There, fait accompli, as they say in Belgium…. Well, I’m assuming that is what they say there, as I’m told the Belgians speak French, for the most part; I wouldn’t know for certain, as I’ve yet to visit that fine, old, European anomaly, a country that has almost never had to go to war… Oh, they got caught up in the fight when everyone around them was engaged in their numerous historical battles for contested ground, but, they’ve somehow managed to avoid any terrible, long, drawn out affairs such as the rest of Europe seems to enjoy on a regular basis. Good food, too, and some nice wines, from what I hear….

Any who, if nothing else, Belgium provided a complete paragraph, totally irrelevant, but, filling space nicely. Sometimes, in dealing with the daily crisis of inspiration produced by having to write these introductions every bloody morning, that’s all I can expect from a paragraph, so I’m going to ignore the catcalls and criticisms being shouted out from the back, and move on to the next destination called for on our itinerary. Let’s see, what does that valuable piece of planning tell us?…..

Well, nothing…. It can’t tell us where to go next, because it, too, is just another literary device I made up to fill more space. Actually, it’s looking as if today’s intro is going to end up completely composed of fluff, sort of a case of “literary license” gone mad….. And if anyone says there’s nothing new in that, I’m going to strike you with my foot, straight on your butt….. Ah, hell, no I won’t…. I’m sorry, it’s all my fault… I’m the one blundering about, trying to find some direction, and it isn’t your fault I am now totally lost….

“If nothing went wrong today, you’re probably dead.” — Murphy’s Last Law

Since nothing else seems to be working, and, according to the above, I’m not dead, I am hoping to find my way back to some sort of control, by ending this now ridiculously over-long intro section, and trying to find a pearl worth the effort of writing something a bit more solid and real. Let’s hope Murphy is busy elsewhere, and doesn’t fuck with me any more today; I’m sure he had a hand in all of the above, even if it wasn’t out where we could see it….. Any who…. Shall we Pearl?….
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“I believe in god, I just don’t like him.” — Smart Bee

Having experienced blockage once today, I’m not willing to suffer it again; hence this first pearl, deliberately chosen for its controversial nature, and its obvious need for discussion…. You see, this is completely true for me… Well, not the believing in god part, but the not liking Him part…. Of course, it isn’t really His fault, you know, it’s just that the folks He hired to do His P.R. are such idiots…. If he had known in advance just how stupid His creation was going to act, He’d have gone about the whole thing differently… That’s not speculation…. I’ve heard Him say so….

What? You don’t think I’ve talked with God? (Notice how I promoted him from just a god, to God? Slick, eh?….)  Why not? You are willing to believe all the stuff in the Bible, and you are willing to believe in crank assholes such as Billy Graham and his ilk….. Why would you not believe me, when I say I’ve talked to Him? Is it so hard to believe that someone from modern times can speak to God, or is that something limited to the days when the issue of JC’s divinity first arose, two thousand years ago, when the general populace was much less educated, and easier to fool?

“A man who claims to know what’s good for others is dangerous.” — Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

I’m just as good as those others who have claimed to know what is in His mind, and, in many ways, I am much better equipped to be able to understand Him, I think. I’m not going to kowtow, or bother with all the worship bullshit, as I wouldn’t want all that myself, and have my doubts that any entity worthy of being called a god wouldn’t, either. He probably enjoys not having to deal with that when He talks with me…. I know it would drive me absolutely batty to have all those people whining and crying at me all day and night, asking for favors they don’t deserve, and patting themselves on the back for their piety….

In reality, these people, the pious and heavily devout, were the major factor in my original disillusionment with the Church (“Church” being a generic term for all the delusionally dogmatic dunderheads who make up the majority of Christian sects, including all the absurd claims made in their literature….), which took place before I even reached my teens. By that time, I was already convinced that most of the folks who got involved in Churches were so engaged only because it served their purpose, not because they actually believed any of it. Their daily actions and words were enough to put that idea to the lie; they failed every time, for what they said and did in no way matched what they preached as their belief…..

“Then he saw also that it matters little what profession, whether of religion or irreligion, a man may make, provided only he follows it out with charitable inconsistency, and without insisting on it to the bitter end. It is in the uncompromisingness with which dogma is held and not in the dogma or want of dogma that the danger lies.” — Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh

“If it turns out that there is a God, I don’t think that he’s evil.  But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he’s an underachiever.” — Woody Allen, “Love and Death”

“Until you walk a mile in another man’s moccasins you can’t imagine the smell.” — Robert Byrne
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Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies;
And sure he will: for Wisdom never lies.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book iii, Line 25

The Riddle of the World

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Skeptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his mind and body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err;
Whether he thinks to little, or too much;
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus’d;
Still by himself, abus’d or disabus’d;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all,
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl’d;
The glory, jest and riddle of the world.

Alexander Pope
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— Bother! said Pooh, as he found a politician in his honey pot.

Eeeuuwww! Can you imagine the stench? And the waste of honey is appalling, to say the least…. Okay, sorry, but it was just too hard to resist…. I ranted above about religion, after which, Smart Bee presented me with four of the five pearls used in it, one after another, AFTER I had already finished it… The five pearls, you may note, if presented together, alone, would just about cover the same ground as the rant…. with perhaps a bit less verbiage, and, hopefully, equal humor….

Then, the above Poohism shows up, almost flashing by before I saw it, so short it is…. This tells me that Smart Bee has something to say about politicians today, so, old-school it is…. Here are what Smart Bee has autocratically decided to show us about the BRC, in general, and, in particular, the political branch of that entity…. Enjoy! Oh, and don’t fret, none of these will be on the Quiz, unless they are….

“Annual drug deaths: tobacco: 395,000, alcohol: 125,000, ‘legal’ drugs: 38,000, illegal drug overdoses: 5,200, marijuana: 0.  Considering government subsidies of tobacco, just what is our government protecting us from in the drug war?”  — William A. Turnbow

“I have short-term memory loss, though I like to think of it as Presidential  eligibility.” — Paula Poundstone

“According to the tax bill signed by President Reagan on December 22, 1987, Don Tyson and his sister-in-law Barbara run a “family farm.” Their “farm” has 25,000 employees and grosses $1.7 billion a year.  But as a “family farm” they get tax breaks that save them $135 million a year.” — Smart Bee

“Laws are only words words written on paper, words that change on society’s whim and are interpreted differently daily by politicians, lawyers, judges, and policemen. Anyone who believes that all laws should always be obeyed would have made a fine slave catcher. Anyone who believes that all laws are applied equally, despite race, religion, or economic status, is a fool.” — John J. Miller, And Hope to Die — (in _Jokertown Shuffle – Wild Cards IX_)

‘We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex–but Congress can.” — Cullen Hightower

Okay, five should be enough to get the point across…. if not, well, there’s always tomorrow…..  🙂
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This process, some days, exhausts me, and today is one of those days, for some reason…. It’s too bad, too, because I still have a bunch of stuff I SHOULD do today…. Ack! Nooooo! Don’t say that!…. Brrt, brrt, brrt….. danger, danger, Will Robinson!…. Illegal operation, use of bad word, parameter, “should” = “don’t go there”, /end notes….

Fortunately, as you can see, I tend to react badly to the word “should”, as it is usually something somebody else told me to do, or told me I should do…. “Should” is a word that is handy to use as a channel marker, to show us where we don’t have any real need to go, unless we happen to agree with what somebody else thinks we need. They aren’t often right, in my experience, so it’s a good way to figure out what NOT to do….