Ffolkes,
“Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.”
~~ The Beatles ~~
Image of Guangxi Province, China, found on the UK Telegraph Website
Good morning…. There is hope! As a scientist for most of my life, I am willing to change my theories in the face of new data that is indicative of the need for a change. For some weeks now, I’d about given up hope of ever sleeping more than a couple hours at a time, having been so disrupted by the forced medicine change perpetrated upon me by my own doctors. But, last night, I actually slept, with some small awakenings, for a full eight hours, or close enough as to make no difference…. The difference in my own state of mind is astounding, once one gets past the astonishment, filling me with the hope I can repeat the experience tonight…
In short, Right Fucking On! Or, as we used to say, Yippee, hippie! Well, okay, we didn’t say that, but, we felt like it!….
And, now, we can get on with this mess, without any further nonsense…. Another YAY, if you please….
Shall we Pearl?….
“Virtue is the beauty, and vice the deformity, of the soul.”
~~ Socrates (B.C. 469-399) ~~
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Today’s musical video choice is a form of celebration for last night’s gift, a long rest in the arms of Morpheus…. This, however, will NOT put you to sleep. It’s one of my favorite old rock bands, famous for hard-driving, brilliantly improvisational southern rock & roll, in a concert from their heydey, in March of 1971. I give you. the Allman Brothers Band, at the Warehouse, New Orleans…. Enjoy, ffolkes…. I’m going to, for sure….
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Our world is poised on the cusp of an uncertain future; in my most optimistic examinations of the evidence all around us, there is conflict coming to society. All I can see is turmoil and human pain, in an ever increasing spiral of insanity, as the long-awaited collapse of the current system of economic dominance, to wit: capitalism, enters the final death throes, shaking itself apart at the very seams, which are merely illusions, held together by ideas long out of date, and ultimately self-destructive. In short, the house of cards is coming down, ffolkes, and there isn’t a damn thing anyone can do about it at this point.
Oh there are signs of hope, but, they are almost buried by the obvious signs of corruption and decayed morality which will, ultimately, spell our doom, unless we can find a way to change human nature in the next, oh, five minutes or so….. You think I’m being facetious, but, I’m not; that is a very literal warning, in real time…. My assessment is based on too many pieces of evidence to ignore, or deny, and I’m not particularly happy about it, but, then, Reality very seldom asks our permission for anything, now, does it?
One of the ways our species seems to use, to its undying regret, is to attempt to legislate behavior, or morality, which is the cause of the behavior, into a moral guideline, supposedly for the benefit of all. This, of course, is sheer nonsense, for you cannot legislate human feelings or motivational emotions. It just isn’t possible to make a law that causes people to stop committing offenses of morality; laws do not reach into the human psyche like that. Laws of society have no effect whatsoever on how people feel, or act, and to think so is sheer folly. Yet, for centuries, people have tried to make laws to adjust behavior; I defy ANYONE to show ONE TIME in history in which it worked…. Go ahead, I’ll wait while you look….
I’m pretty confident you wont’ find any such examples…. I’m full of energy, having slept well last night for the first time in, literally, months. As a result, I think I could keep ranting on this for some time…. But, I know y’all have better things to do, so, I’ll sublimate the rest of my angst into an older rant, on a subject which highlights our subject today….
This country has attempted any number of times to abrogate the Second Amendment of the US Constitution; regulations already exist which have decreased its universality, placing restrictions on the process of obtaining and licensing (!!!) a gun…. The following rant was written in response to one writer’s suggestion for a change to the Bill of Rights, which he felt would be useful. This is my response….
From 9/19/2012:
A while back, I wrote a comment regarding another blog, concerning the proposal made in that blog of writing some new amendments to the Constitution. Most of the suggested amendments made good sense, as they removed most of the entitlements that Congress had awarded itself over the years. However, there was one suggested change with which I wholeheartedly disagree…. this is the response to that suggestion… the address of the original blog is included, in case you want to read it first….. To wit:
In Response to a Proposed 35th Amendment:
From the blog site at:
http://lennemi.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/a-proposal-for-a-new-bill-of-rights/#comment-234
After reading the above blog, I posted the following comment:
Sir, or madam,
Excellent post, well reasoned and presented…. I have a few comments, if I may….
It has long been a delusion in human society that morality can be enforced, or induced at all, by legislation. This is, as proven time and time again throughout thousands of years of human history, an idea that is doomed to fail, every time it is attempted. That is not speculation, or guesswork. Look it up…..
Therefore it is my suggestion that you forget #35, in favor of the Second Amendment already in place in the Bill of Rights; this concept is based on a false assumption, and making a flat statement of what (YOU believe) my rights are, or should be, is not acceptable to me as a citizen of this republic, or as a human being responsible for my own actions .Bearing arms is not a privilege, nor will I, and most likely at least 150 million, or more, other people in this country, accept that idea for a moment, a fact that should be obvious to any one with practical understanding of reality.
I do not, nor will I ever believe that Federal, State, or Local jurisdiction have either the right, nor the authority to say differently, and I doubt seriously that there are very many in this country who do believe that. I reject utterly the statement that they, or you, or anyone else, has the right to decide for me what I will or will not own, or keep, or use in my defense. After guns, free speech would be the next to go….any bets?
That, my friends, is a fact of life, and of human nature. We only have those rights we can defend…. and, this is merely another doomed attempt to legislate morality into human nature. Violence exists. Period. Get used to it, because you are not going to remove it from people’s core nature, or from reality, any more than attempting to remove guns will stop crime, or killing, or the tendency toward violence that is part of the nature of Man. Better to understand the impulse, to work toward educating people in how to cope with that part of themselves constructively, rather than destructively…..
The rest of your amendments are perfectly in alignment with what I believe is needed to improve the conditions of inequality and elitism so prevalent in today’s society, and would likely receive my full support.
To be honest, up to recently, I never owned, or saw a need to own a gun. As one who has followed the Warrior’s Path since my early teens (and probably before; I was raised on army posts from birth to age 10), a long-time student of martial arts, and the theories of war, I learned how to deal with violence in many ways, with many techniques, a large number of which I had to apply in my work for years, physically controlling out-of-control psychotic mental patients, without hurting them, or getting hurt. I got pretty good at it, especially in recognizing it before it manifested fully, and diverting it. I am very familiar with violence, in a great many of its guises. So, I can generally deal with whatever physical violence may occur in my immediate vicinity.
Now, however, I’m not as fast as I once was, nor as well-conditioned; I’m better at foresight, though, it comes with age. Moreover, I can foresee a time when I could conceivably need the equalizing factor of a weapon like a gun, in order to live up to my standard of handling events without injury, as far as I can….. So, I’m probably going to buy one or two… because of that aging, and even more, because of insane (sorry, don’t mean to flame; but, it isn’t fully sane to attempt to change human nature) talk such as this, of watching society willingly slip on their slave collars… It is NOT going to happen in my little corner of the world….
If anyone, or anyone’s brother, or anyone else, tries to take away the Second Amendment rights I now have, well, I can only say, good luck with that….. and bring lots of friends… You’ll need them….
Oh, I’d also keep in mind…. Those folks like the police in Sanford, Florida who were complicit in covering up the murder there (of Trayvon Martin), aren’t going to disarm themselves, now are they?…. How far will you trust them to behave with honor, and respect for YOUR rights? Get real…..and I don’t mean that disrespectfully, but in hope that you will open your eyes to what is plainly there to see….
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Near the end of next month, I’m planning to return to Ireland, to spend some time exploring the country, and the culture…. One of my grandmothers was born there; the other was born in a small village in England. I intend to try to find both their birthplaces, to see where some of my own roots were originally planted…. To celebrate in advance, here is a poem I wrote back in my time of poverty, prior to securing my retirement the way it is now. It shows fairly well how I feel about the Emerald Isle….
Days and Nights of Eire
Comforting, a dream creeps oft into my mind
On the elven hills of Eire lives the vision I find.
Elegant, gracious, everlastingly draped in beauty
Just payment of simple homage lives as joyous duty.
Fairies and druids walk abroad in ghostly parade
Gracing each hearth with its own welcoming shade.
Castles and heroes yet live in tale and song
Proving love for the land in each heart strong.
From cold of winter into glorious young spring
Brown, and gray, to emerald green songs to sing
Soft rains always follow winter’s great tempest
Eire dons its emerald coat from east to west.
Old and strong, connections call out in dreams
Nothing that was known remains as it seems.
Immersion in ancient runes and battle hymns
Offering sanity in place of grievous whims.
Time and place can tell a much different tale
Judgment should never be a final sale.
Yet something solid and real calls me to go see
Where dreams of loving beauty may actually be….
~~ gigoid ~~
Written 11/3/2012.
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Today’s final old-school pearl is destined to be a classic. I was careful in creating it, to choose just the right quotes to fit the point(s) made, as well as the Apple configuration elements (the ‘look and feel’… Yes, it’s an ironic dig at Steve-O’s sense of entitlement…). I believe it may be one the finest examples of the genre I’ve ever put together. Every one of the quotes has a significant piece of advice or point about living with virtue; anyone who can make these a part of their life is bound to find peace within themselves, for together, what we have here is a road map to happiness, and freedom…
I might also add, I’d wager serious money all of these will be on the Final Quiz waiting for us at the door to the next world, so, paying attention could make all the difference in where we end up…. Think about it….
“You’re only dancing on this Earth for a short time
And though you want to last forever,
You know you never will.
And the good-bye makes the journey harder still.”
~~ Cat Sevens ~~
Love is not something you have; it is something you do. — Limon
“Who then is free? The wise man who can command himself.” — Horace
“What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to.” — Bob Dylan
“Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” — Anne Herbert, Co-Evolution Quarterly, 1983
“Cultivate only the habits that you are willing should master you.” — Elbert Hubbard
“Be not unwilling in what thou doest, neither selfish nor unadvised nor obstinate; let not over-refinement deck out thy thought; be not wordy nor a busybody.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — Meditations, iii, 5
“Our life is short, but to expand that span to vast eternity is virtue’s work.” — Shakespeare
“I expect to pass through this life but once. If, therefore, there be any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.” — William Penn
“Don’t try to have the last word. You might get it.” — Lazarus Long
Do not stand by my grave and weep.
I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am a diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle Autumn rain.
When you awake in the morning hush.
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft star-shine at night.
Do not stand by my grave and cry.
I am not there… I did not die.
~~ Prayer of the Makah Indians ~~
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It’s probably not smart to think what happened today will ever happen again, but, we can hope. This one came together like billy-oh, as they used to say, which, no doubt, is directly attributable to the massive sleep I from which I arose a while ago. Still, it’s nice to have it work the way it is designed to work. In fact, I think it would be wise to take the money, which is never anywhere to be found, and run for the border….. and, no, I’m not going to Taco Bell. Haven’t subjected myself to that in years….
See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes. That’s both a promise, and. a threat….. We only threaten misguided concepts, so, not to worry, right? Right. See ya…..
Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark,Theresa, & Richy
and everyone else, too…
When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.
Which is Why….
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes,
I just sits.
gigoid, the dubious
The *only* duly authorized Computer Curmudgeon.
PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.
“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch
À bientôt, mon cherí….
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