Tag Archives: Lord Cohen

Twisted versions of classical toilet accessories….

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Ffolkes,

I’m thinking the old saw about “Early to bed”, etc., is either a crock, designed purely to force dogmatic prejudices upon unwilling members of religious flocks, back when the preachers were not quite so thoroughly entrenched as the teachers of morality for our species, OR, it’s a typo rooted in being misheard….

I think the actual statement originally went “Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man wealthy and wealthy, but not very wise.” To my way of thinking, this makes a LOT more sense, from a quality of life standpoint….. The other way is just how the preachers and snakeheads WANT you to believe, as it gives THEM the power over you they crave….

You see, they’re the ones who reap the benefit when you get up early, work hard, & go to bed, all without ever trying to use the brain you were given at birth…. These manipulators, the dogma-bearers and the snakeheads who reap the benefit of all your hard work, will tell you anything at all, without any reference to truth or reality, as long as it will get y’all to do what they want, which is to accept their words as truth, & to do as they say, not as they do….

What amazes me the most about this system is that it WORKS AT ALL! How can anyone, anyone with a brain, one that has more than three functioning neurons, allow themselves to believe such bullshit, just because they were told it was true when they were so young they knew no better than to accept what they were told by an elder…

“Children are to be won to follow liberal studies by exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by whipping.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of the Training of Children

As long as people allow the corporate snakeheads, so ably assisted by the dogma-dogs, who have been manipulating mankind right along with the money-lenders since we first lived indoors, to fill our heads with bullshit like this, the world will never change, not in any way that will help you and me….. In our world, as it exists today, only the shadowy corporate slave masters ultimately benefit from what happens in the world at large….

I’m not sure what prompted this mini-rant here in the intro, but, it’s all true, so I’m going to not worry about it, and just get on with today’s program, such as it may be…. The above paragraphs MAY be the leftovers from the rant below, much of which was written yesterday afternoon, when I first saw the article in question…. It got me going pretty good, so, this is probably the consequence of the remaining bit of angst from that episode, that drove me to such depths of passion….

So be it…. it’s a good thing, I think, to use our minds first thing upon awakening….. The shock brings us out of sleep mode rapidly, and I’m pretty sure it adds to the clarity of expression that we are seeing. Hope springs eternal….

Regardless of all that, it’s done, and done well enough we can go on without any lingering guilt or resentment for having to contort ourselves unfashionably to create an opening section….. Not bad for an old fart with flat feet, frequent flatulence, & a startlingly bad attitude, all housed in a frail, broken old body, that strangely resembles a Frisbee-toting, card-carrying denizen of the wilds of Berzerkeley, as they looked back in the old days, when hippies roamed free upon the land…. The grey hair down to my waist, thin as it may be, is a dead giveaway, isn’t it?

Shall we Pearl?…..

And here, poor fool, with all my lore
I stand no wiser than before.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

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

“In God We Trust.”  I don’t believe it would sound any better if it were true.” — Mark Twain

Boy, it sure wouldn’t, would it? But, you can add that particular phrase (“In God….”, etc.) to all the others coined by the snakeheads, and the BRC, to justify their social interactions, all of which serve THEIR ends, not yours…. Having the populace believe the above makes for a very easily manipulated group of people, all of whom are primed to believe whatever they’re told, by someone on TV wearing a suit with a flag pin, or up in the pulpit….

Now we’re supposed to believe them when they talk to us about spying, and lying, and generally being the assholes they cannot help but be…. ( Hmm, a bit awkwardly phrased, but you get my drift, right?…)

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Senate-committee-OKs-release-of-CIA-torture-report-5375716.php

Following this line, in summary of the most critical of the information contained therein, I have copied an excerpt from the above article, a brilliantly obscure statement of compliance (?), kinda sorta, from some guy who works at the CIA. That critical excerpt, taken directly from the above, is this:

“CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said his agency would “carry out the review expeditiously,” but suggested the process may be difficult.”We owe it to the men and women directed to carry out this program to try and ensure that any historical account of it is accurate,” Boyd said….”

That’s right, that’s what he said, right out there in public, where it was recorded by numerous reporters…. This person, this… Boyd person, is the mouthpiece spokesman for the CIA, an agency whose very existence, (its raison d’etre, its excuse for being part of our world at all), is to provide intelligence (in the form of information, a task that does not necessarily require significant levels of IQ in its operatives…. Flexible morality, yes, but, not IQ points….) from outside the borders of the USA, by inhabiting, and exploiting, the world of shadow, the battlefield of covert operations in other countries, using techniques and methods of operation based on illusion, misdirection, misinformation, and lies…. This is common knowledge, and not subject to debate…. look it up in their charter documents….

This Boyd person, and I use the term loosely, by making this statement, obviously expects us to believe that his agency, whose very existence is rooted in lies and the spread of misinformation, is ready, and willing to give us, or anyone else, an ACCURATE picture of what they’ve been up to? I don’t know about y’all, but, I’m insulted….

In fact, I can’t recall at the moment anything more egregiously untrue, or as insulting, since Nixon’s “I am not a crook!” back in the 70’s…. Or, maybe, Shrub, Senior’s “Read my lips… no new taxes.”….. Since the sheer illegitimacy of both of those statements has long been a forgone conclusion, no longer a matter of debate, I’d say it’s a fair assessment to make of this particular little piece of verbal bullshit…

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Cuban-Twitter-heads-to-hearings-in-Congress-5375669.php

Then, searching further among the headlines of BS we are supposed to buy into, we come to the LATEST of the clandestine shenanigans our beloved Barry, and his “transparent administration” has been up to in the last few years….

Without bothering to actually TELL anyone, some government lackeys, encouraged by the “Arab Dawn” phenomenon in the Middle East, an event whose roots were nourished by the social networking capabilities of Twitter and Instant Messaging technology, decided to attempt to foment rebellion in Cuba among the youth of that country, by deliberately setting up a social network of their own, using it to not only encourage dissent, but, also, (they like to multi-task…) to gather information about the users in Cuba…

Well, I’m shocked…. just shocked, I tell you…. What a surprise, eh? To think that our Beloved Ruling Class here in America, land of the FREE (white Christian minority) would stoop to such egregiously deceitful and deliberate influencing of public sentiment to further their own interests, why it just makes me feel so….  slimed…. Which is how the Cubans must have felt when they found out it was all a sham…

Boy, there’s sure nothing like going around the world making new friends and influencing people, right?…. Christ on a crutch, what the fuck were they thinking? Have these assholes become so blinded by their own sense of entitlement they can’t see just how STUPID that is? Apparently not, which is what will come out, I think, in these hearings…. More stupidity, that is….

It’s all a big clusterfuck, just another example of entitlement gone wild and crazy, making the pundits and elected assholes at every level believe they can be as stupidly obvious about their self-serving avarice as they wish, and nobody will ever care, or catch them at it…. which is a concept, given today’s world, that is not only easily seen as more than just a little stupid, it approaches the level of severe mental retardation…. Having spent a lot of time, (3+ years), taking care of people whose average IQ hovered around 4, I can testify that this sort of belief is about the only sort of which they are capable…..

They’re all a bunch of smarmy, self-serving, avaricious assholes…. and THAT, my friends, is me being NICE!….. I merely used a bit of vitriol, with only one questionably unwarranted word of insult…. I COULD have been extremely nasty, turning viciously vulgar, without breaking a sweat, or becoming at all disconcerted…. Yep, I could have said, fuck them all, really hard, right in the ass, (unless, of course, they LIKE that….); then, kick their sorry asses right down to the lowest levels of the hell they so richly deserve…. but, I won’t say that….

gigoid, the dubious, has spoken.  So be it….

“…. I’m IMAGINING a sensuous GIRAFFE, CAVORTING in the BACK ROOM of a KOSHER DELI –” — Zippy the Pinhead

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Today is another day with mostly fresh material…. which means I’ll need to use another of my old poems, to protect the innocent… Here is one I wrote last December; obviously, I had the above rant in mind, or one like it….

Accentuated Lessons

Bold statements of calculated intent
Become common rule of the malcontent.
Avarice assumes such attractive wear
Beguiling deception, illusory and fair.

Grasping and pulling with ghostly hands
Legally proper in all the signatory lands.
Seeking and finding each vulnerable soul
Anguish as payment for exacting the toll.

Wraiths of commerce’s invisible dead guards
Still haunt the dreams left in sad empty yards.
While absentee nobles sit in stiffly elegant splendor
Served by sad-faced detainees in abject surrender.

Escape from reality is illusory at best
Often we falter and fail its daily test.
Only when focused on inner strength
Does peace stay with us for any length.

Peace lies within, always…..

~~ gigoid ~~


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

I’ve ranted, twice, if you want to be picky, and found a poem to fit in with the rest…. Y’all know what that means, don’t you? Yep, it’s time for an old school pearl…. Some might say it’s about damn time, too…. Let’s see if SB can do it all by itself today…. All I’ll do is push the buttons…. Enjoy!

“It also seems to me that the rudest word, the rudest letter are still more  benign, more decent than silence.  Those who remain silent are almost always  lacking in delicacy and courtesy of the heart.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“People are divided into two groups – the righteous and the unrighteous – and the righteous do the dividing.” — Lord Cohen

“Aren’t you beginning to feel time gaining on you? It’s like a predator. It’s stalking you. You can try to outrun it with doctors, medicines… new technologies. But in the end, time is going to hunt you down – and make the kill.” — Soran, Star Trek, Generations

“A wise man first determines what is within his control; all else is then irrelevant.” — Epictetus

“It was not for nothing that the raven was just now croaking on my left hand.” — Plautus (254-184 BC) — Aulularia, Act iv, Sc. 3, 1, (624.)

“The nobler a man, the harder it is for him to suspect inferiority in others.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero

“He knows not when to be silent who knows not when to speak. — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 930

I, having learned to do both, shall now be silent….

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

I’m impressed…. Yes, even I have to admit this one is pretty decent, as well as one of the smoothest ever, in terms of how well it went onto the screen…. I’m not going to tempt our old pal Murphy by trying to continue to write any further, but will use a variation of method #4 to bring this to a screeching halt…. See y’all mañana, ffolkes…..

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 the dubious

dozer3

Skeptical images go in the bluest bin…. (Spoiler: 94% fresh material…)

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Ffolkes,

I’m often amazed at how much the world can change in one day; never has that been more clearly defined for me than in the past 24 hours, when I took the time to compare that day to the 24 hours that preceded…. The difference, in how I feel, in how I view the world, in the world itself, all are in direct contrast to each other, and serve to send my mind into the realms of thought and introspection…. which is a good thing, mostly, if a bit strange for the average bear…. I’ve never been a particularly average bear, though, so, no worries, eh?….

My condition, both physical and mental, over the last few days was complicated by a certain policy decision I’d made, which, in the light of subsequent events, became, quite obviously, the wrong policy to adopt at this particular time, if ever. Since returning the policy to its former state, all seems to be well, in many respects that were NOT doing well….

This tells me that reinstating the policy was the correct decision, so, once again, that’s a good thing, even if all this is so obscure that even I am not sure what the hell I’m talking about…. But, that’s okay, it’s not really important for any other purpose than my own inner serenity, which is always a bit wobbly, so, we’ll just keep it that way, and let things settle into their most propitious alignments without further interference from me….

Now, wasn’t THAT fun! I could possibly have made that even more obdurately obscure, but, what’s the point in that? I can barely follow it myself, so even the NSA will have trouble figuring out what I’m talking about, even with ALL my meta-data to work with…. They’re missing the key encryption factor, which is located deep within the confines of my brain, in places of which even I am not fully cognizant; I keep it there on purpose, so I can’t tell them if I ever get caught….

Okay, so I’m no James Bond…. I can pretend, can’t I?….. Besides, I’m no real threat, (yet…), to them, other than by what I may write, and that has, thus far, been fairly mild, in terms of actual, practical revolutionary content…. I have yet to actually BUY a gun, (yet…), and haven’t started meeting up with like-minded radicals from other places around the country, (yet…). Nor have I started a newsletter, or published a paper, or any of the other organizational activities one might suspect if I chose to pursue such a course…. (yet…..)

I’ve thought about all of them, and may, someday relatively soon, go about following up on one or more of those impulses; it’s about damn time for some changes in this sad old world, that’s for sure….

But, not yet…. not quite yet….. I’m not convinced at this point as to how many others out there would consider joining with me in such activity, though I suspect there are many more than the BRC would believe…. Plus, when the time actually comes for me to do something practical, do they actually think that I’m stupid enough to tell them about it first? I guess they are, so, we’ll just let them go on believing that, and get on with what we’re doing…. which, at this point should probably involve some diving for pearls…. otherwise, we many never get out of here, and I know I’m low on snack items…. so…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Between the vision and the act lies the shadow.” — T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)
_____________________________

‘Kay…. I’m submitting to the will of Fate, such as it presents itself, as we all must when it does…. Oh, we all like to come up with high sounding rationalizations why our fate is in our own hands, or, we like to pretend it is subject to adjustment, if we hold to a certain set of beliefs, that protect us from its vagaries, but, when it all comes down to the final analysis, we will ALWAYS do what we do, and the WHY has NO BEARING on what will occur…. 

What will be, will be…. This is something that most people have a hard time coming to accept, myself included….. I’ve discovered, over the years, it is often best to go with the odds, so…. in order to honor the concept of “always cut the cards”, I’d like to talk a bit about the process of getting old…..

“Yep, getting old just plain sux.” — lobotero ( http://lobotero.com/ )

This quote was left as a comment for me on a recent post, wherein I was once again discussing my health, and mentioned that feeling poorly was “getting old”…. My new friend, lobotero, agreed with the sentiment, as he, I know, lives with his own difficult health issues…. But, when he said that, I was struck by the simple fact that, although it is true, as true as the sun coming up each day, it only describes half of the universe in which we live, the living half,  and it’s only because we are suffering that the other half, the dying, is so hard to acknowledge…..

“I’d rather die happy than not die at all….” — Bob Weir

Yeah, I’m hating big parts of this getting old shit, most of which is due to the fact that none of it was in the damn manual…. Of course, there was no manual, but, you know what I mean…. When we’re growing up, do the adults tell us, “don’t worry, you’ll be in pain soon, too, dear….”?… No, of course not… It’s all, “Oh, go play, dear, have fun. Use your mind, and your body, just be safe!”, or some such happy shit, never giving a clue, until later in life, that we all should have begun practicing some years ago at those things that will help us later in life…. SIGH… If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was a conspiracy…..

But, I know better than to attribute to malevolence anything that is more likely the result of asininity, or just plain stupidity….. We’re all not the brightest creatures on the platter, you know…. Why else would we still be stuck hanging around some backwater planet like this? There HAS to be somewhere more civilized to go, if only to find an adequate cup of ambrosia….. Logic says there MUST be…. As I am, sadly, no smarter than the rest of the monkeys stuck here, I suppose that means I have to try again to get along with the inhabitants, at least for long enough to get through another incarnation….

I must be feeling a little bit better, as this is the most coherent bit of cogitation I’ve managed for a week or more, as well as the most light-hearted…. I miss my sense of humor when it’s hiding behind the outrage, or the pain, or whatever it finds to stay out of the limelight…. But, one mustn’t spook the muses, now, so, shhh, we won’t talk of it any more just now…. Where was I?

Oh, yes, I was getting old, and, mostly liking it…. I guess that is the thrust of what I’m trying to say here….. I’ve had a HELL of a good time in my life, having managed to do just about all I wanted to do at one time or another, along with, of course, quite a few things I didn’t want to do so much…. But, all of them have taught me something, so, I figure I’m ahead of the game in that respect…. Plus, I just remembered why I MUST be feeling better, and why it’s so…..

When one is using one’s MIND (caps deliberate, to denote I’m really serious here….), when it is fully engaged in doing the work at which it excels, it actually has healing, and recuperative powers, in respect to the rest of the body…. This idea is a commonly held belief in many spiritual circles, and there is medical evidence to support it, as well, so I’m not just talking through my ass (though that has been known to occur…. but, not now….)… Any who, when one is thinking hard, and concentrating, the body has actually been measured, with results that indicate it does not merely STOP AGING, but, in point of fact, will repair some of the damage time wreaks, making us younger…..

For some time now, perhaps an hour or so, I’ve been thinking about what my friend said, above, and the echoes of the thoughts are still reverberating around in my head, stimulating other ideas, bouncing around. colliding with other ideas like a nuclear reaction in full swing, and, in essence, creating conditions in my body that are helping me to get better….. Until, of course, the actual illness itself steps in, to let me know it’s not quite gone… S’cuse me…. break time…. I hope to be right back….

So much for the wishes of a man in the face of fate, or Fate, or even destiny…. To continue…. in that hour that I’ve spent in thinking about how it sux to get old, I have felt better than I have for over a week, and certainly the best I’ve felt since becoming ill, several weeks ago, when I caught a cold for the first time in decades…. But, a full hour of the mind at work, and much of the damage has been, if not eliminated fully, mitigated to a significant degree; you can’t complain about a deal like that, now, can you?…..

So, yes, getting old sux, big time, a lot of the time…. Fortunately, that’s not the end of the story for us humans….. Myself, I have always enjoyed the process of learning, which just so happens to occur at a regular rate as we grow older (as long as we are paying attention….), and wouldn’t trade a single grey hair for those darker tendrils that adorned my head as a youth….. They still grow, grey as they are, a fact that, to me, indicates how things actually are, if we know how to perceive them….

As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned something new with each passing hour; the things I’ve learned make my life much fuller, filled with the feelings and experiences that I enjoy, such as the anticipation and excitement of traveling, or the profound joy of meeting new people, and I don’t believe I’d care to go back to being young, because the trade-off wouldn’t be a fair bargain, for me, or for the world….

I’ll just take things the way they are, and do the best I can to learn to enjoy even the difficult times, as being another kind of lesson….. This one taught me to find my way back to the proper attitudes for my mental and physical well-being, so, I’m content, for the nonce, even though I’m older than I was when I began…..

“You’ve little to fear, brave knight…unless the dragon stops purring.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

At times, all I want is a simple poem, that speaks directly to the truth of life…. Oh, look, here’s one now!…..

A Bottle And Friend

There’s nane that’s blest of human kind,
But the cheerful and the gay, man,
Fal, la, la, &c.

Here’s a bottle and an honest friend!
What wad ye wish for mair, man?
Wha kens, before his life may end,
What his share may be o’ care, man?

Then catch the moments as they fly,
And use them as ye ought, man:
Believe me, happiness is shy,
And comes not aye when sought, man.

~~ Robert Burns ~~

_____________________________

As I was searching the other day, looking for pearls for an old-school pearl I was putting together, a group of another type kept popping up in SB, obviously trying to get me to include them in a post…. I put them aside for the moment, but now will complete the group, and include them here, so they will stop whimpering at me…. Actually, this is looking like it will be a pretty good one….

“People are divided into two groups – the righteous and the unrighteous – and the righteous do the dividing.” — Lord Cohen

EVANGELIST, n.  A bearer of good tidings, particularly (in a religious sense) such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation of our neighbors. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“At the beginning there was the Word – at the end just the Cliche.” — Stanislaw J. Lec

“Any system of religion which has anything in it which offends the mind of a child cannot be a true system.” — Thomas Paine

“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.” — Albert Einstein

“All men are born naked.” — Carlos Eduardo Novaes

“If attacked by a lion thrust your arm down his throat. This takes some practice.” — Cyril Connolly

For those who have been reading this blog for a while, you may understand why I recognize this to be one of the finest pearls I’ve ever come up with; for those unfamiliar with how my mind works, (a group that often includes myself….), this will seem like something almost familiar, but, elusive and difficult to pin down….. For what it is worth, a key decryption tool for deciphering the meaning here would be the word, “dogma”; even more useful, the word, “poltroon”…. Of course, if you use the latter, you will need to remember to bring some Windex, or perhaps, a bit of WD-40, to the aftermath party…..
_____________________________

Today is one of those special days, brimming with the possibility of epiphany, tempered by the patina of age, yet shining with the luster that comes from elegance…. Oh wait, that’s just some oatmeal on my glasses….Whoops! Oh well, I had hopes there, for a moment…. Let’s see if it lives up to any of its promises….

Well, actually, it does…. I like it, and though I’m not particularly hard to please, still, it’s pretty okay…. I know, I’m damning it with faint praise, but, it can’t be helped… If I gush, I seem too egotistical, and, it’s not THAT good…. Whatever it is, I hope y’all enjoy today’s effort, because I enjoyed writing it…. 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

Not all pundits are bellicose….

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Ffolkes,
If it hadn’t been for Nosy’s dog, the aliens might have enslaved us all. He (Nosy, not the dog) always said that Useless wasn’t a normal dog, but we figured he was just saying that to make Useless feel better. And who’d a’thought a dog that wouldn’t even chase cats could be a hero? Goes to show, I guess, you can’t never take nothing for granted…..

It was one of them days in the desert when even the wind was too hot to blow. Shimmering waves of heat were coming off the packed dirt surrounding the old shack that housed the only gas station and general store for 100 miles in any direction. Pop Doolan and Bill Watson were in their standard positions, perched on chairs that were old & battered when they were boys, puffing away on a pipe and a cigarette, respectively. As I strolled up toward the door, Pop hailed me, “Hey, boy! When you goin’ to start shaving?” Since he knew as well as me I’d never have to worry about that (long story), I just grinned, waved, & stepped on inside the screen door…..

Hmm….. and interesting little opening. I wonder if it will go anywhere? We’ll find out another time; right now it’s time to rein in the horses, and buckle down to work….. seems a shame though; I was kind of interested to see how Useless saves the world…..
___________________________________

Amor, ch’al cor gentil ratto s’apprende,
prese costui de la bella persona
che mi fu tolta; e ‘l modo ancor m’offende.
Amor, ch’a nullo amato amar perdona,
mi prese del costui piacer si` forte,
che, come vedi, ancor non m’abbandona.
Amor condusse noi ad una morte.

Love, which is quickly kindled in a gentle heart,
seized this one for the fair form
that was taken from me-and the way of it affects me still.
Love, which absolves no loved one from loving,
seized me so strongly with delight in him,
that, as you see, it does not leave me even now.
Love brought us to one death.
— Dante, La Divina Commedia: Inferno V, vv. 100-106

I’ve never taken the time to delve deeply into The Divine Comedy; there were always reasons not to read it whenever it crossed my path, usually taking the form of books more in tune with my tastes. It may be the subject matter, or maybe the style, I don’t know, or much care. But I can recognize quality and talent when I see it, even if it doesn’t appeal to me particularly. I get the same reaction to William F. Buckley and Ayn Rand when I try to read their work. It’s okay though, there are plenty of other reads out there, and I can thus enjoy and appreciate snippets from these works for their artistic flair, or their relevance to reality.

In this case, I included this excerpt for the sheer beauty of form and content it exhibits; the Italian poem reads so well it engenders an audio image of great power and majesty. It is also impressive how well the translation of this piece, and of the others I have seen, mimics the original so closely, in both tone and grandeur. It almost makes me want to go pick up a copy and dive in….. nah! Too much work….. but, it’s a good one to remember for the next time I’m hard up for something to read….. that’s the nice thing about the Classics. There are so many of them, you can always find one you’ve never tried before, and be virtually guaranteed that it will be a good read……
___________________________________

“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.” — Edward Abbey

Sad, but true. And even more relevant in today’s political climate, which often resembles a carnival sideshow on Mental Health Day. As an American patriot, I have become inured to the constant lies and grasping avarice common to the current species of candidates. Don’t get me wrong, now; I mistrust the Democrats just as much as I do the Republicans. It’s just that the news and media is always full of the GOP right now, due to the feeding frenzy they call the caucuses, or some such euphemism for circus.

Every day, we are assaulted with reports of the latest gaffes, misstatements, outlandish claims, prophesies, and the random reasoned response (usually from some man-on-the-street), all of which are examined, re-examined, and speculated on endlessly. By the time the relevant election gets here, in November, I, and every patriot with a lick of common sense, will probably either boycott the election altogether, or find an empathetic psychiatrist to deal with the rage, one who can persuade them (us) not to shoot at the poor little candidates, at least not with live ammo…..

“It is of some small consolation for you to know that we have survived every President the electorate has thrust upon us.” — Anonymous

“The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.” — Gore Vidal
___________________________________

Some days, pearl diving is an occupation fraught with frustration; other days, like today, quotes on a particular subject just keep jumping into my lap. I had intended to write about the Bill of Rights, and how it is under attack by the PTB, otherwise known as our beloved ruling class, so I had that as a thought in the back of my mind when I dove in. Et voila’, quotes galore…. now I don’t need to write about it, because these say all I needed to say….

“Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation, that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense? Where is the difference between having our arms in our own possession and under our own direction, and having them under the management of Congress? If our defense be the _real_ object of having those arms, in whose hands can they be trusted with more propriety, or equal safety to us, as in our own hands?” — Patrick Henry

“…it is hard for me to see how one can argue that circumstances have so changed as to make mass disarmament constitutionally unproblematic.” — Professor Sanford Levinson, — The Embarrassing Second Amendment, — The Yale Law Journal, Vol 99, No 3, December 1989, p637.

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” — The Constitution of the United States of America, Amendment 2, 1791 (That pesky Second Amendment….)

“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear — kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor — with the cry of grave national emergency… Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded.  Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.” — General Douglas MacArthur, 1957

“Only our individual faith in freedom can keep us free.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Avert misunderstanding by calm, poise, and a .44 magnum.

I think that about covers it….. stay alert, ffolkes, the world needs more lerts…..
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“People are divided into two groups – the righteous and the unrighteous – and the righteous do the dividing.” — Lord Cohen

People are funny, aren’t they? Lord Cohen (another royal I’ve never heard of…) has hit squarely upon one of the more perverse qualities common to the human spirit. It always struck me as pretty hilarious (as well as hypocritical) that the people in the world who make the most noise and trouble over insignificant cultural or ideological differences are the same people who lay claim to being the only true devotees of the Great Redeemer, the only ones who really see the light.

It says right there in every translation of the Bible, even theirs, that the core of Jesus’ message is “Love thy brother as thyself”; he spent his whole time on this planet teaching compassion and encouraging diversity. But that’s not good enough for them, so they just pay lip service to that part of the Bible, and base their fundamental cruelty on interpretations of the Old Testament that serve their bigotry and ignorance. Too bad…. the world could use a few more good Christians, to help offset the karmic imbalance created by those who choose to fear the unknown, rather than embracing and understanding it…..
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politics, n:  From the Latin ‘poly’, meaning many, and ‘tic’, meaning little bloodsucking insects.

I think this is self-explanatory. It’s here merely because it fits in so well with my raison d’etre, my modus operandi, my….. my very real and unrelentingly hostile opinion of the type of human who enters the political arena in today’s society. I make no secret of my repugnance for those who seek power over other people, on any level, but especially in the political level, whether local, state, federal, or foreign, Democrat, Republican, Independent, whatever. Doesn’t matter to me, they’re all certifiably insane.

Even those who retain even the slightest shred of human decency are made irrelevant by the sheer weight of numbers. The corporate thieves, the sociopathic manipulators, and the deluded fundamentalists outnumber any such foolish milquetoasts to a degree that makes them ( the altruistic idealists) completely meaningless, and effectively powerless.

The picture is bleak enough that I, who swore never to own a gun, have decided to arm myself as soon as possible. The Second Amendment, one of the branches on the Tree of Liberty, may need to be protected and nourished, by the blood of patriots, and tyrants…..
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Having thus purged myself of a large buildup of angst, I can now face the rest of the day with a more cheerful mien. So, that’s what I’m gonna go do…. Y’all take care out there……

—

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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!