Tag Archives: Edward Abbey

Acres and acres of obsolete dreams….

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Ffolkes,
Patterns of light, both bright and fearful chase each other madly ’round and ’round, mad peals of laughter shrieking through the cool night air. Ghostly figures of unheralded regrets vie for position closer to the oddly shaped harpsichord in the foyer, while the thief of lost hope and his cohorts silently steal away. As the outer walls grow nearer, madness fades, and the silent myrmidons forge ahead, further into the day, further from the night’s insanity, until reality assumes a more familiar form and face, and faded regrets hold no more power over the hearts of the unmindful……

As is often obvious, reality can be pretty fluid in my world. I don’t insist that it stay in familiar patterns just to make me more comfortable; that never works in any case. Also, I find that reality becomes more palatable, more amenable the less one tries to have any influence over it; it seems to resent, and resist, any such foolery, and has been known to revolt altogether when attempts are made to make it conform to any preconceived notions. And to be honest, I don’t blame it at all….. let’s see what’s in the hopper for us today, shall we?…..

“Some people write to please, to soothe, to console. Others to provoke, to challenge, to exasperate and infuriate. I’ve always found the second approach the more pleasing.” — Edward Abbey   (Me too! Obviously….)
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Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls must dive below.
— John Dryden (1631-1700)
— All for Love, Prologue

When I first thought about what to call the results of this process that I put myself through to create the email Pearls, and now the blog posts, I had a hard time finding an appropriately accurate yet whimsically irreverent name. Letting my subconscious mind loose on the problem finally produced the title I have kept now for over 12 years, to wit: Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, considered as a subset of the ongoing experience of Exploring Consensual Reality in which I engage. Now I can see where the inspiration for that had at least part of its roots; it is entirely possible I must have come across this sometime in my wanderings through the Unending Forest of Books. No matter, really, I just got a charge out of finding it again, as it’s one of those wonderful little nuggets of truth that make such an addictive snack for the ever-voracious mind I call home. Short, sweet, and deep as the deep blue sea…

Since I’m in the mood for whimsy, here is some, attached to a nugget of truth…..

“A person is not given integrity. It results from the relentless pursuit of honesty at all times.” — Anonymous, aka Unknown

Anonymous was a Greek philosopher extraordinaire, often confused with Aristotle, who lived during the same period of history. This was written, according to the crumbling document upon which it was transcribed, in the year 89 B.C., Thursday about supper time, in the early spring… or so it says. Honest…. that’s what it says. What do you mean? Why would I make it up?….. Trust me…..

Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.  (Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.) — William of Occam, Occam’s Razor

Just in case you ever wondered where it came from…… okay, end of this segment of silliness in the guise of wit. Back to the serious stuff….
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“Agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that for which he has no grounds for professing to believe.” — Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895)

I wish fundamentalists and proselytizing sects could, or would, understand this point, and not take it so damn personally when their faith based platforms are not accorded privileged status in someone else’s world view. I mean, it’s not as if hordes of agnostics are going door to door, trying to destroy anyone’s faith, or convert anyone to their own beliefs. Nor are they taking out ads espousing agnosticism, or actively recruiting anyone to join them in their interpretation of reality.

But for some reason (not unknown, merely not pertinent here), they cannot do that; it is beyond their capability to entertain two separate concepts at the same time, without making a judgment on both; yer either fer us, or yer agin us….. there doesn’t seem to be any middle ground between their reality and that of anyone else. I’ll confess, I’ve never been able to understand, or get on board with, this particular brand of denial. I’ve found that reality is much more predictable and pleasant when taken as is, and not as we would like it to be. Fewer headaches, and no ulcers, ever…..
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Good-nature and good sense are usually companions.

I like that. It makes perfect sense, on the planet I inhabit. (Sorry, couldn’t resist…)  If one takes a moment to think about what makes this statement true, and how it applies to reality, one comes to the illuminating notion that “balance is everything”. Knowing where one’s center is, and allowing that knowledge to direct one’s responses to the unpredictable nature of reality, is a valuable tool, one that is essential to a healthy approach to life.

By healthy, I mean it is a natural and sustainable condition, which fosters a continuous state of growth in one’s strength, integrity, and compassion, improves the chances of survival, and teaches eloquently the importance of choice, of not letting fate have everything its own way.  In other words, our world is what we make of it, and that kind of freedom allows good sense and good nature to co-exist in harmony, makes food taste better, can sometimes get you free tickets to Disneyland, and is guaranteed to turn you into a chick magnet…. well, maybe not the last two…… Sure would be cool, though, huh?…..
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If thou are rich, thou art poor;
For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear’st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee.
— Shakespeare (1564-1616) — Measure for Measure, Act III

As I’ve said before, Shakespeare isn’t one of my favorites; though I acknowledge without shame that he was a sheer genius at what he did. As such, he occasionally comes up with something that meets all my standards, and compels me to include it in a post. This is one of those that jumps out and administers a ringing blow to the side of one’s head, as reality is wont to do. It’s a simple concept, but one not designed to create any feelings of empathy for the trials of the rich, or sympathy for the suffering of the poor; it merely reminds us of how our own mortality makes all our stature and posturing irrelevant.

I’m reminded of an aphorism related by Alan Watts in one of his books, which says: “If you wish to have a lifetime of trouble, fill your house with treasure.” Young as I was when I first read it, the clarity and truth in the saying was obvious, and it has stayed with me through all my life, allowing me to enrich my life with love, compassion, and good memories, rather than gold, silver, or precious gems….
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God’s   Problem Now:


His wife’s graveside service was just barely finished, when there was a massive clap of thunder, followed by a tremendous bolt of lightning,  accompanied by even more thunder rumbling in the distance.  The little old man  looked at the pastor and calmly said, “Well, she’s there.”

Priceless….. any man who has been married for more than say, 10 years or so, can relate perfectly, on at least one level…..as can many wives married the same amount of time….. at least, the ones with a sense of humor can; humor is a characteristic of wives that is not consistently present; a significant number of them end up without one, or lose it in the hustle and bustle of modern existence.  According to a friend, and fellow WordPress blogger, Linda Vernon, those women all tend to work at Pottery Barn.

That might be true, I don’t do either gardening (completely black thumb), or knick-knacks, so I can’t hold an opinion about that; I do know that I can always spot the ones who didn’t get one, or have lost the one they were issued, by the unique expression they wear in public, sort of a demonic, red-eyed, clenched jaw sort of look. Dead giveaway, if you know what to look for…. and trust me, 23 years of marriage to a woman with a powerful personality left me with a very keen eye for the signs of developing trouble in the female face.

And they all share that face; I’ve seen it elsewhere as well, on the faces of other women in a relationship. It’s hard when people lose their sense of humor; they tend to lose connection with the positives, and concentrate on the negatives that are part and parcel of any human interaction, ultimately driving away the very person they formerly wanted to stay…..
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So much for that….took a lot of effort today, but, hey, I had nothing else to do this morning. Funny, I’m in a semi-fugue state, mere millimeters from complete unconsciousness, yet the visual world is bright and clear in my eyes, the refrigerator noise is as loud as ever, and the chair hurts my butt as usual. Odd feeling, to be sure….. I’ll go feel my way into the day now….. y’all take care out there….

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Not all pundits are bellicose….

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Ffolkes,
If it hadn’t been for Nosy’s dog, the aliens might have enslaved us all. He (Nosy, not the dog) always said that Useless wasn’t a normal dog, but we figured he was just saying that to make Useless feel better. And who’d a’thought a dog that wouldn’t even chase cats could be a hero? Goes to show, I guess, you can’t never take nothing for granted…..

It was one of them days in the desert when even the wind was too hot to blow. Shimmering waves of heat were coming off the packed dirt surrounding the old shack that housed the only gas station and general store for 100 miles in any direction. Pop Doolan and Bill Watson were in their standard positions, perched on chairs that were old & battered when they were boys, puffing away on a pipe and a cigarette, respectively. As I strolled up toward the door, Pop hailed me, “Hey, boy! When you goin’ to start shaving?” Since he knew as well as me I’d never have to worry about that (long story), I just grinned, waved, & stepped on inside the screen door…..

Hmm….. and interesting little opening. I wonder if it will go anywhere? We’ll find out another time; right now it’s time to rein in the horses, and buckle down to work….. seems a shame though; I was kind of interested to see how Useless saves the world…..
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Amor, ch’al cor gentil ratto s’apprende,
prese costui de la bella persona
che mi fu tolta; e ‘l modo ancor m’offende.
Amor, ch’a nullo amato amar perdona,
mi prese del costui piacer si` forte,
che, come vedi, ancor non m’abbandona.
Amor condusse noi ad una morte.

Love, which is quickly kindled in a gentle heart,
seized this one for the fair form
that was taken from me-and the way of it affects me still.
Love, which absolves no loved one from loving,
seized me so strongly with delight in him,
that, as you see, it does not leave me even now.
Love brought us to one death.
— Dante, La Divina Commedia: Inferno V, vv. 100-106

I’ve never taken the time to delve deeply into The Divine Comedy; there were always reasons not to read it whenever it crossed my path, usually taking the form of books more in tune with my tastes. It may be the subject matter, or maybe the style, I don’t know, or much care. But I can recognize quality and talent when I see it, even if it doesn’t appeal to me particularly. I get the same reaction to William F. Buckley and Ayn Rand when I try to read their work. It’s okay though, there are plenty of other reads out there, and I can thus enjoy and appreciate snippets from these works for their artistic flair, or their relevance to reality.

In this case, I included this excerpt for the sheer beauty of form and content it exhibits; the Italian poem reads so well it engenders an audio image of great power and majesty. It is also impressive how well the translation of this piece, and of the others I have seen, mimics the original so closely, in both tone and grandeur. It almost makes me want to go pick up a copy and dive in….. nah! Too much work….. but, it’s a good one to remember for the next time I’m hard up for something to read….. that’s the nice thing about the Classics. There are so many of them, you can always find one you’ve never tried before, and be virtually guaranteed that it will be a good read……
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“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” — Edward Abbey

Sad, but true. And even more relevant in today’s political climate, which often resembles a carnival sideshow on Mental Health Day. As an American patriot, I have become inured to the constant lies and grasping avarice common to the current species of candidates. Don’t get me wrong, now; I mistrust the Democrats just as much as I do the Republicans. It’s just that the news and media is always full of the GOP right now, due to the feeding frenzy they call the caucuses, or some such euphemism for circus.

Every day, we are assaulted with reports of the latest gaffes, misstatements, outlandish claims, prophesies, and the random reasoned response (usually from some man-on-the-street), all of which are examined, re-examined, and speculated on endlessly. By the time the relevant election gets here, in November, I, and every patriot with a lick of common sense, will probably either boycott the election altogether, or find an empathetic psychiatrist to deal with the rage, one who can persuade them (us) not to shoot at the poor little candidates, at least not with live ammo…..

“It is of some small consolation for you to know that we have survived every President the electorate has thrust upon us.” — Anonymous

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.” — Gore Vidal
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Some days, pearl diving is an occupation fraught with frustration; other days, like today, quotes on a particular subject just keep jumping into my lap. I had intended to write about the Bill of Rights, and how it is under attack by the PTB, otherwise known as our beloved ruling class, so I had that as a thought in the back of my mind when I dove in. Et voila’, quotes galore…. now I don’t need to write about it, because these say all I needed to say….

“Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the _real_ object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?” — Patrick Henry

“…it is hard for me to see how one can argue that circumstances have so changed as to make mass disarmament constitutionally unproblematic.” — Professor Sanford Levinson, — The Embarrassing Second Amendment, — The Yale Law Journal, Vol 99, No 3, December 1989, p637.

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” — The Constitution of the United States of America, Amendment 2, 1791 (That pesky Second Amendment….)

“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear — kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor — with the cry of grave national emergency… Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded.  Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.” — General Douglas MacArthur, 1957

“Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Avert misunderstanding by calm, poise, and a .44 magnum.

I think that about covers it….. stay alert, ffolkes, the world needs more lerts…..
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“People are divided into two groups – the righteous and the unrighteous – and the righteous do the dividing.” — Lord Cohen

People are funny, aren’t they? Lord Cohen (another royal I’ve never heard of…) has hit squarely upon one of the more perverse qualities common to the human spirit. It always struck me as pretty hilarious (as well as hypocritical) that the people in the world who make the most noise and trouble over insignificant cultural or ideological differences are the same people who lay claim to being the only true devotees of the Great Redeemer, the only ones who really see the light.

It says right there in every translation of the Bible, even theirs, that the core of Jesus’ message is “Love thy brother as thyself”; he spent his whole time on this planet teaching compassion and encouraging diversity. But that’s not good enough for them, so they just pay lip service to that part of the Bible, and base their fundamental cruelty on interpretations of the Old Testament that serve their bigotry and ignorance. Too bad…. the world could use a few more good Christians, to help offset the karmic imbalance created by those who choose to fear the unknown, rather than embracing and understanding it…..
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politics, n:  From the Latin ‘poly’, meaning many, and ‘tic’, meaning little bloodsucking insects.

I think this is self-explanatory. It’s here merely because it fits in so well with my raison d’etre, my modus operandi, my….. my very real and unrelentingly hostile opinion of the type of human who enters the political arena in today’s society. I make no secret of my repugnance for those who seek power over other people, on any level, but especially in the political level, whether local, state, federal, or foreign, Democrat, Republican, Independent, whatever. Doesn’t matter to me, they’re all certifiably insane.

Even those who retain even the slightest shred of human decency are made irrelevant by the sheer weight of numbers. The corporate thieves, the sociopathic manipulators, and the deluded fundamentalists outnumber any such foolish milquetoasts to a degree that makes them ( the altruistic idealists) completely meaningless, and effectively powerless.

The picture is bleak enough that I, who swore never to own a gun, have decided to arm myself as soon as possible. The Second Amendment, one of the branches on the Tree of Liberty, may need to be protected and nourished, by the blood of patriots, and tyrants…..
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Having thus purged myself of a large buildup of angst, I can now face the rest of the day with a more cheerful mien. So, that’s what I’m gonna go do…. Y’all take care out there……

—

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

In the eye of the storm, laughing….

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Ffolkes,
The Muse is near, whispering softly in my ear, sweet phrases to warm the heart and mind. Caught up, time creeps in tiny shoes to a new garden, where, ahh, magnolia, lavender, honeysuckle, and roses reside! Breathing in each essence fills another sense, and another, and another, until, breathless, powerful, bright images in my inner eye crash from side to side, too many to take in all at once; just flashes here, of cunning birds and fiery hair, of passionate lovers; and more images there, of sad-eyed minstrels and passive bears. Kings, and queens, and little tailors, too, parading past like wraiths, gossiping of society in the underworlds. Elegant women, and fashionable men, always guarded carefully, never to see the pain/despair of their own making, never learning to laugh, never learning to live. As the Muse slips away, the calliope winds down to silence, and I am released from thrall, empty now, yet more whole…..
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Far or forgot to me is near;
Shadow and sunlight are the same;
The vanished gods to me appear;
And one to me are shame and fame.
They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt,
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, Brahma

And what was it the Brahmin sang? A song of life. THE song of life. The song we all sing, every day, every minute, every second of every hour, our life sings us along with time. Do we sing, or  are we the song? We may never know, and it will never matter; the song still sounds, and while it sings, we may dance. When we dance, poems conceived come to life. When we live, we are the music, and the poem is how we dance our life. It may not make sense, but it makes sense anyway, doesn’t it?……Music is life, and life is the song we sing; as long as we live, the music will play, the song will be sung, and the dance, oh, the dance, it will go on……

Living Dead
the path is
chosen, to live forever is to die
forever.

To not know when you’ll
die
is to find
life
wherever you are.
— Alagad

More proof, or at least evidence, that life is where you find it…..you just gotta keep your eyes and mind open, so it doesn’t slap you upside the head….
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“If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture – that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves.” — Edward Abbey

Good attitude, dude! This is true humility, and the mark of true wisdom lies handsomely upon Edward’s brow. This is not your normal Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, it goes beyond that, into the realm of real wisdom, the kind you can use every day, only to find it never grows old, or untrue. This is the kind of attitude toward life that could get you into the Christian Heaven, even if one had been born and died a pagan, because if there is a God up there who really cares about this sort of thing, She/He would recognize when someone had gotten the message, even if it wasn’t the message that was sent. This is the sort of humility that one sees from a saint, or a sadhi, or a master yogi, or a master of Tao. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first…….
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“The problem … is that we have run out of dinosaurs to form oil with. Scientists working for the Department of Energy have tried to form oil using other animals; they’ve piled thousands of tons of sand and Middle Eastern countries on top of cows, raccoons, haddock, laboratory rats, etc., but so far all they have managed to do is run up an enormous bulldozer-rental bill and anger a lot of Middle Eastern persons.  None of the animals turned into oil, although most of the laboratory rats developed cancer.” — Dave Barry, Postpetroleum Guzzler

Wickedly funny!…wonderful twist of the psyche to describe real events as scathing satire…..Dave forgot to mention that one of the reasons these attempts to make oil were so widely condemned by the Middle Easterners, was because they included using dead Middle Eastern people along with the other carbon based life forms they were bombing. Hell, it’d piss me off, too….it already does, and I wasn’t there. Actually, I’m pissed mostly because the government blokes figured they would be better off if they lied to us about why we were interfering in the Middle East; they didn’t HAVE to tell us it was all about the dictator, and saving all the poor Muslims from their own mullahs. They could have just come out and said, “hey, our oil supplies are looking a bit chancy here; we need to go over and secure some more oil producing countries as our protectorates or something, so you all don’t have to worry about filling up your gas-guzzling SUV’s for Memorial Day weekend. You will however, have to pay four dollars or more a gallon, to help pay for the war, but, hey, what are a few sacrifices in the all-important obsessive pursuit of leisure, and the joy of consuming more than you produce? And it only cost 150,000, more or less, civilian Iraqi’s their lives……there’s plenty more where they came from, right?…..

“The history of the race, and each individual’s experience, are thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910) — Advice to Youth (published 1923)
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Then gently scan your brother man,
Still gentler sister woman;
Though they may gang a kennin’ wrang,
To step aside is human.
— Robert Burns (1759-1796) — Address to the Unco Guid

Nice…. no comment needed. Just read, ponder, & enjoy……and it’s good advice, as well……
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Those who are skilled in combat do not become angered, those who are skilled at winning do not become afraid. Thus the wise win before the fight, while the ignorant fight to win.

Here is a very subtle, yet powerful observation, one whose veracity I can personally affirm. I figured out at a fairly young age that people couldn’t always be trusted to act honorably, or even sensibly, on a consistent basis. I also noted that on the occasions when two people ended up in a dispute, it was generally for that reason, that one or both of them was being irrational. As a final conclusion, I observed that in situations where physical force is threatened, or more simply, in a fight, the longer it went on, the higher the chance that I would suffer injury, or worse. This was unacceptable to me, so I began my education in the martial arts with that purpose in mind, to remove fighting as a means of settling a dispute from my existence.

I found that what is stated above is absolute truth; when one is confident of their ability to deal with violence without coming to harm, fear is removed as a factor in the outcome, instead serving as motivation and ally in the quest for a successful result. Without fear, the mind remains clear, and the correct strategy for success is more easily seen. The absence of fear, besides enhancing our mental state, also improves physical performance; the concept of “freezing”, or of reactions being slowed down from the paralyzing effect of fear, is prevented from being a factor. In short, you get faster, and smarter.

This simple fact, that fear is eliminated, is the strongest ally a person can have in such situations, and greatly improves one’s chances of avoiding injury, and defeat. Even defeat is more palatable, for having done all one can do, and for the lessons there to be learned that can help the next time someone gives in to their bozoid tendencies, at a time and place that makes it impossible to ignore, ridicule, or redirect……

“In a philosophical dispute, he gains most who is defeated, since he learns most.” — Epicurus
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Some days it just goes easier than others. As I’m yet unsure as to which sort of day this is (there has been evidence of more than one possible path today could take), I will count my blessings, and declare this one “finis!” As far as I intend to take it anyway…..I do have SOME compassion for others! At any rate, y’all take care out there….it’s getting pretty weird…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

As the plan developed, Murphy laughed….

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Ffolkes,
Lost again in reverie, I gaze blankly into space, imagining beautiful words parading across the screen, words so poignant, so powerful, they bring tears. The words speak to the part of each reader that is within me, that common ground of fellow-feeling, that spark of humanity that connects us all.  The tears are not always sad; often they are (in my mind’s eye) full of such joy that the tears fall of their own accord, as if the morning sun had arisen in our very souls. Whether sad or joyous, beauty remains, always there for us to reach out and touch, and be touched. And when the words have worked their benign magic, the world turns again, and a new day begins…….
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“Life is cruel? Compared to what?” — Edward Abbey

One of the better methods for identifying wisdom is to learn that it is generally close by the person who asks the questions that occur to no one else. I’ve noticed this a lot with Edward Abbey’s writings; he has a pretty powerful grip on what is important to know, and a very deft touch in putting it into a palatable form.

This, as it turns out in reality, is a valuable characteristic, and one of the ways society passes knowledge from one person to the next. Not everyone is curious, even if they should be. All too many folks spend the greater portion of their mental energy just coping with everyday life, with little left over at the end of the day to put into “frivolous” activities. Sad, but true.

But, fortunately for society, not everyone can curb their curiosity; some of us just HAVE to know what is out there to be found, or seen, or learned. It’s like breathing; you can stop if you like, but you won’t enjoy the outcome at all. By learning to put questions to the universe in perspective, they are shared with others, thus sharing the product of their curiosity with their fellows, who don’t have the time or inclination to use their mind for anything other than mundane pursuits. I’m awfully glad that those folks are out there; the world would be a lonely, and confusing place to live if they were not……

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” — Voltaire
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“There is the truth, and there are lies, and there is nothing on Earth or in the Netherhells that does not fall under one of these two headings, with the exception of politics.” — The Teachings of Ebenezum, Vol. LXXXVIII

Watching the political scene in this country unfold over the last few months has been enough to place the impulse to make political commentary on a par with repeatedly banging one’s head against a brick wall. Hell, there are times when the brick wall looks like a better way to spend time than trying to either make sense of the circus, or waste time criticizing it.

I don’t yet have enough of a reading audience to spread my particular brand of ideology to the great unwashed masses, and I often feel like a blind man in a dark room, trying to hit a piñata with a wiffle bat while listening to bad mariachi music (which is, come to think of it, an oxymoron). I think, in fact that I will have to take a sabbatical from political discourse; it’s beginning to have a deleterious effect on my sleep patterns, and I’m certainly not going to allow such nonsense to affect my health.

Have no fear though; I am sure that the antics of the talking heads leading up to the election in November will pull and push me into commenting before too long. But, it’s so depressing….. makes me wanna go take a nap, and hope it goes away while I’m dozing……fat chance of that, though…..
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Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she
With silent lips.  Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me…
— Emma Lazarus, “The New Colossus”

As most know, this is the poem that was written for the Statue of Liberty, to show the rest of the world how tolerant and free American had become; it espouses the (supposedly) American ideal of society. Today, I’d wager a significant amount of money to bet that 75% of the Americans not only couldn’t tell you the source of the poem, but would tell you they disagree with it. Our leaders, and much of the populace, no longer believe in the melting pot; they would rather seal the borders, and keep the rest of the world out.

Diversity, while already fully ensconced in the structure of society, is being systematically attacked by the forces of ignorance and intolerance, who would rather keep freedom to themselves. They don’t even realize that they have already lost; there are too many outlooks and cultures assimilated into this society to be removed without destroying themselves along with those members of society of whom they disapprove. The pot has already melted the disparate parts into a homogeneous whole; the folks who want to make this a “one-book” society are already in the minority. They just refuse to admit it, which creates a lot of hassle for the rest of us.

Sometimes I am unsure whether to be optimistic, or pessimistic; both have their uses.  Optimism feels better, but pessimism is right more often. Oh, well, I guess I’ll go take a nap…..
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“You can always tell an old soldier from the inside of his holsters and cartridge boxes.  The young ones carry pistols and cartridges: the old ones, grub.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), “Arms and the Man”

Though I managed to avoid that whole mess in Vietnam, I was raised as an army brat, living mostly on bases where my father was stationed until he retired from the Army, when I was ten years old. Having been raised on army bases, I was made fully conversant with how the army works, by the process of osmosis; you can’t help but pick up a lot of abstruse knowledge living around soldiers all the time. Thus, I can say with some degree of confidence that although Mr. Shaw’s statement is true, it is only true as far as his knowledge goes. And, it is clear that he himself never served in an army, or he would never have made such a simple mistake.

Yes, an old soldier will carry food, but even more important to him (and his mates) would be to make sure he was carrying toilet paper and clean, dry socks. THOSE are the most highly prized items for a soldier in the field. Bullets and guns are never in short supply, unless a troop has an inept company clerk, and food will eventually show up (or you can commandeer it from the citizenry), but once the TP is gone, it’s gone, and there is no good replacement in nature. And, to an infantryman, dry socks are better by far than gold or jewels, for foot soldiers live only as long as they can still walk…..comfortably……
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These in the days when Heaven is falling
The hour when Earth’s foundations fled
Followed their mercenary calling
And took their wages and are dead.
Their shoulders held the sky suspended
They stood and Earth’s foundations stay
What God abandoned these defended
And took the sum of things for pay.
–A.E. Houseman–Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries

It is said of people that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. In the case of my daughter, that is both true and not true; but mostly it is true. She followed my example and learned to read by age four. By the second grade, she was devouring books at an alarming rate, books well beyond her grade level (she read the Hobbit at age six). I say alarming only because she was reading so far above her grade level that I was worried it would cause problems in relating to her peers. But, she indeed didn’t fall far, because instead she learned to use, and still uses, what she has read to help her in dealing with the surprises that life brings.

The above is a a poem that she wrote down for me, from memory, one day when we were on a high-flying discussion of some of what we had read in common. She feels the same as I do about poetry, and for much the same reasons, in that she appreciates the poet’s ability to use the language in such a powerful way.

Both she, and her older brother, learned to read at four years, although he is of a personality type that, while he enjoys books and literature, and reads well beyond the average, he prefers to partake of the bulk of his learning from experience. Both of them make me proud, and glad that they will always have the comfort of books to ease their path through the mazes of life. And I am content that, if no other way, I gave them tools that will always serve them well……
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Thus ends another morning’s musings. Hopefully, you have found some food for thought, or at least a humorous snack. I have been up since 5 AM again, so I may just take my own advice, and go back to bed until a more reasonable hour. Hmm….sounds attractive. Unless something pops up before I can get comfy, I can’t see any reason to deny myself that little indulgence. There ARE advantages to this retirement stuff, besides having a lot more time to write….good thing, too, as there are other parts that aren’t as pleasurable, like aging…..y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

In a manner of speaking…..

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Ffolkes,
Mornings such as this are becoming all too familiar. I sit here and stare at the monitor, waiting for an idea to float up to the surface of my mind, where I can pluck it up and lay it out for all to see. But, nothing is floating. The stream of consciousness keeps flowing by; I can feel the current. But, nothing is jumping into the net, or onto shore to flop around, and the baited hook is being ignored. Oh well, I suppose I’ll have to wing it; that’s better than diving in to catch ’em by hand……
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Q: “You’re right, of course.  I’m extraordinarily selfish.  But it has served me so well in the past.”
Picard: “It will not serve you here.”
Q: “Don’t be so hard on me, Jean-Luc.  You’ve been mortal all of your life, you know about dying.  I’ve never even given it a second-thought…or a first one for that matter.  I could’ve been killed.  If it hadn’t been for Data, and that brief little he created, I would’ve been gone.  No more me.  And no one would’ve missed me, would they?” — “Deja Q”, Stardate 43539.1

And right there is the answer to the question, why should one live with compassion and truth, honor and duty? Because if you don’t, NO ONE will miss you when you’re gone. Can there be a sadder way to die? Or, worse yet, a sadder way to live? I don’t believe there can be, at all, at all….
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“The assertion that all men are created equal was of no practical use in effecting our separation from Great Britain and it was placed in the Declaration not for that, but for future use.” —  Abraham Lincoln

“All men are created unequal.”- Lazarus Long

“All men weren’t created equal. All were created with equal rights. But they weren’t created with equal abilities, or equal intelligence, or equal physical capabilities. Every man and woman is created with equal potential of being better than merely equal, and with the right to have that potential respected for what they may achieve. They should not be judged according to what someone with greater talent in one area or another may say, for they judge and condemn only according to their own assumed entitlement.” — gigoid ©
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“Termiter’s argument that God is His own grandmother generated a surprising amount of controversy among Church leaders, who on the one hand considered the argument unsupported by scripture but on the other hand were unwilling to risk offending God’s grandmother.” — Len Cool, American Pie

Vows with so much passion, swears with so much grace, that ‘t is a kind of heaven to be deluded by him. — Nathaniel Lee (1655-1692)  — Alexander the Great, Act i, Sc. 3

It can be a rather sobering pastime to contemplate the staggering effects of ignorance on human society. History is filled with evidence of just how silly mankind tends to be, especially when left to its own devices. How many times have we seen or read about some tin-plated demagogue spewing their vitriolic nonsense so loudly, and with such conviction, that millions of desperate people gather behind their banner, ready to die for the cause, however ignorant, on the off-chance that their lot my be improved thereby.

Let’s see….without googling, I can offer off the top of my head, Alexander. Genghis Khan. Jesus of Nazareth. Mohamed (yes, I know, but the spell-checker wants it spelled this way. Go figure). Hannibal, Adolph Hitler, Baha’ullah, Shrub, Sr. and Shrub, Jr., and a host of other charismatic leaders with the ability to pull people into their own particular delusional system. As a matter of fact, we have spent much of our history just recovering from the times when these charming idiots held sway over society.

Myself, I’m getting pretty tired of trying to live down the absolute nonsense perpetrated by these ignorant sociopaths; I wish it weren’t so, but it looks as if ignorance is going to win the final battle with reason, and humanity will join the dinosaurs in extinction, with the dubious honor of having chosen death over life……

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.” — Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals

“The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

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“It may be true that my desk here is really “nothing but” a transient eddy of electrons in the flux of universal process. Nevertheless, I find that it continues to support my feet, my revolver, and my cigars all day long. What happens when my back is turned I don’t know. Or much care. That’s no concern of mine.” — Edward Abbey

I find this to be an insightful epiphany; it’s just curmudgeonly enough to appeal to that side of my nature, which, I do confess, I encourage shamelessly. But, and here’s the important part, it’s pretty much true, in the sense that the Universe does exist and operate in ways we don’t always understand. But, there is also no need to understand everything; many parts of the Universe bring with them an understanding that needs no communication beyond perception. If it looks like a cat, and sounds like a cat, and smells like a cat, and feels like a cat, AND it tastes like a cat, it’s probably a cat. If, after performing all of these perceptual tests upon the cat, you walk away with a number of scratches, well, that is just one more piece of evidence in favor of the theory that it was a cat….. it’s kinda like Mark Twain said, “A man who has held a bull by the tail knows several things more than a man who hasn’t”……
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“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,’ said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”
” What’s for breakfast? said Pooh. What do you say, Piglet?”
“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said. — A. A. Milne, “Winnie the Pooh”

Here’s a fine little example of how simple is best. What a wonderful attitude to have in the morning, in whichever form you choose, breakfast, or excitement. It is only when one attains a certain age that mornings assume the aspect of a challenge rather than an inspiration. Part of the process of aging, for us humans, involves learning how to approach each day with some degree of cheerfulness, having found that it is better to accept what is, rather than struggle to make it more to our liking.

When one is young, that unknown day ahead of us is bright and shiny, with promise and potential. As we get older, we see less of the shine, and focus instead on the potential. By now, we know any promises involving reality are false; things usually change before a promise can even be uttered. Mother Nature offers us no guarantees, we just have to take everything “as is”…..therefore, learning to get back to the childish side of our nature allows us to at least look forward to each day, even though we know its challenges…..
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Wait….no, wait a minute…..oh. Okay. It’s okay, I just had a strong feeling of veja du. ” For a moment, I thought I had entered an alternate universe.” — Vir  But, it was only my sense of humor playing a joke on me….. (Sorry, I apologize…I couldn’t resist…..) But, think of this, if you will: these are only my opinions. You should see my convictions.  Y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Fundamentally flawed, but functional…

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Ffolkes,
Just so you know…..in order to deal more effectively with the lack of material in my head, I’ll be taking at least a couple days off, sort of. Not all the way off; I’ll be recycling older pearls. I figured out that, as I’ve been doing this for over 10 years,  some of the older ones hadn’t been seen yet by some of the newer readers.  A few days will suffice to both give them a treat from the past, and give my head some time to recuperate, and generate some more fresh food for thought…..that will begin tomorrow, so watch this space for blasts from the past…..
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A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow in the morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.
— T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

One of T.S.’s most powerful poems, and one of my favorites. A stiff and pointed stick jabbed right into the eye of society, making them see the stark landscape of modern life, devoid of compassion and joy. I’ll bet someone like Newt G. or Mitt R. would read this and feel very, very uncomfortable, without knowing why; but we would know, for it is a bitter condemnation of the modern way of life that venerates money, and ignores human suffering….
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“If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be … If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” — Thomas Jefferson

“..it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.”  That about says it all. This, then, is why we are being systematically oppressed by our own leadership. This is why “they” were able to deregulate the Bill of Rights, right in front of us, and almost nobody knows, or cares. The American public, for the largest part, has abrogated this responsibility; we can no longer call ourselves free men, for we have given it up in favor of a false sense of security, and misguided trust in people who claim to have our interests at heart, but in reality don’t even really like other Americans. I would guesstimate that over 90% of the voting public has no idea that the Bill of Rights has been declared null and void; hell, that number of them probably couldn’t even name the Bill of Rights. It is disgusting, and frustrating, and downright scary how little people seem to care about having volunteered to become slaves of the beloved ruling class. I’m tempted to give in to my baser urges, and start slapping people silly when they display their ignorance in public. It may not return the Bill of Rights, but I’ll sure feel better…..

“They have exiled me now from their society and I am pleased, because humanity does not exile except the one whose noble spirit rebels against despotism and oppression.  He who does not prefer exile to slavery is not free by any measure of freedom, truth and duty” — Kahlil Gibran, from “Spirits Rebellious”
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” It is not the writer’s task to answer questions but to question answers. To be impertinent, and, if necessary, subversive.” — Edward Abbey

Perfect description of my attitude toward writing’s place in society; it couldn’t be said better. To be a gadfly, to question authority, to learn and share what is learned, regardless of who it embarrasses, this is the purpose a writer should always accept as integral to their work and expression. It wouldn’t be as necessary if people would just think for themselves, but it should be obvious by now that that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. If I were the kind of person who could just walk away from someone in need, maybe I could forgo some of what takes up so much of my time.

But, regardless of how stupid someone might be, they don’t deserve to be oppressed by assholes whose entire agenda is focused on self-aggrandizement. I still believe that anyone who actually WANTS to be an elected official in this country is clinically insane, with sociopathic tendencies. Only when one is blithely unconcerned with the fate of other people can one seek that much power over them. It’s just plain sick, and I intend to keep pointing it out until they’re all put in therapy, willing or not……
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“The land of the free!  This is the land of the free!  Why, if I say anything that displeases them, the free mob will lynch me, and that’s my freedom.  Free?  Why I have never been in any country where the individual has such an abject fear of his fellow countrymen.  Because, as I say, they are free to lynch him the moment he shows he is not one of them.” — D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

Hmmm…..I guess things around here haven’t changed so much after all. Mrs. Grundy and her ilk still oversee the morals of everyone else, shouting down any differences with strident cries of Infidel! Blasphemer!” At least here on the net, it’s still considered bad form to type in ALL CAPS…… but, we  need to be careful; those who care about such things are still trying to get legislation passed that will attempt to censor what can be posted online, and limit what the net can be used for. Don’t let them do it; they’ve already taken too many of our rights as it is. We can’t afford to lose any more…..
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“Poetry has been to me “its own exceeding great reward;” it has soothed my afflictions; it has multiplied and refined my enjoyments; it has endeared solitude; and it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and the beautiful in all that meets and surrounds me.” — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Me, too! As I’ve said before, or at least intimated, poetry is, in my humble opinion, the ultimate use of language; any idea expressed in a poem is more readily digestible to the human brain than any prose can possibly be. How many of us learned the alphabet by singing the “Alphabet Song”? The very basis of the written word, the alphabet, naturally lends itself to rhyming, which stimulates the mind to learn in a way that seamlessly coordinates with the way our minds perceive, so that deep knowledge is passed on with each short phrase, knowledge deeper than the mere meaning of each word, made clear to us by its structure, and organized compatibly by the cadence.

Perhaps that could be new project for me. I’ve never been happy with my own ability to produce a good poem; they always fall short of my expectations. Maybe it is time, now that I’ve had more experience with the language, to see if that experience has enhanced my creative side……hmmm, we’ll see……if anything moderately attractive comes of it, I’ll post it here, and take the risk of allowing others to see it, and judge its quality……

“A poet that fails in writing, becomes often a morose critic. The weak insipid white wine makes at length excellent vinegar.” — Shenstone
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Whew! Made it! I thought this would never end. Well, not really. It was enough fun that I lost track of where I was. But, we’ve finally come to a logical place to stop, so we’ll emulate Spock, and call it a day….. y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

In Kokopelli’s parlor of illusion….

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Ffolkes,
It all began to run together in his mind as he started to type.  Common sense dictated that an outline would be helpful, but organized structuring of material is anathema to his soul, so he kept on typing, pushing through the self-induced confusion to the calm below, from whence came the well of words that filled his fevered mind. As time wore on, the typing slowed, until finally, the keys fell silent, numb from the assault. “Hmph!”, he thought to himself, “that was certainly a crock!” Time began again…..

Most people make sense, at least some of the time. I’m not one of them; I only do it when goaded into it.  Needless to say, when I do make sense, I’m probably either speaking from my own experience, or I’m lying. Very little middle ground there; I’m pretty opinionated, even for a Scorpio….. Nor do I at any time feel any compulsion to make an attempt to make sense; I figure that is an exercise for the reader anyway…..
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“Once Chuang Chou dreamt he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting and fluttering around, happy with himself and doing as he pleased. He didn’t know he was Chuang Chou. Suddenly he woke up and there he was, solid and unmistakable Chuang Chou. But he didn’t know if he was Chuang Chou who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Chou.” — Chuang Tzu

I had this feeling when I woke up this morning, that momentary confusion of two realities that comes on the edge of consciousness between sleeping and waking. It’s not a bad feeling, actually, and I for one always have a yearning to believe that I am the butterfly, dreaming of being me. Reality is, for me, already a slippery slope, and I tend to spend a lot of time sliding from one to another, and enjoying the contrasts that are inherent in changing at will. Being adept at adjusting to new realities is a good skill to have; it allows one the emotional distance and control that may be lacking in those who resist change. I’ve found its better to have some familiarity with the process, by exploring its procedural parameters on a regular basis. This way I’m not caught unawares so often by the capricious changes reality goes through all on its own…..
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“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” — Edward Abbey

Too many Americans have either forgotten what it means to be an American, or were left to try to deduce it on their own. And we all know what that means! It means giving up the only effective defense liberty has against oppression, an educated populace. Today’s society in the US is populated by an increasingly large number of young people who not only have no knowledge of American history, but actively resent any attempts to engage them in learning it. This is partly because schools don’t teach kids how to learn, but rather how to be good consumers. The government likes it that way, as an ignorant populace is much easier to control than one that is constantly challenging authority to justify itself. And now, thanks to the NDAA, brought to you in stealth by collusion of the three branches of our supposedly self-regulating government, ignorance has won the day in this country, and very few people at all are even paying attention. Those of us who are, are very, very afraid……

“Under current law, it is a crime for a private citizen to lie to a government official, but not for the government official to lie to the people.” — Donald M. Fraser
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“You can lead a yak to water but you can’t teach an old dog to make a silk purse out of a pig in a poke.” — Opus

You’ve got to love Opus, even though he is no longer with us on this plane of reality. Only a polymathic penguin could be so…..lovably erudite. It is now 7:45 AM, and I have been searching for something new or interesting to write about since 4:03 AM. This is what I’ve come up with, so it will have to do. Spending time in nonsensical pursuits is good for the soul, some say, and who am I to question some? I am beginning to think that I have written myself right into a self-imposed state of high dudgeon, and will now be compelled to spend some unknown amount of time wallowing in inconsistency and howling at the moon. I’ve lost touch with the funny bone of reality, and though I don’t relish the quick, agonizing pain of having it stimulated (generally by meeting unexpectedly with a sharp corner of satire), it’s the only way to get back to my center, where head and heart are balanced. I’ve spent so much time in my head of late, my heart is suffering atrophy; laughter will fix it in jig time though, and all I need to do for that is go look in a mirror….. 🙂
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It has been said, and not without evidence, that humor can indicate how a society looks at life. Jokes tell us what things hurt the most, for we laugh to kill the pain of living. And this is never truer when applied to how society looks at its leaders…..here are few examples of how people feel about politics in this country…..and not just today….

What’s the difference between a politician and a hooker? There are some things a hooker won’t do for money.

“Our congressmen are the finest body of men money can buy.” — Morey Amsterdam (written for Will Rogers)

“George Washington said to his father, “If I never tell a lie, how can I get to be President?” — Red Buttons

He’s not a politician.  He’s just ethically challenged.

“We, the people, are not free.  Our democracy is but a name.  We vote? What does that mean?  We choose between Tweedledum and Tweedledee.”– Helen Keller

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that it really isn’t funny any longer. We have lost trust in government, and thus have lost trust in ourselves. It’s another way of saying, the joke is on us…..

“Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history, mankind has been bullied by scum. Those who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadow about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity, perform any vile act, do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy the whores are us.” — P.J. O’Rourke, _Parliament of Whores_
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When they turn the pages of history
When these days have passed long ago,
Will they read of us with sadness
For the seeds that we let grow?
— Rush, A Farewell to Kings

The answer to that would be Yes……
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Would that I had within me the strength to go on; though the day dawns, my spirit flags, mired in obscure beauty, afflicted by sober gravity. To reach an ending will be a fit beginning, to another day among the damned and the unwilling ghosts of regret. Fare thee well in this thy birth of a new day, and walk not the path of evil….. y’all take care out there…..

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

gigoid

Just Dozer

Kowabunga!

Splendid specimens, sir….do they wiggle?

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Ffolkes,
We go now, in search of cognitive dissonance… heavily armed with oodles of insouciance, and eager to wage war with words. Let us then take a foray into the day, spreading the contagious joy of living……

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
— Henry W. Longfellow (1807-1882) — A Psalm of Life

Alrighty then, let’s have at it……
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“With the first link, a chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably.” — Picard, ST:TNG, quoting a fictional judge, The Drumhead

One doesn’t often find profundity in Picard’s words, though he has one of the best voices for delivering such gems. This one seems timely, considering that we Americans just watched quietly as Congress passed another version of the Anti-Bill of Rights (aka, the Homeland Security Act), abridging even more of our Constitutionally guaranteed liberties. I find it reprehensible that the fear of terrorism that followed the attacks on 9/11 was used to justify an attack on the Constitution, and even fanned into flames, by the very people who are supposed to protect the liberties outlined in the Bill of Rights.

We no longer have the right to freely assemble to protest, unless we meet stringent regulations. Our telephone conversations are being monitored, both land-line and cell, for key phrases that would indicate terrorist activity. This law alone has caused a number of illegal arrests, which were made possible by the easing of the restrictions on police when performing searches. They now have the right to invade your home, just because they “suspect” terrorist activity. Racial and cultural profiling is rampant, and long-time citizens of this country are being harassed and vilified, just because they are Muslim, or “appear to be” Muslim.

What I’m saying here isn’t paranoia speaking. The incidents I’ve mentioned are all documented in the news. What disturbs me the most about the whole situation is that the American public isn’t protesting at all, not about what is important. Yes, it is the 99% who are perpetrating all these incidents of oppression, but that is normal; they’ve always done whatever they could get away with in their single-minded pursuit of most of the money in our pockets. The real danger lies in what they are doing to our basic liberties as outlined in the Bill of Rights. 

They are accomplishing all this without censure, without oversight, and without conscience. I can only hope that enough people like me can shout it out loudly enough, and often enough, that the sheep out there masquerading as adult humans will become afraid of the correct enemy, to wit: those attempting to erode our rights. These are not necessarily the rich, though they are paying for it; these are the hired gunslingers of the rich, placed in power by virtue of the almighty dollar and their gift of Lies…….

“If a lie is repeated often enough all the dumb jackasses in the world not only get to believe it, they even swear by it.” — B.B. Franklin

“There is in human nature generally more of the fool than of the wise.” — Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

and, lastly…..

“Any hack can safely rail away at foreign powers beyond the sea; but a good writer is a critic of the society he lives in.” — Edward Abbey
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Hmph! Seriousness.  Hmph! Sobriety.  A Jedi craves them not.

A limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I’ve seen
So seldom are clean,
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.

If humanity has any hope at all, it rests in those parts of our nature that are often only seen in times of crisis. Courage. Loyalty. Compassion. Love. Creativity. Imagination. Introspection. Will. These are our finest qualities, the parts of us that are always in in harmony with the universe, and represent  possibly our final hope for redemption.

In today’s complex world of the future, (thanks, Firesign Theater) we are bearing witness to the increasingly obvious symptoms of decay and dissolution exhibited by modern culture. Divisiveness in public affairs. Imminent economic turmoil caused by severe inequity across the board. Global warming and severe climatological changes caused by pollution of the air, land, and sea. Erosion of human rights. Threatening species extinctions occurring continuously. Damage to the bottom of the food chain, which will have effects that ripple and spread all the way to the top of the pyramid, ie., us.

The evidence for all of this is overwhelming, and the theoretical conclusions are approaching certainty; this planet, and the species that exist today, are what we like to call “one sick puppy”, and the prognosis for recovery is guarded and uncertain; death is very nearly certain without treatment of the causes, not the symptoms. At this point, its not a good bet…..

I’ll bet when you started on this little section, you thought it would be funny. Just goes to show how far you can trust words, doesn’t it? Even when the one speaking is on your side, as I am, you can never tell from outward appearances just what may lie hidden under the surface. It could be, as it is here, with the intent of contrasting and illuminating a desired point, a lesson, as it were. Or it could be that all that is going on here is another attempt to fool you into doing something you don’t necessarily agree with; this too, should be a familiar experience, as that is the most commonplace gift we receive from our beloved ruling class. What I’d like you to take from this, is a renewed attitude of personal responsibility for what we say and do; none of us will be free, if we do not free ourselves…….okay, here’s a little humor…..

“Truth … never comes into the world, but like a Bastard, to the ignominy of him that brought her forth.” — John Milton (1608-1674) (which throws light on the tradition of killing the messenger….)
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“Being frustrated is disagreeable, but the real disasters in life begin when you get what you want.” — Irving Kristol

This being the case, it points out another disturbing issue regarding our political choices today. Obviously, it is our preference (what we want) that only those who are the most skillful liars are allowed the opportunity to lie to the public at large, a privilege befitting their exalted position as a member of the beloved ruling class. After all, we vote for them, don’t we? Every time there is an election, both parties sally forth with their distorted truths and distractions, all cleverly designed to deflect attention from what is actually happening, which is a contest to see whose particular set of untruths is given precedence until the next election. Then we get to do it all again, whether anything good or bad has happened, or not happened.

It all seems a bit silly, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it make you feel just the slightest bit of embarrassment at not only bending over, but for willingly supplying the lubricant for the perversions to which these…people… are subjecting us? Sometimes, I get so ashamed, I refuse to even leave the house on election day, for fear I’ll snap, and start haranguing prospective voters as they wander in to cast their programmed responses, telling them they were all going to hell in a handbasket, just as if I were a preacher, or a politician, or someone of that ilk…..
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“If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, vi, 21

It may have come to your attention that this seems to be a recurring theme here at Gigoid’s Folly. And you would be right in that. I’m scared, folks, and I don’t care who knows it (it just makes me more dangerous, not less). I’m scared to death that the degree of ignorance at work today in society is going to push us all into the path of the bulldozer of Extinction. I didn’t have children because I wanted to see them die, wallowing in the filth with which we have fouled our nest, choking on the air that is becoming thicker and more foul with each passing second. (Don’t believe me? follow this link to see just how fast we are killing ourselves….  http://www.poodwaddle.com/clocks/worldclock/ ) It’s getting to the point where I can see the muck in the air; look across a valley sometime, and see how much detail you can see across the way. In most of the world today, you would be lucky to be able to determine colors, but not shapes.

I reiterate. I’m scared. And I am monumentally pissed off, as well! Deliberately ignorant assholes are constantly filling the airwaves with the most egregious bullshite I’ve ever heard, and as an American who has witnessed election politics all my life, that is some pretty fancy doo doo.  What right do these ignoramuses have that allows them to spew their fear and loathing all over the rest of us? And how long is the general public going to allow this kind of self-destructive behavior in the people who are supposed to be protecting and nurturing our growth? It’s already gone on far too long, and I sense that change is in the air…..kind of smells like gunpowder in the morning air, doesn’t it?……
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How happy is he born or taught,
That serveth not another’s will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
And simple truth his utmost skill!
— Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639) — The Character of a Happy Life

Eureka! I have found the epitaph for my headstone, should I ever need one. This is me all over……this is not to say I’m perfect, far from it. But this is my picture of the ideal me, the prototypical me, from which all other possible me’s take their substance. It’s the kind of person I strive to be, even when I’m not. Even though I cannot yet spend all my time comfortably ensconced in the contented glow of this state of mind, I find it to be a most worthwhile goal for me to pursue. I shall go now and do so……
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That went well, I think. It would no doubt be best now for me to stop doing this, and go do something else. One nice thing about both retirement, and freelance writing, and that is getting to make your own schedule, without having to worry about anyone or anything other than one’s own whimsy. We all could use a bit more whimsy in Life, wouldn’t you say?  Y’all take care out there…..

P.S.  I’m once again writing for Examiner.com, as the Oakland Examiner for Social Issues. You can find all my articles for them by following this link. Page hits and clicks on advertisements are how I get paid, so feel free to come back often. I hope you enjoy reading my work there as much as I enjoy creating it…..

http://www.examiner.com/social-issues-in-oakland/ned-moore 

Thanks again, and carpe that old diem!…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Hey! This cue ball isn’t round!…

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2

Ffolkes,
Hello…..I’m trying to find myself.  Has anyone seen me lately? So frustrating; I just set myself down yesterday, and when I got up, I wasn’t there anymore. I hate when this happens. It just throws a monkey wrench into my works, and I have to spend an unknown period of wasted time looking for myself in all the places I hide.  This time, I think I must have come up with a new place, because I’m not in any of the old places. Oh well, for today, we’ll just have to go on without me. You go ahead, I’ll catch up…..
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Women, cats, and golf; man was not meant to understand these things.

If this isn’t true, it should be. I can attest in all three areas that trying to understand any of them is fruitless. Golf, for me, isn’t a terribly big issue; I didn’t take it up until I was almost 40, so I don’t feel bad that knowledge of its deep magic may never be mine. Cats, in my opinion, are also unpredictable in their interactions. Cats were worshiped as gods in ancient Egypt, and they have never forgotten; it shows in their disdain for any mere human rules. And women! Boy, like any man my age, I could spend days recounting how many ways women have shown me that anything I think I know about them is ridiculously, pathetically useless in figuring out how to deal with them. No matter how well one knows a woman, they can change at the drop of a name, and exhibit characteristics we’ve never seen before, anywhere or when. It is a wise man indeed who keeps this knowledge in the forefront of awareness in his dealing with women; it’s the only chance we have of emerging from the contact unscathed. But, you know what? For all three of them, I wouldn’t have it any other way…..because it just makes them more attractive as a goal to know that bringing out the best in each will be challenging. And challenges, met with courage and wit, make us stronger, and feel more alive…..
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“Yesterday I saw a chicken crossing the road.  I asked it why.  It told me it  was none of my business.” — Steven Wright

Steven Wright’s may be the strangest mind ever produced by humans. I love the way his vision distorts the reality that the rest of us normally perceive, twisting it into some of the oddest configurations anyone has ever seen, and each is more hilarious than the last. When I used the old format for Pearls, at least once a year, I’d collect several of his jokes to present in a group, just because it was a great way to break rhythm, and it was always one of the best received productions of the year.

His genius lies, I think, in the way he can make ordinary life appear to be 180 degrees from where it actually is, and still make us see it as normal. The contrast between what he sees as normal, and our own, is what produces the laughter, just as if you had walked into a door and were forced to laugh at yourself. I’m just glad that he is alive now, and giving the world his unique take; it’s good to know that since he’s near my age, I’ll have had his humor to help me get through for almost my entire life. That’s a good thing; one can never have too many sources to help us laugh, even if, and especially if, it is at ourselves…..
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“He who learns but does not think, is lost!  He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.” — Confucius

“He who does neither is eligible to join the crowd as a Republican candidate for the Presidency in 2012.” — gigoid

Although there are moments, when I’m reading some new report on the latest verbal bomb from the Republican gallery of fools, that I despair for the race, I have to admit it’s really handy for us writers. Every day, sometimes several times, we are presented with a huge bounty of material by these folks, who seem to not only have the habit of shooting themselves in the foot, but seem to enjoy it, and, at best, are using it as a campaign tactic to draw attention. There isn’t even any need to go deep to look for stuff the politicos would rather you didn’t know, because they have taken it upon themselves to offer that information in their own statements, made obvious by their loquaciousness on certain subjects, and their reluctance to speak on others. It’s almost as if they are printing up pictures of themselves with arrows pointing to their most vulnerable points.

I really don’t understand how so many obviously unqualified and downright idiotic people ever got the notion that they could possibly do this. The only thing I can come up with is that they are completely out of touch with any sort of objective information, and have determined that their own subjective judgments are sufficient reason to qualify them for the Presidency. In other words, they are delusional, as that word is defined as “continuing to hold as truth information that has been proven false.” Now, do we really want anyone who suffers from delusional thinking to be the one holding the button that launches the nuclear holocaust? I don’ know about you, but I would give that question a resounding “NO!”…..and not feel a whit of guilt…..
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“The world is full of burled and gnarly knobs on which you can hang a metaphysical system. If you must.” — Edward Abbey

Here then is a logical mind. My evidence? His reluctance to impose an invented set of rules on a world that resists any such restraint is, in my mind, eminently sensible. Why do we have to make up stuff to try to explain how the universe functions? What quality does our curiosity have that compels us to seek out some kind of system to help us to deal with reality that simply exists, as it is, no ups, no extras needed? Humans seem to want some kind of order to their existence, and for some reason, can’t seem to come to terms with things the way they are. They seem to need to apply their own set of prejudices to the world, an impulse stemming from some unknown inner compulsion that has held back the tide of human progress for just about our entire history.

My own opinion is that human nature, being what it is, noted way back in the old days, that a man with no principles can manipulate other people through their own set of behavioral rules. By balancing a friendly, smiling face with a completely sociopathic conscience, they have been able to keep most of mankind in thrall ever since we first started farming and coming together in cities to trade. And they continue today to blithely steal and rob from us without compunction, and without consequence.  As a matter of fact the news of late has been full of evidence of their millennial-long hold over the rest of humanity. We (the gullible masses, as identified in 1935 by H. L. Mencken, who coined the word ‘the booboisie’) have even given them a name; we now call them the 1%.

“The distinctions separating the social classes are false; in the last analysis they rest on force.” — Albert Einstein

The battle lines for Armageddon have been drawn, and the combatants have chosen their sides; the war is coming, and I wouldn’t do a thing to stop it, because freeing ourselves from the people who live for power is our only hope for survival as a species. The 1% probably believes that they will be the only survivors of a world-wide catastrophe, and odds are, they may be right. But I’ll be damned if I’ll go without putting up an epic fight, for my life, and my liberty……

“We have met the enemy, and he is us.” — Walt Kelly (in POGO)
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Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.

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

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

We’ve all heard the question, in some form or another, “if you could talk to anyone in history for an hour, to whom would you ask to speak?”. Well, I’d want to talk to Emily……maybe it makes me strange (which is okay, and not entirely untrue), but I’d really like to be able to spend some time absorbing her world-view. According to reports she was rather reclusive, so it might be a struggle to get her to agree, but she is still the one I’d ask for. Having always wished I could be a better poet, I hold close to my heart the hope (as described so eloquently above) that by sharing space and thoughts with her for a time, perhaps some piece of her talent would transfer to my soul. SIGH…..one can always hope…..
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Today’s effort was just that…an effort. But, I’m glad to say I was up to the challenge, at least in a manner of speaking. Which when you think of it, about all I have to offer is my manner of speaking. Thus, having given of all I have, I shall bid thee adieu……y’all take care out there……

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

The Carmelite nuns just taste better…..

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1

Ffolkes,
Today, International Space Station Expedition 31 will blast off from somewhere in Russia, to carry 3 new astronauts (from 3 countries) up into orbit to deliver supplies and personnel. I would willingly and cheerfully give any body part, and promise anything but my honor, to be on that ship when it leaves the confines of gravity for the freedom of space.

To travel away from Earth has always been one of my most cherished dreams, and remains as my penultimate goal, sometime before I die (which shouldn’t be imminent for some time yet). I’ve seen rumors in the news that it is now possible to go as a tourist; two or three civilian millionaires have already been to the station, paying an outrageous amount of money (more than a million, I believe, though they didn’t say exactly) for the privilege. Now all I’ve got to do is get my book done, and wait for it to hit the bestseller list. Then, with the advance money for the next one, I’ll take the trip, and count it as research for another book……slick, eh? Now all I have to do is write a bestseller…..piece o’cake!….Ooooooh, wait…..first I’ll check my lottery ticket!…….
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“Virtue is the beauty, and vice the deformity, of the soul.” — Socrates (B.C. 469-399)

I am continually amazed at the sheer bulk of the wisdom that was being promulgated in the centuries leading up to the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The millennium prior to that historically seminal event gave us Socrates, Plato, Pliny the Elder, and the Younger, Aristotle, Archimedes (triangles, remember?), and a veritable host of other men, and women most likely (they’ve been less published, but were around, I’m sure) whose breadth and depth of understanding of the world around them formed and immense, balanced, and durable landscape, based on knowledge, garnered by both induction and deduction. Their thoughts make up the pillars upon which modern day society is built, and, as in the case of this statement on human nature, remain as valid today as when they were first uttered. Even in today’s complex world of the future, one can do worse than to base their behavior on the Athenian model…..
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“I went to the bank and went over my savings. I found out I have all the  money that I’ll ever need. If I die tomorrow.” — Henny Youngman

At first, this didn’t really seem of much value, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized what a subtle piece of sarcasm it really is. In just the one line, Henny was able to take a poke at banks, the government, the IRS, Social Security, and the culture of the time, one which spent a lot of time creating fantasies and embracing illusion. In at least one respect, my own situation mirrors this joke, which is, to me, a very damning indication of the sickness of modern culture. Too many people today are in the same boat; the fat cats have been nervous in the last couple of months, because all over the world, people are gathering together to speak out against the 1%’ers and the ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor.

Things have gotten to the point where the middle classes are not just joining in the protests with the disenfranchised poor, but starting and leading them in their desperation to bring the message to the world’s attention. Why are they doing this? Easy…..they have realized that the greed and soulless ambition of the 1% has created a situation where even those who pull in close to a hundred thousand a year are just two paychecks away from being homeless themselves. The beloved ruling class may have made a strategic error in allowing things to become so obviously imbalanced; it may be too late to stop the coming revolution. It is coming, for sure; the warning signs are growing ever more obvious, and the future is, to say the least, unsettled at best……
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He first deceased; she for a little tried
To live without him, liked it not, and died.
— Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639) — Upon the Death of Sir Albert Morton’s Wife

Reading this has been somewhat healing for me, even in the relatively short time since I found it. I find it to be wonderfully sentimental. It tells a story common in mankind’s history, of love that lasted beyond life. It is a bit saddening in one respect, at least for me, for I’ve come to realize that I never really have been loved like this. I’ve been in love several times in my increasingly embarrassing number of years, always with the intent on my part to give this measure of trust and love to my partner. But, here I am, alone once again, because like Tom Robbins asks in one of his books, “How can you make love stay?”. All of the women who I have loved, for some reason unknown to me, eventually wanted out of my world, and that is painful, for it makes me doubt myself. But I’ve come to realize that though I have yet to find the woman who is my true mate, I have given of myself all that I could, and all you can do is all you can do…..more patience must be cultivated. And hey, in the meantime, I always have y’all to keep me busy and amused, if only with meself……
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Cogito, ergo sum presupposes “I”-ness.

This is an elegant example of two things. First, how easy it is to let “logic” be applied as if it were a hammer, and second, a perfect model of the concept of mental masturbation. To look at it superficially, this is a truism, and actually somewhat subtle. But it requires a bit of unwarranted arrogance to assume self-hood, with no given basis of proof beyond its own internal structure. It leads the reader into the common mistake of using the word for a concept as an argument for its existence, kind of like saying, “only those who love can know love” or some similar inanity.

We cannot perceive the universe through any other filter but that of our own consciousness, and “I”-ness is OF COURSE pre-supposed . No “I’, then no cogito. Simple, yes? No, you’re right, it’s not. But it all serves as a good example of how one can get caught up in esoteric fields of thought by following our innate curiosity, and end up in a room with no corners, no light, and no help but our own inner strength…..and  a sense of humor, which allows you to laugh at yourself, and move on……
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“All governments need enemies. How else to justify their existence?” — Edward Abbey

In this spot, I had intended to open a discussion of the above question, and even looked forward to a morning rant in such a fertile field of interest as the public circus we call electoral politics. But my spirit this fine morning isn’t quite up to the emotional side-effects of stirring that particular pot, so I’m going to give you the above, and some direction. I’d like you to sit back, open up some spare ROM in your head, and think to yourselves what I might have written about this quotation, knowing as you do some of my cogitative peculiarities. When you’ve done that, read the following line, and we’ll count that as this morning’s exercise. Okay? Okay!…….

How come you never see a politician laugh? Because they know what they’re getting away with, and if they started laughing, they’d never stop.
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Christmas is imminent, so I’ve got to get back to Reality.  Where IS that silly Blue Dragon?…… Y’all take care out there……

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!