Seven days to go until my last indulgence for the year is to begin…. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but, Patricia and I will be taking another cruise a week or so from now… (nine days, technically, but, we don’t count today, and we don’t count the day we board…. only the days between us and the event count…. That way, we are allowed to get enthusiastic when it gets below double figures, and that comes sooner using this method… It’s all in the wrist, see, and how you look at it…. really….) It’s a seven day cruise, out of SF, to Ensenada, Mexico, and back, with stops in Santa Barbara, Long Beach/L.A., and San Diego. before getting to Ensenada.

I’m not sure how I fell into a rant, when I started out telling y’all about my upcoming trip…. but, I guess all of this has been in the forefront of my mind for some days, and I’m getting pretty upset about these gobshites…. I’ll rant about this below, anyway, as I’ve got some great stuff already picked out to direct the discussion… In fact, today’s piece may just combine my usual two targets into one rant, if I can work it….

But, it won’t happen if I write it all in the intro, so, since I’ve already rambled through about five or so paragraphs, without ever touching very strongly on any of what I wish to say, I’m sure the authorities won’t object if we just get on with it for the day, and leave the intro in the very common piss-poor state it’s in…. And, if nothing else, I got a full cup of coffee into me, which is a good sign, and bodes well for my typing speed for the rest of the day….

Shall we Pearl?…..

Mourn not the dead…
But rather mourn the apathetic throng —
The cowed and meek
Who see the world’s great anguish and its wrong,
And dare not speak.

— Ralph Chaplin (1887-1961)
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“Carlyle said that men were mostly fools. Christianity, with a surer and more reverent realism, says that they are all fools. This doctrine is sometimes called the doctrine of original sin. It may also be described as the doctrine of the equality of men. But the essential point of it is merely this, that whatever primary and far-reaching moral dangers affect any man, affect all men. All men can be criminals, if tempted; all men can be heroes, if inspired. And this doctrine does away altogether with Carlyle’s pathetic belief (or any one else’s pathetic belief) in ‘the wise few.’–  — G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

This statement is an excellent overview of the Christian elitist philosophy that has, patently, and demonstrably, been the primary cause behind almost all the major problems now afflicting the human race, as we struggle against our own nature to keep from committing species suicide…. It shows quite clearly the attitude that is the key factor in how most Christians view the world at at large, which is to say, as their own property, as Lords of Creation…. It also shows the attitude of entitlement, so unjustly claimed, that almost every Christian feels, surrounded as they are by the blanket of invulnerable certitude….

“Self-righteousness is a leading cause of blindness.” — Smart Bee

But, these misguided fools would have us believe that everyone “is equal in God’s eyes”…. a statement that their every act denies…. If they truly believed that, then how do they account for all their missionaries? What kind of attitude is it presenting when you are going out to force religious beliefs on whomever there is in the world who has different ideas, especially in “backward” countries, defined as people who have never been exposed to their particular form of insanity in the past? If they really believed in equality, they would acknowledge the possibility of truths other than their own, and that other people don’t require their condescension to live honorably….

Now, in modern times, we come to the Tea Party, an entity which, to me, is the most terrifyingly ignorant, and most dangerous, form of human political interaction to come out of the last 60 years. It represents, in part, the culmination of that much time of people trying, time after time, to prove that Reagan was right…. This, in spite of the incredible amount of evidence that all of his policies not only did not, and do not, work, but, in reality, will actively cause more problems than they will ever solve, conclusions drawn directly from the Reality of the last 40 years, watching the economy repeatedly go down the tubes from having adopted his ideas for a time….

These people, and I use the term loosely, with their white Christian sense of entitlement, and delusional belief in their own rightness, are still trying to force the same old crap down everyone’s throat, and are willing to tell any number of lies, of all varieties, and on any subject, in order to accomplish the purported purpose… Witness, if you will, the sheer effrontery of the following statements by the people responsible for the government shutdown…. I tried to count the number of sheer fabrications I read, but, I couldn’t count that high…. Also, please note the dismissive tone in most of the quotes, as if any argument that might be presented is unworthy of consideration, looking as they are from the lofty heights of their asinine certitude….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/slideshow/Most-outrageous-quotes-on-the-debt-ceiling-71829/photo-5302328.php

This government shutdown, and the ensuing economic problems that it will create for society, is the direct result of a small number of assholes who found a loophole in the law that would allow them to hold the entire country hostage to their demands, all of which are completely in direct opposite contrast to what society itself wants, or believes…. Every poll made since the start of the shutdown has clearly shown that the majority of this country does NOT agree with what these assholes are doing… a LARGE majority, at that….

But, since they are fully assured of their own invincibility, and protected by their misplaced sense of entitlement, they don’t care, (not that they ever did, it just seemed appropriate to point it out now….), and they stubbornly refuse to consider any compromise…. even though it is becoming increasingly clear they are signaling the end of the Republican Party as a political force in this nation…..

This subject is one I could rant about for days, and, in truth, already have done so…. So, I’m going to cut this short here, and merely restate my position….  The Christian churches, who have saddled Western society with the burdens of their delusions for over 2000 years, along with the political conservatives over whom they have control, in the halls of government, have taken the rest of this nation hostage, and are sending us all into financial ruin, just so they can try to “prove a point”…..

The saddest part is, the point they are trying to prove is one that the nation at large has already rejected, in favor of moving on into the future, and is no longer willing to endure… They may have accomplished the purpose they wanted, though that is not any clearer than any of their arguments, but, in doing so, have alienated so many people, they have effectively ensured their own demise as a political party of any influence….

“I hope, when they die, cartoon characters have to answer for their sins.” — Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey

Substitute “politicians and preachers” for “cartoon characters”, and I’m right there with Jack…. Come to think of it, there aren’t a lot of visible differences I can see in the two groups, which just goes to show you, you never know where serendipity will turn up….
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I had originally intended for this section to contain another rant, on an important matter, but, I’m tired of ranting for the time being…. Since I’m in charge, nominally, I’ve made an executive decision to go old-school, just as if it were something new and different…. Not only are we retreating to our default position, we’re going there without parameters, random, harlequin style…. Is that anything like Gang Nam style?…. No? Okay, good….

“It matters not what you are thought to be, but what you are.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 785

“One should die proudly when it is no longer possible to live proudly.” — Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)

“The universe is as it is because if it were any different, we wouldn’t be here to observe it.” — Stephen Hawking

“If it had not been for the discontent of a few fellows who had not been satisfied with their conditions, you would still be living in caves. Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization. Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation.” — Eugene V Debs (1855-1926), American socialist

“I came up with a new Politically Correct term…. Religiously Impaired…. Unfortunately, I don’t know if it applies to atheists or fundamentalists.” — Smart Bee

“Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.” — Martin Fraquhar Tupper

One might consider the last quote as the perfect closing statement for such a pearl….. But, that would be like taking my own advice, or something, so we’ll go with the classic format, and add in the seventh star…. which is pretty perfect, itself, IMHO….

ZEUS, n.  The chief of Grecian gods, adored by the Romans as Jupiter and by the modern Americans as God, Gold, Mob and Dog.  Some explorers who have touched upon the shores of America, and one who professes to have penetrated a considerable distance to the interior, have thought that these four names stand for as many distinct deities, but in his monumental work on Surviving Faiths, Frumpp insists that the natives are monotheists, each having no other god than himself, whom he worships under many sacred names. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
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Some days, I’m more equal than others…. If you know what that means, well, you’re a better man than I, Gunga Din…. No, actually, I do know what it means, and in this particular case, it’s a good thing I do…. Let’s see how this came out today…..

Hmm… this one is a bit hard to call…. It SEEMS okay, and it’s got a lot of good stuff in there; I just don’t know if it is coherent enough to make its points… Oh, well, I’ll never know if I don’t post it, so…. Of course, even if I do post it, I still may never know, but, I’ve learned to live with not knowing a lot of stuff I’d like to have on tap…. Bang the drum, slowly, my friends, and let the sunset fill your souls…. until the next sunrise…. 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.