Tag Archives: Gore Vidal

Dead ducks found on subway–fowl play suspected…

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Ffolkes,

I apologize most heartily for the title today; I couldn’t resist the pun, or the fun…. Since I don’t recall hearing it before, (This is probably a lie, but, we’ll let it lay, or lie…. Oh, hell, we’ll let it alone…), to me,  it’s a new pun, which justifies any and all attempts to share it…. or, as some states call such self-indulgent behavior, a misdemeanor hate crime….

It isn’t that I don’t understand those states’ objection to punning, but, I think a minimum sentence of five years at hard labor is a bit harsh, don’t you?….. I suppose I should feel lucky I live in a state where it is still considered a social faux pas, without entering the realm of criminality….

Now that the fantasy portion of our program (pogrom?) is completed, or, at least, neglected due to disinterest, we can go on to bigger and hopefully better things…. I’m up, in theory, at a time I’m having a hard time believing, given my habits of late…. It’s almost 5 AM, and I just finished sleeping for a solid eight hours…. so long, I had time to pass through the point where the body is rested, to the point where it is becoming MORE stiff and sore from laying down too long…. I got up to a bit of stiffness, but, thanks to my new magic cream, it won’t last long….

I found a new product at the medical cannabis store I’ve been going to; it’s a topical pain relieving cream that gets spread on the skin over any part of the body that is hurting, such as shoulder joints, lower back, hips, etc…. It is extremely effective for almost all the different pains I’ve tested it on….

It relieves pain and stiffness in the back muscles… it makes the hips stop singing…. and it works wonders on sore joints like the wrist or thumb, at those times when arthritic pain strikes…. It acts almost instantly; I have milady apply it to my entire back, and within a moment or two, it feels as normal as it ever gets, giving a feeling of release you would not believe….

As I said, it’s pretty magical stuff, especially for those of us who know the accuracy of the old adage that says,  “True freedom is release from pain.” The release I feel when my back stops hurting is phenomenal, almost to the point of giddiness, and makes me understand why the pharmaceutical companies are so worried about these products hitting the market….

This cream alone could completely destroy the market for products such as Ben-Gay and Tiger Balm, as well as threatening the entire line of pain killers like Aleve or Tylenol, that are designed for arthritis pain…. They’re all unnecessary in the extreme if one possesses this magic cream, which the Big Pharm companies don’t have in their formularies…. In other words, it would eat into their bottom line profits, thus making them nervous to know the products are out there, not under their control or influence… They’re asininnies, they can’t help being assholes….

So, now that we’ve explored further into the details of my life more than is either necessary, warranted, or even desired, we can at least go on to bigger and better things, as I’ve again managed to go completely overboard with this sharing of TMI, or TMOI (Too Much Obscure Information)…. At any rate, we’re done here, so we can go for a nice, quiet dive for pearls, to soothe the savage breast…. Oh wait, that’s music… Hmm, okay, well, just put on your earphones, plug in the jack, and you’ll have music…. even if it IS just public radio, and it’s time for their Gardening Hour….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Change is the essential process of all existence.” — Spock, “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield,” stardate 5730.2.

(FYI, today, the stardate is, officially: [-27} 00060.0  The -27 means it is now twenty seven years prior to mankind’s first foray into interstellar space, using the Cochran ftl (faster-than-light) engine, as noted in the History of the Galaxy, Star Trek universe…..)
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As noted, I’ve started a bit late, and want to get done in jig time today…. This means some cheating, if only by making this first section the old-school pearl for today, rather than ranting right away…. which is another cheat that will come later…. In the interval, let’s enjoy a random, harlequin pearl, followed by one of my favorite poets, and one of my favorite of his poems…. Abondanza!….

“As a man can drink water from any side of a full tank, so the skilled theologian can wrest from any scripture that which will serve his purpose.” — Bhagavad Gita

“A lot of what I say comes off as political satire. In that, I have a lot in common with Congress.” — Solomon Short

“It is better to have a little than nothing.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 484

“Every man is guilty of all the good he didn’t do.” — Voltaire

“If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.” — James Thurber

“Everybody thinks himself so well supplied with common sense that even those most difficult to please. . . never desire more of it than they already have.” — Rene Descartes

“Ah, tell them they are men!” — Thomas Gray (1716-1771) — On a Distant Prospect of Eton College, Stanza 6

Damn!…. Sometimes, this process just amazes me, at how it can produce such depth of meaning when none is sought after during the search…. This, ffolkes, is one DEEP pearl…. I hope you enjoy it, and find the point to which I refer…. If not, no worries, as this one, due to its not being listed on the curriculum listings, will NOT be on the Quiz….
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As noted above, a classic poem from an acknowledged Master….

A Draught Of Sunshine

Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port,
Away with old Hock and madeira,
Too earthly ye are for my sport;
There’s a beverage brighter and clearer.
Instead of a pitiful rummer,
My wine overbrims a whole summer;
My bowl is the sky,
And I drink at my eye,
Till I feel in the brain
A Delphian pain –
Then follow, my Caius! then follow:
On the green of the hill
We will drink our fill
Of golden sunshine,
Till our brains intertwine
With the glory and grace of Apollo!
God of the Meridian,
And of the East and West,
To thee my soul is flown,
And my body is earthward press’d. –
It is an awful mission,
A terrible division;
And leaves a gulph austere
To be fill’d with worldly fear.
Aye, when the soul is fled
To high above our head,
Affrighted do we gaze
After its airy maze,
As doth a mother wild,
When her young infant child
Is in an eagle’s claws –
And is not this the cause
Of madness? – God of Song,
Thou bearest me along
Through sights I scarce can bear:
O let me, let me share
With the hot lyre and thee,
The staid Philosophy.
Temper my lonely hours,
And let me see thy bowers
More unalarm’d!

~~ John Keats ~~

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The last three or six Pearls have all been either over 3000 words, or very close to breaking over that limit; one of them came in at a whopping 3900+….. It hasn’t been deliberate, in the sense I don’t start with a number of words in mind… I just like to keep writing until done…. But, that’s a lot, so, I’ll try to keep this a bit shorter today, to keep from driving too many ffolkes away, chased there because they’re tired out from fighting the fatigue factor that is often found when reading my blog…. Occupational hazard, I suppose.

I only say this because I COULD rant further about this subject today; I’ve got plenty of angst biding its time inside me, especially for the corporate members of the Asininnies, the ones I consider to be the absolute WORST of those who prey on mankind…. Well, okay, but, wait…. I only put them there on those days I DON’T put the men, and, sadly women, who enable, and profit from, the abuse of women in the sex trafficking trade into that primary position on my list, the list of those the world would be better off doing without….

Both of these groups, as far as I’m concerned, are only worthy of becoming the target of any right thinking person with a gun in their hands, no trial needed…. I think, in those two cases, I wouldn’t mind playing God, making up my own mind as to who is guilty…. Nope, no trouble at all, not when the crimes are as egregiously inhuman as those perpetrated by these two groups….

As you can see, it wouldn’t take much to get me going, so, I’ll leave it there, and let you enjoy this piece, from a couple years ago, addressing a subject near and dear to my heart…. or, at least, to my head….

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

From 12/4/2012:

“Free enterprise ended in the United States a good many years ago. Big oil, big steel, big agriculture avoid the open marketplace. Big corporations fix prices among themselves and drive out the small entrepreneur. In their conglomerate forms, the huge corporations have begun to challenge the legitimacy of the state.” — Gore Vidal

In his book, “Friday”, Robert Heinlein details a society, in humanity’s possible future, one in which corporations have continued to grow beyond the boundaries of mere countries, until their interests become paramount even over that of the state, as observed by Mr. Vidal. We, of the society here on Earth in the early 21st century are witnessing that growth, as I write, and as you read…..

The small enterprise markets still exist, but only on the fringes of the economy, the major portion of which is busy manipulating the population into serving the economic trends that the corporations control, in the essential markets that cover everyone… In other words, the corporations monopolize most of the economy, allowing the fringe markets to exist to provide exotic, alternative toys and entertainments for the working classes, as a way to keep them fat, happy, and contentedly stupid.

Mr. Heinlein’s character, is a young woman with designer genes, & a genius IQ, giving her almost superhuman powers, as well as a strong portion of Heinlein’s innate sardonicism, as part of an assignment from her boss, is required to perform a research and analysis of how the major corporations in the world affected the political and economic scenes of their society, obliquely referring, of course, to the one we have now.

It’s a very interesting part of a very good book, and well worth a read, not only for its perspicacity in explaining the piracy we are seeing today, but because Heinlein was a master storyteller, who created fascinating characters in  fantastic situations, making it all seem perfectly normal and real.

“The phenomenality of organic, conscious existence should, could have made impossible the sadism, the unending hurt of our ways. The impotent fury, the guilt that master and surpass my identity carry with them the working hypothesis, the ‘working metaphor’, if you will, of ‘original sin’. To this expression, I am unable to attach any reasoned, let alone historical substance. On the pragmatic-narratological plane, stories of some initial crime and inherited culpability are universal fables  — uncannily profound and lasting. Nothing more. Yet in the presence of the beaten, raped child, of the horse or mule flogged across its eyes, I am possessed, as by a midnight clarity, by the intuition of the Fall.” — Rudolf Steiner, Errata: An examined life, Phoenix — (a division of Orion Books), London, 1998, p. 169

At first, this quote may not seem to be related to the first. However, it is this “original sin” of which he speaks that is the root cause of the problems with corporations in society. Those humans who reject commonality with the rest of humanity are the villains in this play that passes for modern culture, for they do not accept their debt to the rest of the species, and have determined that they will use whatever means they need to become ascendant over the rest of us. Greed is only the most obvious of the ills that this group has subjected our culture to, with cruelty, dishonesty, and lack of compassion as side attractions. Through the actions of their corporate entities, they work to maintain their power and control of others, all for the sake of their own aggrandizement….

These are the men who run the trade in human trafficking, abducting and abusing children and women, for sex and slavery. These are the men who run the brothels, and the underground casinos, and the money-lending, and the protection rackets, and the drug dealing rings. What many folks don’t realize is that they are also the men who run for political office, or become preachers/priests, and the bankers, and the CEO’s,  and other corporate officers, who make their decisions based on self-interest, never on altruism. They seem, and act like, they are the leaders of society, when, in fact, they, in my mind, the scum of our race, and are the very reason our society is headed for extinction….

Unfortunately, these men (and they are almost ALL men….) will not give up their power and control without a fight. They will not respond to reason, giving up all their wealth and perceived power, to benefit the rest of mankind. They will not suddenly see the light, and give it all back. They will have to be rooted out like weeds, tough, hardy weeds; ultimately, they MUST be destroyed, if we are to have any chance of survival….

It is unfortunate, but no other method will work, and it brings with it the danger of falling into the same kind of behavior by which they have always achieved their own ends. But, I can see no other way to solve the issue, since they will not cooperate with the rest of us for the benefit of all….

1. If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting.

2. What you settle for is what you end up with.

3. If you think that worrying about a problem is the same thing as solving it, then you must live in some other universe where different laws pertain.

–Smart Bee
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I made it…. When I started, I had some doubts, but, all went well, and it’s done…. I think…. They don’t call me “the dubious” for nothing, you know…. Any who, I say it’s done, and, since I’m the final arbiter of all such questionable issues, it’s done…. Nyah, nyah, nyah…. Okay, I’m now done being three years old, and I’m outta here, before I get any sillier (That probably isn’t possible, from a reality-based viewpoint; nevertheless, it had to be said, for form’s sake….)…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

dozer3

I hear the death bell tolling…. it tolls not just for thee….

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Ffolkes,

Yesterday I wrote the most important of all the rants I’ve written here on ECR, and, true to form, very few people came by to read it; only the ffolkes who make it by very regularly show up on Sundays…. Normally, I wouldn’t much care, but the message I was delivering with that post is one of a critical nature to the whole species…..

In my mind, and in my opinion, this is not hyperbole, or a dramatization, or an attempt to catch your attention, or any other plot or literary device. It’s a fact. A fact. Not a factoid, not a speculation, no longer even a matter of having special knowledge…. The evidence is right out there now, for anyone to see, and it doesn’t take a degree in climatology or climate sciences to predict the future any longer…..

Naturally, it isn’t widely known, or accepted, at this moment, which is why nobody is panicking yet, though we all SHOULD be about ready to do so by now…. It is, perhaps, true, that my ability to foresee future events is somewhat advanced over that of others, due to my scientific background, and my skill at assimilating large amounts of data and coming to the correct conclusions from that information. But, the evidence is pretty plain now, and doesn’t require much background training to interpret…..

They (the scientists who study the changes in the environment due to global warming) (which your beloved rulers would have us believe isn’t yet a problem….) have discovered that the permafrost in the environment is melting, releasing massive quantities of methane gas into the atmosphere….

Simple, undeniable, this is a fact, not speculation…. the stuff is melting all over the Arctic, the Antarctic, and on the seabeds all over the world near the poles,  where a LOT of it exists, and the methane gas trapped in that permafrost is now being added to the carbon particulates that we humans are pumping into the air, at a rate of hundreds of millions of pounds per HOUR…. ( See the World Clock, at Poodwaddle.com   http://www.poodwaddle.com/clocks/worldclock/ )

What needs to be understood is that methane is a much more potent polluting material than carbon…. It is known as an “environmental catalyst”, because even small portions of the substance, added to the mix we have, can, and will cause changes to occur in the climate, changes that will rapidly escalate as more of it is absorbed into the air….. AND…. as it melts, it will go faster, until it is a growing at a parabolic rate, meaning faster every moment, increasing without limit, until there is enough methane, plus carbon monoxide, plus carbon dioxide, plus the other particulate matter that clings to them all, now in the air to affect the balance of chemicals, whereupon the (unwelcome) changes begin….

At a certain point, the changes will become two things important to us…. First, they will become IRREVERSIBLE changes…. we won’t be able to go back to the way it was, at least, not by any process we have knowledge of….. Second, at about the same point in time, or possibly sooner, the atmosphere will become too poisonous for us to breathe, causing widespread panic and death worldwide, until, eventually, we are all just a memory to the planet…..

The MOST conservative estimate as to how much time we have until those points are reached is less than one hundred years…. the game has changed, ffolkes, and not in our favor….. The less conservative estimates give us far less time, some as little as THIRTY YEARS, or less, and, sadly, THEY are more likely right than the others….

When the permafrost began to melt, it became a whole new ballgame, ffolkes, and this game is one NOBODY is going to want to play…. Unfortunately, thanks to the assholes who run the planet, none of us have any choice in the matter….. We are going to have to deal with the consequences of our actions…. or, on the part of the public, our lack of action, for not having removed the assholes who are killing us a long time ago…. Regardless of whether or not we like it, we are going to have to deal with this, and it won’t wait for us to make up our minds whether or not it is real….. It is real, and it isn’t waiting for us to accept that….

Oh, gosh, look what I’ve done…. the entire intro got turned into a rant, the same rant as yesterday…. Given, however, the present situation in the world, it is a rant you are likely to see EVERY DAY on this blog, from now on, until the public gets off its collective ass and starts to actually DO something about all of this….

That’s the thing I do know about all of this…. Once it becomes too obvious to ignore any longer, there is going to be SUCH AN UPHEAVAL in society, all past wars and revolutions will pale in comparison… The war that is coming, ffolkes, will be, literally, a war for survival as a species, and if we lose, we ALL lose, even the powerful elite….. for even THEY cannot make the air breathable, once it is not….. As for us…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I know that our bodies were made to thrive only in pure air, and the scenes in which pure air is found.” — John Muir, American Naturalist (1838-1914)
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We’ll be going old-school here in the first section today, simply because I am now far too emotional to rant…. I tend to get too many salty tears dripping onto the keyboard, and, worse, into my coffee…. Hopefully, the process itself will provide some serenity, as it is, when pursued in a properly mindful/mindless manner, quite a soothing task…. Who knows? Serendipity could strike while I’m searching the dB, and I’ll come up with a brilliant solution to the methane issue…. If not, well, we’ll have a couple chuckles to look back on….

“Only through hard work and perseverance can one truly suffer.” — Smart Bee

“Adversity reveals genius, prosperity conceals it.” — Horace (65-8 B.C.)

“To overcome evil with good is good, to resist evil by evil is evil.” — Mohammed

“All the secrets we may be able to keep from any and every god and human being do not in the least absolve us from the obligation to refrain from whatever actions are greedy, unjust, sensual, or otherwise immoderate.” — Cicero, On Duties

“The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject but man only.” — Thomas Hobbes

“Wisdom, understood as a new kind of strength, is a paramount necessity for Man. Now, even more than before, it is required as a basis for fitness to maintain life itself on the face of this planet and as an alternative to paths toward alienation or despair.” — Jonas Salk, The Survival Of The Wisest

“I don’t CARE if you’re on fire!  Stop SCREAMING like that!” — gigoid, on waking from a dream…..

Okay, so most of it turned away from funny, toward entries for Aunt Millie’s Life Advice column, but, they’re all true as they stand, so, just deal with them with a bit of salt, or soy sauce….. Please note also, it did go wonky there at the end, and, by golly, ended up where it needed to be…. As for me, well…. all I can say is….

“Ah, the vastness of space and time… and I end up here..” — Smart Bee
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I’m feeling a bit of angst, from whence I’ve not a clue…. it could be left over from the rant, or it could just be the background anxiety that seems to have parked itself in the far corner of the parking lot of my mind, sitting there in a dimly lit, lonely space, just hanging about in case its needed, ever since I read the article on climate change in The Nation….

It could also be my over-active imagination, but, that’s moot, as such manifestations are as real as reality…… whatever THAT may be today…. Any who, on occasions such as these, I like to use my own poetry, just so no body else can be blamed for whatever takes place today….. In that spirit, here is one from, well, I don’t know, but, it was a while ago….

Stray Cats

The veils that billow and fold
between dreams and reality
 may sometimes part,
showing the visions of one to the other,
blending, bleeding as one,
only to bring us up short,
closely jammed against immovable fate.

Still, we keep our watch,
seeking to find the vision
 that brings with it the mark of reality’s regard,
a humble mind, and a compassionate heart.

Events of broad impact draw us away again,
distracting with shiny glitter and tinny music,
leaving our feelings raw and bruised,
the victim of universal disregard.

Now, in the twilight of years, the music is fading,
and the glitter has all gone….
yet the memory of visions remains sharp and clear,
melancholy reminders of reality’s promises,
unkept….

~~ gigoid ~~

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I’m deliberately retreating somewhat today…. I have to admit, I haven’t EVER been this terrified of the future, nor so saddened by its prognosis. The sadness, of course, comes from knowing my children, and my grandson, may never have any chance at all to achieve any of their own life goals…. and there won’t be any more to come after that….

I think, if it is true, this is NOT an inappropriate reason for sadness…. even if only a possibility, it is worth a bit of depressive emotion, at the minimum, and sadness is better, at any point, than despair…. which would be the next logical choice, if one were to give in, to the seduction of that path….

Instead, I’m going to do another search through my database, for something that can LIFT spirits, or UPLIFT them, as it were, rather than give in to the darkness that threatens…. I guess it’s just not in me to give up completely, no matter what the apparent odds… Let’s see if a random, harlequin approach to Smart Bee will garner the results I’m looking for….. I NEED a good pearl….

“In walking, just walk. In sitting, just sit. Above all, don’t wobble.” — Yun-Men

From ignorance our comfort flows.
The only wretched are the wise.

— Matthew Prior (1664-1721) — To the Hon. Charles Montague

“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper.  Half never voted for President.  One hopes it is the same half.” — Gore Vidal

“Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.” — Buddha

“The chief aim of wisdom is to enable one to bear with the stupidity of the ignorant.” — Xystus I

“Neither will the wave which has passed be called back; nor can the hour which has gone by return.” — Ovid (B.C. 43-18 A.D.)

“The sages put great stock in saying that every ending is truly a beginning, or every beginning an ending, or insisting that there are no endings or beginnings, or remarking that there is nothing new, and we are doomed to endlessly repeat ourselves. Or have I said all this before?” — The Teachings of Ebenezum, Vol. LXXXVII

Hmm…. I think it’s possible I MIGHT have said all this before….
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Before finishing today’s effort, I want to say this…. Zackary. That one word, my grandson’s name, is the reason for all the pain I’m feeling about the news I read in The Nation, regarding the climate change status this year. If the worst scenario is even nearly true, then by the time he is my own son’s age, he will have lived most of his life in a state unimaginable to me, fighting every moment to stave off extinction, while the majority of the species, (the word “race” no longer matters, as all the races of Man have lungs….), goes through the contortions involved in social upheaval of a magnitude never before experienced on this planet…. not by our species, anyway…. Bob Dylan said it well, ffolkes, when he wrote, “It’s a hard rain, a gonna fall….”

I took a short break before finishing the last section, and prior to starting this closing piece; I found myself sitting in the morning air, breathing, and crying, as each breath reminded me that it won’t be long before I, and everyone else alive, will be fighting to draw the next breath, and the next, and the next, if we wish to merely survive…. It’s a hard picture to live with, and I don’t like it…. but, there it is, and it won’t go away….. As of this moment, I don’t yet know exactly what I will DO about this pain, or about any of this issue…. so, we’ll see about all that…. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with two last pearls, both of which speak eloquently to just what I am talking about…..

“There is an immeasurable distance between late and too late.” — Anne Swetchine

“Mankind are an incorrigible race. Give them but bugbears and idols — it is all that they ask; the distinctions of right and wrong, of truth and falsehood, of good and evil, are worse than indifferent to them.” — William Hazlitt

The saddest part is that the exact opposite of Mr. Hazlitt’s description of mankind’s nature is ALSO true…. There is, in us, the greatest potential imaginable for virtue, for honor, and for compassion, in the souls of MOST people…. It is those few who have turned away from those finer qualities we all possess who, with the cruelty of their indifference to the benefit, or the pain of others, have caused all the trouble…. Ah well…. that’s a subject we talk about a lot around here…. 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

dozer3

Puzzled by such antics, the puppet smiled….

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Ffolkes,

“Free enterprise ended in the United States a good many years ago. Big oil, big steel, big agriculture avoid the open marketplace. Big corporations fix prices among themselves and drive out the small entrepreneur. In their conglomerate forms, the huge corporations have begun to challenge the legitimacy of the state.” — Gore Vidal

From what we are told by modern pundits and talking heads, terrible things will happen, unless we surround ourselves in the impenetrable armor of patriotic fervor, and dutifully give up the basic human rights our founding fathers secured for us, after expending great amounts of blood, sweat, and tears…. These seemingly concerned political professionals have taken the opportunity, handed to them by the events of 9/11/01, to fan the unreasonable, and, I might add, inappropriate fears of the common man, by reinforcing the ignorance they possess, about the perpetrators, about other cultures, and about their own needs, validating and strengthening their fears, even though those fears have no basis in reality….

“A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man.  In order to get anywhere near high office he has to make so many compromises and submit to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker.” — H.L. Mencken

Hmm… I see that I’ve begun my rant for the day, right here in Section 1, Paragraph 1 of today’s Pearl…. For some unknown reason, I jumped right on that particular bandwagon straight out of the gate, with a good strong opening, I might add…. I believe the above statements to be a true assessment of today’s world, and of the BRC’s part in creating the atmosphere of mistrust and hatred between cultures that we see in our society. It doesn’t serve their political interests to have a population that is open-minded, or trusting of others, or that is able to appreciate the diversity now being celebrated in most parts of the world.

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual & silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” — James Madison, Virginia Convention 1788

The leaders of this country prefer a populace that is ignorant of the truth, angry, afraid, and full of hatred. Such people are easily manipulated into believing whatever is told to them, as they are pre-disposed to believe the worst of others, since that is how they view themselves…. A person who is accustomed to cheating, or lying, or otherwise acting immorally to achieve their own ends is not capable of imagining that others are not the same way, so they will cheat and lie from the beginning of any interaction, assuming that everyone does it…. It’s a vicious cycle, one to which an ignorant and untrained mind can easily fall prey; once caught in its grip, its victims find it very difficult to change, as it resists all attempts to educate, or to illuminate, often refusing discussion altogether….

“Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.” — Thomas Jefferson

Sadly, there are a great many people in this country who fall for this kind of crap, and never even KNOW that they are being manipulated…. They just cruise blithely along down the river of Time, allowing themselves to be herded wherever is convenient for the BRC, blundering into unseen obstacles, or hanging on to false assumptions, spending the greater portion of their lives wondering where it all went wrong…. These folks watch Fox News, listen to Sean Hannity, or Rush Limbaugh, or Ann Coulter,  and others of their ilk, shout their hatred and lies at the top of their lungs; they smile vacuously, and  nod their heads wisely, just as if they had a single thought in their excuse for a mind, not a vast, empty plain full of lies and misconceptions…

PATRIOTISM, n.  Combustible rubbish read to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel.  With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

Okay, I guess I can stop now…. I could, too, if I wished…. Y’all know pretty well by now how I feel about politicians, and preachers of all religions, and police, and lawyers, and judges, and anyone else who participates in the world-wide oppression of the 98%, or 99%, or whatever you wish to call those who allow their slavery to continue…. It’s a sad situation, one that has been in place for most of our history; it is only in modern times, however, that this structure has shown itself to be counter-productive in a species-survival sense.

“History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions.” — Ted Koppel

The harsh controls over everyone else that are maintained by the shadowy masters of society are not going to be given up lightly, or at all, without some serious changes in the nature of the other people in the world….. The ruling elite have been holding the reins of this cart for a long time, and aren’t willing to give them up without a struggle, a struggle they have been prepared to win for many thousands of years…. They even practice the necessary violence with constant wars and police actions, all of which indicate their willingness to use violence as a means of behavioral control over others…. The rest of us are NOT as practiced in its use, and we are not going to be able to wrest control from them without it…. Patently, they aren’t about to just hand it over, are they? No, they’re not likely to do that….

So, what’s the answer? Hell, if I knew that, I’d already be the leader of the revolution…. I have an answer, but, most ffolkes don’t want violence as part of their lives, if they can help it, so they aren’t going to accept my answer, as mine involves using violence as needed to eradicate the problem…. Since the Beloved Ruling Class is willing to use it, so am I, but, not everyone is so inclined…. Y’know what, though? They’re on their own, as I’m not going to just lie down and die, just because I’m afraid of the big, bad terrorists…. Mainly, that’s because I’m NOT afraid of them, or of the big, bad assholes who run my own country right now…. If nothing else, I will maintain my own little space of freedom, and hope for the best…. My hopes are not particularly high, but, they do exist….

Okay, I’m done now…. Fuck the assholes in Washington, on both sides of the political aisle in Congress, and every other niche where they’ve insinuated themselves in government…. I’ll take some more shots later, or tomorrow…. for now, I wanna go find some pearls to throw at them….

Shall we Pearl?….

One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small,
and the ones that mother gives you don’t do anything at all.
Go ask Alice when she’s ten feet tall.

— Jefferson Airplane
_____________________________

It just may possibly be too early for this, but, I give up…. Not just giving up, but, way up…. so far up, I’m not even going to explain…. Instead, here is a pearl of unknown format, with unknown parameters, and unknown qualities…. the best kind, from where I’m standing…. or, sitting, or hovering, whatever it is I’m doing right now…. I DO so hope you enjoy it….

“There’s a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.” — Lou Reed, Magic and Loss
(R.I.P. Lou….)

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

“Any road followed to its end leads precisely nowhere.  Climb the mountain just a little to test it’s a mountain.  From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain.” — Bene Gesserit proverb

“To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” — W. Edwards Deming

“Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.” — Aldous Huxley

“In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.” — Bertrand Russell
_____________________________

“All these poems where it is merely the Poem that is in question – a whole poetry with no other substance than itself! What would we say of a prayer whose object was religion?” — E.M. Cioran

Again, I’ll be using one of my own poems, to ensure I’m the only one named, in the likely event of prosecution by local authorities….

I know I’m in the now, if only…..

Oh, there it is again, fiddle faddle;
  Begone, I said, vamoose, skedaddle!
It looked at me as if I were insane:
  Scoffed, it did, filled me with pain.

Where does it come from?
Where does it live?
I’d stick out my thumb,
if I had more to give.

If only, should, would, could it be?
  It went away again, this time free.
It will be back again, this I know;
  or I’m wrong, and it won’t show.

Who cares?
Who hears?
Such goings on wobble the sphere,
I wish it wouldn’t do that here.

I’ve been wrong before…..

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

I will not rant, I will not rant, no matter how strong the desire, or the provocation…. I’ll sublimate, sublimate, sublimate…. with another old-school style pearl, just as if I really knew what the hell I was doing here…..

“Please return the newspapers so others can enjoy the violence as much as you did.” — Sign in Providence sub shop

“Among mortals second thoughts are wisest.” — Euripides

“Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Chap. xvii

And taste
The melancholy joy of evils past:
For he who much has suffer’d, much will know.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book xv, Line 434

“The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on.” — Joseph Heller, Catch22

I really do love it when a plan comes together…. This is a PERFECT five-star pearl, old-school variety….. I hope you enjoyed reading, and cogitating on it as much as I did while putting it together…. Ta ta, then….
_____________________________

“He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad.” — Rafael Sabatini

This first line from “The Scarlet Pimpernel” is, perhaps, my favorite line in literature, because it is both what I try to be, and what I try to emulate in my writing…. at least, that’s what I keep telling myself…. Having done my duty as a grammarian, to the best of my meager ability, I pronounce this Pearl to be finished, and no longer subject to the Miranda Act…. 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

dozer3

Wait! Don’t shoot, it’s Bob’s uncle!…..

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Ffolkes,

The life I lead now is much different from the one that I had back in the day, prior to the advent of the chronic pain with which I now live. For example, before the pain became a contributing factor, I could pretty much do anything, physically, that I wished to do. Sports, martial arts, camping, driving, cooking, virtually all of the activities I once pursued without a thought to how it might affect me are now proscribed, as being too painful to pursue.

Even activities such as walking are now limited to how long I can go without stimulating more pain, or becoming fatigued, which is the most common precursor to the upper realms of pain, otherwise known as pure agony, a state clearly distinguishable from any ecstasy, let me assure you….

I am not relating this to garner sympathy; thanks, but no thanks. I’ve had plenty of that, and would rather just get on with things, sans any more of it. No, I’m apologizing, in my own roundabout way, for my inability to sit and read the blogs I want to read, which I would very much LIKE to do….. I find, however, if I take that time to read, for more than just a few minutes, the pain takes over, and I have to get up and move around, or lie down until the spasms go away…. neither of which gets it done….. I have been hoarding the time I can spend at the computer for producing these Pearls each day; unfortunately, that is usually about the limit of what I can do, so, I end up posting, then having to shut down, or go do something else, because I am done with sitting comfortably….

Actually, sitting comfortably is what can be called a memory; there is no chair, and no position that can justify using that word, as it applies to sitting. It just doesn’t feel good after a couple of minutes, even with slight position changes every few seconds., and, unless some miracle happens to completely heal, or cure, the torn ligaments that are at the core of the issue, I can pretty much count on sitting comfortably again oh, say, in my next life, not in this one….

I’ve learned to be okay with that; I don’t piss and moan about it all the damn time, as I used to at first. I’ve accepted it as my lot, for having been so damn physically active when younger…. Yep, that’s right….. there is such a thing as being TOO active, according to my doctor…. Anyone who pursues a lifetime of sports or martial arts is TOO active, and, according to him, will pay a price in their later years for going too far when younger…. It’s not in the manual, but, it’s true, nonetheless….. and, if I am a typical case, then, he is right….

This is where the apology part comes in, to all of the bloggers I follow, and can seldom read…. It’s not as if I don’t want to read them, I just can’t sit long enough to get caught up to all of them I wish to get to…. I know there are a few ffolkes who make it by here every day, or nearly, and I really appreciate their custom…. Those who do come by often are also some of my favorite authors, so it burns my ass big time that I cannot get to their sites as often as I wish….. and, for this, I am sorry…. I keep hoping for a clear spell of pain-free time, but, since that hasn’t been fulfilled for over 8 years now, I won’t be holding my breath…. and neither should they…. I do hope they understand, though…

Now that I’ve bared my soul long enough to thoroughly embarrass myself, I’ll get on with today’s post, hoping I can last long enough to get some of it done before having to take a break from sitting…. I’ve been up 3 times already in composing this intro, so, it’s a bit dodgy today…. I’ll get it done, but, won’t be a happy camper for a while…. C’est la vie, reader-san!

Shall we Pearl?…..

Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.

It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.

~~ Emily Dickinson
_____________________________

Obviously, ranting is out of the question when my back is like this; can’t sit long enough to get the outrage out onto the screen. But, Smart Bee has been pretty cooperative of late, so, we’ll let it pick out some nice pearls for your consideration…. We’ll make it a random, harlequin style pearl, with no set parameters, and see what happens….. Good luck, and don’t forget your lobster bibs….

I see my life go drifting like a river
From change to change; I have been many things –
A green drop in the surge, a gleam of light
Upon a sword, a fir tree on a hill,
An old slave grinding at a heavy quern,
A king sitting upon a chair of gold –
And all these things were wonderful and great;
But now I have grown nothing, knowing all.
Ah! Druid, Druid, how great webs of sorrow
Lay hidden in that small slate-coloured thing!

— William Butler Yeats, “Fergus and the Druid”

“All things are the same,–familiar in enterprise, momentary in endurance, coarse in substance. All things now are as they were in the day of those whom we have buried.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 14

“Half the work that is done in the world is to make things appear what they are not.” — E. R. Beadle

“Rights” is a fictional abstraction. No one has “Rights”, neither machines nor flesh-and-blood. Persons… have opportunities, not rights, which they use or do not use.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

Warning: Politicians can damage your wealth. — Smart Bee

The thief
Left it behind —
The moon at the window.

— Ryokan

“At this precise moment, no reproach proceeding from men or gods can affect me: I have as good a conscience as if I had never existed.” — E.M. Cioran

“The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance called “faith”.” — Robert G. Ingersoll

“As God is my witness – I am that fool!” — Gomez Addams

Wow…. a nine-star pearl! I’ve never made one of those before, but,  I think it came out pretty well, especially for the harlequin style…. I hope you enjoy consuming it as much as I did producing it…..
_____________________________

So far today, we’ve had Yeats, we’ve had Dickinson, we’ve had Ryokan …. it must be time for someone equally spirited….

The Loser

Mama said I’d lose my head
if it wasn’t fastened on.
Today I guess it wasn’t
’cause while playing with my cousin
it fell off and rolled away
and now it’s gone.

And I can’t look for it
’cause my eyes are in it,
and I can’t call to it
’cause my mouth is on it
(couldn’t hear me anyway
’cause my ears are on it),
can’t even think about it
’cause my brain is in it.
So I guess I’ll sit down
on this rock
and rest for just a minute…

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

from the book “Where the Sidewalk Ends” (1974)

_____________________________

I’ve just taken a quick look at the news, and nothing outraged me enough to start a rant…. thankfully, as I’m currently not in the condition to do that without more sacrifice than I’m willing to endure…. This means y’all are the winners again today, as I’ll be going with another old-school pearl, which, though less straightforward in their approach to cognitive stimulation and/or attempted thought manipulation than are rants, they are patently less pompous by a factor of infinity; moreover, they’re guaranteed to provide fewer instances of mental heartburn…. In fact, a good group of pearls will actually cure baldness in adult males, given the right amount of faith…. or, so I’m told….

“You don’t fool me!! You’re not really an idiot!!” — Smart Bee

“The improver of knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties, blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” — Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)

“I’ll tell you what kind of guy I was.   If you ordered a boxcar full of sons-of-bitches and opened the door and only found me inside, you could consider the order filled.” — Robert Mitchum
(My hero!…. It has always been one of my life’s goals, to achieve this degree of “badass”….)

“I would far rather be ignorant than wise in the foreboding of evil.” — Aeschylus (525-456 BC) — Suppliants, 453

“After a while he realizes that she is beautiful – he just hadn’t noticed it at first.” — Lazarus Long

MAD, adj.  Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence; not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived by the conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority; in short, unusual.  It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced mad by officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane.  For illustration, this present (and illustrious) lexicographer is no firmer in the faith of his own sanity than is any inmate of any madhouse in the land; yet for aught he knows to the contrary, instead of the lofty occupation that seems to him to be engaging his powers he may really be beating his hands against the window bars of an asylum and declaring himself Noah Webster, to the innocent delight of many thoughtless spectators.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Half of the American people have never read a newspaper.  Half never voted for President.  One hopes it is the same half.” — Gore Vidal

Some days, SB is just better than others…..
_____________________________

I do believe I’ve done it, Olly!  It’s another fine mess, just rarin’ to get read….. well, ready to be read, anyway. Let’s see how that goes….

Well, it’s definitely a Pearl, and, until someone disabuses me of the notion, I’m going to consider it to be a relatively good one…. I like it, anyway, so that’s something…. Y’all can make your own decision on that…. See ya…..

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest  Carole, and 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

dozer3

Fire erupted from our eastern flank….

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3

Ffolkes,
The guard made no sound as I slid the stiletto into his mid-brain from behind. Catching him as he fell, I lowered the still warm body to the floor, and moved through the doorway he guarded, the six big, silent men who made up my squad following behind. With the first obstacle down, we moved quickly toward the second, a large, heavy door leading into the interior of the research facility, guarded by a complex control system, with a numbered keypad for the combination.

Three good men had died procuring that combination, and I was glad we didn’t need to try to figure out another method of getting through the door….. I punched in the eight digit code, and the door swung open silently on oiled hinges, revealing a tunnel, leading downward, underground, sloping to the left after a short distance. Pulling the door shut, we set off, nearer by the moment to our goal….. the evil laboratory of Mungo the Mad…..

Well, until I got to the last part, it was going along okay, I think…. Mungo the Mad? What was I thinking? I must have been influenced by the audio book I was listening to yesterday…. It’s a copy of The Rolling Stones, an old adolescent sci-fi novel by Robert Heinlein, written sometime in the 50’s, I think. In it, the protagonist family, the Stones, likes to make money by writing space operas for radio & TV consumption, and the character names Heinlein used tended to be rather overblown and garish, to make his ironic point…. His hero fought villains such as the Galactic Overlord, etc. so, Mungo would have fitted right in with their stories….

The only issue I have with the opening paragraphs that I create like this is that, once I’ve finished , and commented on them, I’m stuck again, with nothing worthwhile to put into the introductory section…. like right now, when I am stretching this little intro for all I’m worth, jabbering and blathering with no shame whatsoever, trying to fill in space, even if it is with silly, useless, even partially offensive phrases that have little meaning, and less purpose…. Of course, every five letters counts as a word, I believe, so it’s merely a matter of stringing together enough letters to wind our way to the end of a paragraph…. just like this….

I suppose we could do some mental, or literary, gymnastics, get the ol’ grey cells warmed up…. I can usually come up with some kind of riddle, or a koan query that would occupy one’s mind for a time…. Whether or not such a koan would lead to a moment of enlightenment remains to be seen….. But, we have a problem with that one today, because, damn it, I’m just not in the mood to make up coherent, logical, serene, meditative stuff…. My literary style today is likely to resemble an army tank more than a Ferrari, so I doubt seriously I could even come up with anything that would work for long….. I mean, look at this intro section…. one long ramble, from front to back, without a single inspiring thought, or catchy phrase, or poetic flight of fancy….. pathetic, that’s what it is…..

However, I seem to have done it again…. We have at least five full paragraphs, two of which is fresh and new; the others are, well, they are what they are….. What they are, is long enough to serve the purpose we set for them, i.e., fill up the space so we can call it an intro…. Having served that purpose quite efficiently, if with a bit of a yawn, I declare this intro section completed, and will stamp your visa so you can move on to the next phase of today’s ordeal, er, post….. Honestly, I don’t know how I do it….  Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, asked “Am I my brother’s son?” God asked Abraham to sacrifice Issac on Mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Issac, stole his brother’s birthmark. Jacob was a partiarch who brought up his twelve sons to be partiarchs, but they did not take to it. One of Jacob’s sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites.” — Richard Lederer, The world According to Student Bloopers

I would say, given what I know about people in general, this litany of errors on the part of students represents one of mankind’s best efforts at getting to the core of the issues in their religious philosophies…. NOT….. As is obvious, that was merely my attempt at a poor joke, an unnecessary one, as it turns out, as people tend to be a lot funnier, in reality, than I can ever make them in my imagination…. You see, this short paragraph, to me, makes as much sense as the story that the churches themselves are trying to get me to believe…. In some ways, it makes MORE sense than the official version, especially the last line…. But, I digress….

” It makes no difference who you vote for–the two parties are really one party representing 4 percent of the people.” — Gore Vidal

How’s that for a 180 degree turn? From religion bashing to the irony of political truth, in one swell foop…. Since that same four percent of people represented by the politicians includes the folks who engage in religion at the top levels (NOT the constituency; the politicians regard them as both tucker, and fodder….), I figure that it might be fun to lump them all together for a change…. I usually try to keep them separate while taking my shots, but, they do tend to work together, so I thought it wouldn’t be inappropriate to have them share some of the wealth I’m spreading around….

“If God were female, do you REALLY think men would exist?” — Smart Bee

Well, actually, I do, because, well, logically, She’d HAVE to, wouldn’t She? What point would there be in being female, without a male to torment? Of course, many, if not all, of the other issues we have today to occupy our time would not have ever become issues, as a female god wouldn’t have allowed that kind of shit in her house….. To me, this only goes to show that God, should such an entity exist, is probably neither male, nor female; just as likely, it is both at once, as the rest of the universe tends to be arranged in a duality of natural form and function, and it only makes sense that the creating entity would reflect that duality….

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

Now, here is a piece of insight into human nature that most will admit is all too true for comfort. It is an old piece of knowledge, and well known to both the proponents of the God-theory, and by the Beloved Ruling Class, those lovingly solicitous self-appointed leaders of society…. Both groups are well versed in the use of lying to suit their own purposes, and know full well that the average person, upon hearing something told to them by either a member of the clergy, or a talking head on TV, one wearing a suit, and standing in front of a flag, will blindly accept what they are told, without ever examining it for veracity, or even asking themselves why they are being told at all…. They just say, “Duh, okay boss,” and go about what they believe to be their own life, ignorant of how little of it is actually under their own control….

“For me, all I can do is spit in the eye of my fears by living each day with as much passion and commitment as possible to what truly counts, such as love and justice. To give the into the fear and hopelessness would be to declare defeat, something I am not ready to do while there is still the will to struggle.
— Lawrence Paradis

Here is the answer, the one that, sadly, 95% of humanity will never even hear; if they did hear it, they probably wouldn’t recognize it as their salvation, anyway. I know, that’s a bit harsh in judgment of my fellow man, but, in my thus far relatively long life, I’ve yet to see very many of them who have the wit to wipe their own drool, much less understand how they are responsible for their own misery and pain, by allowing unscrupulous con men to control them at every turn.

But, as the pearl says, I’m not ready to quit seeking love and justice, by trying to get folks, and ffolkes, to see how the people they believe are ethical,  have been lying and cheating and controlling them their whole life, and not for the benefit of anyone but themselves. So far, I’ve only managed to preach to the choir, but, eventually, my message will get passed around to a wider audience…. We’ll see then how the truth fares against the lies they spread so thickly…..

“It’s easier said than done. … and if you don’t believe it, try proving that it’s easier done than said, and you’ll see that it’s easier said that `it’s easier done than said’ than it is done, which really proves that it’s easier said than done.” — Smart Bee
__________________________________

Reality is, for some unknown but welcome reason, showing a lot of cooperation today…. Here is a poem from Ogden that fits perfectly with today’s mood, and so far, the expressed discussion…. I hope you enjoy it; this is one of my favorite poems of his….

À Bas Ben Adhem

My fellow man I do not care for.
I often ask me, What’s he there for?
The only answer I can find
Is, Reproduction of his kind.
If I’m supposed to swallow that,
Winnetka is my habitat.
Isn’t it time to carve Hic Jacet
Above that Reproduction racket?

To make the matter more succinct:
Suppose my fellow man extinct.
Why, who would not approve the plan
Save possibly my fellow man?
Yet with a politician’s voice
He names himself as Nature’s choice.

The finest of the human race
Are bad in figure, worse in face.
Yet just because they have two legs
And come from storks instead of eggs
They count the spacious firmament
As something to be charged and sent.

Though man created cross-town traffic,
The Daily Mirror, News and Graphic,
The pastoral fight and fighting pastor,
And Queen Marie and Lady Astor,
He hails himself with drum and fife
And bullies lower forms of life.

Not that I think much depends
On how we treat our feathered friends,
Or hold the wrinkled elephant
A nobler creature than my aunt.
It’s simply that I’m sure I can
Get on without my fellow man.

~~ Ogden Nash
__________________________________

Having, thus far today, received much more than my due of cooperation from the universe, I’m going to go with the flow, and submit a harlequin old-school pearl for this section…. It just seems like the right thing to do, and one must go with one’s impulses, mustn’t one?….. Well, it’s easier than thinking in a straight line, anyway, and lots more fun than coloring outside the box….. Around here we like to burn the box, and use the crayons to make candles….  😀

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

“You can never tell which way the train went by looking at the track.” — Kramer’s Law

“You shouldn’t wallow in self-pity.  But it’s OK to put your feet in it and swish them around a little.” — Guindon

“Kindness is the beginning of cruelty.” — Muad’dib

“It is loneliness that makes the loudest noise. This is true of men as of dogs.” — Eric Hoffer

Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’d,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 87

“And now there is merely silence, silence, silence, saying all we did not know.” — William Rose Benet

All I can say is…. wow…..
__________________________________

Well, it may not be the shiniest Pearl ever to come from the oyster beds in my head, but, it’s got a certain glossy sheen I find attractive, if not actually beautiful… and, it has the bonus quality of being done…. So be it…. I’ve done all the damage I can do, so I’m going to go to a scheduled session of depression, while I get my taxes done….  🙄   Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

A witch, a stitch, and three cracked cups….

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2

Ffolkes,
“O frabjous day! Oh, joy! I am filled with exuberant good will! Come, join me in greeting this fabulous new day!……”

There…. we’ll see how that works….. I thought I’d try something a bit new and different today, since I’ve been complaining to myself so much about the intro section. These words, stolen piecemeal from a Dorothy L. Sayers novel, coupled with a bit of doggerel that was laying about in me head, have but one purpose, and that is to distract and confuse Murphy long enough for me to at least get started on this Pearl. I don’t know how it will work, but maybe if he sees that I’m already up, started writing, and in a good mood, he could get a bit discombobulated by my apparent cheerfulness. Just about anything is worth a shot, if it means less hassle from him in the long run…..

Gosh, it’s quiet…. I didn’t realize just how much ambient noise it adds to the background to have Murphy and the boys hanging about all the time. It’s so quiet I could hear myself thinking, a distinctly new feeling. So new, in fact, I don’t know how to deal with it, precisely. I feel kind of guilty at disturbing the peace; there is so little of it around here most of the time, it’s rather pleasant to not have the clamor and bustle ringing around my ears. It’s almost soothing…. and boring as hell. This calls for some music, I think….

Ah yes, you can’t beat Bonnie Raitt, for a bit of atmosphere and stimulation. Slick slide and blues guitar, gutsy, crystalline voice, red hair, and a beautiful smile…. Ah me, I’ve been lost in love for her for close to 40 years or more. When she lets her voice soar, such as in the song “Angel from Montgomery”, it sends chills up and down my spine, and there is nobody who can rip out your heart any faster than when she sings a song such as, “I Can’t Make You Love Me”…… Every time I hear it, I want to fall on my knees before her, and cry out “You don’t HAVE to MAKE me love you! I am yours forever!” Alas, she never hears me, and my fantasy fades again….

So much for unrequited love…. As we all do, I lived through my loss, and have come through the other side relatively unscathed by the hammer of love lost, or more accurately, love never found (a slight, but important distinction). It’s a hard loss, for sure, but, hey, I’ve always got her music to get me by….. A little time, one of her CD’s, a bottle of Jack, and the pain will eventually pass away, as it does in Time….. Of course, it all rushes back in, twice as bad, the next morning, along with the hangover, but, there is always a price for our healing….

Well, once again, I’ve managed to get through another intro section without really saying much of anything, at least nothing that could be construed as either significant, or even interesting. What can I say, it’s a gift…. Now that you have unwittingly fallen right into my trap, and consumed four and a half paragraphs of pseudo-literature before you even realized you were caught, we can get on with the normal (got to stop using that word!….It really doesn’t apply….) business of the day, for what it’s worth….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Theology is never any help; it is searching in a dark cellar at midnight for a black cat that isn’t there. Theologians can persuade themselves of anything.” — Robert A. Heinlein

I had an idea, but it went away…. They do that sometimes. The idea was connected somehow to this quote from Bob Heinlein, and, as might be expected, was intended to serve as the springboard for yet another episode of raking Christianity, and religious institutions in general, over the coals. Since the clever concept I originally had has deserted me, I have absolutely no idea of where to go with this…. I mean, it’s a simple enough matter to turn it into a rant; I have no problem coming up with a newly sharpened stick to poke at the priesthood whenever needed, or merely wished for. But, having bellied up to that bar already this week, I hadn’t intended to go there…. Let’s see what happens now….

“And on the seventh day, while He was resting, He created snack cakes.  And He saw that they looked good, and He did bite into one, at which time he realized that they tasted like something that had been sitting on a shelf wrapped in cheap plastic for decades.  He had too much goop on His fingers to blast them into the void from which they had come, and therefore He drove them out until they had left the Promised Land and were stuck in a cheap, tacky display on the end of the aisle.” — Haagendasz 3, 12-15

While I am firmly convinced that this makes as much sense to me as it does to read in the Bible from, oh, say, the Book of Leviticus, or even Genesis, I am not sure it will make a proper ranting platform. I mean, it IS as easily proved as any of the real stuff in the Bible, and certainly holds the same amount of logic to its assertions. But, somehow, it just isn’t SERIOUS enough to soothe the ranting urge… No, we’ll just have to keep looking….

“One would like to stroke and caress human beings, but one dares not do so, because they bite.” — Vladimir Lenin

Ah, now THAT is a sentiment I can get behind. It shows deep insight into human nature, and in a small way, says something about how that nature is self-destructive. A fine little aphorism, but, not really suited for ranting, as it is so true and complete in itself….. We’ll keep looking….

“Forgive us, for we know not what we do.  Not that we CARE or anything.” — Smart Bee

Aha! Now, that’s the kind of pearl that can start off a grand rant! It’s a perfect perversion of the Christian insistence on keeping their believers buried deeply in ignorance and fear, and ironic enough to please the most discriminating of critics. I love the ending line; it’s just so….. Christian! At least, by every measure I’ve ever seen, it is…. Now, there are Christians out there, I’m certain, who will take some offense at that, but, I would ask them to stop a moment and think…. There, there, now, darlings, I know it hurts, but it will get better the more you do it….

“All religions are founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.” — Stendahl

See? I don’t discriminate!…. Now that your mind is loosened up a bit, so you won’t strain it, consider this…. In the Christian world, once one has been granted admittance to the group, becoming a member of the Church, how much effort do those members make to become better people? How much do they actually use the precepts of their dogma to influence their behavior BEFORE they act? How many of them actually try to weave the teachings of Jesus into the fabric of their lives?…. My own observations tell me the number is pretty small, compared to the whole…..

Christians make a big fuss about making sure that it is understood how compassionate and forgiving Jesus is/was, and meant for all his followers to be; then they go and drop bombs on a bunch of short brown people, because those people aren’t Christian…. Oh, the stories and fantasies given in justification always point to some other reason, but the bottom line is, because those other people are “heathens”, they aren’t entitled to any of that compassion or forgiveness. Only their co-members are entitled to consideration as something other than dirt…..

What often makes me the angriest when I see this behavior is the outrage expressed by those self-appointed Chosen Ones when their entitlement is challenged in pieces such as this one. The entire weight of the Church is often called into play to respond to any criticisms leveled against it in public, much like a dragon protects its stolen gold, reacting with fire and destruction to any perceived threats. It pisses me off because their manipulation of others, and their stated wish to be of service, is all based on LIES and hypocrisy, delivered with a smarmy smile that just says to me, “Snake!”, and makes me want to look around for a shovel to pound it with….

If an article in a newspaper that is critical of the Church is widely read, there will be, guaranteed, a fire-storm of heated responses from the Church’s mouthpieces, all heaping abuse, and accusations of discrimination against the critics. The making of such accusations is the typical, almost knee-jerk response of the Church whenever it is called to task for its shortcomings; they learned long ago that the best way to distract the membership from the truth of any criticisms is to make their own false accusations in return, but louder, and for a longer time…. They know that any lie, repeated loudly and repeatedly, will be accepted as truth, especially by their members, who are already predisposed (read: brainwashed…) to believe whatever the preachers/priests tell them….

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

I’ve given up arguing with the faithful; it’s a pastime that is endlessly amusing, but ultimately saddening. Kind of like the frustration of wrestling with a pig; you just get dirty, and the pig likes it….. It is hard for me to watch people continually make the choice to be ignorant, to be cowards, afraid to face the universe on its own terms, always preferring to allow other people, with fewer scruples than they possess, tell them what they should think, and how they should live. Trying to get most folks to see reason is much like banging one’s forehead against a brick wall…. not terribly amusing, and the blood is hard on one’s clothing, as well as the insult to the forehead….. Since I’m not a fool, I have ceased trying to get them to see beyond their own misapprehensions, and just use what I see as fodder for these posts….. Less frustrating, to be sure, if no less depressing….

I seem to have ranted myself into a corner again; I don’t see a way to continue this without becoming either vitriolic, or boring (some might say “more” boring…. all I can say to them is “thptttttt!”….); I’d guess it’s probably too late to avoid being rude. Since there is still some ways to go before we can call it a day, I think I’ll close this off, and go in search of an appropriate poem for the day…. As a final word of caution and warning, in the unending struggle against ignorance, let me leave you with these….

“If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” — John Stuart Mill

“All a man can betray is his conscience.” — Joseph Conrad
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A Noiseless Patient Spider

A noiseless, patient spider,
I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;
Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;
Ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you, O my Soul, where you stand,
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,—seeking the spheres, to connect them;
Till the bridge you will need, be form’d—till the ductile anchor hold;
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.

Walt Whitman
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“If the Nuremberg laws were applied, then every post-war American president would have been hanged.” — Noam Chomsky

Funny, isn’t it, how such statements, easily identified as being valid right up to the present day, are completely ignored by the mainstream public, and the media? I mean, it isn’t surprising that the politicians themselves would try to ignore this; that is, after all, their primary line of defense against criticism of any kind. But, it seems to me that the general public might be interested in at least seeing some of the evidence being used to justify the assertion, and that the media, as the ostensible responsible journalists they are supposed to be, would be all over that evidence to ascertain how much of it is valid. It isn’t an accusation that is made lightly, I think, and my own take on it is that it is perfectly true, given what I know of the Nuremberg Trials after WWII….

Now, this may seem like it is leading into another rant, this time on politics, and that would be a very astute observation…. usually. I’m a bit fagged out, though, having had quite a battle yesterday and last night with my back pain, which apparently is going to continue into today. I really do try not to let my pain keep me from doing what I want to do, but there are times when it just sort of ignores everything I want, and says, “Nope, here you go…. have some misery for a while….” It’s making it a bit difficult to think clearly, and to stay on track…

So, I’m going to switch horses right here in mid-stream, and turn this toward the old school…. Here are the pearls I could find this morning on the subject of our Beloved Ruling Class, bless their tiny little minds, and their tinier hearts…..

“”Beware the [lobbyist], my son, the jaws that bite, the claws that snatch” (with thanks to Lewis Carroll).  No matter how noble the cause or well meaning its professional advocates, lobbyists are still paid to get results.  They’re subject to errors in judgment, shortcomings in motives, and most of them don’t even vote in your district.” — Pierre S. du Pont

“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the rights of the people by the gradual & silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” — James Madison, Virginia Convention, 1788

“Today’s public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can’t read them either.” — Gore Vidal

“There are two main periods in which your elected representatives to the legislature do not do any business. One is before the election and the other is after the election.” — Smart Bee

It may have been the wrong decision to turn this over to my subconscious mind; the rant above took less time than finding that last pearl…. ah well, it finally got to the point where I can tie it all off with this, and wish you a safe and joyous day out there in the real world….

“Once harm has been done, even a fool understands it” — Homer
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Wow…. that turned into an epic, and somewhat of an ordeal. Let’s see how it came out, in toto…..  Hang on, be back in a few moments….  Not too bad, all in all… A bit of polish here, a bit of clarification there, and it’s good to go…. Well, it’s done, anyway. Y’all are the final judges of how it came out, so, I’ll turn it over to your tender ministrations…. be gentle with me, okay?…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Forgetting to neglect the silliness factor….

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Ffolkes,
Lonely moments pass by, searching for companions with whom to travel their solitary road. But the bark of the aardvark sets them free, if only for the last time, and nobody seems to really even care. As the stores roll down their riot bars, the music plays on at the cantina, where the billycan boys gathered at noon to roast their geese, and take tea. With full intentions of grand exposure, those favored old engineers have quietly folded all the chairs, and put them in the rectory hall for safekeeping. Sadly, the nuptials were taking place, and had to re-water the plants, of course. At just that moment, reality intrudes, and the words, once flowing freely, stutter to a stop…..

And thank goodness they have….. I thought I’d never get out of there. In looking back over this paragraph, it reminds me of conversations I used to have with a couple of friends when we were in our college years. Tom and I, and Mark, and occasionally Johnny P., would all go into a Denny’s, or other local coffee shop, and start up a conversation that was as far from reality as we could make it. Nonsense statements, odd phrases, and just plain weirdness is what we were shooting for, and we got pretty good at it…. We also got run out of more than one coffee shop by irritated waitresses, but, hey, we were young and full of high spirits, if not tact…..

Well, today’s Pearl should prove to be interesting, if for no other reason than going in the direction indicated in the opening lines. I have a feeling that such strangeness has not finished manifesting today, and that we’ll see it’s like elsewhere in the process…. which is fine with me. I’m quite familiar, and comfortable with spending time outside the normal bounds of reality, having begun my explorations into that unknown territory while in my teens, and continuing my researches well into adulthood. Now, of course, I spend about half my time outside reality, looking in, wondering why I bother going back there at all….

Such is the life of a man in limbo…. I spend my time twisting reality to suit my needs, which allows me to avoid those parts of it that are painful and liable to increase my angst. Of course, reality, being what it is, rarely cooperates fully, so it’s all pretty much fooling myself. But, it seems to work, or at least, has worked so far, as here I am, still alive, fairly sane, and I haven’t killed any bureaucrats yet, in spite of the almost overwhelming urge to go down to the SS office and start firing away with my non-existent guns…..

Actually, when I wrote that phrase just now, I got this great mental image of myself, armed with a Super-Soaker 5000, standing in a room full of cubicles, spraying and soaking all the myrmidons until the dripping-wet look was the style of the day…. I feel better now….. Funny, isn’t it, how such a simple thing can do that? SIGH….

Well, I’ve wasted about as much time here in the intro as I can safely waste…. I’ll still be here at lunch time if I don’t get started on today’s dive for pearls. But, I guess if I’ve got the time to spend on crap like this, a bit longer to find some attractive oysters can’t hurt….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Free enterprise ended in the United States a good many years ago. Big oil, big steel, big agriculture avoid the open marketplace. Big corporations fix prices among themselves and drive out the small entrepreneur. In their conglomerate forms, the huge corporations have begun to challenge the legitimacy of the state.” — Gore Vidal

In his book, “Friday”, Robert Heinlein details a society of humanity’s possible future, one in which corporations have continued to grow beyond the boundaries of mere countries, until their interests become paramount even over that of the state, as observed by Mr. Vidal. We, of the society here on Earth in the early 21st century are witnessing that growth, as I write, and as you read…..

The small enterprise markets still exist, but only on the fringes of the economy, the major portion of which is busy manipulating the population into serving the economic trends that the corporations control, in the essential markets that cover everyone… In other words, the corporations monopolize most of the economy, allowing the fringe markets to exist to provide exotic, alternative toys and entertainments for the working classes.

Mr. Heinlein’s character, a young woman with designer genes, genius IQ, and Heinlein’s innate sardonicism, as part of an assignment, is required to perform a research and analysis of how the corporations affected the political and economic scenes of their society, obliquely referring, of course, to the one we have now. It is a very interesting part of a very good book, and well worth a read, not only for its perspicacity in explaining the piracy we are seeing today, but because Heinlein was a master storyteller, who created fascinating characters in  fantastic situations, making it all seem perfectly normal and real.

“The phenomenality of organic, conscious existence should, could have made impossible the sadism, the unending hurt of our ways. The impotent fury, the guilt that master and surpass my identity carry with them the working hypothesis, the ‘working metaphor’, if you will, of ‘original sin’. To this expression, I am unable to attach any reasoned, let alone historical substance. On the pragmatic-narratological plane, stories of some initial crime and inherited culpability are universal fables  — uncannily profound and lasting. Nothing more. Yet in the presence of the beaten, raped child, of the horse or mule flogged across its eyes, I am possessed, as by a midnight clarity, by the intuition of the Fall.” — Rudolf Steiner, Errata: An examined life, Phoenix — (a division of Orion Books), London, 1998), p. 169

At first, this quote may not seem to be related to the first. However, it is this “original sin” of which he speaks that is the root cause of the problems with corporations in society. Those humans who reject commonality with the rest of humanity are the villains in this play that passes for modern culture, for they do not accept their debt to the rest of the species, and have determined that they will use whatever means they need to become ascendant over the rest of us. Greed is only the most obvious of the ills that this group has subjected our culture to, with cruelty, dishonesty, and lack of compassion as side attractions. Through the actions of their corporate entities, they work to maintain their power and control of others, all for the sake of their own aggrandizement….

These are the men who run the trade in human trafficking, abducting and abusing children and women, for sex and slavery. These are the men who run the brothels, and the underground casinos, and the money-lending, and the protection rackets, and the drug dealing rings. What many folks don’t realize is that they are also the men who run for political office, or become preachers/priests, and the bankers, and the CEO’s,  and other corporate officers, who make their decisions based on self-interest, never on altruism. They seem, and act like, they are the leaders of society, when, in fact, they are the very reason our society is headed for extinction….

Unfortunately, these men (and they are almost ALL men….) will not give up their power and control without a fight. They will not respond to reason, giving up all their wealth and perceived power, to benefit the rest of mankind. They will not suddenly see the light, and give it all back. They will have to be rooted out like weeds, tough, hardy weeds, and destroyed, if we are to have any chance of survival…. It is unfortunate, but no other method will work, and it brings with it the danger of falling into the same kind of behavior by which they operate. But, I can see no other way to solve the issue, since they will not cooperate with the rest of us for the benefit of all….

1. If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting.

2. What you settle for is what you end up with.

3. If you think that worrying about a problem is the same thing as solving it, then you must live in some other universe where different laws pertain.

–Smart Bee
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A Draught Of Sunshine

Hence Burgundy, Claret, and Port,
Away with old Hock and madeira,
Too earthly ye are for my sport;
There’s a beverage brighter and clearer.
Instead of a pitiful rummer,
My wine overbrims a whole summer;
My bowl is the sky,
And I drink at my eye,
Till I feel in the brain
A Delphian pain –
Then follow, my Caius! then follow:
On the green of the hill
We will drink our fill
Of golden sunshine,
Till our brains intertwine
With the glory and grace of Apollo!
God of the Meridian,
And of the East and West,
To thee my soul is flown,
And my body is earthward press’d. –
It is an awful mission,
A terrible division;
And leaves a gulph austere
To be fill’d with worldly fear.
Aye, when the soul is fled
To high above our head,
Affrighted do we gaze
After its airy maze,
As doth a mother wild,
When her young infant child
Is in an eagle’s claws –
And is not this the cause
Of madness? – God of Song,
Thou bearest me along
Through sights I scarce can bear:
O let me, let me share
With the hot lyre and thee,
The staid Philosophy.
Temper my lonely hours,
And let me see thy bowers
More unalarm’d!

John Keats

I know, a lot of Keats lately, but, hey, if you’re gonna go with somebody else’s work, why not use the best?…..
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So, I’m diving around, looking for oysters, and these random quotes on various aspects of religion kept popping up. Since I’m not particularly bursting with material or angst sufficient to either rant or write much of interest, I thought I’d string them together for an old school pearl…. my default position in these instances. There is no real point to be made here, though it may be entirely possible that there is one…. I just like these because they made me think…. and hopefully, they will do the same for you…. enjoy!….

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.     He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” — C. S. Lewis

We are arguing like a man who should say “If there were an invisible cat in that chair, the chair would look empty; but the chair does look empty; therefore there is an invisible cat in it.” — C.S. Lewis

“A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes.” — James Feibleman, “Understanding Philosophy”, 1973

“While it cannot be proved retrospectively that any experience of possession, conversion, revelation, or divine ecstasy was merely an epileptic discharge, we must ask how one differentiates “real transcendence” from neuropathies that produce the same extreme realness, profundity, ineffability, and sense of cosmic unity.  When accounts of sudden religious conversions in TLEs [temporal-lobe epileptics] are laid alongside the epiphanous revelations of the religious tradition, the parallels are striking.  The same is true of the recent spate of alleged UFO abductees. Parsimony alone argues against invoking spirits, demons, or extraterrestrials when natural causes will suffice.” — Barry L. Beyerstein, “Neuropathology and the Legacy of Spiritual Possession”,   The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII, No. 3, pg. 255

“Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book ii, Chap. xii, Apology for Raimond Sebond

“…there can be no public or private virtue unless the foundation of action is the practice of truth.” — George Jacob Holyoake

No, it isn’t a trick…. The last one was, indeed, added on purpose, and actually brings all the rest into focus, making what I said above about this pearl having no point a lie…. or perhaps, premature ejaculation would be more appropriate….. Whatever it is, or might have been, or isn’t, it is what it is, so there…. And, believe it or not, it actually makes some sense, on a very basic level…. Any who, it was a few moments of exercising a muscle we all need to keep strong, so, all is well that ends well, yes?….. And, at the very least, you may comfort yourself with knowing it is ended….
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I was correct in my earlier assessment as to the strangeness that could conceivably manifest itself today, but, examination reveals nothing that is toxic, or particularly offensive. A shame really, as I’ve heard it said that, if what you write doesn’t offend SOMEONE, you’re doing it wrong….. Don’t know for sure how right that is, but I’ve always tried to live up to it. This one isn’t too bad, all in all, so it’s going out, just like the rest of them have gone, naked and alone…. We’ll see how it fares….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Kowabunga!

Only in feverish dreams do we dance….

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Ffolkes,
With all due apologies to the fish sauce, another morning dawns…. As is often the case, my head is a bit befuddled so soon after arising, yet, here I am, typing away as if I knew just what to say. Which, of course, I do and I don’t, being a child of the 60’s. Very convenient, that….. I just have to mention it once, and all kinds of sympathetic concern is generated…. Shoot, if I tell folks I was actually AT People’s Park in Berkeley in 1969, why, nobody ever expects anything normal from me, especially written; they all KNOW my brain was fried back then…..

That’s my secret, you see…. I actually was there, but I survived with mind and memory intact, and no lingering states of confusion due to drugs….. Oh, I won’t bother to tell you I didn’t use them, but I never got so far into it that it became an issue with daily living or cognitive deficits…. So far, as all the evidence clearly indicates, my cognitive powers are completely intact…. They may be ALL I have intact, for that matter, as my body continues to give out at an alarming rate, which has more to do with being too athletic than with overdoing recreational drugs. My doctor tells me NOW that if I’d been less active when younger, I wouldn’t be paying the price I am now….. NOW they tell me…..

C’est la vie, I suppose…. There isn’t a lot I can do about it now, in any case, so I just live with the pain, and try to get on…. and in that spirit, I think we should get on with today’s Pearl…. after this bit of housekeeping…..

Correction, maybe…. Yesterday, I attributed a piece of poetry to Thomas Cowper… I am currently unsure, but that may have been in error. I have evidence that suggests it may have been William Cowper. I will research, and let y’all know…. Silly Smart Bee listed it merely as Cowper, and I filled in the Thomas out of memory…. which I now find may have been wrong…. alas, I am human, damn it!…

“That was Zen, this is Tao.” — Peter da Silva, April 24, 1993

Shall we Pearl?…..
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I’ve been very lucky with my latest incarnation of Smart Bee…. it seems to be giving me a higher percentage of usable quotes than it did before I had trouble with it. In fact, so many quotes are worth saving that I’m starting to group them into subject lots…. Here are a significant number of intriguing and/or interestingly accurate observations on modern life in America, land of the marginally civilized….

Homosexuality is *not* a sickness.  Bigotry is. — Smart Bee

“Whether you have an abortion, what you put in your own body, with whom you have sex – these are not the affairs of the state.  A government does not exist to control the citizens.  When it does, it is a tyranny, and must be fought.  The tree of liberty, Jefferson warned us, must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants and patriots.” — Gore Vidal

I swear to the Lord
I still can’t see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me.

— (Langston Hughes) The Black Man Speaks

“Government is about coercion. Limiting government is the single most important instrument for guaranteeing liberty. We’re working on a third generation which has little in the way of education about what our Constitution means and why it was written. Thus, we’ve fallen easy prey to charlatans, quacks, and hustlers.” — Dr. Walter Williams

“The discovery of America was the occasion of the greatest outburst of cruelty and reckless greed known in history.” — Joseph Conrad

“Democracy is government by the people with open discussion and free speech. This allows those with no ideas to unload their thinking in the most tedious and lengthy manner. After this, a vote is taken, and the least informed will oppose the most confused. The result, inevitably, will be known as model legislation. In time, it will proliferate, and eventually a commission will be formed to review what has been done and why it isn’t working and it will recommend reforms of the previous efforts. All of this will be published in various government journals and cause great debate. There will be a veritable waterfall of newspaper editorials and Johnny Carson will use the whole thing as a part of his monologue. In the end, the reforms will be defeated. –Smart Bee

“Christianity:  Please help find the cure.” — Smart Bee

(Sorry, I couldn’t resist…. A few days ago, as I sat in a shady spot outside on a beautiful California day, I began to think, for some misbegotten reason, about Christianity in this country, and I wondered about exactly how many different definitions of the word “Christian” there would be. There are so many different interpretations of the Bible, and so many different definitions of what is “Christ-like”, that I can see no hope of any consensus answer to this question. A conservative guess would be about 5,000 different churches, and varying interpretations of scripture; it’s more likely that Los Angeles and New York City alone contain that many, and the number nation-wide is probably closer to a hundred thousand….. None, I repeat, NONE, of the people who embrace the dogma associated with each of these various cults {yes, cults, by definition…look it up….} are at all willing to even consider any truth in any of the others, and they ostensibly are all worshiping the same dude…. It’s a bit pathetic, when one stops to look at the broader picture…. SIGH… ah well, back to general culture, and the caricaturization thereof…..)

— You may be redneck… if you refer to Mason jars as “the good glasses.” — Smart Bee

“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

On that note, we will go ever onward, seeking approbation, or at least hoping for poor aim….
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First I thought, “Keats, or Yeats, or Pope” for this morning, as I don’t have a poem ready for bleeding…. Then I had the irreverent but accurate thought, “Long time no Pope….”, so, here is a selection from one of my favorite poets, whom I also consider to be possibly the best ever, from a technical and creative standpoint…. He wrote A LOT, and almost all of it is wonderful…. He definitely makes the star of humanity shine brighter in the heavens….. enjoy!

Chorus of Youths and Virgins

Semichorus.
Oh Tyrant Love! hast thou possest
The prudent, learn’d, and virtuous breast?
Wisdom and wit in vain reclaim,
And Arts but soften us to feel thy flame.
Love, soft intruder, enters here,
But ent’ring learns to be sincere.
Marcus with blushes owns he loves,
And Brutus tenderly reproves.
Why, Virtue, dost thou blame desire,
Which Nature has imprest?
Why, Nature, dost thou soonest fire
The mild and gen’rous breast?

Chorus.
Love’s purer flames the Gods approve;
The Gods and Brutus bent to love:
Brutus for absent Portia sighs,
And sterner Cassius melts at Junia’s eyes.
What is loose love? a transient gust,
Spent in a sudden storm of lust,
A vapour fed from wild desire,
A wand’ring, self-consuming fire,
But Hymen’s kinder flames unite;
And burn for ever one;
Chaste as cold Cynthia’s virgin light,
Productive as the Sun.

Semichorus.
Oh source of ev’ry social tie,
United wish, and mutual joy!
What various joys on one attend,
As son, as father, brother husband, friend?
Whether his hoary sire he spies,
While thousand grateful thoughts arise;
Or meets his spouse’s fonder eye;
Or views his smiling progeny;
What tender passions take their turns,
What home-felt raptures move?
His heart now melts, now leaps, now burns,
With rev’rence, hope, and love.

Chorus.
Hence guilty joys, distastes, surmises,
Hence false tears, deceits, disguises,
Dangers, doubts, delays, surprises;
Fires that scorch, yet dare not shine
Purest love’s unwasting treasure,
Constant faith, fair hope, long leisure,
Days of ease, and nights of pleasure;
Sacred Hymen! these are thine.

Alexander Pope
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“Purity engenders Wisdom, Passion avarice, and Ignorance folly, infatuation and darkness.” — Bhagavad Gita (c. B.C. 400)

I first read the Bhagavad Gita sometime in my twenties, or possibly just before, while studying at UC Berkeley. I remember my sense of wonder at the depth of the insight into human nature, and my feeling of awe that the words I was reading were written well over two thousand years ago. Here was knowledge that, if commonly understood, could change the very face of human civilization. In my naivete, I couldn’t believe that this wasn’t the basis for everything that society believed, or that any of what I had read was not commonly held by everyone who ever went to school, or had read or heard the words spoken by Krishna to Arjuna……

The words in this little treasure-trove of wisdom had changed the world, when first written, I’m sure, with lasting effects on the culture of India at the time, effects that have carried over into modern times. Unfortunately, these effects have survived in altered state, changed to suit the priests and preachers with the same kinds of twists and perversions as happened to the teachings of a later sage, Jesus of Nazareth. The insight contained in the lessons of both Krishna and Jesus were used to benefit the only the institutions created by the icons, instead of being used to benefit all of mankind, as they were intended…..

The statement quoted above out of the ancient text, regardless of the degradations enabled by the avaricious, remains as true today as when first written. And, as proof of these assertions, I offer the following piece of BRILLIANCE….. pay close attention, it’s subtle….

I took Brad Templeton out to lunch one day, and afterwards, we stopped by a bakery to bring eleven doughnuts back to the office.  The baker offered a free sticky bun to pad our order to an even dozen, and Brad refused the bun.  After we left, I asked why.  He said that he never selects buns, especially pad buns. — Smart Bee

Sorry, I’m incorrigible. Don’t incorrige me…..  🙂    Just a little fun…. any who, if one looks closely enough, the truth is hidden in what has been said here…. hidden right in plain sight, in fact…. Like any such magical gem, it is visible to those who can see…..
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Not bad for a Pearl with no rant…. Mitt the Twitt, and Mr. Lyin’ Ryan have obviously been told to shut the f__k up until after the debates, because they’ve been missing from the front pages in the last few days…. too many days in a row where they were pissing in their own corner, I guess, and their handlers got tired of the clean-up. It’s a nice break for my ears and my sense of outrage, but it’s probably hard on the writers who depend on politics for all their material…. Ah well, the election is almost here, and then Scary Black President can get back to frightening the poor Republicans….. stay alert, ffolkes, and make sure you know where your polling place is…..  In the meantime, y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Name that shrew for $50, Ted….

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Ffolkes,

It may have been noted by now that, other than the Daily Pearl that has been coming out each day, I’m not spending any time on WP, reading the blogs of the ffolkes I follow. This is due to the absence of internet service at my new place….. I hope it is a temporary condition, but one never knows when dealing with large bureaucracies, and Comcast is big enough now to warrant that description…. It’s unfortunate, but the choice in my building is either the ubiquitous cable guys, or the phone company, using the phone lines. Great choice, eh?

I’ve got to choose one or the other, which is annoying, as I’d rather deal with other companies, that aren’t so large and government-like in their obstinacy, with employees who get the same glazed look as federal bureaucrats when they start rattling off corporate rules and regs, designed to squeeze the maximum profit out of the unwitting customer. Most of the time, they don’t even know they are acting like assholes; they’re just spouting the company line….

Unfortunately for me, if I don’t get one or the other, I have to keep going down to the coffee shop, and spending way too much money on coffee and croissants, just so I can use their Wi-Fi node. I have to admit, the network node they’ve set up there is FAST; the fastest I’ve ever seen. It’s fun to watch a page load instantly, or an email to take 3 seconds to send out, rather than 20…..

I can’t afford (yet) to go out for coffee every day, and the library opens too late to fit in with my schedule well. Ah well, decisions, decisions…. better than having to figure out where the next meal is coming from, or whether I’ll have a place to sleep tonight…. I have to keep reminding myself of those things; that way my own poverty is less of an issue…. In the meantime, I think it’s time to get down to some serious, or not so serious, business….. Shall we Pearl?…..

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Using the old school format for these Pearls seems to be faster than writing all of it myself…. so, here is an old school batch of pearls, all leading to an approximately relevant thought, or lesson, or joke, or all of the above….

History records no more gallant struggle than that of humanity against the truth. — Smart Bee

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.”? — Gore Vidal

“I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too.” — Thomas Jefferson

“Governments are the world’s real terrorist organizations. They function by means of inducing fear in their victims to gain compliance.” — Westley F. Deitchle

I am an agnostic; I do not pretend to know what many ignorant men are sure of.” — Clarence Darrow

In a Democracy, decisions are made by a majority. Not by a majority of the people, but by a majority of that minority enfranchised to vote. Not just those who can vote. The minority is made up entirely of those who do vote, and that is quite a minority indeed that makes the decisions for a Democracy. — Smart Bee

I think that makes the grade….. how about you?….

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Absently Gestalt

After the echoes of silence are faded away

Comes the cacophony which accompanies dismay.

Apocalyptic thoughts and emotions run free

Spreading fear enough to fill the holy see.

 

Speak softly to the beloved ruling class

Deathly darts sunk deep are painful, and crass

Sloth and ignorance are commonly shared

By those who would rule, alone or au paired.

 

Images and opinions are sullenly forlorn

Yet hope shines bright wherever ’tis borne.

Feeble strengths hide many objective flaws

For reality bites, with hard, vicious jaws.

 

Can you stand up and state your own name?

Will you hide in a handle, behind a great flame?

No hole and no mind is so deep and so wide

As to furnish safe haven in which to hide.

 

Bring out the weapons of your reluctant choice

Bring them to bear on the sound of their voice.

Silence the ignorant, and muzzle the fear

Make reason the only message you hear…..

~~ gigoid

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This space intentionally left blank.

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I am currently at the library, and find myself running out of time…. so I’ve made a hard decision, to limit today’s Pearl to only the two pearls I could get done…. sorry, but I’ll get back to normal (hah!) fairly soon….. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!

Abstinence of compassion is considered immoral….

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Ffolkes,
Wasted moments come back to haunt, rattling chains and screaming demons; unrequited dreams of love moan in despair. Yet time passes, and all becomes dust in the end. No pain, no gain, but, the gains are one step forward, three steps back. Silvered memories of golden days shine off in the distance, while the fire of anguish cleanses the soul. No one leaves without singing the blues…

Sometimes, I know what is going to go down when I start typing, other times, such as today, I haven’t a clue, so that what I see on screen is as new to me as it is to you…. not efficient, maybe, but guaranteed fresh. I don’t yet have the patience to stay with one theme for long, probably due to not being able to sit for long without having to move…it’s hard at times to finish one of my more extensive rants, as I tend to lose the driving impetus of outrage when I take a break from writing about whatever it is that affronted me. It’s a delicate line to walk, but hey, like I said above, no pain, no gain…. and I love singing the blues….

Now that you are probably as confused as I am, I think we should go find some pearls…. shall we?….
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“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the Republic is destroyed.” — Former US President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 — letter to Col. William F. Elkins

Uh, oh…. I have a feeling that Abe’s fears have already been realized. The rich have become richer, and even now are making a bid to bring their completely self-centered agenda out into the open, by attempting to put one of the the 1% into the office of the Presidency, supported by a running mate who is a fawning sycophant of the elite, one of their unapologetic myrmidons, who parrots whatever the corporate masters decree with a big smile and a wink, hoping that someday, he, too, will be allowed into the inner circle of the beloved ruling class….

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

If anyone has any remaining doubts about this scenario’s reality, let me point you to a simple set of facts… first, the average man has no representation in Washington, as every Senator in office makes over a million dollars a year; how can they possibly understand the issues important to their constituents, when they live in an entirely different social strata….

Unfortunately, they all send out the message that they are the “champions of the little guy” and know “how the average family feels” (which should set off an alarm right away…. how can they be both at once? They are mutually exclusive societal groups; you can’t be their champion, and be one of them, too….) Members of the House purportedly make less money on average than the Senators, but not by much, and who knows what they are getting from lobbyists?

The three branches of government: lobbyists, media, PAC’s. — Smart Bee

There is the second fact to remember…. more money is spent each year by lobbyists, to bribe and/or influence Congress into voting in their favor, than is spent on ALL domestic programs that aid the populace. The budgets for housing, education, transportation, food and drug administration, Medicare & Medicaid, and all other social programs are dwarfed by what is spent lobbying against them. Even more money is spent to lobby defense and security programs, but those budgets are far larger than they need to be by a factor of at least 10….

Then there is the cost of keeping Congress in perks…. they make a salary reminiscent of a corporate CEO, with medical and pension benefits that make the finest of HMO’s look paltry in comparison. A member of the House, who only serves one term of two years, is retired with a full salary, and full medical benefits for life; same for a Senator who only serves one four year term…. life-long benefits at a yearly rate of income that is larger than over 50% of the people in this country, including those still working. Now, what have any of them done that deserves that?

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.” — Gore Vidal

Aye, indeed, Gore has hit the head of the nail in one sure shot…. Last year, between the federal and state government, I paid about 25% taxes on my income, which is what I’ve had to pay most of my life. If I should work overtime, or make money considered extra to my salary, that rate went up to over 40%….. When I hear about somebody like Mitt the Twitt paying 13%, it pretty much pisses me off about as much as I can be… and that is only the one he let the public see… I’ll bet anything he paid less in other years, and I’ll bet he has more than one year when he didn’t pay any at all…. oh yeah, that’s fair and equitable law, for sure…. NOT!…..

“This is the age in which thin and theoretic minorities can cover and conquer unconscious and untheoretic majorities. — G. K. Chesterton, International League of Nations, 12/20/1919

Don’t forget to get out the vote ffolkes, this time it makes a difference. Not that the Democrats are doing much better, but at least they apologize when they plow into our exposed butts…. and I made that image gross on purpose, because the shafting we get from our government, our beloved ruling class, is an ass-fucking of advanced degree…. Any who, vote, and keep your powder dry….
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Below you will find an example of why the powers that be are always trying to suppress free speech, and particularly that of writers and poets…. They, our beloved ruling class, know that such words as these pose the greatest threat to their oppression of the populace… and these are particularly powerful words, worthy of their fear….

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

Maya Angelou
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“He who endeavors to serve, to benefit, and improve the world, is like a swimmer, who struggles against a rapid current, in a river lashed into angry waves by the winds.  Often they roar over his head, often they beat him back and baffle him.  Most men yield to the stress of the current…  Only here and there the stout, strong heart and vigorous arms struggle on toward ultimate success.” — Albert Pike (1809-1891)

I like this statement, on several levels…. First, even though it is a bit pompous in its language, the message it delivers is one of great insight into human nature, and manages, in spite of its rather stiff phraseology, to inspire the very actions it describes. Second, it appeals to my old-fashioned views in many areas.

I have no idea who Albert Pike was, but just seeing when he lived, through much of the 19th century, gives us a glimpse of him… He was fortunate to be born at a time when this nation was young, and full of promise, with burgeoning confidence in our nation’s future. In addition, he lived through times that many did not, observing the growth of the country from 13 states to over 40, the Civil War, and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. He seems to have taken a lot of the best qualities he saw in society into his own thoughts, if this one is any indication. Let’s see what Google has to say about Albert….

From http://freedomfighter.co/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=285&Itemid=1

“In 1859, Albert Pike 1809-1891), a lawyer, and leader of the U.S. Scottish Rite Masonry (who was called the “Sovereign Pontiff of Universal Freemasonry,” the “Prophet of Freemasonry” and the “greatest Freemason of the nineteenth century.”), who was fascinated with the idea of a one-world government, was chosen to coordinate Illuminati activities in the United States. He said they needed to create a political party that would keep the world fighting, until they could bring peace. Pike said it would be done “with tongue and pen, with all our open and secret influences, with the purse, and if need be, with the sword…”

“Pike was born on December 29, 1809, in Boston, went to Harvard, then later served as a Brigadier-General in the Confederate Army. He was appointed by the Confederacy to be the Indian Commissioner in order to create an army of Indian warriors. He became Governor of the Indian territory, and succeeded in creating an army consisting of Chickasaws, Comanches, Creeks, Cherokees, Miamis, Osages, Kansas, and Choctaws. He became known to them as the “faithful pale-face friend and protector.” The savagery of their attacks caused Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy to disband the Indian army. After the Civil War, Pike was found guilty of treason and jailed, only to be pardoned by President Andrew Johnson on April 22, 1866, who met with him the next day at the White House. On June 20, 1867, Scottish Rite officials conferred upon Johnson, the 4th – 32nd degrees, and he later went to Boston to dedicate a Masonic Temple. The only monument to a Confederate general in Washington, D.C. was erected in Pike’s honor, and can be found between the Department of Labor building and the Municipal Building, between 3rd and 4th Streets, on D Street, NW.”

Very interesting man… the web page also listed some correspondence to and from Mr. Pike, and other historical information; it’s worth a few minutes to check it out…..
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Well, that was an interesting trip…. I’m done for the day…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!