It seems my new routine includes more sleep; this is certainly welcome, but, complicates the routine, to fit it into a schedule two hours later than previously used. Ah, well, so much for consistency; it isn’t good to maintain TOO much of it, lest one become hidebound, and lose the flexibility of mind which leads to a more successful approach to living, than confining oneself to a single frame of reference…

There, is that esoteric enough for y’all? I thought I’d try something a bit different, but, I’m  not sure it’ll work more than once. Oh, well, such is life in the blogging world. Events in the BBR kept me busy yesterday, right up to this morning’s late starting time, so, I didn’t get much of this done ahead of time. That’s okay, I’m getting pretty good at cheating, sad to say. It certainly is handy, though. I wonder why I never thought of it before? Probably something to do with how my dad would fry my butt if I made a habit of it. He’d allow such abrogation of duty once, for good reason, but, twice, to him, indicated a burgeoning pattern, and he’d soon inform us of the error of our ways….

Nonetheless, it will get us to where we want to be, and leave me with clean hands, for the most part. You may want to tighten your shoelaces, and your safety belts. The new, ruthless methods I’ve decided to adopt here in the intro have been causing a bit of consternation amongst the guests, so I’m giving fair warning…. In fact, y’all should do it NOW, because we going in, NOW….

Shall we Pearl?

“The high-spirited man may indeed die, but he will not stoop to meanness. Fire, though it may be quenched, will not become cool.” — The Hitopadesa (600?-1100? A.D.)

I think this is a great pearl upon which to base a rant. Unfortunately, I have neither the time, nor, currently, the inclination to create a fresh one. So, here’s one that should fit from the archives…. Enjoy!….

From 3/12/2012, amended 3/28/2013:

“I don’t make jokes.  I just watch the government and report the facts.” — Will Rogers

I was going to use this as a springboard for another rant on our beloved ruling class….. But, the more I thought about it, the longer it percolated in my brain, the sadder I grew….

I used to feel a lot of love for my country, if for nothing else, because of the dream of liberty and human empowerment that our system of government was envisioned, and intended, to create, and maintain. The founding fathers had a vision, of a country where every man and woman had the same opportunities, to live their lives as they chose, as every other person, without censure, and without the fear of being persecuted for their beliefs, no matter how different they were from everyone else’s. A dream of a place where children could grow up without the fear of hunger, or abuse, or death from the skies. A place where a man, or a woman, was respected for just being human, without having to prove their worth to some ignorant asshole who is afraid of any color skin but their own.

Instead, we live in a society whose diverse segments have an extreme, and sadly justified, mistrust of each other, where the rich and powerful, instead of uplifting their fellow man, use their influence and wealth to divide and discriminate, always with the intention of keeping the less fortunate in a powerless state, too downtrodden to even hope for better.

We live in a society that ignores its elderly, and abuses its children; a society where people are starving amidst mountains of food.  We have a produced a culture that glorifies war, and sees peaceful coexistence as weakness; a culture where it is a crime for a man to kill another for honor, but is praised for being part of an army of professional killers. This country has reached the sad point in its history where the twin concepts of honor and duty have been supplanted as the basis of our national character, replaced by the glaring presence of avarice, false entitlement, and expediency.

Yes, I am saddened by Will’s joke, because it cuts far too close to reality, and home…..

From today, 3/28/2014:

“They scream into my ears,
But what they say will only make me deaf.”

— Claus Larsen
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“It’s hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” — Calvin, Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes

Jimmy Swaggert, and the other 5 or  6 televangelists who regularly get caught literally with their pants down come immediately to mind for a list of potential recipients of divine extermination intervention…….

Newt Gingrich, along with a large number of his cohorts in Congress, obviously, for congenital lying, and excessive sliminess….

Rick Santorum, because I can’t imagine an entity as smart as God is reputed to be to let this ….. person…. (I believe using the word “person” is being kind, but, we’ll give the benefit of doubt for the time being, for expedience… See, even I fall prey to that failure of ethics…), well, I don’t think He will let him speak in his Name for long, not without exacting some price….. (I’ve heard that divine price-tag can be a bit heavy….)….

Twitt Romney, that elitist asshole…..

…. and, finally, as Yul Brynner stated so beautifully in his only attempt to sing on film: “Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera…..” to which I would add, “and a cast of thousands, ad nauseam infinitum…..”

I suppose it also says something less than admirable about the media to note, much, even MOST of the crap to which we are exposed, by the members of the (supposed) fifth column, consists, in the main, of reports on the activities of the LEAST admirable examples of our species, who, unfortunately, are the ones who make for salable news…. These newsworthy individuals provide the material that will pay for the advertising costs, so the shadowy corporate masters are satisfied that we will hear about the latest, greatest new products, each of which fills some previously unknown manufactured need.

The most lucrative subject matter, the stories that sell the most papers, or comprises the material for the most successful TV shows, as it turns out, is an endless variety of dramatic fantasy, describing in intimate detail, all of the stupidest, most egregious examples of the insane antics of a seemingly limitless number of the WORST of humanity…. Loud, perverted, fanatic religious zealots (aka preachers….), unprosecuted criminals wearing power suits and ties, (aka politicians….), and a parade of sports and entertainment figures with an average IQ of 77 (actors, actresses, ball players, and police myrmidons)…. These are the current examples of “famous celebrities” we are supposed to fawn over, to use as our idols for emulation…. at least, if we are to believe what we see on the TV (total vacuum)….

I often feel a sense of despair after reading the news…. fortunately, I have WordPress to alleviate any dangerous build-up of bile….. but, all-too-often, it sure makes me wish for a few well-placed bolts of lightning to provide some comic relief, at least…..

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From today, 3/28/2014:

“Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.)

Well, that was certainly confusing, eh? Maybe, just maybe, evolution is a good thing…. ya think?….

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From today, 4/1/2015: Well, that was fun. I think. Let’s go on, shall we?….

“It is by not always thinking of yourself, if you can manage it, that you might somehow be happy. Until you make room in your life for someone as important to you as yourself, you will always be searching and lost …” — Spoken by Leslie Parrish, The Bridge Across Forever, by Richard Bach

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” — Mark Twain

“If you can see a thing whole… it seems that it’s always beautiful. Planets, lives…But close up, a world’s all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life’s a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. You need distance, interval. The way to see how beautiful the earth is, is to see it as the moon. The way to see how beautiful a life is, is to see it from the vantage point of death.” — Ursula K. Le Guin, Dispossessed

“Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward.” — William E. Davidsen

“And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.” — Kahlil Gibran, “The Prophet”

“Nobody can have the soul of me.  My mother has had if, and nobody can have it again.  Nobody can come into my very self again, and breathe me like an atmosphere.” — D. H. Lawrence

“Be not diverted from your duty by any idle reflections the silly world may make upon you, for their censures are not in your power, and consequently should not be any part of your concern.” — Epictetus

“Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows.” — Rainer Maria Rilke in Letters to a Young Poet

“As for courage and will – we cannot measure how much of each lies within us, we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry through trials which may lie ahead.” — Andre Norton

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