Pike staffs with curlicues….

Ffolkes,

“Bravery is being the only one who knows you’re afraid.”

~~ Franklin P. Jones ~~

Luna 2015


Luna, 12/25/2015

Image found at https://europasicewolf.wordpress.com/author/europasicewolf/


Hajime…. I’m unsure as to why eight hours sleep results in awakening if a foul mood; it’s foul enough I don’t give a shit. Everybody ELSE in the world, today, will just have to deal with it, because, I don’t intend to. For some reason, I woke up with absolutely no patience; not for foolishness, not for rudeness, not even for cat nonsense. Moreover, this time, I am NOT going to be the one making any fucking adjustments. Whoever crosses my path will act with perfect rationality, or they WILL pay a price for not doing so in my presence….

That out of the way, I’ll note today’s effort won’t be much of one, anyway…. I spent much of yesterday working on the no-doubt excessively wordy rant you’ll see today, but, it’s a pretty important one, to me, so, read it anyway, ‘kay? I worked on it pretty hard, even so far as to re-blog another bloggers most excellent piece as part of the lead-in to our subject matter today…. I guess the theme ended up being “how to fix things, or not” which is about as murky and unclear as I can make it… Sorry, not in a mood to be anything but straight-line. In fact, I’m done here; let’s get to it….

Shall we Pearl?….

Cat: Ethereal music wreathed in mystery.

~~ Bastet Bee ~~


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mozart2

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart


I’m in a rotten space, as I’ve noted. One of the few pieces of music tolerable at all are these two symphonies, by the man I consider the most talented musical genius mankind has produced, thus far. Don’t care if anyone feels otherwise; in this mood, this is the only thing that can bring me any peace, so, if you don’t appreciate classical music, you may move on to the ranting section, where you will be encouraged to use the mind you possess for its intended purpose…. See you there, if I can manage not to get arrested before I get there….


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Mozart
Symphonies 40 & 41

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le penseur-rodin

Le Penseur ~ The Thinker

August Rodin

“Never frighten a little man.
He’ll kill you.”

~~ Lazarus Long ~~

~~ from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love” ~~


At first look, this short, pithy assertion about human nature by The Eldest may not seem particularly apt, nor deep enough to warrant a picture of Le Penseur to begin an examination of such a complex subject…. No worries, mates; it’s much, much deeper than it appears, and, I’m about to explain why…. (For those readers who don’t know why I call Lazarus by that title, ask in a comment, & I’ll explain)

Since the first of our species, long ago, before any modern human can even comprehend, first picked up a rock or stick, to defend itself against an attack by a predator, or, even, another of its own relatively peaceful species when not aroused to violence, (all of which, after all, is a natural function of life on Earth before technology…,), and, by virtue of possessing a weapon, killed his/her antagonist, the human imagination has turned its power to the improvement of the stick, and/or the rock, as a weapon, and, to the various methods of killing other creatures, whether predator or prey, upon which it fastened, as our primary means of fulfilling its natural function, of creation…

We have spent the intervening millenia in creation, mostly along those lines, improving both our weapons of death, and, the use of our imagination, to give free rein to the most vicious side of our animal nature… We became the planet’s most efficient predator, so much more of a killing machine than any other, almost NONE  of our competitors are left, but for the power of Nature itself, which our imagination continues to attempt to control, to turn the very nature of Reality to its own vicious purposes, to the detriment of not only all the other animals and other life forms here, but, to the entire ecosystem, of which we are only a part… In short, we are so intent on the achievement of our own foolish desires, we are killing ourselves…. Stupid is as stupid does, it seems, is a truer representation of Reality than we knew….

If we are capable of viewing our species’ history in this light, the above statement takes on new meaning; the most dangerous human is one who fears…. There have been many sages throughout our history who, in contrast to those who pursue predation as their means of survival, have pointed out the folly of such avarice based upon ignorance and fear, and, of the necessity of learning about the universe, rather than fearing it, as we do…. Most people, because of the fear they feel, are given little chance to ever USE the mind with which we are equipped; from birth, they are taught to fear… to fear God, to fear other people, to fear reprisal of any kind….

The other side of that counterfeit coin is the promise of reward (i.e., the removal of fear), as well as the promise of ‘immortality’, which is, as is eminently clear, merely the province of the Universe as a whole… All of the individual PARTS of that Universe, in Reality, die, and change form into something else…. They, and everything that exists in Reality, ‘die’, and are ‘born’ again, as a different type of energy/matter…. Matter becomes energy, energy becomes matter, in a duet, a dance of Life and Death, through all of Eternity. Or, as much as we can perceive in this form.

That much is plainly visible to the simplest mind, as the proof is visible, in plain sight, in everything we witness in this consciousness we call Life…. This means, of course, the reward promised is fake, for each and every person is already immortal, as a part of the Eternal NOW, in motion through time, moving without cease, until it is destroyed, thus changing form….

One of the worst factors of this approach to Life the majority of our species has chosen, whether consciously, or not, is the sense of false entitlement, and, assumption of superiority which is characteristic of those who ascribe to any such philosophy…. It is particularly egregious, as well as culturally embedded, in the male members of humanity, who have, for all the time since we first became a species of killer apes, have abused their naturally greater physical strength to abuse and intimidate the female of the species, believing ‘might makes right’, no matter the resulting pain, or death, it may cause to others…. Only the wishes and desires of the strong, in their minds, have any validity….

I’ve often used the following meme, from ex-President Carter, to illustrate one of the ways this attitude has manifested throughout history, and, in truth, before we started keeping it in written form. It is a very clear summary of the issue, from the point of view of an intelligent, well-educated man, who was NOT one of those men who feel as most others do….

jimmy sez

    Before finishing this post, I had decided to re-blog the piece of work located at the link you see just below…. I’d like my Gentle Readers here today to take a few moments to read it, if they haven’t already, before resuming this narrative…. In my opinion, the story this woman has conceived is, absolutely, the most powerful, and, the most logically likely scenario for the familiar tale to have occurred, in true Reality, as opposed to what everyone today has been taught to believe…. In my mind, this is, most probably, the actual way Mary became known as the Mother of God…..

Be warned; it is a powerful tale, and not to be taken lightly; if you cannot disengage from your feelings while reading, you WILL weep before you are done…..

 

    Ffolkes, this has to stop. The men of the human race are killing each other, and all of us; raping women, and children; and, are, in general, strutting around the planet acting as if they are the only ones who matter at all…. They are not only dead wrong, but, they, in their extreme ignorance, blinded by the lust for power, and control over others, (which exists only to assuage their own fears of inadequacy), are in the process of killing us all; a species which does not act in concert to survive, will never do so… That particular rule of existence is written right in the basic roots of Universal Reality in this plane of existence….

Kindness, compassion, love, and honor are what characterizes my view of a Man; I see very few of our species living up to that standard…. The most painful irony, and, most painful truth is, most of the men alive on this planet are too ignorant, too weak, too afraid, and too wrapped in themselves to ever realize it….. The man of honor is no longer the majority, in this country, or, in the entire world, I’m afraid. Instead, they exist, only, as a rarity….

Pathetic is what they are; I guess it’s almost time for me to go hunting….

gigoid has spoken.

So be it.


Dont keep calm

    It seems gigoid has more to say….

Yesterday, after writing the above, I read a blog, written by a Palestinian woman I regard as one of the most intelligent humans on the planet; she is burdened by not being free to use her full intelligence, simply by being born in a place that places little regard in women, at all, and, are actively repressive to any who display such power of mind, in public, and mostly, in private….

Moreover, she is trapped in a country which is occupied by another, and must survive, protect her family, and keep herself safe in what is, essentially, a war zone, called Palestine, in Gaza, next to the zone occupied by the Israelis, at whose bloody hands the city has become a festering cauldron of murder, repression, and, quite simply, inhuman atrocity, against an entire culture…. all in the Name of God.

She wrote a long piece in her native language, which Google could only HOPE to come close to translating. However, it was clear enough to me she had written her usual brilliant analysis, with her own reactions, of a recent meeting with a man and woman she considers as mentors in rational Islamic thought. While trying to make sense of the translation, it occurred to me, she was also trapped by the same trap as every other woman, man, and child on Earth, to wit: she has been labeled…..

All of us bear labels; it is human nature to assign a word to another, in order to place them into the proper slot in their mind’s world view… We get so wrapped up in labels, we confuse our real selves with what we have been labeled as being, though it may not have any real relevance to what is in our hearts and minds….

Names, places, religions, skin colors, genders, hair/clothing/body/life styles; we all receive them, and, usually, accept them as true without thinking about it, since it fits into our preconceived notions of self, or others….

And, it’s all another fucking illusion, ffolkes…. To comment on her post, I wrote a more prosaic, somewhat shorter version of the following, which I have decided to entitle….

Manifesto

I was born in the USA;
it is a place on the Earth.

I am not an American.

I am a human.

If I MUST be labeled an American,
then,
I must also consider myself
to be :

Palestinian,
Egyptian,
Israeli,
Chinese,
 Russian,
Irish,
Belgian,
Kenyan,
Tibetan,
Afghani,
AND,
every other country
in the world.

If I am anything,
I am a citizen of Earth,
of Terra,
our Home.

As long as humans regard themselves any other way,
as citizens of different countries,
as proponents of different religions,
as possessors of different colored skins,
or different genders,
or,
as ANYTHING other than a human being,
FIRST and LAST,
we will never learn to make peace with each other.

Applying a label, of any sort, to a human,
is to place limits
on what they can be, or think, or do….

Accepting such labels
as truth
leads only
to death,
without honor,
without hope,
without peace.

Freedom,
true freedom,
has no limits;
there are no labels
among the free.

Humans don’t need
a creator,
money,
fear,
or,
violence.

Humans need
compassion,
kindness,
love,
honor,
and,
each other.

Simple logic,
and absolute truth
about human nature.

You won’t find it
in any version of a Bible,
or of the Quran,
or any other book.

You can only find
this absolute truth
in your own
heart and mind.

~~ gigoid ~~

1/3/2016


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Comedy_Tragedy

Future Shocked:

Weeping, I wake;
waking, I weep, I weep.
I weep for the ages to be lost,
for the children never to be born.

Time comes calling, strident and spare,
nudging us toward the future with bony hands.
No pausing, no waiting, always away,
Frantic hearts unseen, unheard.

Spirits are dark, afraid.
And the Beast hunts, hungry and cruel,
seeking out the weak, and the foolish.

We all weep now…..

~~ gigoid ~~

7/22/2013

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pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Life at Large, Redux

*************

“It’s amazing how much one person can do,
little by little,
over time.”

~~ Worker Bee ~~

*************

“There are no mistakes.
The events we bring upon ourselves,
no matter how unpleasant,
are necessary
in order to learn what we need to learn;
whatever steps we take,
they’re necessary
to reach the places we’ve chosen to go.”

~~ Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever ~~

*************

“The chief cause of human error
is to be found in prejudices picked up in childhood.”

~~ René Descartes ~~

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“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”

~~ Flannery O’Connor ~~

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“A lotta cats copy the Mona Lisa,
but people still line up to see the original.”

~~ Louis Armstrong ~~

*************

“I do not believe in the creed professed
by the Jewish church,
by the Roman church,
by the Greek church,
by the Turkish church,
by the Protestant church,
nor by any church that I know of.
My own mind is my own church.”

~~ Thomas Paine ~~

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“Children are remarkable
for their intelligence and ardour,
for their curiosity,
their intolerance of shams,
the clarity and ruthlessness of their vision.”

~~ Aldous Huxley ~~

*************

“If I were to wish for anything,
I should not wish for wealth and power,
but for the passionate sense of potential;
for the eye which,
ever young and ardent, sees the possible.
Pleasure disappoints; possibility never.”

~~ Soren Kierkegaard ~~

*************

“Fortune rarely accompanies anyone to the door.”

~~ Balthasar Gracian ~~


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It’s done, & I’m still in a foul mood…. I’m gonna go play with Leelu, & see if I can find a bit of peace inside…. See y’all tomorrow; I’m pretty sure, if I can keep myself from going out into the BBR, I’ll still be here to do so…. Time will tell, the tattletale….

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

Kowabunga!


À bientôt, mon cherí….


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Poignant palindromes prevent perverted pixels….

Ffolkes,

Truths would you teach, or save a sinking land?
All fear, none aid you, and few understand.

~~ Alexander Pope ~~

 — Essay on Man, Epistle iv, Line 261 —

10-8-2014 014

    A while back, you may recall a series of posts here with The Wise Old Pine Cone as the featured subject, with pictures describing his adventures living here with me, his girl friend, and The Young Paduan Cone….. Then, the stories stopped, simply because the Old Cone disappeared, along with his charges, not to be seen again until a couple days ago, when I happened to spot him, managing to speak to him a moment, to find out what happened… I took this picture to show where he’s been hanging out, literally….

It seems he got a call one night, after I’d retired, calling him to an emergency far away (no, he doesn’t use the phone; he’s telepathic, obviously…. he couldn’t hold the handset anyway….). Realizing he’d be gone a while, he took his student, and his girl friend, who, unknown to me, was pregnant…. By the time he’d taken care of the issue in Bulgaria (don’t ask…. I didn’t, so I don’t know why it was in Europe….or, what pine cones might be having trouble in the area…..), she was almost due, so, he rushed home, and found a nice tree, where she produced the batch of young cones you see above…. Nice story, eh?

All perfectly nonsense, naturally…. The truth is, I forgot about the cone, then, when I went to find it, it was all crumbled up, too dried out and old to hold together….. SIGH, oh well, at least I got a picture out of it, and a short story to go with it, which also served as a decent, if a bit awkward, beginning for today’s effort…. Hey, they can’t ALL be gems, can they? Well, if so, I haven’t found the technique thus far…. The hell with it, it’s good enough for government work, and since I no longer work for them, but, quite the opposite, it’s damn well good enough….

It’s also gotten us far enough I can be thrifty, bringing this to close with a reasonably moderate length, rather than wandering around, blathering, whining, or fantasizing until I find an exit point. In fact, this one worked so well, I see it has brought us to one of those points in jig time, instead of island time, reputed to be slow…. Having not set foot on the islands (Hawaii, etc….) since I was four, I’ll take their word for it, and just take advantage of the way out…

Shall we Pearl?….

It is our choices …. that show what we truly are far more than our abilities.” — J.K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets

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Death in itself is nothing; but we fear
To be we know not what, we know not where.

 — John Dryden (1631-1700) — Aurengzebe, Act iv, Sc. 1

“There is scarcely an occurrence in nature which, happening at a certain time, is not looked upon by some persons as a prognosticator either of good or evil.  The latter are in the greatest number, so much more ingenious are we in tormenting ourselves than in discovering reasons for enjoyment in the things that surround us.” — Charles Mackay — Extraordinary Popular Delusions. . .

Humanity has been doing this ever since we moved out of the caves, having spent much of our time before that discussing the matter in full, as we huddled in those dark, oppressive shelters, shivering in the cold, suffering in the heat, and generally living without a clue as to how the universe works, beyond what we could see in front of our noses…. Cowering in our fears, our imagination peopled the forests, rivers, oceans, skies, and even animals, such as ourselves, with demons, fairies, goddesses, gods, and all manner of dangerous creatures of unknown, and therefore, presumably evil intent…

In doing so, it seems to me we, as a species, using our imagination, fueled by ignorance of reality beyond our perceptions, adopted this BAD habit, of assigning anthropomorphic identities/qualities to those natural objects and functions we did not comprehend, such as rain, thunder, fires, pain, fear, our own body’s functions, etc., in our attempt to establish some kind of order we could understand, thereby utilizing our allegedly advantageous, vaunted intelligence, with the immense power of imagination, seemingly limited in other species, to survive….. It has done that so well, we have become a danger to ourselves, and every other living creature on the planet…. and, we’re still doing it….

Just because we no longer live in caves does not mean we are any less of a fearful, small, uncertain entity, each of us, totally unclear on the true reality that goes on all around us…. In our haste, and daily rush to survive, by the only methods we have learned, we do not have, or take, or make the time to actually use our minds the way they were designed to be used; nor is the imagination, of most people, of much help to them in surviving, beyond gifting them with a talent for mimicry, which is mostly what people use to get by in life.

For most of humanity, by my observation, routine actions and behaviors are not motivated by conscious choice, made after examining all the available information, but, rather, are utilized because it is the ONLY way they know, the same way their mom, or dad, or big brother, or priest, or teacher taught them to act, without ever knowing WHY they do so….

http://nadiaharhash.wordpress.com/2014/10/12/what-is-it-that-makes-people-join-daesh/

Nadia Harash is a new blogger, a Palestinian Muslim woman, who is providing the world with her viewpoints, which, given her gender, religion, and location, marks her as a very brave, very strong, very intelligent woman, obviously fighting to find a way to stay sane, and alive, in a world gone mad…. She asks a question that can be answered, at least in part, by our subject here today, to wit: human stupidity is, over time, becoming universal, making it all that much easier to manipulate them, as they are driven by fear, unreasoning, irrational, unthinking fear, which they sublimate into anger, generally against women, but, often against infidels…. any sort of adjective will do as a focus for hatred, it doesn’t much care who or what it hates….

The people who are joining the jihadists are those who have no rigorous mental structure of their own, nothing to serve to remove, or even lessen, their fear of everything, and everyone; this fear, naturally, leads them to hate, for all anger (from which hate springs…) comes from obstructed desire, in this case, the desire to be free of fear, thus leading us to see that all those chanting, rifle-waving maniacal fanatics are nothing more than little boys, whistling in the dark, and using modern technology to allow them to assuage their fears by killing….

But, the Western governments don’t help, for they are doing the exact same thing…. But, they are using their own positions in power to justify their fears, saying all their acts are motivated by national security, or to protect the “homeland” (remember what the Nazi’s used to call their country?….Yep…. the homeland…). However, they are doing so in ways that mark them as craven cowards, ordering jets, and tanks, and drones, and ships with missiles to do their killing for them, without ever having to leave home at all…. They do this, without ever realizing, or even considering, how their actions are making the entire issue worse, by increasing the fear on the side of those being bombed….

It all has to do with what I’ve been pounding on for years now…. The governments of the world are not under the control of the people who elect them, or allow them to rule, nor have they EVER been so. The people in actual control of all the resources (money) are watching their OWN agendas being carried out, agendas that have NOTHING to do with helping the general populace live a better life; it’s all about making themselves more powerful, and safe from exposure, while the world goes up in flames, from all the distractions, such as wars, violence on the streets, slavery, drug running, religion, sports, television, and all the other ways the people are kept oppressed….

It’s been going on for millennia, and will continue until people, as a whole, wake the fuck up and throw the assholes into a deep pit…. I have a feeling I could rant on about this for a long time; hell, I already have, any number of times…. instead, since this is long enough already, we’ll just take a few closing shots, as selected by Smart Bee, to round out our attack on the powers that be for the day…. enjoy….

“The chief cause of human error is to be found in prejudices picked up in childhood.” — Descartes

“I love this nation, but we have some of the stupidest people here.” — Smart Bee

“I learned the difference between a cactus and a caucus.  A cactus has its pricks on the outside.” — Morris Udall, Former U.S. Rep. on his education in public life.

“The majority isn’t silent- the government is deaf!” — Smart Bee

“Boy, am I glad it’s only 1971…” — Zippy the Pinhead

Now, to some, that pearl might be a bit obscure, but, trust me, it’s not…. For now, just go on to the next section…. it will hit you later….

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Another relatively unknown legend of music from the latter half of the twentieth century, Kate Wolf was well known in Northern California, where she lived, writing songs that celebrated the beautiful country, and her life… Her song, “Red Tail Hawk” is considered by many to be one of the best folk tunes written in that era, along with a number of her other works…. The link I chose was one that connects to a page with a great many links to her works…. but, if you choose the link to her full album, “Close To You”, you’ll find a number of links to other artists in the folk genre, including Emmy Lou Harris, along with numerous others…. Enjoy!…..

Kate Wolf: 27 Videos

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This poem needs no introduction, nor any comment….

Ozymandias

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

~~ Percy Bysshe Shelley ~~


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Today’s final pearl will be put together using pearls that struck my fancy…. now, if I could remember where I put it, we’ll be able to get this done in a timely fashion… if not, well, oh, well….

“It is sometimes expedient to forget who we are.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 233

“Intelligence is the ultimate aphrodisiac” — Me & Smart Bee

“Cats are PROOF there is a higher purpose to the Universe.” — Smart Bee

“It [the Bible] is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) (1835-1910) — Letters from the Earth (1905-1909)

“In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true.” — Buddha

God must love assholes — She made so many of them. — Smart Bee

“What is left when honour is lost?” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 265

I wasn’t sure about this one at first, but, any time we end up with Mark Twain, Publius Syrus (twice!), and Smart Bee three times, you can be sure the pearl works…. which, it does, quite well, I’d say…. But, then, we all know I’m prejudiced about this, so….

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Okay, I’m a bit late, and, I’m already half-brain dead; at least the weather today promises to be a bit more livable…. I think I’ll go take a walk in it…. See y’all tomorrow ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Kowabunga!

À bientôt, mon cherí….