Ffolkes,
“A friend is one who knows the song in your heart
and can sing it back to you
when you have forgotten the words.”
~~ Donna Twitchell Roberts ~~
George Orwell’s House, London
Hajime…. Weighed down, crushed under the dark, the light beckons, promising endless pain. The foul odor of death permeates reality, a miasma bringing tears, burning, each one a brand. In a vast landscape devoid of hope, fear lives, devouring rational thought in frighteningly vague dreams made real. The beast within is arisen….
Introspection is, for many of us, a valuable tool. It seems, however, there are a few idiosyncratic characteristics involved in its use, of which nobody bothers to inform us. In my own case, it seems there are times I shouldn’t bother, as it merely releases the Beast…. Today is such a time, I’m afraid. My morning thus far has been rather, hmm… hard to describe. Let us just say it’s been somewhat ill-conceived, and ill-managed. Still, I am sitting at the computer, typing, which is where I wanted to be by now. The angst and disturbing elements to which I have already been subjected are slowly fading, while the process of pearling I’ve developed manages to soothe the demon I inadvertently awoke.
I suppose I could spend a little time exploring the cause of today’s major melt, but, that, I think, would be unproductive, since there is an equal chance of reawakening the beast, which is apparently falling back to sleep the longer I type. I imagine I have embedded this process so deeply into my persona, the mere act of trying is enough to provide some relief from the sharp knives of self-denigration. Perhaps, when my mind actually wakes up & starts to think, I will be able to calmly address the cause; for now, let’s let it lie, as a sleeping dog. Instead, we’ll do this….
Shall we pearl?….
“Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure.
We get very little wisdom from success, you know.”
~~ William Saroyan ~~
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George Harrison
Without going into superfluous detail, let is suffice to say, today, I want inspiration, and nothing will work any better than this…. Enjoy, please….
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Concert for George
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“Invincibility depends on one’s self;
The enemy’s vulnerability on him.”
~~ Sun Tzu ~~
I was planning to write a discussion of the refugee issue, using the above quote from The Art of War as a starting point. However, I can tell anything I wrote today would be, most likely, too inflammatory. Oh, not too much so for the purpose; too much for my current vulnerability… I’d be too tempted to follow up on the anger which would, no doubt, be generated by such a discussion. Instead, here is a somewhat extensive, but, thoroughly accurate, and, relevant, indictment of the Asininnies. If it isn’t clear to whom that term would apply, the following will make it clear as a crystal….
From 3/4/2014:
“Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sure sign he expects to be paid for it.” — H. L. Mencken
Does anyone else remember what Tom Jefferson had to say about “professional politicians”, and “bankers”, as being the most dangerous threats to a democracy? I remember the tone of it, and the meaning of what he expressed, in a number of letters to others of his contemporaries, even if even if I don’t remember the exact wording in the letters….. Believe me, every single one of the people who inhabit the halls of the White House, the Congressional House and Senate, and the Federal Court system would have been very lucky if Tom had only called them by their true name, that of TRAITOR….. As I recall from my reading about Tom, he was a bit of a hothead, by reputation, and he might have decided to start shooting before speaking, if I read him right…. and, I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment that might have prompted him to start firing away….
It’s funny, (ha ha AND weird, both types…) how the mind plays tricks on itself, even going so far as to use one’s own memories in manipulating to have its way…. however obscure that way may be…. Yesterday, in the rant in section three, (I think…. that’s how unsure I am of my own memory right now; memories as close as yesterday are currently suspect, due to the very issue under discussion IN THIS SENTENCE, thus, demonstrating once again how slippery our hold on Reality is, just all the damn time….), I mentioned the rant from the day before, in which, I was supposed to have spoken about the NSA, and its shenanigans…. That, of course, was either mistaken belief on my part, or just laziness in thinking about what actually was written, as I was writing at the time…. I know, it’s all very confusing, and maybe even moot, but, I have to explain this, or I’ll go crazy…
Crazy, as you know, is always a risk around here…. Anyway…. The rant to which I referred as being about the NSA, (as yesterday’s rant from the archives actually happened to be), was NOT about that, specifically, though that agency WAS mentioned…. No, that rant was about the Shrubs, and the events of 9/11/01 considered as a conspiracy to misdirect the public attention away from election results of the previous two elections, in which certain disputed voting irregularities “fixed” the election in favor of the Republican ticket…. A conspiracy, I will add, whose very existence, due to the very professional, comprehensive planning, and execution, by the elder Shrub’s minions, in eliminating and/or explaining away any evidence of such a conspiracy, is completely unknown to the majority of the American public…. That’s how good they are at this…
My intent in saying the above, long and complicated as it turned out to be, was to be honest, with y’all, and with myself…. and to keep things straight…. There are two different issues at hand in my rants from the last week or so, (Two, at the very least…. most likely more, if truth be told…), with the only connection being the fact that both issues are a result of previously clandestine, illegal, selfish, paranoid actions by the same set of shadowy corporate slave masters, and their political minions…. Thanks to the actions of a single patriotic citizen with a conscience, (E. Snowden), SOME of their actions are now a matter of public record, a fact which they are desperately working to remove from the public’s awareness….
Right now, they’re using the stone wall technique…. They aren’t making comments on any part of the issues, and they won’t address any questions they’re given by journalists on the subject. They’ve planted the seeds they wished to plant, with their lies about intended reforms to the NDAA regulations, and about Eric Snowden’s incompetence, and possible (fabricated) ties to Russian spies….
“All men can be led to believe the lie they want to believe.” — Italo Bombolini
Since that last outrageous, ‘ipse dixit’ proclamation from the House Intelligence Committee’s lead Republican, (….. Wow, talk about an oxymoron!…), about the infamous, totally made-up Soviet spies who “tricked” Eric Snowden into hacking those files, the White House, and every other public mouthpiece in DC, has been giving their best impression of an uncooked clam about the entire issue….. They don’t want to confuse the issue by introducing too many other ideas, especially if they might be found to be true….
They’re letting the lies they told sit and percolate, so it is the last discussion in the public mind; that way, when they come back to re-address the same issue again, those minds, of the mundanes among us, will have already been primed with the previous lies….. Hence, their next round of fabrications can not only be even more outrageous, but, in their minds, will have the additional advantage of being more easily believed by those parts of the public that bought into their previous (false) statements…. ‘Tis an unfortunate truth that it will probably work….
“These activities have their own rules and methods of concealment which seek to mislead and obscure.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower (1960)
Even if only a few people buy into their lies and machinations, they’re content…. They know that, because of human nature, the people who DO fall for that line of crap are generally the loudest, most stridently vocal of their supporters, those who have a strong investment in believing what they’re told by the talking heads on TV, primarily so they don’t appear to be so FUCKING STUPID to the rest of us….
Sorry…. didn’t mean to shout. I just get so frustrated, thinking about the lack of intelligence it takes to NOT be able to see how often these people are lying to us. This rant sort of evolved, all by itself. on Monday morning, as I sat reading the original line from Mr. Mencken, who happens to be one of the most prolific social philosophers of the twentieth century….
Mencken had a sharp eye, a nimble mind, and he wasn’t afraid to call a spade a spade, which, in the end, gets more done than calling it what it isn’t…. His honesty, and his willingness to “call ’em as he saw ’em” is why he was relatively unpopular with, and feared by, the governing elite of his era…. Too many sharp barbs and exposed truths for their taste….
I just wish I could figure out how to convince all the Numbnoids to use their minds, for something more than just carrying their bladders around from toilet, to table, to toilet…. Oh well, I’ll keep at it, and maybe, someday, one of the tabloids, or one of the mainstream papers, or even, GASP!, maybe a major player, like PEOPLE magazine, will pick up one of my rants, it will go viral, and the world will be saved from the all-too-frequently ignored effects of practicing ignorance, and the crushing soulless presence of Evil in our society’s most powerful denizens, who take advantage of that ignorance among the masses to maintain their own supremacy….
Or, maybe not…. Either way, I’ll keep on pointing out what I see, even if it doesn’t get very far…. Better out than in, I always say….
“Lord, defend me from my friends; I can account for my enemies.” — D’Hericault
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I feel a poem circling around in my head, but, it’s not anywhere near ready to bleed out. Here is one I wrote in March of this year, which is probably closest to my mood today…. I hope you enjoy the process of watching me find my balance as much as I hope it works….
Augmentation: Inner Aye
Distant, peals of thunder, vividly.
Closer, a patter of rain, falling gravidly.
Between the light and the darkness of fear
find merely the remnants of one lonely tear.
Do not hate us, though we have not sinned;
eager for courage, upon whom all hope is pinned.
Tales of insolence, hatred, or fallen virtue
fill us up, not down, in such pristine foreign venue.
Capable hands severed, able hands tied;
the future is angry, all but now denied.
Multiple times, warnings sounded across the pale
nobody heard, nobody came to tell the tale.
Gifted by time, salience fails in epic rhyme;
watchmakers watching, each a separate crime.
Logical solutions refuse to emulsify
forever pretending to cruelly crucify.
Blood will fly alongside pertinent composure,
never seeking, never finding tea, or closure.
Falsely laid trails on mountains of gold
imply no happy endings, no fortunes told.
Ages past have no time for repetition;
further chances only lead to perdition.
Destiny feels a shameful portion of guilt,
for a thousand sand castles, never built.
~~ gigoid ~~
3/2/2016
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Naked Pearls
Observations
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“In all the many-colored worlds of the universe
no single ethical code shows a universal force.
I am convinced that virtue is but a reflection of good intent.”
~~ Magnus Ridolf ~~
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“There is nothing in a caterpillar
that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.”
~~ Buckminster Fuller ~~
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“If you have a skeleton in your closet, take it out and dance with it.”
~~ Carolyn MacKenzie ~~
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“Intellect annuls fate.
So far as a man thinks, he is free.”
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~
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“To go forth and experience the myriad things is delusion.
That the myriad things spring forth and experience themselves is enlightenment.”
~~ Dogen ~~
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“If you can’t change your mind, do you still have one?”
~~ Caroline Malmgren-Davis ~~
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Nature, whose sweet rains fall of just and unjust alike,
will have clefts in the rocks where I may hide,
and secret valleys in whose silence I may weep undetected.
She will hang the night with stars so that I may walk abroad
in the darkness without stumbling,
and send the wind over my footprints
so that none may track me to my hurt:
she will cleanse me in great waters,
and with bitter herbs make me whole.”
~~ Oscar Wilde — “De Profundis” ~~
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Not too shabby for an hour and a half later than planned; I’ll take it. Moreover, I’ll do so without further nonsense, or, sense, for that matter. I’ll merely say, I hope it works, and let it go at that. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes; I’m pretty sure it will be relatively unavoidable….
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid, the dubious
The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.
PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.
“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch
À bientôt, mon cherí….
gigoid 