Bedraggled remnants are all that remain….

Posted on February 23, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

One might think that today’s title was an entry for a contest, or something equally inane(insane?); how else to explain such an outburst of unwanted, uncalled-for alliteration? I’m not sure what came over me, except it SEEMED like the right thing to do at the time…. which, I suppose, could be said to be a rather universal excuse for some people…. We all make mistakes (see: Theory of Bozoid Tendencies….), but, mine are often so egregious, it can take months for me to overcome whatever handicaps I’ve created for myself by giving in to the bulbousness….. This morning’s title may just fit into that category, as it is obviously something thrown together at the last moment, and settled on with reluctance….

In fact, I’m going to make this entire opening a wash, and go change it…. It’s really terrible, and I don’t think I want people to associate my name, or this blog, with such crap…. although why that should bother me NOW, I don’t know… Regardless, it’s got to go… I’ll be right back…. There, much better…. This one has all the characteristics of a decent title, with just a bit of uncertain implication, and some shy uncertainty, to draw in the interest of any readers flashing by…. We’ll go with this one, so forget the first one, & act like it never existed…. which, for you, I suppose, it didn’t, as you never saw it at all…

This, of course, means this intro is now completely off-kilter, and possibly more than just a little confusing…. Since the first paragraph makes references to which you have no connections, and thus, no possibility of ever making any sense of any of it, I’ll just tell you now, FORGET THE DAMN TITLE!…. It never has anything to do with what is in here, and never makes any sense anyway, so trying to fit my titles into some slot isn’t going to work…. they’re just not made for that…. Suffice it to say at this point…. the first title of today’s Pearl was really, really badly done, so I got rid of it, and you’ll never know just what it said, other than knowing all the words began with one letter (outburst of alliteration, yes?)…..

That being said, I think it’s best now if I just give up…. Not forever, just for now, because, let’s face it, this intro is history, in terms of ever becoming what it was supposed to be…. I’m not sure I can even make it work for today’s Pearl, except it HAS to work, because I’m just not going to start completely over, not even at 0405 in the morning…. Not even Murphy can make me do that, hard as he has tried, so, I’m certainly not going to do it to myself…. that would be even more bozoid than is common for me, and not a habit into which I intend to lock myself…. So, we’re going to once again employ emergency method #4 to get us out of this…. That’s the one where I deny everything, ignore the previous paragraphs completely, and just go on, like this…..

Shall we Pearl?….

” The shortest distance between two points is off the wall.” — The Abrams’ Principle
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This link is to an article that details some pretty obvious, but, let’s be fair, and call it alleged, political corruption, on the part of a Democratic state legislator…. You can read it, but, it really doesn’t have much to do with the discussion that comes afterward, other than peripherally, as just an extra set of data to add to the whole concept under discussion….

So, not reading it, or waiting until later to get to it, would be acceptable, and, possibly, less confusing…. It can be confusing enough around here without providing any assistance, so, just skip on down to the rant, then, if you wish, you can read later about the naughty California fat-cat politician, and his weak-willed brother….. They’re only willing dupes and/or ignorant pawns in the scenario about which you’ll read below….

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/State-Sen-Ron-Calderon-brother-indicted-5256860.php

With the above link, I began collection of a number of links to articles that would demonstrate a point I intended to make regarding the way the administration in current power in Washington DC manipulates the news so efficiently, and so effectively, in terms of fulfilling the agenda THEY have in place for how events should proceed….

Then, I stopped collecting links, and articles, when I realized just how thoroughly the media manipulates itself, as well as the public it purportedly serves, in directions it is not aware of, out of ignorance, lack of cohesive communication, and an unfortunate tendency to avoid what makes them uncomfortable…. along with not being smart enough to see what stares them right in their own faces…. I realized this entire process is so entrenched in society, we aren’t even aware of it most of the time, which is how the SCSM’s like it….

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/02/21/judge-on-muslim-surveillance-any-harm-is-the-medias-fault/

See? It’s the media’s fault…. so says a judge, firmly in the pocket of the corporate masters…. Now, even those who decide what gets into the news are being manipulated, by those who own EVERYTHING, (aka, the SCSM’s, the Shadowy Corporate Slave Masters….), said manipulation having just one primary purpose, to keep their existence, and the machinations with which they control society, OUT of the public eye…. If a majority of the common people, to wit: the public, ever realized exactly how FEW are those who control 99% of all the resources on this planet, and the degree of power those few possess over the rest of us, in their insane quest to control it all, those few people wouldn’t stand a rat’s chance in a colony of cats….

The true rulers of mankind, the shadowy mega-corporate slave masters, who control virtually ALL the money and resources in the world, if unmasked, and made to acknowledge their crimes against humanity, committed over thousands of years, in their selfish quest for power, would be be hunted down and ripped limb from limb, slowly, by angry mobs, wherever they were revealed, all over the world…. a risk of which they are well aware ….

These are SMART, ruthless, self-centered people, who have absolutely NO compassion, or concern for the rights of anyone outside their immediate circle, and they’ve had long years of practice at hiding their existence, and their actions, from the general public’s eye…. The actual number of people in this clandestine group of mega-rich individuals is actually far smaller than 1% of the total world’s population, so few, their very lack of numbers makes all of what they’ve accomplished that much more of a risk for them….

They are fully aware of the danger of having their nefarious activities exposed to the public eye; they take extreme care to never let their faces become known, or, if so, only in ways that would fool the public into believing they are saintly philanthropists, making them beloved by the people for their generosity…. Long, drawn-out, agonizing, vicious, inhumanly torturous deaths would be their lot, should the downtrodden poor, and the ignorant, delusional middle classes, ever find out the truth of their slavery…. which would only be right, given their willingness to use the same violent methods as part of their own bag of tricks, which they are all-too-willing to employ, in service of their need to dominate….

Hence, as it stands today, we have their centuries-long charade, to keep themselves, and what they do to keep their control of events, from ever becoming common knowledge…. If such knowledge became known to the world at large, it would mean their death, for certain, and they know it….. But, I don’t think they’re too worried, at this point….

They have too much control over what people see, and hear, in terms of what is actually taking place in the world…. These people control governments, newspapers, corporations, television networks, and every channel of communication present in the world…. Even the Internet is under their control, as they have the power to shut it down, whenever they wish…. As we were taught by Muad ‘Dib, true power is the ability to destroy what is necessary to survive….

But, the use of such extreme force isn’t necessary for them to employ, yet, as they also have the resources to employ as many idiots writing for their side, as there are people such as myself, writing to try to expose their evil to the light of day….. Hence, the message I, and others like me, try to send is diluted before anyone ever sees it…. Simple enough, from their point of view, but, then, they wouldn’t have allowed the advent of the ‘Net, if they thought it would be their undoing….

Having the Internet may help us, though, by increasing our own abilities, and opportunities, to spread information, even if the odds of their winning, as they have for so many millennia, are not appreciably altered…. Mankind has always been under the clandestine control of these assholes…. That’s why we are in the mess we’re in…. So, let THEM figure out how to survive what even they don’t understand….. I don’t think they have any clue as to the Hell they have unleashed on themselves by not accepting the reality of global warming, and I’m almost looking forward to seeing it hit them, and watching them cry like babies when they understand what they’ve done to themselves….

They’ve done to us all, I know, but, they won’t care about that, so, I’ll take my pleasure from knowing they’ll suffer worse than the rest of us, because it is they, themselves, who MUST face up to reality, and not having a choice in that is something at which they have no experience at all…. I won’t feel any better, but, it will help make it more palatable, to know they’re going down, too…. This is a situation their sense of entitlement, (which, like any such emotion, isn’t going to alter reality…), isn’t going to get them out of having to face up to in the end….

“A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only deferred, and we must come back and settle the account at last.” — Joseph F. Newton

Whether anyone, 99%er, or 1%er, likes it, or not, this is what I would call a universal truth, in that, for us humans, it comes true, universally, whenever it is tested in reality….. Translated into more simple, more specific terms… whether we like it or not, our account with reality on this planet is about to come due, and it WILL be settled…. Like it or not, we WILL be judged, according to whether or not our duty to the planet has been met, or deferred until now…..

Since, to my way of thinking, the people who made the decisions about how the resources were used are the ones who assumed the duty, they should be the ones to answer…. Unfortunately, ALL of us have to answer for what they’ve done, because they, being the cowards they are, won’t ever take responsibility for it…. They’ll still reap their share of the reward, because reality knows who is responsible; NOBODY skips out on their bill in this restaurant…. I don’t think they’re going to enjoy their reward, though….

“I had a friend who was a clown. When he died, all his friends went to the funeral in one car.” — Steven Wright
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I am fully aware this is not a poem….. but, it doesn’t have to be if it doesn’t want to….. It’s a leftover piece of my history, which I, along with many young people, discovered during the 60’s, when the piece experienced a revival of interest, fifty years after it was written, by the Hippies, such as myself, who embraced this somewhat naive manifesto as part of the philosophy of love and peace they developed during those turbulent years…. You can consider this, if you wish, as an example of “pulling my covers” as a closet romantic, and a hopeless optimist, who believes we humans are filled with such beauty of spirit, the universe will not allow us to perish…. It’s a fantasy, I know, but, hey, it FEELS better than all the doom and gloom in which I normally engage around here…. So, enjoy this little break from the heaviness, and take this to heart…. It’s naive, and somewhat unschooled, but, it’s all good advice, for sure…..

Desiderata

(1927)

“Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all
persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.”

~~ Max Ehrman ~~

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I’ve gone and screwed the pooch again, but, that’s neither here nor there…. it’s merely for me to note, and try to fix…. Any whom, here we are, once again, all the way in section three, with a rant under our belts, and a decent entry for section two, in spite of its less than perfect rhyming patterns…. which are especially apparent, since it ISN’T a poem…. S’okay, though, cuz I don’t give a shit, mostly…. We’ve gotten this far, nobody is bleeding, and we haven’t had to call for any expert help for ANY of the usual reasons; I’m happy with how it’s gone so far, and you should be as well, whether you realize it, or not….

All of this blather and dross is merely a fill-in, you know, as the time for actual work approaches…. In fact, it’s approaching at such a rate as to make me quite nervous, so, I’m going to drop all the pretenses, and get on with this pearl…. It will be, naturally, an old-school pearl, without parameters, other than a vague desire to laugh…. at myself, at the world, at y’all, I don’t care…. Let’s see what Smart Bee can find today, shall we?…..

OPTIMIST, n. A proponent of the doctrine that black is white.

A pessimist applied to God for relief.
“Ah, you wish me to restore your hope and cheerfulness,” said God.
“No,” replied the petitioner, “I wish you to create something that would justify them.”
“The world is all created,” said God, “but you have overlooked something — the mortality of the optimist.”

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Govern a family as you would cook a small fish – very gently.” — Chinese Proverb
(This truism is also applicable to governing a nation…..)

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” — Stephen Roberts

“Abstain from beans; that is, keep out of public offices, for anciently the choice of the officers of state was made by beans.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of the Training of Children

“It’s green.” — Scotty
(Yep. It sure is….)

— How many dead politicians does it take to change a light bulb? As many as possible. — Smart Bee

— Bother! said Pooh, as a woozle bit his bottom. — Hoop (Pooh’s evil twin….)

The process of creating pearls remains a mystery, as does the point of many of them, such as this one, whose meaning has reached levels of obscurity previously unknown to mankind…. But, hey, it all SOUNDS really cool, doesn’t it? And it’s so pretty!…. Well, maybe not, but, it really does have a point, and, it really isn’t ALL that obscure…. But, if I don’t create a little confusion, where would the fun be for any of us?….. Hah! Gotcha there, didn’t I?….
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Beneath this stone lies Murphy,
They buried him today,
He lived the life of Riley,
While Riley was away.

I found the above in Smart Bee, just as I was finishing up the pearl in section three…. I almost soiled myself in excitement, until I realized it probably was just a joke…. Boy, though, wouldn’t THAT be good news?…. Any who, I think I’ve done as much damage as possible for one morning, so, I’m wrapping this up, just like a piece of fish, and taking it to the marketplace to try to get rid of it….. Wish me luck, ‘kay? See you tomorrow, with a bit of luck….

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

Freeze-dried chipmunks? No,thanks, we prefer ferrets….

Posted on February 22, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“For a true master,
Sitting on a throne
Is no different than
Sitting on dirt.”

— Deng Ming-Dao

This is what I would consider a perfect pearl…. Short, sweet, to the point, and deep as Rush Limbaugh’s bigotry…. which is mighty deep, as he demonstrates so well on a daily basis…. I like it especially because it expresses a point of virtue, one that most people don’t want to have to accept…. It sometimes amazes me how people can lose touch with the more basic parts of life, such as, well, dirt….

It cracks me up to see young mothers panicking when their kids get dirty, even though I shouldn’t laugh at such ignorance, but should rather try to educate…. I suppose the whole idea of dirt being bad for us is another example of how just a little bit of knowledge can get one in trouble, if the individual hasn’t learned yet to try to learn anything BEYOND what they are initially told by someone in authority…. This whole believing authority business, as you can see, has its own drawbacks, as those who are in the habit of accepting what a TV pundit says unequivocally may often find themselves dealing with a LACK of sufficient knowledge to deal with whatever the problem may be.

So, these young mothers hear one phrase, “dirt has germs”, and without any further information, make their decisions based on this incomplete picture, which doesn’t tell even HALF the story of germs, and how they can affect us…. In fact, just hearing that much gives a FALSE picture, as the truth of the matter is that the more we expose our children to the dirt on this planet, the better off they are, as they will develop the proper defenses against the germs that ARE present, by exposure to them….. If the body isn’t exposed to the germs, it doesn’t learn how to fight it off….

I had a bad case of the flu at a young age (10), which, miserable as it kept me for a week, taught my immune system how to fight those particular kinds of bacteria very well…. Well enough that I haven’t had a single case of the flu since, no matter how virulent the current year’s mutation has been…. my body has the proper defenses to keep it at bay….

Now that we have wandered so far afield right out of the gate, I’d best try to bring this back around to some point we can dive from…. I’m not sure just how I got off on that tangent…. I hadn’t really intended to start writing about immune systems first thing…. I guess the quote from Deng Ming Dao got me thinking…. See? I told you it was a perfect pearl…. I think maybe we should find some more, and see what they can do for us, in the way of illumination, elucidation, and edification of our spirits….

Shall we Pearl?…..

Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
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 hurled,–
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle ii, Line 13
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“Alienation without must be accompanied by alienation within; that is the law for every social level, even individuals. To harm one’s fellows, even one’s enemies, harms you, takes away some essential element from your self-respect and self-image.” — Greg Bear

“In keeping with my non-Aristotelian or relativist-Existentialist bias, I do not classify ideas as simply “true” or “false.” I prefer to assign them probabilities, on a scale from 0 (the Aristotelian “false”) to 10 (the Aristotelian “true”). A rating of 5 means that I am still sitting geometrically on the middle of the fence, above 5 means that I presently lean somewhat toward belief and below 5 means that today I lean somewhat toward finding no value in this gloss at all (for me). I admit cheerfully that I am such an advanced case of Aggravated Agnosticism that whenever I do move something into 0 or 10, I get nervous, wonder if I am becoming as simple-minded as the Pope or Dr. Carl Sagan and start looking for evidence to move that meme toward 1 or 9. — Robert Anton Wilson, in the Introduction to his play “Wilhelm Reich in Hell”

Of late, I’ve been wondering why I rant so much about the world’s problems, or, as Jimmy Buffet expressed it so eloquently, why have I spent so much of my life, “looking for answers, to questions, that bothered him so….”? (from his song, “A Pirate Looks at Forty”….) Back a couple of years ago, about half-a-year after starting this blog, I guess I had been thinking along the same lines, as I wrote the following little piece, for a Pearl in the Five-Star Format that I was using at the time, with five shorter but more pungent and wide ranging sections to each daily Pearl, each section based on its own pearl.

This post, providentially found by the WP related-post bot, provides me with a ready reference list for any of the subjects that need to be addressed in today’s world, if we are ever to grow up and reach our maturity as a species…. It’ll be handy, just in case I’m having trouble, in the mornings, coming up with something toward which I can turn the poison in my pen….

At this point in time, two years in the future, I can see that, not only have we made very little progress at resolving any of the listed issues, there are several that could be added to the list that have surfaced in the intervening years. Since doing so will depress me, I’m not even going to think about the additions, until AFTER reading the list as it is…. At the other end, I’ll add some issues that I have seen come up in the period since this was posted…..

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

From April 2, 2012, on the very day the world’s most famous author of unknown works, Anonymous, assumed the new user name of Smart Bee….. Well, that’s what we call him/her on this blog…. :

“Conscious is when you are aware of something and conscience is when you wish you weren’t.” — Smart Bee (Anonymous, by any other name, smells as sweet…)

Insane politicians (is there another kind?). Human trafficking. Racism. Bigotry. Child abuse. Spousal abuse. Slavery. Crack cocaine, heroin, morphine, or other drug abuse. War on crime. War on women. Televangelists. Fundamentalist zealots. National Security Agency. FBI. CIA. Untold trillions of dollars of national debt. Genetically modified food. Military Industrial Complex. The 1%/99% Society. Taxes. Global warming. Air pollution. The oceans are dying. Terrorism. Nuclear accidents. Massive global weather changes. Ozone depletion. Overpopulation. AIDS. Mutating viruses. The Bohemian Club. Reaganomics. Nationalism. Elitism. Illuminati Conspiracy. Women’s reproductive rights. Bill of Rights (or rather, loss of same). War on the US Constitution. Rampant ignorance. Lawyers. Priests. Rabbis. Imams. Puppy mills. Wall Street. Corporate personhood. The IRS. Insane politicians. (Did I say that already? Well, it deserves mentioning twice….) Rising incidence of halitosis.

Except for the last, which is more of a personal foible, I’d say that’s a fairly extensive, and mostly complete, list of stuff I am aware of that I wish I weren’t….. all right off the top of my head, no research. It certainly keeps my sense of outrage in good shape….. which is why we all need to practice the following sentiment at every opportunity…. otherwise, we are all going to be up Shit Creek without a paddle, proverbial or otherwise…..

“Speak out. You’ve got to speak out against the madness.” — Steven Stills

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Back in the Future: 2/22/14

Here are some additions to the list, also taken off the top of my head…. which, to me, is possibly the most depressing part of this pearl, to know that I am so tuned in to what is wrong in the world, and that there is just so FUCKING MUCH of it I see that is, simply, Evil, and even more sadly, Useless….. Some of these are repeats, as the issues haven’t been resolved, or seen any progress toward resolution….

More NSA. Edward Snowden. Gun control madness on both sides of the question. Corporate shenanigans of every ilk. Bank convictions, for crimes against customers, for which minuscule fines are paid, and nobody goes to jail. Sexual slavery/Abuse of Women (continued….). Abuse of Children. Abuse of Animals. Abuse of the Disabled. Abuse of Humanity. Human rights violations. Pedophiliac priests, enabled by pedophiliac bishops and cardinals. Mass extinction of animal, insect, and plant species due to pollution by Man. Religious fanatics using government positions to further insane fundamentalist agendas…. Signs of societal breakdown as seen in epidemics of bullying, flash mobs, new, increasingly bizarre psychiatric disorders, loss of manners, loss of any sense of honor, divorce rates, increases in prison populations, and numerous other obvious signs of a distressed, decayed culture….

I could sit here for hours, and never stop coming up with more stuff that adds to the evidence of such a complete lack of morality and organization, all of it merely more evidence that we are virtually guaranteed to see the eventual complete breakdown of society, and the impending extinction of our species, along with many others, from the increasingly irreversible toxic effects of global warming, and over-population…. all off the top of my head….

Goodness only knows what could happen if I tried to codify this evidence, using researched statistics and scientific study results…. Maybe, if the list got long enough, and scary enough, someone would listen….. I kind of doubt it, though….. According to all the overt indications, and, all the covert, ‘between-the-lines’ evidence that exists, for those with the wit to perceive it, well…. it all says that nobody has heard any of this yet, and nobody is at all likely to hear what I’m trying to say in the future…. because, nobody WANTS to accept what is right in front of their faces….

That happens a lot with the Truth…. ever notice?…..

“We believe that an informed citizenry will act for life and not for death.” — Albert Einstein on atomic energy, Jan. 22, 1947

If Albert could be so wrong, what hope is there for the rest of us?….

FOOL, n. A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscient, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught the nations war — founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government. He is from everlasting to everlasting — such as creation’s dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the procession of being. His grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man’s evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
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I suppose one of the reasons I continue to rant, in spite of how obviously my heavy-handed approach is driving readers away, is that I am a sucker, a patsy, when it comes to people…. I AM one, and, I can’t help but love them, and feel badly that there is so much pain and misery in our world, all caused by such a small percentage of assholes, who seem to not care at all about other people….

Often, I fantasize, dreaming of how I would like to treat some of the corporate sharks, misogynist politicians, peodphiliac priests, or overly-entitled myrmidons, if I had them in a position where I could “educate” them a bit…. Sadly, my fantasies probably resemble the torture they put us through, as I tend to be a bit vengeful when I think about the lack of compassion, or connection to other humans, these asininnies show every day.

Since it would be unethical to treat them as they treat others, (I have NO wish to resemble them in ANY way….), I find myself at an impasse, with frustration mounting as I observe the world at the mercy of these assholes…. Since I have, thus far, refused to buy a gun, lest I give in to the temptation to use it, I turn to poetry, to try to find a moment of peace among all the reasons to feel anxious about the future…. On a good day, like today, I’ll find something like this…..

No Man Is An Island

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend’s
Or of thine own were:
Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

~~ John Donne ~~

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Having thus completed the obligatory rant, and poem, we will now turn to the old-school for our final section today, as is our habit…. Smart Bee has been a bit unpredictable this morning, with a lot of dross thrown out along with the good stuff…. But, I trust it to use its own good judgment, so I’ll let it set its own parameters today, and trust it will find some pearls of good luster for us to consider….

Ah, wait a second…. You there, in the floral print shorts…. your mask is cracked; you’ll need to replace it from the spares before you jump in…. Don’t want to have that go out on you at a depth of 30 feet, do we?…. No, we don’t…. Got it? Everybody got their knives, for any stray barracuda that show up? Okay, let’s go for a dive, ffolkes, and find some oysters….

“As good almost kill a man as kill a good book: who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book kills reason itself.” — John Milton (1608-1674) — Areopagitica

“The world is full of fools, and he who would not see it should live alone and smash his mirror.” — Claude le Petite

“Men know that if a woman had to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant’s life, she would probably save the infant’s life, without even considering whether there were men on base.” — Dave Barry

SATIRE, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author’s enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are “endowed by their Creator” with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his ever victim’s outcry for co-defendants evokes a national assent.

Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung
In the dead language of a mummy’s tongue,
For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well —
Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell.
Had it been such as consecrates the Bible
Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel.
Barney Stims

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.” — H. L. Mencken

“Life is not the way it is supposed to be. It is the way it is. The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.” — Virginia Satir

Sometimes, SB outdoes itself, and this is one of those times…. A brilliant pearl, almost a necklace, it’s so well constructed…. If I were you, ffolkes, I’d spend a bit of time, if necessary, in decoding the message this pearl delivers…. Not only will it be on the Quiz when it is given, you will find yourself enjoying the process of finding the encryption algorithm…..
_____________________________

Perhaps it is because I wrote this, but, I like it…. That being the case, I’m going to go with my instincts, and let this go out as it is, and not fret over any possible consequences…. It’s a bit like life, in that metaphorical sense…. which is, after all, what we do here, play with our metaphorical senses…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, if they give me another chance….

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

Save that elbow grease for the widow Jones; she uses it for baking…..

Posted on February 21, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

If today’s post gets done at all, ’twill be a miracle of some proportion…. The cat slept late, my back and hips are killing me, Time wobbled, while Space stood and watched…and I haven’t the slightest clue, about anything…. It has taken me 26 miserable minutes to dress, (sans shoes, or brushing of hair, as I didn’t want to bend over, or move around quite so much yet, until the topical pain killer I spread on my lower back takes effect) (it’s quick, good stuff…. new from the MJ Pharmacy I go to….)…. I then booted up, poured a cup of coffee laced with some Elixir of Indica, and proceeded to write a TERRIBLE title for today’s Pearl, which will no doubt go through several incarnations before I settle on one sufficiently weird to pass my filters…..

Finally, when I sit down to try to write this, duty calls me to the throne for the morning worship session….. SIGH…. Nobody bothered to tell me to gird my grid for a big one today, but it looks as if the full set of hip, shoulder, and neck restraints should be fastened before we set out, for sure…. I think, maybe, we’ll even issue helmets today….

Just in case I forget to tell you later, today’s Pearl will be….. what? Shit…. I completely spaced on what I intended to write there, & I have the feeling it was important…. Damn this fog in my head! I can’t seem to pull a coherent thought out of my ass, much less my head…. If this keeps up, we’re going to have to resort to one of our emergency tools to get us out of this morass of mindlessness, that seems to have formed in front of me this morning, necessitating either complete retreat, or a long detour to find ANY rational thought, one that could conceivably be used to create a Pearl….

This new hazard on our trail, in spite of its extreme effect on my mind, will NOT be allowed to affect the Pearl itself, other than the absolute mess it has made of this intro thus far. I swear this upon the name of my father, and y’all KNOW what that means…. Now, there is NOTHING in this world will keep me from completing my duty in this….

NOTHING, caps obviously deliberate, for emphasis. There is no force on this planet that could cause me to swerve from a duty I’ve chosen to assume; the man who taught me about duty wouldn’t have it any other way, thus, my choice is the same, and by evoking his name, I seal the deal so there is no backing out. If I say I’ll do it, then, it will be done; the only possible reason for it not to be done would be my own death. Nothing else is a valid reason to abrogate duty.

That being said, it’s probably best to go immediately into Emergency Closing #4, which is the quickest way out of this conundrum, and on into today’s offering…. Sometimes, with #4, I don’t even have the time to finish whatever it is I’m in the middle of typ…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“Everything has been thought of before, but the problem is to think of it again.” — Johann von Goethe
_____________________________

Johann is right in his assertion; in fact, he’s one of our favorites, simply because he consistently sees the world clearly, and describes it, as he did this time, as he sees it, with elegance, charm, and wit….. Plus, this idea COULD be considered as bearing a very strong resemblance to what we do here in ECR, when we create the pearls that stimulate the Gentle Readers to think, to cogitate, to exercise the muscles of the mind, until they’re strong enough to stand up to Reality, and laugh in its face…. Well, maybe not the last part….. Reality doesn’t like to be laughed at, unless it’s funny…. Any whom, before my lack of coherency causes a complete loss of speech from frustration, let’s go for a dive, and see what Smart Bee has for us today….

“Insanity is fun if you do it right.” — Smart Bee (All I can say is, “Whee!”….)

“A brute kills for pleasure. A fool kills from hate.” — Lazarus Long

“…I probably shouldn’t point at the word ‘reptiles’ when I say ‘businessmen.'” — Rajeev Pandey

“Believe nothing merely because you have been told it… Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings — that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.” — Buddha

“Truth is always exciting. Speak it, then. Life is boring without it.” — Pearl S. Buck

“We have art that we do not die of the truth.” — Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

He not busy being born
Is busy dying.

— Bob Dylan

Now, there are those who would say this is somewhat esoteric, as well as exotically eclectic, if they were ever given the chance….they’d be correct in that, too…. S’okay, we’re used to it around here…. In fact, all it really does is give us an appetite for a poem…. Shall we move on to section two? Good…. After you….
_____________________________

I’ve been using the poems I’ve been getting in the email lately, because some are classics, and others were from authors I’d never before used, or seen, for that matter…. Today, we’ll go with a classic, because, in the state my mind is in today, I NEED a classic, to help me find some sort of balance, or even just a moment or two of grace and elegance, to set me back on the right path to a more sane, satisfying day….. A lot to expect from a poem, eh?…. Ah well, I’ve always been more optimistic than was good for me…. I particularly enjoy this one, for its whimsical use of his sister’s name to furnish the first letter of each line…. now THAT is talent…. with discipline….

Acrostic : Georgiana Augusta Keats

Give me your patience, sister, while I frame
Exact in capitals your golden name;
Or sue the fair Apollo and he will
Rouse from his heavy slumber and instill
Great love in me for thee and Poesy.
Imagine not that greatest mastery
And kingdom over all the Realms of verse,
Nears more to heaven in aught, than when we nurse
And surety give to love and Brotherhood.

Anthropophagi in Othello’s mood;
Ulysses storm’d and his enchanted belt
Glow with the Muse, but they are never felt
Unbosom’d so and so eternal made,
Such tender incense in their laurel shade
To all the regent sisters of the Nine
As this poor offering to you, sister mine.

Kind sister! aye, this third name says you are;
Enchanted has it been the Lord knows where;
And may it taste to you like good old wine,
Take you to real happiness and give
Sons, daughters and a home like honied hive.

~~ John Keats ~~

_____________________________

Below this paragraph, you will find a rant…. I wrote it about a month ago, when the article it discusses first hit the news…. I happened to have a reason to go over it again, and saw that, not only is it a good rant, it is on a subject that shouldn’t be dismissed, or ignored, or put on a back burner, just because the people involved aren’t actively talking about it…. In fact, that is all the more reason to keep it in the public eye, as it is information they don’t WANT us to be thinking about, or paying any attention to whatsoever….

This administration has proven, by its very silence, which it has maintained ever since these statements were released by the head manipulator and his lackeys (The potUS, the senator, and the congressman, Barry, Di, and Mikey-boy…., the last being a Republican,Tea Party idiot, er, goon, er, stooge, who is on record as believing global warming to be a matter of debate… In this instance, he is playing a natural straight man to the president’s (almost) comically untruthful outburst, adding his own fabrications in support of his colleague’s blindly obedient lies…), because, hey, they’d rather the public just forget all about this issue….

Hence, we are subjected to this series of charades in front of the press, which is them doing their best to make that happen, followed by complete and utter silence on the subject….. It’s an old technique, long in use by spies to weaken foreign governments…. All it takes is to make outrageous statements, no matter how egregiously false, then shut up entirely, leaving the public only the memory of the lies to chew on, until they begin to believe the planted seeds….

One of the interpretations of the material in the ancient book by Sun Tzu, The Art of War, includes this concept as a viable and much used strategy in war, giving numerous historical examples wherein it was employed successfully…. Think about that for a moment, about what it implies about how the people we elect view us, and about the depths to which they’re willing to sink, in their quest to keep us under their control….

So, to piss them off, and keep my own angst fresh, I’m going to keep throwing this up in their faces, once a month or so, just to keep my hand in…. In the process, hopefully, I can ensure sure my other Readers are made aware, if they’re not already clued in, of how egregiously they are being manipulated by the BRC and their minions….

From January 21, 2014:

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

If you would please read this article, the arguments that follow will make a lot more sense; if you don’t, it may take you a bit longer to figure out the gist of it…. 😉 Plus, you’ll know, for sure, I’m not making this stuff up, just so I have something to write about….

http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-help-from-russians-193641893.html

In the time of Pythagoras that proverbial phrase “Ipse dixit” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Pythagoras, xxv

Ipse Dixit. [Latin, “He himself said it.”] An unsupported statement whose veracity rests solely on the authority of the individual who makes it.

And so it begins….. All of a sudden, many months AFTER the fact, several high-ranking officials from the administration all come out with the same story-line, IMPLYING that Eric Snowden was influenced and/or helped by Russian spies to do what he did…. This statement by Mikey-boy Rogers, U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman, R-Mich., Senator Feinstein’s cohort (she’s his counterpart in the Senate, who put out her office’s lies about this issue yesterday….), is the newest step in the ongoing attempt by the administration to paint Mr. Snowden’s actions with the brush of treason, when, in fact, they KNOW he is not a traitor, but, rather, a patriotic American, caught in the web of intrigue THEY created with their clandestine, illegal activities….

As soon as I saw this headline today, my highly-trained, delicately-honed, automatic political crap detector SCREAMED at me….. “LIES, LIES, MADE UP LIES!!”, it said, without much doubt implied (accuracy factor of the detection meter said it was 99.9% likely to be lies…. which makes it pretty certain, as I’ve programmed it to never say that it is completely sure; it defaults to that number when it is…)….. This is SO obviously a campaign to smear Snowden, it positively REEKS! They are introducing doubt of his character into the dialogue, which, come to think of it, is only a monologue, because, hey, he’s not here to defend himself, is he?

This, of course, is typical political posturing, reminiscent of any other campaign, such as an election run, when they need to direct the public’s attention toward certain areas, away from others, so they can control the conversation…. In his speech, Obama admitted to responding to a public dialogue called for by the leak of information, while never admitting any wrongdoing for having committed the spying initially. Yet, this conversation, this debate, has only shown them to be more secretive than we knew, and they are pulling out all the stops to stop any further investigation into, or outcry about what is REALLY going on…. Naturally, since they are politicians, they will approach this as a campaign to be won; the first step in any campaign is to decrease the viability, the believability of the opposition…. Hence, unproved, unfounded, and untrue accusations, out of nowhere, to try to demonize Eric Snowden….

They say first, it’s beyond his abilities to have done this…. Well, hell, even the most thick-headed fool can see this is a total fabrication…. If this is true, would it mean that the NSA made a habit of hiring programmers that couldn’t understand what they were being tasked to do? Doesn’t make any sense to me…. This man was part of the program, a programmer, and KNOWS how to read data, as well as write the programs that would do so…. Hell, I’m only a high powered user, and I understand what is being done, and what WAS done…. This statement is an obvious lie, an attempt to demean Snowden, so he looks more like a villain, or, at best, the dupe of master spies….

The second thing to note about this claim, is that it is introduced by a politician, who obviously is NOT capable of judging what a programmer is capable of doing with a computer…. Mikey-boy probably has to ask his admin how to use his smart-phone, which is, arguably, smarter than he is, technically speaking… Yet, this idiot, in his power suit and tie, makes this claim unequivocally, thereby implying that one of the most competent programmers alive (look who hired him to begin with!….) isn’t capable of doing something he was trained to do, but, had to be helped by a foreign power…. A pretty far-fetched stretch, to my way of looking at it….

The one professional spy they quoted, from the CIA, it should be noted, said, in his statement, right off, so he couldn’t be accused later of any prevarications…. “I don’t have any particular evidence”, but, then goes on to agree with the outrageous claims made by a politician, one with NO FUCKING CLUE about the glaringly obvious untruth of what he proposes, or, indeed, of how much truth any of what he said might have contain…. Rogers’ job, which he performed perfectly, was, simply, to put in the minds of the public a single idea, one small but important lie, that Snowden was made to do what he did, by coercion, by trickery, or by duplicity; they don’t say which, nor do they have to…. They merely imply, without directly accusing, so that the lies they intend to bring out later, as seeds for further doubt, will find fertile soil in the simple minds of the public….

None of the truth, or any actual connection to reality of the claims he was making concerned him; he was strictly a talking head, on a major TV show; his mission was to plant in the public awareness the idea that Eric Snowden didn’t act alone, and that the very act of his doing what he did, regardless of ANY evidence to the contrary, should be viewed as proof of his having had help from another country…. The fact that this isn’t remotely true was not an issue; the message was delivered, and supported by the other actors in the play…. Throw in the claim about him being technically unable to do what he did, and you’ve got some juice to keep the story going, even though all of it is a complete fabrication….

Ffolkes, if you can’t see that this is true, that you were deliberately lied to, and manipulated in an attempt to make you think what the government wants you to think, well, I guess I should just use THEIR justification and tell you…. You, too, are an idiot, and the fact is, if you believe any of what this man says about this subject, that, in itself, can be considered as PROOF of your idiocy….. incontrovertible, undeniable PROOF. (After all, that’s the same method of proof they’re offering for THEIR assertions…..) If the timing, and the words themselves, don’t make your crap-detector go off like it was on fire, then I’m afraid there isn’t much hope for you in the real world….

These statements were merely the latest tactic to be applied by the White House political strategists, all without having to bring out their big gun, the president, with his down-home, I’m-so-sincere, boyish face, and, the now-famous, good-ol-boy, aw-shucks grin, both of which are political tools of great value to him, but only if not over-used….. Right now, they’ve got a few of the sidekicks out in the limelight, after his speech over the weekend, making up stuff and carrying on with all the talking points and deliberate manipulations, all orchestrated in Mr. Snowden’s absence….. one I hope he continues to maintain, as it is the ONLY hope he has of surviving the future (….Ironically enough, in a case of Life imitating Life, this is a problem ALL OF US are going to have in the very near future…. that of running out of any hope of surviving the future, when the very air we breathe will be toxic to us….)

After seeing this story, and taking into account the other stories in response to the president’s speech about the nonexistent changes he claims he wants to make to the NSA mission (I mean, look closely at what he said…. He isn’t changing ANYTHING of any significance…..), I think it would be safe to predict that in the next few days and weeks, we will hear more fabrications and implications, with or without any actual evidence, about Mr. Snowden, as the administration continues to distract and defuse, hoping that if they stall long enough, something else will come up to take the public’s awareness from their spying, and put it back in the closet, or sweep it under the rug, where they keep all the other stuff they don’t want us to see or know, about what they are REALLY doing behind our backs….

(Note from February…. I personally think they’re hoping for another idiot to steal a gun and shoot up a mall, or a school somewhere, which always takes all the public’s attention and focuses it on their unreasonable fears for a couple of weeks….But, then, I’m pretty convinced of their complete lack of any human compassion, anyway, so, my concerns reflect my belief in their human nature, and their lack of any sort of virtue that would make them tell the truth, or espouse an agenda that benefits anyone but themselves….)

You can bet on that, ffolkes, for sure…. They’re not going to stop lying, just because they’ve been caught at it…. They’ll only get more bold with it…. It’s the way they’re built, they can’t, and won’t, help it…. There’s no profit in it for them to give up, is there? And, profit is what they are all about, when it comes down to the bottom line…. Profit for their self-interests, which are, to them, more important than the whole rest of the human race…..

As Lily Tomlin’s character, Edith Ann, used to say, when she was done making her brilliantly simple observations of people’s foibles…., “And that’s the Truth! THPPPPT!”

“Plausibility is the morality of fiction.” — Edith Mirrilees

Monthly update: The administration’s silence on the NSA spying issues continues to this date…. I’ve seen only one article in the past month on the subject, and it was merely a rehash of this information, with no real new developments reported…. They’re letting it go as long as they can without bringing any of it up themselves, so as to give the public, which has a notoriously SHORT attention span, a chance to forget all about it….. Naturally, the media is allowing this to continue without comment…. Good luck on having that stay the same, dudes…. Not if I have anything to say about it…..

😉

I’ll be here, and I’ll be reprinting this, or a fresher version, either in a month, or, before that, if and/or when new statements are forthcoming from the potUS, or one of his myrmidons….. (Unless, of course, they decide to stop me…. That would be the ONLY reason I wouldn’t be posting a month from now…. in which case, you’d no doubt read about all the dead feds in the news, if they can count that high…. I don’t intend to go, shall we say, quietly? We shall say it..
_____________________________

Well, I cheated, I guess, but, if you were here at the beginning, you’ll understand why, and be in perfect agreement that it was the right thing to do, at least for today….. If you weren’t here for the beginning, you certainly aren’t here at the end, so who the hell am I talking to? Hell, I don’t know, nor do I care at this point….. It’s done, again, and I’ve got no more excuses to keep from finishing the process now…. So, see ya…. I love you all…..

(No, I don’t know why that came out just then, but, it’s true…. and I just realized it is the underlying reason I rant about politics and global warming….That may sound pompous, but, hey, y’know what? So I am, pompous, that is, and it’s as true as the first statement, so, we’ll let it all stay….)

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

“I swear, Lemuel, them politicians is gettin’ tougher… this one took seven bullets, right in the heart!”….

Posted on February 18, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Somewhere, over the rainbow, there’s a place that I go to…. where there’s a flower-filled meadow, complete with peaceful, grazing deer, and a babbling brook running along the far edge, leading down the hill, into the forest….. It’s always in my memory, just waiting for me to wander there, to lay myself down in the sweet-smelling grasses for a rest, after walking through the beauty of the many-colored hills, all through the warm afternoon. As I lay my head down, drowsy in the afternoon sun, I hear a melody playing, as if on pan-pipes, drifting lazily out of the depths of the forest. As the lively, yet soothing tune continues to play, a sense of peace and contentment steals over me, nudging me gently into a dream-filled sleep…..

Then, I woke up, in my chair, sitting in front of the computer, shaking my head dazedly, with the dawning realization that I had managed to completely lose track of reality….. The smells of the forest, the sounds of the mice rustling in the grass, as the wind blew softly through my hair…. All of those were, for a moment, more real to me than the chair in which I’m sitting, not entirely comfortably, or the computer at which I’m staring now…. and a lot more pleasant, I’ll guarantee!

I decided when I sat down to begin that I’d try a new technique, of going into a meditative, creative trance, writing whatever I saw in my inner eye…. As I read over that first paragraph, I see it came out rather well, if a bit namby pamby in nature….. The probable next paragraph of what I started would, no doubt, have seen Bambi and/or Thumper give us a visit, to up the cuteness factor….. So, it’s probably a fortunate thing for us all that I gave it up after a single paragraph…. much more sweetness and light this early in the day would soon have me running for the bathroom, to worship at the throne of Ralph…. a euphemism I hope I don’t have to explain….

Thus, suitably warned, y’all should be able to have a pretty good time today…. I have no fucking clue as to what will follow today…. I’m in a capricious mood, with some stuff to do in the BBR that I’m stressed over (a little…. just the stress involved with working my will on a bureaucracy…. It can be done, but, it’s hard work, and takes some stubbornness….of which I have more than enough to suit my purposes….), as well getting this Pearl completed without any extra crap from Murphy’s corner…. So far, he’s behaving himself, so, we’ll see how it goes in that respect…. He’s tricky, ya gotta keep a sharp eye on that quarter, lest he catch us unaware, and unprepared to mitigate the effects of his kind attentions….. It helps to keep moving, so…..

Shall we Pearl?

“What is sauce for the goose may be sauce for the gander but is not necessarily sauce for the chicken, the duck, the turkey, or the guinea hen.” — Alice B. Toklas

Amen to that!….
_____________________________

http://www.sfgate.com/business/energy/article/John-Kerry-mocks-those-who-deny-climate-change-5239626.php

Wow…. I am, as much as I ever am, impressed, in a good way, by this statement from one of the administration’s most important lackeys…. I read what John K. said yesterday, or the day before, doesn’t matter…. and for once, the tenor and strength of the message, which is about the imminence of the environmental crisis we face in the near future, is nearly strong enough to get through to some folks, and any ffolkes who see or hear it will be encouraged, if somewhat bemused by this belated, typical jump to join in the fight, onto a bandwagon they should have been driving TWENTY-FIVE FUCKING YEARS AGO, but, instead, act as if it’s a brand new model, which they, of course, claim as the first to be seen driving in town….

Of course, so far, I haven’t actually SEEN any action on this by the administration, but, boy-howdy, when they decide to jump on the wagon, they do it with both feet…. He actually used the word ‘sacrifice’ I think, or maybe it was ‘danger’…. regardless, he made a good effort, for a first try, to get the most important part of the message out there, that we have to act NOW, rather than later…. a necessity easily seen to be the most important key, if we are to have ANY chance to make any difference in the eventual outcome of events….

Personally, I don’t believe, not for a minute, that they’ll do enough, or be able to cut far enough into the influence of the corporate masters to make enough of a difference; no so far as to change the eventual outcome…. But, hey, they’re at least acknowledging that it needs to be done…. I just don’t think they can do it, not before they are blocked by those who hold the purse strings, and who are making a HUGE profit on global warming, as well as on the continuing use of fossil fuels….

To be honest with y’all, I really don’t much feel like ranting today, even with the advent of good news about which to write, or the importance of spreading the knowledge of the imminence of the problem…. I guess I’m in too mellow a mood, having slept long and well again…. Therefore, I’m going to finish this section with an old-school collection of pearls, to try to gain some perspective on this latest flip-flop by the political machine currently in power in Washington D.C…… Let’s see if SB has some good stuff in there for us today, shall we?…. But, hey, I know!…. Let’s let SB fire the shots randomly, so we can see some of the fat cat preachers do some dancing around, too, dodging figurative bullets alongside the politicians and corporate assholes….

“Capitalism did not arise because capitalists stole the land, but because it was more efficient than feudalism. It will perish because it is not merely less efficient than socialism, but actually self-destructive.” — J. B. S. Haldane

“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” — George Orwell (1903-1950), “Animal Farm” 1945

“I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn’t.” — Jules Renard

“We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.” — Aneurin Bevan

“Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.” — Herodotus

“The beauty of religious mania is that it has the power to explain everything. Once God (or Satan) is accepted as the first cause of everything which happens in the mortal world, nothing is left to chance…logic can be happily tossed out the window.” — Stephen King

Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

— William Butler Yeats, “The Stolen Child”
_____________________________

Poetry has power far beyond its apparent beauty; all the studies and historical research that we have made throughout the years have never identified for us exactly WHY poetry affects us so deeply, or why it has the power to move us, even if we don’t completely understand its every word…. This poem, to me, is a perfect example of that….

It was written several hundred years ago, precisely spelling the words used just as the current usage of the time demanded,turning common modern English into Middle English with a broad Scots accent, just about as thick a brogue as I’ve ever heard…. Yet, in spite of the unfamiliarity and strangeness of the words, and the odd structure of ideas the Scots are so fond of using, it is perfectly understandable, as well as incredibly moving, when the sorrow felt by the author is shared by the reader…. It’s a classic for a reason, a perfect expression of human emotions, simply, yet elegantly showing us the power of common experience to give us peace, and joy…. Enjoy!….

Highland Mary

Ye banks, and braes, and streams around
The castle o’ Montgomery,
Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,
Your waters never drumlie!
There Simmer first unfald her robes,
And there the langest tarry:
For there I took the last Fareweel
O’ my sweet Highland Mary.

How sweetly bloom’d the gay, green birk,
How rich the hawthorn’s blossom;
As underneath their fragrant shade,
I clasp’d her to my bosom!
The golden Hours, on angel wings,
Flew o’er me and my Dearie;
For dear to me as light and life
Was my sweet Highland Mary.

Wi’ mony a vow, and lock’d embrace,
Our parting was fu’ tender;
And pledging aft to meet again,
We tore oursels asunder:
But Oh, fell Death’s untimely frost,
That nipt my Flower sae early!
Now green’s the sod, and cauld’s the clay,
That wraps my Highland Mary!

O pale, pale now, those rosy lips
I aft hae kiss’d sae fondly!
And clos’d for ay, the sparkling glance,
That dwalt on me sae kindly!
And mouldering now in silent dust,
That heart that lo’ed me dearly!
But still within my bosom’s core
Shall live my Highland Mary.

~~ Robert Burns ~~

_____________________________

Having thus completed my morning’s set of self-inflicted obligations with admirable dispatch, so much so, we are looking at 66% completion of the assigned tasks only one and a half hours into the given period of time to work on it….. I guess I should either pat myself on the back, or take a break….. I hate to do that when I’m on such a roll, but, if I don’t, I’ll be done in just a few minutes, and I’m not ready for that…. So, break it is, as my shoulder joints are far too stiff and sore to reach my back…. Upon my return, I won’t say anything, I’ll just go on to the picking process for this old-school pearl, one with random, harlequin-flavored parameters of choice…. See ya on the other side…

“The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.” — Justice Anthony Kennedy, in 91-155

“You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.” — George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

“Even the lion has to defend himself against flies.” — Smart Bee

“If it had not been for the discontent of a few fellows who had not been satisfied with their conditions, you would still be living in caves. Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.” — Eugene V Debs (1855-1926), American socialist

“All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific.” — Jane Wagner, _The Search For Intelligent Life In The Universe_ — [Performed by Lily Tomlin]

“The normal American of the “pure blooded” majority goes to bed every night with the uneasy feeling that there is a burglar under the bed and gets up every morning with the sneaking fear that his underwear has been stolen.” — H. L. Mencken, Baltimore _Evening Sun_, July 16, 1923

“Hand me a pair of leather pants and a CASIO keyboard — I’m living for today!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Damn, I’m good sometimes…. with a bit of help from SB….
_____________________________

“Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; knows not the livid loneliness of fear.” — Amelia Earhart

No doubt, there are those in the world who would say that what I do here is a waste of my time, as well as a waste of the time of anyone else who may stop by to read it…. All I can say about that, is, well, “Fuck you, AND the white horse you think you rode in on….. While you’re at it, on the way out, with my boot print firmly planted upon your extremely large and ugly ass, you can shut the door behind you, so the good ffolkes who generally stop in won’t be distracted by your idiocy”…. Or, something along those lines…. I’m getting a little crusty in my old age, I guess, and I just don’t give much of a damn about the mouthings of fools…. Take what I say, or leave it, but, don’t try to judge it without offering some evidence, and some dialogue…. (See the above quote re: Courage….)

That said, I’d better proof this damn thing, or I’ll end up regretting it later, I know…. Well, there you go…. Proofed, polished, and probably screwed up royally… but, it’s done, which, as we know, is the only characteristic that counts with me…. Hence, I’m outta here…. Hasta la mañana, amigos….

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

Put down the matches, sir, & step away from the dead clown….

Posted on February 17, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Okay, now my feelings are REALLY hurt….. Well, not actually, but…. for the first time since I began this blog, which began in it’s current location on WordPress in August of 2011, as I sit down to write this morning, NOBODY…. that’s nobody at all, came by to read yesterday’s Pearl…. If they did, they didn’t like what they saw, and left without a comment….

If I cared much at all about whether or not this gets read, I’d be truly upset, or hurt, or some such reaction that would show how much I put into this, and care about what I write…. But, since that isn’t the case, I can’t say I’m upset, but, I’m definitely not sure WHAT to think….

I no longer HAVE to write this blog, as it no longer matters to me whether or not I stay sane, per se…. My retirement is all set, and all I have to do is keep breathing, stay solvent, and hope Social Security doesn’t get gutted before I get my share of what I put in there. So, the former, semi-original reason for doing this, to maintain my sanity while waiting for it all to sort itself out, is no longer valid…..

Plus, quite simply, I don’t much CARE any longer whether or not I appear to be sane, as the only one to whom it matters, milady Patricia, seems to enjoy my insanity, when it isn’t frustrating her trying to comprehend what I’m doing, or making her scramble to follow my often obscure trains of thought…. Come to think of it, my thoughts probably are more like a big room of cotton candy, dotted randomly with bourbon truffles, than a train…. Yes, I’m aware that’s a bit odd….

“Odd” doesn’t scare me, nor does “strange”…. I mean, it might bother me, if I cared at all about what people think, but, I learned, from cats, long ago, how to NOT give a shit about any of that….. Seriously, if you want to know how to not give a crap about what people think, just watch your cat. They’ve been perfecting their manner of ignoring people for many, many generations, and have become the acknowledged masters of the cold shoulder, and the complete indifference that so annoys other creatures….

So, in the final analysis, I don’t much care if nobody likes my work….. Realistically, that may merely be a function of the material about which I write, and the unpalatability of such difficult subjects as politics, religion, human nature, and global warming…. All of those tend to bring out passion in people, so I can see why many might not wish to deal with it every day…. Plus, my opinions generally run to the pessimistic, as I don’t have a lot of faith in human nature to be anything other than stupid and coarse, and to display every weakness of morality that we have identified….. Well, sorry, but, I’m just playing the odds there…

The part that bothers me isn’t my own ego-driven desire to be liked, or appreciated; those are issues I resolved a long time ago, and they don’t cause me any pain…. No, what bothers me is, the message I’m putting out there, about the BRC, the bankers, the politicians, the police, the judges, and the mundanes who support them in oppressing the rest of us, is not getting the distribution and attention that it deserves, or that people need, if we are to ever save our asses from our own stupidity…. I don’t care at all if people don’t like, or don’t agree with my take on most things, but, when it comes to the effects we are seeing of global warming, it is NOT something that ANY of us can afford to ignore…..

No, I wish I could figure out how to get somebody to start distributing what I’ve written to a wider audience, who might then be able to spread the word far enough that someone who can actually DO something will hear it, and be prompted to act…. It’s a bit frustrating to be saying all of this, to pour myself into what I’ve written, and then watch it die, in what for a literary work is an unnatural death, left to rot on the shelf, without being consumed…..

SIGH…. c’est la vie…. Perhaps, someday, my Prince will come…. (Maybe I should have used the word Publisher?….) Of course, a prince wouldn’t do much in the way of agreeing with me, or liking what I say, but, it sounds nice, doesn’t it?…. I suppose that’s all we have left, is to be nice to ourselves…. SIGH… Wanna come with me & eat some worms?….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Have no fear – I never attack lesser beings.” — gigoid the dubious
_____________________________

“What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” — Thomas Jefferson

In a pearl from a day or two ago, I mentioned a business deal that struck my eye, as being another example of how little the 99% in the world actually have in the way of resources, in contrast to the shadowy corporate entities that inhabit the other 1%….. The deal referred to in the article, I pointed out, was to be made to the tune of forty-five BILLION dollars….. an amount the human mind isn’t capable of grasping, really…..

It’s more money than all of the 99% here in America typically has to spend in one day, (I did the math…it’s $136 for each of the 330 million of us here in the USA, not counting the 33,000 or so who don’t need any at all, because they’re in the other 1%) approximately; this huge amount of money is, no doubt, being spent, out of Comcast’s “petty cash drawer”, dipping only lightly into actual profits, to purchase the next biggest cable system besides themselves, thereby cornering more than 33% of the cable market for itself….

Read the article, then we’ll talk….

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/02/14/follow-the-money-to-congress-on-comcast-time-warner-deal/

ECONOMY, n. Purchasing the barrel of whiskey that you do not need for the price of the cow that you cannot afford. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

First, let’s look at what Comcast had to spend bribing Congress, on the political tools they wish to cultivate….. According to the above article, Maplights says the amount they contributed to various members of Congress over the past two years, since this deal has been in the works, is $835, 525. That probably sounds a bit low to you; I know it does to me, until I realized that this is the amount they REPORTED, not the actual amount given, which, I’m sure, is much more cleverly hidden than the numbers they actually let us see…. Plus, this amount represents the CASH contributed, not any perks, or favors that were also tendered…

Still, it’s almost a million dollars, in cash, which you know they spent without even counting the cost, as money well-laundered, and well-used, to secure favors (to wit: votes to approve the deal)…. For that measly million bucks, they’re allowed to spend their “spare” 45 BILLION, to ensure that they continue to have the power and resources to continue to supply the public with the bread and circuses that comprises the TV and Entertainment Industry….

TV, now with the related usefulness of computers and the internet, is possibly the most influential industry the Beloved Ruling Class has, in terms of effectiveness in directing, and molding. the public’s attitudes….. These two communication tools form, together, a mega-industry which, as you know, includes the entire sporting world, and all the billions upon billions of dollars that people spend to vicariously re-live their youth, watching football, basketball, baseball, tennis, cricket, rugby, soccer, and all the other billion-dollar industries that each individual sport can generate, when turned into a professional competition, rather than amateur….

Hell, the cable companies even make money broadcasting the amateur sports, making an even larger profit, because none of the players are being paid! (…. on the surface….)…. If, like me, you paid attention to the little bit of history they teach in high school, you might remember the discussions on ancient Rome, and the public circuses they had in their era….. Most of the time, in the books and class discussions, the circuses were pointed out as a symptom of their dying culture, which subsequent events seemed to prove, as Rome’s culture declined, until it was sacked by barbarians not many centuries after the circuses began in earnest….

“America is the only nation in history which miraculously has gone directly from barbarism to degeneration without the usual interval of civilization.” — George Clemenceau (1841-1929) — Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

In our own culture, we have television, movies, sports, and now, the Internet, all of which, the way they have evolved, are now used to augment and support the ruling classes, at the behest and direction of those who control society…. These are, collectively, nothing more than our version of the Roman circuses under Nero, effectively keeping the majority of our society quiet, content to laze around, peacefully watching Sex In The City, or the Olympics, or, googling gossip about their neighbors….

Okay, since nobody will probably read much of this, I’m going to save some of my angst, and conduct a test, an experiment, as it were…. I’m going to ask a couple of questions now, to see how many people it might stimulate into answering, in the comment section… The questions are such that I hope will make y’all think, at least a little…. then, if you have the time, let us know what your response might be, in your own inimitable style…. Me, I’m going to go find some pearls for section three, & a poem for section two, after which I’ll get out my candles, my chrysknife, and my amulets, to cast a spell of deep thinking, over whomever stops in to read, which will, if successful, MAYBE, give us something to discuss….

I’ve told you my opinions previously, at great length, so you know how I feel about these assholes…. What’s your take on any of this, eh?….. The question(s) is(are)….. Will Congress approve this deal? Or, will the money the shadowy corporate lackeys, the lobbyists who inhabit the halls of Congress alongside the legislators, spent on them have been wasted? If the latter, do you think it will matter in the long run?….

Finally, do you agree that the entire entertainment industry, including sports and movies, is merely one of the shadowy corporate masters’ techniques of crowd control, used for the most part to keep the populace quiet and content? …… Come on down, ffolkes, and let’s create an intelligent, stimulating dialogue…. Or, if you prefer, we can just grimace and call each other foul names….

Here the heart
May give a useful lesson to the head,
And Learning wiser grow without his books.

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book vi, Winter Walk at Noon, Line 85

“Me, I love the rich. *Somebody* has to love them. Sure, a lot of rich people are assholes, but believe me, a lot of poor people are assholes too. And an asshole with money can at least pay for his own drinks.” — Tom Robbins, “Jitterbug Perfume”
_____________________________

The poem for today is, as I sit to begin this section, an unsolved mystery…. I’m going to complete section three before I turn to that, so, we could end up with just about ANYTHING today…. I certainly hope so…. I’ll be back in a while, poem in hand (well, on the clipboard, anyway, ready to paste….)….

Yep…. I knew I could count on serendipity…. While searching for the pearls in section three, I realized I know the perfect poem for today’s theme, as it evolved (I’m trying to use that word a lot, to help people learn to accept the idea of things evolving…. maybe the general knowledge of that will leak over onto someone who actually needs it….)…. Any whom, here ’tis…

Bankers Are Just Like Anybody Else, Except Richer

This is a song to celebrate banks,
Because they are full of money and you go into them
and all you hear is clinks and clanks,
Or maybe a sound like the wind in the trees on the hills,
Which is the rustling of the thousand dollar bills.
Most bankers dwell in marble halls,
Which they get to dwell in because they encourage deposits
and discourage withdrawals,
And particularly because they all observe one rule which woe
betides the banker who fails to heed it,
Which is you must never lend any money to anybody
unless they don’t need it.
I know you, you cautious conservative banks!
If people are worried about their rent it is your duty
to deny them the loan of one nickel,
yes, even one copper engraving
of the martyred son of the late Nancy Hanks;
Yes, if they request fifty dollars to pay for a baby you must
look at them like Tarzan looking at an uppity ape in the jungle,
And tell them what do they think a bank is, anyhow, they had
better go get the money from their wife’s aunt or ungle.
But suppose people come in and they have a million
and they want another million to pile on top of it,
Why, you brim with the milk of human kindness
and you urge them to accept every drop of it,
And you lend them the million so then they have two million
and this gives them the idea that they would be better off with four,
So they already have two million as security
so you have no hesitation in lending them two more,
And all the vice-presidents nod their heads in rhythm,
And the only question asked is do the borrowers want the
money sent or do they want to take it withm.
Because I think they deserve our appreciation and thanks,
the jackasses who go around saying that health and happi-
ness are everything and money isn’t essential,
Because as soon as they have to borrow some unimportant money
to maintain their health and happiness they starve
to death so they can’t go around any more sneering at good old money,
which is nothing short of providential.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

_____________________________

So, I’ve ranted, enough to suit me, and a poem has yet to be found…. (Remember, I did this section first, before filling in the remainder of section two…. Kind of like being a Time Lord, isn’t it?….) This puts me in a quite dangerous place, to be honest, as I’m liable to do just about anything at this point to get a laugh, or, at minimum, a chortle…. Hell, I’d settle for an amused expression….

One should never trouble a rogue philosopher who has nothing to read or talk about; ’tis a pastime fraught with peril dire, or, dire peril, if you prefer…. If you couldn’t guess, today’s old-school variety pearl is going to concentrate on funny, with humorous being the primary, perhaps only, standard of inclusion…. Let’s see how my own sense of humor is doing, when joined with SB’s dB, shall we?….

“Christian life consists of faith and charity.” — Martin Luther

(What? Not funny? It is, too! Why, I damn near fell out of my chair, laughing so hard I damn-near spewed my last swallow of coffee!!….. Well, I think it’s funny, because, hey, do YOU know any Christians who live like that? Neither do I…..MOSTLY, the Christians I see spouting off about their piety or religion are better described as entitled, selfish, and bigoted, CERTAINLY not charitable toward those not of their “faith”…. I’d wager even Martin Luther had a hard time saying this with a straight face, except, he WAS German, and they’re known world-wide as a dour people in general, often found to be without a sense of humor at all…. Okay, I’m done now….)

“The one charm of marriage is that it makes a life of deception a necessity.” — Oscar Wilde

(A bit pessimistic, but perceptive….) (That’s all, I swear…)

“I love cats…they taste just like chicken.” — Bumper Sticker

“God bless Atheism.” — Smart Bee, being a smart ass…

“The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.” — Jane Wagner

“You can’t cheat an honest man; never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump.” — W. C. Fields

General Custer: “Look at all those f%*king Indians” — Famous people swearing…

That will do nicely, I think….. I don’t know about y’all, but, I chortled….
_____________________________

Having thus humiliated myself beyond redemption, I should probably just sign off and go…. In fact, you’re about to witness an unprecedented event, as I take my own advice, and do that…. See you tomorrow, if I don’t just give up altogether…. Don’t worry, that’s not bloody likely….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

If it were only REAL cheese!….

Posted on February 16, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Now I KNOW there’s a conspiracy! The US news media has been overcome by an act of sublimely random kindness, as evidenced by their recent refusal to publish news that will depress people, or make them feel blue…. I’m pretty sure they show all the symptoms of having been infected with pronoia, the condition wherein a person is convinced there is a conspiracy by the world to make them feel good; in reaction to this infection of uncommonly good sense, they have been forgoing the publication of news that is critical, or gross, or gory, or anything marginally depressive, in favor of articles about cancer survivors, heartwarming Olympic back stories, kid’s birthdays, or other such positive crap….

I mean, it’s okay by me, mostly…. I really don’t mind not having bad stuff to look at all the time…. But, hey, we DO need to keep at least a weather eye on our beloved leaders, to ensure they’re not doing anything we wouldn’t approve of (as if THAT ever mattered to them!….). If the journalists continually refuse to even look at that, well, that wouldn’t be a good policy to continue, as it would make things worse than they already are….. We all know what wearing rose colored glasses will do in the long run…. and it isn’t pretty…

So, if you have the opportunity, talk to your local journalist, and tell him, or her, that while you appreciate their recent turn toward a more positive outlook on life, one must acknowledge reality, and reality dictates we keep the BRC and the rest of the Asininnies under scrutiny at all times, lest they come to feel an even greater sense of entitlement, if that is possible…. We don’t want to encourage them any more than is necessary to keep them under control….

Would that we, the people had that much control over our politicians! But, as y’all have probably figured out by now, this is all parody, and has no real connection to how the world really works…. It’s more of a wish, a dream of how things SHOULD be, or maybe, of how the world COULD be, if enough of us, who know the real score, were able to wrest back the control the BRC has clutched in their bony fingers for the last 5000 years….

Unfortunately, those of us who realize what has happened, and would be willing to try to change things, are too few, and too scattered to be able to organize effectively (besides being a bunch of independent assholes, who mostly don’t play well with others….).

So, the world will keep on muddling along as it always has, with the haves taking from the have-nots, and we’ll all dance the mambo down the path to Hell, wearing our fashionable handbasket clothes…. Well, most folks will…. Me, and a lot of ffolkes I know, we’ll just keep on keepin’ on, until the Grim Reaper comes to personally escort us to the other side of the River Styx…. Until then…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“There has never been an intelligent person of the age of sixty who would consent to live his life over again. His or anyone else’s.” — Mark Twain — Letters from the Earth (1905-1909)
_____________________________

I could, no doubt, under different circumstances, go surfing around the web, to some of the off-the-main-track, alternative sites for news, or to some of the international news sites, such as in Europe, or elsewhere around the world, to pick out some material about which to rant…. The US has their fingers into more than enough situations all over the globe to supply me with something about which to rant…. In addition, I have enough chops now, as a writer, I think, to be able to pick out almost anything, and write a few hundred words in exposition…. Howsomever, which is a word I just made up, I think, (well, Spellchecker never heard of it, that’s for sure..), what I don’t have is the wherewithal to sit long enough to do so…. An intro, and a paragraph, and I’m nearly at my limit…

Hence, the presence here, in section one, of an old-school pearl, freshly picked, but, without any particular standards or parameters to guide SB in the presentation process…. That way, I’ll get a wider list from which to choose the best…. That’s the plan, anyway…. Let’s be about it, shall we? I’m getting stiff…. not in a good way….

Have you ever wondered why you always run out of breath when you throw up? Ah, but a man’s retch should exceed his gasp, else what’s a heaving for? — Smart Bee

(Sorry, really, I couldn’t help it…. This was Smart Bee’s first entry today, and it caught me unawares…. I almost blew coffee out my EARS, laughing so hard without warning, and actually did strain a muscle in my jaw in grinning so fast and wide….. What do you expect, with no standards?….)

“I would have made a good Pope.” — Richard M. Nixon (1913-1994)

(I had an almost identical reaction to this one, which came mere moments later…. Too funny!….)

“Then again, e=mc^2 may only be a local phenomenon.” — Einstein

(Oh, I suppose one must keep an open mind, and not assume too much….)

“In much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” — Old Testament — Ecclesiastes i, 18

(See? See? What did I tell you? They want us to NOT think, to NOT question anything they tell us!…. And you thought I was kidding….. Okay, I’ll shush now….)

“Life is like an onion: You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.” — Carl Sandburg

“Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.” — Affirmation from The Book of Law, an ancient sacred text….

“Intellect annuls fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Laugh, about it, shout about it when you’ve got to choose–whichever way you look at it you lose.” — Paul Simon

You may have noticed that this pearl has eight pearls in it, rather than the obligatory seven…. This is because I couldn’t choose between the last two, both of which make a good closing thought for this group…. though I do lean a bit toward the one that is sung over the one that merely speaks its piece…. You can make your own choice, or, do as I did, and just throw out the first one, which pretty much stands alone, anyway…. There you go….
_____________________________

Having, up to now, completely screwed this up, in terms of anything original, or even terribly interesting to think about, I think it’s best if I use my own poems, so as not to create any guilt by association for any other author, or poet…. Try to enjoy it anyway, ‘kay?….. Hell, y’know what? I’ll even make it a two-fer, by leading off with a haiku, written as part of the daily poetry challenge last year on WP, a world-wide writing challenge to write a poem a day for the month of April….. The poem below the haiku came another time, and speaks about my muse, with whom I maintain a passionate love/hate relationship….

Haiku II

An inner light glows
shining out of open eyes;
madness or wisdom?

~~ gigoid ~~

Dreaming of Calliope

La belle dame sans merci speaks aloud, through endless night,
torturing dreams, with powerful words and stentorian phrases.
Manifest visions, bathed in unbearable grace and light,
destroying all direction, standing lost, in unfathomable mazes.

Fate plays a part, one that will never face denial,
as fear and courage eternally vie for ascendancy.
Conflict becomes valid, gifting strength in open trial,
but honest emotion wears no costume so fancy.

Blood, sweat, and tears stroll on avenues of gold,
unlikely heroines heralding as in ancient lore;
Sharp, competent knives cut through tales untold,
eternally shifting reality past the naked shore.

Drifting toward origin, bereft of mandate or cause,
finished, nay, abandoned, tied with a figurative bow.
No simple gift from muses to give comfort or pause,
save that all we need to know, we already know…..

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

As noted above, my physical condition this morning isn’t compatible with long periods in the chair…. My time in the chair, of course, must be balanced with a caveat firmly in mind, to wit: I also cannot stand or walk around for very long, before having to sit, to stop the numbness that begins to affect my legs after a few minutes upright, with or without walking…. Even in a chair now, I have to consider my skeletal posture, to avoid pinching off some part of my spine or sciatic nerve, and getting numb…. SIGH…. some parts of getting old really SUCK, you know?….

Fortunately, I have now a backlog, consisting of a couple of million words of reasonably coherent, intelligent discussion, from which to pull something adequate for the purpose at hand, i.e., a politirant, for which we are overdue today (Well, I’m not counting the mild little fantasy rant in the intro….)…. Here, then, is another blast from last February, just prior to receiving the news of my impending award of Social Security benefits, which, apparently, kept my mind in a state of curmudgeonly agitation, if the Pearls from that period are any indication…..

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

From February of 2013:

Quemadmoeum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est. [A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killers hands.] — Lucius Annaeus Seneca “the younger” ca. 4 BC – 65 AD

The issue of gun control is currently a HOT BUTTON issue for a lot of people in this country…. (Sorry, didn’t mean to shout….) At least, it is for those who enjoy over-reacting to all the violence reported in the news….. They seem to forget that there are now significantly more than 7 billion people on this planet, with more crowding on every second; the increased violence we are seeing is a natural result of overpopulation, combined with stupidity, both of which exist in ample supply in our society…. The following is a piece I wrote in 2012, not long after one of the school shootings that occurred that year….. The piece, to my mind, pretty well summarizes my objections on this issue addressing the naive, foolish, unwarranted fear that has prompted the idiotic notion of repealing the Second Amendment altogether…. Here is my response to that idea….

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence… From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable…. The very atmosphere of firearms every- where restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” — George Washington (bogus?)(who cares? I don’t, it doesn’t make it any less true if it was said by someone else…..)

I hear a lot of people these days spouting off about gun control, which, to them, means that all guns should be outlawed, or, at minimum, made so difficult to acquire the normal person won’t bother. This is a viewpoint that I have never understood, because it makes a totally unwarranted assumption (more than one actually, but we’ll address one of the most critical….), i.e., guns cause violent behavior…..

This fallacy is generally accompanied by the unwarranted assumption that, if people couldn’t legally own them, unwanted episodes of random violence would stop. This is naive, and unreasonable, given that there is absolutely no evidence to support such a contention.

There is no evidence whatsoever that violence is NOT part of human nature; this is a psycho-social FACT of human nature, with so much evidence in support, it isn’t really a matter of debate. People have violent tendencies, and violence is the primary response of a great many people who have never learned, or had reason to learn, how to use their reason to control their emotions.

Though I’ve never owned or carried a gun, I am a firm believer in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, in its most literal sense. Without the right to bear arms in our own defense, we, as citizens, would be at the mercy of whomever was in office at the time, and would have no recourse at all to any redress of grievance against those officials, since they could not be forced to comply with law.

I do NOT trust any elected official to act in MY best interests; human nature also decrees that they will act in their OWN interests first, with no compulsion to even consider anything else. Making it a law that only police and government lackeys could legally be armed is a sure way to guarantee that the average citizen would be at the mercy of these so-called leaders, mercy being a quality that they have never heretofore demonstrated in any fashion.

As I said, I don’t own or carry guns, yet…. For much of my life, I’ve trained myself to be dangerous without the use of them, and feel no fear that I cannot deal with an armed man to my benefit; this is simply because it is the person holding the gun that is the danger, not the gun itself. Speed, power, and accuracy are the key elements to controlling a violent situation, along with some forethought and preparation, and the ability to keep a clear mind when under duress.

When a person is holding a gun, they feel ten feet tall, and invincible, but they remain human, and humans can be controlled with superior strategy and tactics. It does no good to hold a gun, when the target won’t sit still, or even remain visible….. and in these cases, that sense of being impervious becomes a liability to the gun-wielder, because, in reality, we are all nothing more than weak, slow, hairless apes, in comparison to most of the creatures on this planet. When dealing with a human trained to kill, the gun is only of use when the one holding it is of equal skill as the one at whom they intend to fire.

However, most Americans do not have this sort of skill set, nor the state of mind that makes it work. In the hands of a skilled warrior, a gun becomes a dangerous weapon indeed, for it will be used to achieve the warrior’s goals, as any weapon would, and not employed to merely bully others into doing what is desired, which is the usual use of these kinds of weapons in the hands of the ignorant and deceitful. Politicians, by the very nature of their sociopathy, do get rather deceitful in the pursuit of their self-centered ends. The desire to be in public office, to me, is a sure sign of a sick mind, since a healthy one has no need to assume power over others, being content to be in control of themselves.

At this point in the narrative, I feel I’m about to become a bit sarcastic, placing myself in jeopardy of becoming caustically so, even if I am justifiably directing my ire toward those shrill advocates of this kind of legal oppression, to wit: laws that attempt to legislate morality…. a pastime known to be fraught with proven danger…. So, I’ve unilaterally decided (Hey, if Barry O, the pOTUS can, I can, too!….) to stop this rant here, to avoid offending anyone unduly (Probably not why Barry does it…).

I agree with the need to tighten the regulations regarding assault weapons, in terms of keeping them out of the hands that have the most likelihood of misusing them, but, not NEARLY as far as is wanted by the fear-mongers. I think it is a good idea to keep guns out of the hands of children, (without proper adult supervision and training….), and people who have demonstrated the lack of emotional control needed by a free citizen of this country, to own and use a gun appropriately, i.e. the mentally ill, who are characterized by a lack of impulse control, or those who have previously shown their own lack of, or unwillingness to use, the necessary control, by having used guns in the commission of previous serious crimes…. None are good characteristics to see in someone with a gun in their hands….

But, once again, I must caution people to examine any laws that DO get passed, closely, paying attention to the details, to ensure they don’t go farther than is necessary, which the people in charge have a tendency to do; it’s part of their nature to attempt to slip stuff by the public…. I’ll try to wake up your precautionary instincts by asking this…..

If the insane are not to be allowed full rights as a citizen, who is it that gets to decide who is insane? The same issues of trust are present, or absent, in that idea, as in the assumption that the Beloved Ruling Class will act in our best interests….. They can be trusted to act in their own interests first, and we all would do well to keep that in mind….. I’ll ask y’all to think about this, ffolkes, and remember what we all know about what happens to those who ignore history…..

“1935 will go down in History! For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead to the future!” — Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), prior to confiscating all civilian firearms

“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.” — Bob Dylan

Note from February, 2014: Just so it’s clear…. All of the above is true and complete to the best of my knowledge, accurately representing the opinion of gigoid the dubious, today, just as well as it did a year ago…. So be it, gigoid has spoken….

“I am not being paranoid. Paranoid is being afraid of things that aren’t there… trust me, I should know.” — Lauren Alexander
_____________________________

Well, this has been a productive morning, all thing considered, so, I’m going to trust my luck up to now, and beat a hasty retreat, before anything untoward has an opportunity to throw a metaphorical wrench into the works…. See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

All quiet on the western omelet….

Posted on February 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I am never sure how one of these Pearls will turn out, due to several factors, the most telling of which is my refusal to plan them out from one day to the next; I’ve always insisted on using either fresh material, or material I created previously, from the archives here on WP, or my own backup copies here on Arthur’s hard drive (my computer’s name is Arthur, after the Dudley Moore character….Yes, it was whimsical….). Today’s Pearl may be the most different yet, as it will have been constructed under the most trying of conditions possible for me to imagine…

Yep, my coffee machine broke today…. This, of course, could have been a major disaster, which is, I’m sure, exactly what Murphy planned when he sabotaged the heating element…. (He tried to hide the fact of his chicanery… when I came out, and pushed the button to start the coffee maker, the light went on, just as if it were going to work…. but, three minutes later, no hot water, and an obviously dead machine….). However, having slept well, again, thanks to my new regime of night time medications that work like a charm, I didn’t panic at all…. I merely reached down, grabbed a sauce pan, heated water, and poured it through myself, then made a note to go by a store for a new machine later today….

It’s amazing how clear one’s head is when one actually sleeps during the night…. It has been so long since I had any consistent sleep, I’ve forgotten how it feels in the morning, which, to put it most simply, is wonderful…. clear-headed, and without unending waves of pain crashing through my awareness, demanding attention as soon as I am up, to begin the daily fight with gravity to remain upright…. What a bonus! There is pain, yes, but it is manageable, and responds well to the morning routine I’ve evolved…..

It is no doubt a mite confusing for y’all here today…. Y’all are probably as unused to my NOT complaining about my pain, or Murphy, or whatever issue has arisen upon my ascendancy from bed ( I’ll bet y’all are especially weary of hearing about my fears of the blank screen….), as I am unused to NOT having anything about which to whine…. It’s actually quite nice…. even fun…. Who the hell am I kidding? I’m boring myself to tears with all this nicey, nicey crap!….

Fuck it, I’m outta here, before I turn into a Pollyanna, and start writing love poems….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Great acts are made up of small deeds.” — Lao Tzu
_____________________________

I’ve got rants in me today; I could easily turn all this goodwill I’m experiencing today into angst. All I’d need to do is go look through some headlines, & voilá! Instant outrage…. But, my precursor mood isn’t quite right to get me there, at least not yet today (It IS only 0430….)…. So, I’m going with the newest format, combined with some random pearls, chosen to replace any long-winded comments from me, for a new effect…. We’ll see how it works, and possibly include it again in future Pearls…. for now, enjoy the craziness that is our society at large, in action….

First, two statements that are the perfect opening pearls for this set of headlines….

“God is an invention of Man. So the nature of God is only a shallow mystery. The deep mystery is the nature of Man.” — Nanrei Kobori, — late Abbot of the Temple of the Shining Dragon, Kyoto, Japan

“Is being an idiot like being high all the time?” — Janeanne Garofolo

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Ex-parks-ranger-sues-CHP-officer-over-use-of-force-5234039.php

“With tooth and nail.” — Du Bartas (1544-1590) — Divine Weekes and Workes, Second Day

Is there any worse temper displayed, (other than the fabled “woman scorned”, of course….) than that of one whose sense of entitlement has been usurped? If so, I’d like to know what it is, as it may be the absolute champion of all such egregiously stupid, and selfish attitudes that anyone can assume…. Yet, here we have, in this country, literally, MILLIONS of idiot assholes, such as the ones in this story, who harassed the officer who upheld the law at the expense of their peer, the speeding asshole…. Yes, there are millions of other, even stupider assholes manning the wheels of innumerable police cars in our cities, counties, and towns, driving around with their attitudes on full display…. When was the last time you observed an officer of the law making a legal turn signal?…. Yep…. I can’t remember, either….

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/02/13/comcast-net-neutrality/

“Accumulate mannequins now; spare parts will be in short supply on D-Day.” — Safety Tips for the Post-Nuclear Existence

This article is here just so I can say I included something about the SCM’s, whom I believe to be the MOST responsible parties when it comes to assigning blame for the condition of our planet…. This story shows just how little the common man has to say in just about anything in society….. Here we have two more faceless corporate entities joining forces, with the end result one of increasing the degree of control each of them has over US…. the Internet is the McGuffin in this picture; it’s what they WANT us to focus on…. Yes, they want to control the Internet, but that is merely because it is a tool that helps US to learn more about what they’re up to…. thus, stealing control of it ensures they maintain the death-grip they have on our slave collars….

Need more evidence? Here:

“Another doctor reports that in a recent issue of the *American Journal of Family Practice* fleas were called “hematophagous arthropod vectors.” — Smart Bee

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Study-says-fracking-releases-more-methane-than-5233422.php

“…it doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are — if it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.” — Richard P. Feynman

“Fracking releases more methane than previously thought”…… Oh? Really? No kidding? Well, there’s a surprise, eh? Another fucking asinine method for ripping resources from the planet’s crust, using previously untested technology, and it’s causing more damage than we realized? Now, who would have guessed that?

If you haven’t realized yet that these are angry, rhetorical questions, then, you may as well go read somewhere else, because you’re just not getting it, or not paying attention, ffolkes…. The assholes who run the world don’t CARE if they fuck up the planet…. They believe they’re immune to the results of what they do…. dying is for the little people, don’t y’know?….. Bah! This one makes me so angry, I can barely speak, and certainly can’t write very well, so I’ll just call them assholes one more time, and let it go at that…. Fucking assholes….

“Where are we going? And why am I in this damn handbasket?” — Smart Bee, at gigoid’s instigation….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Ron-Paul-starts-Snowden-clemency-petition-5235280.php

“I’m all in favor of the democratic principle that one idiot is as good as one genius, but I draw the line when someone takes the next step and concludes that two idiots are better than one genius.” — Leo Szilard

I’d never in my life have ever thought I’d agree on ANYTHING with this guy, but, well, there you go…. The reasoning behind our opinions here are, very likely, completely at odds, but, we seem to have reached the same conclusion, to wit: Eric Snowden is NOT a traitor, but, rather, a hero, and should be brought home in honor, not restraints…. In this particular instance, I don’t really CARE that I’m apparently getting into bed with one of the country’s most insane talking heads, a professional politician who turned his vocation into his legacy, making his son a hereditary politician, as well as a professional one. He got this one right, and he’s the first one to come out in public with this, in the face of the administration, so, in this at least, he has my support….

Yuck…. They were right when they said that politics makes for strange bedfellows…. And, now, I feel a little ill….
_____________________________

One of my email services sent this poem to me a few days ago, so I saved it for just an occasion such as this, when my spirit is in need of something along a classical line….. and, please, no relevance to current events, either….. I just want to get away for a moment or two…. This is a good one for that….. Enjoy!

A Crazed Girl

THAT crazed girl improvising her music.
Her poetry, dancing upon the shore,

Her soul in division from itself
Climbing, falling She knew not where,
Hiding amid the cargo of a steamship,
Her knee-cap broken, that girl I declare
A beautiful lofty thing, or a thing
Heroically lost, heroically found.

No matter what disaster occurred
She stood in desperate music wound,
Wound, wound, and she made in her triumph
Where the bales and the baskets lay
No common intelligible sound
But sang, ‘O sea-starved, hungry sea.’

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

_____________________________

I was going to include an old-school pearl here, but, found this old politirant, from almost exactly a year ago, and thought it would make a good piece to demonstrate some of why it makes me ill to have to agree with Ron Paul, as noted above…. This will explain that delicacy quite well, I should think, and if not, well, you can always read it twice….

From 10/17/13:

First, a word from the Founding Fathers….

“I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.” — Thomas Jefferson

Now, a bit of insanity, on the identical subject, from a more modern source….

“By all accounts, though, an end seems near for the impasse that has once again exposed a government so divided that it sometimes borders on dysfunction. Though the House failed to muster sufficient support for a conservatives-only bill in the GOP-majority chamber on Tuesday, enough Republicans there seem likely to join House Democrats to approve a bipartisan version if it can be approved by the Senate and sent to them. ”

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Senators-closing-in-on-deal-to-reopen-government-4895884.php

I was reading the news last night, online, and the latest reports from the capitol say that a deal will get done prior to today’s deadline…. as it always does…. The difference in the deals that get done and those that don’t get done are relatively insignificant, in terms of real life; they only make a difference to those involved in whatever struggle is current. Nobody really understands any of it anyway… not the politicians who spout all the platitudes and figures, not the experts who supply the detailed analysis of those figures, and certainly not the public, who don’t even WANT to understand the complexities…. which is something the pundits know well, and, in fact, depend on to assist them in their endeavors…

“Morality is a private and costly luxury.” — Smart Bee

Sadly, this statement, though found without attribution, was made by an observer who knows human nature well, one who has obviously observed our history closely, drawing from those observations the only possible conclusion…. Society, as exemplified by its leaders, in both the secular and clerical arenas, loudly and boldly tout the twin concepts of morality and ethics, laying claim to them as if they were a coat left lying about. The noise they make in making these claims is generally quite noisome, to my ears, but, serves to cover their asses when later accused of impropriety; they can point to their strident statements as being proof of sincerity, though, logically, sincerity and morality have no real connection.

However, sad as the statement is, it is accurate, and never more so when looking at the budget crisis that we are witnessing today. The assholes who inhabit Congress, especially the conservatives in the House of Representatives, ( an oxymoron, if I’ve ever heard one…. ), DO NOT represent the people who elected them, not even close…. They lie to them, they steal from them, they follow their own agendas, but, they DON’T represent them…

How can they? They are not even in the same economic class as most of them, and never have been…. and, please, DON’T try to tell me you don’t think we have economic classes in this society…. Sorry, ffolkes, but American society is NOT classless, and never has been…. It has ALWAYS been separated into classes, based primarily on economic factors, with those who have more money having more influence and, more importantly, more rights, than those with less money…. The most cursory examination of history, of the world, and of this country, will show this as a fact of little possibility of dispute.

The average US income (which doesn’t give a completely accurate picture, but is useful to make the point….) is somewhere in the tens of thousands of dollars ($10, 001 to $99,999, somewhere between the two….). This translates into a basic demographic breakdown of being a very few people making more than they need to survive, as contrasted by a very large number of people who are struggling to even eat on a daily basis…. This accounts for 99% of the population, and about 1% of the actual money available to that 99%….

On the other side of that coin, we have a few thousand people, the remaining 1%, who have 99% of the money, all making more than a million dollars a year, on average…. Of this small percentage, we find that ALL of the Senators, about half of the House members, and the President, of course, are all part of that 1% of the population, a part that has never had to worry about where their next meal came from…. I wish that this were not true, but, these are facts, with the supporting evidence available to anyone with a library card, so they can go there to look up the numbers….

Of course, the fact that they are “more successful” in economic terms is only proof, in their minds, of their inherent right to make the decisions for everyone else in the country, even though they have no real grasp of the needs of those people. The fact of their disconnection from reality cannot penetrate their sense of entitlement, and they fully BELIEVE in their own mandate…. “Somehow, it never hurts to step back occasionally and ask yourself “Am I contributing to the solution of the problem or aiding in making a bigger problem?”…. this is a process, and a question, that never occurs to them…

This is why I call them delusional, and can honestly claim that I believe them to be clinically insane; a person so disconnected to what is real cannot be considered sane…. except, perhaps, in an insane society. Making assumptions about having the right to decide about the wants and needs of others is a sure sign that one has an unreasonable belief in their own importance to the universe, an assumption that can only be termed as a delusion. This kind of behavior is one society cannot afford to allow, because, if nothing else, these types of delusions are dangerous to the rest of us. Allowing these “crazies”, for wont of a more accurate term, to act out their fantasies in the real world tends to lead to trouble for more than just themselves…..

“Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he. But we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), King Henry IV — Act v, Sc. 4

I’m down, and out of breath, from shouting into the wind, at the mountain… A futile task, at best, I know, but, what else can one do at 5 AM? Mountain moving is my specialty, after all…. The truth of the matter is, after two hours by Shrewsbury clock, I’m tired of shouting at the mountain; it’s hard work, to little effect. I suppose it’s all I can do, and that is why I do it…. It’s cheaper, and, in the long run, less troublesome to my spirit and karma, than going out, buying a gun, and making a list of targets…. Less chance of getting shot back at, too…

There comes a time, however, when even I must admit to the futility of this particular task, and grow a bit discouraged…. I’m just not the kind of person who can give up completely, though, so, I’ll be back to rant on this subject another time…. “They” are always out there doing something on which I can comment. For the time being, I’ll leave you with this final lament…

“The world has taken on a thickness of vulgarity that raises a spiritual man’s contempt to the violence of a passion.” — Charles Baudelaire

Notes from 2014, almost precisely four months after being written: How is one ALMOST precise? Hmm…. well, that’s for another time…. for now, all I can say is…. I resemble that remark!…..
_____________________________

I find myself at loose ends…. It is now 0524, and I’ve been up, working on this Pearl for about an hour and a half, minus some time to deal with coffee production and consumption anomalies…. and, I’m done. I’ve done a new-style mini-headline-rant, included an archived rant, and found a great poem…. all that, and an intro, too!

But, it’s way too early…. If I stop now, there’s no telling what kind of mischief I can get into before the rest of the world in this longitude awakens…. Hell, it’s still pitch dark outside! Even in my reduced condition, I could go down the block, setting off car alarms, and be back inside in five minutes, none the worse for wear…. Then, everyone else would be up, and I could go back to bed, satisfied I had done my part to get the world started today…..

Instead, I’m going to take a break (necessary at this point…. No worries, I’ll leave the car alarms alone….), then come back and put together an old-school pearl, just to take up some time….. I’ll make it a good one, to soothe the hurt from having extra to read today….. Let’s go see what SB has been hiding from us, okay?….

“Indeed, man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible.” — St. Augustine

“I have never been so well pleased, as when I could shift power from my own, on the shoulders of others; nor have I ever been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.” — Thomas Jefferson, letter to Monsieur Destutt de Tracy, January 26, 1811, — reprinted in The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, XIII, — ed. A. E. Bergh (1853)

— ‘Shit Happens’ according to…

Politician: It’s shit, but it’ll get me elected.
If you elect me, there will never again be shit.
Shit is bad for the economy.

“Mistakes are at the very base of human thought, embedded there, feeding the structure like root nodules. If we were not provided with the knack for being wrong, we could never get anything useful done. We think our way along by choosing between right and wrong alternatives, and the wrong choices have to be made as often as the right ones. We get along in life this way.” — Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail

“As the caterpillar chooses the fairest leaves to lay her eggs on, so the priest lays his curse on the fairest joys.” — William H. Blake (1757-1827)

“They do not understand how that which differs with itself is in agreement: harmony consists of opposing tension, like that of the lyre and the bow.” — Heraclitus

“Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Speaker, 12/15/00

Well, once again, SB proves its merits…. I didn’t pay much attention as I gathered up these pearls, but, I think it came out pretty coherent, don’t you?…. Well, I guess it is if you have my own particular strange way of seeing patterns of thought in collected ideation…. or, whatever it is I’m doing when I go Pearling…. For that matter, who the fuck cares? It works for me, so, I just try to enjoy it, and don’t fret about how it works…..because I can’t always explain it, even to my own satisfaction…. 🙂
_____________________________

Well…. the Pearls seem to be growing again…. I’ve broken 3000 words several times already this year, and this looks like another one that will go over that count, easily…. Not that I’m counting, or anything…. I just keep track of it as a way of judging how much crap is left in here to get rid of…. The more I can get onto the screen in the morning, the less I have to shovel out during the day, into the BBR, where it can cause real problems, if I’m not careful where I put it…. But, that’s the world’s lookout, not mine…. In the meantime, I think I’m done here, so….. see ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Save the more elegant platitudes for an emergency….

Posted on February 14, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Having witnessed human history now for a reasonably long while, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to find a bit of perversity poking up its head into the realm of behavioral options, but, when it comes to my own personal life, I’d prefer to not see it gain any ascendancy over the more, shall we say, acceptable qualities we humans possess to display our motivation to the world…. With that said, it still remains for me to decide whether or not to include the thoughts, or rather, concepts, that the opening statement describes as part of today’s effort…

I know, that’s a bit obscure…. deliberately. If I include too much detail, then trying to keep it separate and non-inclusive becomes impossible, as what I’m wobbling about gets mixed up with the more usable material, so, I try to keep it from being too obvious…. which, today, seems to have driven it completely and thoroughly out of my mind… I can’t find it anywhere. That’s most likely a good thing, as I’m feeling a little strange today, even for me, and it’s probably best we don’t try to get terribly complicated, or complex, at least, not before I’ve actually absorbed some of this coffee into my system….

Perhaps I should take an early break, to allow some actual thought processes to get through their boot sequences, so they’re up and running when I come back….. But, where would the fun be in that? No chance for serendipity if you never take chances…. So, I’ll just keep typing, and hope something comes up that will make all this a worthwhile decision….

If not, well, it won’t be the first time we’ve started the day from a position of chaos, or tried to go for a dive before fully awake (not a good idea, usually; there are scary things down there hanging around the bottom of the www ocean, where some of the pearls grow…. some of the best, too, so, I have to stay alert and composed when I go diving there, lest I become just one more lesson for a new diver to learn….)

Since there doesn’t seem to be any way to find my path back to coherency, or anywhere near legitimate cognitive practices, as outlined in the manual, we’ll just use the ever-popular and oh-so-effective emergency ending #4, and get on with creating some joyful noise….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Let him that would move the world, first move himself.” — Socrates (B.C. 469-399)
_____________________________

I’m tired of ranting about stuff that won’t change, as well as writing such a massive amount of excellent prose to little purpose beyond my own catharsis…. My style of writing, apparently, is too involved for many ffolkes, as I’ve seen a rather significant drop-off in readership so far this year, over the two previous years….

So, rather than rant about stuff I can’t change, today we’ll go with the newest format style of pearling, with some headlines to articles that provide a bunch of evidence of how crazy the world has become, followed, in parentheses, by my comments (which, obviously, makes them “parenthetical” comments…. 😉 Get it? No? Oh well….)….. which I will include, in spite of the bad omen indicated by such a bad joke, falling so flat, it’s only one-dimensional now….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Ex-New-Orleans-mayor-convicted-of-taking-bribes-5227784.php

(The amusement factor here, for me, is in the tone in which the article was written… The journalist wrote this as if it was some sort of big surprise to find a politician had been taking bribes…. What the hell did they expect from a politician? You put all that money in front of them, give them a key to the room where it’s kept, and then turn your back on them….. well, what else can a naturally born thief and con-man do? Why, he helps himself, of course, along with some bonuses for his “good buddies”…. What I don’t understand is WHY they are so surprised…. especially in New Orleans, which has a long history of corruption in all levels of government, from local police forces, all the way up to the governor’s chair…. Why should the mayor not join the parade?….)

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Comcast-confirms-45B-Time-Warner-Cable-deal-5230283.php

(See that little piece in the title, that says 45B?…. That represents the forty-five BILLION dollars that Comcast will pay for Time-Warner…. I’m amazed only because it seems like such a paltry amount, compared to other deals I’ve seen of late…. This one, at a price that the human mind cannot fully grasp as a number, is rather a small one, but, it still just takes place out of the petty cash reserves for companies such as this…. Yeah, they’re “persons” alright…. I know LOTS of people who keep 45 billion in their pockets so they can buy up entire networks…..)

http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/Ice-storm-causes-another-traffic-jam-in-the-South-5228735.php

(Just another mundane weather article, showing, once more, the ongoing evidence of global warming….. But, because the results of the warming on a planetary scale produce effects that look like ‘cold’ weather, we’ll continue to hear the pure bullshit from the deniers, who will point out, with a big grin, “Why, how could we be warming, when the South is covered in ice?” or some other display of absolute ignorance of how the process actually works….

I really do despair for humanity, especially when I smell the clearly identifiable miasma of horse manure flying, when these ignorant assholes spout off, with their stupidity leading the way….

That, by the way, is of the compelling reasons why I DON’T carry a gun….. I’d be too tempted to use it on people like that, when it is the corporate masters who are responsible for causing them to have to speak up in the first place…. I’d rather shoot me a few bankers, or a CEO or three, and actually improve the world, than shoot a bunch of idiots, who know no better than to believe all the assholes tell them….)

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Berkeley-sued-over-death-during-police-struggle-5230315.php

(This story is a hard one to reconcile into any sort of sensible picture, because any sort of intelligent response in these kinds of situations is mitigated by the sheer unpredictability of people in domestic crisis situations…. I guess what bothers me here is that, after reading the story, I don’t see ANY possible good outcomes, for anyone….

The police were caught in a situation where they had no really good options, and in the end, made some poor decisions…. At the same time, their hands were tied rather tightly by the way the victim responded, so, it’s hard to say who is at fault here…. only that it is a sad situation, one that can only be described as lose-lose, for everyone involved…. which goes to indicate the state of a society where such events are even possible…..)

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Fla-trooper-who-stopped-cop-sues-after-harassment-5223424.php

(I often speak of how little respect I have for most of the people who end up as police officers; that’s because I’m not typical, and refuse to let the courage and integrity of those few of them who do possess such qualities, keep me from seeing the reality of the real situation, to wit: the MAJORITY of police officers DON’T possess such qualities, but rather are attracted to the work for the status and privileges it bestows upon those who are part of it….

Here we have the story of one of the “good” kind of cop, one who became an officer of the law with the motivation to protect and serve the public….. This officer was put in the position of having to arrest one of her peers in law enforcement, for displaying an egregious sense of entitlement, by endangering the public drastically, using his position of authority as a shield, while engaging in the fulfillment of a personal agenda.

This dangerous behavior on his part, clearly a violation of both the law, and of the supposed code of conduct for a police officer, was defended by numerous other assholes in various police agencies, all of whom obviously feel the same sense of entitlement, showing once again that the police forces in this country attract the very people who should NOT be given that sort of power over others…. I feel a short rant developing….)

“It is not power itself, but the legitimization of the lust for power which corrupts absolutely.” — Smart Bee

I do feel like ranting after that last one, but, I’ll forgo that indulgence for now…. The police aren’t going anywhere, and they’ll still be attracting all sorts of people who shouldn’t be allowed to carry guns, much less be allowed to have the authority of a badge…. I’ll save this outrage for another day…. which, you will note, makes me kind, and tactful, for a change…. Let’s go find a poem, ‘kay?….
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When I first read one of this woman’s poems, just a few days ago, I had a feeling I was going to enjoy her work, and I was correct in that assessment…. I’ve been reading a few of her poems, which, apparently, don’t get very long…. every one I’ve read is no more than five or six stanzas…. But, short poems often display much more power of imagery than longer ones do, with good reason…. which, I think, is part of why it appeals to me…. Any who, here is another, with some rather elegant chops….

“Like Barley Bending”

Like barley bending
In low fields by the sea,
Singing in hard wind
Ceaselessly;

Like barley bending
And rising again,
So would I, unbroken,
Rise from pain;

So would I softly,
Day long, night long,
Change my sorrow
Into song.

~ Sara Teasdale ~~

What a wonderful final stanza! “Day long, night long, change my sorrow into song.” Brilliant!….
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I had originally intended to put an older, archive rant on gun control here, but, under the influence of the poem above’s last line, I’m not feeling in the mood now to even edit a rant…. Instead, I’m falling back on what I know, an old-school pearl, of course, with no set parameters, other than the whimsy so often found in Smart Bee’s choices… Let’s see what serendipity has for us today, shall we?….

Freedom = Responsibility — Smart Bee, being smart.

Call any vegetable,
Call any vegetable,
And the chances are good
That the vegetable
Will respond to you.

— Frank Zappa, Lyrics in “Absolutely Free”

“Against those skilled in the attack, the enemy does not know where to defend. Against the experts in defence, the enemy does not know where to attack.” — Sun Tzu

“I’m a man of my word. In the end, that’s all there is really….” — Avon

“Enjoy your life. If you don’t, no one else will.” — Smart Bee, being smart, again….

“Is being an idiot like being high all the time?” — Janeanne Garofolo

“Years ago fairy tales all began with “Once upon a time…”, now we know they all begin with, “If I am elected…”” — Carolyn Warner

Serendipity, indeed…. This pearl came out so well, I’m considering the possibility I’ve been wrong all along, and there IS a God! Well, maybe not…. but, it DID come out rather well, don’t you think? Well, I do…. It’s very….. circular….. I like it, and it stays…. Hmph….
_____________________________

“Not every truth is the better for showing its face undisguised; and often silence is the wisest thing for a man to heed.” — Pindar

Oops! Maybe I should be like a politician, and not include that last line by Pindar; it’s rather like pulling my own covers, isn’t it? But, being the honest man I am, (for which I am eternally grateful to my father, for providing me with the impetus to make such honesty paramount in my life….) I’ll admit it makes some sense, and take it under consideration…. every day, just as soon as I finish the Daily Pearl…. Until then, fuck it, I’m not holding back anything…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Feedback ISN’T good for electronic circuits…..

Posted on February 13, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Do you ever wake up feeling as if you’re stuck in a Disney movie? Neither do I…. Just thought I’d ask. Actually, more often, I feel as if I’m stuck in what might be called a senior film noir, wherein all the old, feeble, average looking characters spend their time moaning and groaning about getting old….a pastime which, of late, seems to happen here a lot…..

I suppose that’s due to my own comeuppance in the aging contest, a test we all fail, ultimately; I’m harvesting an extensive crop of physical issues that are the direct result of mistaken policies regarding exercise that we were taught all of our lives…. You know the spiel, we all heard it, from JFK on…. “Exercise a lot, stay fit and healthy, you’ll feel better and live longer if you do…” Followed, of course, by that all-purpose, deliberately misleading lie, “you can trust ME!”…

We all got this message drummed into us all of our youthful days, while constantly being encouraged to join a sports league, or find some activity that simultaneously taught us life skills, worked our bodies until they were exhausted, and kept us out of our parent’s hair for as long as possible, so they didn’t have to try to figure out how to actually CONVERSE with their children, as well as to teach them to respect the authority of teachers, coaches, and “officials”…. i.e., brainwashing for later control by talking heads on the TV….

Now, of course, we know that the encouragement to exercise hard, and keep the body in prime condition, is a load of bilge water; in truth, such fanaticism about exercise is a good way to ensure spending your later years in misery and pain, as it turns out…. My doctor told me a few years ago that the medical field has changed its tune, and now encourages only MODERATE amounts of exercise, and no fanaticism about conditioning to the extreme… They’re coming to find just how many age related issues now being treated among the population are a direct result of a lifetime of overworking the skeleton and musculature…. Hence all the issues we have with muscle and ligament strains and breaks, arthritis, myalgia, neuralgia, and joint replacements, as our bodies continue to wear out from their life-long workout…..

SIGH…. Actually, this sort of ignorance is typical of society, as the people’s attention is pulled and manipulated by all the different forces in reality that seem to have the answers, but, in reality, are merely more folks who want a) to manipulate you into doing whatever it is THEY want, thereby, b) tricking you into giving them most of your money….

They’re very good at both of those things, since they’ve been practicing their deceptive messages for thousands of years…. There are a lot of evil people making a LOT of money off of the healthcare industry (Have you looked at the latest figures on the pharmaceutical makers, and how much they’re pulling down these days?…. It’s enough money to choke a horse, and, in reality, doesn’t leave a lot for the rest of us to share….)

But, that’s life here in Consensual Reality, as the forces of evil that have controlled this world for its entire history continue to rush us all down the path to extinction with their eyes wide open, staring hard at all the money they think they’ll be making off the global warming issue (see the link below….)…. and never realizing they are signing their own death warrants at the same time…. It’s the only piece of justice we have to focus on, ffolkes, but, at least we’ll know that when we humans die, they won’t be the only ones to survive…. They’ll be dying, too, and I’ll be enjoying immensely their sense of disbelief….

If that isn’t the oddest little intro/rant I’ve ever created, then I don’t know dick about anything…. No comments needed from the gallery, either…. No, it’s a bit strange, but, it’s all valid, and true, so, I guess it can stay…. Don’t know what set me off, but, hey, it got an intro done while I was busy ranting, so, I suppose it’s all good…. Enough for me to say….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It is not necessary to light a candle to the sun.” — Algernon Sidney (1622-1683) — Discourses on Government, Chap. ii, Sect. xxiii
_____________________________

In looking over the news, I find that there is still somewhat of a moratorium in place in Washington D.C….. I think the BRC is taking a short break, doing some planning for their next little round of media manipulation…. They’re going to need some rather distracting issues to bring up, or find to deal with, in the coming months, as the weather continues to force upon us just how idiotic we’ve been, with it’s newest configurations of nasty storms and unpredictable changes in patterns to give us plenty to deal with…. (When was the last time the South had an ice storm? Sometime in the nineteenth century, I believe, or perhaps, once, early in the twentieth…. This is NOT normal , ffolkes….)

However, I did see this article in Rolling Stone, an article that provides a LOT of evidence in support of a theme I’ve been espousing for some years now, to wit: The shadowy corporate masters continue to lie, cheat, steal, and do whatever they feel they need to do to keep the rest of the world completely under their control….

The link leads to an article in Rolling Stone Magazine, which provides page after page of recorded instances of how the corporations and banks conspired, and continue to conspire, to control as much of the money and power in the world as they can possibly gather into their hands to control….. Read the article first, then, we’ll talk…. It’s rather long, but worth the effort…. I’ll wait here….

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-vampire-squid-strikes-again-the-mega-banks-most-devious-scam-yet-20140212?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

Y’know….it occurs to me, belatedly, when it comes to money and/or power, these people are like junkies…. These are people who would steal your wallet, then lie to you about it; then, when it is discovered missing, they have the enormous chutzpah to offer to help you look for it…. for a fee…. Mark Twain used to say a banker was a fellow who would offer to lend you an umbrella when the sun was out, then demand it back as soon as it began to rain…. This, I think, was his way of being nice to them, because he could be a LOT more antagonistic than THAT….

They deserve all the antagonism that we can pile upon their shoulders, though, so I don’t feel bad at all about anything I say about them; the actual reality of their existence is far more ugly and evil than any name I could ever call them…. It’s difficult to insult a pig, because they enjoy being the way they are…. and, these assholes are the same way…. They feel no guilt, no compunctions at all about all the pain and suffering that their actions cause in the real world…. They could care less, as long as they get what they feel they’re entitled to, which is damn near everything….

As proof of the assertion that they have no conscience, follow this link to a page that gives you an idea of just how low people will sink in their quest for money, and the power over others that they so desire…. They are so lacking in compassion or any sort of humanity, they will go so far as to gleefully seek to make a profit off the process of global warming (helping you to look for the wallet they stole…), which, you will remember, is pretty much their fault to begin with….

https://www.google.com/search?q=windfall+amazon&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

These corporate masters, these evil, self-serving sociopaths, rich beyond all dreams of avarice, are the assholes who have bought out and hidden from sight all advances in technology over the last 100 years that would have allowed us to NOT become so dependent on the internal combustion engine, or fossil fuels, to keep society running…

We could have been switched over to solar and/or electric power 75 years ago, had these corporations allowed the appropriate research to continue; but, they were making too much money on cars, and oil, and all the dirty technology that went with it, to consider allowing things to change…. So, they bought up all the companies working on it, and stuck them on a back shelf, never to be seen again….

Hence, we have global warming, and no way to stop it, or to fix it…. If I had a solution, other than killing all them and starting over, I’d promote it, or go about trying to make it happen…. But, the fact is, I am currently of the opinion that there isn’t much hope of making the necessary changes in society, not in time to keep us from being extinct in about a hundred or so years….

All of us, the entire human race, by that time, will have to figure out a) how to breathe methane gas, or b) go somewhere else to live, because there is no stopping the processes, now well begun, that will spell our doom. I am referring, of course, to the melting of the permafrost that is NOW taking place all over the world, as the planet continues to get warmer and warmer, thanks to our ongoing contribution of several million tons of carbon mono- and dioxide into the atmosphere, ( http://www.poodwaddle.com/clocks/worldclock/ At this site, you can watch as it happens….), every hour of every day we continue to operate automobiles…

Once a certain level of methane has been released by the melting permafrost into the air, it will proceed to act as a catalyst, causing unpredictable changes (more changes!..) to the ecological balance of the atmosphere of the entire planet, and to the weather that is the result of that balance, or, in this case, the “altered” balance…. Eventually, it will alter the overall chemical make-up of our atmosphere, rendering it unbreathable….

This is simple chemistry, and we know of nothing, no theory, no method that will stop the process, once it has begun…. In fact, our ignorance of the involved processes is so great, we know only that once a certain point is reached, the process will become what is called “hyperbolic” in nature, meaning the changes will begin to happen faster, and faster, and faster with each molecule added, until it is happening at maximum speed, approaching infinity….

There you have it, ffolkes… I wish I could pretty it up, or say there is a chance I’m wrong…. But, that chance is so slender, I hesitate to even mention its existence at all, because it is so small, it is not at all visible, or worthy of engendering hope…. I wish I did have a solution, but, all I have is speculation, which, at this point, isn’t going to cut it…. SIGH…. I guess I’ll go eat some worms…

“No falsehood lingers into old age.” — Sophocles (406 BC)
_____________________________

After ranting in the above section, I found myself still vibrating with angst and outrage at the BRC, and especially the SCM (Shadowy Corporate Masters…)…. So, I’m adding an extra section today, with an extra pearl, ranting on much the same subject, with a bit of a different focus…. It made me feel better, so, deal with it, ‘kay?…. I can’t help it, I’m an asshole, too, remember?…. All part of being human, y’know?….

First written early in 2012, posted on Triond, and in a Pearl on WordPress sometime that year, this is one of my all purpose rants on the BRC, so, enjoy, ‘kay?…..

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

“What is politics, after all, but the compulsion to preside over property and make other peoples’ decisions for them?” — Tom Robbins, Skinny Legs and All

Absence of Honor: The Untimely Death of The US Constitution

“Ignorance can be compounded, made denser, until the light of our spirits is smothered.” — Deng Ming-Dao

As I read this pearl, my immediate thought was that it is a very clear, very accurate take on the 2012 election process that is currently unfolding before us in the daily news. The end of the political scale that is represented so raggedly by what is left of the Republican Party, and the mislabeled liberal end of the scale who claim to be Democrats, are both engaging in ongoing battles to see who can display the deepest ignorance.

The leading candidate for the “loyal opposition” to the party in power, Mr. Romney, seems to have a proclivity for alienating the very people from whom he is trying to win votes; women, immigrants and Hispanics, animal lovers, seniors, teachers and students, all have been told, in no uncertain terms, that they matter not at all to him. His plan? We’ll stop taxing the rich altogether, and that will fix everything…. Sometimes I wonder if he is getting all of his information on voter wants and issues of importance from old newspapers from the 1980’s, because he certainly hasn’t a clue as to what is happening out in America in this decade….

The other party, led by our first Black President, is busy hiding what the left hand is doing by distracting everyone with the tax and healthcare issues, to keep them unaware of how few of the Bill of Rights are left to us. “Executive Orders” signed by the pOTUS this year, beginning on New Year’s Eve, while the voters were all busy celebrating the advent of the new year, include provisions that allow police to stop, search, and arrest any citizen of this country whom they suspect of any form of terrorism, or even of protest against the provisions of those orders.

These same police who are arresting their ostensible fellow-citizens are not required to tell ANYONE that they have arrested and imprisoned a citizen, nor are they ever required to provide any evidence of their suspicions in a court of law. Even though there may be no evidence, they can subject these CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY to torture to obtain a confession, or whatever information it is they are after. There is no oversight to these orders; they don’t go before Congress to be approved, nor are they reviewed by the courts. Both of those particular checks on the power of the Executive Branch are completely out of the loop on this…. and they aren’t even complaining about it!

“Does it physically hurt to be that stupid?” — Smart Bee

My guess at the answer to this is, No. It can’t hurt very much to be that stupid, as we continue to go out each time there is an election and vote these same lying, cheating, avaricious assholes back into the same positions from which they have been oppressing the American people for oh, a hundred and fifty or so years now. I’d say that around the time of the Depression was when the first real strangle-hold on the national throat was first achieved…. the pure bullshit the government was spewing back then can be seen to have been the first real time that the government’s outrageous lies were swallowed whole by a reluctant public, who had nothing else to eat, and thus nothing else to risk…

“He was born stupid, and greatly increased his birthright.” — Samuel Butler

So, how does it feel? Does it physically hurt to be so stupid, as to be part of the crowd that continues to buy into all the bullshit lies that our own government heaps upon us every day? To keep going to the polls, just as if it really matters who gets elected? Get real, folks. You will not find a name on the ballot that belongs to someone who is not a willing tool of the powers of oppression, the money-changers who are the power behind the scenes of every government in the world. Not going to happen; they’ve been the real power in the world for centuries, and they’re not about to give up all they have, just to be nice, or because they’ve all of a sudden grown a heart.

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting pretty fucking tired of being lied to, and cheated, and looked at as just another idiot for them to shit on….. and I’m not going to put up with it for much longer, without some kind of return fire….. Believe it…. I don’t think I am alone in this, either…. No way to tell for sure, but I find it hard to believe that EVERYONE is falling for all of it…. but, even if I’m alone in this, I refuse to knuckle under any further, and can only say that I will do all I can to see things turn in a direction that will return my Rights, and those of the rest of the American people…. or at least those not stupid enough to hand them over without a fight….

“He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
_____________________________

“The best mirror is an old friend.” — George Herbert

In my second year at UC Berkeley, I lived in a cooperative housing facility, called Cloyne Court, an old wooden hotel one block off campus on the north side, just a few blocks from the Greek Amphitheater. My roommate in that second year, before gaining the seniority to attain a more private, single room, was a young man named Mark Gary…. We lived together in harmony for some months, then, after getting more private personal quarters, remained close friends for the rest of the time both of us lived in Berkeley, a matter of 3 or 4 years…. As my BFF of that era, I knew him as well as I did my own family….

We met numerous times for years after college, then fell out of touch in our late twenties, as can happen when one person moves into the wilderness, becoming a mountain man, while the other remains solidly employed, married, and pursuing such dreams as are based in urban/suburban society. (I have to confess, most of them concerned the process of finding, and trying to keep love…. but, that’s another story….)…. But, as late as 1999, or early 2000, we still conversed, and kept in light touch…

Our last meeting, in either ’99, or 2000, I forget exactly, was a double date, blind on his part, with my then-girlfriend/partner, and a friend of hers…. We had a great time, but, nothing came of the relationship for him after the date… My own relations with that woman ended some years ago, as well, but, we had lost touch again before then…

Last night, on a whim, Mark crossed my mind, so I Googled him, using what I knew from our last visit to locate him, only to find a posthumous personal tribute, after his sudden death in March of 2001, written by one of his archaeological associates, another close friend, who wrote of his long acquaintance with Mark through their work on Indian sites…. Mark entered the field of Archeology when he discovered a Native American village archaeological site on his property in the mountains, a village that showed evidence of occupancy going back several hundreds, if not thousands, of years…. He went back to school, got his PhD, and a driver’s license, just so he could protect the site from development, along with other sites in the Western US that needed such protection…. for which, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the State of California, for his work with the California Division of Forestry as their resident archaeologist for northern California…

Today, as I sit here, I am remembering Mark, but, it has been long enough that my feeling of sadness isn’t quite enough to bring tears…. only a feeling of loss, and sorrow that we didn’t keep in better touch at the last…. For example, I didn’t know he had married, much less married a woman who worked with him in his own field; he must have met her right after I saw him in 1999…. It makes me want to look her up, but, that would probably cause more pain for her, than would be justified by the fulfillment of my curiosity…. Instead, I wrote a haiku in his memory, and here ’tis, such as it is….

Requiem; 1950-2001

My old friend Mark passed.
I’d have cried, then, had I known.
Now, I’ll say goodbye.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

Whew! If you’ve made it this far, you deserve a break, and so do I…. As a needed change of pace, and a bit of a treat, in that this won’t make you think any harder than you want to, I’ve put together an old-school pearl, with the only parameter being that it make me smile…. which it will hopefully do for you, as well…..

“If the Lord God Almighty had consulted me before embarking upon the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler.” — Alfonso the Wise, 13th Century King of Castile, — Commenting on the Almagest, by Ptolemy

“There’s no room in the drug world for amateurs.” — Raoul Duke

“The earth is real. Only a fool, milking his cow, denies the cow’s reality.” — Edward Abbey

“After the lawyers are all dead, kill the Politicians!” — Smart Bee, egged on by gigoid

— Bother! said Pooh, as he seduced Christopher Robin’s mother. — Anonymous SB contributor…. (I don’t WANT to know who writes these, funny as they are…. They’re just a little bit too strange, even a bit evil, for me to need, or want, that information….)

“Ever notice that fifteen minutes into a Jerry Lewis telethon you start rooting for the disease?” — Jim Sherbert

“If a man insisted always on being serious, and never allowed himself a bit of fun and relaxation, he would go mad or become unstable without knowing it.” — Herodotus

Well, that’s an unusual pearl…. all at least mildly humorous, but, apparently, completely without a final conclusion, other than what is asserted in the final pearl… which, given its age and proven wisdom, isn’t exactly unworthy; it just doesn’t quite reach hilarious…. Simple, elegant, not too bad for a throw-together on impulse, though…. I’ll take it….
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If y’all know me at all, you’ll realize what an ironic statement the final line in the above section is, for me, in relation to whether or not I would take the pearl as it sits…. You see, I say it just as if there is any other decision that I’d make…. see, irony?

Not for the first time, I believe I just lost all hope of coherence, so, it’s probably just as well I’m done for the day…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

Seven reasons to stop gargling, now….

Posted on February 9, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Intros! We got your intros here! Get ’em while they’re HOT!…..

Hey, boy! Over here!….. Thanks….

Today, I decided to forgo the usual struggle for introductory material, and move right ahead to purchasing one from the local vendor, who hawks them on the corner every day…. I know the boy well; his mother is ill, and he works all the time to support his seven little brothers and sisters…. I like to help him out because, hey, he’s only five, and it must be tough to bed the eldest at his tender age; it’s pretty young to have to be responsible for the whole family….

What’s that? Oh, the number of siblings? Oh, yeah, I guess that could be confusing, couldn’t it…. No worries, it’s not as strange as it sounds…. Yes, he has seven siblings, and he’s the oldest, at five…. That’s two sets of triplets (one boys, one girls…) and one last little girl, to even out the score in the family…. all born about 13 months apart, before the father was killed in an accident at work…. (He fell into a vat of boiling hot caramel at the Mars factory….) The insurance, while almost adequate, isn’t enough to make it comfortable for them, so he works, as any good son would do for his family… He can use all the help he can get, so I like to pick up one of their intro’s (the triplet girls write them….), even if I don’t use it right away, like today….

Damn! You know what I just did, right? I’m writing an intro, about another intro, talking about intros, while holding on to an intro that was written by innocent hands….. This, with its insidiously tenuous connection to reality could be dangerous to the health and well-being of the space/time continuum as we know it…. To stretch the boundaries of reality to such an extent can cause unknown stress fractures to appear in strange places, and at strange times….. It can cause reality to become unstable, at best, or, if left to itself too long, can cause actual holes in the fabric of time and space, through which nasty creatures from other dimensions can creep over into ours, and cause a lot of problems until they’re caught and sent home…. Hey, what did YOU think those cats were staring at over in the corner?….

Since we don’t want any of that to happen today (I’m short on funds, and can’t afford the charges from the Green Lantern League to put things right after such an episode…. Blast it, I remember when superheros would work for free!….) But, nonetheless, that’s how we’ll have to go today, because the old bank account isn’t going to stand up to that kind of stress…. What we’ll do now is a bit hard to define, because, in these situations, we have to fall back on an emergency method to get us out of here without further damage…. We’ll go with #4, which, in spite of its brevity, and lack of style, continues to work the best…. but, then, Denial has always been one of mankind’s favorite tools….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 19
_____________________________

Today’s Pearl, I’m thinking, is one that will someday be destined to be known as “that one”….. So be it….. I’m using an older religirant in section 3 today, because I can, and because I like it…. So, this section, naturally, will be an old-school pearl, but not a random harlequin…. Smart Bee keeps giving me good pearls about the BRC and their ilk, so, we’ll go with what we’re given, this time….

“Still one more thing, fellow citizens: a wise and frugal government, which shall refrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), inaugural address, 1801

“The white man is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land what he needs. The earth is not his brother, but his enemy. Continue to contaminate your bed and you will one night suffocate in your own waste.” — Chief Seattle in a letter to President Franklin Pierce in 1855

“The first measure of a free society is *not* that its government performs the will of the majority. We had that in 1930s Germany and in the South until the ’60s. The *first* measure of a free society is that its government protects the just freedoms of its minorities. The *majority* is quite capable of protecting itself.” — Jim Warren

“What good is it to me, after all, if there is an authority always busy to see to the tranquil enjoyment of my pleasures and going ahead to brush all dangers away from my path without giving me even the trouble to think about it, if that authority, which protects me from the smallest thorns on my journey, is also the absolute master of my liberty and of my life?” — Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), Democracy in America

“A government solution to a problem is always followed by the creation of at least two additional problems, either of which was worse than the original problem which the government set out to solve.” — Smart Bee

“And, after all, it is the 200th anniversary of the presidency. That’s something to celebrate. From George to George — in only 200 years, we’ve gone from “I cannot tell a lie” to “I cannot tell.” — A. Whitney Brown, “Weekend Update,” Saturday Night Live

“Give me the mind of a child of 4 and he’ll be mine for life” — Adolf Hitler
_____________________________

Since the two other sections are somewhat somber in nature, I thought a bit of whimsy would go over well….. Enjoy!….

There Once Was A Fellow Named Nash – A Limerick Ode To Ogden Nash

There once was a fellow named Nash
He could write funny poems in a flash
But some of the time
The truth of the rhyme
Could give the poor subject a rash!

~~ Randy Imwalle ~~

I Do, I Will, I Have

How wise I am to have instructed the butler
to instruct the first footman to instruct the second
footman to instruct the doorman to order my carriage;
I am about to volunteer a definition of marriage.

Just as I know that there are two Hagens, Walter and Copen,
I know that marriage is a legal and religious alliance entered
into by a man who can’t sleep with the window shut and a
woman who can’t sleep with the window open.

Moreover, just as I am unsure of the difference between
flora and fauna and flotsam and jetsam,
I am quite sure that marriage is the alliance of two people
one of whom never remembers birthdays and the other never forgetsam,

And he refuses to believe there is a leak in the water pipe or
the gas pipe and she is convinced she is about to asphyxiate or drown,
And she says Quick get up and get my hairbrushes off the
windowsill, it’s raining in, and he replies Oh they’re all right, it’s only raining straight down.

That is why marriage is so much more interesting than divorce,
Because it’s the only known example of the happy meeting of
the immovable object and the irresistible force.
So I hope husbands and wives will continue to debate and
combat over everything debatable and combatable,
Because I believe a little incompatibility is the spice of life, particularly if he has income and she is pattable.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

_____________________________

This is a pearl from February of 2013:

“The essence of Christianity is told us in the Garden of Eden history. The fruit that was forbidden was on the tree of knowledge. The subtext is, All the suffering you have is because you wanted to find out what was going on. You could be in the Garden of Eden if you had just keep your fucking mouth shut and hadn’t asked any questions.” — Frank Zappa Playboy Interview, April 1993

Hmm…. Frank’s take on matters are such that I generally find myself in complete agreement with what he says. Here, he has again put his finger on one of the more obvious facets of Christianity, one that defies all logical explanation in lieu of subservient belief, to wit: faith vs. knowledge, and the Christian’s unfortunate tendency to embrace the former, without any appeal to the latter….. To my way of thinking, that is not only foolish, but cowardly….. but, perhaps, that’s just me….

The fruit of the tree of knowledge gives mankind the go-ahead to use the brain with which we were furnished at birth; the preachers would have us abrogate that use, having us, instead, give over all our power of belief into the hands of the faithful, who, naturally, have only our best interests at heart….. Sure they do…. NOT. I’m sorry, but, no matter how many times these folks say so, I am not going to accept that they know better than I what is best for me…. Nope, not even if there were twenty Bibles out there, all proclaiming how true they are…. Oh wait, there are twenty of them, aren’t there?…. Oh, well, you know what I meant….

Why do people fall for this? I cannot understand how people, who are normally reasonably intelligent, will, by conscious choice, bury their heads in the sand to buy into this, without ever taking even one moment to examine any of it for truth, or even logical assumption. Is there some kind of mind-control drug in that incense? Maybe in the sacramental wine…. Whatever it is, it turns normally competent, intelligent people into mindless slaves, and does so with their complete agreement and approval….. To my mind, it is one of history’s saddest, most incomprehensible features, when I look at just how easily people fall for such egregious, and so obviously self-serving idiocy, as most of the dogmatic proclamations of the major religions tend to offer up.

“I hope I never get so old I get religious.” — Ingmar Bergman

I am compelled to add, “Me, too!” to this sentiment…. In the recent past, I’ve been taking a lot of shots at religions, and need to make clear that I do not hate Christians, or Buddhists, or Muslims, or the followers of any religion. I think they are being silly, deliberately and evilly so, at worst, or at best, misguidedly so, but I don’t hate, or fear them, as is the case on their part whenever they consider me, or my criticisms of their beliefs. I don’t hold that against them, either, as it is logically consistent for them to do so, given the limitations of their dogmatic position. Since, however, the fervor with which they will often defend their position can reach a rather fevered pitch, I tend to treat many of them like a stinging insect, so I will move, and speak, slowly and carefully, so as not to frighten them more than they already are….

Ethical and moral behavior is not confined to those who follow the precepts of one religion or another, despite what any of the proponents of those religions will try to tell you. In fact, if you look closely, the number of folks who are believers have a much higher percentage of failure in that area than do the non-believers, which only makes sense…. The believers all have a sense of entitlement that gives them the idea that the rules of behavior don’t always apply to them, in terms of how they treat people who are not of the same faith, so, to those who are not of their own sect, they don’t bother being truthful, or honest, or ethical, as those people don’t count, in their eyes. People who make their own moral codes tend to follow them, and are much more tolerant of those who do not share their beliefs.

Basic human nature dictates these responses in people; thus, one can see how dangerous it is to remain ignorant, in the Biblical sense. Those who choose to buy into the myth of the Garden of Eden, giving up all their personal independence of mind for the comfort and safety of dogma, will always fail to act according to their own morality much of the time, generally acting, instead, out of their sense of entitlement, and the belief that all of their sins will be forgiven, merely by the act of confessing them. Only those who consciously choose their moral code have the courage to act it out, it seems, except for those few people who actually try to live according to the morality that is espoused, and is seldom embraced by their less ethical peers.

Having the strength of mind to make one’s own moral code also implies the courage to act it out…. This is why I choose to deny the dogma I’ve been exposed to all my life, as being illogical, and, ultimately, immoral…. It makes more sense to me to make my own decisions on such matters, and tell the busybodies who assume they know best for all to go jump in a lake…. Even better, just shut the hell up, and get out of the way, so the rest of us can get something relevant done, without having to put up with all the nonsense from that quarter….

“What is a church? Our honest sexton tells, ‘Tis a tall building, with a tower and bells.” — Crabbe

Note from 2014: Since the validity of the above remains strong, I leave you with the following pearl, to finish off this discussion with the proper tone of accusation, and indictment, of those guilty of this sort of crime against humanity….

“The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of the self breeds pride and arrogance.” — Eric Hoffer
_____________________________

“The Earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer mind their parents, every man wants to write a book, and it is evident that the end of the world is fast approaching.” — Assyrian Stone Tablet, c.2800BC

4814 years….. That’s how long it has been since that tablet was written…. One wonders, at times, just how much credence there is to the idea that strong forces in history will somehow have been felt long before they came to fruition…. How else to explain the proven cases of accurate precognition that are found throughout our species’ short span on Earth? This tablet could have been printed yesterday, and would be no less valid than it was over 4500 years ago….. That is, to me, pretty damn scary, and not terribly encouraging…. Of course, I’m a worry-wart, so…. Y’all stay cool, ffolkes, & I’ll see you tomorrow….

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

Ned Moore, aka gigoid, is a 70 year-old, (!!!… When did that happen?….), retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat, most days. His first blog, "gigoid’s folly", has been emailed out to folks he knows for about 18 years now. He still considers it his best defense against angst, and the ever-present specter of sheer insanity..... Due to rigorous curmudgeon training requirements, he has discontinued his Facebook presence, but still indulges in the occasional Twitter session... In essence, he's socialized, but, not overly sociable; all labels and stereotypes are forbidden in his presence... and he doesn't care what anyone thinks about that..... In fact, he doesn't want to talk anymore.... If you feel you MUST contact gigoid, his email address is: alphagigoid@gmail.com You can go read now.... Go on, beat it.... gigoid, the dubious

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: Global Warming

Bedraggled remnants are all that remain….

Freeze-dried chipmunks? No,thanks, we prefer ferrets….

Save that elbow grease for the widow Jones; she uses it for baking…..

“I swear, Lemuel, them politicians is gettin’ tougher… this one took seven bullets, right in the heart!”….

Put down the matches, sir, & step away from the dead clown….

If it were only REAL cheese!….

All quiet on the western omelet….

Save the more elegant platitudes for an emergency….

Feedback ISN’T good for electronic circuits…..

Seven reasons to stop gargling, now….

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