absolutely beautiful! Perfectly priceless absolute nonsense, dressed only in legal briefs…. It is so impenetrable, I can’t tell if it is the law itself, or the judges written opinion on the law, or a passage from Nightmare on Elm Street! Which I’ve never seen, by the way….

How’s that for tangential? Any who, this was included today as a finishing touch to my Twitt-rant above. This goes to show just how the political hacks we are burdened with today work their verbal magic, to distract us from looking at things they don’t want us to see. Bureaucratese is what I’ve heard it called, a language and skill set that society has had practiced on them since the days of ancient Greece. When a document such as the one above reaches a certain level of impenetrability, the majority of people alive will either fall asleep halfway through reading it, or totally ignore it after reading the first 11 words or so. It’s a classic piece of distraction, and is probably used in courses for political science majors in college, and in law schools, as an example of how to carry off the trick.

To me, what this law indicates is that one, or more, of the people involved in writing the law have a monetary interest in being able to obfuscate the definition of “Nuts”, in order for them to achieve some financial reward owing to the indicated distinctions in that definition. In other words, a loophole or three is created, so the “Nut” vendors can make more money, charging more for each kind of Nut than could be accomplished without the legislation. It’s similar to the law in this country that was pushed through the Federal Courts back in the mid-1800’s, when a corrupt Federal judge awarded “personhood” to corporations, after being paid handsomely by those corporations for his verdict…. Same, same, alla same…. Evil is loose in the world….

— Bother! said Pooh, as he had another plate of Piglet sausage. — Smart Bee (Remember Mitt the Twitt at the NAACP?…..)

I suppose all I’m trying to say here is, once again….. Wake up ffolkes…. the beloved ruling class, the priestly hierarchies, and the corporate “persons” in the shape of banks and multi-national corporations, are continuing their campaign to hide from all of us the actual business they are pursuing, which has everything to do with benefiting them, and everything to do with screwing everyone else as much as they will allow…. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m about done with allowing ANY of it….

“I’m not tense, just terribly alert.” — Smart Bee

So, please…. DON’T ignore the man behind the screen…. he’s the one who is killing us all….
__________________________________

Ollie would be proud, I think… and just in time, too. The store is now open, and I’m done with this, so, all is right with the world, such as it is today. I’m not any more certain than you are what that may mean, or even whether it SHOULD mean anything, but, obscurity is what we’re always shooting for around here, and sometimes, it’s just easier than other times….. Especially when my fingers take over the keyboard like this, and just type away as fast as they can, without any idea of what will come out….. I’d better put a stop to it, before I hurt myself, or y’all….   Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

dozer3