Save some of that tripe for later….

Posted on April 12, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

If I ever get to the point of sleeping all night on a regular basis, not only will I have overcome years of light but persistent insomnia, (and the pain that brought it into being…..) but, I will have, by then, figured out how to deal with having a schedule that is written, at least partially, in stone, that is to say, a solid, consistent routine, upon which I could depend to be the same each day….. My gosh, I just realized, if that ever happened, it could lead to all sorts of stuff that I haven’t ever been able to accomplish, such as an intro section that wrote itself….

I don’t have a clue as to what that might mean to me, in terms of change, or the need to adjust my mental status to conform to reality (I know, that is what happens all the time, but, I’m talking long-term, permanent adjustments, that take longer to develop, and put in place, as well as to change, if it ever becomes necessary….). If I did, that would probably give me an idea of how to cope, or what direction the changes might take; since I don’t, we’ll just have to fake it, again…..

We all have to fake it to a degree; we weren’t issued manuals at birth, so we have to feel our way through life much of the time, like groping through a dark room with hard furniture in random places, desperately craving the flesh of shins, to soothe its savage hunger. (Why is it, when we have to do stuff like that, we have to do it in the pitch dark? Is there a law of reality or something that says we have to add the terror of darkness to whatever nonsensical issue brought us into that room in the first place? It’s almost like being caught in a horror movie, with no place to go but up the stairs where all the strange noises are coming from….)

I’m pretty sure that’s not the best place for me to go, either in my head, or here, on the screen, for you to share…. Besides, I wouldn’t want to be like that dumb jock that grabs a baseball bat, then goes up the stairs to face off the bloodthirsty psycho with a machete, or the ravening horror from another dimension that will eat us all, without first at least TRYING to use the phone to call for a little backup….

Hell, if it was me, I’d spend more than just a couple minutes trying to see if there was a shotgun, or a reasonable facsimile, lying around…. I’d feel a lot better facing off a machete with that, than with a bat, no matter how much extra reach it gives me…. A 12-gauge over/under would give me all the reach I’d need…. A Glock 9mm semi-auto pistol has some pretty good stopping power, too. (Side note: is it a movie law that any house with a monster coming is not allowed to have a shotgun in it? They never do, even though the number of households in this country that have a gun in them is fairly large…. I guess they’re more concerned with drama than believability…. It IS television, or movies, you know, and is NOT real, as much as we tend to think it is…..)

I’m wandering now, aren’t I? I can feel it slipping away from me….. which means it’s time for good old #4 again….. Hold on…

Shall we Pearl?….

“Since everything in life is but an experience perfect in being what it is, having nothing to do with good or bad, acceptance or rejection, one may well burst out in laughter.” — Long Chen Pa

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Below you will find several links, to articles that report on the latest developments in the ongoing saga of espionage and chicanery being played out on the world stage involving the NSA, and the extent of the spying and lying in which they have engaged, for what is turning out to be longer than anyone had realized, or, for that matter, authorized…..

The first article is from the Guardian, the UK news outlet that first published the revelations of the NSA spy program, leaked to them by Eric Snowden, the former contractor who worked for the agency before “spilling the beans”…. It is a compendium of the entire issue, from the beginning, right up to the latest of the articles, the second in the list, which reports on the issues brought up in Mr. Snowden’s recent testimony to the European Union assembly…

The third is from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that works to maintain the freedom of expression, and security of private communications over the world wide web, by bring suit in court against companies and government agencies who try to place limits on web traffic, and online with the spread of information useful to all those who use the web…. I’ll make a comment or two when you have read some of the material, and feel up to speed…. Oh, come on, you KNEW that was coming…. If nothing else, by reading these, you’ll be completely up to speed on this issue, which will stand you in good stead in your next BS session….

http://www.theguardian.com/world/the-nsa-files?INTCMP=mic_232382

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/08/edwards-snowden-us-government-spied-human-rights-workers

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/04/why-web-needs-perfect-forward-secrecy

You know, ffolkes, I’m going to change things a bit here…. I would usually pull some excerpts from these articles, & use them as springboards for discussion of the issues, but, today, I don’t seem to be in touch with the angst needed to work up enough outrage….

In short, I don’t feel like ranting today, as much as I hate to let the chance to point out more instances of BRC shenanigans go by, without taking at least a few token shots at them, just to see them jump and dance…. In fact, I’m going to replace the intended rant for today with another old-school group of quotes, letting Smart Bee take all the shots he can fit into a five-star pearl….

“I don’t HAVE to think, I KNOW!” — The official motto of the House Republicans

“I’m just here for moral support. Ignore the gun.” — Mission Statement: National Security Agency

“Americans have different ways of saying things. They say `elevator’, we say `lift’…they say `President’, we say `stupid psychopathic git’….” — Alexi Sayle

“There’s only one way to kill a rat…” — Robert A. Heinlein

“One final paragraph of advice: Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am – a reluctant enthusiast… a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lurid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep you brain in you head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk bound people with their hearts in a safety deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: You will outlive the bastards.” — Edward Abbey

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Here are two haiku of mine, found while cruising through some old Pearls, from 2012, when haiku was the only kind of poetry I was writing, pretty much… At that time, midway through the year, I had yet to break my long fast for writing poems; that came later that year…. but, I like both of these, so, here they are again, now in the form they need to be in, rather than the informal format in which I found them…. I hope you enjoy them…

Fulfilling Gravidity

Writing for the few
with words of power and grace
often brings such pain.

~~ gigoid ~~

Morning Pearls

Such mornings as these
chase away my dreams of light.
I won’t cry again.

~~ gigoid ~~

As a bonus for those who have gotten this far today, here is another poem, but not mine…. this one is better than any I’VE ever done….

The cricket sang,
And set the sun,
And workmen finished, one by one,
Their seam the day upon.

The low grass loaded with the dew,
The twilight stood as strangers do
With hat in hand, polite and new,
To stay as if, or go.

A vastness, as a neighbor, came,–
A wisdom without face or name,
A peace, as hemispheres at home,–
And so the night became.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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Here is a pretty decent rant from the same section of the archives where I found the haiku, sometime in June of 2012…. As noted, I’m not in a terrific place for ranting today, so this will suffice nicely to round out this Pearl…. Balance is always a good thing….

——————————————-

The non permanent appearance of happiness and distress, and their disappearance in due course, are like the appearance and disappearance of summer and winter seasons. — Bhagavad Gita

I don’t know about you, but, I think, if someone were to sit down to write a one sentence summary of Ecclesiastes, this would be very like what they came up with. Coming as it does from the Bhagavad Gita, written prior to Ecclesiastes by several centuries, I doubt the author(s) had that in mind as a goal. It’s funny to me (ironic-funny) how often that is the case. I’ve read the religious books from several different religions, and they seem to have all been written by the same guy….

This idea led me to more research, so I spent some years trying to track down the authors responsible for all the books, and what I found is amazing…. The religious books of ALL religions on Earth WERE written by the SAME GUY. I don’t know his name, but his writing style, and the content of what was written, are the same in all of the tomes I searched. This datum is somewhat disconcerting, as it implies a conspiracy…. logic says that if all were written by the same guy, there is a reason. That reason is probably NOT in the best interests of the average person; it more likely has to do with whatever the author’s goals are….

Now, I have previously written here on religions, relating how they attempt to control the populace, to make them amenable to more control by their political counterparts. It seems now that this concept is even more sinister than I had imagined. The beloved ruling class, and the priestly hierarchies, don’t want us to know that they are controlling us. Their purpose is simple; they want us, essentially, to be their slaves….. T

The BRC and the preachers all want the average man to work all his life, without ever realizing they are working for someone else’s benefit. The pattern is clear enough throughout history that examples are not necessary at this time, but rest assured, our beloved ruling class, with the support of the religions, is manipulating events for THEIR advantage, not ours, and has been doing so for thousands of years…..

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Let me make something clear. There are people on this planet who are not selfish. There are people who don’t wish to control others, or to manipulate others for their own benefit. There are folks who are just plain good; their spirits are free, and clean. The problem is, they are few, and far between, and not a single one of them cares a whit about controlling others. Thus, though they are likely not as affected by the manipulations of the ruling class, they are not going to be roused to action without just cause, which the ruling class will not allow to occur, if they can help it.

The number of people who are part of the beloved ruling class is very small, compared to the mass of mankind. From what I can see, that number is probably about the same as the number of people who really understand what is going on, and object to it. Let’s say that number is about 5% (probably lower, but we’ll just use this for now….) So, that makes 5% beloved ruling class, manipulating society for their own benefit, 5% ffolkes who actually see the manipulations, and 90% clueless sheep. Well, not sheep I guess, because some of them can be pretty violent. But, clueless, for sure…. This breakdown, while not exact, represents an accurate picture of society’s makeup since the dawn of civilization….

If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more happy people? — Smart Bee

So, to bring this back around to where we started, the 5% of mankind that are actually running things have no investment in changing; they want things just the way they are, as they have been for 10,000 years. The other 5% aren’t enough to make the changes happen without the cooperation of the 90%, which the beloved ruling class will work to deny with all their resources. So, I have a new tactic which could help. See, we gotta find that guy…… What guy? Please, pay attention…. the guy who wrote all the books for the religions.

Once we find that guy, we either brainwash him, or recruit him through reason, into a re-write. The re-write could be artificially aged, and then found in some cave in the Himalayas, or in the fertile crescent. The altered text would be designed to negate, or nullify, all of the lies that the other books have perpetrated on society. Once the 90% is enlightened, I think the resulting anger at the beloved rulers and preachers will set matters aright in no time. What do you think?…. Hey, it could work!….

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I’m going to meet an old friend for breakfast today, so I’ll bring this to a screeching halt at this point, and try to get on with the day…. Hopefully, this Pearl will live up to its name…. and, if not, there’s always tomorrow…. See y’all then, 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

So far ahead we’re behind…

Posted on April 11, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Due to circumstances completely within my control, today’s Pearl will be somewhat abbreviated…. The simple fact is, I’m up late(r than normal….. it’s already after 4 AM…), I’ve got a shitload of stuff to get done today, and nowhere near enough time and/or available energy to complete all of the necessary tasks, UNLESS I make some serious cuts to what generally gets written here….

Hence, what we’ll do today is just keep everything out of my normally firm mental grasp, which allows me to make comments, add thoughts, and rant…. Instead, I’ll keep a looser grip….. which allows me to loosen up my standards, enough that we’ll be able to go with a couple of old-school pearls and a poem, and let it go at that….

In addition, I’m going to give up all pretense of what passes for normal around here (an absolutely critical step, since I’m writing THIS pre-coffee…. ah, I hear it finishing up as I type….. Things should get better now….), and use good old method #4 to keep this intro section to a minimum output. Given that…. oh, fuck this, I’ll be back…. Coffee, coffee, coffee…. Oh boy….. there IS hope…

Okay, hang on, ffolkes, I’m going to use #4 now….. stand back & watch for splashing, please….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“It is my belief… that the truth is generally preferable to lies.” — J.K. Rowling, The Beginning, — Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2000, — spoken by the character Albus Dumbledore

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As iterated above, there will be no rant today…. However, having found the first quote in this group on the very first try today, I believe I can put together an old school variety pearl that will serve as well to take a few telling shots at the dignity of the BRC, as well as pulling as many of their covers as I can grab hold of…. Enjoy…..

“Governments are the world’s real terrorist organizations. They function by means of inducing fear in their victims to gain compliance.” — Westley F. Deitchler

(Now, if that isn’t the most truthful, most logical, and most accurate quote I’ve seen in many moons, then, nothing at all fits that description…. This is the absolute truth, ffolkes, and something EVERYONE ALIVE should be made aware of…. let’s hope the rest of what Smart Bee finds for us is as potent….)

“I could not milk the cow and leave it thirsty.” — Munyawera, current volunteer and former client — of Christian Children’s Fund — on why he donates his time to CCF.

(Now, if only we could find a politician who felt this way….)

“Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.” — Gore Vidal

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

(Nowadays, we KNOW where our information is, don’t we? And, if we don’t, we have the NSA, who tracks and collects all of it for us….)

“Is being an idiot like being high all the time?” — Janeane Garofolo

(I’m not sure of the answer, but I figure we could just ask any elected official to find out….)

“No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.” — Jacob Bronowski, in “Encounter”, 1971

And, lastly, just because we can….

“How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.” — Petrarch

Now, THAT’S what I’m talking about…..

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I’m putting in one of my own poems today, for the simplest of reasons…. it saves me time, and nobody else need shoulder any of the resultant blame/shame for their inclusion in this mess…. I will add the following, however, just to show I have no pride at all….

Sir I admit your general rule
That every Poet is a Fool
But you yourself may serve to show it
That every Fool is not a Poet

— rendered from the French by Pope

Off the proverbial cuff….

I never meant to kill that period of time,
it didn’t give me any choice.
It tried to hem me in without reason, or rhyme,
refused me any vote, or any voice.

You have to admit, I buried it deep and fast,
just as if I cared.
I knew, though, it would never last,
nor ever be fully repaired.

No news, no pictures can bring it back,
once is all we get.
No pleas of public good, or even public lack;
in stone the past is set.

Futuristic visions now occupy my dreams,
I’m ready to go on.
Look! It fills up the screen, and it gleams!
Where’s the moment I’m sitting on?

Now, I remembered, at long, long last,
is all we really can hold.
Every moment goes by so bloody fast,
we’d best fill them all with beauty, warm and bold.

~~ gigoid ~~

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And Jesus said unto them, “And whom do you say that I am?”
They replied, “You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the ontological foundation of the context of our very selfhood revealed.”
And Jesus replied, “What?” — Smart Bee

This is merely here because when I read it, I laughed… At that moment, it struck me as funny, and still does, in a way…. and, if nothing else, it’s a good start for a random, harlequin pearl to end the day…. we’ll go on from here to see what sort of nonsense SB can find for us, to titillate our sense of humor, which is always a good way to start to the day….

1) The check is in the mail;
2) Of course I’ll respect you in the morning;
3) I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.

— The three least credible sentences in the English language

“If you don’t laugh at all, you’ve missed the point. If you only laugh, you’ve missed your chance from illumination.” — Robert Anton Wilson

“Don’t permit yourself to get between a dog and a lamp-post.” — Smart Bee

“It was all so different before everything changed.” — LAMAR’S LAMENT

“History is a tool used by politicians to justify their intentions.” — Ted Koppel

(How did that get here? That was supposed to go in the first section…. Oh well, we’ll just leave it, and you can IMAGINE it is in its proper place, in the pearl above, I’d say third or fourth in line…..)(If necessary, just imaging one of the pearls in that section as deleted….)

“I bet you have never seen a plumber bite his nails.” — Smart Bee

“I know you’re supposed to take life one day at a time — but lately several days have attacked me at once.” –Smart Bee

“What do you call a lawyer buried up to his neck in sand? Not enough sand.” — Smart Bee, again

And on THAT final grand note, I shall bid thee adieu…. for the nonce…..

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I’ve done it, and quite well, if I do say so myself…. All done in one hour and twenty-seven minutes to this point…. not bad for an old fart with flat feet, who constantly struggles with fits of fantasy and potentially fatal flatulence…. And on THAT note, I’m outta here…. See you tomorrow, ffolkes…. I’ll remind y’all tomorrow is Saturday, so remember to wear any Kevlar vests and/or body armor you possess; it saves you the rental fee…. Ta then…

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

One of our nuclear clothespins is missing….

Posted on April 10, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Don’t tell the monitors, but I think we’re going to have to cut back on the number of virgins we are sacrificing to the gods so they’ll smile upon this blog…. It’s not for any other reason than the fact we are beginning to run into the old Roman firewood conundrum, from back in the days when wood, wind, and water were the only energy sources we had as humans….

Rome, that ancient city, in time grew so large that it became problematic for the Romans to find firewood in the hills above and around the city. After several centuries of population growth, trees became scarce near the city, and the men who worked to gather it, who were called ‘carbonara’, eventually had to make week-long, or longer, forays into the mountains, and further into the countryside, in order to find a source of wood sizable enough to suit their needs.

During these trips, the men would take with them the food and supplies they needed to live for the time they were gone…. As Italians, their foods ran to the simple, but savory, with pasta, bread, and wine as the staples…. all of which travels well, meaning they could take the ingredients with them to use while on the trip…. Dried pasta, dried vegetables (peas, mushrooms, etc.), onions, garlic, pancetta, bread, wine, and cream, for example, in the form of a cow that they herded along the road with them as they went to look for their wood….

Any chefs in the audience may have noted that ingredients listed are those needed to produce the classic Italian dish, Pasta Carbonara, named after the men who kept the fireplaces of ancient Rome supplied with wood during the winter…. I can testify as to its deliciousness, and, in fact, it is my favorite of all the Italian dishes I make, save perhaps Pasta Vongolé, which is made with fresh clams, garlic, white wine, and cream, if desired…. I do both dishes superbly, if I do say so myself….

How does this silly but interesting history relate to this pearl? Well, I’ll tell ya, if you’ll hang on a moment…. Remember what I said about cutting back on our virginal sacrifices? Well, we’re having the same issue finding virgins as the Romans had with their firewood…. It’s taking longer and longer to FIND one that is willing to be sacrificed; last week I had to go all the way to hills above Bakersfield, to harvest one from a junior high school up near Yosemite, which is a good four or five hour drive…. This meant I had to listen to the babble of a 13 year old virgin all the way home, unless I felt like being mean, & sedating him….

Now, I’ll bet y’all are wondering what we do with our virgins after we use them…. which is something you’ll just have to wonder about for a long time, because I have neither the time, the inclination, nor the legal requirement to tell you….. Suffice it to say they are NOT killed, but are placed into an environment where their virginity will not cause them any further harm, and allowed to live out their lives in ignorance of the service they perform for society…. It would only confuse them, and make them less valuable as a trained consumer for the corporate masters..

Okay, I’m done now…. That was quite a mouthful for a relatively poor joke…. If it was a scam, we’d have to call it a long-con, and wait up to a year for the punchline to hit home….. But, since this is a daily blog, we can just call it what it is, which is, of course, nonsense and drivel, fresh from my fevered brain, all for the purpose of filling up space in this section, solely designed to bring us to the point where I can say, without any fear of retribution or heckling beyond the norm….

Shall we Pearl?….

“There is nothing so awkward as courting a woman whilst she is making sausages.” — Laurence Sterne

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Today’s first section will be a Newsy Pearl, with articles ripped from the world’s news, and comments on those articles by gigoid the dubious at his angst-filled sarcastic best (hopefully…)…. Abondanza!….

First, a public service announcement…. A Swedish cyber-security group has found a flaw in the secure internet protocol that two-thirds of the servers on the Internet use, a flaw which provides a route for hackers to exploit, enabling them to obtain data and information from many different commercial and non-commercial sources on the web…. They also found that this flaw has been present, unknown to any but a few, for over two years, and MAY already have been exploited by hackers to steal millions upon millions of passwords and information about people…. It’s called Heartbleed, and, apparently, there is no way to tell how much data has already been compromised….

The authorities have decided to finally let the public know about this, and suggest that ALL users who use the internet change ALL their passwords, advising all those users to also take other steps to further protect and secure their data…. Nice of them to let us know, eh?…. Any who, pass it on, because we ALL need to pay attention to this one…. They’ve been to the barn, but left the door open…. you may want to close it, as best you can….

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Online-security-flaw-exposes-millions-of-passwords-5386933.php

Now we’ll go on to the “Cuban Twitter” issue, that brilliantly programed distraction from Barry’s house, wherein the administration is working like mad to keep us from paying too close attention to what they are NOT doing to reform the NDAA and the NSA’s rabid, out-of-control spying…. While all the hullabaloo about this latest piece of stupidity plays itself out on the public stage, discussing the ins and outs of A PROGRAM THAT NOT ONLY FAILED BUT IS NO LONGER IN PLACE, the NSA quietly continues to mine the metadata on phones and computers all over the world, including right here in the USA…..

Yep, this issue, along with the loud, idiotic feud currently being played out between the Senate and the CIA, is the perfect subject to pull attention away from the NSA, as it gives the media, and their dupes, the general public, something on which to focus their ire, instead of having it focused solely on the Department of Cybersecurity, or whatever it’s called….

You know, that well-known organization that coordinates all of our spying with the NSA, (Homeland Security now includes the NSA, CIA, FBI, and whatever clandestine organizations in other departments, such as the branches of the military, all sharing information to keep their paranoia fresh), in their avowed search for terrorists, which includes their continuing joint abuse of the American people’s personal meta data….

Go ahead, read the following, and I’ll see you on the other side…. The initial comments you will see were written yesterday, prior to writing this, and may repeat certain portions, for effect….. sort of a reverse time warp, you see…..

“Hain’t we got all the fools in town on our side? And hain’t that a big enough majority in any town?” — Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Angry-exchange-on-Capitol-Hill-over-Cuban-Twitter-5387870.php

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/US-penned-political-satire-in-secret-Cuban-Twitter-5387849.php

Here’s the latest on the Cuban Twitter smoke screen… which is obscuring the other smoke screen, the Saga of DiFi and the CIA, both of which are distracting the public’s attention from what is actually happening NOW…. which is the same old shit/stuff these stories are blathering over, to wit: the out-of-control spying and lying that is going on in Washington, and all over the world, all of which gives me the distinct impression the BRC seems to be is waging a war of attrition against its own citizens.

The techniques of information manipulation, to misdirect the attention of the enemy to where it cannot see the actual events that transpire behind the scenes; the lies told bare-faced, claiming innocence with bloody hands…. Well, you get the picture…. The people who are in charge of our nation, ffolkes, are NOT very nice people, and are waging a war against YOU, ME, and everyone who doesn’t fall in line with their insane view of the world….

If you think I’m judging them harshly, well, you may be correct…. But, guess what? They are supposed to be MY public servants, not the other way around, and I’m not going to act as if they have any right to do any of what they are up to, not as long as that is true….. I don’t buy into the sense of entitlement they assume, and happen to believe that they are not only NOT the best of us, rising to the top like cream in milk, but, in fact, I see them as more like the scum that rises to the top of any polluted stream…. It fits them much better, in terms of both visual aspect, as well as their, shall we say, less than flowery odor….

This whole issue, making a big fuss over something that is over and done, and was a mistake to begin with, is just another way to distract the public, keeping them from thinking about the stuff that Edward Snowden revealed, all of which IS STILL GOING ON.

That is what they don’t want us to know, ffolkes, and they’ll do anything to keep us focused somewhere else, even if that means giving up some poor bureaucrats who were only doing what they were told, serving them up as scapegoats to hide their own actions, allowing the press and public to judge these poor fools, to let Congress crucify THEM for having stupidly done a poor job, at what was never anything but a stupid idea…. If it keeps us from looking at what the NSA is doing, all the better, in their view….

I said above that I see our own government perpetrating what I see as acts of war against the American people; I consider that to be gospel truth…. The Beloved Ruling Class, at least, the one I’VE been watching, has been using Sun Tzu’s Art of War to carry on a campaign of disinformation and manipulation of attitudes for many years now….. If you’ve ever read it, it is very clear how the government’s actions and statements are designed to use the principles outlined therein to confuse and misdirect the public’s minds….

With this latest administration, that campaign has reached new levels of intrusion into people’s lives, stealing from them not only their money, with outrageous tax structures and an economic system designed to steal even more of what they earn, but, has also made serious inroads into eliminating the Bill of Rights, taking away liberty after liberty, all in the name of “Homeland Security”, an oxymoron if I ever heard one… Now, they aren’t even waiting for us to spend the money, but are using our own computers and phones to increase their level of control over our fates….

Bah, humbug…. I’m pissed again, and it’s still early…. I’m going to stop now, and go on to the next section, where I hope the poem I’ll choose will have a calming effect on me…. I am not looking forward to carrying this around all day….. and, I’m sure y’all are as tired of hearing about all this, as I am about having to write about it…. Believe me, I wish there wasn’t so damn much wrong in today’s world…. Maybe if there was a bit less, I’d feel as if I could afford to turn my head toward a subject somewhat less critical, but much more amiable to my spirit….

SIGH…. Such is life, and we have to take it the way it comes…. In doing so, however, it would be wise to remember….. despite any desires or wishes YOU may have, you are at war, ffolkes….. and the enemy lives very close at hand….

I’m gonna go Pearl now….

“Most essential qualification for a politician: The ability to foretell what will happen tomorrow, next month, and next year- and to explain afterward why it did not happen.” — Sir Winston Churchill

“Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.” — Nero Wolfe, Rex Stout (1866-1975)

“He whose pride oppresses the humble may, perhaps, be humbled, but will never be humble.” — Lavater

“Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it … You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.” — Will Rogers

“Firmness in politics is called obstinacy anywhere else.” — Smart Bee

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.” — Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

“If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.” — Spinoza (1632-1677)

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

Maybe it’s just me, but I think this poem is beautiful…. so much so it is one of the best ever written, in my somewhat less than humble opinion….

Part of its charm, for me, comes from the sheer symmetry of the rhyming pattern Wordsworth used… Four lines with alternating ending rhymes, followed by a couplet that also rhymed perfectly…. Twenty-four lines, four stanzas, and a visual aspect as sharp as a photograph, in describing the flowers, and in the way it appears on screen, or paper…. Just look at it…. centered, balanced, complete within itself….

Carrying the pattern through to the ending verse, for me, creates a visual aspect that matches the sheer beauty of the experience he is sharing with the reader…. It assumes an almost mathematically precise symmetry for me, displaying the sheer beauty of nature in all its undisciplined magnificence….. One of my all-time favorite poems, for sure…. and always guaranteed to soothe the spirit…. I defy ANYONE to say they don’t feel better after reading this…..

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

~~ William Wordsworth ~~

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

Having completed the obligatory ranting for the day…. (hell, given what I wrote yesterday, I could consider myself done for the week….) I don’t feel compelled to do so any further, and in fact, plan to finish up as quickly as I can, & go take a nap….. As a retired dilettante, I have that right, and I exercise it frequently, to keep it supple…. Moreover, I like it, so, there…..

I think, given the apparent direction my mood is taking, on the evidence of that last sentence, it intends to go somewhere none of us particularly want to go, so, I’m going to go pearling again, with no particular parameters to guide my hand, only a vague sense of nonsense…. whatever THAT might be….

Pluralitas non ponenda est sine necessitate. (Multiplicity is not to be asserted when it is unnecessary.) — William of Occam [Occam’s Razor]

“There is a time for thinking and a time for NOT thinking. And THIS isn’t one of them.” — Paul the Samurai

“A gleekzorp without a tornpee is like a quop without a fertsneet (sort of).” — Smart Bee

“Real glory springs from the silent conquest of ourselves.” — Joseph P. Thompson

“I put aside my copy of “BOWLING WORLD” and think about GUN CONTROL legislation..” — Zippy the Pinhead

“As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.” — Albert Einstein

“Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than the sage amongst his books. For to you Kingdoms and their armies are things mighty and enduring, but to him they are but toys of the moment, to be overturned by the flicking of a finger.” — Chinese proverb

Hmm…. an eclectic little group, eh? In looking at the whole pearl, I think I would suggest shuffling them around a bit, to see if a different configuration will shake it down to a point where it’s a bit more transparent, or at least organized into a sequential thought pattern…. Or, not….

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

Having dutifully proofed, edited, and polished, I consider this done…. Moreover, after carefully performing the appropriate calculations, I am convinced there really isn’t any more damage I can do…. That means it would be a good idea to end this now, and get on with the rest of the day….

Oh…. Okay, that means me…. Very well…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, provided the BRC hasn’t found me yet….

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

Twisted versions of classical toilet accessories….

Posted on April 5, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Accentuated Lessons

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

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

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

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

Peace lies within, always…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Y’all take care out there,
and May the Metaphorse be with you;
Blessed Be, dearest Carole, Mark, and Theresa…
and everyone else, too…

When I works, I works hard.
When I sits, I sits loose.
When I thinks, I falls asleep.

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Malcolm patented the “three days dead” look….

Posted on April 3, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I cannot claim to be perfectly awake just yet, but, it’s time to get started, so you’ll just have to take what you get in that respect, because I’ve sat here diddling my brain and twiddling my fingers for a good thirty minutes now, with no real effect in terms of either feeling alert or displaying any coherency beyond what is needed to pour coffee…. Maybe if I take a few more sips of the only reason worth living for in the morning, I’ll find a little bit of energy….. I hope so…. That paragraph sucks….

I’m finding a bit of a Catch-22 connected to the use of the medical marijuana at night to aid in sleeping….. Applying some of the topical pain relieving cream is useful before lying down, as it helps relax enough to drift to sleep…. but, waking up to apply more is counter-productive, to say the least, as the act of spreading it where it needs to go causes enough pain to wake me…. I eat a high CBD chocolate about an hour & a half before retiring, which acts on pain, with added drowsiness effect, for about 4-6 hours; I have to wake up twice, minimally, to down a Norco during the night, but the chocolate often makes it less critical until it wears off…

That is the catch, the wearing off part…. If I take enough MJ to last the night, then the Norco isn’t as critical to be on time…. but, if I don’t take the Norco, I get the dyskinesia side effect after about 6 hours, right when the MJ is wearing off…. This means, at that point, even if I take what I need, I will be awake until it takes effect, whether that is 45 minutes for a Norco, , & up to 1½ hours for edible MJ…. So, I have to balance the 6 hour MJ effects with the minimum 4 hours of Norco effectiveness, and hope they work together…. It makes it tricky to get right, but, in the whole, I get a LOT more sleep than before I started using the MJ to augment the effects of the classic style pill…

There, now the medical report is over, and I’ve bored everyone to tears with my silly little personal issues, I suppose I should get on with what I actually started to do…. to wit: write the Pearl for today…. I guess I got off on a tangent there, and fell right into Chatty Cathy mode before I noticed….. Oh well, it got us enough dross and drivel to call an intro, so, that’s something, I guess….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Of course I have a smart ass attitude…. it’s a natural defense against drama, stupidity, and bullshit.” — Tweety Bird
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I originally intended to rant about this article, but, after perusing it myself, I find it’s only more proof of the prediction I made last week, as to how the pundits in Washington, (you know, those assholes who hang out at the White House, and in the halls of Congress), would be acting in the coming weeks, after the poTUS (Please note: the word president is NOT capitalized deliberately; sufficient respect for the office to justify capitalization must be earned….) stated his intention to “ask Congress” to reform the NSA regulations on spying…. So far, the president has mouthed his lies just as predicted, and the expected response has gone exactly according to what I said would occur…. It’s a gift…..

No, really, they’re going through ALL the contortions I figured they would, just as if they were paying attention to what I said…. which makes it, sort of, lacking in virtue to rail at them right now…. They’re being so PATHETICALLY stupid, it’s hardly worth the time it takes to run them down, and, in fact, doing so might just be considered abusing the handicapped….

So we’ll do this… Read the article, so you know just what they’re up to, silly as it may be…. Right now, they’re just doing as I said, and creating more questions and confusion around the issue of the torture report Senator DiFi and the Senate want to see, while Obama came out with some new, toothless suggestions for changes to the regulations that don’t really change much of anything…. all of which is muddying water that was already unclear….

After that, come back to this section, where you’ll find the latter half of this pears, which will consist of an old-school pearl, with the parameters set, once again, to shoot at our beloved ruling class, in all its ugly glory….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Demands-grow-to-release-Senate-torture-report-5369929.php

“Official truths are often powerful illusions.” — John Pilger, _Distant_Voices_, 1992

“This isn’t Anarchy, this is Chaos.” — Smart Bee

“How difficult it is to save the bark of reputation from the rocks of ignorance.” — Petrarch

MACHINATION, n. The method employed by one’s opponents in baffling one’s open and honorable efforts to do the right thing.

So plain the advantages of machination
It constitutes a moral obligation,
And honest wolves who think upon’t with loathing
Feel bound to don the sheep’s deceptive clothing.
So prospers still the diplomatic art,
And Satan bows, with hand upon his heart.
R.S.K.

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“I looked up the word “politics” in the dictionary and it’s actually a combination of two words; “poli,” which means many, and “tics,” which means bloodsuckers.” — Jay Leno

“Every man’s life, liberty, and property are in danger when the Legislature is in session.” — Gideon J. Tucker

“By all means, take the moral high ground — all that heavenly back lighting makes you a much easier target.” — Solomon Short

Not bad at all for a game of “pick up sticks”, post-neo-intellectual version, eh? I think, in truth, if any pundits forgot to duck, several of them COULD be bleeding now….

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

Today we’ll go with a poem of my own, in order to save embarrassment for anyone else, ‘kay?….. Here’s one I wrote in 2012, such as it is…..

Semblance of Time

The dreams and visions of modern times are pallid and pale
filled with fear and loathing instead of joy and wonder.
Reality is aging poorly, submitting less data to loudly regale
Sad faded images lacking substance, or proof of thunder.

Sisters and brothers of nightly performance speak in spite
building up scars to protect, or keep a semblance of sanity.
Knowing illusion is near and dear, steeped in muscular delight
while compassion and intelligence get smothered by humanity.

Loneliness soon became the friend of many sizes of fools
stealing through mazes of social tests as if truly wise, or old
while companies of sterile opportunity are hiding their tools
from anyone who might be feeling even a little bit bold.

Painful momentary flashes seem to outline society’s fate
until soft, heavy monuments to elder gods fall from grace.
We’re all getting tired of being told we’re far too late
and never ever nearing tolerance, nor regaining any face.

A hard message awaits us all when we dare to even stay
of life’s uncaring disposition and curmudgeonly faux heart
Only with the strength of a hero may such tales make way
Only a poet may turn such pain into a valid work of art.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

It’s looking now as if the ol’ brain just isn’t going to fire up today….. I’ve managed to fake it so far, which is fine, but, it’s going to take a strong effort to resist the urge to include a rant this morning…. If I don’t, (resist the urge, that is….), the results could be catastrophic, to say the least…. So, because we can, we’ll fall back on another old-school pearl to fill in this final section, thus preserving both the lives, and the integrity of our passengers…..

That’s fortunate, because we just couldn’t afford another set of lawsuits…. My lawyer is getting far too rich mitigating the aftereffects of my bozoid tendencies…. For now, let’s enjoy a random, parameter-less, harlequin pearl, our finest, most popular product….

“I don’t think it would have all got me down quite so much if just once in a while- just once in a while- there was at least some polite little perfunctory implication that knowledge should lead to wisdom, and that if it doesn’t, it’s just a disgusting waste of time.” — J.D. Salinger, Franny & Zooey

The rhino is a homely beast,
For human eyes he’s not a feast.
Farewell, farewell, you old rhinoceros,
I’ll stare at something less prepoceros.

— Ogden Nash (1902-1971)

“Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she had laid an asteroid.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

“It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.” — Arthur C. Clarke

“Sick cultures show a complex of symptoms … but a *dying* culture invariably exhibits personal rudeness. Bad manners. Loss of consideration for others in minor matters. A loss of politeness, of gentle manners, is more significant than is a riot.” — Friday’s boss, aka “Kettle Belly” or “Mr. Two-Canes” Baldwin…. from the book “Friday” by Robert A. Heinlein

“Laws do not persuade just because they threaten.” — Seneca, 65 AD

“Though thou be destined to live three thousand years and as many myriads besides, yet remember that no man loseth other life than that which he liveth, nor liveth other than that which he loseth.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ii, 14

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

Well, having subjected myself to the indignity of reading this whole thing, editing for errors and punching up style, as far as possible, I can truthfully say…. I’m done. No judgments I make could be accurate, given both my closeness to the material, and my lack of brain-function this morning, which has NOT improved in the two plus hours since I began staring at the screen…. If you’ll recall, it took me thirty minutes to be able to write a coherent sentence then…. I’m having the same struggle now, here at the end….

SIGH… Okay, I’ve whined enough for one day…. Now I have to go do battle with bureaucrats and business assholes, always two of my least favorite pastimes…. I have to deal with the Kaiser Pharmacy, Pat’s pharmacy, and a large wireless company…. Oh, joy…..

See ya, ffolkes, provided I can do all of this today without having to kill anyone….. It can be a near thing, sometimes, if I happen to run across a particularly stupid bureaucrat, or one of those empty-headed millennial denizens, making less than minimum wage, part-time in a wireless store…. What is it with those companies? Do they use a reverse IQ test to pick their employees, or what?…. Okay, I’ll stop ranting in the closing section now, and be off…. Ta then….

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

Four coconut-periwinkle macaroon omelets, please, to go….

Posted on March 28, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Save for the hour, I’d be happy to be up and writing; that’s on the one hand….. On the other hand, given the hour, I’m happy to be retired, without the need to get going to get ready for work (when you see those 4 letters arranged into that word, imagine it spoken aloud with Maynard G. Kreb’s pronunciation, sort of a high-pitched squeaking, with a heavy note of fear, and a querulous, wavering tone…. WUURK?!….). In fact, I’m up at what seems to be my new normal time, between 0330 and 0400, in time to beat the coffee, but, not the cat….

Not that I’d actually BEAT the wee thing; she’s annoying, but I’m not a species chauvinist, and would never allow myself to treat an animal like I would a human…. they deserve far better than that…. To a human, I can justify almost ANY sort of cruelty or antagonism, as they are, at least, my peers, and whatever I can do to them, they can do to me (if they dare….)…. With animals, that does not hold true; to abuse ANY animal, in my mind, is about as low on the morality scale as one can go….

My own moments of regret over immoral behavior, and, the time spent flogging myself in the lower levels of my personal hell, all have their origin in those few times in my life when I’ve forgotten that, and have been inadvertently cruel to an animal…. Whatever I’ve done to any human has already been returned to me, tenfold, so I don’t fret at all about whatever happens with them…. Animals, by nature, do not have the same sort of cruelty in them, so it isn’t cricket to put the onus of our own nature on them; nothing they’ve ever done deserves that kind of dark, evil response…

Hmm…. How the hell did I end up there? That has to be one of the oddest little mind-trips I’ve ever taken, all the more so for having done it right out here in the relative open, where anyone & everyone can witness the strange manner in which my mind “does its thing”…. so to speak. I haven’t the foggiest why I felt compelled to take that little journey into the dark side of Man’s nature, but, it must have had something to do with the cat…. She’s gotten used to me being up early, & now feels entitled to my company when SHE wants to get up…. Hence, early morning mischief, to get my attention….

Ah well, being up early seems to work better for me, anyway…. and the wee furry beast has at least stopped trying to wake up milady Pat, so that’s a good thing, I suppose….. Now, if only there were some way to sync the hours that Pat and I sleep, maybe we could spend a bit of time together, while actually awake and aware, rather than being on the same schedule as two people working opposite shifts to save on babysitting, like when we were young, raising kids….

Ah well, one can’t have everything, I suppose…. I complain about our BRC’s false sense of entitlement so often, I feel as if I should keep from exhibiting it in my own life, as far as possible…. I take what reality gives me, and try to be happy with that…. It also gives me the chance to practice the wisdom of Lao Tzu, as related in yesterday’s Pearl, who reminds us…. “He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.”

Shall we Pearl?…..

“OK, so you’ve got a Ph.D. Now, don’t touch anything.” — Smart Bee
_____________________________

Back in the early days of this thought experiment gone rogue, which WordPress, and the forces of peer pressure insist I call a blog, the Pearls of Virtual Wisdom were shaped differently…. Originally, back in the time before the word “blog” existed, in the original email format, Pearls consisted of a short, hopefully powerful intro, followed by three to five pearls, which comprised the majority of the material under consideration.

By the time the Daily Pearl was posted on 3/12/2012, it had grown to include five sections, each of which began with a single pearl, followed by my thoughts, which, in that period, constituted the larval stage of the politirants and religirants you see in today’s version of P’sOVW…. Here are two entries from that date, one of each…. (Minor changes made to reflect the passage of time, blended “so’s you’d never know’t”…. I hope….)

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

From 3/12/2012:

“I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.” — Will Rogers

I was going to use this as a springboard for another rant on our beloved ruling class….. But, the more I thought about it, the longer it percolated in my brain, the sadder I grew….

I used to feel a lot of love for my country, if for nothing else, because of the dream of liberty and human empowerment that our system of government was envisioned, and intended, to create, and maintain. The founding fathers had a vision, of a country where every man and woman had the same opportunities, to live their lives as they chose, as every other person, without censure, and without the fear of being persecuted for their beliefs, no matter how different they were from everyone else’s.

A dream of a place where children could grow up without the fear of hunger, or abuse, or death from the skies. A place where a man, or a woman, was respected for just being human, without having to prove their worth to some ignorant asshole who is afraid of any color skin but their own.

Instead, we live in a society whose diverse segments have an extreme, and sadly justified, mistrust of each other, where the rich and powerful, instead of uplifting their fellow man, use their influence and wealth to divide and discriminate, always with the intention of keeping the less fortunate in a powerless state, too downtrodden to even hope for better.

We live in a society that ignores its elderly, and abuses its children; a society where people are starving amidst mountains of food. We have a produced a culture that glorifies war, and sees peaceful coexistence as weakness; a culture where it is a crime for a man to kill another for honor, but is praised for being part of an army of professional killers.

This country has reached the sad point in its history where the twin concepts of honor and duty have been supplanted as the basis of our national character, replaced by the glaring presence of avarice, false entitlement, and expediency.

Yes, I am saddened by Will’s joke, because it cuts far too close to reality, and home…..

From today, 3/28/2014:

“They scream into my ears,
But what they say will only make me deaf.”

— Claus Larsen
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“It’s hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.” — Calvin, Bill Watterson’s Calvin & Hobbes

Jimmy Swaggert, and the other 5 or 6 televangelists who regularly get caught literally with their pants down come immediately to mind for a list of potential recipients of divine extermination intervention…….

Newt Gingrich, along with a large number of his cohorts in Congress, obviously, for congenital lying, and excessive sliminess….

Rick Santorum, because I can’t imagine an entity as smart as God is reputed to be to let this ….. person…. (I believe using the word “person” is being kind, but, we’ll give the benefit of doubt for the time being, for expedience… See, even I fall prey to that failure of ethics…), well, I don’t think He will let him speak in his Name for long, not without exacting some price….. (I’ve heard that divine price-tag can be a bit heavy….)….

Twitt Romney, that elitist asshole…..

…. and, finally, as Yul Brynner stated so beautifully in his only attempt to sing on film: “Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera…..” to which I would add, “and a cast of thousands, ad nauseam infinitum…..”

I suppose it also says something less than admirable about the media to note that much, or even MOST of the crap to which we are exposed, by the members of the (supposed) fifth column, consists, in the main, of reports on the activities of the LEAST admirable examples of our species, who, unfortunately, are the ones who make for salable news…. These newsworthy individuals provide the material that will pay for the advertising costs, so the shadowy corporate masters are satisfied that we will hear about the latest, greatest new products, each of which fills some previously unknown manufactured need.

The most lucrative subject matter, the stories that sell the most papers, or which comprise the material for the most successful TV shows is, as it turns out, an endless variety of dramatic fantasies, describing in minute, intimate detail, all of the stupidest, most egregious examples of the (verifiably…) insane antics of a (seemingly) limitless number of the WORST of humanity….

Loud, perverted, fanatic religious zealots (aka. preachers….), unprosecuted criminals wearing power suits and ties, (aka, politicians….), and a parade of sports and entertainment figures with an average IQ of 77 (actors, actresses, ball players, and police/military myrmidons)…. These are the current examples of “famous celebrities” we are supposed to fawn over, to use as our idols, for emulation…. at least, if we are to believe what we see on the TV (total vacuum)….

I often feel a sense of despair after reading the news…. fortunately, I have WordPress to alleviate any dangerous build-up of bile….. but, all too often, it sure makes me wish for a few well-placed bolts of lightning to provide some comic relief, at least…..

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

From today, 3/28/2014:

“Of all the animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.)

Well, that was certainly confusing, eh? Maybe, just maybe, evolution is a good thing…. ya think?….
_____________________________

Today’s poetry section is the last to be completed before finishing; I don’t know if that means anything, or not, nor do I particularly care, at this point…. I’m getting tired…. I’ve written fresh, I’ve ranted a bit, I’ve edited a lot, and I’ve tried to maintain an even keel, all of which can be exhausting, given my standards for myself….

Since so much of this post comes from my tortured mind, I’m thinking I should include a poem of my own, and in fact, will do so, twice, if only to save the energy of looking on the web for someone else’s work…. First, a haiku about poetry, which I wrote on 3/12/2012, finding it only yesterday… followed by another by yours truly, from whenever…. sometime last year, I think….

POETRY

Flashing, bright words create
inevitable images;
truth consumes.

~~ gigoid ~~

Here is a poem from last year, with many of the same protagonists under discussion as in the rants below, and above…. Enjoy….

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 ~~

_____________________________

WARNING: Fresh rant ahead…..

Say first, of God above or man below,
What can we reason but from what we know?

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 17

At this point, I am still unsure whether or not I have a rant in me this morning…. However, I read these two articles yesterday, whereupon I set them aside to form the basis for discussion today….. so I guess I’ll discuss them…. The first is another fine treatise from the pen of Jon Carroll, on the responsibility and failure of the mainstream media in today’s complex world, written by a card-carrying, professional member of that media, written with excellent insight, and brave honesty…. not unusual for Jon, who has a long-standing habit of doing just that in his semi-daily column…. Please read this, then we’ll go on….

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/What-is-the-legacy-of-legacy-media-5352083.php

The next article gives a perfect example of the problem related above, as the media perfectly parrots some(any)thing told to one of them by the administration…. Read this one, too, please, and we’ll go on with our examination of the issues involved….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Obama-End-collection-of-Americans-phone-records-5353850.php

You may recall two or three days ago, when I made some predictions following another announcement by the White House, regarding, in general, the public outrage over Eric Snowden’s revelations of the ILLEGAL and UNWELCOME actions of the NSA, wherein it was proven, by their own documentation, they had been spying on the American people, right along with their spying on the rest of the world….

Barry got the picture, that folks were more than just a little pissed off about what they’d been caught doing, so he decided to do the dance, the “diddling the truth dance”, to distract the public from the real issues, thereby setting the stage to remove this subject from the public eye….. as is their common technique for dealing with unwanted publicity….

Keep that in mind, ffolkes, in looking at ANY of the statements from the pundits…. Their purpose, in whatever they say, is to soothe the outrage, and get the subject off the table…. They have absolutely no interest in, nor any intention of actually ceasing their illegal acts, but, they don’t want the public watching them over the shoulder, as they continue to illegally gather information that is none of their fucking business, ostensibly as part of their insane, paranoid efforts to remove the threat of terrorism…. which, one can see with the most cursory examination, is not an issue subject to dismissal quite so simply….

In their chaotic bumbling around in fear, they are willing to forgo any and all morality in the name of security…. Nor is it their ONLY purpose in collecting all the information they can on private citizens…. In today’s world, control of information is control of perception, and they’re well aware of this….

This attempt to remove terrorism from possibility is, of course, at best a silly notion, without any real chance of happening in today’s world; it merely provides further strong evidence of their own insanity…. Acting as they do, aggressively and antagonistically, as a way to achieve security is, not even arguably, but, most certainly, completely counter-productive for that purpose….. Actually, if looked at logically, such behavior is far less secure than learning to live with one’s neighbors without arguing…. But, in order to be able to follow THAT path, they would first have to give up their false sense of entitlement, their bigotry, and their fear of the “other”, defined as anyone different than themselves, by THEIR definition….

As I said yesterday, I hate being right about this kind of stuff…. but, I am right, so, that’s the way it is…. (If you disagree, feel free to join in the discussion… I’d LOVE to hear the justifications anyone might have for this type of insanity….) The administration has, thus far, come out with exactly what I expected, and what I’ve predicted they would do, by publicly shuffling the responsibility off to Congress, knowing that will waste tons of time, while Congress postures, spews BS, produces paper, and generally blunders about like a blind bull, without ever coming to any conclusive decisions…. This has the long term effect of sending the entire issue to the back halls, and back burners, to be forgotten, because this Congress cannot agree on bathroom breaks, much less any cogent legislation….

Any more bets? Boy, if they keep this up, and I can keep finding suckers to take my odds, I could get rich, well before any legislation on this is ever passed, and certainly before the White House condescends to act at all…. It’s almost too easy…. but, I suppose, that’s what all of our beloved leaders say, every day, when they see how easy it is to lie to the public…. It’s important, in today’s world, to remember the following piece of REAL wisdom….

“Cheese food is not cheese.” — Mom’s Hint #052
_____________________________

Well…. contrary to popular belief, and despite all evidence to the contrary, I’m speechless…. I’ve been up, and typing, almost continuously since arising, with only the breaks needed to keep from getting into a worse-case pain configuration….

(Side note: A pain configuration is my own term for a postural setting for my body… When I can manage to find a position, sitting, standing, or lying down, that is reasonably comfortable…. defined as “the least painful” position…. I try to remember it for future use, and to stay in it for as long as I can…. Then, of course, I have to move, and find another setting…. with a new postural configuration, and new time limits to explore…. SIGH…. It’s a silly way to have to live, but, it’s better than the alternative…)

Now that I’ve come this far, only to fall right back into an intimate TMI episode, I’ve probably bored you senseless, enough so…. Shit, you can’t even bring this into focus, can you…. WHOA!!!…. Wait, I’ll catch them with the auto-hammock…. Whew!…. Okay, that was close…. I’m glad it worked…

C’mon, wake up…. There you are….. Okay, breathe, in, out, in, out….

Alright now? Sorry, I’ll try to keep it moving along enough keep you from seizing up again…… Well, no, I won’t, because, hey, we’re done here, aren’t we?…. Yep, I’m sure of it…. So, see ya…. Y’all look a bit pale, you might want to get some water, and lie down for a while when you get home…. Ta then…..

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

Softer explosions seem to be our only option….

Posted on March 26, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

It’s odd, getting enough sleep….. It is, sadly, an event that has been mostly absent from my life for years, and I thought I’d learned to do without it…. which is what we humans do when we give up fighting against our fate, becoming resigned to whatever it is we have in life that brings us our own brand of pain and/or misery….. We reach a point where the effort to mitigate our lot, becomes more painful than simply enduring, whatever it may be that troubles us…. It isn’t particularly the most logical, or most effective method we have of dealing with life, but, it certainly can be described as typically human….

Since my humanity is no longer in question, I suppose I’d best turn my hand to putting some pizazz into this introduction…. Yesterday, as you know if you stopped by, I went with a fictional opening comprised of a series of nonsense statements tenuously connected to each other by dubious associations and/or completely oppositional connective linguistic methodology…. You know…. gibberish, as it used to be called back in the day, on the streets…. You know me, I’m not afraid to stuff conventional English in the dumpster, and set off into the wilds of illogic and/or irreverence…. As long as what I’m saying comes across with the correct message, I’m good with however it looks, or sounds, for that matter….

That being said, it still doesn’t get this one done…. Of course, I’ve now blathered for going on three paragraphs, which is NEARLY enough to call complete, but, I don’t believe that’s going to quite fill the bill, even with the prior dispensation certificate I managed to score from the last Inspector who came by….. The whole lobby was torn apart, and we had to operate all day without any bladder-relief facilities closer than two blocks away, at the neighborhood gas station/mini-mart, so I think he felt sorry for us…. I don’t care, I’ve got the certificate in hand, and I think we might have to use it today, if I can’t think of anything else to do….

Oh, wait, I don’t have to do that…. I can use Emergency Technique #4, I forgot…. Okay, we’ll go with that for now…. I know, it’s not my favorite either, but, it ALWAYS works to get the intro section done in a timely fashion…. Therefore….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“To stay young requires unceasing cultivation of the ability to unlearn old falsehoods.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”
_____________________________

“If Patrick Henry thought that taxation without representation was bad, he should see how bad it is WITH representation.” — Smart Bee

http://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Obama-to-propose-ending-NSA-s-phone-call-sweep-5345715.php

So…. I’m feeling GOOD! (Odd, but true….) Shall we rant?…..

If I’m to believe this article’s headline, Barry says he wants the NSA to stop being bad boys, and play nice with the rest of us….. I believe I’ll wait to see if any of this really happens before I break out the champagne…. This president, I’m sorry to say, has developed a particularly nasty habit, over the course of his time in office, of playing fast and loose with the truth, a tendency which, when observed in the past, in EVERY other psychopathic resident of his position, only becomes worse the longer the perpetrators believe they’re getting away with it…. When action is overdue, talk is cheap…

Due to my intense disappointment in his actions thus far during his administration, I’ll save my trust for later, when… no, IF I see ANY of his statements come to pass, in truth…. If, as I suspect, all goes according to historical example, we’ll see some superficial posturing by the White House pundits, that might eventually get around to SUGGESTING some changes that should be made….. But, none will actually occur in reality, and any real discussion will get bogged down in committee…. Meantime, the media will find some other outrageous issue to distract them from ever following up to see if anything happens along the lines of actual reform…

Now I’ll finish reading the article, & see how my prediction fared…. Ah, I see now…. Upon reading it through to the end, I came across the key phrase, the one indicating the real strategy behind the White House announcement…. to wit: “The president’s plan, however, relies on Congress to pass legislation — something that has so far seemed unlikely.”

Immediately upon reading this, my crap detector went off, with a loud “AHA!”, (inadvertently sending the cat flying across the room to hide in the plants, thinking I was about to come after her for something she did, no doubt…. she has a guilty conscience, I’m sure…. Right….. I’d believe that…. if I believed she had one at all….), when I realized I knew, now, just WHY Barry is adopting this stance, at least, if you believe what he says here…. which, understandably, I’m now having a hard time doing….

If he just leaves it up to Congress, it’s a foregone conclusion nothing will be done ….. Not by THIS one…. The current Congress has been, for the last three years, at least, the absolute worst one, EVER, for getting anything actually DONE…. This includes ALL of the past elections of congress we’ve seen in our history… I shit you not, this Congress has passed fewer laws, and had fewer bills presented at all, than ANY previous sitting of that august body, by a factor of about 8….. They’re determined to be known as the newest holder of the title of “Do-Nothing Congress”, formerly held by one in the early, or late, 20th century, I believe….

(Side note: This, of course, can be attributed to the Republican majority in the House of Representatives…. The party’s pundits, all older, white, Christian conservatives, determined, and stated in public, soon after Obama was elected, that their entire focus for the time he is in office would be to ensure that NONE of his legislative reforms ever took place, or made it into law…. It didn’t matter to them whether or not any of his programs would actually HELP the citizenry they represent; they were determined to undermine every reform he attempted….

For the most part, they’ve been successful in allowing NOTHING, or, nothing much, anyway, to get done…. all because of their unstated, but obvious, bigoted fear of the black man in the White House, an affront to their sense of Caucasian entitlement, not to mention the severe blow to their sense of reality…. They hadn’t even noticed when they ceased to be the majority in the real world….)

After reading the entire article, I find my prediction confirmed…. This announcement is just another stall tactic, one designed to give the impression to the public that something is happening, when nothing actually IS happening, or GOING to happen, other than business as usual for the spy agencies, who have continued ALL of the activities of espionage they are accused of carrying out…. The government has absolutely no intention of giving up their new toys, and they will continue to lie their little faces off to keep that from becoming public knowledge….

The NSA is STILL spying on the citizens of every nation of the whole world, including their own citizens, without ever having actually slowed down, or ceased ANY of the programs they’ve begun…. If you actually believe it when they tell you they have, well, then, you deserve to have them in your face…. Sorry, ffolkes, but, it’s just plain STUPID to believe these people are going to tell us ANYTHING they don’t WANT us to know….

Oh, every once in a while, we’ll see in the news they’ve sent one of their lackeys chiefs to Congress to discuss issues, or make statements, none of which actually address anything relevant…. they’re just making more smoke….. In the process, nothing is actually being done to stop them at all, not by Congress, not by the Courts, and certainly not by the White House…. No, it’s all just smoke, ffolkes, sent up to get in your eyes, trying to make you think they’re listening to your concerns…..

Right…. sure they are….. I’m sorry to have to be the one to tell you, but, to these myrmidons of the shadowy corporate masters, your concerns are something to be used against you, to fan your fears of the “unknown other”, while simultaneously listening to your every spoken word over the airwaves…. Whatever they tell you they aren’t doing, or can’t do…. well, ffolkes, the smart money says they are not only capable of everything we suspect of them, but are already beyond that level, and are capable of far worse…. Count on it…. Not only are they lying about what they are doing, they are lying about what they CAN do…. which we will ONLY find out when we find the police at our door…..

Think about it, ffolkes!….. When you break down the walls between yourself and the truth, and really THINK about their purpose, the bottom line concept of their given task as spies, LYING, especially about what they are doing in the dark, away from the public eye, is an important part of their JOB!…. And, guess what? They’re good at it….

I hate to be such a curmudgeon about all of this, but, the evidence just keeps pushing me back into that mode, pissed off and ready to start picking off real targets, instead of merely suggesting them…. If you couldn’t tell, I think I pissed myself off…. I’d better go now, before I get REALLY worked up, and can’t find my way out of this rant…..

“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.” — Eisenhower, First Inaugural Address January 20, 1953

“I don’t mind being in touch with reality, as long as I don’t have to live there.” — Smart Bee, channeling gigoid again
_____________________________

This poem is a new one to me, though I’ve heard of this poet…. I like it, if for no other reason than it rhymes well…. Since my pleasure is the only real requirement necessary for inclusion…. Enjoy!…..

A Grain Of Sand

If starry space no limit knows
And sun succeeds to sun,
There is no reason to suppose
Our earth the only one.
‘Mid countless constellations cast
A million worlds may be,
With each a God to bless or blast
And steer to destiny.

Just think! A million gods or so
To guide each vital stream,
With over all to boss the show
A Deity supreme.
Such magnitudes oppress my mind;
From cosmic space it swings;
So ultimately glad to find
Relief in little things.

For look! Within my hollow hand,
While round the earth careens,
I hold a single grain of sand
And wonder what it means.
Ah! If I had the eyes to see,
And brain to understand,
I think Life’s mystery might be
Solved in this grain of sand.

~~ Robert William Service ~~

_____________________________

Many mornings around here I try to vary our usual routine, as much as possible, lest it become stale, or begin to decay, thus becoming difficult to use due to the smell…. Today, I’ve stuck to the norm, so far as there is one, so it becomes obvious that here will be an old-school pearl, because that’s the way we do it…. No other reason would do as well, so it’s fortunate we have it, now, isn’t it? You bet….

I can’t yet say that I know what the parameters might be…. I’ve managed to get this far into this Pearl without really waking up fully, or achieving anything resembling a normal train of thought…. Much of the above rant was composed yesterday, when I first found the article; this morning all I had to do was punch it up, and add my newer thoughts and comments…. Of course, we NEVER DO board any train of thought without first having gone well beyond the boundaries of decency, so, what the hell…. I’m going for it….. Wish me luck, I think I might need it more than I’d hoped….

“I’m a GENIUS! I want to dispute sentence structure with SUSAN SONTAG!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“The materials of action are variable, but the use we make of them should be constant.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — How Nobleness of Mind may be consistent with Prudence, — Discourses, Book ii, Chap. v

“A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.” — Segall’s Law

“The voice of protest, of warning, of appeal is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum, echoed by the press and too often by the pulpit, is bidding all men fall in step and obey in silence the tyrannous word of command. Then, more than ever, it is the duty of the good citizen not to be silent.” — Charles Eliot Norton, True Patriotism, 1898

” When two tigers fight, one is certain to be maimed, and one to die.” — Master Funakoshi

“The wise man learns more from his enemies than a fool does from his friends.” — Chinese Proverb

“He that plants thorns must never expect to gather roses.” — Pilpay (or Bidpai) — The Ignorant Physician, Chap. iii, Fable viii

Hmm…. parameters or not, this came out rather well, I think…. Time will tell, I suppose, as it always does….
_____________________________

Having thus disposed of another day’s worth of built up mental dross, thus lending strength to the street definition of “mental”, I shall bring this to a graceful, elegant close, with the sincere hope that nobody received any injuries that need treatment, or undue, excessive blotches on their clothing…. sarcasm can be hard to wash out….

I trust anyone who DOES have a complaint will take it up with the local authorities…. Tell them, this time, send a bigger constable…. my garden needs fertilizer…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, provided I haven’t offended anyone official….

In my defense, I do try to stick to the verifiable truth, so, if they wish to see themselves in what I write, well…. so be it… gigoid has spoken, again… Ta then….

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

We’ll find some in the bargain basement….

Posted on March 12, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Hello there… When I lay down last night to sleep, at 8:00 PM, or thereabouts, I had little idea I’d be up now, at 2:00 AM, asking myself why I ever thought I liked cats, or where I put the damn squirt bottle, so I could soak its evil little ass with sulfuric acid… or, with just the water in the bottle. The acid will have to wait until I catch it, preferably by the throat….

At approximately 1:45 AM, I was awakened by some hard-to-identify, weird scratching noises, coming from somewhere in the bedroom…. Investigation found the cat, underneath the laundry basket, digging at the carpet, just for fun, I guess…. I chased her out of the room, & decided to just get up, as I was now fully awake, thanks to the middle of the night search routine…..

This is fucking early, ffolkes, even for me…. I’ve been sitting here staring at this mostly empty screen now for a good twenty-five minutes, with nothing but static running through my mind….. Great….

Now I’m stuck awake, without the boon of being able to write, or even thinking about writing, to help pass the time until the rest of the hemisphere gets going…. I’m smart enough to remember that the ffolkes on the other side of the world are already up…. as well as, obviously, too stupid to outwit a four-pound feline with a brain the size of a walnut….

I swear, though, this IS the cat from Hell you hear about so often….. She seems to have a direct line to Murphy’s office, where she gets advice on timing her acts of instigation to perfection…. I’ve never seen one better, as she seems to get us when we are least expecting it, every time….

She has her morning wake up routine down to a science, knowing she can get me up anytime at all, as long as it is AFTER my lady has gone to bed, so it will wake her up, too…. For some reason, the cat likes BOTH of us to be awake whenever she is, even if it is the middle of the night…. Neurotic little asshole…

Ah well, at least she’s stopped her old trick, of “accidentally” clawing one’s toes at night while stretching….. I declare, I really don’t miss that particular habit she used to display…. Waking up from sleep to excruciating pain in one’s toe is not what I’d call conducive to a restful night, and she used to get one or the other of us a couple times a week, before apparently giving it up….

I guess she must have gotten tired of flying out of the bedroom, as opposed to walking out under her own power…. I can be a bit irritable when awakened like that, and show a strong tendency to throw whatever comes to hand….. hard…. I know its cruel, but, hey, at that time of night, whatever comes to hand is gone before my mind registers what it might be…. living or inanimate, doesn’t matter at that point…. it’s going to fly….

Well, since there doesn’t seem to be much else to do at this time of the day, and, I’ve apparently blathered about nothing much for long enough to fulfill the local requirements for such documented insanity (too bad I can’t get a discount for how early I had to start….), I may as well get a head start on the dive for the day…. Of course, I won’t be diving right off, as today’s first section is set aside for a new-format pearl, but, I’ll get wet a bit later, for section three’s old-school pearl…. Whatever, right?….

Shall we Pearl?….

“Yow! We’re going to a new disco!” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

So, today, we’re going to use the newest format for a pearl of virtual wisdom…. This is the one where I show you a link, to an article that, to me, demonstrates one (or more) facets of how bad, weird, strange, and/or screwed up the world has become, (or, as in one case today, how good things CAN be, if well-written), followed by a comment or two from yours truly, to highlight whatever point has been dug from the article’s subject matter for discussion…. Easy, right?….. Well, I like it, so let’s give it a whirl, okay?…..

Our first article is a discussion that shows, once again, just how low the butt heads in the cyber-security sector of our government will stoop to protect their asses from prosecution…. and just how far they’ll go to spy on whomever they can…. regardless of WHO it might be…

http://www.sfgate.com/nation/article/S-F-judge-blocks-destruction-of-NSA-phone-records-5305045.php

I’m encouraged by this decision; it’s one of the first that indicates there might just be hope of putting a stop to their machinations, at least in this particular arena…. It’s getting harder for them to hide what they’re up to, thanks to our über-patriot, Eric Snowden, may he be forever blessed for his sacrifice…. In case you couldn’t tell, I’m just a little pissed off at the administration and the PTB** for their harassment of this man, and hope he is able to find some peace…. I also hope that, someday, he will be able to return home, to the hero’s welcome he deserves….

** To be clear, the “administration and the PTB”, along with their myrmidons, the NSA and other cyber-security agencies that steal data, or acquire and use the data gathered…. are the “their”, and the “they” of whom I speak above, (“their machinations” “to hide what they’re up to”), who are illegally spying, or manipulating data, or making false statements to attempt to deny or cover up their guilt….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Former-Christie-aides-to-judge-Quash-subpoenas-5305649.php

When I saw this, my first, immediate reaction to hearing these assholes say they don’t want to have to ‘fess up to what they’ve done was, “Oh, those POOR babies! They’re being SO persecuted…. and all they did was a) commit felonious activities while in a position of authority, for the purposes of political punishment, and b) act like the guiltiest bloody assholes they could when caught, attempting to cover up the incident, instead of just admitting to their foolishness…” As might be surmised, I’m not terribly sympathetic to their pain, as they are getting exactly what they deserve….

I can only hope that the shit they flung around in their mad attempts to hide their guilt gets all over that major asshole, Chris Christie’s, shoes and coattails, and is dirty enough that he will be forced to drop the insane idea that he is an appropriate candidate for a major office…. I don’t think the rest of this country is quite ready for a New Jerseyite in the White House…. That particular state has always had its own strange methods of political action, which is, quite simply, too frigging crazy for the mainstream….

Think about it…. it would be like “Goodfellas” in lock step with a Tea Party Congress…. Brrr…. the very thought makes me shudder….

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/Continents-roam-people-come-and-go-5304865.php

As usual, Jon Carroll applies his particularly acute vision and his very personal, companionable writing style to say a lot of the same stuff I’ve been ranting about over the last few months…. and says it more engagingly, and much more clearly than I…. I’m not ashamed to say he’s better at this than I am; I’m a realist, and I’ve always appreciated his intelligence, and his very balanced outlook on reality….. A good piece, well worth a read….

http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Feinstein-blasts-CIA-over-torture-probe-documents-5307500.php

I’m not sure how to take this article…. Dianne the Gargantuan has been one of the most vocal supporters of this administration’s policies on the subject of illegal surveillance, even going so far as to throw her support behind the potUS, making a number of supportive statements as part of the program (pogrom?) of persecution against Mr. Snowden….

Now, however, it seems the table has been turned, and she, along with her oh-so-powerful committee members on the Combined House and Senate Intelligence Committee have been the targets of the outrageous spying being done, this time by the CIA, in conjunction with the NSA, the FBI, and all the other federal agencies who have a hand in the “War on Terrorism”…. They’ve been messing around with trying to hide documents that prove their complicity in torture during numerous interrogations, which occurred, naturally, under the Shrubs….

Now that this sacrosanct committee has suffered at the hands of these out-of-control dogs-off-their-leash, who aren’t afraid to steal from, and manipulate, whomever they see as an enemy, she’s all a-flutter, and very angry that this agency, an arm of our own government, has been spying on, and manipulating data at the expense of their own governing members!! Me, I wonder why she is so surprised, even if I understand why she is so mad…. Welcome to the club, Di-Fi…..

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/San-Jose-police-officer-charged-with-rape-5306907.php

I really don’t think I need to comment much on this…. It’s pretty clear that this is just one more example of how the police forces in this country attract the most aggressive, angry individuals, with the accompanying sense of undeserved entitlement, to work for them, refusing to consider that their recruiting tactics, and their own lack of ethical discipline, are the very reasons they continue to have these kinds of incidents take place….

It is my firm opinion that the job of police officer, military officer, fireman, or any other type of public service job that has people put into positions of authority over the public, should ONLY be filled by people who have passed certain psychological tests, to weed out those people who will, if given a chance, take advantage of their position….

I believe this should be the case now, and should have been the case for a at least 50 years, since our knowledge of psychology advanced to the point of being able to test for these attributes in people….. If we tested applicants for these kinds of public service jobs for the possibility of aggressive patterns of behavior, it might just prevent some of the problems that NOT testing has created, to the point now where over half the police on the ground are what I would term as, if not insane, neurotic as hell, with issues of low self-esteem, aggressiveness as their first response to crisis, and a lack of ethical discipline….. As a point of evidence, I would submit this question…. When was the last time you saw a police car use a turn signal correctly?…. Think about that for a minute, and you’ll begin to understand whereof I speak….

I found myself having to stop gathering more articles, as I could have kept collecting them all day…. Then, we’d NEVER get out of this section…. As it is, I’ve taken it upon myself to end this here, with just the following as a closing thought for today….

“Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.” — George Carlin
_____________________________

I decided I wanted to put in a poem of my own today, one from further in the past than most of what you’ve seen lately…. I found these two, from a couple of years ago, and couldn’t make up my mind…. so, being the egotistical fool I am, you get them both…. I hope you enjoy them….

Dreaming, I wait….

In the most patient moments of rationality
kindness flows smoothly in a special milieu,
fallow thoughts speed first from equality
to give no anxious fever, anger to eschew.

Indignant mothers and step-sons in-law
shall fade simply from brilliant to grey,
intoning ritual dogma, fresh, avid, and raw,
falling, falling, in massive pastoral disarray.

Safety lives not, save brightly in ignorant bliss,
it follows us all, silent and infinitely frail,
foremost too often, soft as a virgin kiss,
alive, always eager, willing, and pale.

Intimate knowledge finds only the bold few
with courage and virtue to gift, unbidden.
No solemn royal version may pass in review,
true love for man, never to remain unhidden.

Sweet feathers of Emily’s hope uplift,
calm, drowsy episodes bursting with light,
With final glad cries we set ourselves adrift,
swimming in the oceans of natural delight.

When sorrow is banished, in ages yet to come,
roots solidly anchored, cold and remote,
Ample supplies of kindness sit silent and dumb,
and the old stranger shrugs on his faded coat.

Dreaming, then, I wait with shadows in the night
aspiring to inspire, a message from the muse’s heart
Never forgotten images, framed in color bright,
tempt me only, grieving, steeped in serenity’s arcane art….

~~ gigoid ~~

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 ~~

_____________________________

Now comes the fun part, for me…. I’ve written rant-like material, and poemed, so now it’s time for an old-school pearl, to loosen up the old mental muscles, for those among us who enjoy keeping those muscles in the same kind of condition that any world-class athlete enjoys…. To keep any muscle conditioned it takes regular, consistently challenging exercise, that pushes the muscle to its limits before slacking off, preferably for just a bit longer each time, to increase stamina… The mind, though not composed of the same kind of tissue, nevertheless responds to the same sort of challenges; they are simply of a different nature than those that work the muscles attached to our skeletons….

I only wish I could still use those other muscles, the big ones on my body, to stay in the physical shape I was in until my mid-forties, when my injuries began the progressive decline I’ve seen, in my strength, and stamina. Now, sadly, my mind is in much better shape than the rest of me, though I’m still pretty tough…. I just have no stamina, and trying to use my strength and/or skills as if I were younger, stronger, and still limber is more expensive than it is worth, in terms of the pain that comes after such use. As I’m fond of saying, I can still do anything I used to do, but now I pay a much higher price to do so…. So, mostly, I don’t do so…. Now, I’m more likely to say, “I spend my time avoiding pain…”….

I’m uncertain as to how this devolved into a short intimate discussion of my frailties, but, since it did, we’ll just have to ignore it the best we can, and go on to bigger and better things, if that is still possible…. I think if I can just shut myself up for a minute, I can jump in the water before any further incidents of sharing TMI can occur….. Like, right now… Just for the record, no known parameters were used in the collection or inclusion of any of the following pearls…. They’re all fresh from the oyster, just as Mother Nature intended them to be…

“Too many have dispensed with generosity in order to practice charity.” — Albert Camus (1913-1960)

“Cato requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness to old age, which was accompanied with many other evils.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Roman Apophthegms, Cato the Elder

“He is the best of men who dislikes power.” — Mohammed

And wine can of their wits the wise beguile,
Make the sage frolic, and the serious smile.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Odyssey of Homer, Book xiv, Line 520

“These are the days when men of all social disciplines and all political faiths seek the comfortable and the accepted; when the man of controversy is looked upon as a disturbing influence; when originality is taken to be a mark of instability; and when, in minor modification of the scriptural parable, the bland lead the bland.” — John Kenneth Galbraith (1908 – )

“The art of government consist in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens and giving it to another.” — Voltaire

“We have only two things to worry about: That things will never get back to normal, and that they already have.” — Smart Bee

Well, in today’s case, parameters might have been a good idea…. But, since this one is done, and it’s fairly decent, all in all, I think we’ll let it fly…. I mean, they can’t all be immediately obvious, or for that matter, indelibly relevant…. All they have to do is make you think, and NOT make you feel bad about anything that doesn’t deserve it…. Which, I suppose is what Life is all about, yes?…. Hey, I’ll take whatever metaphor that presents itself, and turn it right into an assertion of consensual reality…. it’s what we do here….
_____________________________

Okay…. I’ve stretched this process until it screamed…. I’ve taken breaks… (in fact, I’m taking one now…. I’ll bet you didn’t even notice…)…. I’ve perused the news, I’ve searched SB for the best pearls I could find. I’ve pre-edited & pre-proofed, which means there will be, without doubt numerous errors in syntax and/or typos which will drive me batty when I find them after I’ve posted this… I’ve racked my brain to find something new, and funny, or compelling to write, which was obviously unsuccessful in the extreme…. I’ve subjected myself to reading a number of my own poems, along with several of Emily’s, and Keats’, before settling on subjecting y’all to a two-fer of my own…

All of that, and it is now 5:09 AM…. The wind here in Northern California is currently blowing at a good semi-typhoon speed, swinging our plant and wind-chime all over where they hang on the porch…. The cat continues to seek out whatever mischief she can find, and I am desperately wishing I could fall back asleep…. Alas, that isn’t to be, at least, not for a while yet…. I may as well post this, and get a bite to eat…. Then, having completed all the tasks involved in my day, I can begin another, while everyone else is up, too…. SIGH…. See ya 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

We could try one of those ornamental dwarfs….

Posted on March 11, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

In numerous past editions of the Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, of the Daily variety, you will have noted that I refer often to our old pal, Murphy, the iconic force of nature, whose effect on reality and humanity has been thoroughly, if reluctantly, recorded on innumerable occasions, by those he has favored with his kind attention.

I, of course, am one of those favored souls, sadly, and have repeatedly offered my own take on this….. this….. this ENTITY (for lack of a more descriptive epithet….), after his efforts have screwed me over, one way or another…. I am, naturally, not his ONLY target, merely one of his favorites….

This morning, however, I’ve been presented with an idea that refutes his entire existence, with a pretty persuasive argument as evidence….. It’s logical, and tautological, and doesn’t seem to have any flaws in its reasoning…. I cannot say for certain who made this observation; I found it in Smart Bee without attribution…. which is odd, as I can’t believe anyone in their right mind would object to taking credit for this…. It could conceivably make their reputation, in one short statement that would, in time, become universally known, having to do, as it does, with something that touches the lives of EVERYONE…. That statement is:

“If Murphy’s Law were true, whenever you tried to take a breath, all the air would be on the other side of the room.” — Smart Bee

Now, isn’t that a heartening thought? Doesn’t that just make you feel like there is hope for the future? No? Oh….. Well, it does all of that, and more, for me…. I don’t know if I have suffered more than others from the machinations he has performed throughout my life to get my goat…. I just know that he could start a fucking goat farm, with a huge herd of goats, just from how many times he’s fucked with me…. I’m sure everyone else has their own tales of woe that he caused in their lives, so, a statement like this provides me with a bit of hope that….. Wait a minute!….

Damn!….. I just realized, this CAN’T be a true statement….. It doesn’t take into account the physical laws that govern our universe, regarding the behavior of gases in a gravity field…. No matter how much influence over reality Murphy has, he can’t create vacuums whenever he wants, just to fuck with people…. If the physical laws, such as this one, are subject to that sort of mishandling by the off-shoot forces of nature, nothing could be counted on to be the same from one minute to the next, a state of affairs which, I’m sure, even Murphy wouldn’t enjoy….

Oh well, it was, for a moment there, about to be a more beautiful universe, but, once again, Reality, and that asshole Murphy, find us completely at their mercy, with no real, effective way to either avoid the ministrations of such forces on nature, or to contemplate any breaks from his assholishness…. a word I just made up which perfectly describes not only Murphy, but the state of mind, or of personality, if you will, of many of our beloved ruling class…. In fact, it may as well just get added to those adjectives that best describe human nature…. Assholishness…..yep, that’s us, ffolkes, for sure….

On that note, shall we Pearl?….

“Few people have the imagination for reality.” — Goethe
_____________________________

Originally this morning, in this section, you would have found a very long rant (double the normal, as it is part fresh, and part archive material…. Sorry, it got away from me…. Talking about the NSA will do that to me…. ), which, had I left it here, would probably have eliminated a significant number of my readers, causing them, possibly, to NOT want to finish today’s effort, due to the extreme length….

In order to better emulate our Beloved Ruling Class, I’m cheating…. I moved the rant to the last section, where, if you insist, you may skip over it to the concluding remarks, after consuming this old-school pearl (What ELSE would be going here?….)….. See? I can be nice….. Here is a pearl of pearls, with no parameters at all, just whimsy…..

“You don’t learn anything the second time you’re kicked by a mule.” — Smart Bee

“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” — Ernest Hemingway

“[Freedom is] the power to live as you will. Who then lives as he wills?” — Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)

“There are two ways of teaching people: You can teach them how to think, or you can teach them what to think. Socrates taught people how to think, Jesus taught people what to think…. and look what happened to them.” — Smart Bee

“Cheshire-Puss,” she began, “would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t care much where–” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“–so long as I get SOMEWHERE,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re quite sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”

— Lewis Carroll, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.” — Thomas Jefferson

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

Hmm…. Even my whimsy is becoming eclectic in my old age…. I kind of like it, don’t you?…..
_____________________________

This particular poem is not what I first intended to include…. I DID go looking for a poem by Yeats; there are days, such as today, when no one else will do…. This, however, wasn’t what I was looking for…. It is, however, one that appeals to me, in such a way that I don’t wish to examine my reasons for that reaction…. Whatever the reason, here ’tis, such as it is…. I like it, and, that’s all that matters, in the final analysis….. I hope it suits your fancy, as well….. Hmm… Come to think of it, I’ll bet it was the title that drew me….

Another Song Of A Fool

This great purple butterfly,
In the prison of my hands,
Has a learning in his eye
Not a poor fool understands.

Once he lived a schoolmaster
With a stark, denying look;
A string of scholars went in fear
Of his great birch and his great book.

Like the clangour of a bell,
Sweet and harsh, harsh and sweet.
That is how he learnt so well
To take the roses for his meat.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

_____________________________

“There is a very real and critical danger that unrestrained public discussion of cryptologic matters will seriously damage the ability of this government to conduct signals intelligence and the ability of this government to carry out its mission of protecting national security information from hostile exploitation.” — Admiral Bobby Ray Inman (then Director of the NSA) — in a public speech in March 1979

You know, what I found almost as disturbing about this as the words he stated, which, obviously, are completely and diametrically opposed to any sort of democratic society that has a Bill of Rights…. (In any such society, “unrestrained public discussion”, of ANY subject, is never out of place, no matter what sort of ridiculous, paranoid reasoning one might apply to convince anyone else…. Thus, it becomes clear, what is wrong with this statement is the fact that ANY part of our government’s leading officials, elected or, as in this case, hired as a career professional soldier, would have the asininity to make such a statement….)

But, to return to my original statement, what disturbed me almost as much as that, is the date the statement was made…. I hadn’t realized the NSA had been around as long as it had, to have had its head making speeches in 1979…. 1979? Oh, right…. Let’s see, that was when Reagan was president, right? Let me check…. Nope, that was right after Nixon, so it had to be Gerald Ford…. So, let’s see when the NSA came into being, shall we? Hang on….

Okay, wow…. the agency first began during WWI, first established sometime around 1917, but was strengthened in purpose in 1947 with the passage of the National Security Act, which can now be seen as one of the first examples of the BRC hiding information from the public…. and the logical forerunner for the National Defense Authorization Act of 2011….

How many of y’all were aware that the NSA started its clandestine work in 1917? How many of y’all were taught in school about the National Security Act of 1947, passed after WWII to ensure the funding and continued existence of the government’s primary spy agency (the official euphemism for that is “encrypted signals intelligence gathering”), in its first centralized form…. Paranoia strikes deep, does it not?….

I know I wasn’t taught in school about the NSA…. A lot of the spying and clandestine war stories from WWII were discouraged, at least, outside Hollywood, where the government had its own spies in place, to let them know if the movies coming out were propaganda from their opponents, intended to school the public in matters they didn’t want public, or, if they were propaganda from our own side (called, of course, by another euphemism, to wit: “educational information”, or, sometimes, even more euphemistically, “public service announcements”…),….. or if they were entertainment, or just plain fiction, and thus, not seen as harmful to their secret existence….

As I recall from growing up at the time, (I was born in 1950….) Congress and much of the Hollywood community were at odds for most of the 1950’s, and into the 60’s, with the government winning the most important battles, behind the scenes…. Hence, the media support for the Vietnam War, etc., that continued unabated until the Internet came along, at which point, the NSA turned their expertise to gaining control of that new communication tool…. The fight for that control is still raging, currently the score is even, thanks to people like Eric Snowden…. but, it is far from over….(Insert dramatic epithet here, please…)

So, it seems, if the agency’s own historical documents are accurate, ( http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/misc/origins_of_nsa.pdf ) our government has been lying to us for even longer than I had realized…. I probably should have guessed it; I grew up during the 1950’s, and I can tell you for sure, this country, at that time, was very paranoid….

This public paranoia was a direct result of the way the BRC of the time portrayed “Commies”, as being the Anti-Christ, or, at minimum, evil incarnate, keeping the public in a constant state of paranoid fear, of having an “H-bomb” dropped on their home city, by the godless communist regimes that were out to take away their freedoms….

Even though I was a kid, I heard the talk on TV, and in the news the adults all talked about (also, remember “current events” in school?…. It has always been a good way for the PTB to disseminate propaganda to the innocent school children….who have little defense against what they’re told at that age….

Of course, I had a different reaction than most kids, as my crap detector went off almost constantly during the fifties and sixties, whenever I heard about anything having to do with public affairs, as reported in the news, on TV, radio, magazines, and talk…. By the time the sixties came, my faith in anyone in public office was shattered forever when JFK was assassinated ( The responsibility for which is a subject for another time…. As flawed as he was, Jack Kennedy was the last, best hope we had for any kind of rational public discourse in this country….), then reinforced by all I heard re: the Free Speech movement in the early 1960’s

Now we come to the present day, when our BRC continues its policy of trusting NO ONE, not even its own citizenry….. Now, however, they have increased their power, not only, but primarily, in the form of a vastly expanded NSA, to the point where they are capable of monitoring EVERY aspect of the public’s daily affairs, including phone calls and private mail of all types….

What? You don’t believe they’ve been reading your snail-mail, as well as your E-mail?…… Boy, are YOU naive…. What is the name of the major snail mail operator in this country? Yep, the USPS….. And, where are the phone numbers for all their offices listed? Yep, right there under US Government in the phone books…. They may have gone private in one sense, but they are still the government’s lackey agency, not anyone else’s….. They (the police and government agencies…) have had access to our mail for a long time, ffolkes, and even will admit it, in the right circumstances….

Any time they wish, the laws are already in place for them to intercept ANY of your formerly private forms of communication…. The only way left we have to be totally private is to hand a personal letter, written by hand, in a close room swept for cameras and recorders, then handing it to someone we trust to personally carry it to its intended recipient, whom we also must trust to destroy the letter when read, and return any replies via the same method…. As far as I can see, that is the only way, now, that we can trust it to a completely private communique….

Thus, we can see that today, having ensured that they are able to access any and all data about those citizens, even though the greatest majority of them have ever broken any laws, they have become far more than merely an agency that protects us, in terms of how much control over our communications they possess, or how few restraints have been placed on them in their quest to control it ALL. No type of restraint matters to these profoundly paranoid assholes; they won’t be satisfied until they are able to monitor and control EVERYTHING they can, up to, and including, the most mundane and inane activities of our daily lives…..

I’m already tired of ranting today, probably because this is a subject that I’ve ranted about a lot, and partly just because I’m tired of ranting to little purpose…. This one was stimulated by the above quote, and the following link, which I read yesterday…. It’s an encouraging story in one way, in that it appears that the general run of public attitudes is running in favor of what Eric Snowden did for this country when he blew the whistle on the NSA last year…. It was, however, discouraging in another way, as it delineates a part of the applicable “whistleblower’s law” that seemingly classifies his act as one not covered by the law’s intent… a certain miscarriage of justice, if true….

Ffolkes, I’m going to say it right out…. What this man, Eric Snowden, did for the world, and the American people, cannot ever be repaid…. His was, in spite of any criticisms made, an act of supreme courage, and one of very sincere patriotism for his country…. Anyone at all who cannot see that is, in my mind, a fool, and an enemy of this country….

This would include, it seems, every one of the BRC who is currently entrenched in the halls of government, but, I’m not surprised about that much…. They, after all, are the ones he exposed as liars, charlatans, and thieves….. a fact they are NOT happy about, and are unlikely to give up their animosity toward the one honest man who pulled their covers….

Here then, is the latest word from the man who will, I’m sure, some day, be considered as one of the most heroic and important figures of the last 1000 years of history…. No shit, ffolkes, no shit at all….

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/edward-snowden-defends-nsa-surveillance-leaks-at-sxsw-20140310?utm_source=dailynewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

“HEY CONGRESS! What ever happened to the Constitution?” — Smart Bee

My built-up quantity of angst and outrage is so large right now, I want to continue ranting…. an event which, I am positive, would completely drive away anyone remaining…. Instead, I’ll sublimate, with an older rant, that might go a ways toward explaining at least part of what is wrong with the picture we are being painted in Washington D.C. , and, on the canvas that is the world at large…..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From 4/28/13:

“The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.” — Vince Lombardi

I have spoken previously on this subject, of human will, and will no doubt do so again, as I believe it to be one of the key elements of finding the Truth in Life. It takes practice to be able to use it to full potential, practice that many people never take time for, to their regret. Without it, Life can be extremely difficult, as it will toss us about just like a small boat in a big storm at sea. But, when it is honed to a sharp edge, and tempered to a great strength, it can become one of our most powerful tools.

It can help to bring peace and serenity into our lives, if used with intelligence, guided by strong ethical intent. I mention the latter because it is equally important to the proper use of the will; it is an unfortunate truth that the will can also be used to pursue results that are NOT beneficial for everyone, but only for the one who uses it without ethical direction, i.e. to benefit themselves, only.

“One sits down first, one thinks afterwards.” — Smart Bee

A long time ago, I found out something about society, and those who are ostensibly in charge of running it, that has had a distinct influence on my thinking. I discovered that what I heard in school, from books, did not match what I observed in society, and that the people who were in the positions of authority were, for the most part, not telling the whole truth, or, often, telling bare-faced lies.

This had a profound effect on me, because I had always been inspired by the idea of a democracy, a system, and a society, where the people decided among themselves what was best for all; their consensual collective will was to be carried out by the individuals elected to office…. At least, I’m pretty certain that is what our founding fathers envisioned when they cut loose from the monarchical rule of England….

Unfortunately, soon after beginning this experimental Utopia, the bankers and merchant classes began their campaign to pervert the system, buying control of key officials to make laws that favored them. At the same time, the preachers started their campaign to make sure the government was composed of men and/or women who were under their control, ethically and morally, using the time-honored tools of divine entitlement and guilt so that their interests could be monitored and controlled.

Today, well over 90% of all elected officials in this country are of one major religion, and the lobbyists who represent the money-lenders and corporate entities are more influential in making laws than the electorates who elect those officials. The campaigns to control the government of this country have been quite effective, especially since nobody even notices most of the time, or says anything about it….

“To see the light at the end of the tunnel, you first have to be in a tunnel, then the correct tunnel and last, facing in the right direction…. What the heck are we doing in a tunnel anyway?” — Larry G. Smith

This is a pretty good description of modern society, I think. What the heck are we doing here, on the brink of extinction? The BRC, the 1%, whatever you choose to call them, have brought us to this dead-end tunnel, with no light at the end, because it is our own end we see. They, those in control, don’t choose to believe in the damage they have wrought to the environment, nor in the terminal nature of that damage, so, nothing is being done to counteract the suicidal policies our species continues to follow.

All the responsibility for this state may be laid at the feet of the ones I call Asininnies, the corporate assholes, the professional politicians, the lawyers, the police, the priests and preachers, and all who support their efforts, knowingly or not…. These are the people who have turned their will to the selfish pursuit of their own desires, with no thought to either the effect on others, or the potential danger of doing so. They don’t care, and the rest of us, because of our own lack of will, to work together in defending ourselves against them, are going to pay the price right along with them, unless we wake up to the danger, NOW….

I could rant about this all day, and have seemingly done so in the past…. but, I’ve made my point for today, and rather than bore you to death with more logical, but time-consuming evidence or argument, (note: more than I already have done….), I’ll leave it at that…. Well, almost…..

We are all in danger of species extinction, this is a FACT, not a supposition. We have the means to save ourselves, IF we can find it within ourselves to rise up and throw out the people who are causing the problem. They are NOT going to stop themselves; if we want to live, we, the people, will have to MAKE them do it, or we will all die. It’s that simple, and that urgent…. If it doesn’t happen in this next decade, it will be far too late, because the ice is already melting, ffolkes, and it isn’t going to stop or slow down… It will only get faster with time….

gigoid has spoken…..

“If you view your problem closely enough you will recognize yourself as part of the problem.” — Ducharm’s Axiom

Ah, how unjust to Nature and himself
Is thoughtless, thankless, inconsistent man!

— Edward Young (1684-1765) – Night Thoughts, Night ii, Line 112

This one got away from me, but, it’s all valid stuff, and needs to be said…. If not by me, then, who? The worst part of it is, practically no one who really NEEDS to hear this kind of information will ever see this, and that’s just too bad…. SIGH…. Ah well, life goes on, until it doesn’t….
_____________________________

Once again, I have gone to great lengths in my thus-far apparently futile attempt to save humanity from its own folly…. (I only use the qualifiers because, hey, we ARE still here…. I just don’t see how that can last….) SIGH…. At least, today, I put the rant LAST in line, which may have given my Gentle Readers enough advance notice to skip over much of the rant, much of which they have, no doubt, heard previously…. We can, and do, hope so…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes…. I suppose it wouldn’t be out of place to wish ourselves luck in meeting that appointment….

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

Measuring infinitesimal increments may take a while….

Posted on March 8, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I’m tired….. in my head…. I’m tired of writing, tired of sitting, tired of not being able to do enough to keep my mind from chewing on itself. I have a mind that requires rather a lot of stimulation, to feel as if it is being utilized in a way that maximizes its qualities, which are extensive, to be sure, although never as much so as could be wished…. In other words, I’m smart enough to have a strong need to keep busy, but, not so smart as to have all the answers I’d like to have…. Just smart enough to know how much there is still to learn, is the way I like to think of it….

My tiredness is, I think, a result of having written this blog each morning, with only a few minor failures, every single day for almost three years…. In that time, I’ve made some changes to the structure, and tweaked it until I pretty much have it how I like it….. and, according to the WP stat bots, I keep getting new followers…. Just yesterday, two new names showed up as new followers of our blog here at ECR, one of which is an old blogging friend, who just now followed, after almost 3 years of visiting the site, and leaving an occasional ‘Like’….. So, I know that there are at least a few ffolkes who read it every day…. Out of the 375 ffolkes who have hit the button to follow, at least a few MUST come by each day, right?….

In addition, I send the Daily Pearl out via my own email to 47 others who have been receiving them now for over a dozen years…. When I worked for the State, it was sent out each day for about six years to almost 400 employees at NSH, all of whom were addicted to receiving them in their morning email, to start their day….. Conceivably, I could still send them to those people…. but, it annoys their IT folks, as 400 emails sent in a group tends to burn up a lot of bandwidth, causing a spike in their traffic, and the possibility of a network slow-down…. Of course, I figure that’s their own damn fault for not spending enough on infrastructure to handle the traffic, but, hey, they’re friends, so I don’t fuss with them….

All in all, I’ve been writing A LOT for the last couple of years, since retiring…. which, in the ultimate sense, is a good thing…. But, I’m tired of the frustration of constantly feeling as if what I have to say is extremely important for mankind at large to be aware of, but, never having that message heard by anyone who NEEDS to hear it….

If we are to have any real chance at surviving the upcoming events in the environmental arena, all of which are a result of our own foolish asininity, (speaking from the viewpoint of one who knows quite well what NEEDS to be done, but, has no clue as to how to get people to get off their asses to do it….) well, if we ARE to survive, we’ll need to first admit the need to do so…

As you are well aware, if you’ve been here previously, I write a lot of such “gadfly” rants, exhorting the public to wake up, to pay attention to what the corporate assholes, political assholes, and religious assholes have been up to, because what they’ve gone and done is going to kill all of us if we don’t put a stop to it, NOW….

It needed to be done yesterday, and, it certainly won’t help to do it tomorrow; tomorrow, (metaphorically) we’ll be DEAD (literally).

We, as a species, need to get off our collective asses and kick the stupid, selfish, ignorant bullies, who are busily killing us all, straight into the ocean, where their sorry, no-doubt bitter-tasting carcases can at least provide the sea life with some little bit of extra protein…. which would comprise the FIRST useful, unselfish act of their lives….

These rants are generally justified with evidence, or, if nothing else, a link to where such evidence may be found; I try not to make assertions without some sort of proof, as I’m unwilling to base them merely on articles of faith…. a habit of writing and communicating which, I may point out, is more than you’ll ever get from a political pundit, a preacher, or some corporate asshole….

THEY will all expect you to believe whatever comes out of their mouths, without ANY sort of proof, other than their version of the Bible, or, hilariously enough, their “word” as to it’s veracity…. We’ve all heard a pundit on TV, saying “Trust me!”, with the obvious sub-text of, “I’d never lie to you!”…. which, of course, is the first lie….

My rants, however, in spite of the number of followers who evidently stop by only now and then, are not getting into the mainstream consciousness of society, which is where the need for them is strongest…. The message I’m putting out is one that isn’t going to help much unless it is seen or heard by a very large number of people, who would then, hopefully, use the information and stimulus contained therein to form the nucleus of a movement, that eventually would lead to the eradication of the centuries-long oppression of mankind by the slave masters, and our eventual survival on this beautiful planet….

Or, the message will be lost, as are, thus far, ALL the other common sense messages that might be of help to us, buried in the cacophony of noise that is always roaring in the background of TV, radio, and the internet, never to be of any help, or aid us to survive beyond the next hundred years or so that are left to us….. all because of the insane blindness of those who have usurped human culture for their own purposes….

I’d rather there was a greater chance for us to survive, but, there’s not a lot I can do about it…. People are gonna do what they WANT to do…… That seldom means anything intelligent…. and, sadly, that’s just the way it is….

Shall we Pearl?…. We may as well, we’ve got nothing better to do…..

“Every human being on this earth is born with a tragedy,and it isn’t original sin. He’s born with the tragedy that he has to grow up. A lot of people don’t have the courage to do it.” — Helen Hayes
_____________________________

Obviously, the intro section this morning fulfills any ranting requirements that may be in place, anywhere…. So, that means I can go bananas in this section…. Well, maybe not fruit, but, perhaps, a rutabaga, or other vegetable would do?….. As you can see, my bozo wants to come out to play, and, it’s best all around if I don’t get in the way of that…. So, I’ll give that side of me the reins, and we’ll see what SB can do for us today, in the way of a group of pearls to start us off in the proper direction to get us where we need to go….. where it will, hopefully, come to a halt….

“Quemadmoeum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.” [A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killers hands.] — Lucius Annaeus Seneca “the younger” ca. 4 BC – 65 AD

“A student brings something to discuss, saying, “I don’t know whether this is really good, or whether I should throw it in the wastebasket.” The assumption is that one or the other choice is the right move. No. Almost everything we say or think or do — or write — comes in that spacious human area bounded by something this side of the sublime and something above the unforgivable.” — William Stafford

“Actions lie louder than words.” — Carolyn Wells

“I never understood why God decided to endow the military man with His big brain when bone and marrow are all that he needs to execute his purpose.” — A. Einstein – Ideas and Opinions

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” — HAL 9000

“Do you think there’s a God?” “Well, SOMEbody’s out to get me!” — Calvin & Hobbes

All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good;
And spite of pride, in erring reason’s spite,
One truth is clear, Whatever is, is right.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 289

Well, it’s a tough one, I’ll admit, but, those are always the best kind, you see, because, hey, challenge?….. Believe it or not, it IS a good one…. just a trifle abstruse…. In fact, upon reflection, it’s a lot like that word, abstruse….
_____________________________

In truth, I suppose, the translator of this poem is the one who deserves a lot of the credit for the power, and the clarity, of the images and language that make this so compelling a poem…. Whomever is responsible, it is one of my all time favorite poems, and I include it today, again, with great pleasure….

Shui Tiao Ko Tou

Will a moon so bright ever arise again?
Drink a cupful of wine and ask of the sky.
I don’t know where the palace gate of heaven is,
Or even the year in which tonight slips by.
I want to return riding the whirl-wind! But I
Feel afraid that this heaven of jasper and jade
Lets in the cold, its palaces rear so high.
I shall get up and dance with my own shadow.
From life endured among men how far a cry!

Round the red pavilion
Slanting through the lattices
Onto every wakeful eye,
Moon, why should you bear a grudge, O why
Insist in time of separation so th fill the sky?
Men know joy and sorrow, parting and reunion;
The moon lacks luster, brightly shines; is all, is less.
Perfection was never easily come by.
Though miles apart, could men but live for ever
Dreaming they shared this moonlight endlessly!

~~ Su Tung-p’o ~~

_____________________________

This was already an old rant last time I posted it, in June of 2013…. and, since I spent all of my fresh angst in the intro section today, this will have to suffice, to fulfill any other legal standards that may apply…. I think it will do, just fine, as it remains as valid today as the day I first wrote it….

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

“Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt (1759-1806) speech on the India Bill, Nov. 18, 1783

I had not intended to start with a political rant, but this just came up, so here we go…. This is as true today as it was in 1783, perhaps even more so. Since 9/11/01, when those fanatic idiots carried out their insane delusions of grandeur on the world stage, the “necessity” for Homeland Security has been the watchword of the political pundits who unfortunately are in charge of the legislative and executive branches of our government. Bill after bill after bill keeps coming down the pike and bulling their way through into becoming law, or even worse, is created by executive order, without the benefit of review by Congress, useless as that may be.

The entire incident that happened that day was blown completely out of proportion by the media. Yes, it was a tragedy, in which something over 3000 American lives were lost, in three separate incidents. The videos of those planes hitting the buildings in New York must have been replayed a thousand times before noon, all over the country, until every American, and for that matter, anyone in the world, who had access to a TV was informed of what had occurred….

The American media, and the political machinery that manipulates it so effectively, then proceeded to flood every channel with the after-effects, making sure that the sorrow and fear of every person they could find willing to speak of it on camera was put on the evening news, thus, ensuring that no rational, dispassionate examination of the events would take place. Before the first day had passed, the national reaction had been whipped to a frenzy, stirring the fears of every paranoid in society, and making it seem as if the entire nation was filled with anger and vengeful righteousness. Though I didn’t join in the paranoia, I could feel it happening all around me, as normally intelligent people became so angry they lost all sense of proportion, or for that matter, all sense of truth.

In the ensuing months and years, whenever the politicians have wanted to distract the nation from what they were actually doing, all they needed to do was mention the words “terrorism”, or “national security”, to immediately pull the attention off of them, pointing it firmly at the pitiful group of fanatical Muslims they blamed for the attacks (completely ignoring all the valid reasons those same politicians had provided those fanatics in the first place, reasons specifically designed to stimulate an attack….). Thus, the Hunt for Osama bin Laden was on! (“We’ll get him, by God”… We did, of course…)

In this country, as a result of those attacks, approximately 5000 American lives were lost (that figure is larger, by quite a lot, than the actual number, purposely…. it is near enough to correct to make the point…). At this time, in the quest to find Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, over 50,000 Afghan civilians have been killed. In Iraq, which we somehow decided to invade, even though they had nothing to do with 9/11, well over 250,000 civilians have died to soothe our national pride.

(Note from 2014; the number of casualties in both arenas has, naturally, grown on all sides, with the greatest number of deaths, by far, having been suffered by the Afghan and Iraqi civilian populations, just as the number of our American casualties remains, by many thousands of deaths, the smallest of any of the participants…. This amounts to, literally, millions of Afghan and Iraqi deaths, and fewer than 10,000 Americans…. go look at them yourself if you don’t accept my figures….)

In that same period, WE lost another 1000 or so soldiers in fighting and bombings. And, as a side effect, the US Bill of Rights has been effectively eliminated, by Executive Order, disguised as Homeland Security (June, 2013 — Now authorized by what is so laughingly called the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012…. signed by President Obama on New Year’s Eve of 2011, while everyone was partying, not paying any attention to their so-called “rights”…..)

“Hatred is the coward’s revenge for being intimidated” — George Bernard Shaw

So, what is my point here? My point is this…. those pathetic fanatics killed more, of people THEY considered to be the enemy, than they had ever been able to kill, one time….. ONCE….. Since that one time, our country has killed more than 300,000 civilians in retaliation (amendment from 2014: make that >1 million…).

You can call it what you like, I call it nothing more than schoolyard revenge by bullies. The events of that day provided every politician in this country the opportunity to wrap themselves in the flag, not to proclaim their patriotism, but to manipulate the unreasonable fear they created in the public to keep them from realizing the truth of the matter.

That truth is this: we are in no real danger from Al Qaeda, or from any other splinter faction terrorist group, nor have we ever been in any real danger. We never really WERE in MUCH danger….

Oh, sure, they may be able to pull off stunts such as this one occasionally, but for the most part, the world has gotten pretty good at either catching them in hiding, or stopping their plots before they actually carry them out. Governments have a LOT more resources than terrorists, no matter how rich they may be personally. Most times, their piteous efforts kill a handful of people, and destroy a building or two, and that is the extent of it….

No, the pathetic, desperate people who become terrorists, in direct concatenation of intent, action, and responsibility, are actually created by those same political pundits, who, after bombing their villages, killing their families, and destroying their homes, are now reviling them as monsters, using all their bloated resources in hunting them down.

The terrorists I see in the news are not a real threat to anyone; they don’t have the wherewithal to perform more than one act of violence at a time; they cannot wage a war, they can only try to act as guerrilla forces, at best. Mostly, they are just sad schemers, planning glorious (in THEIR twisted minds….) deaths, that ultimately have no meaning, other than to provide the Western politicos another unreasonable fear to use against the American public, in order to continue the raping and pillaging among their own people.

The entire issue is one that is repugnant to me; I have watched in horror, not as terrorists have been hunted, but as the rights of the American people have been taken away in the name of “security”. Security from what? We don’t need more security from terrorists; the techniques for dealing with it are well-established, and effective, as they employ the very same methods used by the fanatics to achieve their ends, and many more not available to them, because of the depth of their resources, and their lack of morality. (Note from 2014: See, Eric Snowden, NSA, “US Cyber-Security Forces”, etc….) No, we need more security from our own pundits, who have utilized these tragic events for their own benefit, to the everlasting regret of every true patriot….. Bloody fucking assholes, every one of them…..

“I have formed a very clear conception of patriotism. I have generally found it thrust into the foreground by some fellow who has something to hide in the background. I have seen a great deal of patriotism; and I have generally found it the last refuge of the scoundrel.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Judgement of Dr. Johnson, Act III

So be it…. gigoid has spoken….

3/8/2014: This rant has been updated and edited to conform with the most current version of Reality, including, but not limited to parenthetical comments, and actual textual edits to improve the flow of thoughts… I also have to say, with this one, I hit the nail right on the fucking head, so, I can say, without any doubt whatsoever…

So be it…. gigoid has spoken, again….
_____________________________

I’d suppose it’s a function of having done this repeatedly for a relatively long time, but, gosh, Wilbur, I think I’m getting the hang of this…. Even if not, it feels as if I am, so, I’ll take comfort in axiom #1, to wit: “I think I am. That’s close enough.”….. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes, if YOU’RE lucky….

Just kidding….. 🙂

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

gigoid

Ned Moore, aka gigoid, is a 70 year-old, (!!!… When did that happen?….), retired dilettante, who would rather read than eat, most days. His first blog, "gigoid’s folly", has been emailed out to folks he knows for about 18 years now. He still considers it his best defense against angst, and the ever-present specter of sheer insanity..... Due to rigorous curmudgeon training requirements, he has discontinued his Facebook presence, but still indulges in the occasional Twitter session... In essence, he's socialized, but, not overly sociable; all labels and stereotypes are forbidden in his presence... and he doesn't care what anyone thinks about that..... In fact, he doesn't want to talk anymore.... If you feel you MUST contact gigoid, his email address is: alphagigoid@gmail.com You can go read now.... Go on, beat it.... gigoid, the dubious

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: NSA

Save some of that tripe for later….

So far ahead we’re behind…

One of our nuclear clothespins is missing….

Twisted versions of classical toilet accessories….

Malcolm patented the “three days dead” look….

Four coconut-periwinkle macaroon omelets, please, to go….

Softer explosions seem to be our only option….

We’ll find some in the bargain basement….

We could try one of those ornamental dwarfs….

Measuring infinitesimal increments may take a while….

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