In fact, since we’ve reached that point already, we will now go on to the rest of today’s mess, effort, saying, as is our wont, only this…..

Below you’ll find TWO videos. The first is an interview with Laura Poitras, the journalist who was the first person approached by Edward Snowden, when he decided to relate the information he had acquired, absolute proof, revealing the incredibly illegal activities of the NSA, leading to the revelations we continue to discover today, about what an intrusively extensive, illegal, insane abuse of power our own government has committed, and continues to commit against its citizens.

The second video is a series of interviews with significant figures involved with the documentary film, CitizenFour, (already nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary), detailing the events leading up to the first meeting of Edward Snowden, Ms. Poitras, and Glenn Greenwald, the other journalist involved in the original stories, who also has written a book about the extent of his researches since the revelations he helped to bring out…. It’s the first time the world gets to see what happened in that meeting, and SEE Edward Snowden as he spoke the words that would change the world as we know it…. I only wish I could show the movie here, too….

This is all information we all should know, ffolkes, to get a better idea of the man who, in the future, will be viewed as one of the greatest heroes in all of mankind’s history, IF we manage to get the buttheads to cease and desist…. He meets ALL the requirements of those men and women who sacrifice their lives for the benefit of their fellow man, knowing full well the consequences of their decision…. Anyone who thinks differently is welcome to debate the issue with me, any time, any place…. and, leave your stupid at home, or it will only hurt worse, when you lose your treasured ignorance….

I’m lazy today, and, though that is nothing new, I’m going to pretend it is. Here is a shortish rant from about 3 years ago, while I was still living at the edge of poverty…. It will go along with recent rants of a similar nature…. Enjoy, ffolkes, it’s all the truth, as I see it…

From 5/17/2012:

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

“If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it if you have love, compassion, and tolerance. The clear truth of a person’s love of God is if that person genuinely shows love to fellow human beings.” — Dalai Lama

Same idea, as far as I can tell, just expressed differently. In the case of the Dalai Lama, clear, complete, and precise, naming the key elements. In the case of Mr. Twain, deceptively simple and humorous, yet equally broad in scope. One can often see the value of an idea by how well it combines with another, and in this case I think that works quite well, as we may then summarize the two to say, “Love, compassion, and tolerance make for a tidy soul,” which I think is an excellent lesson, and would make a very good koan for meditation. In practice, it holds up just as well, as I have yet to see any display of love, compassion, or tolerance that had a negative effect on reality.

Every religion, or religious philosophy, that I have studied over the years has these three ideas at their core; it is the one area where they all agree. Yet, the application of any of them remains limited to those times when expediency allows it, and very few others. In spite of the centuries of teaching these traits to their devotees, I can see very little evidence that the majority of mankind pays any attention to them outside church, unless it is somehow to their advantage to do so.

This observation of reality makes what the Dalai Lama said even more relevant, when he noted that one does not NEED a religion to act with love, because it is plain that just having the religious bent does not guarantee such behavior. In fact, it seems to make it easier for people to ignore it, as they know that any transgressions or failures on their part will be forgiven….

It would do very little good for me to further chastise us as a species for our lack of moral behavior, so I’ll not. But I will say that I would wish to see more love, compassion, and tolerance at play in the world at large before I will ever recommend religion, or even religious philosophy, to anyone as a cure for immorality, at least, not as one to use outside of the confines of their particular sect.

“I hate to advocate drugs, sex, alcohol, violence, or insanity for anyone, but, they’ve always worked for me.” — Hunter S. Thompson

The real world wouldn’t know what to do if it were ever faced with a general outbreak of morality from mankind…. it could shatter the very bonds that hold Reality together, destroying the universe, and life as we know it, for all time…. Is it worth the risk?….. Well, no matter, I don’t see much chance of a huge outpouring of love, compassion, and tolerance happening in the near future, so the risk is small…..

“Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. you only need a heart full of grace. a soul generated by love.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Today’s poem is one I wrote a couple years ago, on the same general subject as the discussion just above, in the ranting section. It seems long, but, it really isn’t; it just takes up a lot of space…. I won’t bother to point out the metaphorical significance of that in this poem…. I’m sure you’ll see it… If not, well, it’s a fun poem to read, aloud, if no other way….

All I can figure is, Smart Bee feels neglected, or, is trying to make up for old failures, or something. I keep getting inundated with cool quotes, all together, each filling in a piece of a puzzle I find amusing, or compellingly insightful, or, at minimum, entertaining, if not instructive. For me, anyway; by this time, y’all know how to read a pearl, with each one leading your mind from thought to thought, until arriving at a pre-ordained conclusion, of one sort or another, usually about something more than just the mere sum of the parts in the pearl….

Or not. Maybe you just like to read a bunch of cool stuff…. Either way, you’ll enjoy this eleven-star pearl; it is also, I think, the first of it’s kind…. Hint: I THINK it’s about my feelings on modern life; I could be wrong. It could be just my curmudgeon training seeing everything as a nail, which I can hit with my hammer made of cynicism, which is actually what I like to call my optimistic skepticism about the nature of reality…. Don’t worry about the funny formatting; just playing around with symmetry, to see how it displays on the screen after getting coded…. No meaning implied beyond what’s already there in the metaphoric sense…

“If I had had more time, I could have written you a shorter letter.” — Blaise Pascal

This quote from Mssr. Pascal is one I often think of when I’ve finished a Pearl; today is no exception to that rule. But, as they say on the streets, “Oh, well…. life’s a bitch, then, you die.” As you can see, they’re not very optimistic on the streets, no doubt, with good reason. Having spent some significant amount of time there, I can attest it isn’t easy to maintain a lot of hope for change. The masters of society have things pretty well in hand, and they’re closing that fist even tighter in the modern world, aided by the technology of computers, which has increased their ability to monitor those parts of society which could harm their control…. It’s not looking good for liberty in the future….

But, that’s a rant for another day. For now, I’ll take my leave, and go find some more evidence of their chicanery, to share with all my Gentle Readers, lest they be taken unawares by the scum of the earth…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. stay alert, and question authority, every chance you get…. If you don’t get any chances, make one….