As dragons go, Smaug is a wuss…

Posted on March 30, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

If it weren’t for the previous twenty-five years, I’d give up trying to sleep altogether…. Those years, spent living, for the most part, without the boon of sleeping more than six or seven hours a day, on average, (if I was lucky), gave me plenty of reasons to try to find ways to increase the amount of time I spent horizontal, unconscious, in imitation of Morpheus….

Dwelling, as it were, upon the fields of Endymion, became an important task, if only to arm myself with more than the minimum of energy to deal with the demands upon your average middle-aged husband and father of two….. Sleep is a weapon, as you may know…. It helps dealing with the energy levels of the kids, when one doesn’t have to, almost literally, drag one’s sorry ass to the bathroom each morning before work…. Too late now…. However, I managed to make it through all of that, reasonably successfully, (in my own mind….), without the sleep…. But, I missed it….

As a consequence of this search, this last few months, experimenting with cannabis products to find the best ones to replace or augment my other pain medications, has had sort of a vacation-like quality to it, as I’ve found a couple of products that have enabled me to sleep better than I have since my twenties. The last couple of days, I’ve actually gotten spoiled, getting upwards of eight to ten hours of relatively uninterrupted sleep, awakening stronger than I’ve felt in many years…. Amazing what a bit of unadulterated rest will do, isn’t it?….

Once again, I see I’ve allowed myself to ramble through my own backyard, unashamedly sharing my patently boring personal intimacies, but, in the process, filling in a lot of empty space on the screen, all with reasonably good English…. If nothing else, I punctuate splendidly, and my grammar is a thing of beauty to behold, don’t you think? I do…. Of course, none of what has gone by has any relation to what we are supposed to be doing, which is finding an interesting way to pass time while y’all wend your way to your seats, to get safely strapped in for the day’s dive….

Oh….. It seems that while I was rambling around like that, that is exactly what happened…. I’ll be damned…. I’m not sure it has EVER gone quite so smoothly…. I’m not sure if I should be happy, or nervous, waiting for the other shoe to drop…. Oh, hell, I’m going to assume the best, for once, and get on with the show, before anything has a chance to go wonky….

By the way…. I forgot to tell y’all…. I found an old report, from back in February of 2012, when the doctors were finally able to pinpoint what’s wrong with me. At that time, I was diagnosed with “witzelsucht” (vit’sel-zoocht) [Ger.] , which is defined as, “A mental condition characteristic of frontal lobe lesions, marked by the making of odd jokes and painful puns, and the telling of pointless stories, at which the patient himself is intensely amused.” …..

Oh….. Well….That would explain it….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Let us suffer any person to tell us his story morning and evening, but for one twelve-month, and he will become our master.” — Edmund Burke

Hmph…. a lot HE knows! I’ve been at this now for going on THREE twelve-months…. I don’t see anybody calling ME master!!!! Okay, I’ll stop now….
_____________________________

Beset by personal demons on every side, I’m retreating, at top speed, to a more stable vantage point…. Once I’ve gained my footing in a more trustworthy setting, I’ll be back to rant, or pearl, or do whatever I need to do to keep this on track…. For the nonce, hold your breath….. If I’m not back by the time you can count to oh, say, seven hundred eighty-three, then, go ahead and take another breath…. I shouldn’t be too long after that….

Better…. I found a nice little hill, with a commanding view of the surrounding terrain, and a nice, tall cliff at my back; very defensible, with a pool of water in a cave in the cliff, in case we come under siege…. Now I can afford to take the time to decide on a rant, or go dive for some pearls…. In fact, I’m going to do that, without telling you first which one it will be…. You’ll just have to figure it out on your own, when you see what comes next…. Hell, you could get lucky, and I’ll find some ART….

My god, it’s something new and different! What WILL he think of next?….. Enjoy…..
Okay, ffolkes…. the decision as to a rant or an old-school pearl has been taken out of my hands…. The above photo, the first portrait of all three of them released by the royal family since George’s christening, last October, is one of two potential pieces of news that would serve for this section’s espoused purpose….

The other choice is a story about California State Senator Leland Yee, and his partner in crime, Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, a Chinese Triad Tong leader, both residents of SF’s Chinatown, who were recently arrested on charges of money-laundering, corruption, drug trafficking, and murder-for-hire…. As a long-time city and state politician, Lee makes an excellent target for a rant, as a very obvious member of the BRC caught with his hands in the till….

Political corruption for a rant, or some nice, bland little rant about the uselessness of royalty in the modern age?…. But, I don’t know….. with a Grand Doofus Face like Prince William’s, how can I pick on them, royal twits that they are?… It’s not honorable, nor is it cricket, to pick on the handicapped…. Besides, it’s a cute kid, and he’s got a tough life ahead…. Politician Lee and Tong Leader Chow are too obvious a target for my taste…. Such a rant would be like taking candy from a baby…. So, we’ll go with an old-school pearl, and keep the parameters loose, so there isn’t any real damage to anyone, other than, perhaps, to their sense of fair play…. Let’s dive!….

“In adversity remember to keep an even mind.” — Horace (8 BC)

“Keep the juices going by jangling around gently as you move.” — Satchel Paige

“One of the greatest victories you can gain over someone is to beat him at politeness.” — Josh Billings

“To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.” — Confucius

“Fear is the lock, and laughter, the key to your heart.” — Steven Stills

“Drinking when we are not thirsty and making love all year round, madam; that is all there is to distinguish us from other animals.” — Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro

A monk asked Nansen, “Is there any great spiritual teaching that has not been preached to the people?”
Nansen said, “There is.”
“What is the truth that has not been taught?”
“Nothing,” Nansen replied.

— Smart Bee
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It’s now just barely 4 ack emma, so decision making is probably not an advisable pastime for someone such as myself, who makes an unfortunate habit of being up at this hour…. It’s probably not advisable, even though I’m careful about making decisions more critical than which subject matter to choose, regardless of the potential for nonsense…. I’ve haven’t lived to this ripe age without a certain degree of intelligence making itself felt; I’m actually getting pretty good at thinking ahead. Sometimes, though, the process of making ANY decision becomes a chore, an ordeal of note, otherwise known as a pain in the proverbial ass….

Such is the decision as to the poem for today…. I can’t seem to pin down any particular mood, or feeling, which might give me a clue about which author to pick…. I just used Emily yesterday, twice, so, I don’t feel right about going to that well again…. Oh, hell, I’m not in the mood to waffle about it any more, so I’ll just pick one of mine, and be done with it…. I’ll look for one that isn’t TOO depressing, just as a minor parameter by which to choose…..

Relative Cynicism, with Caramel Sauce

Absolute stillness follows violent movement,
it can happen during a downhill race,
as an immovable piece of asphalt pavement
meets the once handsome racer’s face.

Yuk, yuk, yuk said that asshole Moe,
after poking both of Larry’s eyes,
bashing face, head, & crotch of Curly Joe
and only ever got hit with pies.

Lonely moments never really come along
when Murphy’s got us in his sights.
Not for money, love, or siren’s song
will he abrogate his natural rights.

All we can do is sigh, or laugh in pain,
as Life portions out our ration of shit.
Silver linings melt in the slightest rain,
so we may as well learn to live with it.

~~ gigoid ~~

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“For several years more I maintained public relations with the Almighty. But privately, I ceased to associate with him.” — Jean-Paul Sartre

I can relate…. This sentiment seems to me to be one that might be common, to any of us who have refused to fall into the delusional system that is so prevalent in our society, the one they call religion…. or, in deference to accuracy, in my estimation, the cult of deliberate ignorance…. For well over 10,000 years, since before the advent of writing, people have been trying to foist the idea of supernatural origins for all we see in reality upon the rest of humanity, as a means of justifying their own particular penchant for manipulation of others, their avarice, and their gratuitous, insane notions of piety….

I suppose, if they didn’t work so hard to make other people go along with their insanity, it wouldn’t piss me off so much….. I understand they are just trying to figure out in their own minds how to deal with their own fears, and their unwillingness to use what brains they have to take care of themselves, to take responsibility for their life, and their actions…. These cowardly fools would rather place their ignorant faith in a supernatural entity, for which there is no convincing evidence in reality…. God has always made an excellent scapegoat, though, which is why He is so popular among the cowardly….

It has always been somewhat irksome to me, ever since I was a child, to have people expect me to fall right in with this nonsense…. Even at the tender age of four, I knew there were flaws in the story I was getting… There were too many internal inconsistencies in the logic, which caused my already logical mind to question what I was hearing, even then….

There were too many flags coming up from my internal crap detector, which tended to go off like crazy, every time I went to Sunday School…. and this was in the Presbyterian Church, which is about as bland and flexible a creed as exists among the myriad of Biblical interpretations that are floating around out there in the world at large…. Plus, I just KNEW it had to be a big joke, or lie, or something, when they tried to convince me of the “rightness” of “everything” I was reading in the Bible…. For example, that women were less important than men, especially in the church, as exemplified in the following short discussion….

“In the early twelfth century century the Virgin had been the supreme protectress of civilisation. She had taught a race of tough and ruthless barbarians the virtues of tenderness and compassion. The great cathedrals of the Middle Ages were her dwelling places upon earth. In the Renaissance, while remaining the Queen of Heaven, she became also the human mother in whom everyone could recognise qualities of warmth and love and approachability… The stabilising, comprehensive religions of the world, the religions which penetrate to every part of a man’s being– in Egypt, India or China– gave the female principle of creation at least as much importance as the male, and wouldn’t have taken seriously a philosophy that failed to include them both… It’s a curious fact that the all-male religions have produced no religious imagery– in most cases have positively forbidden it. The great religious art of the world is deeply involved with the female principle.” — Kenneth Clark, 1969

Let’s not even get into the other crap they were trying to get me to buy…. original sin, the holy ghost, blasphemy, worshiping graven images, etc.,…. it’s all even more outrageously manipulative, and unbelievable than believing women are inferior to men, by design (which is, obviously, not true….). Also annoying is the way this philosophy, Christianity, is touted as oh-so-wonderfully inclusive, oh-so-compassionate, and oh-so-generous in nature…. all the while they are trying to convince everyone of these qualities, they are displaying their bigotry, ignorance, aggressiveness, and fear of aliens of all kinds….

These people, the white Christians, have been shown to be ultimately responsible for most of the wars we’ve seen over the centuries, as well as having the responsibility for having kept the general populace under the control of the savage master ruling classes, those humans with no compassion at all, assisting them blatantly with their constant admonitions to obey worldly authority, on the promise of immortality…. AFTER THEY DIE….

Can you think of ANYTHING more stupid? To buy into the notion that our actions on this plane of existence have some kind of regulatory effect on where we might go when we die, is the most egregiously distorted view of reality I can imagine, one with absolutely NO proof, or even evidence that can be even pointed at, much less held in the hand….

Well, ffolkes, I just can’t bring myself to do it. I won’t refuse responsibility for my own actions, and adjust my behavior to fit some other asshole’s idea of what is right, just on the promise of a reward when I die…. It doesn’t make any sense, and I’m not going to do it, so there….

To finish out this indictment, of religion in general, and of Christianity in specific case, here are five pearls that show exactly what is important in modern society, all to maintain the status quo….

“Irresponsibility isn’t a sickness–it’s an art.” — Remington Steele

“If words were invented to conceal thought, I think that newspapers are a great improvement on a bad invention.” — Thoreau

“Prejudice is when you don’t hate an individual, but you hate what they stand for, when without knowing them personally, you decide they are worthy of your derision.” — Callan Williams

“Most people would like to be delivered from temptation but would like it to keep in touch.” — Robert Orben

“Ignorance is Strength.” — George Orwell’s 1984

These statements, then, become the rallying cries of modern society, pointing out to people how to be successful in life, by encouraging everyone to avoid all blame, and all virtue….. And we wonder why we’re going to hell in a handbasket….

A fig for those by law protected,
Liberty’s a glorious feast;
‘Courts for cowards were erected,
Churches built to please the priest.

— Robert Burns (1759-1796)
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This will someday be noted as an example of a “typical” Pearl from this era…. I can’t say at all how good it is, or even whether it is readable; that would be too egotistical, even for me. I will say this…. It’s done, and I’m glad, because I managed to create this one in spite of all the handicaps I’ve been encountering of late, most of which I’ve been strong enough to keep from mentioning (that’s scary, eh?….)…. Any who, as I said, and will now reiterate, it’s done…. So….. 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 the dubious

Balderdash! A jury won’t convict without that mango….

Posted on March 18, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Now that I’ve been sitting here for more than 45 minutes, with nothing that comes close to resembling a coherent thought having passed through my brain, it might be time to start to panic…. First, I was sleepy, so I sat and dozed…. Then I stared at the screen a while, just letting my mind wander, which it did, far enough I had to spend the money for a bus to go find it….. When I got back, I was still sitting there, staring….

At that point, I came to the realization that I might just be having a bit of a problem here this morning…. In order to avoid the sort of issues that can arise on such occasions, I closed off the partition between the cockpit and the cabin, which will at least keep the stewards, stewardesses, and the rest of the flight crew from catching on to what is happening….

Of course, for them to clue in to what’s happening, it’s a point of fact that I need to know first, and, I don’t believe the odds on that are very good, not today….. I’ve always found that keeping them ignorant for as long as I can works better than letting them in on any part of the pre-take-off routine, anyway, so that plays right in to what I planned. I suppose all of this will have to come out at the next board meeting, when the newly-minted policy manual is to be revealed…. I think I’ll just mark it all down on the tally sheets, and get on with whatever else we’ll be allowed to do….

Your guess about that would, patently, be as good as any I could make today…. In fact, I’m pretty sure that, so far, I’ve been almost completely impenetrable, in terms of meaning…. I ask you… have I said ANYTHING rational, or, even anything coherent, yet today? If you said yes, may your God have mercy upon your soul, because your brain has died ahead of your body…. Nothing, as far as I can tell, of what I’ve produced thus far today even APPROACHES coherency, and, I think we can safely assume that rationality is equally out of the question… unless drastic changes in Reality take place very soon, anyway….

The reason for my cranial fog is easy…. I overdosed…. Well, as far as it is possible to do so on cannabinoids, I overdosed, which is not the same issue as with other drugs…. By this I mean that I just ate one too many of my chocolates, and it’s making it hard to wake up…. my mind would prefer to be asleep, thank you very much, and is rebelling with great stubbornness to the idea of waking up all the way…. Droopy eye lids, foggy mind, lethargic, stiff body, all the typical symptoms of an old, tired crank are present, and no matter how hard I try to cudgel my mind into working, it doesn’t want to cooperate….

Oh, look at that…. In spite of all this, I’ve again managed to spew out five paragraphs of pure twaddle…. In light of how things are progressing up to this point, I’m going to have to settle for that, and get on with the rest of this…. I can’t say I’m particularly hopeful that things will get straightened out in time to salvage today’s Pearl, but, with the world in the state it’s in, I don’t think it will notice much anyway…. Plus, the traffic here at ECR has dropped off again to the point where I feel lucky to see five visits a day, not counting my own checks to see if anyone has left a comment… SIGH…

It doesn’t matter, though, any more than it ever has…. This stuff HAS to come out of my head, before it becomes toxic, or explosive, so bear with me, while I empty out the crap that built up overnight….

Shall we Pearl?…..

Years steal
Fire from the mind as vigour from the limb,
And life’s enchanted cup but sparkles near the brim.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto iii, Stanza 8
_____________________________

Ranting, of course, is out of the question today…. I’d probably end up frothing at the mouth over something I did myself, thus adding weight to the evidence being gathered to have me committed….. So, I’ll stick to old-school pearls, which can only hurt me if I let them…. Let’s see what Smart Bee has for us today…. How about we use the word, “honor” as a parameter? Let’s see what comes up, shall we?….

“Badness, look you, you may choose easily in a heap: level is the path, and right near it dwells. But before Virtue the immortal gods have put the sweat of man’s brow; and long and steep is the way to it, and rugged at the first.” — Hesiod (c. 700 BC) — Works and Days, Line 287

“That which is incapable of proof itself is not proof of anything else.” — Shelley

“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” — Paul Simon

“There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue.” — Edmund Burke (1729-1797) — Observations on Late Publication on the Present State of the Nation,
— Vol. i, p. 273

“As some say, Solon was the author of the apothegm, “Nothing in excess.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Solon, xvi

“Forget about likes and dislikes. They are of no consequence. Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.” — George Bernard Shaw

“The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the falsehood. One word of truth outweighs the world.” — Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Wow…. sometimes, this process just works really well…. All good stuff, ffolkes, and a damn fine way to spend a few moments of your allotted reading time today….
_____________________________

Resorting to the use of Emily’s poetry, for me, is an indulgence…. today, I need that indulgence, so, Shawna will just have to deal…. 🙂

I reason, Earth is short

I reason, Earth is short—
And Anguish—absolute—
And many hurt,
But, what of that?

I reason, we could die—
The best Vitality
Cannot excel Decay,
But, what of that?

I reason, that in Heaven—
Somehow, it will be even—
Some new Equation, given—
But, what of that?

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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Since I don’t possess the wherewithal to produce a fresh rant, here is one from the time prior to the election in 2012…. This is one of my favorite rants, because it doesn’t pull any punches, or make any excuses…. It’s mini, but it’s mighty…. Enjoy….. Oh, if vulgarity offends you, you might want to skip this…. it’s pretty fucking vulgar in spots…. It uses words like “lawyer”, “priest”, and “politician” frequently, all of which offend me….
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From 6/20/12:

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

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

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

FUCK the ignorant fools who blindly accept what they’re told, by anyone on TV, or wearing a suit and a flag pin, or in a pulpit…. FUCK all those who refuse to use their own brain for more than carrying their fat ass from table to toilet, and back, or learning to use the remote control…

FUCK the preacher/priest, who doesn’t pay any fucking taxes at all, and counsels obedience to worldly authority. FUCK the fucking politicians, who have set up, and continue to take advantage of, a system that keeps the honest, hard-working citizen on his knees, and rewards lying, cheating, bullying, and stealing from the public treasury….. FUCK the “corporate persons” who control ALL the fucking money and resources, at the expense of everyone else on the planet….

FUCK them ALL, really hard, in the place it will hurt the worst….

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

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

Okay, that’s enough on that for one day. I could easily write another five or six paragraphs, complete with endless examples of the egregious lying, cheating, and stealing going on in front of us, but that would no doubt end up boring us both. Instead I’ll ask you to go register to vote, to make sure that, for this election at least, there is a chance to push back the forces of ignorance that once again threaten our way of life…..Register, and make sure to vote……
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There you go…. I suppose, at this point, so long AFTER the election, my only remaining hope is that in the NEXT election, we are given something more than we generally end up with, and can actually cast a vote that doesn’t feel as if we are being forced to choose the lesser of two evils…. Fat chance, eh?…. I, like everyone else, apparently, consistently choose to forget that anyone who WANTS to be president is, by that desire, marked as someone who should never be allowed to have it….

It takes a very sick mind to WANT to possess that much power over others…. Alternately, it is also insanely egotistical of ANYONE to think they are capable of handling such power, while still maintaining their own integrity…. History has proven beyond all shadow of doubt that just isn’t ever going to happen; it never has before, and there is no reason to think that anyone alive today is MORE virtuous, or more capable, than ALL of the examples in history that prove it to be impossible.

Now, if y’all have an example, in history, or in imagination, that proves me wrong in this, I’d be happy to hear it…. But, having looked at most of what has happened in Man’s relatively short time on this planet, I feel pretty confident that won’t be happening, even if anyone WAS stopping in to read this….

Enough for one day…. Fuck ’em, they’re assholes, and they’re going to kill us all if we don’t make some radical changes in society…. Too bad it might already be too late….
_____________________________

For such an ordeal, this came out pretty well… Well enough I can let it fly without feeling overly anxious about it…. In fact, I’m going to tell myself a lie, and believe it is SO good, it will garner the most traffic of any Pearl, ever….. Right….. Like THAT’s gonna happen….. Oh well, c’est la vie, as they say in Paris…. They DO say that there, don’t they? I hope so…. 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 the dubious

Ah…. I see…. It’s the masticating jelly ….

Posted on March 2, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

A powerful vortex begins to form in the open space in the air above the machine, outlined by crossing beams of laser-light, spinning swiftly, a maelstrom of flashing colors and shadows, assaulting the eyes with vibrating images sans identifiable form, nearly mesmerizing in their intensity. As the vortex spins, it begins to grow larger, until the edges push against walls of the machine, straining to break free of the light beams holding it at the size and shape to which it had grown, an oblong spheroid, about 6 feet long, by four feet wide through the middle…. A strong sense of Evil permeates the air of the room, seemingly emanating from the spinning shape, which is pulsing like a beating heart as it madly turns….. Doctor Mephistopheles looks over at me, grinning widely…. “Well,”, he says with satisfaction, “there’s your Doomsday Weapon, as requested.”…..

I’m not sure what prompted such an opening today…. I mean, it’s obvious, to me, what it is about, and what internal issues stimulated the mental images that bled out of my head…. I enjoy making up fictional beginnings for Pearls, as I like to think of myself as a writer of diverse skills, one of which is descriptive prose, that describes a physical scene, or an interaction between people… Of course, that opinion is most likely just a factor of my own gullibility, leading me to believe what isn’t remotely true….

No worries, mates, we all have our own set of delusions about Reality, which we use at our discretion to keep ourselves amused, and all of us tend to make those delusions a bit grandiose, given half a chance…. I may be smarter than the average bear, but, that doesn’t deter me from being a Bozo…. not at all…. Just look at my nose!….

That being said, and acknowledged, it may explain WHY the first paragraph came to be, but completely ignores HOW….. which is also okay, because, quite frankly, Scarlett, I don’t give a damn…. Y’all know by now this section is where I experiment with any number of techniques for introducing the rest of these Pearls, so whatever happens here is pretty much okay, since it’s all going to be ignored later, and nobody is being charged for any of it, in spite of the (almost) negligible costs involved…. I reconciled myself to that long ago, with no resentment at all, realizing from the start that a certain amount of sacrifice would be necessary….

Now, at this point, y’all are most likely wondering just WHAT THE HELL IS HE BABBLING ABOUT NOW? Hell, your guess is as good as mine…. I’ve slipped into a trance-like state, typing away madly, words going onto the screen, but, I really don’t have a clue as to any of what they’re saying, or where it might take us if it continues much longer…. it could be just about anywhere….

As I type, most of my mind is thinking about breakfast, or perhaps, a morning worship session at the throne; it’s all a blur, when observed from a third-party viewpoint. I suppose I could use one of the emergency methods again, as this seems to have burst its buttons, and no longer bears any resemblance to anything remotely appropriate for ANY style of literature….. Hell, at this point, a poem probably couldn’t save this….

Whoa, Nellie! What the hell was that? I think, ffolkes, I’ve completely lost all control, as well as my bearings. (That’s the loud, chalkboard-scraping, nerve-bending, strident noise you hear, like metal scraping on metal…..) Now I KNOW we’re going to have to go with an emergency ending for this…. In fact, I’m breaking out #4 right now…. Stand back, please….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Everywhere I look I see NEGATIVITY and ASPHALT…” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

“Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there.” — P. J. O’Rourke, Parliament of Whores (1991)

Of late, I’ve been using a lot of old material, from my archives…. I’ve ranted so much in the last two and a half years I feel as if I’m repeating myself, too often. This is frustrating, to some degree, because I really do want things to change, and my rants are intended to cause enough of a disturbance that people notice, and read what I have to say, thus, hopefully on my part, making some kind of difference in what is to come…. That is the intent, anyway…. Today, then, I give you the following freshly composed rant, about a rather old subject involving conspiracies at the highest levels of society, that were covered up as part of the circus of fear that accompanied the events of 9/11/01…..

Eric Snowden performed an act that will someday go down in history as one of two figures, depending on who gets to write the books…. Either he was a traitor of the first water, or his actions were an example of what patriotism REALLY means…. To my way of looking at the evidence, he obviously deserves to be included in the latter category, and I believe that will HAVE to be the eventual outcome, given the FACT that what he revealed is all the TRUTH…. and the TRUTH will always make itself known, one way or another…. It may or may not affect Reality, not enough to stimulate any changes, but, it will always be made clear…. even if I have to tell it myself….

That, of course, is my opinion, one not shared by those in the Beloved Ruling Class, who are bearing the brunt of the outrage over the information he revealed about our government’s illegal, immoral, and unethical spying on its own people, as well as on the rest of the world. He caused them no end of discombobulation and embarrassment, pulling the covers they had used to hide their activities for ten years, since the clandestine attack on 9/11/01, an event the BRC used to further its ends faster, and further, than it had ever before been able to accomplish….

In one short day, in the acts of a few hours time, the shadowy corporate slave masters forged the most valuable tool for control over others they’d ever had…. A massive outbreak of unreasoning fear, outrage and anger, felt by the entire nation, fresh and strong, all accomplished with a few thousand dollars, and the manipulation of some idiotic, fanatic, pathetic Jihadists, whose own set of delusions made them easy prey for those who wished to take advantage of the events that transpired that day…..

What? What’s that you ask? Where did I get the idea that 9/11 was a conspiracy? Oh, honey, I knew that was true the day it happened…. You mean you can’t see that? I clued into that the first time I saw that airplane hit the tower….

You can’t see how easily the whole scenario fell into place? Did anyone ever go look for the money? Who paid for the assholes who carried out the attacks? Who gave them the idea to attack the West using our own airplane in the first place? Who maintains a world-wide aura of anger and hatred against themselves, for the aggressive bombing, and ubiquitous meddling in the affairs of whomever we wish to oppress?

And, most suspiciously, why were the Saudis (whose rulers just HAPPENED to be in Washington DC, visiting their old friend, GWB Sr, the original shrub, who just HAPPENS to be an ex-CIA director….), able to get advance information on the attacks, such that they were advised to leave the country just prior to them?

A lot of other little discrepancies in the stories that emerged that day made it clear to me the whole set of terrorist acts had been planned, and probably paid for, by someone with an interest in diverting the public’s attention away from what was happening at the time on the political stage….

I do know the attacks came at what had to be the absolute most advantageous time to save the sorry ass of GWB Jr., whose butt was about to be put in a tight sling, for having cheated in a national election, stealing it through the egregious use of clandestine poll shenanigans, that caused a vital swing state to vote in the (idiotic) electoral college for Bush, when a vote for Gore would have swung the election the other way (remember the “broken” voting machines in Ohio?… No? Well, I do….).

In the days and weeks just prior to the attacks on 9/11, the office of the US Attorney General had announced it would be investigating the claims of election fixing on the part of the Bush camp, seeking to find out if they had manipulated the voting process to win the state in Ohio, and others…. This came with the intimation that, depending on the results of that investigation, the same would possibly be applied to examine the results of the previous election, in 2000, when voting irregularities in Florida gave the state’s electoral votes to the Bush campaign, as did the shenanigans in Ohio in 2004…. It was clear to me, at the time, that the Republican Party was in deep shit….

But, then came the attacks, and plans for any and all such investigations were lost in the flaring outrage that enveloped the entire country, the aftereffects of which are still being felt today, thanks to our egregiously selfish ruling class, and their shadowy masters behind the scenes…. This country has, in the past thirteen short years, lost the protection of more of the Bill of Rights than it had in the previous two hundred years, thanks to the events of that day, and I, for one, am not terribly happy about that…. In fact, I’ve gone beyond unhappy, through a bit upset, and on into downright pissed off….

…..and I don’t intend to stop feeling pissed off, until I start to see some of the people responsible start falling into the holes in the ground we’ve prepared for them, as they get picked off, one by one, by the soldiers of the upcoming revolution…. This world is ripe for revolution, ffolkes, anyone with half a brain can see that…. The gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider all the time…. when it gets to a certain point, the lines of human connection that keep society from bursting at the seams will be stretched beyond their strength, and they will break….

At that point, CHANGE will occur, whether we, (that means you, or I…. ), or the shadowy corporate slave masters and their myrmidons, wish it to do so, or not…. After all, the actual, true definition of the word “revolution” IS “change”….

I haven’t read the book listed below yet, (the link leads to a review), though I intend to do so….. Meanwhile, from looking at the review, this tome about Eric Snowden, one of the first to come out since his revelations became public, seems to present a fair-minded, equable view of the events leading up to the exposure of the illegal spying, as well as an accurate, even-handed look at the events since then. I intend to read it, if only to get some more details of what Mr. Snowden accomplished….

http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/The-Snowden-Files-by-Luke-Harding-5278264.php

I recommend y’all check it out, and think seriously about the stuff I’ve related in the above rant, about the Shrubs, (and their allies, all super-rich, arrogant, selfish, entitled assholes much like himself, and his idiot offspring….) and their chicanery….

I regard the senior Shrub as, perhaps, the single most egregiously dangerous, patently EVIL man alive, due to his background in dirty tricks (ex-CIA director), his proven complete lack of any kind of moral compass, and his painfully obvious absolute disregard for the rights of ANYONE else in the world…. but, that’s just me…. Nonetheless, I believe him to be personally responsible for most of the attacks on the Bill or Rights in the last 40 years…. In my less than humble opinion, he deserves every bit of disrespect and vituperation I can fling his way….

“There never was a bad man that had ability for good service.” — Edmund Burke (1729-1797) — Reflections on the Revolution in France, — Speech in opening the Impeachment of Warren Hastings, Third Day, — Vol. x, p. 54

Oh, by the way….. I may as well get this out of the way now….

Hi there, illegal spying drones of the NSA…. which means, hi to the CIA, FBI and anyone else you’re sharing my metadata with…. Hail, thou foul denizens of some basement in DC, somewhere in the depths of the US Cybersecurity complex, at an unknown location! Welcome to my blog! Enjoy the atmosphere, and feel free to record anything you want…. as if you weren’t already doing so….

😆
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First posted in June, 2012, & again in November, 2013, as presented both times:

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, ‘O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless–of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here – that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse.’ That the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?” — John Keating, Dead Poet’s Society

Early Observations

Until I knew there was more,
I wanted to know God.
They said he was a nice guy,
and would let me live forever.

All I had to do, they said,
was live my life for Him,
always living by scripture
cleaving only to his Way.

But, everyone I saw in church,
acted different at home.
Living wild, cussin’ and fussin’,
nobody lived like they said.

Still, I tried to be like Jesus,
he was sort of cool.
He never hurt nobody
and walked on the right path.

‘Course they killed him for that,
they couldn’t stand his example.
Turned him into a martyr,
hid his real words among their own.

Then I found the Buddha,
and met Lao Tzu at the gate.
They saw things real different,
showed me how to see straight.

Right thought, and right action
replace blind obedience and faith.
Reality becomes manageable,
fear retreats, the universe expands.

Brother John said it pretty well,
“Imagine there’s no heaven,
it’s easy if you try.”
Sounds like he knew why.

Day to day, life is grand,
we walk in eternal beauty.
Open your eyes and hearts,
find yourself already immortal.

~~ gigoid ~~

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Having found that somewhat belated (belated in the sense that it’s way to late to do much about all of it now….) rant in my head this morning, I suppose it means this section will need to become an old-school pearl, for the balance such a charmingly structured pile of virtual wisdom provides, to a Pearl that might otherwise become wobbly (can’t have that!….)…..

Since all of what we do here at ECR is designed to support the universe in its quest to refrain from any such wobbles, I have no problem with going old-school…. In fact, it’s always one of my favorite activities to dispel the mild, but bothersome after-rant depression that can occur in some cases….

So, let’s take our fate firmly in hand, and go see what Smart Bee has for us today….

“Everything flows and nothing abides; everything gives way and nothing stays fixed.” — Heraclitus

“I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: ‘The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.’ In these words he epitomized the history of the human race. — Bertrand Russell, Education and the Social Order

“You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.” — Erica Jong

“Civilization, like an airplane in flight, survives only as it keeps going forward.” — Edward Abbey

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

“Remember what Simonides said,–that he never repented that he had held his tongue, but often that he had spoken.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Rules for the Preservation of Health, 7

“You offend Shai-Hulud by sheathing your crysknife without having drawn blood.” — Fremen proverb (from Dune, by Frank Herbert)

Ffolkes…. I gotta tell ya…. Sometimes, I just don’t know how these pearls will come out; other times, I’m confident of whatever may come. This pearl came together in a way that tells me it is special, so, pay close attention to the point that surfaces in your mind after absorbing the final line, while still holding there the jumble of thoughts from the previous six pearls…. I think what you find floating up into your consciousness is an idea, a concept, if you will, that you may find both stimulating, and enlightening, if not actually a revelation…. Of course, it may not happen at all, whereupon, you’ll find yourself in a quandary, bemusedly wondering where you went wrong….

No worries, young paduans, this one won’t be on the Quiz…. It may, however, be on your next reality check; tell them you got it here, and they’ll give you a discount…
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Well…. Hmm…. I hope y’all had your restraining belts fastened…. that one was quite a ride…. I’d decided yesterday to make this one completely original, in terms of the actual material under discussion, and managed to do that, only having to go to the archives for an original poem…. So, today’s effort, though not perfectly fresh, is all original, so, I’m happy with it, no matter how it came out…. which, having gone over it a number of times trying to proof it, seems pretty okay to me…. 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 the dubious

If X, then Y; add lo & phone, & you’ve got music…

Posted on February 28, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“I will show you a philtre without potions, without herbs, without any witch’s incantation – if you wish to be loved, love.” — Seneca

One of the reasons I like aphorisms so much is demonstrated perfectly by this one, from our old friend Seneca, whose contributions to historical wisdom frequently grace these pages. Without fuss, without bother, and with great clarity, he delivers one short, pithy statement, that serves to provide the reader with a piece of knowledge that will serve them well their entire life, if they are able to absorb it, meld it into their own beliefs, and use it as a guide for moral, ethical, or merely honorable behavior…. In other words, good advice in a few words…..

It isn’t as simple, or as easy as it appears; I know, I’ve tried…. I’ve come up with a few, but, I’ve noticed that even those are a matter of recycling knowledge that has been part of human lore for generations. There is good reason behind the old adage about “nothing new under the sun”…. I find countless examples of statements from historical figures, like Seneca, or Plutarch, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, or any of their contemporaries, where the same idea has been re-stated, sometimes in a better way, others not so much….

But, no matter who said it, or how well it was said, many of these sages gave us pearls, of Real wisdom, that have proved their worth by their survival into the present, with the same degree of truth and relevance they held when they were first uttered. They also demonstrate another point that comes up here at ECR regularly, which is how little human nature has changed over the centuries since mankind first began making observations about himself as a species….

Each of the names I mentioned above, at one time or another, has given us some statement that describes a problem they faced in their society, usually from the pre-Christian era, which makes it well over 2000 years ago. I find that virtually every kind of issue that was described as being a problem for them remains as troublesome today, for us, as it was for them….

Mostly, those things are involved with how people get along, or not, i.e. the results of how they treat each other…. It seems we’ve always been plagued with a certain percentage of assholes in the demographics of our populations, whether we were living in caves, or in magnificent cities….. The assholes have always been with us, and have always made their presence known in such a way that we still hear about it today….

This is the primary reason for my own skepticism about the future; if we haven’t been able to find any viable, permanent solutions to the actions of those few of us who don’t give a shit about the others in the 5000 years or more we’ve been talking about it, then what makes us think we’ll be able to solve those issues now? Well, nothing, really…. I don’t think we will be able to solve that issue, and I don’t think we’re going to make it, in the long run…. not without making some major changes, and I don’t see any way that will happen….

All of this, I suppose, was a long winded, ranty sort of way to try to find something interesting to write about for an opening…. I didn’t really intend to come to such a moribund, morbid conclusion, at least, not so early, and not without some more lucrative ranting (lucrative in terms of venting more angst than this mild-mannered outburst could ever provide….), but, I suppose logic dictated the outcome more than desire, so, we’ll just have to deal….

I note, however, with some small degree of pride and satisfaction that yes, we DO have enough to call this an intro, even if it really doesn’t resemble one much at all…. For today, it’s the best I’ve got, and it will have to do…. I’ll try to be a bit more optimistic in what comes after, okay?…. More like the original pearl from Seneca….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Those whom true love has held, it will go on holding.” — Seneca
_____________________________

It’s going to be an “interesting” day…. I can feel it in my bones, which are, this morning, quite sensitive, almost radar-like in their ability to sense the tenor of the near future…. Of course, that may just be a side effect of the spinal degeneration I suffer from, but, hey, I like to think positively…. Well, I like to TELL myself that a lot, anyway, even if it isn’t so…. Regardless of all that, I’ve made another unilateral decision about the structure of today’s effort….. We’re going to go old-school here in section one, saving the final section for whatever today’s designated ranting session may produce….

I DID, unfortunately, possibly blunt any such ranting that may occur, what with the depressive little meander through the intro, down the lane of logic to that maudlin, if all-too-realistic conclusion….. But, we’ll see how it goes…. The mood I’m in, anything could happen…. For now, I’ll let Smart Bee have his head to pick out some likely-looking pearls for you to chew on this morning with your granola, and, hopefully, coffee…. If you’re at all like me, NOTHING happens without coffee, first…. Any who, let’s dive….

“Why, when no honest man will deny in private that every ultimate problem is wrapped in the profoundest mystery, do honest men proclaim in pulpits that unhesitating certainty is the duty of the most foolish and ignorant? Is it not a spectacle to make the angels laugh?We are a company of ignorant beings, feeling our way through mists and darkness, learning only be incessantly repeated blunders, obtaining a glimmering of truth by falling into every conceivable error, dimly discerning light enough for our daily needs, but hopelessly differing whenever we attempt to describe the ultimate origin or end of our paths; and yet, when one of us ventures to declare that we don’t know the map of the universe as well as the map of our infinitesimal parish, he is hooted, reviled, and perhaps told that he will be damned to all eternity for his faithlessness…” — Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), “An agnostic’s Apology”, — Fortnightly Review, 1876

“Death is just the ultimate expression of radical solipsism.” — Smart Bee

“Except for our thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.” — Descartes

“Constantly choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil.” — Jerry Garcia (1942-1995), Musician, the Greatful Dead — Rolling Stone magazine, (November 30, 1989)

“If you shut up truth, and bury it underground, it will but grow.” — Emile Zola

“Archimedes had stated, that given the force, any given weight might be moved; and even boasted that if there were another earth, by going into it he could remove this.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Life of Marcellus

“Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.” — Edmund Burke (1729-1797) — Reflections on the Revolution in France, — Letter i, On a Regicide Peace, Vol. v, p. 331

“The best measure of a man’s honesty isn’t his income tax return. It’s the zero adjust on his bathroom scale.” — Arthur C. Clarke

“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.” — C. W. Leadbeater

See? I told you today would be “interesting”…. This is a very good pearl, all in all, but, as you can see, it took NINE pearls to reach the point it was trying to make….. I knew that if I let SB have his head, it would work out fine, and, well, I was right…. Yay….
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I’m including this poem today for the simple reason that I enjoy this format for poems…. I’ve seen about a half dozen of these ‘trilogy’ poems, with three complete poems in one (Each side, by itself, is one poem, making two; together, they make another complete poem, which completes the trilogy….); each time, I am impressed by the discipline and creativity of the authors….. This one is a bit shorter than others I’ve seen, but, nonetheless, is quite as amusing as any I’ve read…. I hope you find it as interesting as I do….

Against Idleness and Mischief

How doth the little busy bee         How skillfully she builds her cell!
Improve each shining hour,           How neat she spreads the wax!
And gather honey all the day         And labours hard to store it well
From every opening flower!          With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labour or of skill     In books, or work, or healthful play,
I would be busy too;                 Let my first years be passed,
For Satan finds some mischief still    That I may give for every day
For idle hands to do.                Some good account at last.

~~ Isaac Watts (1674-1748) ~~
Divine Songs, Song xx

_____________________________

My searches through the archives of old Pearls turned up this little discussion of the Tao, which, in the mood I’m in today, will serve to complete the day’s effort, much better than if I tried to use my current state of mind to create something fresher….. If nothing else, it’s less morbid than any ranting I could do, and therefore, fits in with our pledge to try to be more positive today….

Besides, as we all know, I’m lazy, and don’t much feel like working up the energy to rant…. This morning, I’m more in the mood to blow off the day altogether, so, completing this pearl, even WITH the archived material, will allow me to at least SAY that I disciplined myself, as much as I intend to do at all…..

In other words…. Here, read this, and enjoy…. because, it’s what I’ve got, and it will have to do….

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

From 12/15/12:

“Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right actions arises by itself?” — Lao Tzu

Ever since being first exposed to the precepts of Taoism, back when I was in college in the late 60’s, it has always appealed to my sense of rightness, because, as a philosophy, it makes the closest approach to what I personally believe about the Universe at large.

Not the mystical parts, those that catered to the religious order of the time, when the concept was first was clarified by Lao Tzu, but, rather, the essence of the concept of reality, as being both within our perception, and unknown to us as beyond our understanding. We may not possess the necessary sense to be capable of receiving such information, whether about reality or fantasy, and if we assume the omnipotence of a god, then we would not be able to comprehend their existence, lacking the tools to perceive them with our five or six senses…..

This knowledge, however, is tempered by the deduction that, as a physical part of the universe, we are connected to it, and to every other part, if only by sharing that existence. The connection, intuitively, is deeper than merely the physical; it extends somehow into the spiritual plane, which, though not tangible, is nonetheless a proven part of our mental reality. (What IS the mind?)

It is this very lack of the ability to explain by which we may know the connection exists, as it echoes the nature of reality itself, which cannot be explained in words. Goodness knows why I’m trying, to be sure…. this is getting pretty esoteric, although, so far, it is consistently rational, if not entirely illuminating.

“Since everything in life is but an experience perfect in being what it is, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.” — Long Chen Pa

What better way to acknowledge, and celebrate, the perfection that we can see, or hear, feel, smell, taste, or imagine?…… Laughter is certainly preferable to a long, dusty discussion of esoteric concepts, and will encourage enlightenment just as efficiently, if not quite so verbally. In some way, I’m always looking for the perfect quote, the ultimate aphorism, that delivers that cosmic truth we are all seeking in one swell foop…. The above line from Long Chen Pa comes very close to it, especially when considered in the light of what we were able to conclude, from considering the answers to the first two questions today. As a Westerner who has learned to appreciate what the East brings us, the following resonates very well….

“Somehow, in the midst of their horrid history, the best among the “gaijin” learned a wonderful lesson. They learned to distrust themselves, to doubt even what they were taught to believe or what their egos make them yearn to see. To know that even truth must be scrutinized, it was a great discovery, almost as great as the treasure we of the East have to offer them in return, the gift of harmony.” — David Brin – Dr. Pak’s Preschool

There’s the key, ffolkes, right there in front of you…. Even Truth must be scrutinized, or the universe will have its way with you, and you may never find the gift of harmony that is also there for the taking….. There, not so esoteric, after all…. not too shabby, eh what?…..

“The ancient Taoist sages were poised…. like ice on the verge of melting.” — Taoist proverb
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Having already been treated to more discussion of my mood than is either healthy or wise, I’ll forgo any further references to that, and just say this in response to all of the above….. Hmm….

That being said, I’m outta here….. See y’all tomorrow, providing fortune continues to smile upon us….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

The sheriff ain’t gonna like this, Billy-Bob….

Posted on February 20, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“He who has the courage to laugh is almost as much a master of the world as he who is ready to die.” — Giacomo Leopardi

I would add to this idea, “It should be noted, Reality often requires these qualities to be present in the same person….” Not that I’m a cynic, or anything like that…. I consider myself a realist, as anyone who deals with the slippery slope of Reality on a daily basis MUST be, in order to survive longer than a day or two… We, who dare the universe to defy our scrutiny at every turn of the planet, can testify to the veracity of this notion, as we deal with both laughter and death regularly in the course of our duties…. Of course, that is true ONLY of those of us who are clumsy about it, but, then, who is there, in this day and age, who can wrestle with Reality with grace, or any significant degree of aplomb?

Now that the proper tone of nonsense and nearly-coherent whimsy has been firmly established, I think it would be acceptable to turn away from the fantasy portion of this morning’s intro, and return to the more amenable, less controversial pathways that wind their way toward section one. As you are, by now, well aware of my propensity for pomposity (hmm, “propensity for pomposity”…. not bad at all…. almost cute….), I don’t think it will be necessary for me to set out the emergency flares to show the way to the escape hatch…. I’m actually pretty sure we won’t even need to issue the usual flak jackets that go with this portion of the trip…. Our new route seems to be working out well, in terms of not drawing any hostile fire….

Of course, that may be due to flying over the native villages late at night, so late, they’ve already put the ack-acks, the antiaircraft guns, to bed. It’s a bit harder to take pictures of the scenery, since there isn’t any, (well, there is, but, hey, it’s DARK out there….), but, it saves wear and tear on the plane, and we haven’t lost a passenger for weeks…. which, of course, makes the insurance folks VERY happy!…. Bloody bean counters…. charge me up the butt already, for what? Insurance? What a scam THAT whole thing is…. don’t get me started on that…. I’ve hated the whole idea of insurance since I was young, and figured out what a rip-off it is… Legalized gambling, and the only way to win, is to lose…. Boy, if THAT isn’t a euphemism for modern society, I don’t know what is!…..

But, I refuse to rant here in the intro again…. It puts my whole sense of rhythm off, making it hard to find a good, solid syncopated riff, or even a good line, afterwards…. Of course, I may not feel like ranting later, either, but, hey, at least I didn’t burden y’all with it right out of the gate….. Credit me with a little tact, if you please…. In fact, I am not only tactful today, I’m efficient…. Watch this….

Shall we Pearl?….

“First I must sprinkle you with fairy dust…”

“I leapt headlong into the sea, and thereby have become better acquainted with the soundings, the quicksands, and the rocks, than if I had stayed upon the green shore, and piped a silly song, and took tea and comfortable advice.” — John Keats
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http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/The-long-war-for-gender-equality-5242861.php

At last! At last, a mainstream columnist approaches a subject of import with unflinching honesty, with no equivocation, and no excuses made to justify the behavior he is discussing, to wit: the ongoing abuse of women all over the world by cowardly men, afraid of their own sexuality, and thus, displaying angry misogyny toward the other sex, whom he fears because he does not understand…. To my knowledge, this is one of the first times I’ve seen one of the mainstream’s most popular columnists address this issue, one that has bothered me for many years, due to my own inability to make any progress in changing it, even in those men whom I know and love….

Men in our culture, and in every culture since we lived in caves, are taught to mistrust women, and to assume their own superiority, without having any reason, or confirmed evidence, that would support either attitude…. It’s just the way it is, to them, with almost all of society blindly supporting the fallacies of attitude that keep women in a position of subjugation. It isn’t a pretty picture, and never has been; it is also one society has refused to address, at the insistence of its misogynistic masters, who are so afraid of women, they keep them subjugated so they can control their own fears….

This pearl is one I have been saving, but, there isn’t any good reason to NOT bring it out…. only my own male reluctance to pick up the ball, and run with it, when it goes against everything that I was raised to believe…. Our culture brainwashes all young men and women to play their roles in society; it has taken me most of my life to rid myself of many of the prejudicial attitudes I carried around with me for most of it…. and I still find myself falling into the same old mental traps, and thinking of women as lesser, somehow, even though it is patently a false notion, one the has no real basis in Reality, only in men’s minds….
When I resort to Art to express myself, you know I’m too angry to write…. This subject is one I have a hard time with, as I tend to become so angry, at those men who exploit and abuse women and children, (it’s the same sickness… abusing those who are weaker is the mark of the true coward….), I lose my ability to speak…. I want to go out, into the world, and find me some pimps, to use for my sport, by hunting them down, and making them feel small and afraid, just like they do when they beat one of their slaves…. It makes me want to buy a gun, to go walking around the mean streets, picking off the predators that hang there, freeing their slaves, if they are able to free themselves when released from their slavery….

I’m so upset now, I’ve lost all ability to think clearly, or to present my arguments in an organized fashion…. So, here is a link, to a blog written by a most powerful woman, who has shown the incredible strength of mind and will to pull herself out of the sex trade, into which she was kidnapped, and forced into prostitution, at a young age…. She is a very powerful writer, with a lot of pain to express…. If you are at all squeamish, then you MUST read this…. It will make you cry (as I did….), it will make you ashamed, and it will make you angry, for her, as well as AT all of the insane men around the world who engage in this plague of evil…. The latest entry, posted yesterday, on the site of which I speak, can be found here: http://rmott62.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/climbing-back-on-my-horse/

Please stop by her site, and read what she has written; it will shame you, it will anger you, and it will leave you with the feeling there is yet a long road to any real progress, and that it is high time we ALL joined in to fight this battle….

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” — Edmund Burke, Irish orator, philosopher, & politician (1729 – 1797)
_____________________________

There are times when nothing but a classic will do…. this is one of them….

When I Have Fears

When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high-piled books, in charactery,
Hold like rich garners the full ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And think that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour,
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love;–then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.

~~ John Keats ~~

_____________________________

The above material, in section one, is important, to me, so I’m a bit disappointed in myself for NOT having the proper rant inside me today to address the issue at hand, one about which I feel very strongly…. I’ll have to be content with knowing that no matter how powerful, or convincing my own words may be, the words the Gentle Reader will find on Ms. Mott’s web site are MUCH more so, and will do a better job at explaining the issue so that people can understand it…. because she is writing from INSIDE the issue, not from the viewpoint of one standing aside, viewing it with objectivity, a position which, in this case, is completely useless for the purposes it needs to address…..

That being said, I’m going to create an old-school pearl for this last section, one without any particular parameters I can put to voice, but, rather, some vague, amorphous feelings, that I’ll use to influence whatever choices Smart Bee gives me in the way of aphorisms, quotes, and/or bits of virtual wisdom…. Shall we dive in?…. It’s probably for the best if we do…. Mind the steps, now…. Got your mask and flippers? Let’s go!….

“If people were required to know the law rather than to obey it, the government would be overthrown the next day.” — Smart Bee

“You cannot put the same shoe on every foot.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 596

“Under every stone lurks a politician.” — Aristophanes

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” — Aristotle

“One of the great meaningless phrases of our times is: “I take full responsibility.” This does not mean that you are prepared to pay the consequences for what you have done. On the contrary, this statement is usually offered instead of taking the consequences.” — Thomas Sowell

” …’fire’ does not matter, ‘earth’ and ‘air’ and ‘water’ do not matter. ‘I’ do not matter. No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words. The more words he remembers, the cleverer do his fellows esteem him. He looks upon the great transformations of the world, but he does not see them as they were seen when man looked upon reality for the first time. Their names come to his lips and he smiles as he tastes them, thinking he knows them in the naming.” — Siddartha, _Lord_of_Light_ by Roger Zelazny

“Virtue is but heroic bravery, to do the thing thought to be true, in spite of all enemies of flesh or spirit, in despite of all temptations or menaces.” — Albert Pike (1809-1891)

A bit esoteric, but, it works….. Can I go back to bed now?
_____________________________

In truth, going back to bed might just be the best thing for me today, all around…. It is now 0532 in the morning, and this Pearl is 99.9% complete…. The cat, bless her little black heart, decided, at 0330 today, it was time for us to be up and doing, expressing this opinion by attacking the underside of the bed with her claws, to wake me up, and get me going…. She does this regularly, much as she KNOWS I HATE to be gotten up that way, as evidenced by the obligatory 5 minute chase around the house trying to squirt her with the water bottle for waking me…. SIGH…. They just don’t give a shit, you know?…. Maybe I’ll drug her cat food this morning, and get some actual uninterrupted sleep for a few hours….

Nah, I’ll let her be, and just shut her out of the bedroom for a while…. Of course, then I’ll have to spend an hour or so putting the living room back to order, after she tears it up in her frustration at not being able to get the door open…. Maybe, a few years from now, after she has aged and mellowed a bit, she won’t be such a psycho kitty, but, I’m not holding my breath…. she’s pretty crazy, even for a black cat…. At least she gives us something to contend with each day, although I’m not sure that “constantly challenging” is the most attractive description of a pet one can come up with, but, it fits…. Ah well, I’ve always preferred biological alarm clocks to any of the numerous technological varieties, anyway…. They don’t break when thrown at the wall…. I’ll see y’all tomorrow; at what hour that may turn out to be will be up to the cat….

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

Mitigating the dangers of priestly concern….

Posted on January 23, 2013 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
Eerie, plaintive organ music is playing in my head, and there is something lurking just around a corner, at the edge of my vision, that darts away if I try to look at it. There’s a cold chill in my room, and I keep having to look over my shoulder, as it just feels like I’m being watched….. If I didn’t know better, I’d think someone was trying to mess with me, by setting me down in a horror flick, complete with evil poltergeist, and maybe a slasher….. Of course, I don’t have a basement, or an attic, where I can go explore the patently scary-dangerous noises, or any teenage girls on hand to provide the obligatory screams, but, I wouldn’t put it past Murphy to try to fuck with me in a new way like that; he’s pretty inventive at times…..

Ah well, so be it….. I’m not a big horror film fan, ever since 1954 when my older siblings dragged me to see the opening of the Creature From The Black Lagoon. At four years of age, it wasn’t a big hit with me, and I’ve never liked that sort of movie ever since; just never saw any sense in paying people to scare me. I manage to find enough things in real life that perform that function just fine, thank you very much, and didn’t see why I should give someone money to do so, especially since money seemed so hard to come by (four-year-olds don’t get a lot of money-making opportunities…..).

I spent the entire movie in the lobby, after the monster’s first appearance, until the ending, when I went back in to find my sister and brother, and caught the ending scene. Even at four, I was a bit skeptical, to see the chisel-jawed hero knock the Creature out with a right cross…. Though I was only four years old, that didn’t seem realistic, to see a normal sized man punch out a seven-foot tall creature that made an eighty-foot long boat rock when he climbed aboard…. My innate feel for the physical world told me that was silly….

That was my last experience with attending horror flicks; I’ve kept my personal promise to myself, to never waste money on fear, especially as entertainment….. I just don’t get it, myself. Why is it considered a good thing to make yourself afraid? Many, many people get a big kick out of it, and I’ve never been able to understand why that is; I hate the effect that adrenaline has on me, and did so even before my experiences in living with it all the time. It has never been “fun” to feel those kinds of feelings, not to me, so I have a hard time understanding the impulse. The experiences I had later in my life, when I was getting regular doses of adrenaline administered to my system, only served to reinforce those feelings in me, and I still avoid horror films, to this day…..

It’s just another example of diversity, I guess, and goes to show that it’s probably a good thing that everybody is so different. All those people who like the horror film genre can have their entertaining sessions of manufactured fear, I can totally ignore it, and nobody is bothered at all….. Just don’t ask me to go with you to explore the attic when there are funny noises coming from it, and an organ is playing in the background….. You’re on your own, in that case…… You may borrow a knife, or a baseball bat, but, no way I’m going up there with you….

Shall we Pearl?……
__________________________________

“Excellent.” — Moritz von Schwind (1804-71), Austrian painter, last word

I suppose it’s normal to begin to think about Death more often as one gets older. It does seem to assume a larger significance in our view of the world, as the time for its manifestation approaches, even though we know not at all exactly when it will happen. As dying words go, this one is, well, excellent, and I can only hope that I will have something as elegant and classy to say when my time comes….. Something on the order of, “Wow, that was quite a ride!”, or “I wonder if there will be ice cream in the afterlife?” You know, classy stuff, deep with insight and philosophical significance…. Right…..

Epitaphs also become more of an interest with age, I’ve found. I saw a really cool one this morning as I cruised Smart Bee…. “Here lies XXX XXXXX, for all that it matters.” Very droll, eh? Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always found epitaphs to be a very interesting, even intriguing form of literature, with some of the finest examples of wit, and even wisdom, ever written by human hand (though, come to think of it, what other type of hand might be writing, I don’t know….. just an expression….).

Limericks, poems of all kinds, questions, answers, declarations, assertions, complaints, insults, political comments and judgments, all can be found at their best on gravestones, tombs, and crypts all over the world, from all periods of history…. I’ve seen translations of the funereal hieroglyphics on the walls of Egyptian tombs that, essentially, were jokes in the form of an epitaph, and some of the ones I’ve read from early American times were absolutely hilarious. Books have been written, I’m sure, compiling the wit and wisdom that is displayed in such hallowed grounds, and I may just spend some time at the library trying to find one, because it would be an extremely interesting read…..

The subject’s interest is, of course, easily understood, as Death is just about as common an experience as exists, for all of us. And, it isn’t hard to comprehend why such a serious subject is such a magnet for humor; if we don’t laugh at Death, we will most certainly cry, for it is the single most terrifying experience we have to face in our lives, once the trauma of being born is healed, or, at least, forgotten. We humans, for some reason, have no idea what happens before we are born, or after we die, and that lack of knowledge is terrifying to most people…. well, to ALL people, really. Some just handle it better than others, I suppose….. All of which is why, I suppose, most people eventually try to assume the following attitude about life in general….

“Don’t take life so seriously… it’s only a temporary situation.” — Smart Bee

This sort of assumed lackadaisical outlook is, if nothing else, comforting for most folks, and ffolkes, too. I’m a firm believer in laughing at Life, Death, and the whole nine yards of Reality, especially at myself and my attempts to deal with all the above, and not only because it feels better than the alternative…. It’s also healthier. But, that aside, dealing with the serious side of Reality is a hard row to hoe, most of the time, so balancing that stress and struggle with some humor works well to mitigate the difficulty we all experience in getting on with our lives through the moral and ethical morass that is modern day society.

We aren’t going to get much help with anything from the BRC, or the priestly hierarchies, and society itself is too amorphous to depend on for anything so mundane, so we may as well take the reins for our own happiness into our own hands…. and part of that is facing the concept of Death with courage, and humor, and a sense of wonder, rather than letting it fill us with dread and unreasoning fear…. Mind over matter, ffolkes….. if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter…..

“It’s OKAY — I’m an INTELLECTUAL, too.” — Zippy the Pinhead
__________________________________

It’s Death Again

It’s Death again – He’s always there –
Watching, waiting – e’er the stare!
Every time I look behind
Or reach to pull the window blind,
I catch a glimpse of grubby hood –
A little clue to where he stood;
The glint of light that caught the scythe.
Perhaps if I could pay a tithe…
But O! no use, he’ll never go.
The adamant phantom; don’t you know
He will but wait until it’s time
For me to hear His fateful chime? –
The toll that claims my destiny,
To Hail: ‘You’re next, it has to be…

Erected to the memory of
John Macfarlane
Drowned in the Waters of Leith
By a few affectionate friends.

🙂
__________________________________

“I’ve never killed a man, but I’ve read many obituaries with great pleasure.” — Clarence Darrow (1857-1938)

I really love the power of understatement; this one from Mr. Darrow is an excellent condemnation of a huge class of people, unnamed as yet, but whose names are indelibly etched on our memories, just waiting to be included in a list of people the world would be better off without…. We all have a list by that title in our heads; anyone who denies it is a liar, plain and simple, and fooling no one. As a human being, it is part of our nature to hate, and nobody is so morally chaste as to escape those kinds of feelings now and then. Nobody…..

Sometimes, what amazes me about modern life is that there are so FEW outbreaks of random violence… I’d think that, with all the pressure our society puts on people, there would be a lot more of us who crack, enough to lose control over our baser impulses, and start trying to cross names off our list of preferred targets….. The way they usually go about it isn’t the most logical, or tactically intelligent, but what do you expect from somebody in an emotional crisis? Logical thinking? Not going to happen, sorry….. I’d say it would be time to get nervous when some guy starts blasting away, then disappears, only to attack again later, in a new place…. That would indicate more planning and strategy, and a much more dangerous person…..

I’m not sure just why I started this pearl…. It might have been in response to yet another random shooting spree reported yesterday in the news, in which a teenager started firing at people because of some argument he/she had with another teen, or something like that… another totally insane reason to start killing people, but, then, do you really expect rational from these people? It isn’t rational to expect them to have an understandable reason for their insanity, it doesn’t work that way…..

But, the media will spend an incredible amount of time and energy exploring every nuance of what this idiot was doing when they snapped, until no secrets are left to the young person’s life…. In looking at the entire incident, including the media coverage, I am tempted to give a big sigh, and lament the death of society, or at least the apparent death of decency…..

Amorphous anxiety seems to be our legacy as members of today’s culture; our lives consist of a series of unpalatable events fueled by unwarranted lies, and made worse for a societal tendency toward sloth combined with a severe lack of compassion; the sheer futility of it all seems to be the only message that comes through clearly. The fatal flaw in human nature that keeps us from becoming truly moral creatures is still in control of our destiny, and any impetus toward rationality is disallowed.

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality.” — Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)

This is the flaw we possess, all of us, and that which has plagued us throughout our history. One of my blogging friends commented a day or two ago with a relatively famous quote, in response to another discussion around the recent spate of reported shootings…. “All that is needed for evil to succeed, is for good men to look on and do nothing.” (She didn’t report the attribution, but according to Google, it was first stated by a man named Edmund Burke, with a number of slight alterations in wording since its appearance.) This single truth has been the biggest stumbling block to human progress for our entire history, and continues today to keep us from making any progress toward improving our chances of survival in the long run.

Once more, I’ve painted myself into a virtual corner, so to speak, since I don’t have any good solutions to offer to our dilemma. Oh sure, I can tell anyone what is needed for us to start making the world into the kind of place that would be home to EVERYONE…. I think, down inside, all of us KNOW what is needed for the world to be a better place. But, until it becomes common practice for people to make decisions based on compassion and love, rather than ambition and avarice, things aren’t going to change much, because the folks who don’t care about others aren’t going to stop what they’re doing…. there’s nothing in it for them if they do. Only when good men stand up, and refuse to allow that kind of usurpation of the rights of everyone else, will any changes take place…..

So, you tell me….. When is that going to happen? And how do we convince people that it needs to happen? Answer those two questions, and we might have a direction to go……

“If you ever go temporarily insane, don’t shoot somebody, like a lot of people do. Instead, try to get some weeding done, because you’d really be surprised.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey
__________________________________

I tend to cook, and then eat what I cook, rather than pull weeds, when I’m feeling homicidal, but that’s just me…. otherwise, Jack’s advice is unusually relevant, and surprisingly valuable, coming as it does from perhaps the world’s most egregiously stupid person…. (Don’t worry, Jack doesn’t mind the insults; his creator made him that way deliberately, so I doubt he’d sue me for stating the obvious success of his caricaturization….) That single thing is probably why I’m so overweight…..

Well, here I am, at the end of another Pearl…. I find myself almost melancholy; the process of creation has, of late, been particularly….. satisfying….. So, going on to the rest of the day’s activities brings some sadness at having to cease an enjoyable experience. Now, all I have to do is take my own advice, delivered so freely, to allow the change to happen without reluctance, or resistance from me, accepting the good feeling, and going on to the next…. Okay, I can do that….. Watch me….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Unwrapping a silver cocoon under moonlight….

Posted on October 28, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
On some bright future day, I’ll wake up, and inspiration will smite me forcefully on the forehead, sending me reeling to my keyboard, where the profound thoughts that have been circulating behind the scenes in my mind will all come pouring forth, to impart beauty and wisdom to the masses in inimitable style…. The sheer brilliance and enlightenment of what I will write will become as a beacon of knowledge that shines into every corner of the darkness that holds society at risk, saving mankind from the consequences of our insensitivity and foolishness….. SIGH…. sadly, that day isn’t today….

Had some mildly disappointing news soon after getting up to start this morning’s Pearl; my grandson isn’t feeling well, and the visit originally set for today was put off to next week…. Since I’m not at top form today, that is alright with me, but I know it is much more disappointing for my son, who has to wait another week to see his boy, when he’d rather be taking care of him while he is sick…. Justice does not live in this country anymore, not with any consistency….. and, unfortunately, there are no requirements for motherhood regarding intelligence or benevolence of nature….

Yet the law thinks that…. ah shit, I’m not getting into it again…… The idiotic collection of nonsense that makes up family law in this state, and country, is a mess of major proportion, without any real connection to reality, as far as I can tell…. and is so entrenched in its own circular illogic, not only can’t I fix it, it can’t be fixed, so the entire subject just pisses me off…. as do so many things about modern society, and the way that it fails to act in the best interests of its children….

Rather than dwell on the legal and moral idiocy that prevails in this country, let’s go searching for dirt to throw at some of my favorite targets…. politicians, priests, and the foibles of human nature…. Shall we Pearl?
__________________________________

“I believed in the Constitution. I believed in Congress’ constitutional right to investigate the intelligence community; and I believed that, as head of that community, I was required by the Constitution to cooperate with the Congress. I also believed that any other approach just wouldn’t work.” — Said no head of the intelligence community, ever….

And, if one of them did say it, I would bet serious money he was lying through his teeth…. We all know that, first of all, military intelligence is an oxymoron. Even if it weren’t, the entire intelligence community, as it is named here, would, by necessity, and by definition, be based on Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which clearly states, “all warfare is based on deception.” (A direct, literal translation from the original Chinese….) Sun Tzu’s most valuable and respected form of warrior was the spy; he considered an accomplished spy worth more than whole armies, with good reason. One man, infiltrated and trusted by the enemy, can cause more damage, by spreading disinformation, than months of siege by massive numbers of troops, and will bring about success much more speedily….. Yet, this unknown head of the NSA, or the CIA, or whichever clandestine organization was under scrutiny, would have us believe that he was being entirely truthful in what he revealed of their activities to Congress…. Riiiiight….. and I’m the Queen of Sheba, reincarnated as an overweight, long-haired, overeducated, dyspeptic Caucasian male…. I guess it’s possible, but, not too likely….

“If the obstacles of bigotry and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do everything else.” — Thomas Jefferson

Tom made an error in judgment here, assuming, as is common, perhaps, that common sense is, well, common. Alas, such is not the case, and priestcraft, of which I regard warfare and politics to be mere offshoots, remains the greatest obstacle to maintaining the freedom and liberties that Tom and his mates secured for us in the 18th century. With the full support of corporate business, the other greatest enemy of freedom, churches and government officials have conspired to manipulate, obfuscate, and bamboozle the American public into allowing them to lie, cheat, steal, and control the legislature and courts, until the freedoms we were given as our legacy have all but disappeared…..

I read a number of articles today, in the newspaper, and on the internet, that spoke of a recent poll taken by some independent agency (i.e., not connected to any political parties…. at least not on paper….). Any who, this poll determined that the choices being made about who people were going to vote for in the 2012 Presidential election were not in any way being decided by any disagreement on issues. The votes were being made according to race….. period. Over 50% of the responders, if I recall the number correctly (it amazed me, and I consider myself to be pretty phlegmatic, so factor that in….), of those voting for Romney, said they had made their decision to vote for Romney simply because Obama is black…. Martin Luther King, no doubt, is crying, wherever he may be…. as are any number of true Americans, such as myself, who had hoped that our nation had gotten beyond that sort of bigotry manifesting itself in the mainstream of society.

“After all there is but one race – humanity.” — George Moore

Is it any wonder I was amazed? Though there has been constant evidence of the part that race has played thus far in the election campaign, I don’t think any of us expected the issue to be so polarizing as to reveal the vast number of cowardly, fearful, STUPID people who refuse to join the rest of the human race. They have apparently been hiding their ignorance, completely accepting on faith all the loud, flag-waving, faith-based slogans and fear-mongering, all designed to whip the peasants into a frenzy under the canopy of false patriotism, and to the cry of “Take back America”…. as if someone had snatched it away from them when they weren’t looking….

“The worst vice of the fanatic is his sincerity.” — Oscar Wilde

All of their noxious, bilious posturing is designed to ensure the racist, bigoted, ignorant cowards who buy into their lies will all come crawling out from under their rocks on election day, to cast their unwitting vote for the forces of Evil, never realizing they are signing their own warrants of economic doom, because they are only aware of their fear of the Black Bogie Man, and his liberal myrmidons…. a word they would have to look up, if they were in the habit of reading anything tougher than TV Guide…. (don’t worry, I had to look it up, too, when I first saw it, years ago, in a Sherlock Holmes story…. I love it, it is such a “precise” word….)

“Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.” — Smart Bee

Here is a piece of that common sense so prized by our forefathers…. Unfortunately, instead of changing the locks, we keep allowing the politicians to make copies, and don’t even change the locks after they leave. Have you ever heard about the retirement system that the federal government has given itself? All federal judges, and federal court officials, along with both the House of Representatives and the Senate, are guaranteed their salaries, and their most excellent healthcare coverage, EVEN AFTER THEY RETIRE, OR ARE NOT RE-ELECTED.

For life….. including a health care system, with coverage for life, that is much superior to MediCare, or anything available to the unwashed masses, i.e. the general citizenry of the country. All of it is paid for by our taxes… for life, for all of them…. and guess who voted all that stuff into existence? Why, they gave it to themselves, of course! As a reward, I guess, for having screwed us in the first place, and sort of as an ongoing pat on the back for the success of their lies….

“Ignorance is not bliss — it’s oblivion.” — Phillip Wylie

Once again, I seem to have tapped into a subject ripe for ranting, and we’re still ten days shy of the election. Let’s let this percolate for a bit, and see what else we can find in there on this path to perdition or profundity, your choice…. Me, I always go for the perdition…. more exciting, like when Mom drove on the freeway…. 🙂

Regardless of the truth or lie of any of the above, profundity has fled, no doubt concerned about its reputation, and further pearls along this line of thought are not forthcoming from Smart Bee…. it did, however, give me a couple of pretty good ending pearls, so I will go with the flow, and leave you with this final thought…..

Government is a necessary evil, and it makes sense to me that having to pick between the lesser of two evils, while distasteful, is nonetheless necessary, and in the case of this election, more than merely necessary…. It is essential in the current world that reason remain paramount, and the obvious decision here can be ascertained with one eye shut. If one is a woman, a senior, LGBT, or a supporter of gay marriage and human rights for trans gender individuals, a black, Latino, Asian, or anyone else who is not white, and who makes more than $250,000/year, then you will be voting to save your own civil rights, because it is for sure and for certain that if the Republican party gets into office, all of these categories of citizens will be in a new classification…. they will be known as victims…. Don’t trust me, read the papers, all of what I’ve just related is documented there…. So, get out there and vote, ffolkes, and for goodness sake, use your head about it!……

“If you don’t control your mind, someone else will.” — John Allston

“Hold the MAYO & pass the COSMIC AWARENESS…” — Zippy the Pinhead
__________________________________

Li Po, in my mind, is one of the five best poets who ever lived (no, I’m not going to pin myself down to the other four right now, so forget it….); indeed, his translator deserves a lot of credit, as well, for being able to indicate the simplicity, power, and depth of Li Po’s words from Chinese to English, no simple task, for certain….. We all know of the Taoist/Zen koan about the man dreaming of being a butterfly…. this is how a poet of genius first asked that universal question…..

Chuang Tzu And The Butterfly

Chuang Tzu in dream became a butterfly,
And the butterfly became Chuang Tzu at waking.
Which was the real—the butterfly or the man ?
Who can tell the end of the endless changes of things?
The water that flows into the depth of the distant sea
Returns anon to the shallows of a transparent stream.
The man, raising melons outside the green gate of the city,
Was once the Prince of the East Hill.
So must rank and riches vanish.
You know it, still you toil and toil,—what for?

Li Po

Indeed, for what do we toil? As for me, I’m still trying to find an answer…. asking the right question is only half the task…. Hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did…. 🙂
__________________________________

In keeping with the theme above, here is a group of pearls, collected old-school style, and put together to lead the gentle reader to more insightful ideas about human nature, and the importance of intelligence, or more accurately, the absence of same….

“In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems unfair that He did not also limit his stupidity.” — Konrad Adenauer

‘Man has made use of his intelligence, he invented stupidity.” — Remy De Gourmant

“A human being has a natural desire to have more of a good thing than he needs.” — Mark Twain

“The beauty of America is that the average person always thinks she is above average.” — Sam Levenson

“The problem with America is that the average person always thinks she is above average.” — Smart Bee

Cogito, ergo doleo. I think, therefore I am depressed. — Smart Bee

“In such a strait the wisest may well be perplexed and the boldest staggered.” — Edmund Burke (1729-1797) — Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontent, Vol. i, p. 516

“I can’t give you a brain, but I can give you a degree” — Wizard of Oz to the Scarecrow

In light of such wisdom, virtual or not, I rest my case……
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Some days, as Mama said, there will be days like that…. and we all know she was right, don’t we? Logically, this means that some days it will be easier than others, to find, do, or be what we wish…. even if we know what that may be. If you aren’t confused now, then you haven’t been paying attention…. and my work here is done….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Tawdry inspiration and cold tea….

Posted on January 6, 2012 by gigoid

Ffolkes,
From where I’m standing, or rather, sitting, it’s all cold tea. I’m tired. I just got up after more than 8 hours in bed, and I’m tired. It must be a side effect of not sleeping very well; I toss & turn a lot, which makes for painful twinges in my back and/or shoulders; not much pain, but enough to keep me more awake than asleep. This has been going on for years now, ever since my back got so much worse about 6 years ago, after working as a tarbender for about a year. Even though I now take enough pain medicine to control the pain, it doesn’t go away; it’s still there, just manageable most of the time.

There are times when the medicine is not enough to keep the pain down, and I spend a couple of days in unrelenting agony, with pain at about level 7 or 8 of 10. It hasn’t happened in a good while, but the pain I do have is starting to affect my sleep more, which is cumulatively not good; the lack of sleep adds up after a while. I’m not sure what to do at this point; more meds aren’t the answer, and there are no further treatment modalities that will improve the condition. I suppose I’m going to have to go see my doctor again, & see if there is anything I can do; something has to change, or I’m going to go back to wanting to bite people…..hard…….ah well, let us go sublimate…..
___________________________________

You no longer need to punish, deceive, or compromise yourself. Unless, of course, you want to stay employed.

I must be a lucky man. A bit over a year ago, I was pretty much forced into retiring, before I had actually planned to do so. The period of time since then hasn’t been the most comfortable, but has shown me that retirement has some basic advantages over working. The primary reason to be glad is the above statement. When I talk to folks who still work where I retired from, they all have the same story to tell, and it isn’t pretty. Poor management, personal agendas, petty politics, all combine to create a living hell for even the most calloused individuals. I guess in that way, I’ve always been lucky; I manage to avoid the bad things that happen to a lot of others, not by my own efforts, but by circumstance.

When I was eligible for the military draft back in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War, I dragged the process out as far as I could with applying for conscientious objector status, then appealing the decision. In the mean time, I had gone for my physical, and despite every effort to fail, I was pronounced fit for military duty, status 1A. They were holding the first lottery drawing for numbers to determine who would be drafted first, and my birthday was picked at #19, so I was sure my next stop was going to be Fort Benning, Georgia for boot camp.

Next thing I knew, the draft was over, and my birthday group had been classified 1Y, a category that would never be called again. I had slipped right through a huge crack in the floor that no one could even see. I guess dodging bullets is part of my bag o’luck, the basic quotient of luck one is issued at birth. If so, I can’t complain at all…..
___________________________________

So tell me, what color is the sky on your planet?

This is a question that occurs to me a lot these days, as I bear reluctant witness to the inane mouthings of the crop of Presidential wannabes currently plastered all over our TV’s. How is it possible that only one of the 8 original prospective candidates admits to believing in evolution? Most of the naysayers say so to woo the ultra-conservative fundamentalist Christians, claiming a “faith-based” belief in creationism. I ask again, how is this possible? Has our educational system failed so badly that theories with absolutely no concrete evidence are given precedence over a concept that has been demonstrated to be true by over 150 years of scientific testing?

Evolution is no longer a theory, it is recognized as one of the laws of Nature, from which there is no appeal; every single experiment devised to test it has supplied more proof of its validity, and new knowledge of our inner physical characteristics, as written in our DNA, supplies even further validation of the concept of evolutionary change. Conversely, after 2000+ years, there is still not a single piece of evidence that one can point to, or pick up in the hand, and say ,”this is evidence of God’s will”. At least they can’t say it with a straight face, because, deep down, they know it’s just wishful thinking. The universe would be a much friendlier place to most folks if they could count on having an omnipotent interlocutor who considers them the pinnacle of creation. I’m sorry to say, however, there just isn’t anything I can see that supports that belief, other than the convictions of the deluded……

“If you believe that feeling bad or worrying long enough will change a past or future event, then you are residing on another planet with a different reality system.” — William James

“It’s been said that if you pray hard enough, and long enough, you can make water run uphill. How hard and long? Long enough to make it happen, of course!”–Lazarus Long
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“In Germany, they came first for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists but I didn’t speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time nobody was left to speak up.” — Martin Niemoeller, German Lutheran Pastor, Dachau, 1944

A few days ago, on this site, I published an article stimulated by an article on the net, describing how the National Defense Authorization Act had been signed, quite stealthily, by the President, and would take effect January 1, 2012. I wanted to print this quote with it, but could not find it at the time. But it is the perfect description of what a lot of people in this country will be going through in the next few years. If you don’t think it will happen, I will refer you to the section just previous to this, and reiterate, “So tell me, what color is the sky on your planet?” Wake up, folks, and keep your wits about you; you are going to need them…….
___________________________________

“Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.” — Eric Hoffer

See above……I rest my case….

“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.” — Edmund Burke (1729-1797) — Speech at County Meeting of Bucks, 1784
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“A man can only do what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.” — Albert Schweitzer

When I was young, I read about Socrates, who used the word “gadfly” to describe himself. I always thought that was brilliant; to be the gadfly biting the ass of the horse that is Society, in order to cause it to move. Moving where is unimportant, change is what is necessary, in order to remain in harmony with the laws of Nature. In our time, we’ve had some good ones…..Will Rogers, George Carlin, Dick Gregory, Lily Tomlin, Lenny Bruce. All spoke their mind with wit sharp as a chef’s knife, applying just the right sting to make the horse buck. Society needs gadflies; without them, we would certainly sink into the abyss in which ignorance lives. I hope to someday be included among humanities gadflies; it does help me sleep, as well as I ever do…..of course, Society did execute Socrates for his views, but it’s well worth the risk, if what I may say is heeded……

“The fight is what’s important. Doing what is good and right is why we’re here. The end is variable and relative. A person can only do what his heart tells him and break away from the terrible things around him. We do what we can … and live with the consequences.” — Marc Zanoni
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Critically speaking, this has not been masterful. At least it doesn’t feel that way. I guess I should take a look at it in toto before making a decision on that. In one sense, I’m amazed I even got it done; it’s been like pushing through cotton candy; it feels unproductive and sticky. So, I’ll be satisfied with that for the nonce….. y’all take care out there….

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

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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Tag Archives: Edmund Burke

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