Ffolkes,
~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~
Surreality on a Train….
Good morning…. Today’s opening quote from Zippy is one with which we are very familiar in these parts. Without going into what would no doubt be described as Too Much Information, let us merely say, in the interests of full disclosure, I’m going to cheat. You won’t be required to do anything out of the ordinary, other than the two new injections required by law. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt (much), and it’s GOOD for you. We have the assurances of our BRC this is true; now, don’t you feel better?
Hah!…. Sure…. Let’s do this…..
Shall we Pearl?….
“Work is not an end in itself; there must always be time enough for love.” — Robert Heinlein
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It’s been a while since I thought of this band…. I like them a lot; they’ve made some great, innovative music over the years. Here is a live concert from not very long ago. It’s nice to think they’re still making new music for us to enjoy….. So, please do so….. Otherwise, we don’t get our kickback….
Blues Traveler
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The following rant(s) makes up a rather long ranting section; I don’t mind, because the subject matter is one I believe in strongly. The message is one ALL of humanity needs to heed….
Last posted in June of 2014, created in May of 2012:
It has been a long while, too long, since I posted anything on the subject of human trafficking/sex slavery, one I consider to be truly evil, with its own category of posts that touch upon the issue…. To make up for that, below this paragraph you’ll find TWO rants on the subject, both from May of 2012, when I first began to write about it…. Please pay attention to these rants, ffolkes, and spread them around if you will, to spread this message to all who need to hear it, which is virtually everyone alive…. Men, especially gentlemen, have a big responsibility to uphold, and need to be made aware of how they are failing to do so….
Free our sisters, free ourselves…. take note, ffolkes, and pass it on….
From 5/2012:
O men with mothers and wives,
It is not linen you ‘re wearing out,
But human creatures’ lives!
~~ Thomas Hood — The Song of the Shirt ~~
Yesterday, I reblogged an article posted by rmott62, a very strong, inspiring young woman who writes about her experiences as a sex trade slave. I use the word “slave” deliberately, for no other word describes how the women, and children who are trapped, abducted, or even tricked into becoming prostitutes. I have reblogged her work, and the work of a couple others who have been fortunate enough to have exited the system in which they were entrapped, several times, and I will continue to do so as long as she, and I, still are publishing. I do this because I am ashamed….
Yes, ashamed…. I am ashamed at myself, and of all the other men in the world who turn their faces away from this issue, and pretend that there is nothing they can do about it. I am ashamed that this practice, of raping and abusing women and girls, just for their own pleasure (though I fail to see how it can be pleasurable to rape or abuse…), just because they can, not only has been present for thousands of years, but continues unabated in today’s supposedly enlightened culture. To my way of thinking, all of us men are responsible for this, and it is our DUTY to do whatever we can to put a stop to it.
Back in the days when mankind lived in caves, when a man in the tribe became dangerous to others in the tribe, for stealing, for abusing others, for whatever reason they had that went against what was good for the tribe, the other men in the tribe made it a point to discipline that man. It may have been merely a physical beating, or banishment from the tribe, or even death, but the other men took it upon themselves to see that the will of the tribe was upheld. Somehow, when culture grew, and started inhabiting cities, and there was more interchange between various tribes, the system broke down. The people of the society were now supposed to be protected from such depredations by law….
But, at about this time, the unscrupulous among us started to solidify their power over society; the richest among the tribes were those who made the laws; they were also the same ones who saw nothing wrong with raping and abusing women, assuming that was their privilege as one of the beloved ruling class. And so the laws were made to reflect that attitude, and the die was cast. This system has survived the centuries, and now the attitude that prostitution is an integral part of society is so ingrained that even those without any other kind of power over others can go to a brothel and act out their sick fantasies, at the expense of a woman or child who has no defense against the violence that occurs if they should object…. and if there is a discussion it is always about a “victimless crime”….
It disgusts me, right down to my core. It is perhaps the sickest part of our society, and very few people are even aware of it. There is certainly no discussion in the public at large of the issue; it is far too volatile for any politician to ever take the chance of siding with the women who are being abused. Hell, a good half of those assholes in office are trying to take away the few rights women have managed to get into law over the last 40 years; Roe vs. Wade has already been set aside, and the asshole men who can’t stand the thought of a woman having the right to choose anything, much less their own sexual nature, are trying to make sure it never gets revived.
I’m not sure what can be done, at least not on a society-wide scale. The attitudes, and laws, have been so set in stone for so many years that it may require surgical removal to make any progress. But, on a smaller scale, I can make noise about it, and try to shame any man who believes otherwise that he is not only a fool, but an asshole fool, and doesn’t deserve to call himself a man. When I was in college, the women’s rights movement was in its beginnings, and there was a phrase coined that says it all, to me…. Free our sisters, free ourselves….
None of us men will ever be truly and completely free until we have freed our sisters from such servitude. That is a fact. It is not just my opinion, it is a fact, and we would do well to pay heed…. and those who engage in this industry had best watch out, for if no one else does, I will be looking for them, and when I find them, I will do all I can to end them. You can interpret that however you wish; I have no doubt in my mind as to what I mean, and I mean “end them”…..
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From 5/2012:
“I’m just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round.” — John Lennon
Men are afraid of women… hence all the jokes about them taking over, over slyly ruling us without us knowing it. Men’s fears of just that thing are what cause him to hate women, because they do not understand them, and fear arises out of lack of understanding. Here are a few examples of such lies, the lies that perpetuate the war between the sexes…..
“My notion of a wife at 40 is that a man should be able to change her, like a bank note, for two twenties.” — Warren Beatty
A lady is one who only shows her underwear intentionally. — Smart Bee
— Yo momma……so fat she has to buy two airline tickets. — Smart Bee
“A beautiful woman is paradise for the eyes, hell for the soul, and purgatory for the purse.” — Smart Bee
“Passionate kiss like spider web, lead to undoing of fly.” — Confucius say (No, he didn’t, but liars don’t care….)
Really, really sexist and paranoid, yes? Yes….
The mere existence of these jokes, and others like them, indicates clearly what men are afraid of in women, and that is their sexuality. We… well, men, not necessarily we men, because not all of us hate them… No I don’t understand them, but that doesn’t make them any less fascinating or wonderfully different. I am aware of my own self, and my own powers, and they have naught to do with what women can do; I feel no need to compare the two, or to assume one is stronger or better. They are just different, and what is different about women is not to be feared, even if not understood. It is just to be learned, that’s all….and the learning is a totally awesome trip, I assure you….
But, back to the sexuality that men fear. It is because these men have never learned to understand themselves, or their place in the scheme of things, that makes them unable to understand women, and turns their ignorance to fear, from thence to hatred and abuse against them. Men cannot stand the thought that a woman might be more important than him, and that is a certain sign of lack of confidence, and of ignorance. Men who know their place in life, and who are confident of their own ability to cope with that place and its demands, have no need or desire to be more important than anyone; they are complete within themselves….
Too many men in this world don’t come anywhere close to this kind of self-knowledge; most go through life without exercising more than two neurons at once, and those tend to lose function whenever the blood goes elsewhere than the brain (such as during an erection). Most men are so afraid of women that they spend half their life telling jokes like the above, and spreading the nonsensical lies that perpetuate this atrocity.
Yes, atrocity, because it is this fear and loathing, of both themselves and women, that leads to issues such as domestic abuse, sex trafficking, prostitution, and abuse of children. The only women who are actively engaged in these activities are those who have been brainwashed to believe the crap they’ve heard all their lives, and who have given up their own humanity; they are very few in number. Otherwise, it is men who perpetrate these vile actions on women…. all because of their own fear and ignorance…. and I say, shame on them, for they are not men, in my world…. they are vicious, unredeemable beasts, and should be put down like the dangerous creatures they are…..
“In the dark colony of night, when I consider man’s magnificent capacity for malice, madness, folly, envy, rage, and destructiveness, and I wonder whether we shall not end up as breakfast for newts and polyps, I seem to hear the muffled cries of all the words in all the books with covers closed.” — Leo Rosten
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In the most patient moments of rationality
kindness flows smoothly in a special milieu,
fallow thoughts speed first from equality
to give no anxious fever, anger to eschew.
Indignant mothers and step-sons in-law
shall fade simply from brilliant to grey,
intoning ritual dogma, fresh, avid, and raw,
falling, falling, in massive pastoral disarray.
Safety lives not, save brightly in ignorant bliss,
it follows us all, silent and infinitely frail,
foremost too often, soft as a virgin kiss,
alive, always eager, willing, and pale.
Intimate knowledge finds only the bold few
with courage and virtue to gift, unbidden.
No solemn royal version may pass in review,
true love for man, never to remain unhidden.
Sweet feathers of Emily’s hope uplift,
calm, drowsy episodes bursting with light,
With final glad cries we set ourselves adrift,
swimming in the oceans of natural delight.
When sorrow is banished, in ages yet to come,
roots solidly anchored, cold and remote,
Ample supplies of kindness sit silent and dumb,
and the old stranger shrugs on his faded coat.
Dreaming, then, I wait with shadows in the night
aspiring to inspire, a message from the muse’s heart
Never forgotten images, framed in color bright,
tempt me only, grieving, steeped in serenity’s arcane art…..
~~ gigoid ~~
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Today’s final section’s entry turned out to be an odd little pearl; it took SB three separate tries to get it right, and, it still looks as if it could be bigger. It’s actually fine the way it is, with a fairly coherent little message on how to approach the process of growing into your humanity…. Well, okay, so, maybe not QUITE so rarefied a concept, but, it works for me…. Enjoy!….
the path is chosen,
to live forever
is to die
forever.
To not know
when you’ll die
is to find life
wherever
you are.
~~ Alagad ~~
“To know others is wisdom. To know yourself is enlightenment.”
~~- Lao Tzu ~~
“It is impossible for a man to be cheated by anyone but himself.”
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~~
“Each of us bears his own Hell.”
~~ Publius Maro ~~
“Change is inevitable, growth is intentional.”
~~ Glenda Cloud ~~
“It is a good thing to be rich and strong, but it is a better thing to be loved.”
~~ Euripides ~~
“Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.”
~~ Kahlil Gibran ~~
~~ Essay on Death in The Prophet ~~
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As noted, quick, if not short. I’ve done what can be done, and shall take my leave forthwith. Y’all try not to worry too much, okay? I know things out there look bad, but, remember, there are still more of us than them, so, all we have to do is maintain the world as we see it, and it will all be fine in the end…. And, if not, well, there’s always the next incarnation, when we can try again…. Regardless of all the reasons to NOT do so, I’ll be back tomorrow, so, see ya!….
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid, the dubious
The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.
PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.
“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch
À bientôt, mon cherí….
gigoid 