Posters such as the one above, celebrating one of the newest planets to be found by the Kepler Planet-Finder Telescope, from its orbit high above the Earth, don’t cause vertigo, just wanderlust. I’ve included a picture now of all three NASA has posted at their web site. as a nod to the progress Mankind has made in moving into Space. This goes right along with my belief in Mankind’s true destiny, which, coincidentally, may be our only hope of survival as a species of life. The environmental crisis our foolish behavior has made inevitable has added new impetus to the necessity of establishing colonies of human elsewhere in the solar system… because we don’t have a lot of time left to get there before this planet becomes an extremely hostile environment to our kind of life….

The posters also have provided me with three good opening sections, gracing the top of the page, thus stimulating my muse below….Works for me… The only problem with it is the same one I always come up against, which was demonstrated in the last paragraph, to wit: the risk of ranting is ever-present with items like this, as it brings up the subject of our species’ Bozoid tendencies, by association. This, naturally, stimulates my ranting gland, which seems to have grown out of all proportion to all my other hormonal sources; it’s a bit inconvenient at times, but, it does make it easy to find stuff to write about, if only my own inner chaos, resulting whenever I attempt to transfer what is in my head onto the screen for y’all to peruse, and digest….’

Hmm… I don’t believe I want to examine that last part very closely; too many gross images come to mind right away to make it comfortable, or, for that matter, prevent the nausea that would naturally ensue. In fact, I have the distinct impression we’d better make a complete about-face, and move rapidly away from this entire category of material, lest we take a turn for the worse, ending up somewhere that would challenge even my iron stomach’s ability to keep its cool….

In fact, I think now would be a good time to bail. I see a relatively safe exit point coming up ahead, so, let’s all tighten up those belts, put down our morning beverages, and take the plunge, okay? Okay…. I’ll inform the pilot, while y’all get it all zipped up properly. Here we go, ffolkes…. hang on!

Oh shit! What’s th….. Oh, whew! Nice move, pilot!… Almost bought the farm that time, didn’t we? Hope the hippo is okay…. Okay, ffolkes, you can disembark as soon as we’ve come to a complete stop, and don’t forget your flippers…. The lost items box is getting full…

Shall we Pearl?

In keeping with today’s opening remarks, our video choice is a documentary on Space Flight…. There are a lot of other choices to watch on the page where I found this, so, clicking the link below will give a much wider choice, to suit your own fancy…. As a bonus. I’ve also included a video of Gustav Holst’s symphony, The Planets, played by the Berlin Philharmonic; the perfect choice for today’s theme….

Enjoy, ffolkes, this is our destiny…. as well as our probable salvation….

“Rigorous law is often rigorous injustice”

How true this is…. Our own country, and the pictured document, are the victims of this concept, in truth, and reality. Nowhere, other than perhaps in the field of illegal spying on its own citizens, does this become more clear. than in examining how corporations, i.e. the oligarchy which controls the entire world, have perverted the field of medicine, or, as we call it today, “The Health Care Industry”, a nice, grand, rolling phrase which gives the impression of neological compassion, and a ruthless efficiency in its approach to its scope of supplying medical services to people….

Well, I will admit, it IS ruthlessly efficient, but, not at health care, which remains as much of a hit and miss operation as when we lived in small farming communities, for the most part, and looked to our local wizard, or wise woman, to deal with such matters…. No, these huge, soulless corporations are very efficient at stealing, er, making money off the public, ruthlessly exploiting the ignorance of the common man, so well encouraged by churches, and our schools, even going so far as to label their victims, er, patients, as “members”, like it’s some sort of exclusive club. In reality, their actual motivation shows in the only piece of information with which they identify each of their “members” to wit: a member NUMBER, which ties them into the computer programs they have developed, to keep track of every penny they are able to squeeze out of the wallet of the person who, to them, is that number…

I’d wager that, at the upper echelons of corporate management, the people who are “members” are thought of, and possibly even referred to, as “guaranteed profit producing units, individual”, as opposed to, the even more money-making “groups”. Me, I’m in a “group”, thus, the fact I have my “numbership” thrown in my face at every turn of the bureaucratic wheel is not unexpected…. But then, I am slightly more perceptive than the average number….

Just below, I have included a discussion of this subject, a series of thoughts which occurred to me after a doctor called me at home, in the modern equivalent of a House Call, the original having long been only a relic of a bygone era, except for the elite oligarchy…. who prefer not to risk being recognized, and tend to stay within their compounds, surrounded by their private armies of mercenary soldiers, perverted warriors, without any personal honor or virtue, to keep out the rabble….

The same rabble, who, if…. no, WHEN they realize who these human predators, these traitors to their own species, actually are, seeing how they have corrupted the world, this same rabble would, and, if I have any say in the matter, shall, virtually instantly, engulf them in the overwhelming, irresistible flame of human righteousness…. Then, we would come for the executives, and bankers, and preachers, and politicians, and police, who have done their bidding for millennia…. Whether they have acted as foolish puppets, or willing slaves, they, too will pay the price of true justice….

If we were to ask virtually anyone in the middle or lower economic classes, under the age of 50, what the term ‘house call’ meant, I’d wager 90% of them would never even have heard of it. To them, a house call is always made by an ambulance, at great expense and bother…. and to very little good result. Sick people have to go to a hospital, or doctor’s office, or a street clinic, to get medical help. That is the common attitude, and belief of those who live on the streets, or close by, always on the verge of joining those without shelter….

The recent national hullabaloo over Obamacare, and the reforms needed in that industry, highlighted much of this issue, when it became clear that MOST of the lowest income people in this country do not have medical insurance…. and, in spite of the improvements, the situation has NOT been improved much, other than to make a lot of money for insurance companies, medical health organizations, and, of course the Big Pharms….

Everybody else, even those of us who already HAD medical insurance, have merely had to  spend more on health care, because ALL of the costs of the reforms are being passed to the consumers by those entities…. The laws that were made do nothing to keep these corporations from what they believe is their right to make a profit margin THEY set, and they own enough politicians to ensure that NOTHING has changed to alter their “right” to a profit; any extra cost involved in providing healthcare to the poor won’t be shouldered by them…. you may be sure of that…..

So, we see how the concept of a House Call is one the executives of the big HMO’s decided isn’t profitable, unless they can charge outrageous prices to provide such services outside their own venues. Sure, anyone can still get a house call…. as long as they are able to afford, A) a personal physician willing to make one, which is guaranteed to be so expensive, nobody making less than millions of dollars a year could possibly afford it regularly…. B) another outrageous amount of money to get any real treatment at home, and, C) enough money to afford to buy drugs, equipment, and necessary supplies, at what are guaranteed to be prices 99% of the world cannot afford….

In other words, only the elite, the oligarchs, the Illuminati, and those minions of theirs who make enough to be able to bypass the normal societal requirements to obtain WHATEVER service they desire, are now able to get house calls from a doctor…. unless, maybe, they are dying, or dead.

Only then MIGHT a doctor come to see you…. but, you can rest assured, the company approves of THOSE kinds of visits, for, besides being inordinately expensive to pay for a health call at home by a doctor, bringing in a tidy sum to their coffers, it preserves one of their numbered monetary units of income for a longer time, so they are thus able to squeeze more profit out of them before letting them die….

Plus, have you SEEN the prices they want today, just to BURY us when we are dead? Tens of thousands of dollars, without counting the cost of the casket, or the land for the grave….. It is INSANE…. Hell, they charged me $150, just to give mercy to my ancient, suffering old dog, when it came time for him to go….. and that didn’t count the cost of any burial, just the charge for the vet to give him the injection…. It still makes me furious to think of it….

To reiterate, it is INSANE…..  but then, that merely reflects how crazy the rest of the world has become….

gigoid has spoken….

For a bit this morning, I thought there might be another new poem ready to leak out, but, apparently it’s still percolating somewhere in my mind, and isn’t ready to come out to play…. So, we’ll give a treat, and find someone else’s poetry to enjoy today….. Let’s see now…. Ah, here is a good one, speaking, to me, of the battle with corporate malfeasance in which I’m currently embroiled…. Powerful stuff, this one…. Enjoy!

I started this blog on Word Press in June of 2011; before that, I’d been posting at the SFGATE members blog site for a few months. Those were my first attempts at posting Pearls of Virtual Wisdom online; previously, they had only gone to a select few friends, or to colleagues at work, via email, since first beginning to compose them in 1998 or so, after attending computer school to obtain my training in computer science, so long dreamed of by this life-long science fiction aficionado….  It seemed like FOREVER until Reality caught up with Imagination….

At very long last, I was able to access the Web…. The rest, patently, is history, in the sense, all of it is still available for reading, somewhere out on the Web…. The format has changed in that time, to what you see today. The pearl below was the entire post for the given date, a couple months after first beginning on WP, when I was just spreading my wings as a full time writer, so, kindly bear with my older style…. The philosophy part is just the stuff I’ve done all my life, one way or another, in my head, at any particular moment free of duty…. I hope you enjoy this glimpse into our developmental past…. I kind of like it, but, hey, we know why THAT is, don’t we?….

From 10/8/2011:

Ffolkes,

It becomes easy to see that self-examination is important; introspection on the subject of ourselves can determine the shape and color, and the emotional content and effect, of our life’s events, and can be a powerful ally in the daily battle with the forces of an uncaring, indifferent Universe. Holding our mind’s course to a straight and narrow path can be tricky, to say the least. The Universe has a lot of tricks up its sleeves, and isn’t afraid to use them on us. Staying positive in one’s outlook is a powerful weapon, as is negativity. The bad news is that it is all our choice. The good news is that it is all our choice……choose well…..

“Love doesn’t just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; re-made all the time, made new.  — Ursula K. LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven

“Wow!  Look!!  A stray meatball!!  Let’s interview it!’ — Zippy the Pinhead

Zippy always makes a good point at which to call a halt to these pieces; his unbridled enthusiasm is hard to resist. Plus, his comments always seem to add just the right touch as counterpoint to the rest of the Pearls. Tres bien!….. y’all take care out there….

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Today’s Pearl, thanks to the wonders of time travel, (as has been our saving grace, ever since acquiring the powers of a Time Lord), has turned into an epic, it seems. I suppose it’s only natural, since pieces of it have been accumulating for several days, whenever I’ve had a spare moment of peace from the storm of shit in which my asinine doctors have plucked me down, to cope, or not to cope, howsoever I choose….

At least it gets them done, without my having to sweat and groan for hours each morning…. and that’s probably TMI…. In order to avoid any further such demonstrations of wimpiness, we’ll take our leave, with dignity, and self-regard intact…. Well, okay…. as intact as it ever is…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, as long as the shit stays out of the fan…. I’m keeping it unplugged, just in case….