Tag Archives: Life

Weeding dead paradigms is honest labor….

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Ffolkes,

Gripped in the tight fist of fear is a terrible way to wake up….. Good thing I didn’t wake up like that…. but, it IS a pretty gripping way to grab your attention, eh? Sorry if I startled y’all; at the moment, it seemed like the only way to wake up completely, and fictional openings, while not frequent, ARE a fairly regular occurrence here, so, I thought it might work out to get things going in a slightly different direction today…. I could be wrong; that’s been known to happen, too….

Let’s just put all that aside, shall we? I often make false starts, but, have always figured it’s just part of writing on a daily basis…. Speaking of which, I’ve noted that WordPress has added another feature to the blog sites we all have here…. At the bottom of the page, three links to previous blogs are shown, all of which, in some way, have a common theme with whatever is in the current post….. It might be the subject of pain, or fear of the blank page, or some other subject, but, they’re all suggested as further reading for whomever is taking in today’s post, should they be interested…. For me, it’s been a real treat, as it brings out a lot of stuff I hadn’t seen in a long while, some of which I find to be pretty good Pearls….

A bonus of this is that each of the new suggestions shown by the links ALSO has three more suggested posts to read, seemingly random, but with that same connection…. As a result, I’m getting to see a LOT of my older stuff, without having to go look for them myself…. It’s grand fun to cruise through some of the older ones, and see what was working then, as compared to the latest material…. It’s also given me the material I need to decide on when I can take a day or two off from writing, now that I have a bunch of archived blogs that are suitable to be re-blogged….. Yay for me….

There, are you thoroughly bored now? Or, at the least, losing interest? It wouldn’t surprise me in the least…. I can get pretty pedantic, and pompous, too, often without even realizing that I’m going there….. Let’s do something new, and cut me off…. I’m not in the habit of shortening this intro; in fact, my usual mode involves running off at the mouth, so to speak, for as long as I can, randomly, and with little purpose, other than mild entertainment…. not what I’d call compelling…. more like surprisingly sticky…. It’s kind of like reaching to pick up what we believe to be is a coin, then finding it to be covered in some slimy invisible substance that makes our skin crawl….

Now that I’ve probably alienated my entire audience, of three, let’s see if there is some further damage I can bring about in my own fumbling way… not that I wish any harm to anyone, but, there HAS to be SOME way to see if what I write is having any effect on the real world, and piles of rubble, if nothing else, indicate a certain type of progress, even if it is destructive, rather than constructive…. Those two always tend to get mixed up in my head, anyway…. Oh hell…. This isn’t working, so, I’m stopping now….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.” — Leonardo da Vinci

Doh! I KNEW there was something I was supposed to be doing….
_____________________________

It has been some time since I sat down to really do a number on what I consider to be one of the world’s greatest handicaps to human progress, to wit: organized religion…. In fact, it may have been over a month since my last formal religirant…. I’ve taken some passing shots, of course, during my discussions of the political scene, as the dear ministers and preachers fall all over themselves in trying to please the corporate masters and political pundits who protect them, working in tandem, in common cause, to keep the common people in their place….

But, there has been no formal ranting, as such, strictly about them…. the popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, imams, sahdis, or any other iconic religious title given to the leaders of the world’s major, and minor religions…. They’re all deluded, to me, and I wish they’d just shut their damn faces….. For thousands of years, they’ve bent their efforts to molding society into a pious, obedient mass of slaves, content with their lot, keeping their tiny little minds focused on the delusional rewards they will receive in the next life…. Of course, they ignore the fact that all of what they promise in heaven could happen right here on Earth, if they would only stop the nonsense, and work on BEING compassionate, rather than just talking about it….

To be honest, though, I’ve been unwilling to rant about them much of late, because it seems they are killing themselves off, having pretty much alienated most everyone with any sort of basic intelligence…. The people who now fall for their nonsense are those who never have a chance to know anything else…. The poor children of the world are indoctrinated in these silly philosophies of pain and suffering from the time they are born, and are brainwashed into belief before their reasoning minds have any defense against it….

But, even the numbers of the faithful who fall for the delusional message they promote are falling, as more and more education is spread around, thanks to technology…. Ignorance will ALWAYS be defeated by education, given any chance at all….. and technology is becoming more and more ubiquitous in the world, so much so that even the churches are attempting to come to terms with it, never realizing it will destroy them, once and for all…. Well, we can hope, anyway…..

Any who…. I’m not really in the mood for a religirant, even though just thinking about them will usually provide me with enough outrage to create one…. (I also note that I’ve leaked out four paragraphs of “not enough for a rant” material….) Smart Bee, however, has provided me with some great shots at them, so, we’ll go old-school for a few minutes, then follow up with another great article/essay from one of my favorite columnists, Mark Morford…

The link below the group of pearls will take you to yet another of his brilliant forays into the depth and scope of reality, to remind us again how we are all just a part of something strange and beautiful, if we just allow ourselves to realize it…. It’s a great read, ffolkes, so please do so, and spread it around to anyone who needs to see it….. which, these days, is just about everyone….. In between here, and there, enjoy these little pointed sticks thrown at the eye of organized religion….

“In the beginning was nonsense, and the nonsense was with God, and the nonsense was God.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“Let’s do lunch, have your god call my god…” — Smart Bee
(See Peruaosophy, axiom #3….)

“How should one deal with a man who is convinced that he is acting according to God’s will, and who therefore believes that he is doing you a favour by stabbing you in the back?” — Voltaire

“Mystical explanations are considered deep. The truth is that they are not even superficial.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“God has always been hard on the poor.” — Smart Bee

RELIGION, n.  A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance the nature of the Unknowable.

“What is your religion my son?” inquired the Archbishop of Rheims.
“Pardon, monseigneur,” replied Rochebriant; “I am ashamed of it.”
“Then why do you not become an atheist?”
“Impossible!  I should be ashamed of atheism.”
“In that case, monsieur, you should join the Protestants.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“So, if there’s no God, who changes the water?” — [two goldfish in a bowl, New Yorker Cartoon]

Enough! Or, as our friends in Milan say, “Basta!”…. I have only one more thing to say here…. Read this:

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2013/11/12/40-billion-ways-to-dance/
_____________________________

I’ve used this poem before, but, it’s been quite a while, and it’s one of my favorites, so, I’m using it again, not caring at all if I am being repetitious…. I think I put out enough to make it seem fresh…. Besides…. It’s Yeats….

A Drunken Man’s Praise Of Sobriety

COME swish around, my pretty punk,
And keep me dancing still
That I may stay a sober man
Although I drink my fill.

Sobriety is a jewel
That I do much adore;
And therefore keep me dancing
Though drunkards lie and snore.
O mind your feet, O mind your feet,
Keep dancing like a wave,
And under every dancer
A dead man in his grave.
No ups and downs, my pretty,
A mermaid, not a punk;
A drunkard is a dead man,
And all dead men are drunk.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

_____________________________

As may be guessed by now, my ranting urge, at least for today, is somewhat blunted… Oh, not for lack of outrage, for the news is still printed each day, and it provides more than enough of that for anyone…. No, I’m just still tired from fighting the cold I’ve had for the last week and a bit…. Better, I am, but not well, if you know what I mean…. Any who, no matter which excuse I choose, the end result will be the same…. an old-school pearl, with the usual suspects as the target of the day…. I’m sure you can figure out of whom I speak….

“The triumph of libertarian anarchy is nearly (in historical terms) at  hand… *if* we can keep the Left from selling us into slavery and the Right from blowing us up for, say, the next twenty years.” — Eric Rayman, usenet guy, about nanotechnology

“Our “neoconservatives” are neither new nor conservative, but old as Babylon and evil as Hell.” — Edward Abbey

POLITICS, n.  A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.  The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.  — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Franklin D. Roosevelt: If he became convinced tomorrow that coming out for cannibalism would get him the votes he surely needs, he would begin fattening a missionary in the White House backyard come Wednesday.” — H. L. Mencken

(As the single most successful ‘politician’ our country has ever produced, Frankie D., with his sheer genius at shape-shifting, thus molded every other politician who ever lived…. )

“Every horse thinks his pack is heaviest.” — Smart Bee

(For those who may not quite ‘get’ why this is appropriate for inclusion in a pearl about this subject…. This is the very reason that politics exists in the first place…. think about it…. Go ahead, I dare you….)

“As war and government prove, insanity is the most contagious of diseases.” — Edward Abbey

“As one gets older, one discovers everything is going to be exactly the same with different hats on.” — Noel Coward

Well, there you have it…. This one really took a long time, but, I think it came out perfect…. Goddess knows I worked on it long and hard enough….
_____________________________

“late-60’s variant: Why did the running-dog lackey of the bourgeoisie throw the clock out the window?  Because it was a continual reminder of the imminent doom of capitalism!  Oh, well, you had to be there…” — Smart Bee

I suppose it had to happen someday…. My roots are showing…. At least I haven’t spent the intervening years, since the late 60’s, covering my roots with different shades and colors…. I’ve always been a radical, so far Left I’m Right…. Deal with it, ffolkes, because you know in your heart that everything I’m saying, about the government, and the churches (along with their shadowy, hidden masters, the corporate elite of the world….) is true… I haven’t bothered to alter, or stretch any truths I’ve encountered… I just lay them out for your perusal, mostly using the brilliance of others to demonstrate the points I’m making…. Now, if only my message could spread out to encompass the whole world, there MIGHT be a chance to do something to make things better….

SIGH…. I don’t think I’ll hold my breath until that happens, though… In the meantime, let’s see how this turned out…. Well, it may not be some folk’s cup of tea, but, I think, with a blueberry scone, or a croissant, it would do quite well for an afternoon’s replenishing social gathering, anywhere the culture enjoys the custom of high tea…. Of course, it would, hopefully, have more of the effect of a triple espresso, straight up, rather than a mere cup of soothing tea, but, that’s just me, and my possibly neurotic need to know I’m helping reality by encouraging it to fulfill its nature, to CHANGE….

I guess we all have our dreams….

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

Honor is never for sale…..

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Ffolkes,

It isn’t every day one can start off with live Dead before breakfast, or even coffee, and, for many, it might not be exactly their cup of tea, ( I know, mixing my beverages, if not my metaphors….) but, I find it to be a fine way to begin the day, especially when the tune being enjoyed is from a live concert, with a lively, jiving boogie beat, complete with extremely hot licks by one of rock’s greatest improvisational guitarists, one of the earliest virtuosos in that category…. the inimitable, and, sadly, now deceased, Jerry Garcia…. Ah, sublime!….

I guess I just pulled my covers again, as an aging, now aged, hippie, first indoctrinated in the philosophy of free love in 1968 in Berkeley, CA, and a multi-concert attendee at Dead shows….. I never went on the road with the Dead, following after them all over the country, as so many did, but, I’ve made my share of whoopee at their gatherings of the tribes, and don’t regret a single moment of the experience…..

It was a time of great hope in our country….. The passions of the day, and the concepts of liberty and personal freedom that were engendered among the young of our nation back then have been carried forth, and preserved, over time, until, today, the same people who protested the war in Vietnam are now out on the streets, protesting the most recent draconian actions of the government, which, in spite of our efforts, have grown over time to include the latest outrage, wherein they are spying on their own citizens, looking under every rock they can find, in their paranoid search for terrorists….

Of course, the spying began even before the Vietnam conflict; they were putting together files on us at the FBI in 1968, and before that, from 1960 to 1964, during the Free Speech Movement, that preceded the advent of the hippies, and free love…. The government, apparently during WWII sometime, decided that keeping secrets from the public was necessary, whereupon they began to consider themselves as above the law, not subject to the same requirements as the rest of us….. Troops began to go to Southeast Asia, to protect “American interests” there, which, when examined more closely, turned out to be our interests in the heroin trade, a trade that has flourished there for centuries…. About that time, the FBI began to spy on American citizens, looking to root out the “commies” amongst us….

That particular insight, first brought to light in the mid-1960’s, and made very public by the movie, Air America, in the 1970’s, was the beginning of the end of my blind, willing support of the government….. The idea that our elected officials were involved in protecting that industry was completely repugnant to me then, and remains so today, especially since it turned out that such involvement was only the surface of how much corruption, theft, and outright lying our politicians were engaging in, among other revelations, all of which convinced me of their complete lack of virtue, or honor…. They were hiding behind the flag of liberty and justice, using its precepts to engage in destructive, illegal acts that threatened their own people, and didn’t seem to care at all that what they were doing was diametrically opposed to all we have been taught to expect of our leaders….

Hmm…. I seem to have slipped into another early rant, brought on by nostalgia…. Well, that should pass, now that the Dead song is over…. I’ve switched over to the classical station’s stream online, and am now being soothed by J.S. Bach’s “Little Suite”, a familiar piece that never fails to please…. Dum ditty dum, dum ditty doo….. lovely!

Oops, I seem to have pulled another cover here…. Yep, I’m a longhair, and that includes my choices in music; I love classical music, especially that of Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach (all of them…. several of the Bach family wrote good stuff, not just Papa…. PDQ Bach wrote some pretty amazing pieces himself, as did J.S., Junior….) Any who, it’s nice to have a variety to listen to….

I started listening to the genre about 15 years ago, when I got tired of what was passing for rock and roll then, and found that I had discovered an entirely new universe of music to explore, most of which I’d never heard…. What a treasure trove that turned out to be….. Like any field of human endeavor, 90% of it is crap, (Sturgeon’s Law covers ALL human activity….), but, over time, the crap has been winnowed out, for the most part; what is left is some excellent music, and offers me uncounted hours of bliss…..

Well, now that I’ve blathered, and ranted, and just plain babbled about next to nothing, I think we should get on with the day’s dive, saving any further chattiness for any public contact I have to make today….. Yeah, that’s the ticket….

Shall we Pearl?…..

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe
All mimsy were the borogoves
And the mome raths outgrabe

— _Jabberwocky_, by Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson)
_____________________________

In this section today, you will find an old-school pearl, fresh as SB and I can make it….. I had intended to discuss a more sober, perhaps even significant subject, with every intention of allowing myself to rant thereon….. but, I’m feeling a bit under the weather, rant-wise, which means, basically that I’m not outraged enough at the moment to carry it off successfully…. So, I’ll go with my default in such instances, and let SB figure out something appropriate to the day, and the moment…. It should all be okay, and, if nothing else, you may congratulate yourselves on having dodged another bullet, metaphorically speaking, of course….

“Tip O’Neill is just like Congress; old, fat and out of control.” — J. LeBoutillier

“You can always get the truth from an American statesman after he has turned seventy, or given up all hope of the presidency.” — Wendell Phillips

“As a general rule, the freedom of any people can be judged by the volume of their laughter.” — Smart Bee

(Even the Google algorithm can’t find attribution for this, other than “Anonymous”…. hence, the attribution is given to SB, per ECR policy….)

“I believe I have no prejudices whatsoever.  All I need to know is that a man is a member of the human race.  That’s bad enough for me.” — Mark Twain

“The effectiveness of a politician varies in inverse proportion to his commitment to principle.” — Sam Shaffer

“Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?” — George Carlin

“The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected.” — G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 4/19/24

Okay, so it turned into a rantish pearl in spite of all my precautions…. oh, well…. So, sue me…. or, if you’d care to just ignore it, we can go on to other things, and just chalk it up to experience…. Let’s do that, shall we? If nothing else, and like nothing else does, it will piss off the lawyers, which is ALWAYS a good thing….

“Great things can be reduced to small things, and small things can be reduced to nothing.” — Chinese Proverb
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Since I don’t wish for anyone else to catch the blame for any of this, here is one of my older poems to fill up the necessary space, and time….

Off the proverbial cuff….

I never meant to kill that period of time,
it didn’t give me any choice.
It tried to hem me in without reason, or rhyme,
refused me any vote, or any voice.

You have to admit, I buried it deep and fast,
just as if I cared.
I knew, though, it would never last,
or ever be fully repaired.

No news, no pictures can bring it back,
once is all we get.
No pleas of public good, or even public lack;
in stone the past is set.

Futuristic visions now occupy my dreams,
I’m ready to go on.
Look! It fills up the screen, and it gleams!
Where’s the moment I’m sitting on?

NOW, I remember, at long, long last,
is all we really can hold.
Every moment goes by so bloody fast,
best fill them all with beauty, warm and bold.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

How did y’all get so lucky? Here I am, already in section three, and still no rantable passions available to get me going…. One might gather the erroneous impression that I’m a wimp today…. I prefer to think of it as a temporary disinclination toward emotional excess, and let it go at that…. I mean, one can’t rant all the damn time, or one takes the chance of becoming entrenched in the same set of attitudes so common to that type of thinking epitomized by the dreaded Limbaugh, that bastion of all that is most ignorant and ugly about America….

I do try to save my outrage for things that have some social significance, hopefully of greater significance than my own prejudices; he doesn’t even bother to try to decide if anything that comes out of his mouth is significant; he only cares that someone listen to his drivel…. Ah well, let’s go in a totally different direction from that fool, and find some thoughts on Life from some of history’s more elegant thinkers….

“The meaning of life is that it stops.” — Franz Kafka

“Where life is more terrible than death, it is then the truest valor to dare to live.” — Thomas Browne

No man is an Island, entire of it self; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” — John Donne (c.1571-1631) — Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (1624) “Meditation XVII”

“It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is absolutely fatal.” — Oscar Wilde

“[…] For all our conceits about being the center of the universe, we live in a routine planet of a humdrum star stuck away in an obscure corner […] on an unexceptional galaxy which is one of about 100 billion galaxies. […] That is the fundamental fact of the universe we inhabit, and it is very good for us to understand that.” — Carl Sagan

“Don’t try to have the last word. You might get it.” — Lazarus Long

I would like to have it noted that I took great care in the construction of this Pearl, editing the inclusions numerous times before coming up with this seven-star grouping…. which, I believe, is one of the best pearls ever…. Really, it’s damn fine stuff, ffolkes, so, please, pay heed…. Then, when you’ve finished that, remember this ……

“Never underestimate the importance of a cheap laugh.” — Plucky Duck

Okay, so I could have said that more elegantly…. how’s this?…..

“A little nonsense, now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” — Willie Wonka, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl
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It’s been a long road to this juncture, and I feel every step it has taken to get here….. Let’s see what we picked up along the way….. I am compelled by honesty to admit that it isn’t bad…. at least, not so’s you’d notice, anyway…. It’s certainly long enough for a Pearl; I guess, given my feelings about out versus in, we’ll leave it as it is, and just pretend that I know what I’m about….. If you bought ANY of that, well, thanks…..

😆

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

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

gigoid

dozer3

Would a bit of irony be of assistance?….

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Ffolkes,

Many days, when I wake up to begin writing this blog, I’m struck by how egotistical it must appear, from the other side. Day after day of relating what goes on in my head, all for what? Many would think that it is to stroke that ego, making it stronger and even bigger than it was….. which was plenty big, believe me…. I’ve never felt that denying reality was of any help to anyone, so I’ve never bothered to try to be too humble about my own abilities….. I’m smarter than the average bear, and have a lot of physical skills that many don’t ever acquire….. However, I have always tried to be patient with those who don’t quite understand as much as I do, and have never taken advantage of anyone less skilled, or less of anything… That would be dishonorable, and I was raised to put honor before need, or desire, always….

Also, let us not confuse that strength of ego with conceit, or with lack of humility; I don’t believe I make the grade in being conceited, as I’ve never let my own abilities keep me from appreciating those abilities that others possess, and I don’t….. There are a LOT of these skills and/or abilities I don’t possess, that others have; this is NOT a problem for me, as I am content with all I have.  I also don’t believe that my own  somewhat extensive talents make me any better, or worse, than anyone else; I believe as the Dalai Lama has expressed, that what makes a person valuable is how much compassion for others they feel, and express…. Unfortunately, this effort to keep from allowing myself to take advantage of others doesn’t keep me from showing my abilities, and that often brings censure from people who automatically assume that such displays are ego-driven, never thinking, or understanding, that it can also be motivated by altruism….

Hell, sometimes it’s hard for ME to believe in altruism, but, there it is, and there isn’t anything I can do about it at this point. My father drilled into me a code of ethics that leaves no room for any actions that can cause dishonor, and I believe, firmly, that those ethical mores are what make me different from many others, others who DO use their abilities for their own benefit, to the exclusion of others. That sort of amoral folk are rife in the fields of politics, religion, law, and the paramilitary; I’m not sure just what the attraction is, other than the ultimate freedom that comes with not giving a shit about other people…. I suppose, to that sort of mind, or emotional makeup, such debauchery is attractive as a lifestyle….

Myself, I can’t handle it; when I think about how much the pundits and preachers take advantage of their positions, it makes me ill, and I want to go out to buy a gun…. which would then put me into the same category as them, as I’d be forced by my own sanity to use it on them, forgoing all my father’s teaching…. It’s a conundrum to be sure…. Fortunately for me, though not necessarily for all of you, I have this blog, to sublimate the urge to kill that passes through me almost every day, when I read about the latest lies and chicanery they’ve been up to out in the BBR….. It’s almost enough to put one off reading the news…..

So, I’ll continue to rant, and write my pearls of virtual wisdom, in my own little attempt to bring some reason and stability to the world, if only for the time spent here reading…. Whether or not that is approved of by others is moot, as it makes me feel better, and that is all any of us are really concerned with…. If we have anything left over when we feel good, then we might share it, but, mostly, we are all looking out for ourselves, and doing our best not to sink under the waves…. and that’s okay….

Me, I gotta write, and get some of this stuff out of my head, before it sits in there and turns into something that could drive me to go buy a gun…. If that ever happens, look for a lot of politicians, preachers, bankers, and otherwise useless people to die, one after another, until they catch me…. That IS a joke, you know…. I’d never do any of that, in reality; too much work, and I’m retired from working… Besides, I haven’t let myself give in like that, for 63 years now, and I’m tougher now than when I started this journey….

On that pleasant note, Shall we Pearl?….

“Live a life worthy of the things that will be said of you when you’re dead.” — Ambidextrous Rex
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Today’s intro section turned a bit stodgy on me; it’s a good discussion, but, feels a bit like wearing a suit and tie…. a bit stiff and constricting, no doubt pinching in the tight spots….. So, I’m going immediately to a harlequin old-school pearl, to loosen things up a bit, and hopefully, lighten the mood at the same time…. I’m hoping that Smart Bee’s natural sense of whimsy will come through to bring that about…. let’s see what it’s got for us, shall we?…..

“To sing the same tune, as the saying is, is in everything cloying and offensive; but men are generally pleased with variety.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of the Training of Children

“The present is the only thing that has no end.” — Erwin Schrödinger

“I readily relapse into my reflections on the uselessness of our education. Its aim has been to make us not good and wise, but learned; and in this it has succeeded. It has not taught us to follow and embrace virtue and wisdom, but has imprinted their derivations and etymologies on our minds. We are able
to decline ‘virtue’ even if we are unable to love it; if we do not know what wisdom is in fact and by experience, we are familiar with it as a jargon learned by heart.  — Michel de Montaigne, Essays

“Bow to no patron’s insolence. Rely on no frail hopes; in freedom live and die.” — Seneca

“A man is average when he can see the other man’s faults; he becomes above average only when he can also see his own.” — Smart Bee

“Know that which pervades the entire body is indestructible. No one is able to destroy the imperishable soul.” — Bhagavad Gita (c. B.C. 400)

“Always store beer in a dark place.” — Lazarus Long

Yep…. I think that should do it….
_____________________________

Today’s Pearl is all fresh so far…. in keeping with that theme, albeit with older material, here are two of my own poems, for better or for worse….

Haiku XII

 I called an old friend
a few days ago, or so.
Old friends are the best.

~~ gigoid ~~

When life calls, ready or not….

Memories are all we have sometimes
to keep our sanity intact,
with learned phrases and subtle rhymes
lessening life’s vicious, vibrant impact.

Presently all seems composed and intent
in stark contrast to hollow day,
forlorn patchwork emotions of unheralded bent,
fill up night’s bower, leaving hell to pay.

Such vigorous and elevated temper
brings us rare moments to ponder,
filled with lessons all need to remember
lest base perception lose valued wonder.

Laugh loud when entropy sticks fast
leaving shameless anger in its wake.
Let bygones pass quietly into the past
reaping only what is left to take.

Final words of wise imagination
tell us living well’s the best revenge, it appears
ever eluding choirs and congregations
finally finding home, never buried in tears.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

“Without God, everything is possible.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky

When first observed, this little aphorism seems contradictory, but, I’m sure that is only because it stands in stark contrast to all we’ve been told since we first began to hear about the concept of God…. If one stops to actually THINK about what it implies, the contrast disappears, to be subsumed by the sheer elegance of the reasoning that prompts such a statement…..

I am not sure, however, that my current state of mind is capable of doing justice to such a discussion just now; one must be in touch with all of one’s reasoning powers to live up to such a topic of such complexity, and to sustain the effort through enough time to overcome the natural resistance that is thrown up whenever such blasphemous concepts come under scrutiny…. Considering the cold I’ve been fighting all week, the hour (it’s not even 0530 yet…. & I’ve been up for almost two hours already….), and the overall state of my psyche, I’d rather save any such discussion until I can respond with a bit more vigor than is currently on tap….

That being said, I think that a small reminder of what John Lennon proposed in his song “Imagine” is appropriate as a sublimation for the absent discussion; the song can be viewed as an almost perfect statement of how it might feel to consider a universe without the constricting concept of an overbearing God watching over us, judging all we do…. sort of like Mrs. Grundy, the ever-present nosy neighbor, or your disapproving maiden aunt, who has nothing better to do than to sit in judgment of others, even though their own experience of life is confined to their own sad existence, based on what they read in ONE book, of dubious authorage….

Along with the lyrics of the song, I’ll also substitute an old-school pearl at this point, saving the rant itself for another day…. That is, if SB will cooperate…. worth a shot, don’t you think?…. And, I don’t think God will mind, as He doesn’t really exist in the way most folks think….

“Always make allowances for the “duh” factor.” — Smart Bee

“Some things don’t need the thought people give them.” — Calvin

If you want to sing out, sing out,
and if you want to be free, be free,
’cause there’s a million ways to be,
you know that there are…

— Cat Stevens, from a song lyric

“Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.” — Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband

“If I had a large amount of money I should found a hospital for those whose grip upon the world is so tenuous that they can be severely offended by words and phrases yet remain all unoffended by the injustice, violence and oppression that howls daily about our ears.” — Stephen Fry

“A lizard ran out on a rock and looked up, listening no doubt to the sounding of the spheres. And what a dandy fellow! the right toss of a chin for you and swirl of a tail!  If men were as much men as lizards are lizards they’d be worth looking at.” — D. H. Lawrence (1928)

“Clay is moulded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing. … Thus, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not.” — Lao Tzu
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On a normal day, at 0542 in the AM, I’d prefer to be sleeping, but, that event, having NOT happened in many a year, thus takes on the shape and desirability of a dream quest, a chimera, beckoning me to chase it down the halls of Time…. like a fool. Since the day isn’t normal, and neither am I, I suppose it shouldn’t shock me to be done already with today’s Pearl. I DID get up at 0330 or so….. Any who, let’s see how it turned out….

Well, it’s a Pearl…. More than this, deponent sayeth naught, with good cause…. Which is, I’ve probably said enough, and more than….. 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

Patterns of dark, and darker…..

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Ffolkes,

As you all (or even just both of you….  😆  )  may have noted, I did not post yesterday, with good reason…. Due to the cold that has kicked my ass all week, and my increasing frailty in a physical sense overall, I had to take a full day of rest, at the end of my trip south, to rest enough to drive home…. I found a comfortable motel about 50 miles north of where I had the meetings with my old classmates, the 50 miles being the sum total of miles I had it in me to drive on Friday.  I posted Saturday morning, as the motel had a very fast internet connection, then spent the rest of the entire day sleeping like the dead. At 0300 on Sunday morning, I arose to drive home, as that time of day, between 0300 and 0800 or so, seems to be my most active, and I figured I could make the 140 miles without too much problem…..

This was a foolish notion, as it turned out… I had to really push myself to make it, and still had to stop for a short nap halfway home, at a gas station by a closed McCafe, somewhere north of San Jose. I made it, but it was no cinch, fighting pain, fatigue, and restlessness all at once while trying to drive…. Then, after a couple hours of sleep, I got up again, to drive to Sonoma, where I visited with my grandson for an hour, (all the court allows) then drove home and crashed again…. It’s now almost 0430 AM, and I’m up, unable to sleep any more, despite still feeling exhausted…. too much pain, between the back spasms, and the ripping headache centered between my eyes, which dutifully threatens to blow off the top of my head when I cough….

I don’t mean to whine, but this is getting old, ffolkes…. I really am getting tired of the pain, and wish there was something that would cut through all of it long enough for me to sleep for oh, say, just four hours straight? That would be lovely, and so welcome….. But, ’tis not to be, at least not today, so I may as well try to push through it to get something done here…. Since times like these are all I have left to convince myself I’m still a tough old coot, I will, as far as I can….

My visits with my mates were wonderful…. I got to SEE four of my classmates, whom I hadn’t seen in a very long time, one of them since graduation in 1968 (hmm… that’s way too long… 45 years….) Chuck looks grand, and in great shape, (possibly the best of all of us, since he was the baby of the class…. he’s still only 62…. for a couple of days more….) Vicki looks practically the same as she did in high school, only better, and Carolyn and Laura were much the same as with Vicki, at least compared to me, and the degree to which I’ve changed shapes…. All three of them became even more beautiful as women than they were as teenage girls, and that is saying a lot, as I was fortunate to be in a class that was full of ‘foxes’, (as we used to say, back in the days before political correctness….)… Even back then, I felt that there wasn’t a single girl in our class that could be described as less than average looking, and the grown-up versions are even more beautiful, at least to my old eyes….

The only thing about all of the visits I regret is that there wasn’t more time, to hang out, to just talk, but, what we had was wonderful…. plus, now that we’ve established contact, and obtained promises to stay in touch, there will be time to say all the things that we didn’t get to relate in person…. All three of the ladies I saw are now joining the ranks of the Pearly Gates, and will, no doubt, eventually have to say SOMETHING about my ramblings…. they’ve known me long enough not to be shocked by most of it, but, some of it will no doubt prompt reactions, and that will be grand…. I live for dialogue… Chuck has been getting them for a year or two, and is probably immune by now….   😉

Of course, as is made patently obvious from this blog, I live for monologue, as well…. and that is about enough of that for one morning…. I could ramble a long time about our visits, but, it’s probably best to get on with today’s dive for pearls, since I’m not sure how long I can last before crapping out again…. Thankfully, being retired, I have nothing so urgent on my plate that it can’t be tossed without harm to my schedule…. The absolute BEST part of retirement is that my schedule is all my own, even more so than when I was a kid, with no responsibilities other than to family; I am the only one who gets to make my plans, and THAT is a powerful tool, indeed…. Any who….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Neither do the ignorant seek after wisdom.  For herein is the evil of ignorance, that he who is neither good nor wise is nevertheless satisfied with himself; he has no desire for that of which he feels no want.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.)
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“Only great masters of style can succeed in being obtuse.” — Oscar Wilde

“At once it struck me what quality went to form a man of achievement, especially in literature, and which Shakespeare possessed so enormously — I mean negative capability, that is, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” — John Keats (1795-1821)

As I have said before, there is more to Keats than meets the eye at first glance…. and this is proof positive my assertion is correct. For several years now, I have included the occasional pearl that spoke of Shakespeare, and how I believe him to be one of the most over-rated, over-quoted, and over-publicized authors of all time. Oh, he was prolific, indeed, and in all that stuff he produced, there was bound to be a winner or two…. But, for the main part, most of what he wrote was just plain bad, and, moreover, I think he knew it, deliberately couching a lot of his creative impulse in language so impenetrable, people just gave up on it, saying aloud how wonderful it was, just so everyone else wouldn’t know they hadn’t actually finished reading all of it….

I don’t expect y’all, or anyone, to accept such a premise without some proof, so, I offer the following, which are a number of examples of Will at his most dense and unknowable, so convoluted in concept and delivery that most folks just say, “oh, how pretty!” and let it go at that…. Whereas, I say, “Bullshit! This doesn’t MEAN anything, and, moreover, is so convoluted, it is impenetrable to the intellect”…. As further indication of how much of his work is of this nature, I must report that there are over a thousand quotes in SB from Will, and only about twelve of them are what I’d consider good literature…. the rest is just crap, that his publicists have made people believe is so good, they don’t understand it…. I call BS, and offer the following as proof…. As usual, my comments are parenthesized….

About some act
That has no relish of salvation in ‘t. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act iii, Sc. 3

(Huh? What?…. Sorry, couldn’t catch any meaning, before the play’s action took us somewhere else….)

And let me wring your heart; for so I shall,
If it be made of penetrable stuff. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act iii, Sc. 4

(Again, huh? What the hell is he talking about? And don’t tell me there is a cultural meaning that is only clear to those who lived in his time…. I’d bet NOBODY understood it, even back then….)

The weakest goes to the wall. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Romeo and Juliet — Act i, Sc. 1

(Really? Why is that?…)

Potations pottle-deep. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Othello — Act ii, Sc. 3

(This one is particularly dense, even considering the language changes over the intervening 400 years…)

Adversity’s sweet milk, philosophy. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Romeo and Juliet — Act iii, Sc. 3

(Eeuuuw! Disgusting image….)

But in the gross and scope of my opinion,
This bodes some strange eruption to our state. — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act i, Sc. 1

(Maybe politics was different back then, but, still, what does this MEAN?….)

That he is mad, ‘t is true: ‘t is true ‘t is pity;
And pity ‘t is ‘t is true.  — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act ii, Sc. 2

All I can say is, ‘t is indeed a pity…. the pity is we spend so much time lionizing this man as a writer, when all he was, in reality, was his time’s most prolific hack, but with a really good publicist…. In today’s world, he would have been the highest paid writer at the National Enquirer…..
_____________________________

Since I used Keats as the lead for the above Shakespeare mini-rant, here is something to bolster my opinion of him, and his work, which is, needless to say, much better appreciated around here than Will….

 

An Extempore

 

When they were come into Faery’s Court
They rang — no one at home — all gone to sport
And dance and kiss and love as faerys do
For Faries be as human lovers true —
Amid the woods they were so lone and wild
Where even the Robin feels himself exil’d
And where the very books as if affraid
Hurry along to some less magic shade.
‘No one at home’! the fretful princess cry’d
‘And all for nothing such a dre[a]ry ride
And all for nothing my new diamond cross
No one to see my persian feathers toss
No one to see my Ape, my Dwarf, my Fool
Or how I pace my Otaheitan mule.
Ape, Dwarf and Fool why stand you gaping there
Burst the door open, quick — or I declare
I’ll switch you soundly and in pieces tear.’
The Dwarf began to tremble and the Ape
Star’d at the Fool, the Fool was all agape
The Princess grasp’d her switch but just in time
The Dwarf with piteous face began to rhyme.
‘O mighty Princess did you ne’er hear tell
What your poor servants know but too too well
Know you the three great crimes in faery land
The first alas! poor Dwarf I understand
I made a whipstock of a faery’s wand
The next is snoring in their company
The next the last the direst of the three
Is making free when they are not at home.
I was a Prince — a baby prince — my doom
You see, I made a whipstock of a wand
My top has henceforth slept in faery land.
He was a Prince the Fool, a grown up Prince
But he has never been a King’s son since
He fell a snoring at a faery Ball
Your poor Ape was a Prince and he poor thing
But ape — so pray your highness stay awhile
‘Tis sooth indeed we know it to our sorrow —
Persist and you may be an ape tomorrow —
While the Dwarf spake the Princess all for spite
Peal’d the brown hazel twig to lilly white
Clench’d her small teeth, and held her lips apart
Try’d to look unconcerned with beating heart.
They saw her highness had made up her mind
And quaver’d like the reeds before the wind
And they had had it, but O happy chance
The Ape for very fear began to dance
And grin’d as all his uglyness did ache–
She staid her vixen fingers for his sake
He was so very ugly: then she took
Her pocket mirror and began to look
First at herself and [then] at him and then
She smil’d at her own beauteous face again.
Yet for all this — for all her pretty face
She took it in her head to see the place.
Women gain little from experience
Either in Lovers, husbands or expense.
The more their beauty the more fortune too
Beauty before the wide world never knew.
So each fair reasons — tho’ it oft miscarries.
She thought her pretty face would please the fa[e]ries.
‘My darling Ape I wont whip you today
Give me the Picklock sirrah and go play.’
They all three wept but counsel was as vain
As crying cup biddy to drops of rain.
Yet lingeringly did the sad Ape forth draw
The Picklock from the Pocket in his Jaw.
The Princess took it and dismounting straight
Trip’d in blue silver’d slippers to the gate
And touch’d the wards, the Door full courteously
Opened — she enter’d with her servants three.
Again it clos’d and there was nothing seen
But the Mule grasing on the herbage green.
End of Canto xii.

Canto the xiii.
The Mule no sooner saw himself alone
Than he prick’d up his Ears — and said ‘well done!
At least unhappy Prince I may be free —
No more a Princess shall side saddle me
O King of Othaiete — tho’ a Mule
‘Aye every inch a King’ — tho’ ‘Fortune’s fool.’
Well done — for by what Mr. Dwarfy said
I would not give a sixpence for her head.’
Even as he spake he trotted in high glee
To the knotty side of an old Pollard tree
And rub’d his sides against the mossed bark
Till his Girths burst and left him naked stark
Except his Bridle — how get rid of that
Buckled and tied with many a twist and plait.
At last it struck him to pretend to sleep
And then the thievish Monkies down would creep
And filch the unpleasant trammels quite away.
No sooner thought of than adown he lay
Sham’d a good snore — the Monkey-men descended
And whom they thought to injure they befriended.
They hung his Bridle on a topmost bough
And of[f] he went run, trot, or anyhow–

~~ John Keats ~~


A bit long, I’ll admit, but, oh, so much better, in imagery, in feeling, in CLARITY of thought…. Yay, Keats….
_____________________________

So far, what has happened is pretty amazing…. not for its brilliance, which is obviously less than blinding, but for the fact it is done at all… My head is still pounding behind my right eye (maybe it’s a tumor! Oh, no!….), my back is still spasming, if a bit less dramatically, and I’m still awake, sadly…. But, the coffee is good, and so is the poetry, so, I’m content…. Content enough to go for an old-school pearl, if Smart Bee will cooperate…. If nothing else, it will get us through another day here at ECR without any major catastrophes of a real-time nature….. Let’s see what’s in there today for us to find….

“Get a shot off FAST! This upsets him long enough to let you make your second shot perfect.” — Lazarus Long

“It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than to put on the cloak of nonviolence to cover impotence.” — Mohandas K. Gandhi

“It matters not how long you live, but how well.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 829

Much water goeth by the mill
That the miller knoweth not of. — John Heywood (c. 1565) — Proverbes, Part ii, Chap. v

” “. . . Eye of Newt, toe of frog . . .”, believed to be the first recipe for an explosive mixture — …the forerunner of gunpowder”– Smart Bee

“Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms … but a *dying* culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Loss of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.”  — Friday’s boss, Dr. Richard “Two-sticks” Baldwin, in Robert Heinlein’s “Friday”

“Hey! You’ve been taking drugs again, haven’t you?”– Smart Bee

Okay, I give up…. Smart Bee is in a mood, and doesn’t want to play nice, so we’re going to go now, and leave you to your own ruminations, which could be no more confusing than any of the forgoing…..
_____________________________

No matter how weird this one turns out to be, it’s still getting posted, if for no other reason than to verify my own stubbornness and lack of any sort of pride….. Let’s see just how strange it turned out, shall we?…..

I like to consider myself a well-read, well-rounded person, with a very good vocabulary at hand for my immediate use, but, I’m struck speechless by this…. you wish….  🙂   No, really, given the handicaps under which it was created, it’s pretty, well, not bad…. Definitely meets all the parameters for your average Daily Pearl, so, off it will go, to be sent via the cloud to about 50 or so private recipients, followed by posting to the internet, for the thirteen other regular readers I have remaining….  Such as it is, it’s the best I’ve got…. I hope y’all enjoy it…. Me, I’m going back to bed, hopefully, to sleep for a couple of hours to get me through the day…. I’ll be back tomorrow, and if you receive no other threats like that today, consider yourself lucky…..

😈

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

 

You always remember the first time….

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​

Ffolkes,

So much for the best laid plans…. I’d intended to NOT write this morning, but, Vicki wants her first Pearl, so, I have to make one for her today, or, I’ll never hear the end of it….  🙂   Just kidding, of course, but, only a little…. After getting to spend time with her and Carolyn yesterday, I’m happy to oblige…. Besides, y’all should know by now it’s hard to shut me up once I get started….

We met over Carole’s grave at the Templeton Cemetery yesterday, and got to do a lot of catching up to the last 23 years since our last meeting….Actually, much longer in C’s case, as she missed the 20 year reunion that V and I got to in 1988 or so…. It was an embarrassingly large number of years since our last sight of each other at our HS graduation, large enough we won’t mention it…. We talked of Carole, and our lives since then, having a great time reestablishing some of the bond of friendship left from so long ago….

Both of them are now the newest members of the group who receives the email version of the Pearls each day I send them out…. I used to call them the Pearl Drops; now they are the Pearly Gates, which seems more fitting, given our advanced ages…. though I must admit that both of them have borne the weight of the years far better than I; they looked great!….. I don’t know how this will go over, but, hey, that’s never stopped me before, has it?…

Rather than turn them off with an immediate blathering session, I’ll make this intro short, and get into the pearls right away, as I am still on the road, technically… It’s about 0545, I still have 150 or so miles to go to get home, and I can feel the cold hovering, just waiting to suck up my energy…. So, I’m going to create one old-school pearl, pick a poem, and find an old rant to include, to give them an idea of a typical Pearl that goes out… and I’d best get to it, or I won’t have the energy to do any of what I need to do today, like drive home…. Too bad, actually, the internet at this motel is the fastest I’ve ever encountered; they’re running at 144 Mbs download, which is incredibly fast… Got to watch a movie online last night with no skips or buffering problems…

Any who…. Shall we Pearl?….

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

So, this is an old-school pearl… The parameters I used to pick these delightful morsels of thought were a bit loose, but, in general, they all were to direct our attention to the nature of Man… just to see what is up with that…..

For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate’er is best administer’d is best.
For modes of faith let graceless zealots fight;
His can’t be wrong whose life is in the right.
In faith and hope the world will disagree,
But all mankind’s concern is charity.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle iii, Line 303

“Society highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus be normal. Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last fifty years.” — R. D. Laing

“It is well to remember, my son, that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.” — John Andrew Holmes

“I give up, what is the meaning of life?” — Smart Bee

“‘Forty-two,’ said Deep Thought, with infinite majesty and calm.” — Douglas Adams (Life, The Universe, and Everything)

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” — Nietzsche

See? Perfect…. It’s all in the wrist….
____________________________

Normally, I’d spend time finding a good poem, but we’ll go with one of mine, instead….   🙂

Piraeus calls me, silently.

Sizzle, sizzle, crash, bang, boom.
Intellect burning with subsequent doom.
Lingering long over decisive style,
Whistling up chaos all the while.

Such frozen thoughts may shatter,
Should we infer, but, no matter.
Firing blanks is children at play
Blooded sages all gasp in dismay.

Nonsense is good sense at times
Mundane objectives trip lightly in rhymes.
Fallen angels dance on a pin
Until each sinner enters within.

Fast moments with natural rain
Bring ashes, yet still must remain.
Final thoughts clamor for more
Find them only on a far distant shore.

~~ gigoid ~~

____________________________

Not too bad, so far…. I’ll be back in a moment of two, with a rant from an archived Pearl to substitute for the one I DON’T have in me today…. This is from sometime in the middle of 2012….

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

“Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom.  It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt (1759-1806) speech on the India Bill, Nov. 18, 1783

I had not intended to start with a political rant, but this just came up, so here we go…. This is as true today as it was in 1783, perhaps even more so. Since 9/11/01, when those fanatic idiots carried out their insane delusions of grandeur on the world stage, the “necessity” for Homeland Security has been the watchword of the political pundits who unfortunately are in charge of the legislative and executive branches of our government. Bill after bill after bill keeps coming down the pike and bulling their way through into becoming law, or even worse, is created by executive order, without the benefit of review by Congress, useless as that entity may be.

The entire incident that happened that day was blown completely out of proportion by the media. Yes, it was a tragedy, in which something over 3000 American lives were lost, in three separate incidents. The videos of those planes hitting the buildings in New York must have been replayed a thousand times before noon, all over the country, until every American who had access to a TV was informed of what had occurred….

The American media, and the political machinery that manipulates it so effectively, then proceeded to flood every channel with the after effects, making sure that the sorrow and fear of every person they could find willing to speak of it on camera was put on the evening news, and ensuring that no rational, dispassionate examination of the events would ever take place. Before the first day had passed, the national reaction had been whipped to a frenzy, stirring the fears of every paranoid in society, and making it seem as if the entire nation was filled with anger and vengeful righteousness. Though I didn’t join in the paranoia, I could feel it happening all around me, as normally intelligent people became so angry they lost all sense of proportion, or for that matter, all sense of truth.

In the ensuing years, whenever the politicians have wanted to distract the nation from what they were actually doing, all they needed to do was mention the word terrorism, or national security, to immediately put attention off of them, and onto the pitiful  group of fanatical Muslims they blamed for the attacks (completely ignoring all the reasons those same politicians had provided those fanatics with to attack in the first place….). And thus, the Hunt for Osama bin Laden was on!

In this country, as a result of those attacks, approximately 5000 American lives were lost (that figure is larger than the actual number, purposely…. it is near enough to correct to make the point…). At this time, in the quest to find bin Laden in Afghanistan, over 50,000 Afghani civilians have been killed. In Iraq, which we somehow decided to invade, even though they had nothing to do with 9/11, well over 250,000 civilians have died to soothe our national pride. In that same period, we lost another 1000 or so soldiers in fighting and bombings.
And, as a side effect, the US Bill of Rights has been effectively eliminated, by Executive Order, disguised as Homeland Security.

“Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated” — George Bernard Shaw

So, what is my point here? My point is this…. those pathetic fanatics killed more than they had ever been able to kill, once. Once. Since that one time, our country has killed over 300,000 civilians in retaliation (you call it what you like, I call it schoolyard revenge by bullies), and every politician in this country has wrapped themselves in the flag, not to proclaim their patriotism, but to manipulate the unreasonable fear they created in the public to keep them from realizing the truth of the matter. And that truth is: we are in no real danger from Al Qaida, or from any other splinter faction terrorist group. They may be able to pull of stunts such as that one occasionally, but for the most part, the world has gotten pretty good at either catching them in hiding, or stopping their plots before they actually carry them out. Governments have a LOT more resources than terrorists, no matter how rich they may be personally.

No, the pathetic, desperate people who become terrorists are created by those same political pundits who are reviling them and hunting them down. They are not a real threat to anyone, as they don’t have the wherewithal to perform more than one act of violence at a time; they cannot wage a war, they can only try to act as guerrilla forces, at best. Mostly, they are just sad schemers, planning glorious deaths, that ultimately have no meaning, other than to provide the Western politicos another unreasonable fear to use against the American public, in order to continue their raping and pillaging among their own people.

The entire issue is one that is repugnant to me; I have watched in horror, not as terrorists have been hunted, but as the rights of the American people have been taken away in the name of “security”. Security from what? We don’t need more security from terrorists; those techniques for dealing with it are well-established, and effective, as they employ the very same methods used by the fanatics to achieve their ends. No, we need more security from our own pundits, who have utilized this tragic events for their own benefit, to the everlasting regret of every true patriot….. bloody assholes, every one of them…..

“I have formed a very clear conception of patriotism. I have generally found it thrust into the foreground by some fellow who has something to hide in the background. I have seen a great deal of patriotism; and I have generally found it the last refuge of the scoundrel.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Judgement of Dr. Johnson, Act III
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Not bad… not bad…. Maybe, if I repeat it long enough, it will become true…. That seems to be the policy that works for political pundits, and quite well, given the gullibility of the average American…. Oops, sorry, forgot, the rant is done…. Any who, I think that’s enough for one day, and hopefully, a fine first Pearl for my friends…. I can’t say right now if there will be a Pearl tomorrow morning; we’ll see how I feel when I get up then…. meantime, see ya….

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

It’s no more than they deserve, you know….

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Ffolkes,

It has become apparent to me that I am now a piece of well-done toast…. I’m done, stick a fork in me….. It’s 0615 in the AM…. I’m up, albeit reluctantly, and only because I was coughing too hard to sleep any more. Since I’d crashed again last night at about 7 PM, I was done with laying down, so, my body decided to wake up and goad me into action. Given that all there is to consume, without getting up and leaving, is motel coffee (shudder….), you may guess, I’m NOT a happy camper….

So unhappy, in fact, I’m making another executive decision…. I’m going off line for a day or two, so this will be the last Pearl, probably until Monday, or perhaps, Tuesday, depending on how quickly I recover once I wind my way home on Saturday…. I’ll be leaving the area where I’ve been visiting this afternoon, after a final couple of visits, combined with a short wake for Carole at the graveside in Templeton. I plan to drive until I am about to give out, then stay overnight somewhere, until Saturday, when I’ll make it home, probably in two jumps, with a long rest in between…

This cold is kicking my ass…. Yesterday, I managed only one visit, with my friend Chuck, and that visit, which involved a 30 mile drive, round trip, almost did me in… By the time I got back to the motel, I was done for the day, though I didn’t know it… I talked to one other classmate, then fell out for a two hour nap, followed by a quick, small dinner in the room, and then bed, at 7, as I mentioned….. I’ve deliberately put off calling a number of other friends, just because I’m too tired to even make small talk, or summon any enthusiasm at all… I am NOT used to being so damned weak and old, and, dammit, it’s a pain in the proverbial ass, to be sure….

Even these three paragraphs are more than I expected to be able to write today, as I am just not with it at all… So, I’m going to try to put together a very short pearl or two today, then give up for a couple days, returning when I have the energy to do it right…. or, as right as it ever gets around here…. Hopefully, I’ll still HAVE a reader or two by then….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Dying is a very dull, dreary affair.   And my advice to you is to have nothing whatever to do with it.” — W. Somerset Maugham
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“Under current law, it is a crime for a private citizen to lie to a government official, but not for the government official to lie to the people.” — Donald M. Fraser

Boy, if THAT isn’t truth, I don’t know what is!….. Since I don’t have the energy to rant, below you will find three links, two of which, the cartoon by Mark Fiore, and the report on the comments by the House of Representative’s chief idiot, should suffice to provide you with enough to know what might have been ranted on…. The third is an example of the kind of nonsense that the media uses to distract us from more relevant material, keeping the public’s attention focused on crap that really has no bearing on much of anything…. Any who, this is all you get, so, please use it wisely….

http://blog.sfgate.com/fiore/2013/11/06/lil-nsa-spy-kit/

(Always spot on, and a good summation of the issue, all in all…)

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2013/11/07/boehners-dismissal-of-gay-rights-bill-frivolous-litigation/

(What amazes me is that these people, these Republicans, still don’t have ANY idea of what they’re doing wrong, or why people are so upset with them….)

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/News-of-the-Day-From-Across-the-Nation-November-8-4966046.php

(Money, money, paranoia, paranoia, paranoia, police killing with more paranoia…. pretty distracting, isn’t it?….)

“Lust of power is the most flagrant of all the passions.” — Tacitus (55?-120?)
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Just a little bit of Emily to start the day….

A Day! Help! Help! Another Day!
Your prayers, oh Passer by!
From such a common ball as this
Might date a Victory!
From marshallings as simple
The flags of nations swang.
Steady — my soul: What issues
Upon thine arrow hang!

    ~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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Here, then, is a final pearl, put together as quickly as possible, as I’m nearing the absolute limit to my morning energy, and still have a lot to do today…. Enjoy!

“I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.” — Socrates

“Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy.” — Charlie McCarthy

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

“Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.” — Lazarus Long

“A lady lost her cat, and took the cat in a little casket up to a big church and said, “I want you to bury my cat.” And they run her off. She went to another church, and they run her off. She took the cat to a Baptist church on the edge of town, and told the preacher she couldn’t find nobody to hold a service for her dead cat. And the man talked to her bad. “How dare you think that we bury cats?” She said, “Well, I’m frustrated and I’m prepared to give two thousand dollars to whoever gives a service for my cat.” And the preacher said, “Lady, why didn’t you tell me your cat was a Baptist?” — Jerry Clower

“To err is human. To blame it on someone else is politics.” — Hubert H. Humphrey

“Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them.” — Aristotle (384-322BC)

Not bad at all for an eight-minute, seven-star pearl….
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Okay, so there you have it….  If you don’t see any post here tomorrow, or the next day, you’ll already know why…. I’ve done all the damage I can do, so, I’m outta here…. See ya, provided I survive this cold…. I will survive, I’m sure, I just may not enjoy it….

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

Soft visions, of viscous pale faces, at dawn….

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Ffolkes,

I’m afraid I’m going to have to make an executive decision today; given the number of typing errors I made to get that partial sentence done, it’s a good thing, too! I’m on the road, and I’m exhausted. I’ve got stuff I NEED to do while I’m here, or I take the risk of making the trip a waste of time. I have to go meet people, and make nice, neither of which is currently on my list of stuff that excites me. Actually, though, seeing old friends doesn’t really fall into the same category as with other people I have to make nice for ; with old friends, it is NOT an obligation, but rather, an opportunity….one I enjoy…

But, given my levels of pain, the cold I’m still fighting, and my exhaustion from the effort to stand upright, to function while fighting gravity long enough to get where I’m going, it’s getting hard to pretend I do want to meet and speak to anyone, or to otherwise act as if I wouldn’t actually rather be in bed, moaning piteously, and feeling sorry for myself…. I’ve gotten pretty good at that part…. The upshot of all this self-indulgence is that I will be cheating again today, pulling stuff from the archives to fill in what I don’t have the wherewithal to produce…. Well, maybe I’ll have enough in me to create one pearl, for section one, but it will have to be a fully automated sort, or it won’t get done today…

Any who, in the interests of saving my energy for the stuff I have to do, I’ll also cut this intro short, and NOT subject y’all to an interminable meander through the empty halls of my mind….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Any idiot can face a crisis.  It’s this day-to-day living that wears you out.” — Anton Chekhov
____________________________

Okay, so we’ll try to put together one pearl, to see if it can be done without bloodshed…. Hopefully, Smart Bee is in a good mood, and willing to help….

“After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” — J.K. Rowling, The Man with Two Faces,  — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 1997, — spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

“A man is not aware of his virtues (if any). Nevertheless, one hopes that they exist.” — Edward Abbey

“Don’t get hit.” — First rule of fighting

“Be careless in your dress if you will, but keep a tidy soul.” — Mark Twain

“Anything you do can get you shot, including nothing.” — Murphy’s Military Laws, #15

Hmm… not bad, but, it needs a two-fer, to round it off…

“The years teach much which the days never know.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), “Experience”

“Nothing endures but change.” — Heraclitus (540?-480? B.C.)

Well, points ought to be awarded for the effort, even if SB faded on me a bit at the end…. The two-fer is a trifle weak, but, it will do…. I can say for sure this isn’t the worst pearl to ever come down the pike, while still admitting it won’t win any Pulitzer Prizes….
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To avoid sullying the reputation of any others in today’s post, I’m including a poem of my own, so nobody else gets any of the no doubt well-deserved blame for any of this….

After the odyssey….

Portraits of iconic symbols, crashing, singing, forgotten;
evolving into mature innovation, as yet pale, and rotten.
Still water justly breeds, impenetrable primal verses resound;
unholy moments tarry, emotion swirls in passion unbound

Spiritual ovulation precedes each pregnant pause;
gravid, time moves on, following destiny’s cause.
Cast adrift on waves of confusion, to a final, damp landing;
salvation beckons sweetly, fed well on understanding.

Dreams directly fall, in night’s grey bower, unbidden;
lingering flavors in simple taste, lovingly, cleverly hidden.
Childish laughter sounds, joyful, bright, and clear;
no need ever to hide, no more monsters to fear.

Temper most foul arrives under unregistered mail;
forgotten taunts live on, lashed by an ancient flail.
Plain dealing delivers such lasting specks of honest hate;
savage in retrospect, never hasty, always running late.

Forever, cries an ambient lover of the pending night;
his pale, weak issue forms its own failing light.
Still, fortune favors such as those who apprehend;
Sweet love of Gaia, let it never end.

~~ gigoid ~~

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I found the quote below while perusing SB a couple days ago, saving it for a future rant… I’m not sure now when that might happen, so I’m putting it here, then following up with an appropriate related discussion, from a Pearl first posted in April of 2012…. enjoy!

The truth is that Christian theology, like every other theology, is not only opposed to the scientific spirit; it is also opposed to all other attempts at rational thinking. Not by accident does Genesis 3 make the father of knowledge a serpent- slimy, sneaking and abominable. Since the earliest days the church as an organization has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was the apologist for the divine right of kings.” — H. L. Mencken

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“Hurting other people unnecessarily is the only “sin”. All the others are made up nonsense. Hurting one’s self isn’t a sin, it’s just stupid.” — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Original sin…. who said it was? And why does anyone believe it?

I saw Robert Heinlein’s quote, as related above, about sins the other day, and it got me to thinking about the concept upon which much of Christianity is based,  to wit: Original Sin. Supposedly, as a metaphor, God made a snake, which talked Eve (whom God had refused to warn about snakes, merely saying “do as I say”) into talking Adam into taking a bite of the apple, which oddly enough (it’s hard to indicate a raised eyebrow in prose), was the metaphor for the knowledge of Good and Evil…..

Then, when they had done so, this merciful god proceeded to punish them, with a most severe sentence for a first offense, for disobeying his decree (thereby blaming them for what he, being omnipotent, already knew would happen…. He set it up that way, in a lose-lose scenario; you can’t claim omnipotence and say he didn’t know it was likely…..). What a cruel, hateful set-up! It all sounds so….. human, doesn’t it?

To my way of thinking, this always seemed like a petty, small-spirited, even vicious thing for God to do…. very childish, in most ways that count.  And don’t give me all that crap about free will and choosing God’s love…. it’s not free if one is punished for using it. You also can’t tell me that God loves Man, not if he goes around setting him up to lose like that.

Please also note, the knowledge that this merciful, loving God didn’t want us to have was the knowledge of Good and Evil… knowledge which, if we did not have it, we could not judge whether what God did to us was good, or evil, now could we?  In other words, God did not want us to know that He was playing us for fools…. another scenario that, according to the creationists, was completely his idea….

I remember distinctly when I first heard the story of the Garden of Eden, when I was about four years old, or so… and I remember thinking, at the end, why did God put the apple tree in Eden, if he didn’t want Adam or Eve to eat from it?  I didn’t know anything about the metaphorical nature of the story then… even I wasn’t that precocious, smart as I am. But I do remember thinking that it didn’t seem quite fair to put it there, and then tell them not to eat it. (Fairness is an important quality to a child, especially to a child from a large family….)

Even at age four, the question “Why?” was at the forefront of my thoughts when I heard the story, but nobody would ever answer me when I asked, other than to parrot the eternal evasion, “God works in mysterious ways….” The whole charade left me with the distinct impression that, not only was God not all he was cracked up to be, but, the adults who were telling me the stories seemed to be playing the same game with me, that God was playing with Adam and Eve, trying to get me to buy “a pig in a poke”, in a manner of speaking…

Even a four year old knows a crock of crap when he hears it….. I didn’t fall for it then, and I still can’t seem to find anyone who can give me an answer that doesn’t make God look like a cranky five-year old who needs a nap….

“God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. It says so right here on the label. If you have the kind of mind that can believe all three of those things at once, then I have a wonderful deal in a bridge for you! Cash only, no checks….” — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
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Well, I knew from the start this would be a tough one, and I was write…. oops… I was right, wasn’t I? Any who, it’s done, and I’ll try to get it out to the usual suspects, the get it posted online, so I can just go on to the next thing, followed closely by the next…. See ya…..

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

Theo thinks it’s a faulty plug, Otto….

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Ffolkes,

This will be an extremely short Pearl today; I still have over a hundred miles to drive, and don’t want to wear myself out before I even begin to drive…. So, the intro section will be the shortest EVER, because this is all you’re going to get here…. Yep, this is it. That’s all. I’m done. Let’s go dive….

Well, almost done…. Really, though, I’m not going to go nutty here as usual, just this much, and no more…. Okay, now I’m really going on…. Sure, when pigs fly…. no, really…. Oh, damn… see you in th next section, ffolkes…

Shall we Pearl?….

“Sometimes our light goes out but is blown into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have kindled this inner light.” — Albert Schweitzer
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I’ve tried to get it together, but being on the road has me thrown off center a ways…. which makes this archived pearl perfect for this spot. It tells the story that needs to be told just now, so listen up….

“I’ve got no deeds to do, no promises to keep. I’m dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep.”– Paul Simon

I’m a self-convicted, unapologetic hedonist. In this space I had originally placed a Zen Koan, which I intended to use as a springboard for discussion of some subtle philosophical point about Reality. However, the reality is that my psyche is not always in complete agreement with my will, and can be pretty stubborn in its campaign toward personal comfort and obeying the urge to nap. I let the koan percolate in my mind, and it sat there going round and round, like an old vinyl record stuck in the groove before the song begins, just, “…sssssssclick….ssssssclick” forever and evermore. I would have gone to sleep, but I fell out of the chair first.  I’ve come to the conclusion that trying to be subtle today isn’t going to work, so we’ll leave eastern philosophy for another day…. onward….
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When I don’t know who to turn to, I turn to this poet, time after time…. I always find something that soothes…..

A Galloway Song

Ah! ken ye what I met the day
Out oure the Mountains
A coming down by craggi[e]s grey
An mossie fountains —
A[h] goud hair’d Marie yeve I pray
Ane minute’s guessing —
For that I met upon the way
Is past expressing.
As I stood where a rocky brig
A torrent crosses
I spied upon a misty rig
A troup o’ Horses —
And as they trotted down the glen
I sped to meet them
To see if I might know the Men
To stop and greet them.
First Willie on his sleek mare came
At canting gallop —
His long hair rustled like a flame
On board a shallop.
Then came his brother Rab and then
Young Peggy’s Mither
And Peggy too — adown the glen
They went togither —
I saw her wrappit in her hood
Fra wind and raining —
Her cheek was flush wi’ timid blood
‘Twixt growth and waning —
She turn’d her dazed head full oft
For there her Brithers
Came riding with her Bridegroom soft
And mony ithers.
Young Tam came up an’ eyed me quick
With reddened cheek —
Braw Tam was daffed like a chick —
He coud na speak —
Ah Marie they are all gane hame
Through blustering weather
An’ every heart is full on flame
Ah! Marie they are all gone hame
Fra happy wedding,
Whilst I — Ah is it not a shame?
Sad tears am shedding.

~~ John Keats ~~

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In keeping with today’s theme of rush, rush, rush, this will (hopefully…) be the fastest old-school pearl ever created…. maybe…. I’ll try not to let it get crazy over it, which would, no doubt, drag me along for the ride….. Hmm… It seems Murphy followed me to Gilroy…. Instead of a fresh pearl, from a recalcitrant database, here is an archived pearl, already formed and finished, fully functional, and full of effs…. Well, this sentence was full of them, anyway…. The pearl is what it is, as usual…. Actually, it quite a long one, and just chock full of all sorts of ranting from 2012…

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

It’s not every day I’m compelled to write about religion, politics, philosophy, and the Unified Field Theory, unless in separate pearls…. Taking them all on together might seem a bit egocentric of me, but I’ve never been one to dismiss a challenge, unless it was one that didn’t interest me… this one definitely hits all the high points of my particular bent, or bents, so what the hell, let’s see what happens…..

“Each religion, by the help of more or less myth which it takes more or less seriously, proposes some method of fortifying the human soul and enabling it to make its peace with its destiny.” — George Santayana

This idea is one that makes it possible for me to get through a lot of days without becoming homicidal toward a lot of people who bandy their religious beliefs about as if I were at all interested in them. I am aware that there have been a lot of good people throughout history, including current times, who are devout believers in one religion or another, and are sincere in their beliefs, and in their efforts to live their lives according to the precepts of their religions.

Some of them are even preachers, or priests of one sort or another, but the percentage in those categories of sincere belief is most certainly smaller than in the general public…. Let’s face it, most of those who go into the business do it because they aren’t any good at anything else, and the work is pretty easy…. Being a preacher is only hard if it gets taken seriously enough to try to help other folks, but most of the ones I’ve met are more concerned with convincing everyone of their piety to worry about actually helping…. and to most of them, the process of proving their own piety is accomplished by challenging everyone else’s beliefs, and sticking their noses into other people’s business….

One of the most insidious attractions of religion to many people, sad to say, is that it provides such a convenient vehicle for going through life without ever having to come up with an original thought or feeling. Every system of religious dogma, from no matter what cult, or division, or schism, or whatever it maybe called, is designed to give people answers to their questions about life and all the things that happen that they don’t understand, thus creating a sense of dependency. This is very convenient for political pundits, who manage to take advantage every time the preachers pull another scam on the public….

Unfortunately, those answers, comforting as they may be, seldom reflect reality very well, but are based rather on how that particular sect views the issue at hand…. and you can rest assured that those answers are designed to benefit the sect, and the preacher, in rather more ways than they will benefit the person with the questions…. But, I’m sure it is very comforting to know that if you just go along with what they say, you are somehow guaranteed something….. I never could understand that part very well, as there was nobody who could tell me just what was being promised…. other than I’d have to wait until I was dead in order to see it…. (The politicians like this one as well, because it gets people used to being told something,  i.e. campaign promises, then having those promises unfulfilled…. )

“There are so many ways that we sabotage our own divinity, our own possibilities. and the mythologies of race and gender may well head the list.” — Callan Williams

Ah yes, the mythologies of race and gender…. Consider this…. each of us who are of the genus homo sapiens is a unique individual, no matter what color our skin, or whether we are male or female. Unique in our own right, beginning with the pattern of DNA that dictates and defines the characteristics of the organism that is each one of us. Unique. This is indisputable scientific fact. And yet, there are still people who choose to believe that there are characteristics shared by certain groups of homo sapiens that make them somehow superior or inferior to another group. Which of those characteristics they claim as exclusive is always based on articles of faith, and never on any physical evidence. The basis for these articles of faith are outlined in the myths, myths that ignorance breeds, born out of fear of the unknown….

These fears are pretty formless, as the people who have them don’t like to think about them. First, because then they feel uncomfortable, and being comfortable is preferable to thinking, no matter how much it may alleviate the fear.  Second, it is also hard to clearly define something that one rejects all evidence of knowing about; the fear is a known factor, and knowledge is not. These behaviors are a very childish reaction to serious adult issues, but then, a large number of people never learn to deal with life after a certain age; the techniques of denial and avoidance that children rely on are hard for some to give up, especially in matters of emotional or psychological import.

“The ability to accept responsibility is the measure of the man.”  — Roy L. Smith

This is very true, and actually would be claimed as their own by many folks who make a habit of refusing    to even consider being responsible for anything outside their own little world. The flaw in their world-view is that they firmly hold that what they perceive is the only true way that the world CAN be perceived; they seem to be constitutionally unable to entertain any idea to the contrary. It makes compromise with them somewhat of a difficult proposition, as their belief in their own rightness gives them a feeling of entitlement, of believing that they can lie and cheat others without consequence, because the “others” are, as unbelievers, not worthy of honorable treatment. (Hmm, I can’t decide if this sounds more like a fundamentalist Christian, a ruthless business man, or a politician….. since it fits all three, I guess it fits Romney like a second skin…..)

“It is a great advantage for a system of philosophy to be substantially true.” — George Santayana

This second quote from Mssr. Santayana points out another flaw in the philosophy held by those who follow many religions, under their own interpretations of the scriptures that are used by them. This flaw is obviously based on the relatively inarguable fact that all of them are faith-based philosophies…. grand, well considered, beautifully constructed philosophies, whose basic premise is an entity whose existence cannot be evidenced in the physical world.

There are innumerable thoughtful and elegant “proofs” of the existence of these entities, all of which, again, are constructed entirely of words and ideas. Some use logic, some history, some use hope, some use delusion, and some use an amorphous idea that cannot be pinned down…. none of them have actual pieces of physical evidence that incontrovertibly points to the existence of such an entity. If anyone knows of one, or two, or more, please let me know of it/them; I would be very interested in the information, and its provenance, to be sure….

I have wandered far afield indeed in the realms of human thought today, and I’ll bet you thought I’d forget about the Unified Field Theory…. For those unfamiliar with the phrase, let me explain as succinctly as I can; this has gone on a long time, and I’m sure we all have better stuff to do, but, hey, I’m here, you’re here, so…. Any who, the Unified Field theory is a mathematical model of the universe that, in essence, explains and describes all the different types of energy that we know to exist in the Universe; Gravitational energy, Magnetic energy, Electric energy, Electromagnetic energy, Kinetic energy, Biochemical energy, life energy…. all are known to us, but we do not understand, even minimally, how they all interact, and how they are all inter-related as part of the Universe at large…. hence the unified theory. It hasn’t been written yet; it is still just a concept for the future of scientific endeavor, though Stephen Hawking is said to be working on coming up with one before he dies…. if anyone can, it is him.

In short, one theory to explain how it all works…. There are many, including Mr. Hawking, who believe that knowing this can possibly lead us to a closer idea of the answer to the Why it all works the way it does…. by design, or by chance? Did God lose a bet, or win one? Or is there some as yet unknown reason beyond our current ability to understand? Being able to SEE and KNOW how it all works can only give us clues about the origins of it all.  Even if it doesn’t give us all the answers we seek, we will have a better understanding of the Universe, and ourselves, and thus, perhaps, a better idea of our true place in all of what we see…..

Whew! If you made it to here, you are indeed worthy…. and probably tired, confused, and a bit troubled with doubts as to my sanity. S’okay, I understand…. and I don’t blame you. I should have handed out warning notices at the beginning…. Ah well, t’was fun for me, and that will do….. Stop me, please, I can’t seem to shut up….. wait, don’t pull that pl……
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Okay, since I’m on the road, I’m going to stop fooling around, and get this done, if possible…. It isn’t quite working as well as I had hoped it would, but, that may just be because I’m not used to this method yet…. plus, I’m tired and feeling down from the cold I’m fighting off… So, with no further whining, I give you the finished product for today, such as it is…. See ya tomorrow…. Hopefully, by then, I’ll have some art (read: photos…), and a little better handle on this….
,
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole,
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

Bettie Paige merchandise is on aisle three…..

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Ffolkes,

Serendipity is characterized by its unpredictability; it wouldn’t be what it is if we knew when it was going to manifest in our lives. This may be why it is always such a rush, such a joyous feeling when it drops a gift from the universe in our path. This joy makes it particularly hard to accept that even in such cases as we have serendipitous occurrences happening in our lives, we still need to keep  sharp eye out for Mr. Murphy and his myrmidons of chaos, just in case he wants to stick his filthy hands into our business, which, you may rest assured, he does….

I have an opportunity, if I can take it, to go to my home town to visit with several of my classmates, one in particular who will be there on visit from Arizona/Alaska, the places she splits the year between, sensibly avoiding the Alaska winter, and the Arizona summer. Since the recent passing of our mutual friend, Carole, of whom I speak every day in the closing, I’ve felt the urge to go down to the town where we grew up, to visit her grave, and see my other friends still living in the area…. Now, name withheld for privacy, another of our classmates, is going there for a few days this week to do the same, so I’m trying to figure out how I can get there to join in….

Murphy’s presence is noted because, within an hour of receiving the email informing me of all this, I began coming down with a cold, of the kind that kicks your ass right into bed ( possibly, that’s just MY reaction, due to my age…. but, let’s not go there, ‘kay?….)…. The cough I had thought was smoke-quitting related was joined by  increased fluid in the head, headache, the general malaise that goes with a cold, and, the kicker, sneezing and watery eyes. I’ve started downing freshly chopped garlic, every four hours, and am living, essentially, on Nyquil and Dayquil clones, in order to keep from just sinking into the morass of illness that threatens to consume me in these cases….

This is going to make it hard to get to the place where we grew up, as it’s about 250 miles south of here…. No matter how I go, there are disadvantages involved that will make it hard for me, in my condition, with the pain, and the cold symptoms, to get there, by any method I choose…. I can ride the bus… It’s fairly inexpensive, and pretty quick, considering, but, uncomfortable as hell for all of the five to six hours it would take… I hesitate to ride the train, for a lot of reasons, one of which being I’m still pretty pissed at them over my trip to Oregon earlier this year. Planes are too expensive to get there, as it is a small place, with no big airports within a hundred miles; the small planes that go there are a lot more money than the regular routes charge.

That leaves renting a car for about four days, then driving down there, being active, then driving back, all without enough time to recover from the exertions I’ll be making, which are far and beyond what is normal for me…. I’m pretty drastically out of shape, physically, and being tired just kicks my butt these days…. If I don’t rest, it can take me several days to get over it when I’m done; I did practically NOTHING for two weeks after getting back from Europe, and this latest cruise, only a seven day affair, was enough, apparently, to lower my resistance to the cold virus….. Bummer, dude….

Ah well, such is life….. At least I’ve got something to think about other than my usual fare…. I don’t know yet how it will play out, but, now that I’ve got my secondary computer, the one I use when on the road, it shouldn’t affect these Pearls, unless I so choose…. I’m sure that my Gentle Readers will appreciate that, though that is probably wishful thinking… I’m not at all sure that I have more than about eight or ten regular readers anymore, if the statistics on my blog are any indication….

I never have known exactly how many readers out of the email group actually reads them, as very few ever send back a comment, so that’s no big; it’s been the same for ten years or more…. But, according to the number of likes, and visits to the site that register in the stats, not very many ffolkes have been stopping by…. which, by the way, is still confusing, as my number of followers continues to grow steadily…. Go figure….

Okay, I think I’ve mined this particular cave for all the ore it contains, so, we can get on with the real business of pearling that we’re here for….. I’ll figure out whether I’m going or not later…. For now, it’s time for a dive, before it’s too late…..

Shall we Pearl?….. Let’s start with a two-fer…..

“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“To succeed in the world it is not enough to be stupid, you must also be  well-mannered.” — Francois Marie Voltaire
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It may be a bit smug on my part, but, ever since the revelations about the spying being done by the US government hit the news, I’ve felt a sense of justification, a result of having all of my suspicions verified by unshakable proof, furnished by the very hands that committed the crimes…. In other words, and, of course, metaphorically speaking, they found fingerprints, and there is no longer any doubt that the lies that are being told have been put to the test, and failed. It’s a fact, and it cannot be denied, ffolkes… the government is lying to us, regularly, and frequently. If you have any further questions, see the news of the day….

In fact, let me assist you…. Here are three articles from yesterday’s news, all from SFGATE…. I am using them because they show up BOTH the culprits in this whole mess, to wit: the BRC themselves, who create the lies for their own purposes, and the news and print media which, albeit unwittingly and unwillingly, nevertheless aid the pundits in spreading their lies to the greatest number of people. I won’t even bother to go through at this point to delineate each and every little untruth, partial truth, made-up crap, or altered data that is used to convey the lie to the public; by now, most of y’all should be able to figure those out for yourselves…. I have excerpted one comment, by Eric Snowden, which sums up perfectly my own feelings on this subject; that summation is in bold italic font, to separate it from the rest of the excerpt….

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/White-House-lawmakers-no-clemency-for-Snowden-4952388.php

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Feinstein-disputes-Snowden-s-claim-for-clemency-4952073.php

“Federal prosecutors have charged Snowden with theft and with two violations of the Espionage Act of 1917. But Snowden, who has taken refuge in Russia, has denied any treasonous intent, saying he disclosed secrets to the news media, not to hostile foreign powers, and did so to push for reform. “Instead of causing damage, the usefulness of the new public knowledge for society is now clear because reforms to politics, supervision and laws are being suggested,” he wrote in Der Spiegel. “Citizens have to fight against the suppression of information about affairs of essential importance for the public. Those who speak the truth are not committing a crime.” ”

http://www.sfgate.com/default/article/Snowden-seeks-the-world-s-help-against-US-charges-4946049.php

It is a sad day for me, and for this country, when one of its citizens, in the pursuit of freedom guaranteed to him by the Constitution, commits an act of pure patriotism, tells the truth, for the good of everyone, yet, in order to even stay alive, much less free, he must run to another country to hide, and make an appeal to the rest of the world for protection. I do not blame him for doing so; the first articles above make it abundantly clear exactly WHY he has to do it this way; if he didn’t, we would never have known all this…..

If he had attempted to go through “channels” to report any of this, he would have disappeared from view, forever, along with all of his information, and we might never have known exactly what our own leaders were doing to us… Count on that, ffolkes, no matter how many times they would deny it…. With an attitude like the one displayed, no other outcome would have been possible… Remember, no matter how many times it is repeated, a lie does NOT become the truth…

The two most powerful figures in Congress, and the President, along with all their police myrmidons and agents, are dead-set against ANY leniency in this, a sure sign to me that they KNOW they are in the wrong. Strong denial is ALWAYS the first reaction by a politician when accused of wrongdoing, and they will deny, deny, deny, even up to, and past, the point of having the proof shoved in their face, to keep from ever having to admit their own immorality, or that they MIGHT have made a mistake… No, that possibility cannot be allowed in their narrow world-view; they are well aware that if one lie is exposed, it will lead to the exposure of more lies, and they don’t want to let the public have any clue as to how many different ways they are screwing them….

Part of the irony in all of this is that many of these pundits and politicians often BELIEVE their own BS; they really do believe they know best what the public should know, or have, or be allowed to do…. They often, always erroneously, but sincerely, believe they are the best judges of what people should have the rights to do, believing they are making decisions for them “for their own good”….. which, as you, and just about any person with an IQ over 75 knows, is a complete crock of shit…. And not just ANY shit…. sticky, smelly, unhealthy shit at that…. What else could it be, coming from the very source of our worst qualities as human beings….. ambition, pride, and egotistic avarice for power?….

Ah me, it’s all so discouraging most of the time…. I’m a smart guy, and I can see all the shit that is going on right in front of me… Unfortunately, I’m also smart enough to understand human nature, to at least some degree, and realize that it isn’t going to change, not overnight, and, perhaps not at all…. If we, in the expression of our nature, don’t make SOME kind of changes, in how we treat the planet, and each other, well, the consequences won’t be pleasant for anyone, and that is just about as discretely understated as I can make it in English…

More simply, we’re on our way to a living hell, ffolkes, if we don’t change the way the world is going today…. It is a foregone conclusion that if we keep on the way we are, things WON’T change, not for the better; at best they’ll stay the same for a while, but, entropy guarantees that, unmodified, reality will start to fall apart, and will continue until chaos is achieved….. That is the nature of the Universe, and there is not anything in our power, or our imagination, that can change that simple fact…. Me, I’m going to do what I can, when I can, to point out what I see, and what I think may be happening, and hope that somebody in a position to actually do something will take note, and perhaps, begin the process that will save our sorry asses….

I doubt that is very likely, though, so I may as well go have a beer…. Make that an Irish Coffee, please, it’s a bit early for beer….

“And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good,
Need we ask anyone to tell  us these things?”

— R. Pirsig
_____________________________

In keeping with today’s ranting theme, but, with a bit of contrasting humor to mitigate the sobriety, here is a poem I’ve used before, by one of the twentieth century’s finest poets…..

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 succint:
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 ~~

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It’s been a tough morning, as evidenced quite strongly by the complete overpowering dizziness that just stormed through my brain; what a rush! I’m not sure if it is fatigue from denying the cold’s effects, or just my currently strange body chemistry affecting the state of my mind, going through, as it is, the transition from long-term nicotine addiction to a (reportedly….) more healthy life without nicotine…. I’d forgotten that the almost 47 years I abused myself with those fags would demand a heavy price tag to get shut of; goes to show we are ALL adept at NOT looking at things we don’t want to see….

But, now I get to relax, and find some lustrous pearls to fill out this last section appropriately, and that is always a pleasure…. Let’s see what Smart Bee has for us this morning, shall we?….. If I am compelled to comment, those will be in parentheses, just so’s you know….

” Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice.” — H. L. Mencken

(Ouch! Boy, I’m feelin’ that one!….)

“The reason the Christians have murdered on such a vast scale and killed anyone and everyone in their way is purely and simply greed…  Their insatiable greed and overweening ambition know no bounds; the land is fertile and rich, the inhabitants simple, forbearing and submissive.  The Spaniards have shown not the slightest consideration for these people, treating them (and I speak from first-hand experience, having been there from the outset) not as brute animals – indeed, I would to God they had done and had shown them the consideration they afford their animals – so much as piles of dung in the middle of the road.  They have had as little concern for their souls as for their bodies, all the millions that perished having gone to their deaths with no knowledge of God and without the benefit of the Sacraments.  One fact in all this is widely known and beyond dispute, for even the tyrannical murderers themselves acknowledge the truth of it:  the indigenous peoples never did the Europeans any harm whatever; on the contrary, they believed them to have descended from the heavens, at least until they or their fellow citizens had tasted, at the hands of these oppressors, a diet of robbery, murder, violence, and all other manner of trials and tribulations.” — Bartolome de Las Casas, — A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, 1542

(This could easily be the beginning of another rant, against those I believe to be equally complicit with politicians in the rape and pillaging that occurs in society on a daily basis, but, I’ll leave it as just a pearl, and just note this…. It seems, by looking at the date this was written, that the churches and dogmatists have been known as criminals and rogues for a very long time…. By my count, it was around 485 years ago this first appeared…. I haven’t seen a lot of improvement over that period…. have you? Oh, they have better press agents now, and slightly different techniques of modus operandi, but the basic rapaciousness, and misguided sense of entitlement remains in full force, without any doubt…. Now, though, it seems that children are in the worst danger from the clergy, as they have been their primary target of exploitation in the last century….)

“If the lawmakers make a compromise, the place where it will be felt the most is the taxpayer’s pocket.” — Deadlock’s Law

“A politician,… one that would circumvent God.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act v, Sc. 1

(Even Will got it right occasionally; I’ve just never been able to figure out if it was because he wrote SO DAMN MUCH STUFF that sometimes, chance worked in his favor, and he hit something on the head, or if he just stole it from Francis Bacon…. or, just as likely, one of his cronies at the pub next door to the Globe…. )

“Freedom begins between the ears.” — Edward Abbey

(It’s really too bad that this means that most of today’s citizens have way too much space between their ears for freedom to keep from leaking out….)

“We must never permit the voice of humanity within us to be silenced. It is man’s sympathy with all creatures  that first makes him truly a man.” — Albert Schweitzer

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

I love when serendipity is everywhere!…. Two perfect pearls to close with, and the whole thing comes together, mismatches and all…. I hope you enjoyed this little meander through my head as much as I did, but, I doubt that’s possible…. S’okay, it doesn’t make me anything, other than done…..
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Given all that has gone before in this Pearl, it’s probably just as well it IS done…. Let me see how it stands up to scrutiny, even from such an indulgent judge….. Well, that’s certainly a Pearl. Not only that, but, from all appearances, it doesn’t wobble. I’m going to count my blessings, and steal off into the day…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

For your safety, we use ONLY the BEST metaphors….

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Ffolkes,

Never having been one to deny myself new experiences, here I am, up and writing, wide awake, at 0335 in the AM…. Over the last few days, I’ve been plagued by a physical side-effect of quitting smoking, one that nobody bothers to mention to those of us considering the move; they just wait for it to hit us, AFTER we’ve already learned to do without the surcease to the spirit that smoking supplies…. I’m speaking of the incessant coughing that I’m experiencing, whether I smoke anything or not…. I’ve given up the cigarettes, though not without some trepidation for losing an old friend; the trade-off of twenty extra years of life is well worth it….

I’m not sure that giving up the pipe, in which I have been accustomed to use to consume my marijuana, which I use for relief of pain, low-level, constant anxiety, and sleep enhancement, is going to work, though…. It seems that NOT SMOKING is causing my lungs to attempt to clear themselves completely of whatever is in there annoying them, which entails an almost constant wheezing, accompanied by a following series of spasming coughs, to try to clear the phlegm causing the wheeze, from the air passage…

This can take up to ten or twelve hacking coughs, each one more violent than the last, to get the obstructing culprits cleared out adequately; until they are, I am gasping, coughing, and generally threatening to explode, unable to get a full breath, all the while experiencing the accompanying mild degree of panic that goes with that state….

“No one sings hymns to breath; but, Oh!, to be without it is death!”…. Rama, God of Death incarnate, from Roger Zelazny’s “Lord of Light”

So, here I am, coughing up a lung every few minutes, in a semi-constant state of oxygen deprivation, with no pot to soothe my spirit, or alter my consciousness far enough to keep me from wanting to kill someone every other moment of the day…. I’m amazed I’m not in jail yet, for having wasted a number of people on the street….. Of course, that may be because I’ve been coughing too much to get out on the streets, but, you know what I mean….

It has to be annoying to my lady; it can’t be easy hearing me cough up what sounds like a hairball every few minutes… but, so far, she has only once accused me of sounding like a sick cat, puking in somebody’s shoes for effect…. She’s more patient than she seems…. But, it is no less annoying for me, to have to stop whatever I’m doing, including this process, every couple of minutes, to take the time to catch my breathe, after completely losing it during one of the attacks…. It also makes it hard to consider going into public, as I get a lot of odd looks when I’m trying to clear my chest and throat of the obstructions provided by my own body’s healing process…. or, that’s what I’m assuming, anyway…

If it IS NOT healing, but is rather a sign that it will NOT heal at all, well, then, I’m really up that proverbial creek, named after our digestive products, without a directional steering device for boating vehicles, otherwise known as a paddle…. Oh well, I guess I can only wait to see if, or, more positively, when it passes, to see how my breathing has either improved, or gotten worse for the period of severe coughing…. I hate it when I have to wait like this, but, there is no hurrying the body in its processes…. They happen at nature’s speed, which has no connection to, nor is affected by how we feel about it, or how badly we want it to change….

Well, now that I’ve self-ranted against my own foolishness, for having first gotten hooked on cigarettes when I was 16, and for thinking that giving them up would be easier than it is, I suppose I should go on to something a bit more interesting for y’all…. Sorry ’bout all this complaining, ffolkes, I’m getting old, I guess, and physical issues are assuming a bigger part of my attention these days, since there are SO MANY of them…. most of which were NOT IN THE DAMN MANUAL!!! But, I promised myself I wouldn’t be one of those old people who are always full of complaints, so, let’s just take the above six paragraphs of whining, and be on our way into the day’s dive for some delectable pearls….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is to be in reality what we would appear to be; all human virtues increase and strengthen themselves by the practice and experience of them.” — Socrates (BC 469-399)
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“I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is  largely a waste of time.” — H. L. Mencken

Eric Snowden will someday be recognized as the honorable Über-geek he really is; more importantly, I am hoping that he’ll rightfully be admired as an American hero. It is already clear that he was just as brave as any soldier on the front lines of a war, for having had the courage and integrity to defy his corporate-controlled, amoral spy-masters, to reveal to the world the illegal and seemingly limitless spying tactics used by the NSA at the behest of our governmental corporate lackeys, knowing full well that by doing so, he was setting himself up to be persecuted by them. This situation is a perfect example of how the government will say one thing in public, and do another in private…. More specifically, it shows how little the government believes in its own need to follow the laws they make…. They seem to feel as if the making of the laws allows them to assume they are exempt from them….

“I have known a vast quantity of nonsense talked about bad men not looking you in the face.  Don’t trust that conventional idea. Dishonesty will stare honesty out of countenance, any day in the week, if there is anything to be got by it.” — Charles Dickens

We have “whistleblower laws” in place in our country, laws which are SUPPOSED to protect people like Mr. Snowden from being prosecuted when they bring illegal activities into the light of day; theoretically, these laws keep them safe from the people they are accusing, who would otherwise try to harm them to stop the bleeding…. However, our dearly beloved ruling class chooses to ignore all that, and are trying to bring charges of espionage and treason against him, as though he were some kind of spy himself, working for another country….

Eric Snowden was not a spy, unless it was for US, the people; after all, the NSA did hire him in the first place didn’t they? He must have had some technical credibility, and must have been relatively clean of misdeeds, as an über-geek, in order to have been asked to work for them at all, right? I would assume so…. Of course, that makes the arguably incorrect assumption that the NSA has some clue as to what they are doing, as well as at least a small degree of expertise in their chosen field… I could be wrong about that, though…..  😆

I think he’s done about as well as he could to keep from helping our enemies; what he HAS done, to our own leaders, is embarrass them highly; THAT is what they will not forgive…. To a politician “face” is very important, as are all illusions of appearance; why else would they all wear those stupid ties, all of a “power” color, and that silly-ass flag pin…. They feel they cannot afford to be seen as weak, or indecisive, so they will make ANY decision, no matter how wrong it may be, just to keep from appearing as if they don’t know what to do. They’re incapable of making a decision at all if it would make it seem as if they were admitting to being wrong in any way…. To give Mr. Snowden the credit for what has done, they would have to first admit they have DONE wrong, and they are not willing to do that, more’s the pity….

http://news.yahoo.com/snowden-says-calls-reform-prove-intel-leaks-were-114707696.html

I happen to agree with Mr. Snowden’s assessment of the overall effect of his information leaks; I think he has made the world a safer place for all of us, if only because he made it perfectly clear that we are being lied to, right and left, by our own leaders. This is invaluable information, that the public NEEDS to know, if we are to be able to protect ourselves…. It is a bit disheartening, to be sure, to have to protect ourselves from our own leaders, but, hey, it’s better to know than not to know, for sure…. Now that we know, we can act accordingly to bring more pressure on the government to straighten up and fly right; if nothing else, more people have learned that it is important to keep a close eye on those who would call themselves our leaders, to keep them from screwing us around any more than they already are….

“I believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the measures of the Government are directed to the purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.” — William Henry Harrison

I believe that not only is Eric Snowden NOT a traitor; I consider him to be a Patriot of this country, deserving of the Medal of Honor, or the Freedom Medal, the highest civilian award possible, for bravery and courage in the face of severe persecution by his own government, and for bringing to light the illegal and immoral acts of our government lackeys. It took great courage, and great commitment to the truth, for him to make the decisions he made, and I, for at least one, thank him with all my heart….

“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)

(Albert Pike…. another interesting fellow…. If you have a few moments, Google his name, and read the wikipedia article about him… It’s a pretty interesting life he led, and I wonder why he is less of a well-known figure than he is… He was responsible for a lot of good work back in the 19th century, and deserves some of our thanks for all he did to preserve the freedoms we DO have today…. Check him out…)
_____________________________

Political ranting over the news is an exhilarating, if a bit raucous, occupation for so early in the morning, and tends to leave me a bit unsettled, if only in my level of anxiety (No worries, said anxiety is ALWAYS with me, to a slight degree, so it’ not a big issue, or one I’m unfamiliar with….Life goes on, with or without it….)… When I feel this way, I always seem to turn to a poem to bring me back to the center. The poems this lady wrote always fill the bill, for me, to bring me some kind of soothing peace, even when the poem has no apparent connection to anything else I’ve been writing about…. It works for me, and, hopefully, will work for y’all as well…. Enjoy!…

A bird came down the walk:
He did not know I saw;
He bit an angle-worm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew
From a convenient grass,
And then hopped sidewise to the wall
To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all abroad,–
They looked like frightened beads, I thought;
He stirred his velvet head

Like one in danger; cautious,
I offered him a crumb,
And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean,
Too silver for a seam,
Or butterflies, off banks of noon,
Leap, splashless, as they swim.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

____________________________

It is most likely for the best that the only thing left for me to do today is to go old-school…. It is currently only ten minutes after 5 AM, an early hour for me to be this close to being done with this missive…. I’ll take a short break, to let Smart Bee, and myself, catch our breath, both figuratively, and literally speaking…. In the infamous words of the Governator… “I’ll be back….”

As threatened, here I am, and breathing easily, for a change…. This will be a lifestyle pearl, chock full of the wisdom of the ages, to give us all a clue as to where the next steps on the path to enlightenment might be placed to best advantage… Enjoy!….

“The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it – once you can honestly say, “I don’t know,” then it becomes possible to get at the truth.” — Robert A. Heinlein

“Just as treasures are uncovered from the earth, so virtue appears from good deeds, and wisdom appears from a pure and peaceful mind. To walk safely through the maze of human life, one needs the light of wisdom and the guidance of virtue.” — Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

“Character is much easier kept than recovered.” — Thomas Paine

“It is not without good reason said, that he who has not a good memory should never take upon him the trade of lying.” — Michael de Montaigne (1533-1592) — Essays, Book i, Chap. ix, Of Liars89

“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.” — Paul Simon

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.  We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly.  We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Aristotle

“After enlightenment, do the laundry.” — Zen proverb

Ooh, ooh, that reminds me… I’m out of clean socks….     🙂
_____________________________

Okay, so they can’t all be perfect….. though that last group of pearls comes pretty close…. Let’s see how much damage I’ve done today…. Okay, that’s surprisingly good, given the handicap I gave myself today by starting so early…. I’ve once again greeted the dawn, and it’s time now to cease my endless chatter, in favor of the pending activities I have scheduled today out in the Big Blue Room…. Rental cars, dentists, stores, doctors, all are in my radar for the next couple days… Wow, it’s almost as if I had a real life!… 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.s

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3