Tag Archives: Diogenes Laertius

We’ll bathe it in linseed oil and mint….

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,

“When the fox gnaws — smile.”

~~ Lazarus Long ~~

~~ Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough For Love ~~

11-8-2014 001 (2)

    The picture, one I took a few days ago at the bus stop down the street, is a perfect metaphor for the lies told to us by our beloved ruling class, and by the perpetrators of public slavery, perpetually the BRC’s most ardent supporters, the preachers, imams, and dogma dogs who spout off about religion, to whomever will listen….

In a quite beautiful setting, we are reminded of how ‘they’ offer us ONE choice to salvation, but, god forbid you should be able to park while making your choice…. Perfect alignment, don’t you think? One Way/No Parking…. What better metaphor/euphemism for how the mass of humanity is treated by those who would control their very lives….

Oh, good grief, stop shouting!…. Control yourselves…. Put down that stick, you’ll hurt yourself with it…. For goodness’ sake, did you think I was going to rant at you in the first paragraph? Shoot, not even I am that cruel, though, if anyone has any comments to the contrary, with evidence, of course, I’d welcome them, as it’s been a long time since I found anyone willing to challenge my conclusions…. It must come from basing them on evidence, instead of faith…. Oops, sorry, didn’t mean to take another shot, this one aimed at those who buy into the delusions they’re offered at every turn….

Okay, you’re right, I’m busted…. Yes, I did mean it…. The people to whom I refer, those who embrace the dark side of human nature, quite simply, are assholes…. As I see them, they deserve every vile curse, every vituperative description, every fucking expletive we can think of to apply to them, in recognition of the thousands of years of deliberate theft, deliberate lies, and deliberate cruelty, to those whom they claim to love, or whom they claim mandate to lead, for their own good…. What a crock of shit THAT is!….

Sorry, I guess I did start ranting, didn’t I? It’s just so damn easy, when every frigging word out of the mouths, of preachers, or politicians, or business moguls, or police chiefs, or any of the other societal “leaders” who purport to work FOR the people, is a bald-faced lie…. In truth, they are busily at work doing every fucking thing they possibly can think of to screw the people over, in a myriad of ways…. Or, even scarier, they are as stupid as those they purport to lead, being brainwashed themselves into believing their own lies….

Every where I turn, every time I turn, I’m presented with new evidence of how often, and how deeply they screw those who trust them, and it just pisses me off anew, each and every time, making me wish I wasn’t so damn ethical/moral myself, and could feel less conflict over treating them the same way they treat us….

If I did that, I’m afraid they’d start dying at a much more rapid pace, which would be just about the length of time it takes me to re-load, then, focus in on another target…. With a well-concealed stand, and a crowd where I can acquire targets quickly, I could make some significant headway in a relatively short amount of time before having to become smoke…

However, those who engage in preying on others, for religious reasons, for political reasons, or whatever their personal justification may be, all believe the same tired old lie, which claims the end justifies the means…. I reject that notion categorically; to abrogate honor and responsibility for the sake of expediency, no matter how compelling the reason, removes any positive moral value such acts may otherwise be due. To do right, for the wrong reason, is to do wrong, in my world. To do wrong, for ANY reason, no matter how well rationalized, deserves nothing from me but disdain, and active resistance….

Well…. where did THAT come from? As I’m not sure just now, I think we’ll just take this opportunity to go on, and see what else may pop up today…..

Shall we Pearl?

“We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success; We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery.” — Samuel Smiles

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

Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, like all fields of human endeavor, are subject to Sturgeon’s Law, which states: “90% of everything is crap.” This physical law has been tested repeatedly by scientists, sociologists, and psychologists, with the same results every time…. It is the absolute truth…. Hence, my reluctance to committing perjury, or displaying undue arrogance, by calling the Pearls I create anything but what they are, to wit: occasionally brilliant, but, mostly just acceptable, as entertainment for the strong of stomach…. If they were in the newspaper, they’d be suitable to line birdcages, for sure….

But, as I said, some can be pretty good, because I, too, with due diligence, and a bit of work, can jump into that 10% of human output that actually helps improve life by its presence…. The same is true of all fields in which humans put forth effort, so, naturally, it’s true of TV shows, and literary works…. I guess I’m just saying, some stuff is better than other stuff…..  This Sherlock Holmes story, to me, falls into the latter category of stuff….

Sherlock Holmes – Season 5 – The Problem Of Thor Bridge

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

You may have noted my initial outburst, up in the intro section…. It was a rant, a sharp stick to the eye of religion, mostly, though there was quite a bit of angst left over to take some pokes at the rest of the Asininnies, too, such as politicians, police myrmidons, corporate snakeheads, human traffickers, and any of those ilk, who prey upon their own species, with the full support and tacit approval of those dogma dogs who keep the general populace under control, softening their minds with bilge water, so they are easier to corrupt and manipulate….

It has been a while since I took aim at those delusional buttheads, a group for whom I hold absolutely no respect whatsoever….. They take the words of one of the world’s greatest social reformers, and twist them until they are practically unrecognizable, but, mold the minds of the people who buy into those twists into shapes more amenable to control by others….

‘Tis a natural result of putting one’s faith in ideas that have no visible proof in reality, but are based on blind faith; it leaves the one holding the belief in a vulnerable state of mind, ready to believe all kinds of nonsense, as long as it’s told to them by one of those they have learned to believe, without the benefit of examination for truth….

But, that is what they all count on… all those preachers, and priests, and the others mentioned above…. They all count on the gullibility of the average person to believe what they’re told by authority figures…. And, they are justified in that, as my compatriots around the world seem to fall for their bloody bullshit every time….. SIGH…. I sometimes wonder how mankind even developed the idea of their own mental superiority, when they continuously act as if they haven’t two spare neurons to rub together at all….

However…. Today, I am feeling generous, or, at least, sympathetic to your pain…. So, I shall cease ranting about those assholes, and compose a seven-, or nine-star pearl, which will serve the same purpose, but, with a bit less sobriety, and a lot more tongue-in-cheek fun…. Let’s see what SB can come up with for us, to jab some sharp sticks in the eyes of a few dogma dogs….

“Ignorance is the soil in which belief in miracles grows.” — Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899)

“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Lazarus Long, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, by Robert A. Heinlein

“The territory behind rhetoric is too often mined with equivocation.”– Dunne’s Law

“It is an open question whether any behavior based on fear of eternal punishment can be regarded as ethical or should be regarded as merely cowardly.” — Margaret Mead

“A Sunday school is a prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.” — H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

“The mind of the bigot is like the pupil of the eye.  The more light you pour upon it, the more it will contract.” — Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)

“Death, the most dreaded of evils, is therefore of no concern to us; for while we exist death is not present, and when death is present we no longer exist.” — Epicurus

“Religions change; beer and wine remain.” — Harvey Allen

“O imitators, you slavish herd!” — Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace) (65-8 B.C.)

“There is no sin but ignorance.” — Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

Okay, so, it kept growing; Smart Bee is on a roll today…. To use Winnie Churchill’s method of making a point, I’ll give it a good whack with my sledge hammer, with one final piece of proof, of how the dogma dogs attempt to establish their mind-control, with entries such as the following, in that book they use as their most effective manipulative tool….

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” — Proverbs 3:5,6

Sure, do that…. put your faith in what you cannot see, or touch, or hear, or otherwise prove exists…. That’s a good idea…. NOT!

So be it.

gigoid has spoken…. a lot…..

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

There is so much of my stuff today, with some deep help from SB, I’d best go with my own poetry, to avoid getting any of this on anyone else…. I know, we’ll go with an old favorite….

Rejection

“Jesus loves me, this I know,
For the Bible tells me so…”
I’d be crying a river, I thought
if ever such crap I bought.

Sorry if it hurts your sense of style,
but, hypocrisy always gives me bile.
Being lied to accidentally is okay,
but, deliberate lies make me angry, and fey.

Oh, God, hear what I pray!
Keep me from your followers today.
Having to listen to so much that is wrong
makes me puke, before it makes me strong.

I don’t know why it isn’t clear to other folks,
which is alright, you know, different strokes.
But, why should that mean that they must
force me to believe, or fail in trust?

Spare me the lies, and the make-believe,
fairy tales are easier to hear, and to weave.
They give us a lesson which we can feel
but don’t pretend at all to be real.

Reality can scare us, that’s a given fact,
still, met with care it will leave us mostly intact.
Met without fear, standing tall and alone
Life will allow us to make it our own.

Folly beckons, and so many follow
mass delusions seem to me most hollow.
I’ll have to stick to my own chosen way
while so many go so sadly astray.

It’s lonely at times, it may seem sad,
but really isn’t, and I’m quite glad,
that knowledge is always stronger than fear,
year after year, tear after tear…..

~~ gigoid ~~


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

Today’s final pearl is a perfect adjunct to the ranting section…. This group gives us some pretty good observations about being human, at the other end of the scale from those who are unable to find the means to USE the intelligence with which they are endowed…. Reflect upon these, and you’ll find them a map to a rich, fulfilling life….

“Over my mask is your mask of me.” — Mitsuye Yamada

“Once when Bion was at sea in the company of some wicked men, he fell into the hands of pirates; and when the rest said, “We are undone if we are known,”–“But I,” said he, “am undone if we are not known.”  — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Bion, iii

“A child is a person who can’t understand why someone would give away a perfectly good kitten.” — Doug Larson

“If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind!  The mind of the sage, being in repose, becomes the mirror of the universe, the speculum of all creation.” — Chuang Tzu

“I believe that part of what propels science is the thirst for wonder.  It’s a very powerful emotion.  All children feel it.  In a first grade classroom everybody feels it; in a twelfth grade classroom almost nobody feels it, or at least acknowledges it.  Something happens between first and twelfth grade, and it’s not just puberty.  Not only do the schools and the media not teach much skepticism, there is also little encouragement of this stirring sense of wonder.  Science and pseudoscience both arouse that feeling.  Poor popularizations of science establish an ecological niche for pseudoscience.” — Carl Sagan, The Burden Of Skepticism, The Skeptical Inquirer, — Vol. 12, Fall 87

“When you arise in the morning, think of what a privilege it is to be alive–to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love….” — Marcus Aurelius

“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. Krishnamuti

“There are many things worth living for, few things worth dying for, nothing worth killing for.” — from Tom Robbins’ “Even Cowgirls Get The Blues”

“Now my own suspicion is that the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we *can* suppose. I have read and heard many attempts at a systematic account of it, from materialism and theosophy to the Christian systems or that of Kant, and I have always felt that they were too simple. I suspect that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of, or can be dreamed of, in any philosophy. That is the reason why I have no philosophy myself, and must be my excuse for dreaming.” — J. B. S. Haldane, British geneticist (1856-1928) — from “Possible Worlds”, in “Possible Worlds and other essays”, — Chatto & Windus, London, 1927. p286

Smart Bee was in a very generous mood today, eh, what?…..

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

‘Tis a good thing much of this was begun yesterday…. I’m up a bit late, but, it’s all good, as it’s done, and in good time…. If the proofing isn’t too horrendously complicated, I may even get another hour’s sleep before the day can begin out in the BBR, where I’ve several tasks to complete…. Since I do, we’ll leave it at that, and be on our way, royal ‘we’ syndrome notwithstanding…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Kowabunga!


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Is it Bastille Day yet?….

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				Reply			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




But ‘midst the crowd, the hum, the shock of men,

To hear, to see, to feel, and to possess,

And roam along, the world’s tired denizen,

With none who bless us, none whom we can bless.


~~ Lord Byron (1788-1824) ~~


~ Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto ii, Stanza 26 ~~


day2 London 008


     Of late, I’ve been using some of my older pictures, taken on a trip to Europe last year, as the opening for this…. whatever it is. It is simpler for me, as I don’t have to worry about giving proper attribution, and can use any pic at all to demonstrate whatever point or idea I’m planning to utilize for material…. Sound’s highfalutin, I know, but, it works for me…. and, here in the intro section, ‘anything that works’ is our motto….


Of course, I can always go with, or comment upon the opening quote, too…. But, both of those bonus qualities are by design, though it may appear that there isn’t any such thing going on…. I got so frustrated of trying to come up with something worthwhile to start with, I began to use those two objects to give myself a running start, so to speak, with the opportunity to use either, or both, or neither as part of the beginning lines, which, in the process, can reveal the best direction to take…. Or, as often happens around here, it can confuse things even more than usual, in which case, I generally retreat into silliness, or weirdness, whichever jumps up first….


The picture was taken in an alley off Portobello Road in London, and serves to provide me with good memories of a fine day exploring the endless marketplace on that Road…. As the saying in the British Empire went, “You can find anything you want on Portobello Road.”….. It also served as a one-stop shopping center for all the necessary souvenirs and gifts I brought back to friends and family from London, and gave me that priceless photo for my collection of memories, of me and Charlie Chaplin, in identical poses, in front of a house on Portobello Road…. Any of these pix can take me back there in my head, so, it’s like being able to go anytime I wish….


It also provides me with ample material to fill in this big hole that forms each day at the top of this page, one I often fill with incomprehensible nattering, or with nonsense, or even outright humor (though the latter may be a subjective judgment….). That, in itself, is enough to make it a worthwhile decision, which allows me some space in my head, before having to go on to the next section, to deal with all the angst and turmoil that goes on in my head for each separate section…. SIGH…. If only someone was paying me for all of this, it might seem a bit more, I don’t know,…. justifiable? Maybe….


Ah well, it’s all moot now, as we’ve reached the jumping off point again…. In fact, we’re moving so fast this morning, I think I’d just better give out the warning, and trust to our run of luck to get us through the opening intact…. Wish me luck; the insurance won’t stretch to cover another mass payout…. Here we go, so, please, HOLD ON!….


Shall we Pearl?


“A lie can travel halfway round the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” — Mark Twain


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


A friend of mine is fond of internet memes, and funny/strange You Tube videos posted by some of our society’s fringe elements…. She was showing me some of her favorites, which includes this video…. I will give fair warning, ffolkes…. Don’t drink anything while watching this, as the choking and aspiration that could occur…. If you began gut-busting laughter with a mouthful of cola or milk, it’s going to either choke you, or it will come out as a wide-angle spray you’ll be cleaning off the walls for days…. Enjoy!…. Oh, and the link has a bunch more odd, funny videos for your entertainment, as well….




 


Americans Taste Test Australian Food

































 


 


 


 


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


“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” — Abraham Lincoln


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-9-billion-witness-20141106?utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=110614_16&utm_medium=email&ea=YWxwaGFnaWdvaWRAZ21haWwuY29t



Ffolkes…. This article is a must-read for any American citizen who is concerned about the banks’ and government’s collusion in the last few years…. The bailout, the recession, all deliberately caused by immoral assholes, who managed to make money out of their whole supposed fines, by charging their customers for paying them…. And, the lengths to which they’ve gone to keep the witnesses to their criminality quiet are astoundingly brash, showing complete disdain for the public, or for any rule of law….. They believe, and are encouraged to believe by the complicity of politicians, that their money will buy off any such litigation against them for their theft….


I’m not quite ready to rant as much as this article’s revelations deserve…. But, I have an older rant, from early this year, that will cover much of what is needed, with some comments and thoughts on the same issue, from February of this year….. It’s a long one, but, not too shabby, if I do say so myself…. Enjoy, ffolkes…. They deserve every name we call them….


“A government that fears it’s people is a government that should be feared.” — Smart Bee


From 2/25/2014:


If you would please read this article, the arguments that follow will make a lot more sense; if you don’t, it may take you a bit longer to figure out the gist of it….    😉     Plus, you’ll know, for sure, I’m not making this stuff up, just so I have something to write about….


http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-help-from-russians-193641893.html


In the time of Pythagoras that proverbial phrase “Ipse dixit” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Pythagoras, xxv


Ipse Dixit. [Latin, “He himself said it.”]  An unsupported statement whose veracity rests solely on the authority of the individual who makes it.


And so it begins….. All of a sudden, many months AFTER the fact, several high-ranking officials from the administration all come out with the same story-line, IMPLYING that Eric Snowden was influenced and/or helped by Russian spies to do what he did…. This statement by Mikey-boy Rogers, U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman, R-Mich., Senator Feinstein’s cohort (she’s his counterpart in the Senate, who put out her office’s lies about this issue yesterday….), is the newest step in the ongoing attempt by the administration to paint Mr. Snowden’s actions with the brush of treason, when, in fact, they KNOW he is not a traitor, but, rather, a patriotic American, caught in the web of intrigue THEY created with their clandestine, illegal activities….


As soon as I saw this headline today, my highly-trained, delicately-honed, automatic political crap detector SCREAMED at me….. “LIES, LIES, MADE UP LIES!!”, it said, without much doubt implied (accuracy factor of the detection meter said it was 99.9% likely to be lies…. which makes it pretty certain, as I’ve programmed it to never say that it is completely sure; it defaults to that number when it is…)….. This is SO obviously a campaign to smear Snowden, it positively REEKS! They are introducing doubt of his character into the dialogue, which, come to think of it, is only a monologue, because, hey, he’s not here to defend himself, is he?


This, of course, is typical political posturing, reminiscent of any other campaign, such as an election run, when they need to direct the public’s attention toward certain areas, away from others, so they can control the conversation…. In his speech, Obama admitted to responding to a public dialogue called for by the leak of information, while never admitting any wrongdoing for having committed the spying initially. Yet, this conversation, this debate, has only shown them to be more secretive than we knew, and they are pulling out all the stops to stop any further investigation into, or outcry about what is REALLY going on…. Naturally, since they are politicians, they will approach this as a campaign to be won; the first step in any campaign is to decrease the viability, the believability of the opposition…. Hence, unproved, unfounded, and untrue accusations, out of nowhere, to try to demonize Eric Snowden….


They say first, it’s beyond his abilities to have done this…. Well, hell, even the most thick-headed fool can see this is a total fabrication…. If this is true, would it mean that the NSA made a habit of hiring programmers that couldn’t understand what they were being tasked to do? Doesn’t make any sense to me…. This man was part of the program, a programmer, and KNOWS how to read data, as well as write the programs that would do so…. Hell, I’m only a high powered user, and I understand what is being done, and what WAS done…. This statement is an obvious lie, an attempt to demean Snowden, so he looks more like a villain, or, at best, the dupe of master spies….


The second thing to note about this claim, is that it is introduced by a politician, who obviously is NOT capable of judging what a programmer is capable of doing with a computer…. Mikey-boy probably has to ask his admin how to use his smart-phone, which is, arguably, smarter than he is, technically speaking… Yet, this idiot, in his power suit and tie, makes this claim unequivocally, thereby implying that one of the most competent programmers alive (look who hired him to begin with!….) isn’t capable of doing something he was trained to do, but, had to be helped by a foreign power…. A pretty far-fetched stretch, to my way of looking at it….


The one professional spy they quoted, from the CIA, it should be noted, said, in his statement, right off, so he couldn’t be accused later of any prevarications…. “I don’t have any particular evidence”, but, then goes on to agree with the outrageous claims made by a politician, one with NO FUCKING CLUE about the glaringly obvious untruth of what he proposes, or, indeed, of how much truth any of what he said might have contain…. Rogers’ job, which he performed perfectly, was, simply, to put in the minds of the public a single idea, one small but important lie, that Snowden was made to do what he did, by coercion, by trickery, or by duplicity; they don’t say which, nor do they have to…. They merely imply, without directly accusing, so that the lies they intend to bring out later, as seeds for further doubt, will find fertile soil in the simple minds of the public….


None of the truth, or any actual connection to reality of the claims he was making concerned him; he was strictly a talking head, on a major TV show; his mission was to plant in the public awareness the idea that Eric Snowden didn’t act alone, and that the very act of his doing what he did, regardless of ANY evidence to the contrary, should be viewed as proof of his having had help from another country…. The fact that this isn’t remotely true was not an issue; the message was delivered, and supported by the other actors in the play…. Throw in the claim about him being technically unable to do what he did, and you’ve got some juice to keep the story going, even though all of it is a complete fabrication….


Ffolkes, if you can’t see that this is true, that you were deliberately lied to, and manipulated in an attempt to make you think what the government wants you to think, well, I guess I should just use THEIR justification and tell you…. You, too, are an idiot, and the fact is, if you believe any of what this man says about this subject, that, in itself, can be considered as PROOF of your idiocy….. incontrovertible, undeniable PROOF. (After all, that’s the same method of proof they’re offering for THEIR assertions…..) If the timing, and the words themselves, don’t make your crap-detector go off like it was on fire, then I’m afraid there isn’t much hope for you in the real world….


These statements were merely the latest tactic to be applied by the White House political strategists, all without having to bring out their big gun, the president, with his down-home, I’m-so-sincere, boyish face, and, the now-famous, good-ol-boy, aw-shucks grin, both of which are political tools of great value to him, but only if not over-used….. Right now, they’ve got a few of the sidekicks out in the limelight, after his speech over the weekend, making up stuff and carrying on with all the talking points and deliberate manipulations, all orchestrated in Mr. Snowden’s absence….. one I hope he continues to maintain, as it is the ONLY hope he has of surviving the future (….Ironically enough, in a case of Life imitating Life, this is a problem ALL OF US are going to have in the very near future…. that of running out of any hope of surviving the future, when the very air we breathe will be toxic to us….)


After seeing this story, and taking into account the other stories in response to the president’s speech about the nonexistent changes he claims he wants to make to the NSA mission (I mean, look closely at what he said…. He isn’t changing ANYTHING of any significance…..), I think it would be safe to predict that in the next few days and weeks, we will hear more fabrications and implications, with or without any actual evidence, about Mr. Snowden, as the administration continues to distract and defuse, hoping that if they stall long enough, something else will come up to take the public’s awareness from their spying, and put it back in the closet, or sweep it under the rug, where they keep all the other stuff they don’t want us to see or know, about what they are REALLY doing behind our backs….


(Note from February…. I personally think they’re hoping for another idiot to steal a gun and shoot up a mall, or a school somewhere, which always takes all the public’s attention and focuses it on their unreasonable fears for a couple of weeks….But, then, I’m pretty convinced of their complete lack of any human compassion, anyway, so, my concerns reflect my belief in their human nature, and their lack of any sort of virtue that would make them tell the truth, or espouse an agenda that benefits anyone but themselves….)


You can bet on that, ffolkes, for sure…. They’re not going to stop lying, just because they’ve been caught at it…. They’ll only get more bold with it…. It’s the way they’re built, they can’t, and won’t, help it…. There’s no profit in it for them to give up, is there? And, profit is what they are all about, when it comes down to the bottom line…. Profit for their self-interests, which are, to them, more important than the whole rest of the human race…..


As Lily Tomlin’s character, Edith Ann, used to say, when she was done making her brilliantly simple observations of people’s foibles…., “And that’s the Truth! THPPPPT!”


“Plausibility is the morality of fiction.” — Edith Mirrilees


Monthly update: The administration’s silence on the NSA spying issues continues to this date…. I’ve seen only one article in the past month on the subject, and it was merely a rehash of this information, with no real new developments reported…. They’re letting it go as long as they can without bringing any of it up themselves, so as to give the public, which has a notoriously SHORT attention span, a chance to forget all about it….. Good luck on that, dudes….


😉


I’ll be here, and I’ll be reprinting this, or a fresher version, either in a month, or, before that, if and/or when new statements are forthcoming from the potUS, or one of his myrmidons….. (Unless, of course, they decide to stop me…. That would be the ONLY reason I wouldn’t be posting a month from now…. in which case, you’d no doubt read about all the dead feds in the news, if they can count that high…. I don’t intend to go, shall we say, quietly? We shall say it….)


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


I am going with a poem of my own, simply because I’m too lazy to go find one by somebody else…. Deal with it…. Here is one I wrote not so long ago that came out pretty well….




A dream, weeping….


“Never a dull moment to spare”, he said

with a crooked grin, and a broad wink.

“Can’t keep Reality hanging by a thread….

what would Chaos, or Entropy think?”


So, we plucked up our dreams of old,

to carry us on, in dutiful, strong arms,

stuffed a candle in the remaining fold,

for luck, and perfect proof against charms.


Storms follow the sun,  but, never stay; 

lessons round every corner, all free.

Past fleeting doubts, in a sad disarray,

the journey becomes the reason to be.


Simple kindness manifests untold riches,

in defiance of common cause’s demise.

Bold courage, hanging in stitches,

mends wounds that come as no surprise.


Still, waters run deep, ’tis said by many.

Too much pain cannot apprehend

the salient, sharp points of epiphany,

nor, plainly, to wisdom aspire to pretend.


Folly dogs even the simplest truth,

fumes of toxic ignorance and bile,

alienated as a loose rotten tooth;

it often hides itself, for a long while.


Sought after eons ago, we cried out,

to believe, to suffer no more doubt.

But found instead good reason,

for love, and truth, from season, to season.


~~ gigoid ~~




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


What we have here is a somewhat loose old-school pearl, without a single parameter one could put their finger on…. But, it still manages to leave one with the feeling they’ve learned SOMETHING, so, I guess it works okay…. Just don’t use this one for any treatises or essays, as it isn’t definite enough in its sincerity to provide unassailable proof, of anything other than my own strangeness….


“Both Empedocles and Heraclitus held it for a truth that man could not be altogether cleared from injustice in dealing with beasts as he now does.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Which are the most crafty, Water or Land Animals? 7


“Let yourself be open and life will be easier.  A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes the water undrinkable.  A spoon of salt in a lake is almost unnoticed.” — Buddha


“Each time that Americans hold another election, about the only thing they learn is that they did not learn much from the last election.” — Smart Bee


“Goodness is beauty in its best estate.” — Marlowe


“The bear and Carl lived together in the cave for several years until, one day, the true savagery of Nature being unleashed, Carl killed the bear and ate him.” — Gary Larson


“How many northern Californians does it take to change a light bulb?” “None of your f***ing business and have a nice day.” — Smart Bee


“Not everything that counts can be counted; and not everything that can be counted counts.” — Albert Einstein


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


Okay, that will do. If not, well, we’ll just go to plan B, and make our way to the nearest transit station, where we will board the next shuttle to Mars, or Venus, or the Asteroid Colonies, there to drown our disappointment and sorrows in a ration of their homemade whiskey…. Or, I may just go on back to bed, and try this again tomorrow…. Yeah, that sounds like the ticket…. See y’all then, ffolkes….




Y’all take care out there, 

and May the Metaphorse be with you;

Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…

and everyone else, too…


When I works, I works hard.

When I sits, I sits loose.

When I thinks, I falls asleep.


Which is Why….


Sometimes I sits and thinks,

   and sometimes,

I just sits.


gigoid, the dubious


PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….





		
	
					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Use the flaming carrot; they don’t wobble as much…

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				Reply			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“There is nothing permanent except change.” 


~~ Heraclitus (540?-480? B.C.) ~~




zack in flight

Happy Boy




The picture you see doesn’t need attribution, as it is one of mine. The happy face you see is my first grandchild, now, one of soon-to-be FOUR grandchildren, though only two by blood…. If that is a bit cryptic, chalk it up to the flexibility of the modern family structure, then forget it as immaterial to our purpose…. What is that purpose? Oh, fret not, ’tis naught to worry you, and it won’t cost a tuppence….(Nice, eh? a touch of Victorianism for y’all…. kind of like croissant instead of white toast, right?) You might even say, today’s purpose is one of mercy, but, that might be carrying our altruistic impulses too far, or, giving them too much credit, where little credit is due….


Ah, yes, I love being inscrutable first thing in the morning…. almost as good as the smell of cordite in the air…. For those unfamiliar with chemistry, or warfare, or the streets, cordite is the smell of gunpowder, after it’s been used, usually to fire a weapon of some kind…. Not to worry, I never carry while escorting, or when writing these missives…. ‘Tisn’t necessary, what with the mines, and the number of stashed knives, spears, and other quiet-type weapons laying about the area, most of them hidden in plain sight…. Like a book, a knife is a pleasant thing to have nearby….


What? Me? Paranoid? Not at all…. I’m a realist, a warrior of the Light, and a student of war for my entire life. Having grown up on Army bases, primarily, until the age of ten, the concepts of Duty, tactics, strategy, discipline, and The Rules were all drummed into me from  birth. (The Rules of a Gentleman, of course….) Keeping track of potential enemies is part of life, for me, and for anyone with a realistic concern about surviving, and living well; it doesn’t do one’s stress levels any good to be ignorant of potential threats…. So, my habit of keeping myself well-armed, if not obviously so, is a rational response to the danger that exists EVERY FUCKING WHERE in the world, ESPECIALLY in a country where the government cannot be trusted….


SIGH…. I’m not only NOT going to rant already, I’ll give you fair warning…. The rant today, in section three, turned out to be one of the longest pearls every written, and certainly the longest rant I’ve ever produced…. Headlines and new CRAP kept popping up in front of me as I searched the news, along with some perfect accompanying material, including pearls…. they all kept insisting on being included, as it all, basically, is one subject, viewed from different points…. It grew, unfortunately, beyond all reason, and would now comprise a decent essay, or a monograph on a subject of interest, to post somewhere else online….


Instead, I’m going to get this one on the road to completion, by using my new-found, newly favorite ruthlessness to take us down the page to where we need to begin…. Hold on, ffolkes, it could get a bit bumpy….


Shall we Pearl?….


“The question was once put to him, how we ought to behave to our friends; and the answer he gave was, “As we should wish our friends to behave to us.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Aristotle, xi


Gee, sound familiar?…..


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


This particular batch of classical music starts out with, and contains, a bit more opera than I like, but, it’s still pretty good, and makes an excellent background for reading of these Pearls…. or, anything else, for that matter. Enjoy, ffolkes….




The Best of Classical Music in 8.5 Hours



















































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


“Ignorance is the opiate of the poor, a cordial, administered by the gracious hand of providence.” — Soame Jenyns, “A Free Enquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil”


http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/jenyns-selection.html


The above link leads to an analysis of this quote by Samuel Johnson, a contemporary of Mr. Jenyns, wherein he lays out his thoughts on the concepts discussed in the article quoted above, by Mr. Jenyns; for the most part, Mr. Johnson does not agree with him, and, in certain respects, he is correct in his assessment…. However, he is NOT incorrect in his observation of the effect of ignorance on the poor; he is, strongly, incorrect as to its source, and the degree of divine compassion that is indicated by such ignorance…. In short, he is right, in that ignorance is, and continues to be, a large part of the oppression that creates a class of poor; he is completely wrong in thinking, and even more so in saying, that such ignorance is in any way a beneficial state….


I would make a guess, based on experience and observation, that Mr. Jenyns was a preacher, or cleric of some order, if merely an academic (possibly the most dangerous kind, as they tend to be very far removed from reality, as exists for the majority of mankind, thus making them innocents, in terms of insight into human nature, since their knowledge is limited to what they read of that nature, and not observations of it’s behavior out in the real world….). It is clear in the statement that he gives far too much credence to the delusional system followed by the majority of people, thus insulating him from ever realizing any truths that will stand up to the real world….


For example, the attitude he expresses can be shown to lead to the kind of ignorance that encourages misogyny, bigotry, racism, and narcissism, the actual four horses of the Apocalypse (not horsemen…. I figure, if it’s Apocalypse, the horses would be running rogue, destroying and creating chaos on their own…. no direction wanted, or required…. makes perfect sense to me, as much as any such superstitious nonsense can….). The appearance of all four of these qualities in society is a sure indicator of the impending demise of that un-civilization…. (as pointed out to me recently, we really don’t HAVE a civilization; there is nothing ‘civil’ about it….)


We see it in the paranoia displayed by those who are ostensibly elected to protect us, but, who spend their time spying on us, lying to us, and ignoring anything that might make changes beneficial to all. They spend their time, instead, filling their pockets, and satisfying the needs and wants of their financial backers, otherwise known as bankers, snakeheads, corporate masters, lobbyists, and other such parasitic entities who make it possible for them to complete their agenda, which has NOTHING to do with what is good for the common man, or for society, but, rather benefits them, and those who support them….


Need proof I’m not talking through my ass? Here, read this, then tell me the NSA, GCHQ, CIA, FBI, and all the other government spy agencies aren’t completely out of control…. I dare anyone to do so….


http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/29/gchq-nsa-data-surveillance?CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2


“The group also said information obtained through these overseas “arrangements” was treated as if it were targeted surveillance, removing a requirement under UK law not to search for UK citizens and residents in such data troves. This means that British citizens could, in theory, be subject to warrantless monitoring by GCHQ.”


“The line the Government took at the hearing was that there were adequate safeguards, they just couldn’t be made public,” he said. “Leaving aside whether secret safeguards can ever be adequate, this reluctantly-made disclosure suggests otherwise.”


Excerpted from the article found at the link above these four lines….


Need a bit more proof? Here is an article from the UK Guardian on a subject reported in all the major news outlets (though with less depth, and more speculation in the others….), about the sheer stupidity/cupidity of public officials in this country, turning a medical issue into a panic, due to their own ignorance, and that of the public, which they foster and encourage….


Want some more scary proof? Well, maybe you don’t want it, but, it’s out there, so, here…. read this…. If this doesn’t tickle your outrage bone. then you don’t have any passion at all, and have already accepted your slavery….


http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/29/fbi-hacking-press-internet-users


Excerpts from the article:


“The Seattle Times and Associated Press issued angry statements to the FBI on Tuesday after the American Civil Liberties Union’s Chris Soghoian discovered that the FBI had falsified an AP story and byline, and then possibly attempted to make it look like the fake story was published on the Seattle Times website – all to deliver malware to a suspect in a criminal case. The evidence was buried in documents obtained by EFF (pages 61-62) under the Freedom of Information Act three years ago (and the emails date back even further)….”


“Though there are still a lot of questions that FBI seems unwilling to answer. Because the documents were heavily redacted, it’s tough to tell how the whole plan worked: we still don’t know how the FBI delivered the link (through a fake reporter or mySpace friend), to which website the link went, how many people besides the suspect clicked on it, or whether there even more impersonation going on beyond what we see in the email. And most importantly: how often do they normally impersonate news organizations and falsify articles?”


“Since at least 2007, the FBI has had what it calls a “Secure Technologies Exploitation Group” – which is a more polite way of saying they have a team that hacks computers.”


“They’ve been using the same language with judges, at least one of whom has recently rejected the FBI hacking request, given the invasiveness of what they were actually doing. The judge described the FBI’s malware tool in that particular case like this:


“Once installed, the software has the capacity to search the computer’s hard drive, random access memory, and other storage media; to activate the computer’s built-in camera; to generate latitude and longitude coordinates for the computer’s location; and to transmit the extracted data to FBI agents within the district.”


Still not convinced just how sick this society is?? Or, how the people who are supposed to be in charge are complete assholes, almost to a man?…. Check this article….



http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/29/maine-nurse-defiant-maine-ebola-quarantine


From the article:


“People infected with the Ebola virus may not show symptoms for up to 21 days, spurring the calls by politicians for a three-week isolation period. However, people with the disease are not infectious until they are symptomatic, typically after developing a fever. Even then, those infected can only spread Ebola through body fluids, such as blood or vomit. The disease is not airborne. ”


“The day before Hickox was detained in Newark airport, a New York City doctor, Craig Spencer, was diagnosed with Ebola. The doctor took at least three trips on the subway, dined out and went bowling, spurring public anxiety.”


“Do you understand what that did to the psyche of public officials in a metropolis of nine million people,” the Today show host Matt Lauer asked Hickox.”


“Of course I do understand, it has created a lot of fear, but we still have to make policies based on evidence,” Hickox said.”


If I have to point out to you how wrong all of this is, then, I am afraid you need to practice your thinking skills, or, perhaps, you need go find the thinking cap you put in the attic, years ago…. It’s crystal clear to me that the political forces in this country have blown the Ebola virus issue completely out of proportion, aided and abetted by the media, which thinks only of how fantastic claims of impending doom sells more papers, than does a reasoned approach to any issue. Pay attention, ffolkes…. Everything you need to know about the ridiculousness of the political buffoons’ reactions can be found in the above excerpt, which describes the medical status of the disease…. IT ISN’T ANY FUCKING MORE DANGEROUS THAN THE FLU THAT PASSES THROUGH US EVERY DAMN YEAR….


Sorry for shouting, but, damn it, listen to me….


Every year, you will note, without fail, no matter how many cases are seen, or not seen, of the flu strains they tout as so dangerous, the medical/pharmaceutical industry wants everyone to get a flu shot (Only $4.95/dose at K-Mart, or Walgreen’s, or even if free…. Somebody is being charged by the pharmco’s for this “service” to the public, paid by the insurance money they rip us off for….). Every year, we see the same advertising, and the same push to “Get Your Flu Shots!”…..


This happens, even though NOT taking the shot, and letting the body learn how to fight the disease on its own, provides a person with relative immunity for the rest of their life….If such a person ever does contract the disease again, in any strain, it will affect them much less…. This is a medical FACT, ffolkes, it is how our bodies fight off diseases, by learning how to combat them with its own defenses…. 


If you had the flu as a child, and lived through it, chances are you’ll never have another serious case of in your life…. a fact of which I am proof… I KNOW I am not alone, as well, because all of my brothers and sisters are the same…. We all had the flu, back in the 40’s and 50’s, and haven’t had it since…. Sure, the flu, if untreated, can be dangerous…. for adults, or for kids, too, if not cared for…..


The treatment to prevent the chances of dying from the flu, in these modern times, are very effective, and have been in place since the advent of the knowledge of how to treat ANY illness got to be society wide…. Very few people die from the flu any more, compared to the number of people there are in toto, and if children who catch it are treated for it, the number is even smaller…. 


But, by catching the disease, the body learns to create the proper defenses, ON ITS OWN, and those defenses work very well in preventing future occurrences in those who have had the disease…. As well, the percentage of those people who might catch it again is even smaller, because their body aids in the defense, and treatment milieu necessary to support it in its battle.


But, to treat it that way costs money the corporations that control health care don’t like to spend…. They don’t want something like that known widely, or they wouldn’t be able to convince anyone of the danger, thereby losing, literally, BILLIONS AND BILLIONS OF DOLLARS every year, from having to treat kids with the flu, and from not getting all those adults to buy the shots they’re trying to sell…. They simply aren’t going to let that happen, are they?…. Not when they can use the government, and the media, and the ignorance of the average person to manipulate them into being afraid of nothing much at all….


There is plenty more proof, should anyone need it…


Indeed, misogyny, and outright fear of women, among most men in this world, is a key problem in our world, an all-too common fact of life, caused by the attitudes related above, to wit: ignorance, encouraged by society itself….This cowardly weakness is manifested in our daily lives very much more than anyone wishes to admit…. From what I read, and from what I’ve seen in my 64 years, I can truthfully say I estimate 99% of all men alive today are, at least to some degree, misogynists… They are afraid of women’s sexuality, and how they feel it threatens their masculinity, which they do not understand at all, connecting it to their physical size advantage, rather than to their intelligence, or understanding…


The problem arises from the unfortunate fact that men have a tendency, when they fear, to resort to violence, or, if threatened by a woman (in their minds), by sexual misconduct (a fancy way of saying rape, or sexual harassment of all types….)…. If you think I’m overstating the situation, or the issue, take a moment to read the following article, and watch the video….


Both provide graphic proof of my contention, and there is little I can add to make it any stronger than it is…. So, check it out, please…. This is an issue that is important to ALL men, and ALL women…. seriously…. Then, think about the simple fact that this video was performed in only ONE place…. a large one, to be sure…. but, is this any different than what you see on the streets of your own city? I don’t think so….



http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/oct/29/woman-records-10-hours-of-harassment-walking-through-new-york




Ten Hours of Walking Through Sexual Harassment; NYC
































































“A Lie is still a Lie, even if you believe it.”


~~ Smart Bee ~~




This may possibly be the longest rant ever in a Pearl, or, for that matter, the longest I’ve ever written, period….. Stuff just kept popping up in front of me as I read the news yesterday, things that demanded a response, because the theme for today covers ALL of the issues we face in society today….. Believe me, they are legion, and very few people will tell you the straight truth about even little parts of the big picture…. and nobody WANTS to talk about how scary the WHOLE picture is beginning to be….


It scares me, and not just a little bit, either…. The only solutions I see are only going to happen if the entire species acts as one organism, and, so far, we haven’t done too well at that…. not that I’ve noticed…. Add to that the fact of human nature that we all know to be true, i.e., change is the hardest thing to do for us, and, well…. Let’s just say, as delicately as we can, things aren’t looking terribly promising for us having much of a future…. We are the victims of our own nature….


I can think of only one creature on the face of this planet who will miss our sorry asses when we are gone, and, they already love us more than we could possibly deserve, or love ourselves…. Dogs, I think, will wonder where we’ve gone, but, if we are all that was gone, I think things would get along fine, and none of the other creatures would be concerned at all…. not considering how we have treated them….


“If you can see a thing whole… it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives…But close up, a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful a life is, is to see it from the vantage point of death.”  — Ursula K. Le Guin, Dispossessed


“They made light of it.” — New Testament — Matthew xxii, 5


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


After ranting so much, for so long, I need the kind of reality to be found in all of this man’s poetry….






40,000


at the track today, 

Father’s Day, 

each paid admission was 

entitled to a wallet 

and each contained a 

little surprise. 

most of the men seemed 

between 30 and 55, 

going to fat, 

many of them in walking 

shorts, 

they had gone stale in 

life, 

flattened out…. 

in fact, damn it, they 

aren’t even worth writing 

about! 

why am I doing 

this? 

these don’t even 

deserve a death bed, 

these little walking 

whales, 

only there are so 

many of 

them, 

in the urinals, 

in the food lines, 

they have managed to 

survive 

in a most limited 

sense 

but when you see 

so many of them 

like that, 

there and not there, 

breathing, farting, 

commenting, 

waiting for a thunder 

that will not arrive, 

waiting for the charging 

white horse of 

Glory, 

waiting for the lovely 

female that is not 

there, 

waiting to WIN, 

waiting for the great 

dream to 

engulf them 

but they do nothing, 

they clomp in their 

sandals, 

gnaw at hot dogs 

dog style, 

gulping at the 

meat, 

they complain about 

losing, 

blame the jocks, 

drink green 

beer, 

the parking lot is 

jammed with their 

unpaid for 

cars, 

the jocks mount 

again for another 

race, 

the men press 

toward the betting 

windows 

mesmerized, 

fathers and non-fathers 

Monday is waiting 

for them, 

this is the last 

big lark. 

and the horses are 

totally 

beautiful. 

it is shocking how 

beautiful they 

are 

at that time, 

at that place, 

their life shines 

through; 

miracles happen, 

even in 

hell. 

I decide to stay for 

one more 

race. 

     

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~




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


Well, even software can have an urge, I guess; all seven of these pearls were picked out by Smart Bee, though only two were original to him/her/them/it/…. That urge seems to have something to do with a sharp stick, and the eyes of a politician…. Well, they deserve all the shit we can throw at them, since that’s all they throw at us, so…. enjoy….


“Is it fair to hold politicians to the same standards as humans?” –Smart Bee


“Nothing, indeed, but the possession of some power can with any certainty discover what at the bottom is the true character of any man.” — Edmund Burke


“Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.” — Mark B. Cohen


“I support drug testing. I believe every public official should be given a shot of sodium pentathol and asked “Which laws have you broken this week?”– Smart Bee, (again with gigoid’s full agreement… damn good idea.)


“I have discovered the art of deceiving diplomats. I speak the truth, and they never believe me.” — Conte Camillo Benso di Cavour


“Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.” — John Adams (1735-1826)


“Either CONFESS now or we go to “PEOPLE’S COURT”!!” — Zippy the Pinhead


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


Whew! That’s a long one, ffolkes. Even though much of it was done yesterday, I still had to proof, edit, and format the whole thing, so, at this juncture, I’m just happy I got it done…. In fact, I’m going to go with the flow, and take us out of here, now, so we can all get on with what promises to be a good day…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…..




Y’all take care out there, 

and May the Metaphorse be with you;

Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…

and everyone else, too…


When I works, I works hard.

When I sits, I sits loose.

When I thinks, I falls asleep.


Which is Why….


Sometimes I sits and thinks,

   and sometimes,

I just sits.


gigoid, the dubious


PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….




 

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Turning, he calmly walked into the door….

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				3			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“Alexander [the Great] asked Diogenes if there was anything in the world he wanted. 


Diogenes, without looking up, replied: `Yes. Get out of my light.'” 


~~ Plutarch ~~


volcano-LDT


     No way, Jose…. There’s no way in Hell I’m putting myself through this today, not with all the stuff I have to do out in the Big Blue Room. I can barely stand up straight, and certainly not without putting myself into severe pain, as the lower back has picked this morning to act as if it were a new condition, perfectly happy to demonstrate all the different postures and movements which will cause it…. So far. even magic cream is failing the test, so, the remainder of the day has taken on new, dark colors….


In order to deal with it as best I may, though, I’m again going to be ruthless in composing today’s Pearl. In fact, this paragraph is the last one you’ll get in the intro; when I said ruthless, that’s exactly what I meant. If I give myself any room at all to start, I’ll rant, or start blathering, either of which, today, would just be absurd, not to mention bad…. But, it will probably be okay, as the relative length will cause most of y’all to celebrate, at least in the privacy of your own minds…. As for the rest of us, we’ll be down below, trying to finish off what got done yesterday, and get this posted…. See, ruthless…


Shall we Pearl?…..


“He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Socrates, xvi


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


“I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleges, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.” ~~ Tolstoy


Now THAT is a proper beginning for a rant…. too bad I’m not up to ranting…. Y’all will have to make do with a blast from the past…. It’s still valid, so, that’s something, anyway….


From 7/21/2012:


“There is always a second right answer.  Look beyond the obvious.” — Smart Bee


I am glad that I found this quote this morning. I was looking for something to go with a discussion around the events that took place in Colorado yesterday, wherein a young man shot and killed 12 people, and injured many others, before being subdued and arrested. I have not engaged in reading any of the stories about it, as they all follow the same pattern, and repeat the same cliches trying to describe the horror of the scenario, and to describe the terror felt by the victims. The news coverage of events of this nature vary little from one to the next; the only difference lies in the number of victims, and the place it occurred.


I don’t watch the stories, but the headlines always give enough information to satisfy my level of curiosity. The part of these events that interests me is always the amount of outrage and dismay that is expressed by those who are not even involved. People from all over the world will write articles condemning guns, or lamenting the victims, or expressing sorrow, or otherwise giving their reaction to the story. One of the reactions that is common after an event such as this is from the people who would like to see ALL guns taken off the streets, and make it illegal for citizens to even own a gun.


This to me is the reaction of a scared child. Yes, terrible things happen, and sometimes those terrible things are perpetrated by some idiot who has managed to get his hands on guns. But, it is folly to blame the guns themselves for the deaths of those people. The person is responsible, not the guns. But, to these frightened children, the very idea of guns is too scary to deal with, and they would like to see reality changed to suit their fears. It’s kind of like saying that “oh my, cars cause over a million deaths a year. Let’s get them off the streets!” It is an over-reaction, common to those who typically refuse to stand up for their own rights, preferring to allow the government to tell them what to think.


I agree that it is tragic that events like this should happen, and I feel bad for the victims. I also feel bad for the idiot, because only a soul that is in extreme distress could ever consider such actions. If it were to happen in front of me, I would not hesitate take him down and put him down like a sick dog, but I would do so in sorrow, knowing that he is a broken man. This event will mark a moment in time that none of the victims will ever forget, and it will change their lives in some way, for certain. But, to let these events cause us to make poor decisions about guns is an error in thinking, and can lead to the loss of more rights than we have already lost to the fear-mongers.


Living involves risk. This is a truism, and is not subject to debate. One may prepare for that risk by making themselves strong and educated regarding the extent of the risks, and dealing with those risks in an adult fashion. Or, one can retreat to their childhood, and give over the handling of risk to the authority figures in our lives, and feel snug and safe in their little delusional bubble.  


What these people fail to understand is this: prohibiting guns, or making them illegal, is NOT going to make guns go away. It will just drive them underground, and make it harder to keep track of them. The risk will be even greater, because NOW there is nothing to stop criminals from victimizing others, other than the police, and we can see already how little effectiveness the police have in stopping events like this.


This shit is going to happen, whether guns are legal or not. I am personally unwilling to trust the government of this country, or of any other, to protect me and my interests. If they have guns, I want mine, because otherwise there will be no reason at all for them to keep from taking from me whatever they want. 


Police in this country are NOT to be trusted; most of the time they have a poor opinion of the public, and a sense of entitlement that puts them above the law. The same goes for politicians; I’m not going to trust them any further than I am the police. Probably even less, as they have shown time after time that they are not to be trusted. If they can’t be trusted with my money, I’m certainly not going to trust them with my guns….


Attitudes adjusted, while you wait. — L.A. Police Car Bumper Sticker


I’m not overly concerned whether or not anyone agrees with me on this; everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Some will say that I am calloused and indifferent to the pain those people felt. Well, they are free to say whatever they like…. The simple truth is that I feel very sorry for all the victims, and their families, knowing full well that they are now looking at years of therapy and healing before they will ever be comfortable again. But it is also the simple truth that I am not going to get all worked up over something that happens all the time, and will continue to happen as long as the world remains so overpopulated that we are like rats in a cage, fighting and biting each other over the limited resources.


“Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” — Oscar Wilde


If one wants to get outraged over needless deaths, then let’s begin a dialog about the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq who continue to die for no good reason. We were told that the wars in those two countries were started to “get Osama bin Laden” and put an end to  terrorism. Ten years and trillions of dollars later, bin Laden is dead, and terrorism is NOT ended. Probably, more than 12 soldiers are killed every day in both countries, but there is no outrage that I see….


So, let us not engage in the orgy of feelings, and outpouring of outrage, over an event that, while not normal or desirable, should nonetheless not be a surprise. And, let us not thrash about in fear, and center our anger on the wrong target. Guns are not the problem; people who are broken are the problem, whether they are shooting people in a theater in the mountains, or passing laws in a building in Washington D.C.  The answer is not to get rid of guns; that is never going to happen. The answer is to fix the broken people…. and you can take that to the bank….


“Americans like to talk about (or be told about) Democracy but, when put to the test, usually find it to be an ‘inconvenience.’   We have opted instead for an authoritarian system *disguised* as a Democracy.  We pay through the nose for an enormous joke-of-a-government, let it push us around, and then wonder how all those assholes got in there.” —   Frank Zappa


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


Here is another legendary rock band from the sixties, with two members of The Jefferson Airplane (the bass and lead guitar players), a rogue drummer, and one of the best freelance fiddle players to ever draw a bow…. Enjoy!…..




Hot Tuna: Live at the Fillmore, 1984









































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


Nobody else should ever receive any blame for this, so…. Here’s one of mine that I wrote on a morning such as this one seems to be….






Momentary Terror


Absently casual, memories pester endlessly 

   leaving only bleeding remnants, amiable and loving. 

Coming awake, I cry to still the pain, shamelessly.


Elsewhen, time gives surcease, if only to live,

   shoring broken pilings, worn and gray.

Passing on, I laugh at the pain, accept all it will give.


Time will build a shelter, warm and ever safe

   save for Fate’s busy hands.

Enduring, I follow the pain, knowing it will chafe.


Fixed against a darkened sky of starry black

   such beauty brings us to our knees.

Entranced, I welcome the pain, ’tis all I lack…..


~~ gigoid ~~




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


“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a  computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” — Robert A. Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long


I first read this paragraph when I was about 14, or thereabout; as might be imagined, it had a very strong effect on me, and how I looked at the world…. and, is a view of human nature I’ve tried to accept, and utilize, for all the years since. By implication, there are other qualities and skills that any human should cultivate, for their own benefit, and for the benefit of all around them…. One of those is a sense of the absurd, or, as I like to think of it, a keen appreciation for irony, and its place in reality….


Being silly, and accepting one’s Bozoid tendencies, to me, is an attitude that can only help in life; very few situations are immune to the power of an ironic eye, even the most emotionally tense, confrontational issues can be made more palatable through the application of some humor, thus aiding in achieving a successful resolution, where it might otherwise have created ugliness and pain…. Today’s final section is therefore comprised of a nine-star pearl, to celebrate and practice that very skill….. If you wish to LOL, feel free….


“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” — Willy Wonka, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory


“I want you to organize my PASTRY trays…  my TEA-TINS are gleaming in formation like a ROW of DRUM MAJORETTES — please don’t be FURIOUS with me –” — Zippy the Pinhead


“He had been kicked in the head by a mule when young, and believed everything he read in the Sunday papers.” — George Ade


“`She said you were born to hang,’ said Anathema. Adam grinned, Notoriety wasn’t as good as fame, but heaps better than obscurity.” — Pratchet & Gaiman, _Good Omens_


Demonstrating once again the importance of the lowly comma, this telegram was sent from a wife to her husband: “NOT GETTING ANY, BETTER COME HOME AT ONCE.”


“Courtroom: A place where Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot would be equals, with the betting odds in favor of Judas.” — H.L. Mencken


“There comes a time in every man’s life, and I’ve had many of them.” — Casey Stengel


“If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention.” — Smart Bee


“Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” — Oscar Wilde


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


Well, I managed to get it done…. but, that’s all I can do…. I’m going to post this, before I can’t…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, hopefully from a better starting point…..




Y’all take care out there, 

and May the Metaphorse be with you;

Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…

and everyone else, too…


When I works, I works hard.

When I sits, I sits loose.

When I thinks, I falls asleep.


Which is Why….


Sometimes I sits and thinks,

   and sometimes,

I just sits.


gigoid, the dubious


PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.


Kowabunga!






À bientôt, mon cherí….




 

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Living Life Large….

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				Reply			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“Belief is the death of intelligence.” — Robert Anton Wilson


Horsehead Nebula( IC 424)


     The picture you see above, an excellent study showing the area of space containing the Horsehead Nebula, the obvious design you see above the very bright globular cluster surrounded by blue gas in the lower left corner. This nebula, because of its obvious shape, has been known for many years to astronomers; this photo, however, was taken by a 10 year-old amateur astronomer, and was chosen as this year’s Youth category winner, in Space.com’s yearly contest of astrophotography…. Excellent, excellent work for any age….


That said, the picture also serves, if not as proof, at least as evidence in favor, of the truth stated just above the photo, by Robert Anton Wilson…. Although I didn’t really become aware of the depth of his writing, or the direction of philosophy he pursued during his life, what I’ve learned of him tells me our paths traveled on many on the same roads, or, at least, ended up at the same places…. especially when I see he is responsible for the above statement, which closely mirrors my own words, to wit: doubt is the beginning of wisdom….


Another, less elegant, but, perhaps more cogent way to get the same point across, it seems to me, would be, “better out than in”…. which is, in my world, one of those things that is true for all time, except in those rare occasions when reality ripples, and it can be temporarily suspended, for the good of all….. otherwise, reality has determined that that statement shall apply without exception, to all things human…. especially those issues and events that are typically determined by their mind set…. in ALL such cases, ’tis better out than in…. and any arguments to the contrary simply provide their own proof of the assertion…. by coming out.


There, how was that for a bit of logical Twister…. good thing we weren’t using the fast music, or we may have ended up with some severe strains, possibly a fracture or two…. and the insurance geeks would have killed me. Dodged a bullet there, boy howdy….. Since there is little alternative at this point, I’m going to pretend none of the above ever happened, other than to acknowledge that, somehow or another, we got this far down the page, and are now legally allowed to get on with today’s post, regardless of how well if flies, or, indeed, if it makes any sense at all…. I’ve finally received my master’s license for reality stretching, so, we’ll just reach around this corner, grab this little lever, and yank it good and hard….. This is what happens…..


Shall we Pearl?…..


“You know what it’s like to be dead.  It’s just like it was before you were born.  Remember what it was like before you were born?” — Evan


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




Persuasive speech, and more persuasive sighs,

Silence that spoke, and eloquence of eyes.


~~ Alexander Pope ~~ 


(1688-1744) 


— The Iliad of Homer, Book xiv, Line 251 —




Today’s Pearl of Virtual Wisdom (see disclaimer…. I know I put it someplace… oh, hell, we’ll worry about that later….y’all know how I think, by now….sort of…. If you’ve had a clue at all, you know, if you just pay attention, you’ll get there….), will contain a new type of pearl, consisting of pearls, but, of a different nature, pearls from new waters, shall we say? Rather than our usual diet, culled from the waters known to Smart Bee, Ambrose Bierce, Daniel Bowen, and others, we will try to find something that is of a slightly different spin than our usual fare, which can tend to lead into sober, depressing, if altogether accurate discussions of what the news says….




“To light a candle is to cast a shadow.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Wizard of Earthsea”, 1975




We all know, also, the news companies tend to concentrate on stories with drama, which will sell papers, or ideas, or whatever else it is they may wish to sell; people have always been drawn to drama, the gorier the better, and be damned with whomever has to suffer to provide the reports of their troubles….. Whether it be bloody bank robberies, starving African children, dying animals in receding wetlands and rain forests, creatures dying in the oceans, or, oceans dying, people being shot, and dying, or bombed, and dying, or strangled, stabbed, beaten, or otherwise killed, so their deaths may be served up with all the other random deaths each day, reported on the news as if it is the way it is supposed to be, and that life is just a series of catastrophes punctuated by random, periodic deaths….




“To light a candle is to cast a shadow.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Wizard of Earthsea”, 1975




I do not even touch upon the other derivative incidents and reportable events, all of which vary only in the degree of drama implied by the events described, or the number of casualties, listed in deaths vs. survivors….. Derivatives include sporting events of every nature, where the drama, though vicarious to the actual viewer, and reporter, still offers the drama of conflict, between good and bad (home and away), and for the joy of each winner, there is the misery and failure of the loser to report, just as heavily as the victors. Financial news, to those who have money, or want money, presents the same sort of derivative violence, where those who make the ruthless choices tend to win out over those who choose to try to be honest in business, and that conflict, also inherent in the process, makes for great drama….




“To light a candle is to cast a shadow.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Wizard of Earthsea”, 1975




The drama of course, is there to distract the reading public from any of what is actually going on behind the scenes, politically, financially, religiously…. all those institutions are operating with most of their inner workings invisible to public sight, in spite of laws that SEEM to say otherwise…. But, they always seem to find a legal rationale to cover their clandestine activities….. all of which makes for a wonderful addendum to the way the rest of the world is lying to everyone who tries to live a normal life, without any of the weird shit these pundits, corporate snakes, priests, police chiefs, military officers, and of course, the other side of society, the tongs, the mafia, the criminals who prey on those that the governments mostly leave for them, meaning all of them…. making them not necessarily worse, but, slimier, even more so than the corporate snakes, the absolute worst sort of person alive….. in my less than humble opinion.




“To light a candle is to cast a shadow.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, “A Wizard of Earthsea”, 1975




Now, you will see the newest format for pearls…. Rather than go any further on the road toward making targets of those responsible for the state of the world, I will merely provide, through the auspices of those doing the ridiculous dance themselves, links to articles that tend to exhibit some sort of indication of something not quite right going on in the world, whether from a sarcastic point of few, an approving squint with a bit of a wink, a nudge-nudge to the ribs, or as in the second one today, an “it’s an about damn time” sort of way. You may possibly even come across something you’d label as ‘good news’…..  Oh, and I guess there’s one more category, that of the first article below, which can best be stated as “DOH!”…..



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11121843/Decorated-soldier-quits-army-saying-hes-sick-of-being-treated-like-an-idiot.html


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11125717/Bishop-of-Arundel-resigns-after-admitting-breach-of-vows.html



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/celebritynews/11121922/George-Clooney-and-Amal-Alamuddins-wedding-in-pictures.html


The last one there must be real important stuff…. I didn’t look at even two of them, but there were reportedly more than 50 photos, just to show the celebrities arriving for the wedding, and pre-wedding “Bond Style” Bash…. I’m happy to say, Blooney, er, Cloony, was the ONLY one I recognized without having to read the caption to see who it was…. and he’s getting so old & salt & peppery, sometimes he blends in…. with the text…



http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/27/chelsea-clinton-announces-daughters-birth-on-twitter-and-facebook


Oh. My. Gosh….. this is news? Oh, right…. never mind…. must have been a slow news day….



http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/26/north-korea-kim-jong-un-ill-health


Okay, if you aren’t weirded out after reading those, you’re a better man than I, Gunga Din…. The world is a very strange place ffolkes, which is probably why Epictetus said what the did, about being able to accept those things we cannot control…. besides, it makes it easier to laugh at all of them, and the whole picture… Once you can let go, learn to appreciate the irony, or sardonicism, or, at the very least, the futility of fighting against it…. well, there will be the bemusement, and serenity, you seek….


“When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere.” — La Rochefoucauld


“Credulity is the man’s weakness, but the child’s strength.” — Charles Lamb


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


Eureka! I have found a treasure trove of old Sherlock Holmes movies and TV episodes, mostly on BBC, or from late night cable packages, all found on You Tube, our world’s newest repository of contemporary cultural knowledge, all in digital video format…. I now have enough new finds to defeat ANY bout of insomnia I may get…. The player will show you the titled story; the link will take you to the page where I found it, which has links to many more Sherlock videos, all based on the stories by A. C. Doyle…. Timeless human drama set in fascinating times in our past….




Sherlock Holmes — The Six Napoleons: 


  http://youtu.be/QR1X5pMTbg4






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


We haven’t seen anything from this Americam poet for some time; here is one I think of as one of his best….




A child said, What is the grass?


A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full

    hands;

How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it

    is any more than he.


I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful

    green stuff woven.


Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,

A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,

Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we

    may see and remark, and say Whose?


Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe

    of the vegetation.


Or I guess it is a uniform hieroglyphic,

And it means, Sprouting alike in broad zones and narrow

    zones,

Growing among black folks as among white,

Kanuck, Tuckahoe, Congressman, Cuff, I give them the 

same, I receive them the same.


And now it seems to me the beautiful uncut hair of graves.


Tenderly will I use you curling grass,

It may be you transpire from the breasts of young men,

It may be if I had known them I would have loved them;

It may be you are from old people and from women, and

    from offspring taken soon out of their mother’s laps,

And here you are the mother’s laps.


This grass is very dark to be from the white heads of old

    mothers,

Darker than the colorless beards of old men,

Dark to come from under the faint red roofs of mouths.


O I perceive after all so many uttering tongues!

And I perceive they do not come from the roofs of mouths

    for nothing.


I wish I could translate the hints about the dead young men

    and women,

And the hints about old men and mothers, and the offspring

    taken soon out of their laps.


What do you think has become of the young and old men?

What do you think has become of the women and

    children?


They are alive and well somewhere;

The smallest sprouts show there is really no death,

And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait

    at the end to arrest it,

And ceased the moment life appeared.


All goes onward and outward. . . .and nothing collapses,

And to die is different from what any one supposed, and

    luckier. 

     

~~ Walt Whitman ~~




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


I wasn’t sure this pearl would come out okay… As it grew, it seemed to wobble all over the place, though with some indications of directing the fall, when it came…. Somehow, out of left field, it seems, it managed to bring itself to a close, on a note with which no argument is possible, which manages to, congruently, give one the appropriate key for both understanding, and for coping with, ignorance…. Don’t worry, don’t force it….. it will come to you. Or, it won’t, in which case, just go with the last line, and you’ll do fine….


Remember, ffolkes, they’re just pearls, merely euphemisms and metaphors, taken from virtual oysters…. so, there’s nothing to be afraid of… besides, once I’ve removed the pearls, with some garlic, wine, butter, and a bit of fish sauce, we can turn the oysters into a slice of heaven, and still have the pearls, all shiny and precious…. so, enjoy, either way you need to think about it…. as elucidation leading to epiphany, or lunch…. I’ve had good reason to choose both at one time or another, so no worries, mates, it’ll all come out in the wash…. Now that I’m mixing so many metaphors at once, on to the pearls….


“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1972)


“One of the most devastating enemies of the family is radical sex education in the public school. It is more explicit than necessary for the good of the child.  Too much sex education too soon causes undue curiosity and obsession with sex.” — Beverly LaHaye, President, Concerned Women for America, in her newsletter, 4/81, as quoted in The Far Right, Speaking For Themselves, a Planned Parenthood pamphlet


“What UNIVERSE is this, please??” — Zippy the Pinhead


“On one occasion Aristotle was asked how much educated men were superior to those uneducated: “As much,” said he, “as the living are to the dead.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Aristotle, xi


“Any religion…is forever in danger of petrifaction into mere ritual and habit, though ritual and habit be essential to religion.” — T.S. Eliot, Selected Essays, 1927.


“Old places and old persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them, have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable, precisely, the balance and wisdom that come from long perspectives and broad foundations.” — George Santayana


“An it harms none, do what thou will.” — Wiccan Credo


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


Having avoided any efforts from Murphy’s band of rogues, by finishing much of this yesterday, it’s only right I get it up and out before he can affect it at all… so, with no further fufera (alternate spelling for fooferaw….), we’re outta here…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….




Y’all take care out there, 

and May the Metaphorse be with you;

Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…

and everyone else, too…


When I works, I works hard.

When I sits, I sits loose.

When I thinks, I falls asleep.


Which is Why….


Sometimes I sits and thinks,

   and sometimes,

I just sits.


gigoid, the dubious


“The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.”


Kowabunga!




À bientôt, mon cherí.




 

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Don’t worry, we’re trained to observe….

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				Reply			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“In a cat’s eyes, all things belong to cats.” — English Proverb —


more alaska sky lights


     The picture came from Space.com, sent to them by a reader after taking the photo in Alaska during the auroras caused by the recent solar storm…. Gorgeous, eh? Too bad I don’t feel up to talking about it, or, for that matter, at all… In fact, I feel like crap, and will be going back to bed as soon as I can get this done…. which won’t take long, as I intend to be ruthless… I know, it’s hard to believe, but, watch me….


Shall we Pearl?….


“Forward, as occasion offers. Never look round to see whether any shall note it…. Be satisfied with success in even the smallest matter, and think that even such a result is no trifle.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 29


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


“You can’t legislate morality. We tried to outlaw consumption of alcoholic beverages. We found that violation of the law led to bigger crimes and bred disrespect for the law.” — Jimmy Carter, 1976


I am almost completely certain the four words you see first in the above quote constitute the FIRST time in history an American President, or, for that matter, almost any other elected official in any country in the last 200 years (since they started holding elections relatively universally in the world’s cultures….), has EVER uttered them, unless they were referring TO the words themselves…. none before Jimmy ever said it, and claimed it as their own belief…. Never….


Hell, even Jimmy couldn’t get it across to anyone, even from his lofty perch atop the world’s hierarchy of alleged leaders, the greatest portion of which are merely shills, pimping society at the behest of their corporate masters…. This simple, WRONG idea, that people will become moral if a law is passed indicating that morality, threatening punishment for all who will not conform…. thus adding to the problem, not the solution….


Such legislation is the very WORST sort of behavior modification, scientifically speaking, in that, no matter what the behavior, the law will tend to make things worse; people formerly functioning, productive members of society, just by being a part of a group that believes differently, becomes a criminal in the government’s eyes…. all for a point of morality, which, frankly, is none of their fucking business… They only believe it is, because they are professionals, and, obviously (to them…) they know what is best for all…. making them a very dangerous creature, i.e., a busybody with a mandate….


Having started this rant yesterday, it will have to do, as is…. I’m not well this morning…. So, rather than a politirant, here is a sublimated old-school pearl that is masquerading as a religirant, from SB….


This old-school pearl is one Smart Bee pretty much picked out by itself, over the course of a couple days…. I’m not sure what stimulated it, but, it seems to have been something somebody said about our old friend, and frequent victim target valued visitor subject of discussion, religion….. Go figure….


“For every new foolproof invention there is a new and improved fool.” — Smart Bee


“If we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his own will, and that all beside is nothing to us, why are we still troubled?” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap. xxv


“Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.” — Arthur Schopenhauer


“It is an old habit with theologians to beat the living with the bones of the dead.” — Robert G. Ingersoll


“There is no conclusive evidence of life after death. But there is no evidence of any sort against it. Soon enough you will know. So why fret about it?” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”


“Any religious system which has in it anything that will shock the mind of a child cannot be true.” — Thomas Paine


“Nothing can be produced out of nothing.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Diogenes of Apollonia, ii


Gee, one would think Smart Bee was a bit miffed…. but, I suppose, given the tendency of religious dogmatists & zealots to become a bit overbearing in their fervor to share their good news, it isn’t particularly surprising…. frustrated, determined fanatics can be tiresome, to say the least….


fanatic: One who, having forgotten their purpose, redoubles their efforts….. I forget who said it, but, Smart Bee would know….

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


Here’s some fantastic music, from a woman with whom I’ve been in love from afar for 35-40 years…. A voice like an angel, red hair and a beautiful smile, and the best blues slide player around… Ms. Bonnie Raitt….


At 50:22 of the first video, Bonnie sings, “I Need You At The Dimming of the Day”…. I cried, and so will you, if your emotional range would fill more than a teaspoon….


At 53:13 Bonnie is joined by Jackson Browne for a duet; amazing harmony & feeling of love from both; agape love, not eros, as the Greeks differentiated them…. in this case, the love of a brother and sister, though not of the same mother or father….


I’ve included the links today; going to the page on You Tube will give you a number of suggestions for videos by other artists in the same genre as Bonnie…. to wit: Norah Jones, Box Scaggs, Buddy Guy, etc., along with more of her own concerts and albums…. Enjoy your day with her…..











Bonnie Raitt, Live in Germany, 1992


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeprNTw9Wcc








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


I feel so crappy, you’ll have to make do with one of mine….






Gauges of Pain 


Consciousness devolves in pools of gripping fears

holding hostage any hope of serenity,

sharp stabbing motions and greedy tears

nary a moment passes without common calamity.


Always a surprise, nothing soothing ever found,

leaving only breathless clinging pain,

salvation seemingly absent, it muffles all sound,

bringing ever more sadness and rain.


Solitude is ever present to claim my time,

lonely hours and relentlessly long days,

no radio plays such music in secular rhyme

happy, vibrant voices belong to elder ways.


Life can be justified it seems to say,

by hopeful favored moments of pleasure,

seemingly friendly, pointing out the only way,

to bring back happiness in minimal measure.


Days of horror and embarrassing tears

serve ever to drive wretched hours to withhold

promising naught but sorrow in coming years,

black, bitter memories that never grow old.


Cold, cold the days fly by,

can it really be our only token?

Never to say, or know just why

the pain never stops, even when spoken…


~~ gigoid ~~




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


Here’s an old school pearl… I have no idea what any of it means….


“It is almost impossible systematically to constitute a natural moral law. Nature has no principles. She furnishes us with no reason to believe that human life is to be respected. Nature, in her indifference makes no distinction between good and evil.”


“Once he saw a youth blushing, and addressed him, “Courage, my boy! that is the complexion of virtue.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD)


“Curse on all laws but those which love has made!” — Alexander Pope


“Having the loftiest of goals and sincerest of aims does not excuse you from knowing what in the hell you’re talking about.” — Smart Bee


“Learning is not compulsory… neither is survival.” — W. Edwards Deming


“We never reflect how pleasant it is to ask for nothing.” — Seneca


“Better clean death than dirty life.’ — Frank Herbert


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


Ffolkes, I am unwell… I’m done, so I’m gone… bye, bye…..




Y’all take care out there, 

and May the Metaphorse be with you;

Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…

and everyone else, too…


When I works, I works hard.

When I sits, I sits loose.

When I thinks, I falls asleep.


Which is Why….


Sometimes I sits and thinks,

   and sometimes,

I just sits.


gigoid, the dubious


“The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.”


Kowabunga!









 

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
No more effective than a blank stare….

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				1			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“Safety is on the shore, but the pearl is in the ocean.” — Chinese Proverb


hidden beauty


     Well, damn! That must be why I keep getting wet! Who knew?


I did, of course…. but, since the pearl was about pearls, I couldn’t resist…. How ’bout that picture, eh?  I like it, not because I took it, but, because it’s a metaphor….. as is damn near everything around here. This one though, is not so much a metaphor, as a reminder that beauty comes in many guises, and may be beautiful merely for existing…. This flowering weed was growing in an abandoned lot near my place, where I found it on one of my meanders through the ‘hood; I live in an economically depressed city, in a relatively poor section, on the edge of the old downtown neighborhood…. There are a lot of abandoned lots, where new construction awaits a buyer with actual money to spend…


But, in spite of the depressed feel one gets viewing the entire lot, this weed was flowering madly, with these vividly blue flowers, showing off its colors to a world that does not care at all, spitting back at reality in defiance….. which only made it look more beautiful to me….. I admire that sort of tenacity at life, even if it is futile, as it mostly is when dealing with human civilization…. I’m not going to fall into a rant, but, this flowering weed can serve as a strong poke in the ribs for us, if we could only learn to understand what it is saying to us….


I haven’t felt good for days; not terrible, but, moderately miserable, I’d say…. I am still not quite right, so this will be a short intro today…. Thankfully, I managed to hit the archives for a bit, and found enough to fill in what I can’t write fresh for the day’s post…. Some may regard it as cheating, or at least dwelling on the past, but, hey, if it’s still a valid subject for ranting, it will fit, because my rants are usually fairly flexible, in that they may speak of specific times, but, the issues are more universal, and generally are still manifesting themselves in society, thus making even an old rant up to date…. Well, it sounds good, and it works for me, so, that’s what we’ll do…


Beyond that, I make no promises; what you will see is what you’ll get, and that’s the extent of it…. I wish this…. whatever the hell it is that won’t leave me be, would go away; it’s gone well past the predicted stay, and I’m not happy about it. If it doesn’t get any better today, I’m going down to Kaiser and pitching a fit, as I asked for their help four days ago, without anything ever happening…. SIGH, if they get damaged in the process, well, they have no one but themselves to blame…. By the time I get there, if I have to go, I will NOT be a happy camper, and will have every intention of blasting whomever comes within reach of my voice….. and damn the consequences….


Such being the case, perhaps I’d best get on with the rest of this mess; I doubt the sheriff will let me post from jail….


Shall we Pearl?…..


“In the world there are only two tragedies.  One is not getting what one wants and the other is getting it.” — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)


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


As is my wont, when I haven’t been feeling well, I work ahead, using old rants and pearls from the archives, as much of my material is concerned with issues that won’t go away…. Here is a politirant from 2013; it’s a two-fer, and rather long, so take a deep breath, and enjoy!….


From 12/21/2013:


Below, you will find the rant to which I referred above…. it’s another long one, thanks to the support I again found in the archives, but, it’s worth the read, for it will all point toward the rant I’m planning for tomorrow, one that will be a culmination, and a summarization, of all the rants I’ve done up to this point…. For today, please read, and pay attention to this, as it will end up being important for all of us…. a point which I hope to make clear tomorrow….


In order to achieve the proper understanding of this issue, and the following discussion, aka a ‘politirant’ of first magnitude, the article attached to the following link should be read first…. It contains some interesting information that is critical to the dialogue that may ensue, or, in any case, for a full data set to use for analyzing the issue at large…. Go ahead, we’ll wait here….


http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Judge-NSA-program-is-likely-unconstitutional-5068946.php


It isn’t often this happens twice in a row, but, since I’m always attuned to the possibility of serendipity, it did…. happen twice, that is…. Below, you will find a rant I posted back in early March of this year, which, given the information contained in the article attached to the above link, is astoundingly accurate as a response to the actions demonstrated by the administration in this entire scenario….


First, let me say that I’m very, very happy that a federal judge had the courage and integrity to stand up against the tide of administrative pressure, which, as we all should realize by now, originates from the dens of the shadowy corporate masters, and special interest groups who dictate society’s course to suit themselves…. If you haven’t noted this from what you see happening everywhere in the public sector, well, I can’t convince you, but, it remains, nonetheless, the truth, well-documented in the news….


The government, of this country, and just about every other in the world, is in the control of the corporate special interests who control virtually ALL the money, and, along with that, ALL the resources needed to keep society working. It has been this way for millennia, and they are only getting better at the controls they possess over the happenings in the world around us, honed by centuries of practice and deception…. They are so good at it, virtually nobody even realizes the true nature of their control, or the extent of it…. and, that is just how they like it….


But, there are moments when a bit of progress is made in keeping at least a minimum of mankind free of much of their influence, and this ruling in a federal court is one of those moments in history…. It still remains to be seen whether the rest of the federal courts, up to and including the Supremes, will continue to see the actual truth, or whether they’ll begin to color it, too, with the paint provided by the special interest groups, in whose best interests lie the abrogation of the amendments…. For the moment, though, we can be encouraged, at least a little bit…


I was especially heartened by two parts of this report…. First, the judge acknowledged James Madison, as one of the framers of the Bill of Rights, speaking of his obvious and well-placed mistrust of just this scenario, of corporate interests dictating the abrogation of civil rights, such as in this case, the Fourth Amendment, by those in power, and how Mr. Madison would be “aghast” at how far it has come true today….


Second, I was encouraged to see the steadfast dismissal of the reasoning by the administration’s lawyers on the basis of constitutionality, as it goes to prove the contention by Eric Snowden, that the laws and policies being perpetrated by the NSA would be found to be such, to wit: illegal according to the Constitution of the United States…. which would, in turn, prove his innocence under the laws of our country, which, theoretically, rewards those who speak the truth in defense of their fellows….


Good to know SOMEONE is paying attention in the judiciary system…. even if one of the Shrubs appointed him… That, apparently, didn’t turn him away from the Constitution, unlike the POTUS who gave him the job, who was on record as thinking some of the Bill of Rights went too far in giving people certain rights….


Further than that, the arguments presented below are the correct response to the above, which also goes to prove one small point, to wit: even nine months ago, I knew something was wrong in the pictures I was seeing out in the real world…. Enjoy!….


*Note from today, in 2014…. In reading over this, just prior to posting, it is obvious the last line above is confusing to the maximum, due to the excess of different posts and dates from which the rant(s) came… I knew this would happen if I started using the Tardis…. I’m losing track of when I am….. Okay, but, this time, ’tis a simple fix…. Just forget to look for the arguments below (as promised in the line, now two lines up from this…. (whew, it IS getting confusing, isn’t it?)….), as they were there, only in the SECOND post, in, well, I forget when it was, now, and since it’s done, now, it doesn’t matter does it?….)


There, are you less confused now? No? SIGH….. Ah, well… too late now, I suppose…. Onward….


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


I know it’s a bit early to think about winter, but, it has been so bloody warm here for so long, on average, it is as if summer has come to stay… So, I thought of this poem, which, as it turns out, is better than I had thought I remembered it to be, ending up giving me a nice reminder of the cold weather which is, in winter, much more of a possibility…. Something to look forward to, at times, must come from memory…. Present reality can be stingy about providing such for us…. Hope this brings a moment of quiet reflection for y’all, as well….




An Old Man, Snoring….


Winter arrives with gusts of wind and rain,

  clover spreads green amongst the hedges.

Urban gardens quiver, and dream of spring again,

  gargoyles stoically crouch on corniced ledges.


Umbrellas sprout over heads shrouded and hatted,

  dotting the sidewalks in colorful profusion.

Urban denizens pose sketches, framed and matted,

  adding casual beauty to fill the illusion.


Hissing tires, swishing along with the wipers

  join nature’s orchestra smoothly, as percussion.

Dripping gutters sound gong tones, true pipers,

  a sudden roar of wind hushes all discussion.


Dreams of summer heat form the crux of desire

  as winter chills our souls from without.

Sitting in warmth, gazing into an imaginary fire;

  content to know spring will come, no doubt.


~~ gigoid ~~




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


In order to say there is at least one fresh section today, I offer for your consideration the following old-school pearl, a random, harlequin style, with no obvious parameters…. often, these turn out to be the very best kind, so, we can hope…..


“People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are.  I do not believe in circumstances.  The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they cannot find them, make them.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)


“Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.” — Robert Frost


“You can’t make up anything anymore.  The world itself is a satire.  All you’re doing is recording it.” — Art Buchwald


“Certum est quia impossibile est.” [It is certain because it is impossible.] — Tertullian (160-240 AD) — De Carne Christi, c. 5


“One truth stands firm.  All that happens in world history rests on something spiritual. If the spiritual is strong, it creates world history.  If it is weak, it suffers world history.” — Albert Schweitzer


“Destiny is but a phrase of the weak human heart – the dark apology for every error. The strong and virtuous admit no destiny. On earth conscience guides; in heaven God watches. And destiny is but the phantom we invoke to silence the one and dethrone the other.” — Edward Bulwer-Lytton


“He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Socrates, xvi


Works every time…..


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


The following is a test/experiment for me in geekitude; if it works, you will be able to see a video, of what, you may not believe, but, will quite possibly enjoy…. No worries, ffolkes, or even folks, it’s completely innocuous…. It is merely a test of whether or not I am using the code to put it up on my site correctly…. I guess, if it is, as I hope, also effective for email, it could work there as well…. Without further ado…..






    I’m writing this before I know if the above worked…. I don’t have much left, so, I’m just going to say, I hope I’ll see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. Look for a post perhaps later than usual…. We’ll see what happens…. Okay, now I’m gone…. really, I am….. You can go now, really, it’s okay; we’re done here…..




Y’all take care out there, 

and May the Metaphorse be with you;

Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…

and everyone else, too…


When I works, I works hard.

When I sits, I sits loose.

When I thinks, I falls asleep.


Which is Why….


Sometimes I sits and thinks,

   and sometimes,

I just sits.


gigoid, the dubious


Kowabunga!




 

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
No, no witch doctors…. I’m fine. Just a scratch….

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				5			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark;


the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.”


~~ Plato ~~




Day the next 013


    ‘Tisn’t every day I start off with a trip to the ER, so, I suppose that makes today special, at least in that respect. So, rather than sitting here, trying to decide how to use the quote from Plate, in conjunction with my lovely picture of the sunset over the Northern Irish Sea, off the coast of Scotland somewhere, I am sitting here, trying desperately to ignore the dizziness that fills my head whenever I move it too quickly…. According to the nice young doctor at the ER, it is merely vertigo, a condition that can strike anytime, and is treatable, mostly, with medications to combat the two main symptoms of dizziness, and the nausea that goes with it most times.


For now, I’m just holding as still as possible, to prevent the dizziness…. and hoping I can hold it together long enough to get this done…. Fortunately, I had completed a good deal of it yesterday, during the breaks between sleeping to catch up, and battling the bones, which took up much of the day…. In at least one way, all this is a good thing for y’all, as it means the total amount to read will be much less than usual, and, minus any fresh ranting, as I am just not up to that now….


That being said, I’m going to also cut this intro to a degree unprecedented in previous Pearls…. In fact, we will be leaving this section very shortly, and going on to what is below… In actual fact, that is happening NOW….


Shall we Pearl?…..


“A man makes no noise over a good deed, but passes on to another as a vine to bear grapes again in season.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, v, 6


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




Phocion compared the speeches of Leosthenes to cypress-trees. 


“They are tall,” said he, “and comely, but bear no fruit.”


~~ Plutarch  ~~


— (46-120 AD)  Phocion —




Day 3 and 4 013


    Above, you see my version of the typical tourist shot, of the British Houses of Parliament, including, of course, Big Ben, along with a glimpse of the obligatory double-decker bus, in this case, one of the tour buses, the “Hop on, hop off” variety prevalent in so many international cities now, as it makes a perfect way for tourists to see a great deal of a city in a short time, with the opportunity to get off to look more closely at something seen, and get back on when ready to go on getting the lay of the city…. I, naturally, had “hopped off” one of them, in order to walk out on the Bridge (never even asked which one it was….), to take the photo….


Today, it is here to show just one of the meeting places of the Beloved Ruling Class, this time in England, where that particular group of running dog lackeys has been shape-shifting, or, in their natural state, writhing sinuously around and through British culture, always managing to keep themselves in positions of authority and entitlement, for many thousands of years…. Many of them came to America in the early days, where they’ve been insinuating themselves into the US government since soon after its inception….


But, for centuries, aided by the natural Celtic tendency toward gullibility when confronted with claims of supernatural mandate, combined with an inherent national characteristic, or, if you will, curse, of possessing the emotional range of a teaspoon, and, an unbelievable stubbornness about ever admitting to being led by the nose, these latter-day Wizards of Oz continue to hide in plain sight, allowing their subjects to have complete (apparent) freedom, while, in truth, carrying out the same agenda as the elitists in this country have adopted, though for a shorter time, to wit: the long term con involved in converting the democratic forms of government, (call them Republican Democracies, or Democratic Republics, or, even, Constitutional Monarchies…. all same-same….) supposedly in place in both countries, into open Oligarchies, or the rule of the rich….


Now, I’m depressed again…. I’ll be back….


Obviously, I had planned to finish this today, after getting up…. Since my brain/body had different ideas for how I would start my day, I’ll have to leave it as is…. In looking it over, it is actually done enough; the point was made, and y’all will just have to do without the usual following verification/augmentation of the supporting evidence for my contentions…. I do see that I managed to put together an old-school version of a pearl, to act as a closing to this section…. so, we’ll take advantage of my forethought, and use it, here and now…. trusting to my instincts to see that it all flows together without any major welding required….


Whatever comes previously to this paragraph in this section, in the way of a rant, or discussion, or outburst of frustration and angst, sans rationale, or, whatever has tickled my fancy at that point, the following pearls will be included…. This group put itself together, at SB’s behest, apparently, as a means of poking some fun and sharp sticks at our alleged leaders in society…. Most of them are either obvious statements of how politicos think, if what they do can be so named, subtle indictments of their character, advice on how to deal with them, or Smart Bee’s take on what they want from y’all….


Also included, however, are two quotes from Thomas Jefferson…. One is included, patently, to provide contrast, and to demonstrate how the current crop of elected asininnies does NOT live by the same rules as did Jefferson…. The other is one of the warnings, or predictions, Jefferson issued to the people of this country who followed him, in his usual vein, which tells us to protect what they left to us…. His words have been preserved very well; the freedoms to which most of them referred? Not so well…..


“Vote Republican. It’s easier than thinking.” — Smart Bee


“A bone to the dog is not charity.  Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.” — Jack London


“It is not honorable to take mere legal advantage, when it happens to be contrary to justice.” — Thomas Jefferson, POTUS III


“It had all the earmarks of a CIA operation; the bomb killed everybody in the room except the intended target.” — William F. Buckley


” We should declare war on North Vietnam.  We could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and still be home by Christmas.” — Ronald W. Reagan


“A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.” — Thomas Jefferson


“Vote Democrat. It’s easier than thinking.” — Smart Bee


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


Yesterday, over the course of an hour or so, I was able to put down the following poem, ripped out of me whilst in the middle of an episode of intense pain from arthritis, in my hands, shoulders, hips, and UNIVERSE…. It may not be a traditionally formatted poem, and, as far as I know, it doesn’t rhyme, as I wasn’t thinking at all about that sort of expression… This bled out at a pace at which I was challenged to keep up, complicated by having to write in short spurts, as the hands were the worst…. Any who, I don’t care if anyone enjoys this, or not; I had to write it, or go mad, with no visible path on which to return from the trip…..


Of course, there will be some folks, and even, possibly, some folks, who will automatically place me into the “unsaved, and incorrigible” category, which is fine; it’s exactly where I prefer to be, if I must be in a category at all…. I forget who once said, “Not all poets are mad, but, it helps.”…..

Though I don’t remember who said it, I do tend to agree….




Elemental, dear Watson….



Don’t worry,

it’s not me 

you hear

screaming.


It is 

only 

my bones,

giving in,

to

cowardly,

pathologically,

repetitive,

fucking,’

complaints 

of 

past abuse,

and

all the fun

we had.

playing,

hard.


I don’t mind

too much;

I can spend my

TIME

in another space 

in my head, 

pretending

my bones

don’t 

exist….


It 

is,

indeed,

a shame

they 

always

come

back….


Fuck.


It

hurts.


More proof,

I guess,

either

God isn’t,

or,

He  is.


IF


He isn’t?

Oh,

Well….


Ante up.

Deal.


IF


He is?

Then,

I don’t fucking care 

who 

doesn’t like it,


I say,


He

is

a bully,

a coward,

a hypocrite, 

and,

truly,

an enormous asshole.


I suppose,

God

 is

what comes,

to,

and

from,

People,


because


they

feel

a need,

for

someone

to 

blame

for

a

Universe

they

cannot 

understand

or

accept.


I

will

take the complaints.


After all,

they 

are

my bones.


~~ gigoid ~~




Generally, I let the poem stand alone; today, in searching for a quote to put above the picture at the top of the page, Smart Bee presented me with the following, which provides some rather compelling evidence of the validity of the stanza in the poem, which begins with, “I suppose”….. This monumental delusional tendency haunting the species. homo horribulus, (that’s us, ffolkes….), on this planet has apparently been manifesting itself for quite some time…. since the early days of our history, to be exact…. This one shows it to be present over 2700 years ago….


“For full indeed is earth of woes, and full the sea; and in the day as well as night diseases unbidden haunt mankind, silently bearing ills to men, for all-wise Zeus hath taken from them their voice. So utterly impossible is it to escape the will of Zeus.” — Hesiod (c. 700 BC) — Works and Days, Line 101


Sorry, but, I’ll still take the complaints….


~~ gigoid


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


“Any ordinary man can surround himself with two thousand books and thenceforth have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy.” — Augustine Birrell


This section is the only one incomplete as I begin today’s post…. I’m going with my gut on this, and will put some additional pearls, to accompany the rather fine sentiment above, and to finish off this post, one of the more fractured Pearls to ever come down the pike…


“The long historian of my country’s woes.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book iii, Line 142


“Gort, klaatu nikto barada.” — The Day the Earth Stood Still


“Nothing can be produced out of nothing.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Diogenes of Apollonia, ii


“If good intentions are combined with stupidity, it is impossible to outthink them.”

— Marion J. Levy, Jr.


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


“The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.” — Seng Ts’an, Third Zen Patriarch, — from Hsin Hsin Ming, Verses on the Faith Mind


“…and I get on my knees and pray we don’t get fooled again.” — Pete Townshend


Wow…. SB is being really nice today…. Those seven pearls came one after another, with only two extraneous and useless quotes mixed in with them… Most excellent, as it went really quickly, as hoped…. Now, we’re done…. yay!….


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


“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.” — Bob Dylan


I get the feeling I am not the only one who feels like Bob…. But, all that is for another day. I’m done, and I’m outta here, to go hold still, and think of how to get through another day, with this added complication to adjust to…. SIGH…. Life is grand, isn’t it? See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…..




Y’all take care out there, 

and May the Metaphorse be with you;

Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…

and everyone else, too…


When I works, I works hard.

When I sits, I sits loose.

When I thinks, I falls asleep.


Which is Why….


Sometimes I sits and thinks,

   and sometimes,

I just sits.


gigoid, the dubious


Kowabunga!




 

					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
Dorothy, this is DEFINITELY not Kansas!….

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				4			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“A thing may be too sad to be believed or too wicked to be believed or too good to be believed; 


but it cannot be too absurd to be believed in this planet of frogs and elephants, of crocodiles and cuttle-fish.”


~~ G. K. Chesterton ~~


— Maycock, The Man Who Was Orthodox —





day2 London 012



    It is said that one can find anything, anything at all in Portobello Road, and, if the hour or so I spent wandering there on my stay in London can be considered as typical, I’m inclined to believe it to be true. The photo above, which I took when I was there, shows just one small alleyway market, off the side of the road’s main thoroughfare which, though a street only 20 feet wide from curb to curb, was jammed with market stalls holding what appeared to be every variety of movable commerce known to Mankind…. There was, of course, a lot of modern crap, repeatedly, if not rudely offered by many vendors, but, there were also great deals on antiques, rare books, stamps, and thousands of, well, anything anyone wants….


Now, if you were to ask me why I picked this particular picture this morning, I doubt I could tell you, since I didn’t. Pick it this morning, that is…. I picked it out yesterday, as has been my wont of late…. Now, five minutes after cutting & pasting it in, I no longer remember, and will have even less clue tomorrow morning, when this is actually being written, using notes made by the Time Lord software, about what will, or even what is supposed to happen then…. which takes me even further from knowing anything about WHY this picture is so perfect… but, it is, so, I’m not going to worry about it, or we may never get out of the intro section…


Not that we ever had a real chance to do anything about that; since introducing the rather special and appealing side effects of using the powers of a Time Lord, a number of contradictory, yet, unfathomable patterns of the apparent rules by which the Universe operates have shown themselves to have been altered to a very small, but significant degree… This wouldn’t be any cause for alarm, if it weren’t this particular set of rules…. These are those rules that all of us depend on, like, the sky is blue, and one moment follows the next; you know, the basic structure of the Universe rules….


Anyway, they’ve been changed…. just a little, but, now we can no longer depend on this moment being anchored where it is in Time; it could break loose at any moment, and end up sending us a millennium into the past…. or, it could dump us three days into the future, with events already happening about which we have no clue, with no chance to ever find out what happened…. It could get a bit ugly, if the BRC happens to notice; it may take a while, as they are usually pretty well focused on their own bullshit, but, it’s bound to come to their attention, when nobody is paying any attention to them while watching the incredible light shows that always accompany such alterations to the fabric of space and time….


There…. I see it only took four paragraphs of almost pure blather to set the proper tone for today’s missive; this is good, as it’s relatively late, according to routine. Since it is, I won’t bother to drive all this home any deeper; we’ll just sort of fade out here, like with a good sound system that uses a good control system that can keep the tone pure as it fades from our perceptions, leaving us ready to absorb all the finer nuances of what may follow…. Nice, eh? Not bad for a low-tech solution to a high-tech issue, especially given the lack of advanced engineering or programming techniques available to us by law….


Shall we Pearl?


(I don’t usually use any pearls that may cause any friction, or feelings of divisiveness between the genders; it’s a fruitless and actually destructive pastime. But, this little gem from Balzac, though it sounds as if it would, is actually a very deep piece of insight into human nature, and into the proper and loving relationship between a husband and wife. In short, it’s deeper than it seems, and requires one to look beyond the surface words to the meaning beneath… which is always good exercise for the mind, anyway…. This COULD have been expressed MANY ways; I like this one, just because it’s got a tone of phlegmatism that appeals to me….)


“He who enters his wife’s dressing room is a philosopher or a fool.” — Balzac


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


The lateness of our start today has resulted in some good luck for y’all…. I don’t have the time, or the inclination to rant; I’d have to go find something to rant about, and while that wouldn’t necessarily be difficult of time-consuming, the ranting itself could easily get out of hand, time-wise…. So, I’ll be nice, and just create a nice random, old-school pearl for this section today, and worry about ranting later….


Have fun, & I hope y’all appreciate this; it’s more difficult than you may realize to hold in what I customarily spit out each morning, and there could conceivably be a price to pay out in the real world, as whatever angst I’ve built up since last letting it out builds up…. If it gets too hard to hold in, it could come out on some unsuspecting bureaucrat, or even a police myrmidon, and that can conceivably be either a good thing, or a bad one, depending on which end of the rant one ends up on…..


Ah well, that’s the chances we all take in life; there’s no way to think of EVERYTHING, and sometimes, Reality is just on its own, y’know? Like today…..


“Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man’s task.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap. xxvii


“At birth we woke to dream in this world between.” — Kan’ami Kiyotsugu


“It is a fundamental law of nature that nothing ever quite works out.” — Murphy’s Seventh Law


Government Intelligence – Another OXYMORON! — Smart Bee


“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1972)


“Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.” — Oscar Wilde


“At ebb tide I wrote a line upon the sand, and gave it all my heart and all my soul.  At flood tide I returned to read what I had inscribed and found my

ignorance upon the shore.” — Kahlil Gibran


What an excellent pearl! It showed itself quickly, and managed to take a good poke at government, religion, and human nature, and hand out some good advice for living seemingly, all without breaking a sweat…. Nice!


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


I’m in the mood for a bit of classical poetry today…. Enjoy! In fact, let’s make it a two-fer…. Have a care, ffolkes, these are small, but, they’re filling….






A Coat


I MADE my song a coat

Covered with embroideries

Out of old mythologies

From heel to throat;

But the fools caught it,

Wore it in the world’s eyes

As though they’d wrought it.

Song, let them take it,

For there’s more enterprise

In walking naked. 


~~ William Butler Yeats ~~



_________________________________




A Crazed Girl


THAT crazed girl improvising her music.

Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,


Her soul in division from itself

Climbing, falling She knew not where,

Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship,

Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare

A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing

Heroically lost, heroically found.


No matter what disaster occurred

She stood in desperate music wound,

Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph

Where the bales and the baskets lay

No common intelligible sound

But sang, ‘O sea-starved, hungry sea.’


~~ William Butler Yeats ~~




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


This is another of those rare Pearls, which created itself by merely popping up on screen, one after another, in a row…. How can I say no to such persistence and dedication? I can’t…..


“Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love for power.” — Bertrand Russell (1872-1967)


“All the world ‘s a stage, and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. At first the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel and shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school. And then the lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier, full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard; jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances; and so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, with spectacles on nose and pouch on side; his youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide for his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, turning again toward childish treble, pipes and whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, is second childishness and mere oblivion, sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), As You Like It — Act ii, Sc. 7


“I call that a scumhead.” — James Joyce — Finnegans Wake


“The palpable obscure.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Paradise Lost, Book ii, Line 406


“Dreams have only one owner at a time. That’s why dreamers are lonely.” — Erma Bombeck


“Asked from what country he came, he replied, “I am a citizen of the world.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Diogenes, vi


“I’m in direct contact with many advanced fun CONCEPTS.” — Zippy the Pinhead


I’ve said many times previously that Shakespeare was overrated, and isn’t one of my favorite playwrights, even though I fully admit he is possibly, overall, the best that ever performed that particular act of literary expression. I just don’t like a lot of it; to my mind, and ear, much of it simply sucks, big time…. That said, he wrote so damn much, some of it just had to be fucking brilliant…. The above quote, known by heart to a large portion of mankind for over 400 years, falls directly into that category, effortlessly. Possibly the greatest soliloquy of all time, it shines with a luster that outshines virtually all other of mankind’s works, to give us the truth about ourselves…..


Maybe that’s why I write so much…. I’m hoping to hit on, and create, at least ONE piece that shines like this, if not quite a match for its degree of brightness…. SIGH…. Well, I guess I’ll just keep trying; I have a ways to go to be that good…. And, in the process, I’ll try to remember this…. which was the last one that popped up; the one after this was so bad, I knew it was done….


“The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.” — Eugene Delacroix


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


Not bad; I’ve shaved over 40 minutes off the hour I got up late… I’ll take it, and y’all, I think, are fortunate that I am. This one is a good pearl, and not nearly as long as they have been for the last few weeks… I suppose even my fertile brain has to take a creative break now and again…. Enjoy it while it lasts, though; nothing I do or see these days is liable to shut me up for long…. Just sayin’….. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, and remember, in spite of how it may seem at times, I love you all…. I can’t claim I like it, but, there it is, so, I deal…. you’ll deal, too, I’m sure….




Y’all take care out there, 

and May the Metaphorse be with you;

Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…

and everyone else, too…


When I works, I works hard.

When I sits, I sits loose.

When I thinks, I falls asleep.


Which is Why….


Sometimes I sits and thinks,

   and sometimes,

I just sits.


gigoid, the dubious


PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.


Kowabunga!













					

		
		
	


				
					
	

		

						
It was planted only yesterday…..

			
						

				Posted on   by  			

			
						

				6			

					


				

			
Ffolkes,




“Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you.” 


~~ Aldous Huxley ~~


 Reader’s Digest, 1956


Day 3 and 4 041


    Essentially, I am still an unskilled photographer; I’m never completely happy with most shots I take, and have developed the, no doubt, common habit of taking a LOT of pictures, of each subject, to make sure I can print, or use at least one of them… While in Europe last year, I had not yet come to that point of knowledge about the process, so, I had to just take what came as I went along. After all this time, after looking at the couple of hundred photos I did take, (most of which I’ll never show, as they are not very good at all…. But, I was there, & I took them, so they mean something to me….), the above effort may be the one that will end up as my favorite, simple as it is…


It’s a picture of a defensive castle, somewhere off the coast of, I think, Ireland… This would mean it was either defending the approaching waterway to Cork, Dublin, or Belfast, which were the three Irish ports we saw on the cruise…. After a time, to me, the approaches to all ports seem the same, in some ways, so they tend to blur a bit in the memory, unless there is some reason for it to stand out…. I don’t THINK that makes me a jaded traveler, does it? I hope not, because the ports themselves are very different….


I never learned the name of this fort, but, that didn’t prevent me from imagining the battles fought in defense of the coast, and city it protected, and the picture is good enough to have captured some of what I saw….. Well, I like it, anyway…. It isn’t as easy as it might seem to take a good picture on the deck of a ship; it’s always moving, if only a little, which has an effect on the hands holding the camera…. A certain amount of luck is needed to get a clear shot some days, so, I was happy with this one…


I know for a fact my routine is shot to shit; hell, this isn’t even being written today…. Wait a minute…. How can I not be writing today, whatever day it is? Hmm… There’s one I’ll need to think about; this may be a conundrum even the powers of a Time Lord can’t cope with…. I hope not, the Doctor is busy with the new TV show, so, I’ve got to figure out how to operate the Tardis on my own…. Okay, maybe coming clean will turn the trick….


I’m writing this yesterday, but, posting it today, so I can start working on tomorrow, today, get it? No? Well, neither do I… and I’m the one trying to do it. This may just be the one that does it ffolkes; it may be the one that puts us all right over the edge, into realms of reality where nothing we already know will be of any use to us…. What the hell have I done…. All my caution, all my planning, for naught…. Sorry, ffolkes, I thought we had this under control, but, I’m afraid that there’s no denying it now…. We’re sunk….


The frammistan won’t hold any longer; we’ve pushed it too hard, too long. By the time we could even get a replacement, we will have already consumed enough of the space-time continuum to produce a chain reaction in the remaining dark matter, which will lead, inevitably, to the next Big Bang…. in about twenty minutes…. I’m sorry, but, I couldn’t help it…. it SEEMED like the right thing to do at the time…. (Boy, that would be a good epitaph for Mankind wouldn’t it? “It sounded like a good idea at the time….”)


Oh, wait…. hold on…. what’s that? Oh, look it’s our missing piece! Well, how convenient is THAT? Okay, scratch the doomsday routine; it’s all okay now…. Instead, we’re going to just put this piece right back HERE…. and, we’re good to go to the next section of today/tomorrow’s Pearl…. How ’bout that, eh? It’s almost like magic…..


Shall we Pearl?…..


“He declared that he knew nothing, except the fact of his ignorance.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Socrates, xvi


Well, of course he did…..


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


This is a long rant, ffolkes…. When I start on this particular subject, I have a hard time stopping…. this time, to the tune of over 2500 words…. I figured I should give fair warning; this is not an easy rant of read, nor will it give any quarter to those it targets as the evil protagonists…. If you don’t feel up to it, then you can skip it…. However, this is an extremely important subject, to me, so, I’m asking you to take the time to read it, think about it, and maybe pass it on…. This needs to change, for sure, and for certain…. I’ve even given it a title, in case I decide to publish it alone, elsewhere….




A True Plague upon Our Houses….




In which we take issue with those who would call themselves Men, having none of the qualities of a Man…..


“Resolved, that the women of this nation in 1876, have greater cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution than the men of 1776.” — Susan B. Anthony


As we know now, 1976 has come, and gone, along with 1776, and 1876; yet, the oppression and ongoing abuse of women continues, unabated and unchecked, in spite of any progress shown by society, which would be thanks to Ms. Anthony, and others, for having instigated, and overcome a number of the legal challenges involved in securing full rights for women, efforts resulting in SOME legislation that SEEMED to make some needed changes, not the least of which was voting rights…


In too many ways, unfortunately, things are worse, due to the ubiquitous attitudes, of misogyny and unreasoning fear of sexuality, which is so ingrained in both the male, and female members of society, there are few who even acknowledge the issue, unless pressed…. at which time, they generally become either defensive, feign indignation, or go into active denial…. This fear, based on ignorance, of course, is complicated by religious attitudes heaped upon men and women from birth, which only encourage such ignorance, in favor of dogma….. Now, 40 years into the next hundred years since the beginning of the women’s movement in America, the same can be said to be absolutely true….. Nothing below the surface has changed at all….


“You, you, you shouldn’t, you shouldn’t traumatize women with sexual intercourse.  I should know, I’m a medieval doctor, I own a mansion and a yacht.” — excerpted from the AMA manual of advice for teens and newlyweds, 1910, 1926, 1933, 1947, 1955, and, every year since then, without changing a word….


Okay, so, it’s not really there…. but, it certainly would be, if they could get away with it…. and, is definitely there, in place, in the ingrained prejudices of virtually every male doctor alive…. This idiocy is an example of the attitudes of which I’m speaking; the hidden, slyly perverted belief that women are no more than the sum of the misguided and totally false characterizations placed on them by men, who insist on perpetuating the false image of women, in general and as individuals, as weak, feeble-minded, emotional, sex-crazed, or frigid, selfish creatures concerned only with using their beauty and sex to control men….


These claims are, of course, completely untrue in reality, but, the unreasoning, innate fear of their own sexuality, and the fear of being controlled by women, that permeates male attitudes, causes them all, or mostly all, to believe all of it, true or not…  Thus, as the quote below from former President Jimmy C. notes, this belief in a full set of delusions, falsely accusing women of evil intent, is used to justify all of the pervasive objectification, abuse, and oppression of women throughout history, continuing today, no matter how much anyone says to the contrary….


Jimmy Carter sez:




jimmy sez


     He would know, wouldn’t he?…..


Below this paragraph, I am placing a link, to the web site/blog of a woman who rescued herself from sexual slavery; there is no other term that fits. She was forced, at a young age, to become a prostitute, and spent most of her childhood and teen years trapped in the sex trade…. Her experiences should never happen to anyone; when I read her writing, it takes ALL of my control to keep from jumping up, buying weapons, and going hunting, for human males…. I get so angry it wouldn’t even matter to me WHICH males I started wasting; all bear equal guilt, from at least one point of view…. Otherwise, why would the rest of us, we males who do NOT wish to oppress our species’ mates, ALLOW this to take place? How can we know of this, and not act?


 http://rmott62.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/are-we-not-human


Lack of honor is the only answer that occurs to me; there are not enough men, it seems, with sufficient honor to stem the tide of idiocy, gross perversion, and lack of moral fiber that infuses the greatest portion of humanity’s male members…. I would guesstimate that 98% of all males never even THINK about the issue of how women have been oppressed throughout history; most are perfectly happy to enjoy the lack of responsibility that such moral and ethical blindness allows; we are, as a species, after all, lazy by nature…. (Nothing wrong with lazy, as long as it’s not a way of life, but a tool, to make one look for smarter ways to do things….) But, to allow that laziness to act as an excuse for not acting in this respect, can only indicate a complete lack of what I call HONOR…..


This may sound like a harsh accusation; to that charge I say: Yes, it is and so fucking what? It’s a harsh world, and what men have been doing to women for millennia….. not years, not centuries, MILFUCKINGLENNIA, PEOPLE! No exaggeration or hyperbole is necessary or, in my case, desired….


Listen up, all of you men out there, because I am talking to YOU!…. It IS harsh, and I make the accusation without apology, because, I must in all honesty include myself in the group of those who have not done all they could to see the issue addressed; if it is never addressed, it can never be resolved…. I’ve done more than many, perhaps, and I do acknowledge the seriousness and urgency of the issue…. but, I, too, am guilty of NOT doing enough…. S’okay, it just makes me madder, & more determined to keep writing about this….


You see, the whole issue illustrates one small, but, critical facet of human nature that is part and parcel with those other character flaws in us which are leading us merrily down the road to hell, blithely wishing we had a bigger handbasket….. This tendency on the part of human males, to abandon honor and ethical behavior, in favor of allowing their fears and misapprehensions rule them, for our ENTIRE history, has held us back, from becoming all we have the potential to be, as rational creatures with an understanding and appreciation for what is good and beautiful in life.


Instead, we have witnessed, over those thousands and thousands of years, virtually unending wars, conflicts, slavery, abuse of women and children, or anyone considered weak and unable to defend their rights. We have seen people learn to use lying, cheating, aggressiveness, and self-interest as their primary tools for obtaining the resources needed to live, and to hoard what they have taken, by right or threat of force; this process is, in today’s world, considered to be a blueprint for successful living, with the ultimate goal in life being the fulfillment of one’s own personal goals and desires, at the cost of whatever it may take to wrest it from other people, and the world at large….


“Get it while you can!” Do unto others before they do unto you.” Bigger is better!” “One nation under God!” (It would be more honest if they just said what they REALLY believe which is, “As a Christian, I have more rights than anyone who isn’t….”)


Okay, so the last line, in parentheses, is one most people will only say under their breath; you can be sure, though, that every “Christian” alive believes they are the elite of the species, the only ones with the true answers…. This, you see, naturally gives them all a completely unwarranted and false sense of entitlement, one that really annoys the rest of us, who haven’t fallen under the spell of that particular delusion, and couldn’t care less who they think they are…. I GUARANTEE, even if there WERE a God, such as the figment they seem to believe in, I’m pretty sure, as an omnipotent entity, She wouldn’t want to have anything to do with such idiotic wastes of sperm….


Ooh! That was harsh, too, wasn’t it? Oh well… Again, I have to say, so fucking what? If people insist on showing their lack of intelligence in public, they are fair game for anyone who cares to come along and poke holes in their lack of logic, and/or foolishly naive belief in delusions that someone taught them before they could defend their own minds…. It isn’t my problem if they are offended; that is their own reaction, for which THEY bear ALL the responsibility….


I welcome dialogue, and will listen to any argument, as long as it is evidence based…. However, don’t even think about coming at me with something that has nothing more to verify its veracity than “ispe dixit”…. You will regret it to your dying day….. And, so will I, for I am not really mean, or cruel by nature; I just can’t abide people acting as if being stupid is better than ANYTHING else; it isn’t, and wishing won’t make it so…. But, it’s better to put such folks out of their misery, before their ignorance can spread to others….


Men and women are in this together, ffolkes; neither sex can possibly survive without the other, and why would anyone wish to? But, the way things are going now, if we don’t figure out, soon, how to take care of each other, instead of being at odds all the damn time (as all the people who spread jokes about the “war between men and women” keep yelling about, thus keeping the divisiveness alive, and actively harmful….), we will surely reach the point, in the not so very distant future, when our insistence on making the worst of our differences will result in the only possible ultimate end, to wit: our own extinction as a failed species.


The abuse of women, and anyone else; war; sales of drugs and/or arms; and the relative insanity of the divisive elitism as acted out by all organized religions…..  All of these blights and plagues upon the spirit and growth of Man, carried out for thousands of years by those in our species who refuse to embrace any sort of beliefs that do not serve their own ends alone, all spring from one source in human nature; the expression of that negativity in our spirit has held sway since the beginnings of recorded history……


It is that part of our inner selves which compels us to use our innate talents for violence, treachery, and selfishness, using them to take advantage of others for our own benefit, using fear, and the threat of reward or punishment to control others, the use of which has led us to the impending threat of doom we face in coming days…. In order to survive, human nature MUST change…. Hmm…. not terribly good odds, I should guess….


I wish I had the ultimate answer; I wish I knew just the right words, and could say “THIS, THIS, and THIS…. just do that, and we’ll all be okay….” I don’t have them, though, any more than anyone else has had so far…. The worst part is, I know what needs to be done; but, due to the fact that I can only make changes to myself, I can’t just DO it, or even just SAY it…. It has to come from all of us, or it won’t work at all….


SIGH…. Damn if I know what to do…. I guess I’ll just go out, shoot a couple of pimps, and call it a day….. Oh, and if those pimps happen to be wearing a uniform of some sort, you may count on them being fully guilty as charged, with sentence carried out according to the dictates of justice…. in spite of any loud noises they might make to the contrary. Any noise they make in these situations is merely an automatic defense against the insistence on them taking responsibility for their actions….


Any lawyers who may try to involve themselves may try to make us feel differently, but, we can discuss that later, right? (We can decide what to do about them when we figure out where to dispose of the bodies….)  For the moment, my day will be over, and justice done; it’s all I need to get to sleep….. especially knowing the women freed by my good aim will have the choice and opportunity to start the process of changing out of their slave clothes, into something a bit more free, and of their own choice….


Well, we all have our fantasies, right? Now, the trick is to remove all the above from the realm of speculation and imagination, and make it so, in Reality…. I guess we’ll see how it goes, eh?…. Later, ffolkes, & remember…. Free our sisters, and we free ourselves….


This took a long time to write, because it’s important to me…. Hence, I took a long time to pick a closing pearl, one that had the right feel to it, to express the depth of emotion involved, while still giving a nod to importance of addressing the issue’s less palatable aspects, such as the way women having to live in today’s world, or any world we have seen, are consistently, often brutally, abused, made to feel secondary, and at the very least, completely misunderstood, by their own alleged mates.


I am speaking of men who, in the final analysis, are failing their own species, not to mention failing to understand the concept, or to comprehend the importance, of such old-fashioned words as honor, compassion, and duty…. any one of which requires much more strength than any sort of aggressiveness, or shows of physical prowess…. Such behaviors are those of a child, based on fear, a child who never grew out of being selfish and/or afraid of girls, (i.e., afraid of their own sexuality, and of women’s….), refusing to grow up and truly BE a man…..


We need each other, men and women; nature’s other creatures have shown us how it is supposed to work, using the blueprint of nature’s design…. Each gender of a species is made to contribute certain characteristics to the solving of the puzzle of living, in concert with their opposite half, with the caveat being the simple FACT, that neither can survive, one without the other. Both are needed for the species to prosper, and grow…… It’s a shame there are so many men in the world who are so afraid of themselves, and of women, they can’t learn to act as men….




Between the acting of a dreadful thing

And the first motion, all the interim is

Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:

The Genius and the mortal instruments

Are then in council; and the state of man,

Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

The nature of an insurrection.


 — William Shakespeare ~~ 


 Julius Caesar — Act ii, Sc. 1


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


Some poetry requires nothing from me, and, in fact, is the better for it…. This is one of those poems…






Flower of Love 


Sweet, I blame you not, for mine the fault was, had I not been made of common clay 

I had climbed the higher heights unclimbed yet, seen the fuller air, the larger day. 


From the wildness of my wasted passion I had struck a better, clearer song, 

Lit some lighter light of freer freedom, battled with some Hydra-headed wrong. 


Had my lips been smitten into music by the kisses that but made them bleed, 

You had walked with Bice and the angels on that verdant and enameled meed. 


I had trod the road which Dante treading saw the suns of seven circles shine, 

Ay! perchance had seen the heavens opening, as they opened to the Florentine. 


And the mighty nations would have crowned me, who am crownless now and without name, 

And some orient dawn had found me kneeling on the threshold of the House of Fame. 


I had sat within that marble circle where the oldest bard is as the young, 

And the pipe is ever dropping honey, and the lyre’s strings are ever strung. 


Keats had lifted up his hymeneal curls from out the poppy-seeded wine, 

With ambrosial mouth had kissed my forehead, clasped the hand of noble love in mine. 


And at springtide, when the apple-blossoms brush the burnished bosom of the dove, 

Two young lovers lying in an orchard would have read the story of our love; 


Would have read the legend of my passion, known the bitter secret of my heart, 

Kissed as we have kissed, but never parted as we two are fated now to part. 


For the crimson flower of our life is eaten by the cankerworm of truth, 

And no hand can gather up the fallen withered petals of the rose of youth. 


Yet I am not sorry that I loved you -ah! what else had I a boy to do? – 

For the hungry teeth of time devour, and the silent-footed years pursue. 


Rudderless, we drift athwart a tempest, and when once the storm of youth is past, 

Without lyre, without lute or chorus, Death the silent pilot comes at last. 


And within the grave there is no pleasure, for the blindworm battens on the root, 

And Desire shudders into ashes, and the tree of Passion bears no fruit. 


Ah! what else had I to do but love you? God’s own mother was less dear to me, 

And less dear the Cytheraean rising like an argent lily from the sea. 


I have made my choice, have lived my poems, and, though youth is gone in wasted days, 

I have found the lover’s crown of myrtle better than the poet’s crown of bays. 


~~ Oscar Wilde ~~




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


Old school is still the best school, particularly when speaking of Pearls of Virtual Wisdom…. Why, look! Here’s an old-school pearl right here! Fancy that! One might almost think it was deliberate, unless one knew me…. Then, of course, they’d KNOW it was deliberate…. Enjoy, ffolkes, it’s a random, harlequin style, the very best kind, in my world….


“Things equal to nothing else are equal to each other.” — First Postulate of Isomurphism


“You know, Callahan’s is a peaceable bar, but if you ask that dog what his favorite formatter is, and he says “roff! roff!”, well, I’ll just have to…”” — Jake, a number of times since moving South….


(Bonus prize: Anyone who actually knows the references made in the previous quote [To wit: You should know where Callahan’s bar is situated, and why, and, which dog?] may now take the opportunity to relay that knowledge in the comments section, whereupon they will receive the ultimate in prizes…. Full acknowledgment of their superior intellect right here on this blog, assuring them of immortality as a celebrity of the highest acclaim…. All fourteen of my regulars will also give their kudos, as an added treat…. Cool, eh?…)


“People who have what they want are very fond of telling people who haven’t what they want that they really don’t want it.” — Odgen Nash (1902-1971)


“If you are wearing one brown and one black shoe, you have a pair like it somewhere in the closet.” — The Rule of Elderly Survival


“Ignorance plays the chief part among men, and the multitude of words;” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Cleobulus, iv


“Bed Spreaders spread spreads on beds. Bread Spreaders spread butter on breads. And that Bed Spreader better watch out how he’s spreading or that Bread Spreader’s sure going to butter his bedding.” — Dr Suess


“He is the MELBA-BEING…  the ANGEL CAKE…   XEROX him…  XEROX him –” — Zippy the Pinhead


I really, really LOVE nonsense; especially when it makes so MUCH DAMN SENSE!….. I really don’t much care if anyone else enjoyed that one…. I sure did…. I’ll tell ya, though, if you don’t get it, don’t fret…. It’s only teenage wasteland…..


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


Well…. it’s done, and about damn time, too. I believe this may just be the longest Pearl I’ve ever created; without checking, I can’t be certain, but, I don’t recall anything even close to the size this one grew into…. So be it…. It’s early morning, and I’ll now go post this, then come home, and hunker down until the urge to write strikes again…. I haven’t decided yet whether to post from home tomorrow, after my new service gets set up, or to go post before the technician gets here…. I suppose we’ll find out tomorrow…. If I post late, after 10 AM or so, it’s from home; if it is there earlier, you’ll know I went out to post it…. Either way, see y’all then…..




Y’all take care out there, 

and May the Metaphorse be with you;

Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, Mark, and Theresa…

and everyone else, too…


When I works, I works hard.

When I sits, I sits loose.

When I thinks, I falls asleep.


Which is Why….


Sometimes I sits and thinks,

   and sometimes,

I just sits.


gigoid, the dubious


PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.


Featured Image -- 2780