Wind-etched patterns on glass….

Ffolkes,

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

~~ Noel Coward ~~

wine-country

Wild Fennel in the Wine Country….

Hajime…. The picture you see today is one I took a month or two ago, while pausing on a visit to my kids in Sonoma Valley. I liked the way the fennel, which grows wild along all the roads here in Northern California, framed the picture behind, forming a bucolic country scene reminiscent of an old painting. Well, not so old, as there are phone wires & poles, but, you get the idea, I’m sure. I also like to think of how much money I’ve saved over the years, picking that wild fennel, to use in my catering jobs, and as an ingredient in several recipes I use. It also serves very well as a simple, yet elegant decoration for some table settings, and mirrors displaying foods. Valuable plant, indeed….

There; how’s that for a vague, personal retrospective? Not bad, eh? Well, I think so; I’ll remind you who’s driving this bus. Regardless of what sort of reaction it provokes in the minds of my Gentle readers, it’s done, so, it stays. I’m too much in “odd” mode today to care. What’s “odd” mode? Trust me, you don’t really want to know. We will merely say, it’s one of my more fractious, unreliable modes, (sometimes called ‘moods’….), liable to rather explosive emotional outbursts at minimal provocation, while we simultaneously attempt to mitigate the potential harm it can cause to the environment; it’s been known to cause some rather extensive damage.

Instead, we’ll avoid any and all such temptations, by drawing this intro to a rapid closure, post haste. In this mode, time can be of the essence, so, gather your belongings, send your adult beverage down the hatch, and hang on to your hats, because we’re going in hot. How hot? This hot….

Shall we Pearl?….

“…common human laws and interests and emotions
have no validity or significance in the vast cosmos-at-large…”

~~ H. P. Lovecraft ~~

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sister-rosetta

Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Image from guitarworld.com via Google Images

A friend on Facebook shared a link with one of this woman’s videos, and I had to share it today. Known by many as the Godmother of Rock and Roll, and The Original Sister Soul, I give you Sister Rosetta Tharpe. I’ve linked to a collection of many of her songs and videos, to give a good sample of some really hot music. Enjoy, ffolkes!….

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Sister Rosetta Tharpe
The Godmother of Rock & Roll

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Comedy_Tragedy

In early 2012, I was living in relative poverty, struggling to maintain any sort of non-depressed state for an entire day, when this poem forced its way into the light, and onto my computer. When it was originally penned, it was in prose form, where it sat for several months, until I opened it again, and saw it was actually a poem. I formatted it the way it logically called for, and haven’t touched it since. In some ways, it’s rather prophetic, of a time we are rapidly approaching out in the real world. I hope you enjoy it, dark as it is….

Gently Came a Wounded Child

But you shall not escape my iambics.

Soft, sinuous patterns of unearthly beauty
blithely commune with sinking stars,
as pale shadows of former virtue hover
near, ever clean, ever tolerant.
These unbidden habits are worn with age and care,
ready now for dissolution,
welcoming gladly the kiss of Death’s handmaiden.

Unknown to all, the child stands aside,
weeping for the lost days of youth,
days that now shall never be,
nor yearned for ever after.
Only darkness shall lay upon the landscape,
cold, hard, eternal.

Such then are the signs and portents
as we enter into the unknown future,
they are grave indeed.

Uncertainty will be our sole companion,
as the search for hope yields no result.
The lamentations of the gods
shall sound the elegy for Man,
who never learned to see the gift that was made,
so many echoes ago, in the hopeful past;
thus will we pass this plane of existence
as we came, baffled and afraid….

~~ gigoid ~~

written 2/2/2012

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pearls_3

Naked Pearls

Things we learn on the journey….

*******

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing
than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.”

~~ ee cummings ~~

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“You must have been warned about letting the golden hours slip by;
but some of them are golden only because we let them slip by.”

~~ James M. Barrie ~~

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“Do not be too moral.
You may cheat yourself out of much of life.
So aim above morality.
Be not simply good;
be good for something.”

~~ Henry David Thoreau ~~

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“I am pleased to see that we have differences.
May we together become greater than the sum of both of us.”

~~ Surak of Vulcan, “The Savage Curtain,” stardate 5906.4. ~~

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“The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.”

~~ Mark Twain ~~

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“None but a fool is always right.”

~~ Hare ~~

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“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 ~~

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Once again, the process I’ve developed over the years of producing this mess has saved the day. Given the mode/mood I’m in today, I have to give myself a pat on the back. A small one, as it hurts to do so, but, for what it is, it’s not bad, so, good job, dude. Moreover, I can now take my leave, letting y’all off the hook for the day, and try to find a somewhat mellower mood to inhabit. You could wish me luck in that, since I’ll need it, but, if not, that’s okay, too. I’m too weird right now to notice. In fact, here’s an example. Bye….

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

Featured Image -- 2780

À bientôt, mon cherí….

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Bess’s fine messes, at cost….

Ffolkes,

“Arguments derived from probabilities are idle.”

~~ Plato ~~

portobello market

An alley market on Portobello Road, London


Hajime…. Had I known yesterday, when beginning to put this Pearl together, that the intro would end up being the most contentious section to get done, I would have done it first. Since I’m doing it last, so to speak, it seems to have taken it personally, now refusing to coalesce into anything worth putting on screen, This isn’t to say we haven’t encountered this issue previously, though it’s not a frequent problem at all. No, the empty mind is our biggest issue in this section, as it usually occurs pre-coffee, or, nearly so. Since I’m about to go pour my second cup, that isn’t a factor…. Yet, here it sits, ugly, and relatively empty, save for this single paragraph of almost pure blather.

I wonder if they give refunds…. Nah, probably not, since nobody’s paying, and posting is free. Oh, well, another opportunity lost through lack of any comparatively sane thought processes as needed for basic comprehension. As we’re fond of saying around here in such situations, c’est la fucking vie. We’re going on in spite of our complete lack of talent, or intent, or even coherence. Of course, we could employ one of the Tardis toys to distract and discombobulate, (what a fine word!….), but, we’re not IN the Tardis yet. I suppose I could quit fooling around with this, and get on with it, but, what fun would that be?….

Oh…. okay. Well, since that’s the case, there’s nothing left to but this…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“Once you’ve seen the face of god,
You see that same face on everyone you meet.”

~~ Deng Ming-Dao ~~


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Yield_Logo

    I’ve used this in the past, but, I’m running a bit late today, so, we’ll go with it, as when it’s done, you can choose from a large number of other numbers from Playing For Change artists, from the suggestions that You Tube gives after each video. Enjoy, ffolkes; this one is one of my favorites…. It’s hot!….

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Gimme Shelter

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About Hopi Indian Symbols

    The rant for this section turned epic on me; it’s not quite done yet. To take it’s place, here is a discussion from 2012, on one of our most frequent subjects, to wit, politicians, the BRC, and Asininnies in general. It’s a bit long, but, there’s some humor involved, so, it won’t hurt too bad. I find it ironic to note how relevant many of the old rants I wrote have remained over time… I guess it goes to show we humans are a bit slower learners than we’d like to believe…. Enjoy!…..

From 10/2/2012:

This old-school pearl started off in one direction, then veered off into another…. and I don’t blame it a bit. I’m just as tired of all the political bullshit being flung around as the next guy, and the election can’t get here quick enough to suit me, that’s for sure. What with the amount of crap flying around, I feel like I’ve got to shower it off at least once or twice a day……

Any who, I was collecting the pearls for this, when I noticed that each one of them, from the first to the last, make a pointed statement that could easily be applied to this election, and most specifically, to the Republican party’s platform and candidates…. As far as I can see, they fail at every one of these, and this then becomes an indictment of their failings, all without intent, but with great accuracy….

“The majority never has the right on its side. Never, I say! That is one of the social lies that a free, thinking man is bound to rebel against. Who makes up the majority in any given country? Is it the wise men or the fools? I think we must agree that the fools are in a terrible overwhelming majority, all the wide world over.” — Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)

“The honest poor can sometimes forget poverty. The honest rich can never forget it.” — G. K. Chesterton (gigoid sez: There being none of those, to wit: honest rich, in this election, we can pretty much take this as gospel, or at least accept it at face value……)

“It is the edge and temper of the blade that make a good sword, not the richness of the scabbard; and so it is not money or possessions that make man considerable, but his virtue.” — Seneca (B.C. 3-65 A.D.) (gigoid sez: This could NOT be clearer…. since Mitt the Twitt feels compelled to rattle his scabbard at every opportunity…..)

“I am different from Washington; I have a higher, grander standard of principle. Washington could not lie.  I can lie, but I won’t.” — Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)   (gigoid sez: In modern times, the concept of a politician lying is not merely common, it is expected, and, sadly to say, empowered by the voting public, by their passive acceptance of same….)

“It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” — Noel Coward

“Intemperate speech is a distinctive characteristic of man. Hotheads blow off and release destructive energy in the process. They shout and rave, exaggerating weaknesses, magnifying error, viewing with alarm. So it has been from the beginning; and so it will be throughout time. The framers of the constitution knew human nature as well as we do. They too had lived in dangerous days; they too knew the suffocating influence of orthodoxy and standardized thought. They weighed the compulsions for the restrained speech and thought against the abuses of liberty. They chose liberty.” — Justice William O. Douglas

“When they took the fourth amendment, I was silent because I don’t deal drugs.  When they took the sixth amendment, I kept quiet because I know I’m innocent.  When they took the second amendment, I said nothing because I don’t own a gun.  Now they’ve come for the first amendment, and I can’t say anything at all.” — Tim Freeman

“It is not the oath that makes us believe the man, but the man the oath.” — Aeschylus (525-456 BC) — Frag. 385

Yep, it’s going to be a real dust-up this year, as the forces of evil have gathered all of their minions and myrmidons, ready to sally forth on election day and try to lie and cheat their way into office. The degree of illegal, ill-advised voter suppression efforts that the Republicans have made are coming to light on a daily basis, with the money they’ve paid to companies dedicated to blocking the votes of seniors, poor people, and veterans being exposed as well. It’s truly a disgusting development, although it isn’t new to them; they’ve managed to steal two elections already, for the junior shrub, in 2000 and 2004, once in Florida, and once in Ohio.

They also managed to distract the public away from looking at those election results, by talking a bunch of Islamic militants into attacking New York City, right at the time when the Shrub’s chicanery in Florida was about to be investigated by an independent commission…… I always thought the timing there was a bit suspicious, and it couldn’t have been better for the Shrub, even though he probably wasn’t in on the planning of it himself…. his daddy never trusted him THAT far…..

But, you may remember, the senior Shrub was the head of the CIA for many years, before he was President, and is considered by most to be  personally responsible for the establishment of the cocaine trade in this country; see the book “The Cocaine Papers” written in the 1980’s, if there are still copies around. There may not be; I’m sure the dark-side operatives snap them up for destruction whenever they come across one…. This man would suffer no ethical restraints, and would not even hesitate, to have some of his operatives clandestinely trick terrorists into attacking when and where he wished it…. Civilian casualties are always more compelling when trying to distract the public…. And, it is funny how nobody ever investigated where the money for the 9/11 attacks came from…. Usually, in any such event, finding out who paid for it is a primary goal of the investigating teams…. but, nobody ever did that for 9/11…. Kind of makes one wonder, doesn’t it?……

Ah well, conspiracy theories aside, this election is seeing every dirty trick the two parties can think of between them, with the most egregiously immoral actions taking place on the conservative side…. voter suppression efforts in swing states, outright lying, misinformation spreading, magical bean platforms, all are being employed with gusto…. The upcoming debate tomorrow promises to be quite a show for the American public, and it will be interesting to see the contortions that the Republicans go through to try to show their man to their advantage, when every time he opens his mouth, he drops another bomb that indicates just how clueless and uncaring he is…. I’m almost looking forward to it, if it didn’t promise to be so bloody…. c’est la vie, I guess, and we’ll have to see how time will tell the tale…..

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Comedy_Tragedy

    While researching yesterday in SB, I came across this, which I remember hearing live, watching TV with my kids & family, many years ago, on a show called The Muppet Show, in which characters from Sesame Street performed with live actors & artists, as well as performing solo, as Kermit did once in a while; generally, he, or another, or, occasionally all the Muppets on the show also did a duet with the live guest. I like this one, a lot, which is why it graces our poetry section today…. Enjoy, ffolkes; it’s a bit soft compared to our usual fare, but, hey, as noted, I like it, so, deal….

Rainbow Connection

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
and what’s on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions
rainbows have nothing to hide.

So we’ve been told and some choose to believe it
I know they’re wrong, wait and see.
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thoughta’ that and someone believed it
 — look what it’s done so far.

What’s so amazing that keeps us stargazing
and what do we think we might see?
Someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

All of us under its spell
we know that it’s probably magic.
Have you been half asleep and have you heard voices?
I hear them calling my name.

Could it be the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice may be one and the same.
Well I’ve heard it too many times to ignore it
it’s somethin’ that I’m s’posed to be.

And someday we’ll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers, and me.

~~ Kermit the Frog ~~

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buddah-out-to-lunch_s

    This, ffolkes, is an odd pearl. For me to say that is, well, unprecedented, if only in its stark simplicity. It’s also quite cogent, in its own weird way, for it wanders around quite drunkenly, almost randomly, yet, still manages to fulfill whatever it is trying to say. The exact nature of that is, of course, left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader, though, as always, you may decline the mission. It will, however, at least partially, probably end up on the Quiz….Ya never know what ya might need to know…. Pay attention, now; some of it is tricky…. In fact, it begins with a bit of subtlety many might get stuck on, but, trust me, and keep going…. You’ll be fine.

“Avoid fried foods which angry up the blood.” — Satchel Paige

“We all carry it within us; supreme strength, the fullness of wisdom, unquenchable joy. It is never thwarted and cannot be destroyed. But it is hidden deep,
which is what makes life a problem.” — Huston Smith

“We must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define us.” — Virginia Satir

“Watches are a confidence trick invented by the Swiss.” — Chiun, in “Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins…”

“For water continually dropping will wear hard rocks hollow.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of the Training of Children

“Don’t pick on your sister when she’s holding a baseball bat.” — from Observations on Life From Children

“In a full heart there is room for everything, and in an empty heart there is room for nothing.” — Antonio Porchia, Voces

“Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“The flesh surrenders itself. Eternity takes back its own. Our bodies stirred these waters briefly, danced with a certain intoxication before the love of life and self, dealt with a few strange ideas, then submitted to the instruments of Time. What can we say of this? I occurred. I am not… yet I occurred.”
— Frank Herbert, Dune Messiah

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“..  bleakness….  desolation….  plastic forks…”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~


Now, now, don’t fret; it doesn’t mean anything, other than I’m a strange person. Well, I guess, if you really enjoyed today’s Pearl, it might have some relevance for you; other wise, it’s where it is simply because I thought it was damn funny. Hell, I could fill most of a ranting section with it, but, I just figured I’d add it here at the end, sort of like a, what? Oh, how, ’bout, an innovation. That works; we’ll go with innovation. Don’t worry, I won’t try this again. Zippy just hit the right note, so, there he sits. Now, as noted below, it’s time for me to go sits…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, Zippy or no Zippy….

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

dozer3


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

Murky intentions, at best….

Ffolkes,

“Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth.”

~~ Thomas Huxley ~~

zhenyuanlong-suni

Zhenyuanlong-suni

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jul/16/zhenyuanlong-suni-biggest-ever-winged-dinosaur-discovered-china


Good morning…. A phrase, I might point out, which is currently a bald-faced lie…. It’s now a bit after 2 AM; I’ve been up for almost an hour and a half, dealing with twitching, pain, and massive fatigue. I’m not going to whine about it; it’s just the way it is. I’m also not going to pretend I’m happy about it; to do so would probably jam the top on so tight, the resultant explosion would take out the nearest three houses…. That, or, I’d be compelled to become a serial killer, just to keep from going insane…

On that note, which I won’t even attempt to justify, or explain, we’ll get on with this mess, before I toss my laptop out the window at the yowling cats….

Shall we Pearl?….

“The price of liberty is, always has been, and always will be blood: the person who is not willing to die for his liberty has already lost it to the first scoundrel who is willing to risk dying to violate that person’s liberty. Are you free?” — Andrew Ford

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BigAjzLgT (2)

    Here’s a cool find…. Jeremy Brett as Sherlock, in a full-length movie which served as the pilot for Season 1 of the show on BBC…. I haven’t watched it yet, but, if the episodes I’ve seen are any indication, it’s a good one…. Enjoy, ffolkes, I certainly intend to do so….


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The Master Blackmailer

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Dont keep calm

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. ”

~~ Smart Bee ~~


Soon after birth, it becomes readily apparent to anyone with the slightest wit, and the courage to SEE, these ‘rights’ are proved to be a lie; often, they are proved wrong by our own parents, who provide us with our first example of how to be a human…. By the time most people are adults, their minds have been so thoroughly programmed into mental slavery, they are completely convinced giving up both their dignity, and their rights, is perfectly acceptable, happily allowing them to be taken away, right before their blind eyes….

This process has to do with a little known corollary, which completes the incomplete statement outlined in the above semi-truth, the gist of which goes like this:

“In all other ways, not so much…. Equality between people does not extend to ability, intelligence, strength of spirit/mind, imagination, humor, or other basic tools we possess which make us uniquely human.”

In short, there are other qualities, of the mind, and spirit, which will determine what path a person takes in life, whether it be toward the abject mental slavery so commonly held to be the Norm, or to independence of mind and spirit. Far too few people, from what I can see, ever break free of their invisible slave collars, to enjoy life as a free human; this is, perhaps, part of why we are in such deep shit, for never having reached our true potential as humans….

I’m fully aware the average intelligence of humanity is decreasing; it’s a mathematical certainty, the proof of which I won’t go into just now. Take my word for it, it’s true, and it’s inevitable… What I find hard to accept, or believe, is just HOW stupid people seem to be getting…. It’s amazing how little today’s average American is willing to do to even secure the most basic of their liberties; they have watched, passively blinking in confusion, as the entire Bill of Rights has been decimated by the oligarchy, who no longer are bothering to hide their avarice and insane ambition to control EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY….

Having ranted on this subject any number of times over the past four years, and considering my mental state, (very close to a case of rage that would demand action… of some sort…), I’m going to stop ranting here, to sublimate the rest of my angst into an old-school pearl, with a series of comments which show some of the ways society has been manipulated; most of them represent or describe a failure of virtue on the part of the American people at large….

“The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice versa.” — Lazarus Long

“Faith does not offer the least support for proof of truth.” — Nietzsche

“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 dread of evil is a much more forcible principle of human actions than the prospect of good.” — John Locke

“It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” — Noel Coward

“If it weren’t for lawyers, I think we could have invented a universal symbolic representation of reality.” — Smart Bee

“If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living.” — Seneca, Epistles

“If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be … If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.” — Thomas Jefferson

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) ~~


On a final note, it seems to me, all these oligarchs, and their willing servants of evil, the pundits, dogma dogs, myrmidons, & snakeheads, as mean as they are, seem to forget a very basic rule about humans, and their capacity for violence…. They keep taking, and taking, and taking, and eventually, they will have taken it all…. When that happens, we will see the results of this well-known, (apparently, to all but them), absolutely irrefutable truism:

“Never contend with a man who has nothing to lose.”

~~ Baltasar Gracian ~~


Eventually, they will reap what they have sown. Be sure of it…..

    So be it.

    gigoid has spoken….


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Comedy_Tragedy

    Now, this is serendipity, ffolkes. While looking for a poem for today, I came across this one. It was written EXACTLY one year ago today. It even goes along with the ranting section, perfectly. Who am I to fly in the face of serendipity?….

A Few Words of Note

In place of ranting and raving about assholes every day
maybe I’ll try something more fun.
Rather than throwing words at all the assholes on public pay
I’ll switch to shooting at them, with a gun….

Should I actually hit one, purely by mistake,
maybe it would wake them up.
Maybe, if they had to think, or actually cut us a break,
we’d see a chance to win at life, to take a step up.

Our nation, such as it is today, was founded by men who told the truth;
that morality disappeared long ago.
Simple ethical strength so bright, so prevalent in our country’s youth
was soon corrupted, corporate interests now run the show.

Nothing would please me more than to fire off some rounds,
if only to gain their attention.
But, I can no longer run, I’ve gained too many pounds;
so, my keyboard and intellect must serve to fulfill my intention.

I won’t stop, of that you may be sure
I love my freedoms, and the philosophy from which it springs.
Tom, and Ben, and John, and Pat, those patriots pure
gave me their example, and the inner peace it brings.

If bullets won’t persuade our elected liars to toe the ethical line,
I’ll throw my most powerful words…..
If nothing else, it will make them wriggle to escape, or voice their pitiful whine,
thus exposing themselves for what they are…. plain and simple turds.

~~ gigoid ~~


Written 7/19/2014.

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August 7 2014 003

    Today’s final old school pearl is a quiet one…. In it’s own serene way, it presents some of the ideas that can make life more pleasant, for us, and for everyone around us…. And, no, I have no idea why I chose the picture; it just seemed to fit…

“The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” — Socrates (470?-399 B.C.)

“Rules make the learner’s path long, examples make it short and successful.” — Seneca

“Devils can be driven out of the heart by the touch of a hand on a hand, or a mouth on a mouth.” — Tennessee Williams

“All things that are born must die. Work hard for your own freedom from sorrow.” — Buddha

“A little Consideration, a little Thought for Others, makes all the difference.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

“Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.” — Aesop

“The most important questions in life can never be answered by anyone except oneself.” — John Fowles, The Magus

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Though not unprecedented, especially of late, it’s a bit unusual to be finished at 0300…. I think it came out alright, but, one should remember my state of mind while considering the relative accuracy of that assessment; in short, take it with a large grain or three of salt…. Or, you could just call it what I do, and be a bit dubious about it…. Either way, it’s done, and I’m outta here. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, should I fail to come to my senses…. Again….

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

dozer3


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

Using kosher kibbles as ballast….

Ffolkes,

“Rub her feet.”

~~ Lazarus Long ~~

ukg apotw 3

I’m hungry, mama!

Image of Wild Love from UK Guardian Animal Pictures of the Week


Good morn…. ah, hell. Who am I trying to kid? It isn’t anywhere within shouting distance of morning; I don’t believe calling 1:17 AM morning quite fits the bill, do you? Oh, technically, I suppose it is morning, but, approximately five hours before sunrise isn’t exactly what most would say is their customary time for beginning the day; would you?

I guess five hours sleep will have to do…. Rather than complain about it, though, let’s just get on with what we have to do, thus showing a bit of courage, or, at least, common sense. It doesn’t happen all that often around here, so, we’ll take advantage of the impulse while we may….

Shall we Pearl?

“It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” — Noel Coward

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alison-balsom-1379411777-view-0
Alison Balsom

Image from classicfm.com via Google Images


There is something about the sound of a trumpet that burrows straight into the human soul, to lift it up from its mundane existence into higher realms of spirit. Other instruments, in the same way, can also achieve this connection, but, there is good reason the Archangel Michael will blow the Last Trump with the same kind of instrument as employed with such brilliance by Ms. Balsom…. It hasn’t hurt her career to be gorgeous, but, like many of the fans of her music, my fondness for her talent was established before I ever saw what she looked like…. Enjoy, ffolkes, this music will definitely give you goose bumps….


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Alison Balsom

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Dont keep calm

“The militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be _tremendous and irresistible_. Who are the militia? _are they not ourselves_. Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms _each man against his own bosom_. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are _the birth-right of an American_…the unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the _federal or state governments_, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, _in the hands of the people_.” — Tench Coxe 20 Feb. 1788

It’s funny…. funny odd, not funny, ha ha….. I wrote the following rant in 2012, after one of the spate of school shootings that took place that year. It’s funny how the mainstream media constantly plays up such incidents as the worst tragedies our nation faces, always prompting a huge outcry amongst the more manipulable amongst the public, demanding the government do SOMETHING to stop the violence…. Yet, nobody ever mentions all the research that has shown the shootings can only be the natural result of the overcrowding of the planet we humans are pursuing, in our mad rush to extinction at our own hands….

It’s also funny, halfway between odd and ha ha, I can still use this rant without changing a single word, unless I now know better than to use it. Everything I said in this is still true, and relevant to the situation in our society…. Go figure…. Any who, it’s a subject I believe in strongly, which is why my opinion hasn’t altered a whit in three years….

Last posted2/14/2013; first written in 2012:

The issue of gun control is currently a HOT BUTTON issue for a lot of people in this country…. At least, it is for those who enjoy over-reacting to all the violence reported in the news….. They seem to forget that there are now over 7 billion people on this planet, with more crowding on every second, and the increased violence we are seeing is a natural result of overpopulation combined with stupidity, both of which exist in ample supply in our society…. The following is a piece I wrote not long after one of the school shootings in 2012, which, to my mind, pretty well summarizes my objections to the foolish and unwarranted fear that has prompted the idiotic notion of repealing the Second Amendment altogether…. Here is my response to that notion..

“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people’s liberty teeth and keystone under independence…  From the hour the Pilgrims landed, to the present day, events, occurrences, and tendencies prove that to ensure peace, security, and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable….  The very atmosphere of firearms every- where restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.” — George Washington (bogus?)(who cares? I don’t, it doesn’t make it any less true if it was said by someone else…..)

I constantly hear people these days spouting off about gun control, practically screaming how guns should be outlawed. This is a viewpoint that I have never understood, because it makes a totally unwarranted assumption (more than one actually, but one that is most important….), i.e., guns cause violent behavior; it goes on to insist if people couldn’t legally own them, violence would stop. This is naive, and unreasonable, given there is absolutely no evidence to support such a contention. There is no evidence whatsoever violence is NOT part of human nature; this is a psychological FACT, not subject to debate. People have violent tendencies, and violence is the primary response of a great many people who have never learned how to use their reason to control their emotions.

Though I’ve never owned or carried a gun, I am a firm believer in the Second Amendment to the US Constitution, in its most literal sense. Without the right to bear arms in our own defense, we, as citizens, would be at the mercy of whomever was in office at the time, with no recourse at all to any redress of grievance against those officials, since they could not be forced to comply with law. I do NOT trust any elected official to act in MY best interests; human nature also decrees that they will act in their OWN interests first, with no compulsion to even consider anything else. Making it law only police and government lackeys could legally be armed is a sure way to guarantee the average citizen would be at the mercy of these so-called leaders, mercy being a quality they have never, heretofore, demonstrated in any fashion.

As I said, I don’t own or carry guns….. yet. I’ve trained myself to be dangerous without the use of them; I feel no fear I cannot deal with an armed man to my benefit; this is simply because it is the person holding the gun that is the danger, not the gun itself. Speed, power, and accuracy are the key elements to controlling a violent situation, along with forethought, preparation, and the ability to keep a clear mind when under duress. When a person is holding a gun, they feel ten feet tall and invincible, but they remain human, and humans can be controlled with superior strategy and tactics. It does no good to hold a gun, when the target won’t sit still, or even remain visible….. and in these cases, that sense of imperviousness becomes a liability to the gun-wielder.

However, most Americans do not have this sort of skill set, nor the state of mind that makes it work. In the hands of a skilled warrior, a gun becomes a dangerous weapon indeed, for it will be used to achieve the warrior’s goals, as any weapon would, and not employed to merely bully others into doing what is desired, which is the usual use of these kinds of weapons in the hands of the ignorant and deceitful. Politicians, by the very nature of their sociopathy, do get rather deceitful in the pursuit of their self-centered ends. The desire to be in public office, to me, is a sure sign of a sick mind, as a healthy one has no need to assume power over others, being content to be in control of themselves.

At this point in the narrative, I got a bit sarcastic, caustically so, directed at those shrill advocates of this kind of legal oppression, laws that attempt to legislate morality,  so I’ve stopped it here to avoid offending anyone unduly. (Hah!) I agree with the need to tighten the regulations regarding assault weapons, but not as far as is wanted by the fear-mongers. I also think it is a good idea to keep guns out of the hands of children, and people who have demonstrated the lack of emotional control needed by a free citizen of this country, to own and use a gun appropriately, i.e. the mentally ill, who are characterized by a lack of impulse control…. Not a good characteristic for someone with a gun in their hands….

But, once again, I must caution people to examine any laws that do get passed closely, for going farther than the minimum necessary, which people in charge have a tendency to do, to slip stuff by the public…. I’ll try to wake up your precautionary instincts by asking this….. If the insane are not to be allowed full rights as a citizen, who is it that gets to decide who is insane?  The same issues of trust are present, or absent, in that idea, as in the assumption that the Beloved Ruling Class will act in our best interests….. They can ONLY be trusted to act in their own interests, first, and we all would do well to keep that in mind…..

“There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.”

~~ Bob Dylan ~~


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Comedy_Tragedy

    Just because I can….

Random Visions/Coloring Between the Lines of Grief

Everywhere is dark, and shining,
    with points in dissonant pain.
Sharp, senses dull past divining,
   tears burn, a torrential rain.

Escape! Flee within to cower,
    find an unconscious cave.
Call on Morpheus’ power
    deny reality’s beckoning wave.

Light breaks, drawing the inner eye,
    leading to the slippery slope.
Risk is critical, we may only sigh,
   yet welcome, for bringing hope.

Sanity seems far out of reach
    Insanity’s a stronger friend.
Decisions made will merely teach
    our way toward Death to wend.

Lost, while still on familiar ground,
    the future yet undesigned.
Making way on paths unfound,
    to Now, as yet undefined.

~~ gigoid ~~


Written 2/22/2013

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lao

    Inner strength. Learning & Teaching. Kindness. Change. Honor. Happiness. Friendship. Virtue. Life. Death. Humor. Pride…. Any pearl that includes a word on each of these, if that word is anywhere near the truth (of the included pearls, ALL of them ARE truth…. I checked, according to every known test of logic, and experience….),…. well, let’s just say I don’t think we can go wrong…. What do you think?…. Well, okay, then, if you insist, you don’t have to…. But, I’m betting if you pay attention, it will work out better than just passing it over…. Wow, did we just make another metaphor for living? I guess so…. Enjoy, ffolkes….

“Once, I read that a man be never stronger than when he truly realizes how weak he is.” — Jim Starlin, “Captain Marvel #31”

“No one can teach on an empty spirit.” — William Perky

“Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and the blind can read.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

“Life belongs to the living, and he who lives must be prepared for changes.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

“It is not necessary that whilst I live I live happily; but it is necessary that so long as I live I should live honourably.” — Immanuel Kant

“Friendship should be more than biting time can sever.” — T. S. Eliot

“The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” — Socrates

“I had a hunch something like this would happen.” — Written on grave

Ode to an Indispensable Man

Sometime, when you’re feeling important,
Sometime, when your ego’s in bloom,
Sometime, when you take it for granted
You’re the best qualified in the room;
Sometime when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow this simple instruction
And see how it humbles your soul.
Take a bucket and fill it with water;
Put your hand in it, up to the wrist.
Pull it out and the hole that’s remaining
Is the measure of how you’ll be missed.
You may splash all you please when you enter,
You can stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you’ll find in a minute
That it looks the same as before.
The moral in this quaint example
Is to do the best that you can.
Be proud of yourself, but remember –
There is no indispensable man.

~~ Saxon White Kessinger ~~


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We’ll continue our policy of not whining, in spite of the hour at which we are finishing today’s effort…. Why, I haven’t a clue. I suppose it’s for the best; nobody likes to hear grown men cry. I also haven’t a clue what I’ll do now, to pass the time until the sun rises, and the rest of this part of the world comes to life…. Ah well, I can always…. well, perhaps I’d better just keep that to myself…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, should fortune favor this sad old fool….

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

dozer3


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

No tango tonight for you, Mortimer….

Ffolkes,

“A man’s happiness, — to do the things proper to man.”

 — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ~~

~~ Meditations, viii, 26 ~~

Just as if they had been dotted on top of the myriads of glowing suns in the Milky Way, this image depicts some of the brightest stars of the southern sky: on the right, in a rhomboidal shape reminding that of a kite, are the four stars of the constellation Crux, the Southern cross; in the lower left part, instead, shine the two most brilliant stars of the constellation Centaurus, the Centaur.

Just as if they had been dotted on top of the myriads of glowing suns in the Milky Way, this image depicts some of the brightest stars of the southern sky: on the right, in a rhomboidal shape reminding that of a kite, are the four stars of the constellation Crux, the Southern cross; in the lower left part, instead, shine the two most brilliant stars of the constellation Centaurus, the Centaur.

The Southern Cross

Image from Space.com


Good morning…. It’s a big world out there, and our last outpost of sanity is under continuous attack, by the forces of Entropy and Chaos…. This…. whatever this is, keeps them at bay in my little corner of Space/Time, as it has for close to four years now…. Join me now, as I once again take up the gauntlet, to do battle with every ounce of reason and rationality I can find…. Often it isn’t much, as is patently obvious…. But, we, or rather I, persevere, though there are times when we wonder why I bother….

Then, I look in the mirror, and see the dregs of sanity lurking there, and I am content…. It’s still a long road before me, so, I’d best get started…. As you might be able to tell from the state of this introductory section, it could be rather an uphill journey today…. Luigi, tell the tower we’re taking off, and not to worry about the fighter escort today. I’m feeling MEAN….

Shall we Pearl?

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.” — C. G. Jung

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fats
Image from radiofreeamsterdam.com via Google Images


Yesterday we visited the days of old; today we’re returning to the same era, to listen to another all-time great…. Fats was the MAN, when I was young…. Nobody did it quite the same…. Enjoy, ffolkes; Fats is another cultural icon worth remembering….

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Fats Domino

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Dont keep calm

    Last year, in 2014, I came up with some pretty decent rants…. Here is one from August of that year, simply because I can, and I’m lazy today….(Whattyamean, today?….)(Oh, hush…) Enjoy, ffolkes….

From 8/31/2014:

“Stupid is as stupid does.” — Mama Gump

Yesterday, during a rant in section one of the Daily Pearl, I made a comment, wherein I accused Bill Clinton of being an idiot, and a husband, in the same breath…. While his persona exhibits elements of both adjectives, neither one fits completely comfortably; if it was a suit, you’d think it was poorly tailored. He IS an idiot of course; letting one’s lust control their actions while in the White House as the President, is kind of a give-away on that…. and he IS a husband; it says so right on the license available for anyone to see somewhere in what, oh, yeah, Arkansas, or Alabama, or wherever it was they got married… Who knows, maybe it was in D.C. after they left Little Rock, or whatever… But, obviously, he isn’t terribly good at either one….

Any who, I wanted to clarify that, while also acknowledging that, in truth, Bill is a VERY smart guy…. I don’t care who you are, you don’t get to be a Rhodes Scholar if you don’t have a few neurons to bump together… He also plays a pretty mean sax, which is also an indicator of superior, or at least multi-talented, intelligence…. All of which goes to prove that intelligence alone has little, if any, survival value. Possessing a high IQ does not give one the ability, necessarily, to USE it in a way that helps one advance, in any respect….

Ethically, morally, or in terms of worldly success, as in being rich, famous, or celebrated in some fashion, smart guys don’t always win against the mundanes, simply because they are often not paying attention to what is important to those with less on their minds… In Bill’s case, he tried to take his multi-tasking to a new level, and failed, miserably…. Common sense often escapes the most intelligent members of this species; they tend to be a little less balanced out on the fringes of the bell curve…. too much going on in their heads, that ends up distracting them from what they’re doing in the real world, and that they are being watched, always…

That’s all…. just sayin’….. Smart don’t mean smart, if you know what I mean…. Sometimes, a little bit of street cred, a little low animal cunning, as it were, can go a long way to being more useful than having a degree, or being able to quote poetry…. Unfortunately, when someone like that learns the law, then turns to politics, there is no end to the harm they can cause…. Witness just about every president in my lifetime…. Most of them weren’t the most intelligent, though smart enough to get through law school; they are definitely the most corrupt, and the most vicious sociopaths, that is for sure and for certain, but, overly intelligent, they were NOT…..

Sorry, but, I just calls ’em as I sees ’em, ffolkes, and that’s the way it’s been for my life; I can count, on fewer than the fingers on only ONE of my hands, the number of presidents I respect, at all, and only one of those is still alive…. That one will go down in history as an ineffective president, because he had the unfortunate quality of possessing both intelligence, and integrity, not to mention compassion…. which are three qualities that no other president since 1962 has possessed. to any appreciable degree, and definitely not together in the same man, other than the one…. If you disagree, fine…. comment, and tell me why, so we can discuss it…. But, please, make it worth my time, because there isn’t a lot of evidence I’m aware of for you to choose from..

Any who, that’s it…. just wanted to make clear why I thought Bill was an idiot husband…. I’ll avoid any comments as to WHY he is uncomfortable as a husband, married to a woman who is just as sociopathic as he is…. a woman completely lacking any sort of real compassion for others, because it is subsumed in the vast furnace of their ambition….

There is no room for compassion in one who wishes to lead a nation, especially one with the power and resources of this one, along with the historically traditional imperative, and true national pastime, of proselytizing democracy, and our twisted versions of Christianity, on anyone in the world who doesn’t have them…. whether they want them, or not….

Sometimes, that interference in the lives and interests of other nations in the world in the guise of business, to spread our capitalist markets, which require constant expansion to prevent collapsing under their own weight…. Or, our insistence on playing busybody is justified with the pretense of humanitarianism, with rationalizations ranging from saving them from godless communism, to fighting the evil of “muslim extremists, and/or rebel insurgents” who are fighting terrorist civil wars, “killing their own people, including, gasp, children and old people!”

These wars, though being fought over what seem to me to be all-too-familiar sounding, minute, yet firmly idiotic differences of interpretation of scripture, are still CIVIL wars, even if religiously motivated ….  I won’t comment on this scripture, allegedly also “divine” in origin, in the book of collected dogmatic delusions that were  left to guide them by their version of a mortal, yet, somehow, also immortal, and, thus, divine, (by the time-tested use of “ipse dixit” reasoning) prophet of the ONLY god, or Allah, or Baha’u’lah, or whomever they worship/idolize/follow/are enslaved by…. Well, I wasn’t planning to comment, but, I suppose I just did….

However, my point remains valid, despite my opinion of Islam, or Christianity, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or any other religion…. As far as I’m concerned, they are ALL the possessors of a SMALL piece of the Truth about Reality in this Universe, but, they have erroneously chosen to misinterpret the meaning of their piece, and have beaten their dead horses, killed by that error, into a sad, bloody pulp, unrecognizable, and useless for anything other than making everyone’s life more difficult, and divisive…. I can’t say it much clearer than that, about religion, or politics, either….

Instead I’ll say that it’s a shame there is probably no one to run against Hillary who can win, because she’ll be, unfortunately, as cruelly self-serving, as dishonest as, well, a politician, as unaware of, and as little concerned with the plight of the common man,  and as falsely “transparent” in their actions and words, as any man who has ever held the office…. including Tricky Dicky and LBJ, who were about as underhanded, and corrupt as any politician who ever lived….

The scary part of that, if not the scariest part of the whole shebang we call the future? If there IS anyone who can win against her, things in this sad old country, and, no doubt, the rest of this sad, old world,  will go from bad, to very much worse, in a very short time…. Think about it….

Just watch…. I hate being right in these cases, but, my track record is, sadly, practically unblemished, as I have called just about every election at the national level, for all those years of repetitive foolishness I’ve witnessed….

“It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” — Noel Coward

“…there are periods of history when the visions of madmen and dope fiends are a better guide to reality than the common-sense interpretation of data
available to the so-called normal mind.  This is one such period, if you haven’t noticed already.” — The Illuminatus! Trilogy — Robert Anton Wilson

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Three final notes on this subject from 2015, as it becomes more relevant each day:

“If you ever see me getting beaten by the police, put down the video camera and come help me.” — Bobcat Goldthwait

“Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. — Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” — Edmund Burke (1729-1797), in a letter to William Smith

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Comedy_Tragedy

    As noted in the previous section, I’m feeling a bit lazy today; hence this antiquated poem from the archives…. Enjoy, for what it’s worth… Written sometime in 2013, it’s one of my favorites, such as they are….

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 ~~


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buddah-out-to-lunch_s

    Today’s final old-school pearl is a tricky one…. All of the following are observations on Life at Large, in a manner of speaking…. At least one of them is a trick pearl…. It looks okay, and sounds okay, but, when one stops to look more closely at the concept, it turns silly on you…. which, somehow, doesn’t detract from its rightness…. Go figure, and, of course, which pearl that may be is left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader…. You should KNOW you never get out of here without having to use at least three neurons!…. Enjoy, ffolkes….

“Fear always springs from ignorance.” — Smart Bee, paraphrasing the Bhagavad Gita

“Cato said the best way to keep good acts in memory was to refresh them with new.” — Francis Bacon (1561-1626) — Apothegms, No, 247

“It is easier to perceive error than to find truth, for the former lies on the surface and is easily seen, while the latter lies in the depth, where few are willing to search for it.” — Goethe

“With two hearts do people live; a small one of deep softness, the other of  steel.  And kindness is too often a shield, generosity too often a sword.” — Kahlil Gibran

“I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there.” — Richard Feynman

“You’re never too old to learn something stupid.” — Smart Bee

“The best way out is always through.” — Robert Frost

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Today’s process of creation felt a little choppy, but, hey…. we’re done. Y’all know what that means right? You’re on you own again…. Go do something constructive, or, at minimum, patently explainable in small words, of three or fewer syllables. Wouldn’t want to confuse anyone, now, would you? No, of course not…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I can dodge the bullets….

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

dozer3


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

Offenders will be coated in Teflon….

Ffolkes,

“Time cancels young pain.”

~~ Euripides (431 BC) ~~

Opportunity_Rover_Sees_Rock_Spire-a3f7bbf0bff2eafe6a9e967b29440382

Rock Spire on Mars ~~ Rover Curiosity’s next target for research

NASA photo from Space.com

Good morning….. Let’s keep this on the up and up, okay? Step lively, ffolkes, Luigi’s in a hurry today….

Shall we Pearl?

“We are as different from one another on the inside of our heads as we appear to be different from one another on the outside of our heads. The world “out there” is as much a projection from inside our heads as it is a perception. It is almost unbelievable that we are all dealing with the same reality. We operate on a kind of loose consensus about existence.” — Robert Fulghum “It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It”

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beatles

Image from freepiks.com via Google Images


No matter how anyone feels, or thinks of the music these four lads made together, it cannot be gainsaid to point out it was the major influence over the lives of millions of young people for a long time, acting as one of the primary cultural influences of the time…. Enjoy, ffolkes; this is part of the cultural legacy we all share, at least, in the Western world….

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The Beatles

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https://youtu.be/xp5Rb7-F-hY

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Dont keep calm

“In any group of five people, one will be confused, one will be conniving, one will be honest, and two will be trying like hell to figure out where they fit in this group.” — Smart Bee

While I find this statement from SB to be fairly accurate, it fails, I believe, to completely cover the situation when five people get in one place to interact…. In addition, by the statement’s content itself, it fails to be clear; if one is confused, and two are still trying to figure out their place in the group, I’d say it comes down to one good guy, one bad guy, and three people stuck in bozoid mode; in short, all five of them are most likely confused, as anyone trying to make this fit into reality would be….

I suppose that goes to show how not everything said is worth adopting into one’s system of beliefs, even though it may sound relevant on the surface…. It also goes to show how looking further into any statement (to wit: being dubious….) is an important skill, and one everyone would do well to use when examining any idea… In fact, yesterday, the final section contained a word on that idea from Gautama Buddha, which I’ve always felt expressed the concept as well as it’s ever been done, to wit:

“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.  Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.  Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.  But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” — The Buddha

Below you’ll find a video, complete with link to the You Tube page where it resides, on a subject that concerns all of us here in this country, not merely the five of us now under discussion…. Why don’t y’all take a moment to practice the lesson just learned from the Buddha, practicing your new perceptive skills on the material you’ll see in the report…. Then, we’ll talk….

I found the article at my friend’s site, here: https://talesfromthelou.wordpress.com/2015/05/10/corruption-is-legal-in-america-550/

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Corruption is Legal in America
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It’s easy to see, after watching the video, how things have gotten as bad as they are; not only have the bankers Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Ben Franklin, George Mason, and Thomas Paine all warned us about done exactly as predicted by those founding fathers, they’ve done it right in front of our eyes, with our tacit, complicit approval. They’ve successfully pulled off history’s largest long-con, and now have the entire American public believing…. what? What do they believe?….

Nothing. That’s the trouble. 98% of the people I see don’t even realize there is a problem. They look around, and wonder why they can’t seem to make the American Dream come true, without ever looking behind any of the claims with which they were brought up to believe, to see how they’be been manipulated, and lied to, from the time they were first born, by the government, by the churches, by their own parents, because they too are brainwashed slaves, who know no better than to fall for the same old crap they’ve been falling for their entire lives…

Me, I’m tired of it, so I’m doing what I can to quit the grid, to remove myself from the constraints so successfully welded around the necks of most of society…. I won’t detail my efforts, lest someone try to block them. But, I don’t intend to allow anyone to tell me how to live, ever. so, it must be done…. I don’t know what others may do, but, my own plans are to mitigate the effects of the overall status of society on my life, as best I can…..

In the meantime, I’m done for today; I don’t think I have any real angst left. The American people long ago lost their own freedom, giving it up willingly, trading it for a false sense of security, a state which has no corresponding match in Reality. NOTHING is ever completely secure; entropy and the power of chaos are part of Nature, and there is nothing one can do about it. All we can do is control ourselves, and not be a part of the slavery in which the powers that be would have me engage….

So be it.

gigoid has spoken….

“What I tell you three times is true.” — Lewis Carroll, “The Hunting of the Snark”

Believe me, ffolkes, I’ve told y’all this far more than three times…. You are being lied to, and manipulated; you are a slave. The only hope you have is to realize it, and make the necessary changes within yourself…. Otherwise, well, have a nice life, slaving away so someone else gets rich..,

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

Comedy_Tragedy

    I’m in a strange mood today…. Here’s one of mine, just so you can’t blame anyone else for any of this…. This one was written on 10/13/2012:

Honorable Request

Days, filled to a brim with fluff and time, pass
dimly into memory, bit by combative bit,
ever mournful, yet loud with life and sass,
only in dream do we meet, and dance, and flit.

Souls, spinning ’round in gleeful wonder, comply
as they must, never given a reason,
somberly proper, yet limber and quite spry,
dancing on to greet each bright new season.

Storms, angered by apathetic care, rage
proceeding into ministerial glare, unknown,
clothed in colors, purified solely with sage,
past an infinite future, already flown.

Life, plumbed to its depths and secrets, keeps
flowing with currents, strong and fairly found,
love stands, asking release, as it slowly weeps,
seeking refuge unasked, to stay honor bound.

~~ gigoid ~~


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

Peace76

    I was going to try to explain this pearl, but, I can’t. Oh, I could, but, I can’t. It would be best if we just leave it at that, I think, as it will become apparent before you’re finished it is a pearl of great beauty and scope…. All you gotta do is leave your mind to me…. Let’s see what it says, shall we?….

“As the wild duck is more swift and beautiful than the tame, so is the wild – the mallard – thought, which ‘mid falling dews wings it way among the fens.” — Thoreau

“I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than to teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.” — ee cummings

“A moment’s insight is sometimes worth a life’s experience.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

“All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten.  Remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned–the biggest word of all–look.” — Robert Fulghum

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

“Everything may happen. [Omnia fieri possunt.]” — Seneca, Epistulae ad Lucilium, Epis. LXX, 9

“Remember there’s an “if” in the middle of life.” — Smart Bee

“Do not be angry with me if I tell you the truth.” — Socrates (470?-399 B.C.)

“I have no idea what that meant.”  – Dot (Warner; Yakko & Wacko are her brothers)

Well, I like it….

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

There are some mornings when it surprises me no end to reach this point. I haven’t a clue, really, as to how it got done, but, it’s done. Hopefully, one or two of the five or six things which have been engaging too much of my attention of late will resolve themselves shortly, and I can look for a bit of peace, all-too-absent of late…. That said, I’m outta here, with great reluctance, but, a feeling of accomplishment. That’s something, I guess. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes…. I have hope, anyway…. Call me Ishmael…. I won’t answer, but, go ahead….

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

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

Kowabunga!


À bientôt, mon cherí….


					

Lately, it all seems less filling….

Ffolkes,

“Hand me a pair of leather pants and a CASIO keyboard — I’m living for today!”

~~ Zippy the Pinhead ~~

Morpheus the koala
“You said you want me to WHAT?”

earthshaking
“FfYou ffhave fNO ffidea ffhow ffGOOD ffthis ffffeels! Thpptt!”

    To begin, let’s get this out of the way…. Both pictures are from the SFGATE.com Day In Pictures photo feature, one each from two consecutive days, yesterday and the day before…. I’m including both, here at the beginning for a couple reasons…. First, I like them. Second, they both go with the excellent outcry from our old friend Zippy, which just happens to coincide with my mood…. my mood now, not when you’re reading this, though it may extend that far into the future…. who knows? For now, though, it’s just right…. Third, I named these two with my own file names, to remind me of the anthropomorphic images that crossed my mind upon first viewing them… The captions you see are what came later, after percolating….

The first one I call, Morpheus the koala… Isn’t he the cutest, sleepiest little thing you’ve ever seen?…. That, of course, is before the second thought that occurred to me, to wit: I wonder what he’s thinking, with that expression? From that perspective, he obviously is a bit suspicious, and not altogether sure of what he’s looking at…. which, given the nature of the koala, isn’t a surprise; plus, I don’t think their vision is very acute…. Logically, their first instinct, when they see anything, is to figure out whether it is predatory, thinking of them as food, or, is it food for them?

The writer who writes the comments under each picture on SFGATE saw the expression yet another way, by, quoting a look-alike from a movie …. “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”, quoting, of course, Yoda…. thus, proving they were too lazy to do any research, lacked creativity, or felt compelled to go for the cheap laugh by the pressure of working on a deadline….

The second picture I titled “earthshaking news”, but, my actual first thought was that it must be an Irish squirrel, on his way home from the public house, with a snoot full of rye whiskey under his belt (although “belt” may be a more accurate term for what he did with the rye, rather than where it ended up….). He reminds me of the old saw, that says, “An Irishman is never too drunk, so long as he can lay on his face, clutching the grass to keep from flying off the Earth”…. In truth, the little beastie is probably just cooling off his, well, private parts, on the cool branch…. That, or he’s expecting an earthquake…. hence, the title….

Why look, ffolkes! We’ve come to a point where it is not only appropriate to bring this introduction to a close, we can do so with the knowledge we actually composed something that actually has the look, the feel, and the traditional structure of such a device. Not only that, but, it’s seemingly ambiguous enough to act as a segue into almost any subject…. I sure wish I knew how this happened… I could do it again, if I could figure it out, and get it down on paper, or, at least, in my head with a note to remember it….

Unfortunately, I’ve already used up all the common sense, and typical patterns of behavior for one day, so, we’ll just toss this one overboard with all the others from the past, just as if it had never been exactly what I need, or want…. SIGH…. Sometimes, being odd is not much fun…. but, then I remember the alternative, shiver clear down to my toes, and give myself a happy smile, knowing that “normal” just isn’t for me…. Now, if I could only decide whether I’m serious about that, or not, I’d be able to at least ring it in with a Treble Bob Major, if not a Minor….

Shall we Pearl?…..

Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

~~ T. S. Eliot ~~

 Choruses from the Rock


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

“Stupid is as stupid does.” — Mama Gump

Yesterday, during a rant in section one of the Daily Pearl, I made a comment, wherein I accused Bill Clinton of being an idiot, and a husband, in the same breath…. While his persona exhibits elements of both adjectives, neither one fits completely comfortably; if it was a suit, you’d think it was poorly tailored. He IS an idiot of course; letting one’s lust control their actions while in the White House as the President, is kind of a give-away on that…. and he IS a husband; it says so right on the license available for anyone to see somewhere in what, oh, yeah, Arkansas, or Alabama, or wherever it was they got married… Who knows, maybe it was in D.C. after they left Little Rock, or whatever… But, obviously, he isn’t terribly good at either one….

Any who, I wanted to clarify that, while also acknowledging that, in truth, Bill is a VERY smart guy…. I don’t care who you are, you don’t get to be a Rhodes Scholar if you don’t have a few neurons to bump together… He also plays a pretty mean sax, which is also an indicator of superior, or at least multi-talented, intelligence…. All of which goes to prove that intelligence alone has little, if any, survival value. Possessing a high IQ does not give one the ability, necessarily, to USE it in a way that helps one advance, in any respect….

Ethically, morally, or in terms of worldly success, as in being rich, famous, or celebrated in some fashion, smart guys don’t always win against the mundanes, simply because they are often not paying attention to what is important to those with less on their minds… In Bill’s case, he tried to take his multi-tasking to a new level, and failed, miserably…. Common sense often escapes the most intelligent members of this species; they tend to be a little less balanced out on the fringes of the bell curve…. too much going on in their heads, that ends up distracting them from what they’re doing in the real world, and that they are being watched, always…

That’s all…. just sayin’….. Smart don’t mean smart, if you know what I mean…. Sometimes, a little bit of street cred, a little low animal cunning, as it were, can go a long way to being more useful than having a degree, or being able to quote poetry…. Unfortunately, when someone like that learns the law, then turns to politics, there is no end to the harm they can cause…. Witness just about every president in my lifetime…. Most of them weren’t the most intelligent, though smart enough to get through law school; they are definitely the most corrupt, and the most vicious sociopaths, that is for sure and for certain, but, overly intelligent, they were NOT…..

Sorry, but, I just calls ’em as I sees ’em, ffolkes, and that’s the way it’s been for my life; I can count, on fewer than the fingers on only ONE of my hands, the number of presidents I respect, at all, and only one of those is still alive…. That one will go down in history as an ineffective president, because he had the unfortunate quality of possessing both intelligence, and integrity, not to mention compassion…. which are three qualities that no other president since 1962 has possessed. to any appreciable degree, and definitely not together in the same man, other than the one…. If you disagree, fine…. comment, and tell me why, so we can discuss it…. But, please, make it worth my time, because there isn’t a lot of evidence I’m aware of for you to choose from..

Any who, that’s it…. just wanted to make clear why I thought Bill was an idiot husband…. I’ll avoid any comments as to WHY he is uncomfortable as a husband, married to a woman who is just as sociopathic as he is…. a woman completely lacking any sort of real compassion for others, because it is subsumed in the vast furnace of their ambition….

There is no room for compassion in one who wishes to lead a nation, especially one with the power and resources of this one, along with the historically traditional imperative, and true national pastime, of proselytizing democracy, and our twisted versions of Christianity, on anyone in the world who doesn’t have them…. whether they want them, or not….

Sometimes, that interference in the lives and interests of other nations in the world manifests in the guise of business, to spread our capitalist markets, which require constant expansion to prevent collapsing under their own weight…. Or, our insistence on playing busybody is justified with the pretense of humanitarianism, with rationalizations ranging from saving them from godless communism, to fighting the evil of “Muslim extremists, and/or rebel insurgents” who are fighting terrorist civil wars, “killing their own people, including, gasp, children and old people!”

These wars, though being fought over what seem to me to be all-too-familiar sounding, minute, yet firmly idiotic differences of interpretation of scripture, are still CIVIL wars, even if religiously motivated ….  I won’t comment on this scripture, allegedly also “divine” in origin, in the book of collected dogmatic delusions that were  left to guide them by their version of a mortal, yet, somehow, also immortal, and, thus, divine, (by the time-tested use of “ipse dixit” reasoning) prophet of the ONLY god, or Allah, or Baha’u’lah, or whomever they worship/idolize/follow/are enslaved by…. Well, I wasn’t planning to comment, but, I suppose I just did….

However, my point remains valid, despite my opinion of Islam, or Christianity, or Hinduism, or Buddhism, or any other religion…. As far as I’m concerned, they are ALL the possessors of a SMALL piece of the Truth about Reality in this Universe, but, they have erroneously chosen to misinterpret the meaning of their piece, and have beaten their dead horses, killed by that error, into a sad, bloody pulp, unrecognizable, and useless for anything other than making everyone’s life more difficult, and divisive…. I can’t say it much clearer than that, about religion, or politics, either….

Instead I’ll say that it’s a shame there is probably no one to run against Hillary who can win, because she’ll be, unfortunately, as cruelly self-serving, as dishonest as, well, a politician, as unaware of, and as little concerned with the plight of the common man,  and as falsely “transparent” in their actions and words, as any man who has ever held the office…. including Tricky Dicky and LBJ, who were about as underhanded, and corrupt as any politician who ever lived….

The scary part of that, if not the scariest part of the whole shebang we call the future? If there IS anyone who can win against her, things in this sad old country, and, no doubt, the rest of this sad, old world,  will go from bad, to very much worse, in a very short time…. Think about it….

Just watch…. I hate being right in these cases, but, my track record is, sadly, practically unblemished, as I have called just about every election at the national level, for all those years of repetitive foolishness I’ve witnessed….

“It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.” — Noel Coward

“…there are periods of history when the visions of madmen and dope fiends are a better guide to reality than the common-sense interpretation of data available to the so-called normal mind.  This is one such period, if you haven’t noticed already.” — The Illuminatus! Trilogy — Robert Anton Wilson

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

At last! This bled out of me last night, in a frenzy of typing, editing, and staring off into space…. I feel LOTS better now….

A dream, caught weeping….

“Never a dull moment to spare”, he said
with a crooked grin, and a broad wink.
“Can’t keep Reality hanging by a thread….
what would Chaos, or Entropy think?”

So, we plucked up our dreams of old,
to carry us on, in dutiful, strong arms,
stuffed a candle in the remaining fold,
for luck, and perfect proof against charms.

Storms follow the sun,  but, never stay;
lessons round every corner, all free.
Past fleeting doubts, in a sad disarray,
the journey becomes the reason to be.

Simple kindness manifests untold riches,
in defiance of common cause’s demise.
Bold courage, hanging in stitches,
mends wounds that come as no surprise.

Still, waters run deep, ’tis said by many.
Too much pain cannot apprehend
the salient, sharp points of epiphany,
nor, plainly, to wisdom aspire to pretend.

Folly dogs even the simplest truth,
fumes of toxic ignorance and bile,
alienated as a loose rotten tooth;
it often hides itself, for a long while.

Sought after eons ago, we cried out,
to believe, to suffer no more doubt.
But found instead good reason,
for love, and truth, from season, to season.

~~ gigoid ~~


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

Y’all probably can’t see behind the screens, but, I’m here, late, rushed, but, content…. I bled out that poem last night, then slept like a baby (well, like a huge, hairy, old, restless baby, anyway….) for a good seven hours straight, only awakening twice to turn over…. I feel much better, and can slide right in here, just as if it were all of a piece…. which, come to think of it, it is….

So, here’s an old school pearl, for your reading enjoyment this fine holiday weekend morning…. I have no clue at all as to the parameters; I’m letting SB have its head…. Enjoy!

“By words the mind is winged” — Aristophanes (c. 450-385 B.C.) — The Birds (414 B.C.), line 1447

“There’s more to living than not dying.” — found inscribed on my eyelids this morning…. gigoid

“If 150,000 people do something really stupid………it’s still stupid.” — Smart Bee

“The mind, conscious of rectitude, laughed to scorn the falsehood of report.” — Ovid (43 BC) — Fasti, iv, 311

“A man can only do what he can do.  But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day.” — Albert Schweitzer

It is not every question that deserves an answer.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 581

“By letting go, it all gets done.” — Tao Te Ching

Damn near perfect…. So be it….

gigoid has spoken.

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

Well…. I hardly know what to say at this point. It would, no doubt, be for the best to wind this up now, and be on our way. Not being the sort to challenge the dictates of Reality, at least, not when it slaps me right in the ear like this, I’ll go along with that….. See y’all tomorrow, 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

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Kowabunga!



Sincerity has never been more welcome…..

Ffolkes,

I’ve never experienced this before…. Even MY coffee, which has been known to raise the long-time-dead, in a heartbeat, isn’t doing the trick this morning…. I grind French Roast beans, dark and savory, then put twice as much in the drip basket as is recommended, just for starters… then I add a teaspoon or two more, just to make it right…. I promise you, no coffee in the world, including espresso, is stronger, or has more of the life-giving caffeine than does what I make right here at home… It’s part of why I have such a hard time when traveling, as nobody can duplicate it in public, not without destroying their profit margin….

But, today, it ain’t happenin’…. I mean, I made it like usual, and in good time, too, before I tried to type. But, even now, after a good half-cup, I’m still dragging my ass, wondering if it would wake up my partner if I went back to bed, or if I should just lay down on the couch for a while, until my brain is done sleeping, an event that seems NOT to have happened before I got up…. Normally, I’m good to go as soon as I get some coffee in me; it’s rather magical the way it gets me going, so it’s hard to understand this change in my reaction to it….

It’s certainly disconcerting, as I depend heavily on my coffee, to make things all better each morning…. I haven’t a clue as to how ugly life may get without it; it’s not something I thought I’d ever have to cope with, at least, not until some doctor told me to give it up for my health… Not that I would, but, hey, I’d have to at least consider it, for a minimum of four or five seconds…. I’m pretty sure I’d rather die than give up that morning rush of clarity….

There is NOTHING in this life that compares to it, (Well, except, maybe, the last few moments of a certain activity, which shall remain nameless, so I don’t have to worry about censors….. Those last few seconds of physical joy with a loved one ARE quite similar to what happens at that first sip of blood the mornings, even if I’m only allowed to refer to it with euphemisms in a family blog….), and I insist on maintaining a certain standard of quality in my life, lest that life become more of a burden than a joy to me…

Aha!….. I feel a bit of my lethargy starting to break up, like the ice on a river in winter, that starts to thaw in the spring, after the temperatures rise above the frozen tundra level….. The coffee, it seems, rather than deserting me, and having NO effect, was just taking its time, working its way into the crevasses in my mind, soothing and supporting, until finally, it breaks through the pain, the stiffness, and the mental fog, to bring its message of peace, and hope for a new day…. Well, maybe not all that, but it sure does bring clarity, and a sense of well-being that isn’t there to start the day…. I don’t know how many of y’all are morning-coffee-addicts, like me, but, those who are will know what I mean….

Perfect timing, too, I’d say…. I was almost ready to chuck aside all normal bets, and start taking money on the new line, but, once again, Life, and Fate, had other plans for me today…..  I’ll just go with the flow, and head out into today’s diving area, which was scouted out earlier, during a moment of lucidity….. It promises to be a fruitful dive today, with reports of some brilliant beds of oysters, and, no doubt, some superior pearls…. Time will tell, as always…

Shall we Pearl?…..

“All I ask of life is a constant and exaggerated sense of my own importance.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

Here is a fresh pearl, with a group of pearls chosen in a new way…. I picked out one of them several days ago, knowing it would be a good inclusion for one of these…. Rather than use that as a parameter for choosing the others, I went random, and managed to find just the right six other pearls to make this an unusual, but quite pointed little metaphor….. It contains some good advice, as well as some good answers to questions we all have, all the time…. Of course, you gotta believe!….. Just like in church, see?…..

“Virtue is but heroic bravery, to do the thing thought to be true, in spite of all enemies of flesh or spirit, in despite of all temptations or menaces.” — Albert Pike (1809-1891)

“God Himself has no right to be a tyrant.” — William Godwin (English minister, reformer, philosopher, — “Sketches in History” 1784

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

“It’s not denial. I’m just very selective about what I accept as reality.” — Calvin (“Calvin and Hobbes”)

“Almost everything you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” — Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

“Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“I’m pretending I’m pulling in a TROUT!  Am I doing it correctly??” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

Looking through some archived material last night, I found this poem, which I wrote in January of 2012, on the anniversary of my first year of blogging the newest version of these Pearls…. The poem came just after, and, as an obvious reaction to, a politirant in the section before the one where I found it…. It’s pretty clear, I think, and not too shabby,

Terror at Constitution Hall

Standing quiet, waiting on hope’s bright wing,
a stranger heralds the gift of Time.
Lyrical, spherical melodies we sing,
yet with silence, as a mime.
If fortune favors the bold and the fool,
truth may be spoken with courage unveiled.
But fortune oft is capricious and cruel,
and truth is naught but cold, with freedom failed.
Humanity has rights, ’tis often said,
if courage and truth can prevail.
If fear and ignorance are the diet we’re fed,
Life without liberty will end to this tale.

~~ gigoid ~~


You get a two-fer today, because I also found this one, along the same lines, but, different enough to offer a bit of contrast…. Hope you enjoy them, such as they are….

Future Shocked:

Weeping, I wake;
waking, I weep, I weep.
I weep for the ages to be lost,
for children never born.

Time comes calling, strident and spare,
nudging us toward the future with bony hands.
No pausing, no waiting, always away,
Frantic hearts unseen, unheard.

Spirits are dark, afraid.
And the Beast hunts, hungry and cruel,
seeking out the weak, and the foolish.

We all weep now….

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

The following religirant is from June of 2012, and remains as cogent as the day it was first written….. thank goodness, as it gives me a reason to use it now…..  My advice is to take it with the usual grain or two of your favorite flavored salt….. Myself, I like a mixture of onion and garlic salt….

“Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.” — Arthur Schopenhauer

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

“History does not record anywhere at any time a religion that has any rational basis. Religion is a crutch for people not strong enough to stand up to the unknown without help. But, like dandruff, most people do have a religion and spend time and money on it and seem to derive considerable pleasure from fiddling with it.” — Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love (1972)

There are many folks out there who, when reading my material for the first time, might get the impression that I am an atheist, and an anarchist. The stuff I write would tend to give that impression, I have no doubt. But, it really isn’t the case, and just goes to show that not everything is always as it seems….

I’m not an atheist, at least not in a classical sense. I would more accurately be described as agnostic, as I believe strongly in a spiritual component in the universe. But, the very concept of omnipotence, and omniscience, implies that one cannot define God, or whatever entity one considers to be the ultimate authority. A finite mind cannot comprehend an infinite mind; anything we can imagine cannot, by definition, be accurate or complete, as our minds are not infinite in scope.

It could be said that our imagination IS infinite. We can, at the very least, comprehend the concept of infinity, even if we cannot touch it, or see it, or count that high. But, to actually think that what we imagine about God is the same as reality is not only arrogant, it is foolish. Yet a large percentage of the human race not only believes they know what God looks like (ironically, God always looks like the folks who are claiming Him as their deity….), but that they know what He wants. To my way of thinking, this is sheer self-aggrandizement, and unjustifiably arrogant….

I suppose it helps them in dealing with the everyday stresses of life to think that they are special. To think they are beloved of God, and what they do is important to Him. This sense of belonging is important to a lot of folks, due I think, to their own fears about their ability to deal with reality as it exists. It gives them a sense of entitlement, and justifies their actions, no matter how immoral or unethical they may be. It allows them to act upon their impulses without restraint, to lie, to cheat, to steal, all in the name of the Lord. And, if they should happen to feel a tiny shred of guilt about what they are doing to other folks, why, they just confess their sins to Jesus, and all is forgiven!….

Sorry, ffolkes, but I could never buy into the whole scenario, from my earliest days. All of my experience, and all of my reasoning have led me to a different view of reality than what is described by any religion. I have observed the behavior of most people of a religious bent to be, as a rule, hypocritical, cruel, bigoted, racist, and, for the most part, unrelated to any moral or ethical system of any depth. The most religious in society go so far as to threaten violence toward anyone who disagrees with their beliefs, justified by their own self-proclaimed right to spew their hatred on anyone who differs.

I believe in compassion and kindness. I believe in love. I believe in protecting the vulnerable, and helping the less fortunate. I believe in beauty. And, I believe in reality, whatever that may be; it’s purely subjective for the most part. I DON’T believe in the divinity of Jesus, or Buddha, or Lao Tzu, or Mohammad, or any other religious prophet. I don’t believe there is some white haired, bearded old guy sitting on a throne of gold up in the sky somewhere, looking down and getting his pants in a bunch because I didn’t salute his graven image first thing after I got up.

That whole graven image thing, and the idea that God wants, or needs, our worship has always been a thorn in my side. I mean, can’t these zealots understand the irony of worshiping an image of Christ on the cross? Don’t they know that the cross is a graven image? And why would an omnipotent being need MY worship? It makes no sense. None. I cannot imagine of ANY reason for a God to care at all about such petty bullshit; I don’t care to be worshiped, why should He? Having someone act that way toward me makes me uncomfortable, so I can’t see why a God would even want to go there. What purpose does it serve?

One of my computer alarms just went off, and made me realize I was ranting, which I had not started out to do. I think y’all can get the gist of my arguments by this time, and those who are in disagreement with what I’ve written aren’t going to be persuaded away from their long-held delusions by my words, so further soliloquy would be futile.

I’ll just finish by saying this…. until Mankind grows up enough to be able to put aside the crutch of religion, and learns to stand up to reality as it exists, without the delusional imaginary friend to intercede on their behalf with the universe, then our path to extinction will remain clear…. It’s too bad really, because our species shows a lot of promise…. it’s too bad we will never be allowed to explore our limits as an adult species, because we will have killed ourselves off before we ever got out of childhood….

“There ain’t no devil, there’s just God when he’s drunk.” — Tom Waits, Heartattack and Vine
_____________________________

I’m pretty amazed, and that is hard to do…. I’ve been around a couple of blocks thus far in my life, and have seen a LOT of strange stuff (I DID work with the mentally ill, remember? They came up with some pretty bizarre issues, for sure and for certain….), but, it isn’t often I write an entire Pearl while half-asleep…. As I type this, my eyelids are drooping, and my entire being is yearning to be laying down, with my head pillowed comfortably, sawing the proverbial logs as I pound that pillow to smithereens….. Alas, I still have to proof this, which is tough, given the nature of THAT beast… Well, whining about it won’t get it done….

Y’know, there are times when I begin to think that maybe, just maybe, there is something to be said for unconsciousness…. I seem to do my best work when I’m fighting it off…. No matter, whatever the reason, this one isn’t bad, and will certainly do for today’s posting…. So be it…. gigoid has spoken, right before he falls back asleep…. 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

Weeding dead paradigms is honest labor….

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

Unable to pass, naturally, he punts….

Ffolkes,
Damn, damn, damn…. Murphy strikes again, it seems. What with my recent stresses building up to a climax on Thursday at the Disability psyche exam, I believe I may have exhausted myself. Yesterday, I managed to get the Pearl out, and even went out in the rain to post it at the coffee shop. In that process, I found that my newly acquired advanced age has taken away some of my resistance to the weather, and I got really cold before getting home to warm up. Then, last night, I got really tired, and went to bed at 8 PM, only to awaken at 3:30 AM, wide awake, of course, and ready to write…..

As I booted up the ol’ laptop, I poured coffee, and prepared to sit down and get serious. But, upon looking at the screen, Smart Bee was missing. This, I believe, is where Murphy stepped in again. The program icon was there, on the task bar, but wouldn’t come up on the screen. Well, this had occurred previously, and only got fixed after a week of panic and contortions, by reinstalling a newly downloaded version that I had to go get from the website. That version has acted fine, until this morning, when it once again went back into wherever it is software goes when it’s messing with you….

So, here I am, once again, without my trusted source of stimulating material. For today, I have some stuff I had previously collected, but, it looks like I’ll have to do another download of Smart Bee to get it back, which won’t happen until later. SIGH….. Murphy is indeed an asshole, and I don’t care if he hears me…. he couldn’t f….k with me any worse than he already does…. (I know, tempting for him, but, you know what, f….k him, and the white horse he didn’t ride in on…..)

There are, of course, probably other sources for quotes I could use, but I’m stubborn. Stubborn, but not stupid, so I WILL look for another program similar to SB that may work for me, once I get to where Google will work for me. In the meantime, I’m stuck with what I have on hand, and that means so are you…. Hopefully, it won’t cause any great difficulties, and also hopefully, will not result in a lessening of the quality of pearls.

Having thus gotten my morning whine out of the way, I should get on with the rest of the day’s work, such as it is. The first section should be no problem; it’s a diatribe on an old familiar target. After that, well, the results will be a matter of chance…. and if anyone says that will be some kind of improvement, well, that will just be cruel…. accurate, perhaps, but cruel….. Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“In my travels I have found that those who keep Heaven in view remain serene and cheerful in the darkest day. If the glories of Heaven were more real to us, if we lived less for material things and more for things eternal and spiritual, we would be less easily disturbed by this present life.” — Billy Graham, from Hope for the Troubled Heart Traveling Through

Ah, yes, more pseudo- faux wisdom from Mr. Delusional himself. Billy (what is it with these evangelical preachers and their names?…. Why would a 60 plus year-old man want to be called “Billy”? Makes me suspect some pederasty, myself, but I’m the suspicious type….) has hit upon a very valuable point here, without even being aware of the point he is making…. which is pretty typical for him. I’ve had to listen to his crap all my life, as my mother went through a period of time in my childhood where she enjoyed watching his TV revivals, and made us watch as well. For me, it worked out okay, as it gave me all the more reason to mistrust whatever the preachers were spouting off about, and there were some pretty hot Christian babes to look at, even if they couldn’t sing for shit; must have been from having no rhythm, as they danced even worse….. Hell, maybe it wasn’t dancing at all, but choreographed speaking in tongues while writhing on the stage….

Sorry, didn’t mean to wander…. any who, Billy’s assertion here, though it calls upon people to use their heads in a new way, unfortunately points the way to go that leads straight to the delusions he wishes to share. He is right that when we concentrate on our spiritual manifestation, we are less susceptible to the vagaries of reality, but, he uses the concept of Heaven as the goal, which, as we all know, is somewhat hard to prove exists. In order to accept Heaven as a reality, one must assume the belief in the other unprovable assertions made by these evangelistic (another word for “manipulative”) busybodies. Besides, what’s wrong with being disturbed by life? I’d rather be disturbed than lied to, which is what they are doing…..

“Some foolish men declare that a Creator made the world.  The doctrine that the world was created is ill-advised, and should be rejected.  If God created the world, where was He before creation?  How could God have made the world without any raw material?  If you say He made this first, and then the world, you are faced with an endless regression … Know that the world is uncreated, as time itself is, without beginning and end.” — The Mahapurana, Jinasena

You see, this makes as much sense to me as any of the stuff that the preachers and deacons tried to tell us as kids, and that Billy tries to force down the unwilling throats of adults. This philosophy at least takes reality into account in its provisions, even if it does make its own unprovable assertions…. But, most of the assertions it makes are much more logical and justifiable by evidence than are any of those made by the Christian sects. These assertions are at least verifiable according to reason, and fit in better with the observable universe. In a choice between logic and fantasy, I’ll go with logic, every time….

Fanatic: Someone who, having lost sight of his goal, redoubles his efforts. — Smart Bee (This is the last one found there, for the time being….SIGH….)

Sadly, the people who accept Billy’s nonsense are often of this ilk. No matter how much one defies their assertions by presenting logical alternatives, the believers just clutch their cherished delusions more tightly to their breast, and raise their voices in anger and angst, in order to drown out any opposing views by the din of their fervor. Actually, I, being the cruel curmudgeon I am, will often challenge these folks just to watch them explode, as it is quite an entertaining way to pass the time. Some might say that it is immoral to pick on them (it IS dishonorable to engage in a battle wits with unarmed persons, I suppose….), but, I can’t help myself. I’ve spent much of my life having to listen to these people, politely, and giving in to the admonitions to not argue with them; I’m done with that, and if I want to tease them, I damn well will….

“When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know,” the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives.” — Robert A Heinlein, “If this goes on….”

One of the most annoying aspects of the folks like Billy, who proselytize their beliefs, dumping them on others, is the way they will do everything in their power to keep their constituents ignorant of any other views but their own. They cannot abide competition, and attempt to subvert it by brainwashing their acolytes to accept what they say, without ever trying to find out whether or not it has any validity according to any other knowledge possessed by Man. They are the people of whom St. Thomas Aquinas warned, when he said, “Beware the man of one book.” If Billy had his way, the Bible, King James version, would be the only book in the library, unless there were some approved treatises that discussed appropriately the contents of that Bible (thereby making it the same book, in essence).

This is the kind of discussion that could carry on for days, but, I’m tired of it, so we’ll bring it to a close. Billy is, all things considered, a pretty easy target, since he fits into so many of the categories that I like to make fun of…. preacher, fanatic, delusional, believes his own hype, hypocritical, sanctimonious, pompous, and sure of his own (non-existent) omniscience. It’s fun, but grows old as fast as his ideas…. I pick on him because it is obvious that he possesses a modicum of native intelligence; he just refuses to use it, and that, to me, is a crime against nature. He is smart enough to see that what he says is nonsense, but, is too cowardly, or too dishonest, to admit it. For this I hold him accountable, and thus use him as a target frequently…. because he deserves every bit of opposition we can give him…. He targets, and solicits money from, the weak-minded and the ignorant, and that, to me, is unforgivable……

If you wish to know
Why there are disasters
Of Armies and Weapons in the world
Listen to the piteous cries
From the slaughterhouse at midnight

— Old Chinese Saying
__________________________________

A Question

A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me truly, men of earth,
If all the soul-and-body scars
Were not too much to pay for birth.

Robert Frost

Well said!…..
__________________________________

In lieu of Smart Bee, I went back into the archives to find an old Pearl to use here. Serendipity struck, and I found this one, which is rather appropriate. I wrote this one four years ago, almost to the day…. these were my comments regarding the outcome of the 2008 election, and the remarks, minus one, are all still very apropos…. Just ignore the one about the lame duck, as there isn’t one this time around…. the rest of it remains valid, so, to reiterate….

Ffolkes,
Though it is my gut feeling that we can all breathe a big sigh of relief that the nightmare of the last eight years is almost over, I must caution thee against complacence. It’s now a matter of keeping an eye on both the lame duck guy and the newbie, for a while at least. It’s best not to leave them unattended for long as they tend to get into mischief if not firmly leashed. With this in mind, I offer the following….

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

“A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.” — P.J. O’Rourke

“I have never been hurt by anything I didn’t say.” — Calvin Coolidge (Let’s hope Obama can live up to that!)

And lets not forget the Wisdom of Who….

“Here’s to the new boss,
The same as the old boss….
….
So I get on my knees an pray,
we don’t get fooled again”– Pete Townshend

Y’all take care out there….

Almost eerie, isn’t it? I have to say, this country dodged a BIG bullet this election; if R&R, the consummate liars, had bought the White House, we would have been in for a very disturbing episode of history, with the outbreak of the Second American Revolution not out of the realm of possibility. I know I would have been ready to assume arms in a heartbeat….

But, reason prevailed, giving me some hope for the people of this nation, even those who have the heads firmly inserted into their bums…. I think Zippy is right on the money with this closing thought on the subject, and with that thought, we can bring the subject to a welcome close… for about 3 years, until the next group of power-hungry Republicans step up to try to steal the election….. Pay heed to Zippy’s wisdom!……..

“Disco oil bussing will create a throbbing Naugahyde pipeline running straight to the tropics from the rug producing regions and devalue the dollar!” — Zippy the Pinhead
__________________________________

Well, it may not be Art, but it is Frank and Earnest….. and, sadly, it’s the best I’ve got today. Since I’m now looking at 0615 AM from the wrong side, I think I might try to go back to bed for a while, and let this all slough off my conscience. Besides, I can look at it later with a fresh eye, and see if it is worth posting, or if my early morning adventures are affecting the Pearls adversely. If that is the case, well, gosh, I just don’t know what I’ll do…. I guess I’ll find out later…..  More to come…..

Well, it’s better than I had anticipated; good enough the let fly….. I’m considering it lucky, and being thankful….. Onward into another day, ffolkes….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..


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

gigoid

Dozer

Kowabunga!