Our claim to fame is twofold, you see…. Bread, AND butter….

Posted on January 31, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Few people have the imagination for reality.”

~~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe ~~

Now. TELL me animals don’t have feelings. Go ahead.

In sooth, this picture is one that I’ve loved since finding it on Facebook somewhere. By all I perceive. and imagine in this picture, regarding the inner lives and feelings of animals, animals who bear live young, raising them as do humans until able to care for themselves, are no less loving and connected than is any human family. It is my contention, which I’ve believed for a long time, anyone who can, after witnessing animals in such displays, still claim to lack belief in the animal’s capacity to FEEL, well, I’d suggest they take a closer look into their own heart and mind.

Such a belief can only reflect an emptiness of emotion in the one who makes it; no other cause is possible. Thus, such calloused fools miss out on much of what makes life in this dimension preferable to the death we all fear. If one cannot connect to the love within them, which grows most quickly, becoming stronger and more joyously beautiful only when shared, or given away, one loses not merely all of their joy, but, their very humanity as well…..

This understanding makes the quote at the top even more poignantly true. It describes exactly the flaw in those who cannot perceive what is right in front of their face. Reality demands our attention, by its ubiquitous ability to be the very bedrock of existence, solid, defined by its very name, while simultaneously possessing the quality of change; entropy is also part of our reality, thus, our duality of perception becomes more understandable.

We perceive the universe, i.e. reality, in opposites. Light/dark allows us to see; vibration/silence brings us sound, and music, which is made more beautiful by the silence between each note. Our duality of perception reflects the very nature of reality; how else could we know it, without knowing this about ourselves. Those who never learn to understand this shut themselves out of half of what the universe can offer in the way of experience, because they cannot see what is right in front of their face….

See? Isn’t that a symmetrical little discussion? That second & third paragraphs I particularly like, for the way the first, and last sentences echo their arguments with matching phraseology…. Pretty slick, eh, slick? Well, gosh, I didn’t expect applause…. shucks….

Okay, fantasy over. Good morning…. No, I don’t know why that stuff all came pouring out; I guess the picture and quote kind of got into my head, & started fizzing or something, indicating the mutually compatible, catalytic qualities of each, if used conjointly. I just went with the flow, so to speak…. Then, of course, my bozoid nature stepped in, to supply a bit of nonsense to close it out, just to balance the sober logic of the three opening paragraphs. SIGH…. Some day, I swear, I’m going to stumble across a way to open this puppy up each day that doesn’t drive me batty with its unpredictability…..

I suppose it just goes to show the absolute power metaphor has over me, and, for that matter, over all of us stuck in this Reality for our turn on the Karmic Wheel. Our imagination, when using the limitless power residing in the Metaphorse, engenders a heterodyne effect in both; when imagination joins hands with metaphor, the possibilities are, literally, infinite. This, of course, is why we are so fond of both around here; it’s sort of our thing, you know?

Hence our actual blog title, to wit: Exploring Consensual Reality…. I like to think that says just exactly what it is I try to do by posting, taking y’all along with me as I go, flying/diving off into the depths of my imagination, and the world wide web, to find new ways to use the power of metaphor…. In short….

May the Metaphorse be with you…..

Shall we Pearl?

“And weep the more, because I weep in vain.”~~ Thomas Gray (1716-1771) — Sonnet, On the Death of Mr. West

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Oops…. Almost forgot to put in a video…. Hmm…. Okay, here’s one. I hope you enjoy it…. The Deputy and I go way back, to more of those Saturday mornings, long ago during the Jurassic Period, when I was a child. He’s a little strange in spots, but, he’s got a big heart…. Don’t put a lot of stock in the story lines, or try to make much sense of them; it will just make your head hurt…. Just let ’em roll, and don’t worry about it…. Enjoy!….

Deputy Dawg – Oil Tycoons

http://youtu.be/V_8fZJhbApU

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Yesterday, due to the effects of long-term stress, I exploded, producing over 5000 words of fresh material to post, mostly in the shape of a rant. Quite simply, I’m exhausted, a state exposed by having slept, real, actual sleep, for over 7 hours, even sleeping through the time to take a pain pill. It’s more sleep than I’ve been blessed with for over two months, so, my body is happy, mostly.

This does mean, however, there won’t be any fresh ranting today; I think I may have squeezed that lemon all the way dry. But, Smart Bee is still in a good mood, and gave me these seven pearls, all taking a look at the concept of government, as applied by human beings today; each one seems to look at it from a different view, which is handy, not to mention cute…. Enjoy, ffolkes, these tell it like it is pretty well, when it comes to pundits, and their habits….

“Grown men, he told himself, in flat contradiction of centuries of accumulated evidence about the way grown men behave, do not behave like this.” — Douglas Adams

“Civilization is almost exclusively masculine, a civilization of power in which woman has been thrust aside in the shade. Therefore it has lost its balance and is moving by hopping from war to war. Its motive forces are the forces of destruction and its ceremonials are carried through by an appalling n number of human sacrifices. This one-sided civilization is crashing along a series of catastrophes at a tremendous speed because of its one-sidedness. And at last the time has arrived when woman must step in and impart her life rhythm to the reckless movement of power.” — Rabindranath Tagore, before 1941

“Broken promises don’t upset me. I just think, why did they believe me?” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

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

“But, sir, the people themselves have it in their power effectually to resist usurpation, without being driven to an appeal of arms. An act of usurpation is not obligatory; it is not law; and any man may be justified in his resistance. Let him be considered as a criminal by the general government, yet only his fellow-citizens can convict him; they are his jury, and if they pronounce him innocent, not all the powers of Congress can hurt him; and innocent they certainly will pronounce him, if the supposed law he resisted was an act of usurpation.” — Theophilus Parsons, in the Massachusetts Convention, on the ratification of the U.S. Constitution — [Jonathan Elliot, ed., “The Debates of the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution”, — (New York, Burt Franklin: 1888), 2:94 ]

“Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.” — Noah Webster

Souls made of fire, and children of the sun,

With whom revenge is virtue.

~~ Edward Young ~~

~~ The Revenge, Act v, Sc. 2 ~~

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Today’s poem is one of mine written in 2014, making it one of the most recent…. I hope you enjoy it; if nothing else, the title fits in quite well with today’s rather ambiguous theme, which is, patently, based almost exclusively on the concept of “What The Fuck!”…. if you catch my drift….

Blithely Untitled

A poem came to me today, willy, nilly,
along with a sharp blow to the head.
Since it left me feeling just a bit silly,
anything that rhymes should lessen the dread.

Manifesting destiny into a small, insidious group
we push on toward sanity, concentrating hard.
Full engaging moments spent navigating the loop
shall ever make a difference to victims found in the yard.

Still corpses of creatures, straight out of nightmare
fill up the corners of our tortured minds.
While ever saddened, the iconic male, most debonair,
gazes softly, ironically, at all the mutual interest he finds.

Moronic public statutes compel outbreaks of sanity,
responding to momentary impulses toward inducing peace.
Still, the motions get completed, in fertile stages of inanity
while the bulk of our inmates can find no surcease.

Reluctant motivation to continue is unbound,
striving to ascertain how far there yet remains to go.
No precognitive guesswork will make any less of a sound
to soften the final strains, or teach us to truly know.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

This pearl is of the type I’ve named “high percentage” pearls, which refers to how they were discovered in my database, the ever-faithful Smart Bee. (You, too, may know the wonders of Smart Bee; it’s free software you can find by just typing the name into Google. You will find many links to the web site where you can get your own copy…. if you wish….) Upon searching for today’s pearls for the final, old school section, the following seven pearls were presented for my perusal almost in order, with only five other quotes even submitted, some of which almost made the cut. So, the percentage of good pearls was a “high percentage”, get it? Good. I think you’ll enjoy whatever the message is; it’s a bit quirky, but, good thinking, all in all….

“One can survive everything, nowadays, except death, and live down everything except a good reputation.” — Oscar Wilde

“I quite agree with you,” said the Duchess; “and the moral of that is — `Be what you would seem to be’ — or, if you’d like it put more simply — `Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to theirs that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'” — Lewis Carrol, Alice in Wonderland

“He who despairs over an event is a coward, but he who holds hopes for the human condition is a fool.” — Albert Camus

“Anything is possible, but only a few things actually happen.” — Rich Rosen

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.” — Henry Ford

“OVER the underpass! UNDER the overpass! Around the FUTURE and BEYOND REPAIR!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“If you make a mess, clean it up.” — Mom

See how cool that was? No? Well, I thought so; I shan’t comment on anyone else’s lack of perception, at all, at all… Besides, the only two you really need to figure it out are the second, and the last. How can you go wrong by doing what Mom taught you?…..

Well, okay, I get your point; there are times Mom wasn’t always right on the ball; she DID have a few odd idiosyncrasies…. But, this one is one we all know is a good one, so, moot point, and a fine waste of our time, so thanks very much, you bozos…. Oops, mustn’t call the little voices in one’s head any bad names, even if they’re hopelessly parenthetical…. Sorry, but, shoot, use your head, kids…. Would Mom steer you wrong? No…..

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

Regardless of any comments, or any differing opinions, and, even in my less than stellar state of perception, I know a done deal when I see one; this is a done deal. Since I have very little doubt about that, it enters the realm of ‘fairly possible’ to assume we’ve finished, and will be asked to leave. All of which, apparently, means we are outta here, in some sort of weird individual code, made up just now by my ridiculously silly mind. Whatever the hell it means, or even doesn’t mean, we’re still outta here, so, bye, bye, for now…. Or, as we are commonly wont to say here at ECR, see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. probably.

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
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.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Paradox, paradise, or paranoia? You decide….

Posted on January 11, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Sure, understanding today’s complex world of the future

is a little like having bees live in your head.

But, there they are . . . ”

~~ The Firesign Theater ~~

~~ “I Think We’re All Bozos On This Bus!” ~~

I found this absolutely adorable picture on the blog site of my friend Lou, at http://talesfromtheconspiratum.com/2015/01/06/ridiculously-photogenic-moments/; he had reblogged it from another site. You can find it, and others like it, at http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/84408138/ The blog post is entitled 23 Ridiculously Photogenic Moments, and has some great shots of unlikely subjects, all looking good doing ridiculous stuff, like this goofy-looking pit but with the bemused smile…. Put the picture together with the great quote above it, which is from my all-time favorite comedy album, and you’ve got something…. The exact nature of what we have is, of course, left as an exercise for the gentle reader….

Now we have the housekeeping out of the way, what shall we say about this Pearl? It did not come to bury Caesar, but to praise him. Or something like that; I forget how it goes. It really didn’t apply, anyway, did it? I thought not. Just another failed attempt at early humor, when I know better. I should stick to either straight fantasy, or nonsense. Given the relevance of the opening lines today, by the Firesign Theater, perhaps it would be best if we made some effort to return there, to what we know best…. Let’s see what I can come up with along those lines…

Strangely enough, no strange, or funny, or even neutral fluff seems to be available for use today. That may be due to the spasms and level 6 pain I’ve had for the last, oh, 22-plus hours, much of which was spent in a supine position, with knees up on a bolster, and the music loud to drown out my groans…. I used a massive dose of several substances to get a couple hours sleep (making the average over the last three nights a total of about 8 or 9 hours…. yay. Every little bit helps, they say…. They’re wrong, but, that’s what they say…), but I can see now it’s a good thing most of this Pearl was already done before I got up today.

In fact, I’m dropping all pretense, and getting on with it, so I can go lay down again, until my lower back decides to stop complaining…. I don’t like to be a complainer, and find myself in that position far too often for my own comfort… Fuck it, let’s go find something else to think about….

Shall we Pearl?

“I read the news today, Oh boy…” — John Lennon

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

In the upcoming weeks, you may see a number of videos like this one; the news of late out in the Big Blue Room is enough to make anybody want to relax, and take themselves to a happy place… Enjoy!

Celtic Music – Relaxing And Beautiful Mix

http://youtu.be/qoktesLkHy8

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

On December 6 of 2012, the Pearl I wrote turned out pretty well, with two pretty good mini-rants on two subjects. Given the recent spate of killings by police, in this country alone, this outburst is particularly relevant. I don’t think it’s necessary to reiterate my belief the world is over-militarized, whether by local police, or large national police organizations, or military institutions on a national level….

But, then, it is well to remember, the making and selling of arms, and all of the other weapons of war and destruction, IS the oldest, largest, most lucrative business on this planet, a fact of which all governments, all large religious institutions, and all multi-national corporations are fully aware, as evidenced by their uniform complicity, in allowing it to continue to furnish the means by which Man’s insane avarice for power is expressed, endlessly….

From 12/6/2012:

“Who will protect the public when the police violate the law?” — Ramsey Clark

Here is a question that is particularly relevant in today’s society. In my time on this sad little ball of mud, I have studied the various parts that make up our culture, and the police, due to their ubiquitous nature, have always been right there at the forefront of my observations. We all have our stories of how we have had to deal with police in various circumstances, not all of which show them in their best light. In fact, next to lawyers, police officers are probably the most reviled members of society, as well as one of the most admired. There are good reasons to support both views…..

I cannot say that my knowledge of ALL policemen is complete; I don’t know them all. But my observations over the years have indicated that at least half of those who enter the field do so out of a desire to have power over others, rather than an impulse to be of service. It is easy to spot these folks…. They’re the ones who never signal a turn in their cars, and are always moving at a speed greater than the posted limit. They assume that the laws that govern the populace are not applicable to them, and act accordingly. They enter any situation with the attitude that “might is right”, and attempt to intimidate anyone who tries to usurp or question their authority. They don’t serve as policemen to keep the peace, but to control the beasts….. two entirely different goals.

I find myself at this point to be in the beginning stages of a rant; this subject is one that frustrates me a lot, as I believe that the police should be offering themselves as an example of honorable, lawful behavior. Many of them do so, but a large number are no more concerned with serving and protecting than they are in consuming donuts without sprinkles. Due to circumstances well within my control, I’m not in the mood for ranting this morning, so I’m going to let this go without further comment.

Suffice it to say that society needs to consider the question asked above by Mr. Clark, and take a hard, realistic look at the requirements needed to procure police officers who are of the proper frame of mind to assume the responsibilities involved in public protection. It seems to me that psychological testing of potential officers would be a good place to start; perhaps some of those who go into the field for their own purposes might not be given such power, if they could be winnowed out in the testing process…… Perhaps then we would begin to see the police set the example for the rest of society, rather than proving to be one of the problems we need to solve…..

“The superior man is the providence of the inferior. He is eyes for the blind, strength for the weak, and a shield for the defenseless. He stands erect by bending above the fallen. He rises by lifting others.” — Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899)

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

First written in September of 2012, this is a poem that arose out of my time spent waiting for Social Security to grind through its bureaucratic machinations to grant my retirement…. As I read it now, I can see the marks of depression I struggled with then, fighting to stay positive, while my mind waged war with itself, using every trick at its disposal to stay sane enough to survive, as well as to challenge my own will to do so… I hope you enjoy it….

Visible life

Forty-two days of pressure and internal rain,
leave marks of salvation, often in pain.
Such sharp reminders of yesterday’s remorse
fight heavily to keep a straight course.
Rash moments, bright, and routinely immense
Give us pleasure, bereft of common sense.

Still the night comes soft and eternally dear
to bring out wishful dreams so vitally clear.
Life’s myrmidons give freely in protest
lifting with skill, soul pieces first to infest,
Loudly brash, with no such voices to remain
Sealed in infamy, branded ugliness all too plain.

Now come brave signs of chapter and verse
Shielded by ignorance, irritable and terse.
Gravid portions of in-between retaliation
leave only pale marks of initial gestation
With hope even pallid warriors grow brave
Leading all humanity, to a warm, stale grave.

Hope never falters, nor leaves any trace
Yet lingers forever in a welcoming space.
Cheerful faces yet shine out of time
for tricking and fumbling sweet melody sublime.
Fill in the spaces with a long, strong retort
life is ever visible, if only as last resort.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

(Note from gigoid: This was written ahead of time, and does not reflect current conditions. It is, however, done, which makes it perfect for today…. I’m just not feeling as silly as indicated….)

I’m feeling a bit silly today, along with the normal (!!!…) degree of angst over the news; Smart Bee was sympathetic enough to find the perfect group of pearls with which to address both emotional states at once…. Go figure, eh? This one is both fun, and quite pointed, with some sharp thorns adorning the roses…. There were a lot of them, so, brace yourselves, and for goodness sake, put down your adult beverages so you don’t spew on the keyboard….

“I drank what?” — Socrates

“The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.” — John Maynard Keynes

“We have had no good comic operas of late, because the real world has been more comic than any possible opera.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Quotable Chesterton

“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” — Hanlon’s Razor

“Good God,” said Arthur, “it looks just like the sea front at Southend.”
“I’m relieved to hear you say that,” said Ford.
“Why”
“Because I thought I must be going mad.”
“Perhaps you are. Perhaps you only thought I said it.”
Ford thought about this.
“Well, did you say it, or didn’t you?” he asked.
“I think so,” said Arthur.
“Well, perhaps we’re both going mad.”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “we’d be mad, all things considered, to think this was Southend.”
“Well, do you think this is Southend?”
“Oh, yes”
“So do I.”
“Therefore we must be mad.”
“Nice day for it.”
“Yes,” said a passing maniac.
“Who was that?” asked Arthur.
“Who–the man with the five heads and the elderberry bush full of kippers?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know. Just someone.”
“Ah.”

— From The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.” — Henry David Thoreau

“If you ever reach total enlightenment while you’re drinking a beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“If a lawyer and an IRS agent were both drowning, and you could only save one of them, would you go to lunch or read the paper?” — Smart Bee

“When something irritates you, think of this: How else would we get pearls?” — Smart Bee

“For to err in opinion, though it be not the part of wise men, is at least human.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Against Colotes

Finally, to finish off this nonsense, we move on to what good ol’ Socrates said, immediately after voicing his surprise, as related in the opening line of this pearl….

“Sure, everyone always said ‘Socrates what is the meaning of life?’ or ‘Socrates how can I find happiness?’…. Did anyone ever say ‘Socrates, hemlock is poison.’???????” — Socrates, minutes before death

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

If I were the religious sort, I’d say ‘Thank God that’s done!”. Since I am not anything of the sort, I’ll just say, it’s done, and be done with it. That seems to fit in with my current state of mind better, anyway…. Right now, if God were here, I’d spit in his face, for being a butthead…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, I hope…

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
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.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Quick! Smash that roach!…. Oh, it’s a politician?…. Smack it harder, they’re tough….

Posted on January 3, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

For fate has wove the thread of life with pain,

And twins ev’n from the birth are misery and man!

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

~~ The Odyssey of Homer, Book vii, Line 263 ~~

From the National Geographic Pictures of the Year for 2014

‘Tis morning, but, I cannot truthfully add any positive qualifiers to the greeting. All of my patterns of sleep have successfully resisted any attempts on my part to develop any consistency whatsoever…. For example, having consumed what I thought was my correct last dose of medication at 1800, and, being exhausted from a day fighting both arthritis and diverticular symptoms, I went to lay down at about 1900 or so…. At 2300, or 11 pm, for those unfamiliar with military time, my eyes shot open to see the clock displaying the hour, whereupon I realized every muscle in my body was humming with electricity, jumping and shimmying to beat the band….

Sleep eluded me until about 0130 in the morning; I spent the intervening time pacing, wandering the house (it’s damn cold outside… about 31-34 degrees, according to the online weather folks), with the occasional run at this document’s draft, trying to at least get SOMETHING done, since I was up…. Trying to write distracts me, a little bit, though not for long…. I did manage, over two-and-a-half hours, to complete quite a bit of it, which has helped immensely… So, I lost half the night’s sleep, but, at least I accomplished more than simply suffering through the effects of my young paduan doctor’s foolish cowardice….

Arthur, the robot writer I use, did a good job yesterday…. A bit smarmy in spots, but, all in all, a damn good Pearl…. I can only hope I do as well myself today…. Not that it matters a whit, of course; it’s only in my head it really matters at all, and, there, I’m okay…. Tired, a little pissed at myself, but, all in all, not in too much pain, which always makes my day a little brighter…. until that changes, naturally, which, sadly, it alway does…. I just try to appreciate the few moment of true freedom I am given each day; true freedom, of course, exists in those moments when the pain is gone, always to return, but, whose absence I rejoice…

All that being said, to no real purpose, other than to get us to this point on the page, we will now move on to the next section, where you’ll find today’s video selection…. Since I have yet to review that part, it will be a surprise to me, too, as I let Arthur pick it out…. He’s a damn good robot, and very helpful…. though, I admit, he’s programmed to be that way. It’s fine; it works for me, and, whoever did the programming at least gave it a sense of humor…. Damn fine coding, I have to say…. For now, we’ll be on our way down the page, to whatever we find below….

Shall we Pearl?

“Seek not to follow in the footsteps of men of old; seek what they sought.” — Matsuo Basho

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Yesterday, Arthur picked out some pretty good stuff, hitting the nail right on the head with Linda Ronstadt’s concert. The page where it is found also had some other great music by some of my favorite voices from my youth…. Here is, perhaps, the best voice of them all, as well as one of the icons of the twentieth-century peace movement, a woman who has devoted her entire life to singing for peace, in one way or another, with consistency, devotion, endless compassion, and a voice as pure as the music of the spheres….

JOAN BAEZ (full concert,1965)

http://youtu.be/qE4ywDFSR3k

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

Before beginning today, (or, this morning, as I am writing this at 0115 AM….), I’d like to use the following pearl, a rogue, unattributed tagline, which I have claimed for my own; it explains, in a few short words, the reason for the presence of the section devoted to ranting, and other discussions from the curious mind of gigoid that are found at this point in the process of producing these Pearls of Virtual Wisdom. I won’t say it makes it entirely clear, but, anyone used to my way of expressing ideas should get the picture without any trouble….

“My mind is not for rent to any god or government.” — gigoid

It’s my estimation, which I make with reluctance at such presumption, but strong confidence in my reasoning, for 99% of the population of the world, the above statement is NOT true…. In one way or another, without ever really thinking about it at all, most people have given up their right to think for themselves to someone else, most commonly, one of the two institutions mentioned. Most often, both are found to be operating in conjunction, reinforcing the degree of control over that person’s mind, and actions, turning them into what can best be described as a fully-programmed robot slave, which doesn’t know it is a slave, or that it has agreed to be one…. I use the term “it” because, to my way of thinking, anyone who gives up the right to think for themselves isn’t quite all the way human…

“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” — Aesop

The American public, along with much of the adult world on this planet, are little more than trained consumers, who not only ignored this advice from Aesop, which ALL of us learned when little, but, have actually been trained to LOOK for the shadow, believing it to be more valuable than the reality it hides…. I will grant that the largest portion of that massive number of people were trained this way before they had any chance to resist the training; sadly, the parents of them all were mostly trained to believe the same lies, when they were small and vulnerable themselves. Those who control the world, through the auspices of religion and government know well the truth of what Adolf Hitler said, to wit: “Give me the mind of a child before age of five, and he will be mine for life.”

Some might think it crude to quote Hitler, but, ffolkes, he was trying to usurp the place of the elite monsters who control the world, (which, you will note, he was NOT allowed to do….). It is clear to me, as someone who does NOT fall into the category of slave, (not in my head, anyway…. they still can’t touch that….), Hitler was stopped, at least in part, because he was clumsily giving away too many of their secret techniques of control, though, he tended to use them more as a hammer than a scalpel….

I’m sure they also didn’t appreciate him trying to force his way with such mad rudeness into their private gig, which I am sure they consider to be the natural order of things; they prefer a quieter, less visible presence in achieving control of worldly events, than one that relies merely on brute force…. They use money, lies, and assassination, to much greater effect, by spreading ignorance, encouraging avarice, and rewarding those who cheat and steal the best…. Hitler was merely telling the absolute truth about how to control the ignorant masses of society, exposing techniques which have been used for millennia to fool them into carrying out the agenda of those hidden manipulators.

With that in mind, look at what Aesop said, then think about who DOES educate those children…. Until the age of five, it is, mostly, parents, who are, almost without exception, themselves under control, aided at this stage by the churches, (Sunday School, in all its incarnations…), who teach those innocent, unsuspecting young minds to fall for the ages-old scam, the same as they did, before most of the children are able to know better than to believe it….

Some, like myself, successfully resist the propaganda to which all children are subjected, or, are able to spot the flaws from the beginning, but, mostly, kids just accept what their parents tell them, part of which is strong training to believe anyone in a position of authority, such as preachers, police, or politicians…. Teachers, too, but, the techniques used in those areas are different, slightly, in approach…. All have the same goal, though, which is best highlighted by the following statement, from one of the ‘free thinkers’ in history, who sometimes try to warn the foolish how to see what they are missing….

“Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.” — Clarence Darrow

Now, perhaps, y’all will have the answer to why I chose the user name and title I did…. gigoid, the dubious. Doubt is the beginning of reason, the womb of curiosity, and the spark that fires the imagination. Without it, we would still be sitting in caves at night, cowering in apparent, yet, illusory safety, from the fearful, unknown dangers of the dark….. Except, of course, some of us doubted the tales, and stole out at night to see what could be seen…. Yet, we teach our children NOT to doubt, not to question, not to want to examine all they see, hear, and perceive for truth, and whatever knowledge can be gleaned from those perceptions, knowledge to drive out ignorance, and worse, the fear that springs from not knowing….

“It’s not what we don’t know that gets us into trouble, it’s what we know that ain’t so.” — Will Rogers

This is, as I am fond of saying, for sure and for certain; of that I no longer have any doubt. But, we give the control of our minds, and our lives, to people who are either programmed, delusional slaves themselves, or are predatory sycophants, who will lie, cheat, and steal to achieve their own ends, no matter the cost to others, all at the behest, and under the control of a very small number of extremely powerful, completely selfish, paranoid, morally bereft excuses for human beings, who have been in control of society from almost the beginning of recorded history….

So, don’t expect it to change quickly, as these evil humans have learned how to take advantage of the flaws in human nature, which isn’t going to change at all, from without, unless slowly…. Well, that is true now, but, only until physical reality sets in. The physical laws these fools have been ignoring for a long time now are going to catch up to their ignorance, causing changes to the environment of this planet that even their vast wealth cannot halt, or prevent, or alter in any way. It will be interesting to see the outcome; I can only hope it comes before I’m gone, because, I worry about my kids, and grandkids, and how it will affect them….

“I believe the moral losses of expediency always far outweigh the temporary gains.” — Wendell L. Willkie

Now we see why Wilkie wasn’t allowed to win the election; the masters of society couldn’t allow such a man, with such beliefs, to gain any real degree of power or influence over society…. any more than they allowed such men as Eugene Debs, Adlai Stevenson, or either of the Kennedy brothers, to achieve any real power…. all of whom, even if flawed as part of the elite class, still displayed a lot of empathy for the masses, and promoted agendas not acceptable to the true powers that be….

Yes, that’s right, you’re hearing some conspiracy theories… Hell, conspiracies are at least better than believing that all this shit is happening by chance, or because people are TOO STUPID to see what is going on. At least, with a conspiracy, we are allowing that the people who are causing all this shit are competent and able to plan…. a damn sight preferable to getting taken out for no reason at all….And, if conspiracy isn’t the case, what the hell is going on?….

When I start down that road, I get very close to going out to buy a gun, or a cross-bow, and going hunting, just to try to find and eliminate as many of the master class as I could find…. SIGH…. I hate when I feel like that, though I know I’d feel better afterward…. Just like I’d feel guilty about it…. Sure I would. I’d get over it, but, I would feel guilty for a while…. Nothing would change, either, but, at least I’d feel better…

Can’t have everything, I guess…. I’m done now. I’m not sure just what that was all about, but, I feel some better, anyway….

Why, look!…. I found some pearls, all commenting on the Asininnies, in one way or another, whether from the direction of telling it like it is, or showing how it isn’t, while simultaneously implying how it is supposed to be…. Imagine finding these here!…..
____________________________

Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.” — Edmund Burke

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” — Edward Abbey

“Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.” — Henry Clay (1777-1852) — Speech at Ashland, Ky., March 1829

“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.” — Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

“Creative semantics is the key to contemporary government; it consists of talking in strange tongues lest the public learn the inevitable inconveniently early.” — George Will

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

“Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.” — Bill Watterson, cartoonist of Calvin & Hobbes

Hmph. Onward….

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

There are times when nothing but the best will do; here is one I consider to be counted among that exalted category….. Enjoy, ffolkes, this old favorite is a powerful poem, with a great deal of insight into human nature…. But. then, reading it will show you that; you don’t have to take my word for it….

The world is too much with us; late and soon

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune,
It moves us not.–Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

~~ William Wordsworth ~~

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

Well…. This pearl took a long time, relatively speaking, and a lot of formatting, but, I think I’ve got it the way I want it…. This would be a suitable set of quotes for a poster, stitched onto material, or printed on a parchment…. Of course, it’s a bit abstruse and esoteric for any mainstream display; hell, it’s probably too much of that for even the avant garde crowd…. My suggestion is to just leave it be, absorb the symmetry, which I worked so hard to preserve, on every level of this pearl, all of which points at what it means to be Human…. or, at least, the kind of human I would like to be….

Wow…. It’s so symmetrical, it works even if you switch to reading it upside down!…. Try it! I dare you….

Oh, right…. I should say this…. By upside down, I mean, read them in reverse order, or, turn the order upside down…. not the words, or the computer, or you…. You don’t need to stand on your head to do this; just use your imagination….

“I Know A Joke”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

**********

O happiness! our being’s end and aim!
Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate’er thy name:
That something still which prompts the eternal sigh,
For which we bear to live, or dare to die.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

~~ Essay on Man, Epistle iv, Line 1 ~~

**********

“It is not the one with many possessions who is rich, but the one who has no needs.”

~~Philoxenos ~~

**********

Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man’s erring judgment, and misguide the mind;
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,–
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

~~ Essay on Criticism, Part ii, Line 1 ~~

**********

“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through.

Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it.

This is a kind of death.”

~~ Anais Nin ~~

**********

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

~~ Essay on Criticism, Part ii, Line 15 ~~

**********

“Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.” — Seneca

**********

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

~~ Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 289 ~~

**********

“HELLO, everybody, I’m a HUMAN!!”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

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

Considering my condition today, it’s a damn good thing most of this was done last night, during my enforced middle-of-the-night work session. So be it; I’m not one to look at horses’ teeth, gift or burden. I leave that to the county vet….. Any who, I’m outta here, in the vain hope of finding a bit of leftover sand, left by the sandman…. Wish me luck on that; I’ll need it…. See y’all, ffolkes…. maybe even tomorrow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Ten superlative reasons to cease and desist….

Posted on November 4, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Be not diverted from your duty by any idle reflections the silly world may make upon you,

for their censures are not in your power,

and consequently should not be any part of your concern.”

~~ Epictetus ~~

A Moon of Saturn Throws Its Shadow on the Great Red Spot

Life’s a funny business, isn’t it? We humans have a cultural icon, whom we have named Murphy. This force of nature, representing the power of Entropy in our lives, is common to all cultures on our planet, as a result of our perceptions, which are based on the the principle of the symmetrical balance of force that exists throughout reality; in short, everything exists as part of a universe in which every action has a reaction, every dark a light, every down an up, every yes a no. Our very organs of perception are designed to notice those differences in the substances we perceive, to give us information from the surrounding environs which will enable us to survive…. That is the intent, anyway….

Bit, given the power of stupidity that rules most people’s lives, most of them not only never realize how their senses work… much less what their perceptions MEAN. They also haven’t a clue as to what that might MEAN to them, in a larger sense, as applied to how their own actions affect that universe in which we all reside. This lack of understanding leads to a number of issues that have conspired to delay human advancement over the centuries, especially in terms of the development of the human mind, and cultural advancement…. In truth, we haven’t really gone too far from our origins, as savages, huddling in the cold around a fire we found by accident…

Truth be told, most of the people alive today would be perfectly comfortable living in a cave, with a fire for light and heat, wearing the skins of dead animals to cover them in the cold; those same people are uncomfortable living in today’s world, which asks them to actually USE their brain, rather than just following along behind it, scratching their ass and mumbling about being late for dinner…. Emotionally, we react to the world much the same as those cave dwellers, becoming angry to cover our fear, living with superstitions and delusions as to how the big, scary world out there is so incomprehensible…. So, we make up these supernatural entities who are responsible for all that stuff, and we don’t have to think about it….

I am NOT ranting. I’m not. It may SOUND as if I am, but, let me assure you, I am not…. That will come later, in section two…. I am laying out a premise, which, if reflected upon for a time, can be of use to us…. You don’t have to take it, and put it to use, but, it CAN help in dealing with others, to understand that, most of the people you meet in the world are clueless, and afraid, all the time… They don’t understand why they have to work so hard, just to get by, and never really get anywhere…. They don’t understand the stuff going on around them, so, TV becomes their source for all their opinions, or thoughts of any kind beyond what comprises their next meal…

You may think this discussion shows me as one who does not like people much; in that you’d be perfectly wrong. I love everyone; I also realize most of them don’t have the wit to understand much of what is happening in the world; what is more, some of them are plainly assholes. Those two groups generally end up in conflict, as the assholes try to take all the others have, and push them around unmercifully, while the group being bullied isn’t even aware they are operating in a Stygian darkness, out of which they will never climb to see the light…..

Ah well, that’s life, as they say…. I’m not sure just WHO says it, but, I’ve heard it said, so, that will have to do…. I see I’ve managed to wander around in my own head long enough to call this an intro, so, I’m going to take the money and run…. (What money? Oh, ffolkes, do I really have to explain?…. Sheesh….) Any who, I’d suggest you grab the closest stanchion, or other method of securing your position, because we’re going in, and it could get bumpy….

Shall we Pearl?

“I reject that philosophy. The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.” — Douglas Adams through Dirk Gently

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

Today, or, rather, yesterday, while working ahead on this Pearl, I was feeling a bit curmudgeonly, with a side of sardonicism…. hence, the rant you see below, about the current circus on the public stage around the Ebola virus outbreak…. To counter the sobriety of the piece, while simultaneously providing supportive argumentation for the rant, here is a video that should bring a smile to your face…. Well, unless you have no sense of humor at all, it will…. Plus, if you aren’t careful, this guy will also make you think….

The Best of George Carlin: Exposing our government and fall of humanity one joke at a time

http://youtu.be/6_zwB6GLpo4

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

“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”

~~ from The Notebooks of Lazarus Long ~~

http://time.com/3554336/ebola-poll-quarantine-health-workers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29

The article I wish you to read today, which you may find by following the above link, concerns a poll taken regarding the subject of the Ebola virus, and its visible effects on the American psyche…. Quite simply, I was surprised, nay, astounded beyond belief, at the quantity of SHEER FUCKING STUPIDITY displayed by the American public in this poll… Seven out of ten IDIOTS in this country believe that healthcare workers should have their rights taken away, just because they had the compassion to go to Africa, to help protect THOSE SAME FUCKING IDIOTS from the disease, by treating it there….

As a reward for their compassion, patriotism, and selflessness, seventy-one percent of the Americans polled thought it was okay to confine the workers in quarantine for 21 days, EVEN IF THEY WERE TESTED, AND WERE NOT CARRYING THE VIRUS! This number clearly indicates how the average American mistrusts science, (because they refuse to spend the energy to understand any of it….), and will do, or agree to ANYTHING, no matter how it affects anyone else, in order to feel safe behind the massive wall of their ignorance….

“In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

The dreaded sea-change, so feared by our founding fathers, has happened…. The American public has been brainwashed to a degree where they will surrender every right they used to have, if only they don’t have to think, or take responsibility for the consequences of their STUPIDITY!

“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise.” — Tom Paine

The Ebola virus, as I have determined (How? Oh, it wasn’t hard; there is a shitload of information already on file on the ‘Net….), by the evidence we have, is no more dangerous to us than is the virus that causes the common cold, or the yearly flu strains we all are encouraged to be afraid of….as if it were someone else’s planet we live on…. Sure, it’s a nasty little bug, and, it can kill, but, so can a cold, or the flu, if not treated, and allowed to take over the body’s systems, to its detriment…. But, with treatment, the victim has a very good chance of survival, as medical technology has advanced to a point where most people, no matter how ill they become with a viral or bacterial disease, can at least be supported enough to be able to survive, if uncomfortably during the course of the treatment….

But, comparing the number of people who catch it, and those who die, reveals a mortality rate no more disturbing than that of those who have contracted the AIDS virus… which we have learned to fight to a draw in many cases, with hope for future breakthroughs in treatment. This Ebola virus is made more dangerous than it actually is by the reaction of the political leaders of the “civilized” world, who look at the issue as a tool to use to solidify their hold on power, a perfect opportunity for Public Relations posturing; by the media, who use the issue to sell more papers & ads; and by the public, who are too stupid to investigate on their own, allowing the government and media flunkies to blow their fears completely out of proportion, so they can more easily be manipulated…

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

I was extremely proud of that nurse, Kaci Hickox, who has so courageously flipped the finger to all of those stupid people who would, if they could, turn her into another victim, this time at the hands of HER OWN PEOPLE…. The very people for whom she braved the wilds of Africa, to fight their battles at the front line of defense…. For this, that stupid lot of bloody gits turns on her, taking her rights, and trying to make her the victim of their fears and ignorance…. Good on her!….

That’s enough; y’all get the point…. Don’t listen to the idiots, ffolkes…. Let the doctors, nurses, and healthcare professionals deal with it, and tell the Beloved Ruling Class, the Preachers, Priests, Imams, and all the other Asininnies who would live their lives in the darkness, if only they can feel safe and protected, without the need to think, or show courage, or, live with any dignity….. well, just tell them to go fuck themselves, hard, in the most inconvenient orifice they possess…. No lubricants allowed….

Now I’ve been vulgar, it must be time to draw to a close…. I’ll leave you with this final thought, with the caveat that you use it as intended….

“Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but habituate yourself to something else.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — How the Semblances of Things are to be combated, — Discourses, Book ii, Chap. xviii

Obviously, too many people assumed Epictetus was speaking of “thinking”, and decided to habituate themselves to something else…. In which case, they would do well to remember the following, and apply it, instead, to their approach….

Step with care and great tact
And remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

~~ Dr. Suess, Oh, the Places You’ll Go ~~

In short….THINK!

So be it….

gigoid has spoken.

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

It’s an Emily day….. In fact, let’s do double-duty; they’re small…. at least, if all one considers is the number of words…. The images and ideas thereby produced can hardly be judged by the same standard….

Delight becomes pictorial
When viewed through pain,–
More fair, because impossible
That any gain.

The mountain at a given distance
In amber lies;
Approached, the amber flits a little,–
And that’s the skies!

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~
—————————————————————-

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

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

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

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

Today’s fresh, old-school pearl was compiled mostly by Smart Bee…. I am a bit distracted, all in all, (no, I don’t know why, and don’t have the time or inclination to worry about it right now….), but, I think it came out okay, as long as one has a healthy tolerance for nonsense, and/or, implied sardonicism…. That may be so because, for the most part, they are comments about common human behaviors, to some degree… In any case, I should think that virtually anyone can find a chuckle or two in the grouping, and, if lucky, possibly even a chortle….

Col Mustard: “How many husbands have you had?”
Mrs White: “Mine, or others?”

— Clue —

Apparently heard at a public lecture by the famous C. Northcote Parkinson at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras: Government’s handling of a difficult matter by appointing a Commission of Enquiry is just like a person going to the toilet — there is a sitting, a report, and then the matter is dropped. — Smart Bee

“I was born by Caesarian section…but not so you’d notice. It’s just that when I leave a house, I go out through the window.” — Steven Wright

“If you use a waffle iron for a pillow, be sure it is unplugged.” — Gary Owens

“Any man, in the right situation, is capable of murder. But not any man is capable of being a good camper. So, murder and camping are not as similar as you might think.” — Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

“I love to go down to the schoolyard and watch all the little children jump up and down and run around yelling and screaming…They don’t know I’m only using blanks.” — Emo Phillips

Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather or prunello.

~~- Alexander Pope — Essay on Man, Epistle iv, Line 203 ~~

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

For a morning rife with reasons for things to go badly, today’s effort went well…. I guess that’s karma in action for ya; one never knows how one’s karmic balance stands, do one? Sometimes, I think it’s a bit difficult, because it never seems to match my figures…. I suppose that means that our karma is like a checkbook…. hard to keep in balance…. On that singularly silly note, I’m outta here…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Pending legislation will prohibit affordable pants….

Posted on September 4, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Great truths can only be forgotten and can never be falsified.”

~~ G. K. Chesterton ~~

— Illustrated London News, 9-30-33 —

Upon opening my eyes, my first thought, appropriately enough, was, “Wow. It isn’t every day you wake up to a large, scaly, bright green gecko sitting in a chair by your window!” Then, I thought “Uh oh…. he looks pretty pissed.” So, naturally, I said, “Did you bribe the damn concierge again?”, thinking to put him at an immediate disadvantage by accusing him before he could say anything….

I should have known it wouldn’t work; not with THIS gecko…. “Why should I do that, when I can just pick the lock?”, he noted with what passed for an eyebrow raised high enough, it almost disappeared over the dome of his forehead; fortunately, this, I knew, indicated he was pissed, but, still amused by me…. I decided to work that, instead, so, I countered, “Some would consider it a faux pas to pick the lock on the hotel room of a sleeping guest, you know.” “I don’t speak French,” he noted, then, grinned evilly. “But, I know some French geckos…. they’re dead now…..”

Okay, that’s enough of that…. It’s way too early for so many bad jokes at one sitting… I don’t know what prompted ANY of that. When I sat down to type, I noted my right thumb, besides being about twice or three times as stiff as usual, with a concomitant degree of pain as a bonus, was actually a good 10-15% bigger than my left thumb, which is sort of cool, as it balances out the loss of function, and increased arthritic pain in the left hip and shoulder….

So, any who, all that, annoying as it is, coming so early, isn’t really the problem… the problem is trying to find words that are composed of, oh, I’d say about 65%, of letters from the left side of my QWERTY keyboard, so I could balance out the typing, giving the right hand a little less work, thus, able to last longer…. If you think it’s easy, you try it…. I’ve been at this for, what, two and half paragraphs, and I’m exhausted…. Sheesh…

Most of the words we have in English, flexible as it is about spellings and meanings, are composed of a relatively even balance of letters (the actual percentages of use for each one, you will find, closely resemble those percentages used by a set of Scrabble letters; the relative scores for each letter are based on those percentages….). Finding those with an unbalanced distribution isn’t as easy as it may sound, believe me…. It’s a lot like trying to get toothpaste back into the tube after it’s out…. not in what is done, but, in how frigging frustrating it can be…

Okay, so, what do you think? Have I crammed enough odd shit into one intro for one day? Have I offended anybody? Have you laughed, cried, or shaken your head in either disgust, or disbelief? Were you afraid of the gecko? If not, why not? Have you picked your nose? These are the things that I need to know, if I’m to come anywhere near to how today’s post should end up, wherever that may be….. Okay, well, you can keep what you’re doing with your nose to yourself….

It’s not as if we need any actual maps, but, any metadata at all can help us to find the quickest, if not the simplest, path to our goal…. Of course, I realize, it might be of some help if I would make some attempt to come even a little closer to Reality to some degree…. I’ve been a good distance away from it all morning, thus far….. and, actually, I’m quite proud of that….

I mean, here I am, sitting here, almost completely able to ignore a level of pain most folks, even some ffolkes, would be unable to tolerate at all, and, still able to type, albeit with some strain, and a rise in BP that goes with such stress…. I know, it’s bogus, but, whattyagonnado when it’s age-related? Get younger? Not happening, so, I just push through it the best I can…. which, at the present moment, is about to come to a crashing halt, so the feeling in my left hand can come back to normal…. Fun, eh?….

Okay, we’re good to go, for the time being…. thank goodness for magic cream! That being the case, I think this intro couldn’t possibly take any more, so, we’ll let it die a relatively peaceful death, and get on with the rest of this mess, with a small alteration in the plans, made necessary by ARPID. (Nothing to do with the Association of Retired Persons, except peripherally, in that both are annoying, and both age related….) ARPID is, of course, Age Related Physical Issues, Dammit….. If I go any further into that, we’d be entering TMI territory, so, we’ll just leave it at that….

Shall we Pearl?

“He is nearest to the gods who knows how to be silent.” — Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC), attributed

Oops…. good thing I’m not religious at all, isn’t it?…..

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

Why are many scientists using lawyers for medical experiments instead of rats?

a) There are more lawyers than rats.

b) The scientist’s don’t become as emotionally attached to them.

c) There are some things that even rats won’t do for money.

— Smart Bee

I am compelled to confess, in my life, I have actually met two people, who were/are both lawyers, for whom I do have a significant degree of respect and affection. Of course, one of them I met while still in law school, and his own sense of honor and self-worth caused him years of discomfort until he gave it up to teach…

The other one is, quite simply, a shark, who found a sublimation for his less than stellar urges, by using his predatory instincts, and ruthlessness, to help people injured while working, to get the services and help they need to continue to live, and support their families, in spite of not being able to work, potentially for the rest of their lives….

As far as I can tell, two, out of the hundreds I’ve met over the years, is a fairly accurate representation of the actual percentage of lawyers who have even a shred of compassion for others, or perform the work they do out of a sense of altruism or common feeling…. The majority of them, by far, are predatory, ambitious, avaricious, convinced of their own superiority, (most often, without any evidence for any such belief….), and, far too often, completely amoral…. which is why so fucking many of them ultimately end up as politicians…. For the greater percentage of those I’ve met, or heard of, their primary motivation is either money, or power (control over others….)….

Those qualities, when paired with politics, are a match made in heaven, as the function of government lends itself perfectly to the type of person who NEEDS to control others. Whether they do so primarily for the power, or for the money, is immaterial to the final result, which gives them the means to fulfill their compulsion to steal, and cheat, and perform ANY act, if it furthers their agenda…. without the need to use a device such as “billable hours” to cover their theft…. Taxes work fine for that….

“How can you tell the difference between a dead lawyer and a dead snake on the road? There are skid marks leading up to the snake.” — a joke I heard in high school, in 1966, or so….

I started this rant yesterday, in reaction to the shock I felt on coming across the opening salvo from Smart Bee…. and, now, this morning, find myself unable to finish it properly, as I can’t type too well just now…. So, we’ll go into SB, to find the makings for a pearl that will provide me with sufficient sublimation of my need to express outrage at a section of society, one that well deserves any abuse we heap upon it….

How else to explain the sheer ubiquitousness of lawyer jokes in our culture, or their historical presence for so long? A new one springs up each day, it seems, in response to all the pain and misery in society, for which the actions of lawyers bear responsibility…. Let’s see if we can find some sharp sticks to poke them with, okay?…..

“Am I accompanied by a PARENT or GUARDIAN?” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Rudeness is the weak man’s imitation of strength.” — Eric Hoffer, THE PASSIONATE STATE OF MIND (1955)

And the Lord said, “Thou shalt not leave hairs unsplit.” — Holy Bible, Clarence Darrow version

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” — Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

“Conceit is to nature what paint is to beauty; it is not only needless, but impairs what it would improve.” — Pope

“When one is pretending, the entire body revolts.” — Anais Nin

(Aha! Now we know why so many lawyers have that sallow, pasty look, like they never get outside to play….)

“If our behavior is strict, we do not need fun!” — Zippy the Pinhead

I always know when Smart Bee is having fun with a pearl; it starts and ends with an appropriate note from Zippy…. I don’t know about y’all, but, I enjoyed that….. and, it didn’t generate a single billable hour!…. Bonus!

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

This poem has been one of my favorites, of its type, for all the years since I first read it, long before starting this blog….

First posted on 9/4/2012:

A Smile To Remember

we had goldfish and they circled around and around
in the bowl on the table near the heavy drapes
covering the picture window and
my mother, always smiling, wanting us all
to be happy, told me, ‘be happy Henry!’
and she was right: it’s better to be happy if you
can
but my father continued to beat her and me several times a week while
raging inside his 6-foot-two frame because he couldn’t
understand what was attacking him from within.

my mother, poor fish,
wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a
week, telling me to be happy: ‘Henry, smile!
why don’t you ever smile?’

and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the
saddest smile I ever saw

one day the goldfish died, all five of them,
they floated on the water, on their sides, their
eyes still open,
and when my father got home he threw them to the cat
there on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother
smiled

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

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

Since today’s poem came from the post of exactly two years ago, why not do it again?… It WAS a very good Pearl…. If you recall, I used another piece of it yesterday, as well…. I didn’t realize how well it would fit in with today’s theme, until just now… It’s perfect, actually, as it also mimics the life cycle of a lawyer, from pupae (law student), to caterpillar (lawyers who have passed the bar), to butterfly (politician)…. Perfect!….

From 9/4/2012:

So there I am, cruising along in the database, and all these little pieces of observational excellence from Smart Bee keep popping up in my face. I figure that he (Smart Bee) must have something he wants to get across to the readership out there; who am I to argue? If I don’t do this, I could spend years trying to find a new quote there…. Smart Bee is very insistent when he gets a wild hair like this…. So, just follow the bouncing thought ball to the conclusion that is most obvious….

Sex! Lies! Drugs! Money! Power! Corruption! Man, I love Congress! — Smart Bee

Gun Control – the belief that government, with its great wisdom and moral superiority, can be trusted with a monopoly on deadly force. — Smart Bee

It has been determined that most teenage girls lose their virginity during the summer months. This stands to reason, since Congress is recessed at that time. — Smart Bee

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

Vote Republican. It’s easier than thinking. — Smart Bee (honest, both are in there….)

Congressional National Bank. Ours bounce higher and farther! — Smart Bee

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

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

I forgot to mention: today’s picture is from the web site of Carol Welsh (link: http://radiatingblossom.wordpress.com/ ); on her site she posts poetry, quotes, and other forms of literary beauty, as well as pictures she creates of flowers…. Her photos are the cleanest, clearest, most gorgeous studies of single flowers I’ve ever seen… With her kind permission, I have copied literally hundreds of her photos, all of which became part of the slide show I use as my desktop background, and for my screen saver… each one is yet another example of her keen eye for, and appreciation of, great beauty, in nature, and in life…. And, her photos are my quest, to produce even ONE photo that is as beautiful as any one of hers….

Well! That turned out well, for such an effortful missive…. I’m feeling better, now, a little bit, having pushed through all the obstacles to completing this; no less pain, at the moment, but, now that I’ll stop typing for a while, it’ll calm down…. I’ll be able to apply a few ounces of magic cream to strategic spots around my skeleton, and find a little peace for a time… I hope you enjoy today’s post; it cost me a little more than usual, but, still came out alright…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, come hell or high water….

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

How much for the colorful ceramic penguins?…..

Posted on June 8, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Thoughts and fears of many years are with me tonight; company for the lonely man. Yet nothing I’ve thought or felt is truly mine, for time wins all the small battles in life, and steals away even our youth…. Elegantly, the universe falls apart, with beauty, grace, tears, and blood…. We are all victims of entropy, still cowering at the noise of the Big Bang, unsure, even at this late date, that we are truly God, as intended from the first. If I didn’t know better, I’d believe it is too late; as it is, it will be our early out, sent to bed with no dinner, no cigar, and no hope…. Reality’s teeth are sharp…..

Well…. that’s…. well, that’s something, that is…. I can’t quite say just what that may be, but, that’s something, for sure…. I kind of like it; it’s a bit odd, but, consistent, and quite lovely in some respects…. It can stay, even if it doesn’t MEAN anything in particular… though, in looking at it, it COULD be a rather depressive view of Reality…. I think, instead, we’ll regard it as just another fantasy; it works a bit better that way, and won’t cause so much folderol if we use that as our basic premise…. Not that there is any penalty for being wrong, other than your confusion….

Now that has been made as clear as it can be, (not very, I admit…) we can get on with our usual affairs, such as they may be in this state of mind. What state is that? I’m not sure, but it might just be some sort of physical state, like ice on the verge of melting, a very poignant moment…. The air in here today is a little heady, I’m afraid; not sure why. I woke up rested, if not completely comfortable, and feel okay, all in all…. It’s my head that is feeling strange….. I suppose, one could say that is relatively normal, for me, but, if they did say that, I’d have to object, if only for form….

Objections aside, how do you think this is going? I’m sort of trying a new Joyceian-style stream of consciousness kind of writing…. It’s fun, and a real challenge to keep from going completely off the rails. I’m not entirely sure it’s what will be our final format for the intro, but, it’s working today, in a manner of speaking…. I’m already at the legal limit, so that’s good….. Now, if I can only figure out how to get us out of here with some style….

I know, we’ll just use method #4, the old standby…. It always works, just because it’s so damn ruthless…. Oh well, nobody’s ever been hurt, and what’s a few articles of clothing in the bigger picture, eh? Nothing important, I’m sure… In any case, I’m going to put it to work now, so, hang on….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Hurting yourself is not sinful — just stupid.” — Robert Heinlein

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

I like the quote above by Heinlein; it’s a part of his philosophy of life with which I’ve always identified strongly. It actually has a piece that precedes this line, which makes it only more powerful as a guide to living…. that piece states, “Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense.,” a statement that, to me, makes the whole thing perfect as a rule of thumb for being moral and ethical in one’s dealings with others…. It also places religious dogma in its proper place, i.e., identifying it as superfluous nonsense that has no actual counterpart in reality…..

I’m not going to start ranting on religious dogma now, though this has been a relatively perfect lead-in for such a discussion; instead I’ll refer you to my archives, where you can find any number of such rants…. For today, I’ve brought in some pictures, one I stole borrowed from a web site, and the others from my camera…. Let’s see what sort of mess Smart Bee and I can make of them, okay? Okay!…..

Picture: Xinhua /Landov / Barcroft Media / London Daily Telegraph

______________________________________________________

“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, aka Robert Heinlein

Okay, so, I lied, a little…. I’m still not going to rant about this, but, this statement, to me, puts the lie to just about EVERYTHING the religious cults have tried to pummel into your brain ever since you were knee high to a duck, or, in this case, a really cute wolf pup. The pup seems to be saying something, or trying to make a point somehow, so why not imagine him making a really good point of philosophical realism, rather than some jokey little stuff to try to pull out a chuckle…. This, I think, is much classier, if a bit harder for some folks to swallow…. Oh well, I suppose you could say that about ALL of reality….

“I don’t like to commit myself about heaven and hell – you see, I have friends in both places.” — Mark Twain

Hmm…. We seem to be sticking to a theme today, and I don’t have anything to do with it; Smart Bee keeps throwing these up in front of me…. What else can I do, but, go along with the program…. The picture above was taken while riding one of the buses I must use to get around town these days…. It’s a picture that shows some of the land for sale here in this city, where the economic downturn in the last couple of decades, (for which we can thank our good ol’ buddy, Ronnie the Reagan….), has turned much of the area into a ghost town, at least by appearances….

Yep, ffolkes, we here in Amurrica are STILL trying to get over the application of “trickle down” theory that was his byword, a theory which did a real number on our economy, sending it straight down the tubes, as intended…. Thanks to the Reagan years, which were then augmented and made worse by the Bush years (16 years of financially ruinous insanity by the Shrubs has taken the last almost eight years to just get back to where we were in the 70’s….), the entire economic system we live under was usurped for the exclusive benefit of the rich and powerful, in a blatant period of not-so-covert manipulation of the world’s money markets, solely to benefit those at the top of the heap, and keep those at the bottom just where they are….

Ah, but he was such a great communicator, wasn’t he? Well, when he could stay awake long enough to remember his lines, I guess so…. I always thought he was more of a strict asshole than anything else; his smarm tended to get on my clothes, whenever I forced myself to listen to him, and I really hated that smug expression he’d get when he was manipulating the public…. He pulled the wool over so many eyes, I’m surprised anyone at all could even see him…. but, I guess that was the idea…. It kept attention on him, while his cronies were busy rifling the treasury….

It’s all commonly held knowledge, ffolkes, for anyone who can actually read…. The evidence of what I’ve just said is all there, in black and white; all it takes is for someone to look at it with clear, unprejudiced eyes, and mind…. Rather than the heroic icon he made himself out to be, Reagan was the worst political disaster of the twentieth century for the American people…. The rich folks loved him, as did the stupid…. and they still do…. If they admitted what he did, they would have to admit their own foolishness at being conned, and they would rather keep on being stupid, than admit to any such thing….

“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.” — Albert Einstein

Beauty needs no explanation, as with love, and the only reason this is here… This is one of those serendipity pictures, which I took while literally on the move…. I was waiting on a bus, & spotted this little flower bush in the center of the street, with some other plants…. I was taking the picture when the bus pulled up, and had to do it quickly, so as not to miss my ride…. It came out really well for such a hurried shot, so, I’m using it, just because they’re such pretty flowers… and I’m such a closet romantic….

“Look into my eyes and try to forget that you have a Macy’s charge card!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Sometimes, Zippy is more profound than anything I’ve ever seen in a King James Bible…. To my mind, this reeks of social irony, and could be the rallying cry for the revolution, when it comes…. Or, maybe not; it’s hard to tell with all the stuff we have to wade through, but, this isn’t any worse than any of the crap I hear on TV, or from the pulpits of this country…. and it’s certainly much more honest and forthright than anything we’ve heard out of Washington D.C. in the last eight years….

Okay, I’m done fooling around with this format…. besides, I’m out of pictures…. My back and hips have kept me from getting out and about for a few days now, so new pictures have been hard to come by, unless taken from the Net, like the wolf pup…. Ah well, such is life in the big city, and since I’m retired, I’m trying to cut back on my whining….. It’s not working, is it?…. Oh well….

Y’know, maybe there’s more to this blogging stuff than I thought…. Then again, who cares? It’s all a wash, when you consider that even though I publish for all to see who can access it, some of those who access it are people in windowless rooms, in a building somewhere in D.C., where faceless myrmidons of the government are listening to everything we write, and publish anywhere on the Net, over our phones, or, no doubt, on paper….

How many of you would care to wager the NSA can also read snail mail, at their demand? We all know that the government can intercept mail; it’s been happening for a long while, and is nothing new….. This whole NSA spying issue is merely an extension of that kind of activity, which governments will perform any time they feel threatened….

I’d better bring this to a close, before it begins to resemble an actual rant, rather than a disjointed effort to create a new format for pearls…. I’m guessing one more aphorism should do the trick…. Yeah, that’s the ticket….

“Cleverness is not wisdom.” — Euripides

Oops! We’d best go on; I’m pulling my covers here….

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

This poet needs little introduction; just make sure you are prepared to feel real…..

Are You Drinking?

washed-up, on shore, the old yellow notebook
out again
I write from the bed
as I did last
year.
will see the doctor,
Monday.
“yes, doctor, weak legs, vertigo, head-
aches and my back
hurts.”
“are you drinking?” he will ask.
“are you getting your
exercise, your
vitamins?”
I think that I am just ill
with life, the same stale yet
fluctuating
factors.
even at the track
I watch the horses run by
and it seems
meaningless.
I leave early after buying tickets on the
remaining races.
“taking off?” asks the motel
clerk.
“yes, it’s boring,”
I tell him.
“If you think it’s boring
out there,” he tells me, “you oughta be
back here.”
so here I am
propped up against my pillows
again
just an old guy
just an old writer
with a yellow
notebook.
something is
walking across the
floor
toward
me.
oh, it’s just
my cat
this
time.

~~ Charles Bukowski ~~

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

Having ranted sufficiently, if not overly thoroughly, found a proper, fitting poem to accompany the work, my reward for such efficiency is an old-school pearl, naturally…. If I can just get this knife out of my hip for a little while, all would be very cool…. Ah well, maybe diving will make it ease off a bit; it’s worth a shot…. No set parameters here today; what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG, for those among you that speak geekish….)…. I’d brace myself, but, that’s just me…. Y’all can do what you want….

Liar, n.: A lawyer with a roving commission. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Cheese food is not cheese.” — Mom’s Hint #052

“Hope is nature’s veil for hiding truth’s nakedness.” — Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-1896)

“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.” — Mark Twain

“A new broom sweeps clean, but never trust an old saw.” — James Thurber

“Good God,” said Arthur, “it looks just like the sea front at Southend.”
“I’m relieved to hear you say that,” said Ford.
“Why”
“Because I thought I must be going mad.”
“Perhaps you are. Perhaps you only thought I said it.”
Ford thought about this. “Well, did you say it, or didn’t you?” he asked.
“I think so,” said Arthur.
“Well, perhaps we’re both going mad.”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “we’d be mad, all things considered, to think this was Southend.”
“Well, do you think this is Southend?”
“Oh, yes”
“So do I.”
“Therefore we must be mad.”
“Nice day for it.”
“Yes,” said a passing maniac.
“Who was that?” asked Arthur.
“Who–the man with the five heads and the elderberry bush full of kippers?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t know. Just someone.”
“Ah.”

— From The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Perilous to all of us are the devices of an art deeper than we ourselves possess.” — Gandalf the Grey

Y’know, sometimes, this just works better than other times…. This is one of those times….

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

“Well, my mind’s been goin’ through these changes,” he sang, blithely ignoring the time and space…. Then, realizing where he was, he came back from the edge of insanity, to bid his guests goodbye…. and with that little declension, I’m back…. to bid thee adieu until tomorrow, in the firm belief there will BE a tomorrow…. for now…. See ya, 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

We’re inspecting hot beef sandwiches…

Posted on March 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Howdy… Come on in, & look closely at this paragraph…. Please note the obligatory placement, here at the front of this article, where one expects to find it, in all its introductory glory. If it were another kind of paragraph, we wouldn’t be able to abuse it like we do here at ECR…. The others are all too vocal in their complaints. This one seems to just lie there and take whatever I throw its way, never complaining. Of course, it never does much to help, either…. it just sits there, allowing me to force practically ANYTHING down its gullet, to see if we can come up with something new and fresh for ffolkes to enjoy. I suppose it would be nice if it had a bit more pizazz, but, hey, what do you want in an actual intro?…. Style? Hah! Interest? Bah!…. A bold faced LIE! That’s what we need!…. It always works for Barack….

Sorry, couldn’t help myself….. I get carried away by my enthusiasm at times, as you may have noted…. or not. Regardless, I do tend to go a bit overboard in certain literary instances; it’s habitual, you see, from my misspent youth, the major portion of which I spent as a captive journalist in an unnamed Third World country….

I was on safari with my family when I was very young, when I was taken by slave hunters, and sold to a business man in China…. He forced me to slave away my tender years in his newspaper office, chained to a desk in the Features section, writing fluff pieces for the insert magazines in the weekend edition…. It was a torturous way to grow up, and I don’t miss it, except, occasionally, I’ll feel a pang of nostalgia for the fond memories I have of removing my master’s head from his shoulders with a nice, sharp katana….

Now that we’ve had our little sojourn into the land of fantasy, and a short break or two, (I’m a bit stiff this morning…. and not in a good way….), I think I’ve figured out how to extricate myself from this intro section with a bit less pain than usually is the case…. we’ll use some WD-40!…. It’s amazing how many things can be unstuck by a little bit of this technological magic…. Just a bit of it, right on the keyboard, and there’s no typing on it for hours, until it has all ‘penetrated’ to its required depth….. I know, it SOUNDS perverted, but it really isn’t any big deal, and for all its a tool, AND a household tip, it’s actually pretty clean in its habits…. Doesn’t whine much, either…

Of course, now that we’ve adopted this somewhat odd method of introductory shenanigans, there is a distinct possibility of becoming hidebound, or, alternately, completely deranged….. Both have been seen in clinical trials of this product, so, we’ll have to wait and see on those…. In the meantime, I’m looking back over what’s been done so far, and it’s not bad…. I don’t see any blood anywhere, and nobody has asked for any bandages; this makes for a nice, quiet morning, don’t you think? I do, sort of…. think, that is…

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It is only the superficial qualities that last. Man’s deeper nature is soon found out.” — Oscar Wilde
_____________________________

This pearl will be what I call an odd duck…. well, I guess one could say it already is, and I’m just pot/kettling, or, prognosticating without a license…. Any who, in the normal course of events in our mornings around here, a rant would be the order of the day for this point in time…. A rant, however, requires from me a certain state of mind, fueled by outrage, supported by angst-filled emotional turmoil left over from my days as a certified, full-on crazy dude, before I tore up my certificate, and went natural….

As is patently obvious by this time, that state of mind is in a different state, probably Minnesota by this time. (I don’t KNOW why it would, or should be Minnesota…. that’s just what was in the note…), so a rant won’t be forthcoming, despite having beau coups material to choose from out in the BBR…..

What I DO have for you is a very, very good article by one of my favorite columnists, on one of the subjects about which I tend to rant, to wit: recent events in the central arena of the political circus, wherein we have DiFi (Her Gargantuan Majesty, Senator Dianne Feinstein….), and her current feud with the CIA, over the continuing cover-up of their involvement in torture during the Shrub’s reign, a cover-up they have been (clumsily) trying to extend to include her precious Senate Committee on Intelligence, by refusing to show documents, or hacking into Congressional computers to try to steal back documents they didn’t want seen…. She is now pissed off at them, big time, and the following article discusses that issue with great clarity and insight….

After you read the article, like a good little Gentle Reader, I have included a nice little seven-star pearl for your reading pleasure, and, hopefully, your eventual enlightenment…..

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/DiFi-bites-the-hand-that-fed-her-5315594.php

(The parameter for this pearl is: “Politics, schmolitics…. Back off! We’re talkin’ business here!”…. Joe Lobbyist…)

CUI BONO? [Latin] What good would that do _me_? — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary

(You will find this engraved over the doorway to every law school in America….though, in many cases, the translation reads, “What’s in it for ME?”)

“Be not as one that hath ten thousand years to live; death is nigh at hand: while thou livest, while thou hast time, be good.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 17

“God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.” — Gaiman and Pratchett, Good Omens

“There’s no problem so awful that you can’t add some guilt to it and make it even worse.” — Calvin and Hobbes

“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” — Joseph Joubert

“All the world’s a Schrödinger Box, and we are merely kitties.” — Smart Bee

“We read of a certain Roman emperor who built a magnificent palace. In digging the foundation, the workmen discovered a golden sarcophagus ornamented with three circlets, on which were inscribed, “I have expended; I have given; I have kept; I have possessed; I do possess; I have lost; I am punished. What I formerly expended, I have; what I gave away, I have.” — Gesta Romanorum — Tale xvi

No, I don’t know, so, please, stop asking me why it turned like that…. It just did, and wouldn’t let me turn it back…. Oh well, there must be a lesson in there we need to learn…. I’ve found that to often be the case when I don’t get a pearl’s subconscious point at first look… It can take a few readings, and some percolation of ideas before it becomes clear just what my inner sage was trying to get us to see…. I think, though, given the pearls I see here, you can trust that this lesson is one worth meeting the challenge to figure it out….
_____________________________

There are days when finding the right poem becomes problematic…. Usually, it’s because I can’t make up my mind, not for any esoteric, intelligent reason, so there’s no need for sympathy…. I’m just telling it like it is…. Any who, in many of those cases, as in today’s instance, I turn to the person whom I most admire as a poet…. If you asked me “why”, my only response would be “because”…. because of poems like this….

Death sets a thing significant
The eye had hurried by,
Except a perished creature
Entreat us tenderly

To ponder little workmanships
In crayon or in wool,
With “This was last her fingers did,”
Industrious until

The thimble weighed too heavy,
The stitches stopped themselves,
And then ‘t was put among the dust
Upon the closet shelves.

A book I have, a friend gave,
Whose pencil, here and there,
Had notched the place that pleased him,–
At rest his fingers are.

Now, when I read, I read not,
For interrupting tears
Obliterate the etchings
Too costly for repairs.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

_____________________________

I don’t know if it is obvious to y’all, but I’m suffering today from severe burn-out; my creative juices are dried up, to the point of choking me on dust when I try to compose anything more complex than whining, as is patently the case today. Rather than subject y’all to any more of my less-than-dignified complaining, we’ll go for another old-school pearl, with the only parameter being that the each included pearl should say something “nice”…. Let’s see how realistic THAT is….

“For man, as for flower and beast and bird, the supreme triumph is to be most vividly, most perfectly alive.” — David H. Lawrence

(It took me four readings of this before I finally figured out what other name David H. Lawrence is known by…. think, “D.H…”) (Yeah, me too…. Doh!)

“There is no difference between a wise man and a fool when they fall in love.” — Murphy’s laws on sex

“It sometimes happens, even in the best of families, that a baby is born. This is not necessarily cause for alarm. The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money.” — Elinor Goulding Smith

“Sir? She’s giving “Reality” as a *previous* address!” — Smart Bee

“Do not do unto others as you would they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.” — George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903), Maxims for — Revolutionists: The Golden Rule

“I think fish is nice, but then I think that rain is wet, so who am I to judge?” — The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“Consider the daffodil. And while you’re doing that, I’ll be over here, looking through your stuff.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

I don’t care what anyone says…. I like it. Since it, surprisingly, measures 8 on a scale of 10 for whimsy, it may be one of the better pearls we’ve found in some time…. I hope reading it is as much fun for you, as putting it together was for me….
_____________________________

Having thus completed the required number of sections, without calculating the cost, or the consequences, I shall now proceed to perform the last act of defiance…. meaning I’ll go post it, regardless of how insane that may seem to anyone else…. I stopped worrying about that a long time ago, thank goodness…. Fair warning: see you tomorrow….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Bloody, but unbowed, he staggers on….

Posted on February 7, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

There are some mornings here on ECR when I’m no longer sure of what I’m doing, or exactly why. I’ve been doing these Pearls so long now at this time of the day, the routine of it will often pull me through any reluctance or fatigue that may manifest… We’ve discussed previously the power of routine in our lives, but, I don’t believe I explored how often routine is ALL we have to maintain the appearance of normalcy…. Our inner world can become so preoccupied with issues with which it is struggling, that the outer world, and all of ITS problems and issues become of distant, secondary concern to us, in terms of our priorities….

For example, today, I awoke with both a great deal of pain, and the full gamut of PTSD symptomatology, in full swing…. I’ve related how I am currently having to switch from one pain medication, upon which I’ve depended for my most complete pain relief for the last 8 years, to using strictly medical marijuana to treat my chronic, severe back and hip pain….

For some time now, I’ve used the marijuana products to augment the prescribed pain killer, as it is the most effective way to treat both the pain, and my PTSD symptoms, (consisting primarily of emotional lability, including ongoing anxiety, panic attacks, and insomnia), all without causing any side effects, no risk of overdose, and no known negative interactions with other substances. However, since the federal government’s laws concerning that substance are antediluvian in nature, the doctors turn into myrmidons, and insist on following “policy” rather than honoring their Hippocratic oath to treat the patient, not the society….

This morning, my physical and mental states decided to rebel against the changes that are being forced upon me, as I try to wean myself off the addictive drug they’ve been giving me for 8 years, thereby insuring that I will suffer the lovely group of symptoms of withdrawal from a narcotic, including some rather vicious dyskinesia that is affecting me today….

That is the condition where your muscles are vibrating, you can’t sit still, and the entire body feels as if an electric current is running through the musculature, causing each muscle to spasm in turn…. Oh, it’s a lovely condition, and I’m just glad there are certain of the mj products that help soothe the symptoms when they occur….

Okay, so, how’s the Pity Party going? Anybody else want to chime in?…. we’ve got a lot of whine, to go with any cheesy complaints YOU might have, if you wish to join in the fun….. No? Okay…. It’s probably best if I discontinue any further pairings of whine and cheese, and get on with what I’m ostensibly here to do…. which isn’t complain about my conditions, which is something everybody out there has to deal with, one way or another…. I’m not alone, in that my medical issues aren’t any worse or better than anyone else’s….

But, they’re MINE, and they do take up more of my attention than I like…. I’ve never been “sickly” or even particularly weak in any way…. just the opposite. Which is why I really, really HATE not being able to do just about anything I’d like to be able to do anymore, and end up complaining about it…. I can’t say you’ll never hear about this again, but, I’m done for today…. Let’s get on with our regular business, okay? Okay….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“There is an ancient saying, famous among men, that thou shouldst not judge fully of a man’s life before he dieth, whether it should be called blest or wretched.” — Sophocles (496-406 BC) — Trachiniae, 1
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I have to say, (one last bitch), this process isn’t as much fun when I’m having PTSD issues…. The mental effort to remain in disguise, as a normal, intelligent human being, is huge, and when one throws in the pain, it’s enough to have me in tears every few minutes, as I try and try to throw off the unwelcome, and unnecessary feelings of sorrow, from whatever source they’re bubbling up to torment me…. You see, I don’t even know WHY I’m sitting here with tears flowing freely down my face as I type…. I have no big issues of import at hand, at least, not any emotional ones, that I can think of, that would cause any such degree of angst, so, it HAS to be rooted in the past, somehow…. Nothing else makes any sense….

So, anybody have any suggestions, as to how I can get rid of all this shit that keeps coming up to haunt me, when I haven’t a single clue as to what the hell it’s all about?

No?

Well, I don’t blame you for not wanting to get involved…. mental health issues come under the heading of NIMBY for most folks, and, even for some ffolkes, who know a bit more about the issues involved, and are less judgmental…. It’s okay, though, because I have a sure fire way, at least of a temporary nature, that will do just fine to throw these feelings back behind the screen of denial where they generally reside; it’s called a random harlequin old-school pearl, a creative process that never fails to cheer me up…. So, I hope you enjoy the following group of pearls, because they’re definitely going to save my ass this morning….

“It is odd, is it not, that a person’s worth to society by is measured by their wealth, when instead their wealth should be measured by their worth to society.” — A. Cygni

“Belief in God? An afterlife? I believe in rock: this apodictic rock beneath my feet.” — Edward Abbey

— ‘Shit Happens’ according to… Waitress: “You want fries with that shit?”

“Even very young children need to be informed about dying. Explain the concept of death very carefully to your child. This will make threatening him with it much more effective.” — P. J. O’Rourke

“He hoped and prayed that there wasn’t an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn’t an afterlife.” — Douglas Adams

“Whoever invented the eraser had the human race pretty well sized up.” — Smart Bee

“Euripides was wont to say, ‘Silence is an answer to a wise man.'” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of Bashfulness

Those of y’all who have seen a number of pearls in your time reading this blog will recognize this one as damn near perfect….. If you don’t get why, not to worry…. It’s all good advice, or good concepts upon which to spend time considering, and, thus, is worth reading…. If the point it makes isn’t clear, don’t push it, it will come to you in time…. If you are like me, it may wake you up late at night, out of your sleep, to say a loud “AHA!”….. And if not, well, you didn’t waste much time, and it DID improve your mind, know it or not….
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I really wish…. Well, why not? Let’s see what happens….

Blithely Untitled

A poem came to me today, willy, nilly,
along with a sharp blow to the head.
Since it left me feeling just a bit silly,
anything that rhymes should lessen the dread.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Well, it came out… such as it is…. I think it may get some editing done on it, some day… for now, it’s fresh poetry, so treat it nicely, ‘kay?…. In the meantime, my ranting ability for today is rather limited, I think, since I can’t sit very long before having to get up to take a break… makes it hard to follow a close line of reasoning, necessary for a good rant…. So, we’re going back to an old-school variety pearl, just because I can, and I want to…. Besides, I think today, it’s for the best….

On previous occasions when I’ve tried to rant after writing a poem, or, in the mood I’m in, terrible things have happened, and regardless as to whether or not it may or may not happen again, I don’t care to take that risk today…. mostly because I’d be tempted to just leave the dead bodies where they laid, giving them no respect or burial…. Then, two days from now, I’ll regret it because of the irrevocable odoriferous nature of dead bodies after two days…. With THAT lovely image in your head, allow me to just move out of the way, as y’all stampede the bathroom, to give it up at the throne….

All back? All serene? Good, sorry ’bout that, won’t happen again…. Just enjoy the pearls, ffolkes, it’s the best way to get this done so you can get out of this mess….

“A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.” — Henry Ward Beecher

“For it is mutual trust, even more than mutual interest that holds human associations together. Our friends seldom profit us but they make us feel safe… Marriage is a scheme to accomplish exactly that same end.” — H. L. Mencken (1928)

“Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.” — Pythagoras (BC 582-507)

“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“One should always be a little improbable.” — Oscar Wilde

“A life directed chiefly toward the fulfillment of personal desires sooner or later always leads to bitter disappointment.” — Albert Einstein

“It’s a lot of fun being alive… I wonder if my bed is made?!?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Okay, well, I like it…. so, it stays….
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Today’s Pearl is, as are most of them, unique…. But, if something can be MORE unique than any other thing, if only by connotation, then, this Pearl is more so than any I can recall…. and my memory is VERY good…. Legally, I can’t go back and even start over, as it has a completed poem in it, so, we’ll just have to let it fly as it is, and hope for the best…. I hope y’all enjoy it, and aren’t turned away by the personal nature of a lot of it, or by the unreasonably huge amount of whine and cheesiness that was served up front…. I guess all I can do is all I can do, and I’ve done all I can do…. So be it, gigoid has spoken…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Never to forgive, no time to forget….

Posted on January 23, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Today’s Pearl is going to be a difficult one to write…. not because of the complexity or subtlety that is needed, nor for any great amounts of humor that I’ll be trying to infuse in it, though I’m sure humor won’t be out of place…. it just won’t have much effect. In order not to drive anyone away right off the bat, I’ll try to hold off any further spoiler remarks until its time for the actual event to unfold….. and, I’ll try not to drip tears on the keyboard as I type, a frequent problem with this sort of material….

In fact, the upcoming rant, and Pearl, could be considered as unique, beyond any reasons that already may apply for a blog such as this…. First, the title…. It actually has something to do with the content today; what it says refers directly to the rant that will go below, on global warming and climate change. This is unprecedented here on ECR; the one time it happened previously was an accident, when I forgot to do the title beforehand, and having written the Pearl already, the title ended up as a comment on it, after a fashion….. Other than that one instance, the title has never before directly referred to what is included in the Pearl itself….

Second, the content today will be not merely curmudgeonly, and my emotions regarding what is written about are much, much stronger than for most rants, because this is the BIG ONE, ffolkes. This one speaks to the End Times that we have brought upon ourselves with our massive stupidity, and lack of simple intelligent behavior. We’ve fouled our nest beyond redemption, and it is NOT an easy task to try to discuss it without involving my own feelings about the assholes who are to blame….

I am usually the kind of person who tries to fix the problem, rather than fixing blame… But, in this case, the problem is one I can’t fix…. nobody can, it’s too late. The physical processes involved in global warming have reached the stage where we not only don’t have the technology, or the smarts to know how to stop the process, but we don’t have enough TIME to figure it out…. The processes involved have already reached a point of no return, so the only option left for us is to adapt the best we can, which doesn’t appear to give us much time at all, as there is no adaptation we can make to learn how to breathe methane gas….

That’s enough of a preview in the intro section… I’d best leave some of my angst out for the actual rant. I’ve managed to blather about it long enough to cover the basic requirements, so, we’re good to go in that respect…. I only hope I can keep up the anger, and let go of the sadness and disappointment long enough to make this a good rant…. There’s certainly enough supporting material to prove my points….. Any who, I think I’ve been as clear, and as obscure as I could be in one short section, so….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Only the good die young. Note the average age in Congress.” — Smart Bee
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Do you remember what the First American Revolution was about? I mean, really about? In school, we are given a dual message as to the motivation for the rebellion, with the message the BRC WANTS you to believe on the top, and the real reason as the subtext, gone over quickly and then dismissed…. This is how you control and manipulate people, by controlling their perceptions, and what they are allowed to see and hear; it’s a technique that has been applied to the American people, as well as most of the people in the world, ever since the ink dried on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights…..

You see, the subtext of the message about the Revolution was this, (and I’m sure you’ve heard it….)…. “No taxation without representation.” You see, ffolkes, it’s all about the money, and it always has been….. We are told about how we fought this war with England for our freedom… freedom of religion, and freedom of government…. This was the idea used by the colonists who owned the land, and the plantations, to convince the laborer classes, the small merchants, and small land holders, the rest of the folks living here, to join in the revolution with them, promising virtually unlimited freedoms (compared to what they had known all their lives….), and never once letting on that protecting their money was the underlying reason….

You see, what was really wanted by our forefathers was freedom to keep their money for themselves, rather than having it taxed by a king they never saw, for public services they also never saw…. Not being particularly fond of sending their money off to the king, and never getting anything for it, the aristocrats among the colonists fooled the rest of them into joining the fight, while they sat comfortably at home, paying for it…. thus, the scam and charade began, and has been going strong ever since….

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

Now, it’s 2014, and our culture has been evolving under the auspices of this charade for over 200 years. We have reached the point where certain of our societal habits and fillips are becoming significantly dangerous, in a very real, physical sense….. One of our ingrained societal habits is that of entitlement, that particularly human characteristic that gives people the false impression they are adequate as moral beings, just because they’ve agreed to the delusional claims of the religious hierarchies, or sociopathic, power seeking politicians, or, worst of all, the amoral financiers who live for self-interest, giving them carte blanche to assume their own prominence at the top of the food chain….

I mean, one of the religious books these fools pay so much attention to says it right up front, “Man was given dominion over all the other animals, made master of all the world, in God’s name….” I know, that’s not an accurate quote, but the meaning is clear, and is exactly what they teach their constituency to believe….. This entitlement is what has led us to destroy our own nest, fouling the air and water to the point where we have outstripped our ability to adapt, either technologically, or biologically….

The article just below this paragraph is by one of my favorite authors, to give you another perception of what I’m seeing, and talking about today; I found some of the other links in his article, which will take y’all to material that will help understand the depth and severity of the problem we face now…. Please, take a few moments now to read it…. I’ll wait right here…..

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/01/21/fine-weather-for-creepy-melancholia/

The two links below are to other articles that contain some of the research facts that have brought this knowledge to the forefront of the news… The first is a summary of the current California drought, the second an assessment by experts about drought conditions world-wide in the upcoming year…. All of it is pretty grim, and pretty convincing, since none of it can be denied…. This stuff isn’t theory, it isn’t speculation, ffolkes, these are the FACTS…..

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/01/california-drought-scary-facts-snowpack

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/sdo_summary.html

The link below this paragraph is perhaps the scariest of these documents, as it is a discussion by the leading US government scientists in the appropriate fields, who have gotten together to file this report…. The opening lines are astoundingly frightening…. They paint a grim picture of WHATEVER future is in store for the US, with its immediate focus being on how the American people are now going to have to accept the FACT that what is happening is because of our own foolishness…. Go ahead, read the first page or two, then come on back here to finish this diatribe, as you can get back to the rest of that report later, should you wish to inundate yourself in evidence….

http://ncadac.globalchange.gov/download/NCAJan11-2013-publicreviewdraft-fulldraft.pdf

An old adage in writing talks about always leaving one’s audience wanting more…. I’d love to do so, but, that’s all there is, ffolkes. It’s too late for anything else, so all I can do is deliver the message, as clearly and as convincingly as I can, and, well, I almost said pray, or hope, that a miracle of some kind will happen, but, neither one of those looks like it will do much good…. We’ve already broken all the supposed laws that God might have given us, had He existed outside our own minds, a statement I make in complete confidence that there isn’t a priest, preacher, or Pope alive who would admit otherwise, by their own standards, if they were tasked to be honest….

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

~~ Emily Dickinson

Hope? Hope never dies, does it? As convinced as I am of our impending doom as a species, there is still a small, admittedly VERY small, piece of me that retains some hope that my assessment is incorrect….. But, even the power of Emily’s brand of unfounded, unasked-for hope, it is now getting very hard to retain any belief in it….

I WANT to believe there IS a feasible scientific or otherwise practical solution to the physical issues concerning the climate, with all its unknown, perilous changes, to which we will have to learn to adapt in a very short period of time…. or die. I want to, but, I don’t….. I cannot say I will welcome Death if it comes before I think it is my time, even though I have little fear of it…. Welcome or not, it is an issue I believe I WILL have to confront….

Dramatic? Yes. True? Yes. Don’t take my word for it, go read the articles, listen to the experts; they’ll all tell you the same thing, ffolkes. We have ignored Axiom #2** of Peruaosophy, and we are all about to become victims of our own ignorance. The change that is coming isn’t a matter of trying to decide on a new paint color, or even whether or not a politician is lying to us…. It is real, innovative, unpredictable in scope, if not direction, and is in our faces NOW….

**Axiom #2: The Nature of the Universe is Change. Unpredictable, innovative transformation of Reality is the Norm. If you have a problem with this, you’re in for a rough ride in Life.”

Addendum: You might ask, how did we ignore Axiom #2, as a culture? Perhaps the primary characteristic of those in power is their fear of change, and their insane need to maintain the status quo at all costs…. To me, this is simple logic, unassailable in its clarity, and its truth as a conclusion of both deductive and inductive reasoning…. If you doubt either assertion, perhaps this will help…. Proof of their fear of change? Ask a politician their opinion on term limits…. or, ask a banker their opinion of the Second amendment… Inductively, it seems obvious to me that only a very great fear of the unknown could account for the need for entitlement, or the desire to even possess power over others…. It isn’t sane, and nobody can tell me it is….

I will leave this gloomy discussion right there, with only the following three-star pearl as a final comment….

“The case has, in some respects, been not entirely devoid of interest.” — Sherlock Holmes [Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]

“While hunting in Africa, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How an elephant got into my pajamas I’ll never know.” — Groucho Marx

“Most of all, I’ve learned that a good time to laugh is anytime you can.” — Linda Ellerbee
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” . . .those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded . . . Sad, indeed, is it to see how men occupy themselves with trivialities, and are indifferent to the grandest phenomena– care not to understand the architecture of the heavens, but are deeply interested in some contemptible controversy about the intrigues of Mary Queen of Scots!” — Herbert Spencer

http://www.bartleby.com/201/1.html

The link above will take you to a copy, with annotations, of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland”….. for some reason, my sense of irony demanded I include it today, in spite of the several hundred verses one must wend through to reach the end, and all the meaning…. Rather than take up your time further with it here, I am providing the link so you may peruse it at your leisure, little as we may have of that left to us…. Sorry, no more doom & gloom now…. we’re going on to have some fun, if I have to hurt myself….
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I am bound and determined (what a clunky, awkward phrase! How did it ever survive in the English language for so long?….)… Any who, I am firmly invested in having a laugh or two now, even if I have to resort to picking on my own bozoid tendencies…. There are certainly enough of those to go around, which any of my exes would be happy to tell you….

Bozoid tendencies? What are those? Well, really, ffolkes, do you really feel the need for me to explain that? The very words are pretty self-explanatory…. but, I guess it’s been awhile since I expounded on my version** of this theory, so, to answer, quickly….

Bozoid tendencies are those human characteristics that are embedded in our species’ persona, hard-wired, as it were, into our psyches, that can only be described as being “clownish”, and cannot be suppressed, no matter how dignified or stuffy one tries to be…. It can be best expressed vocally by the phrase, “I came, I saw, I screwed up.”…..

At some point in life, each and every one of us will do something really stupid, right in front of the most embarrassing group of people possible, such as family, or an entire stadium of excitable fans, or a restaurant full of strangers…. Often it is something as simple as forgetting a wife’s birthday, or forgetting to close a zipper, ensuring a wardrobe failure at the wrong time, or it could be as compelling a moment as running the wrong direction in a Super Bowl…. but, we all do it at one time in our lives, without exception…. Hence, the theory of Bozoid Tendencies….

** Inspired by the metaphoric brilliance of the Firesign Theater’s audio improvisational album, “I Think We’re All Bozo’s On This Bus!”, the Theory of Bozoid Tendencies was first discussed and codified in Berkeley in 1969….

This is the period when gigoid (that’s me….) spent a lot of time in such discussions with other burgeoning social philosophers, all UCB students of various vintages, in various dark, smoky venues, in various stages of mindfulness due to either extreme use of sober imagination and logic, to the often brilliant scintillation of drug induced excitement of the imagination, whether the drug was wine, beer, MJ, or something more exotic, if infrequent.

Having obviously survived the experiences intact, the Theory has been shown to be valid in many, many instances over the years, in myself, and in the world at large…. with most of such proof provided in the daily news…. when not in the mirror….

With all of that in mind, we’ll now search for some pearls that can make me laugh…. you’re on your own, this one will be according to MY sense of what is funny, and what isn’t…. So there…. I TOLD you we all have a sense of entitlement, didn’t I?….. Besides, if nothing else, YOU can laugh at MY sense of entitlement, or my humorous standards, if you so desire, and I can laugh at myself (I’m easily amused….)…. just for making the effort, which goes to the evidence folder for the theory’s validity….

“A guinea pig is not from Guinea but a rodent from South America. A firefly is not a fly, but a beetle. A giant panda bear is really a member of the raccoon family. A black panther is really a leopard that has a solid black coat rather then a spotted one. Peanuts are not really nuts. The majority of nuts grow on trees while peanuts grow underground. They are classified as a legume-part of the pea family. A cucumber is not a vegetable but a fruit. — Smart Bee

(Just a few of the reasons I love the English language…. and the English mind, which is completely twisted…..)

“I think you ought to know I’m feeling terribly depressed.” — Douglas Adams — The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Marvin

(And I think I have very good reason to be depressed, don’t you?….. So much so, I have to laugh, so I don’t cry….)

“The education of a man is never completed until he dies.” — Robert E. Lee

(Don’t know exactly why, but this, to me, is funny…. perhaps more funny, strange, because of the irony, than funny ha ha, but, funny….)

“Life isn’t fair.” — L.J. Smith

(This reminds me of my favorite line to use to try to gently remind someone they are whining for no reason; simply ask, “Who was the one who lied to you?” “Who was who?” “The one who told you life would be fair.”…. First heard from my father, at a young age….)

(Okay, so, I’m not funny today…. I’ll quit with the comments, and find a solid final threesome of pearls for ya….)

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read.
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

— Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), “Ozymandias” (1819)

“Everything that goes up must come down. But there comes a time when not everything that’s down can come up.” — George Burns (1896-1996)

You know it’s going to be a bad day, when you find a note on your door that says, “Knocked, you weren’t in. — Opportunity” — Smart Bee

You may well ask yourself why I felt compelled to include the excerpt by Shelley in there, but, I, being the curmudgeon that I am, will only say that I know that my Gentle Readers will be able to look at that, in juxtaposition with everything else I wrote today, and see why I fell over laughing when I saw it come up on the screen, and why it’s a particularly funny joke right now…. The others, well, as I said, you’re on your own…. I laughed….

😆
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“Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves.” — Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

Either this means I should never have started, but kept silent, or, it means I spent a lot of time in silence, fashioning a great Pearl. I’ll have to leave that particular judgment up to others, but, I gotta admit, I like this one quite a bit…. Long as it may be, I had fun, and I said what I had to say…. Now, I can go finish the day in good spirits, having completed what I now consider as my duty, or, at least, the initial one of the day…. See ya tomorrow, for now…..

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

You always remember the first time….

Posted on November 9, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

So much for the best laid plans…. I’d intended to NOT write this morning, but, Vicki wants her first Pearl, so, I have to make one for her today, or, I’ll never hear the end of it…. 🙂 Just kidding, of course, but, only a little…. After getting to spend time with her and Carolyn yesterday, I’m happy to oblige…. Besides, y’all should know by now it’s hard to shut me up once I get started….

We met over Carole’s grave at the Templeton Cemetery yesterday, and got to do a lot of catching up to the last 23 years since our last meeting….Actually, much longer in C’s case, as she missed the 20 year reunion that V and I got to in 1988 or so…. It was an embarrassingly large number of years since our last sight of each other at our HS graduation, large enough we won’t mention it…. We talked of Carole, and our lives since then, having a great time reestablishing some of the bond of friendship left from so long ago….

Both of them are now the newest members of the group who receives the email version of the Pearls each day I send them out…. I used to call them the Pearl Drops; now they are the Pearly Gates, which seems more fitting, given our advanced ages…. though I must admit that both of them have borne the weight of the years far better than I; they looked great!….. I don’t know how this will go over, but, hey, that’s never stopped me before, has it?…

Rather than turn them off with an immediate blathering session, I’ll make this intro short, and get into the pearls right away, as I am still on the road, technically… It’s about 0545, I still have 150 or so miles to go to get home, and I can feel the cold hovering, just waiting to suck up my energy…. So, I’m going to create one old-school pearl, pick a poem, and find an old rant to include, to give them an idea of a typical Pearl that goes out… and I’d best get to it, or I won’t have the energy to do any of what I need to do today, like drive home…. Too bad, actually, the internet at this motel is the fastest I’ve ever encountered; they’re running at 144 Mbs download, which is incredibly fast… Got to watch a movie online last night with no skips or buffering problems…

Any who…. Shall we Pearl?….

“Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.” — Aldous Huxley
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So, this is an old-school pearl… The parameters I used to pick these delightful morsels of thought were a bit loose, but, in general, they all were to direct our attention to the nature of Man… just to see what is up with that…..

For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate’er is best administer’d is best.
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can’t be wrong whose life is in the right.
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind’s concern is charity.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle iii, Line 303

“Society highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus be normal. Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years.” — R. D. Laing

“It is well to remember, my son, that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.” — John Andrew Holmes

“I give up, what is the meaning of life?” — Smart Bee

“‘Forty-two,’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.” — Douglas Adams (Life, The Universe, and Everything)

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” — Nietzsche

See? Perfect…. It’s all in the wrist….
____________________________

Normally, I’d spend time finding a good poem, but we’ll go with one of mine, instead…. 🙂

Piraeus calls me, silently.

Sizzle, sizzle, crash, bang, boom.
Intellect burning with subsequent doom.
Lingering long over decisive style,
Whistling up chaos all the while.

Such frozen thoughts may shatter,
Should we infer, but, no matter.
Firing blanks is children at play
Blooded sages all gasp in dismay.

Nonsense is good sense at times
Mundane objectives trip lightly in rhymes.
Fallen angels dance on a pin
Until each sinner enters within.

Fast moments with natural rain
Bring ashes, yet still must remain.
Final thoughts clamor for more
Find them only on a far distant shore.

~~ gigoid ~~

____________________________

Not too bad, so far…. I’ll be back in a moment of two, with a rant from an archived Pearl to substitute for the one I DON’T have in me today…. This is from sometime in the middle of 2012….

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

“Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt (1759-1806) speech on the India Bill, Nov. 18, 1783

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

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

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

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

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

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

So, what is my point here? My point is this…. those pathetic fanatics killed more than they had ever been able to kill, once. Once. Since that one time, our country has killed over 300,000 civilians in retaliation (you call it what you like, I call it schoolyard revenge by bullies), and every politician in this country has wrapped themselves in the flag, not to proclaim their patriotism, but to manipulate the unreasonable fear they created in the public to keep them from realizing the truth of the matter. And that truth is: we are in no real danger from Al Qaida, or from any other splinter faction terrorist group. They may be able to pull of stunts such as that one occasionally, but for the most part, the world has gotten pretty good at either catching them in hiding, or stopping their plots before they actually carry them out. Governments have a LOT more resources than terrorists, no matter how rich they may be personally.

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

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

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

Not bad… not bad…. Maybe, if I repeat it long enough, it will become true…. That seems to be the policy that works for political pundits, and quite well, given the gullibility of the average American…. Oops, sorry, forgot, the rant is done…. Any who, I think that’s enough for one day, and hopefully, a fine first Pearl for my friends…. I can’t say right now if there will be a Pearl tomorrow morning; we’ll see how I feel when I get up then…. meantime, see ya….

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

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

Which is Why…

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

gigoid

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

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