Tag Archives: overpopulation

Another confusing day in Paradox….

Posted on by
8

Ffolkes,

I often wonder…. a quality which, I believe, in part, is what makes me different than most folks. Oh, I’m not saying I’m special, or better than anyone else… But, it seems to me, many of the people I see in the world today have stopped using their imagination, and never allow themselves to wonder, about anything…… Imagination is humanity’s most powerful weapon in the struggle to deal with reality, as well as our most versatile tool, yet, the world’s demands are so heavy that most people seemingly forget they have a way to deal with them, with less stress and effort than they commonly spend. If they only take the time to learn how to learn, and to use their imagination to foresee the future enough to effectively prepare for it, they would find life less of a chore, and more of a joy….

This, of course, sounds like the beginning of a rant, and, of course, it is…. but, it’s a rant that will be postponed for the moment, as I am really not ready to let out all the stuff Ive been thinking about this subject….. My disappointment in my fellow man has never been deeper than it is today, and I am incensed, and embarrassed, by the stupidity of those who continue to fall for the crap the BRC hands out, along with being enraged, at the sheer effrontery, and selfishness, of those who would have us believe they are our leaders,….. However, I have only had two sips of coffee, and if I begin what I have to say now, I’ll be overly vicious, and someone might just get offended….

Yes, I know that doesn’t matter at all; as well, I don’t give a shit whether they get offended or not…. In truth, if they didn’t, I’d think I was doing it wrong. What good is a rant that nobody gets offended by? Nothing, that’s what; a good rant should piss of at least half the folks who read it, or it just isn’t getting into the right hands, and can only be considered preaching to the choir…. But, I’m still a bit groggy, to be honest, and if I start now, it will degenerate into name-calling, and deliberately provocative statements, designed to either piss off the BRC, or show the public just how much they SHOULD be pissed off at them, thus pissing THEM off at their purported benefactors….. Or, even better, pissing them off at their own cupidity….

I suppose I COULD rant now; it really doesn’t matter…. but, I want to wait a bit, and let the arguments percolate until they’re good and strong, like good coffee must be. Maybe then I can feel like it’s more accurately targeted, and someone who needs to read it will actually come across it, get pissed, and start showing it to their friends…. I keep trying, pointing out to folks, and ffolkes, as well, just how much the assholes we elect lie to us, and how often they steal from us, and how much they actually disdain the people who elect them to office…. Unfortunately, the majority of ffolkes who stop by to read what I say are of the same opinion, and already aware of the depth of the corruption that is present in today’s governments, all over the world….

Any who, I have a specific rant today, so you’ll see it down the page a ways…. In the meantime, I see I’ve wandered around, verbally, sufficiently to make this a legal introduction. I am kind of enjoying this method of starting the Pearls; if nothing else, it gets a lot of blather out of my system, always a good thing for everyone….. I also don’t seem to have as much fear of the blank page with this method, as I seem to know it will get filled up quickly and easily, by just letting my head wander about, and trying to type fast enough to get the blather down correctly…. Of course, I’m trying NOT to be aware of just how silly it all is, but, hey, what’s a little deliberate ignorance among friends, eh?

Shall we Pearl?…..

“If we don’t change our direction we’re likely to end up where we’re headed.” — Chinese Proverb
_____________________________

In order to allow the rant for today the time to percolate, hopefully to evolve into the shape I envision, I’m going to start with an old-school pearl, to get my mind lubricated, as it were….. By setting some loose, if stringent, parameters for the search through the Smart Bee dB, it brings some focus to my will, while simultaneously freeing up the imagination to interpret what I see outside the boundaries of normality…. I know, it sounds a bit amorphous, but, it works for me….

“If you follow the flock, you step in shit!” — Darkwisdom
(See, what did I tell you?….)

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other “sins” are invented nonsense. (Hurting yourself is NOT a sin–just stupid.)” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“I have always thought in the back of my mind, cheese and onions.” — The Rutles
(I LOVE this!….)

“How pleasant then to be insane.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Alexander [the Great] asked Diogenes if there was anything in the world he wanted. Diogenes, without looking up, replied: `Yes. Get out of my light.'” — Plutarch

“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe. And what do we teach our children in school? We teach them that two and two make four and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?” — Awfully Smart Bee
_____________________________

Today’s poetry choice will be picked later…. I have a feeling I’ll need a bit of exposure to poetry when I’m done with the rest of this Pearl….

I was right; that was an epic rant…. (Spoiler alert: it’s a long rant, ffolkes, so be ready when you decide to dive in…. have your smartypants on, put away your guilt, and it will go over better, with less chance of neuronic indigestion……) Now I’m done with it, though, I need a poem to help me to feel a little lighter…. and I know just who to turn to, to find that very thing….. I have used both of these in previous posts; today, they are a perfect addition to the given ambiance…. Enjoy!….

À Bas Ben Adhem

My fellow man I do not care for.
I often ask me, What’s he there for?
The only answer I can find
Is, Reproduction of his kind.
If I’m supposed to swallow that,
Winnetka is my habitat.
Isn’t it time to carve Hic Jacet
Above that Reproduction racket?

To make the matter more succinct:
Suppose my fellow man extinct.
Why, who would not approve the plan
Save possibly my fellow man?
Yet with a politician’s voice
He names himself as Nature’s choice.

The finest of the human race
Are bad in figure, worse in face.
Yet just because they have two legs
And come from storks instead of eggs
They count the spacious firmament
As something to be charged and sent.

Though man created cross-town traffic,
The Daily Mirror, News and Graphic,
The pastoral fight and fighting pastor,
And Queen Marie and Lady Astor,
He hails himself with drum and fife
And bullies lower forms of life.

Not that I think much depends
On how we treat our feathered friends,
Or hold the wrinkled elephant
A nobler creature than my aunt.
It’s simply that I’m sure I can
Get on without my fellow man.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

A Caution To Everybody

Consider the auk;
Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk.
Consider man, who may well become extinct
Because he forgot how to walk and learned how to fly before he thinked.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

_____________________________

Regarding the nationalization of industry or private property: “Of what importance is all that, if I range men firmly within a discipline they cannot escape?  Let them own land or factories as much as they please.  The decisive factor is that the State, through the Party, is supreme over them regardless of whether they are owners or workers.  All that is unessential; our socialism goes far deeper. It establishes a relationship of the individual to the State, the national community.  Why need we trouble to socialize banks and factories?  We socialize human beings.” — Adolf Hitler to Herman Rauschning, pre-WWII — “Why Does Socialism Continue to Appeal to Anyone?”, Robert Hessen

This is a perfect lead-in to what I wish to say about the BRC today….. First, for those who are not regulars here, BRC stands for Beloved Ruling Class, a term I borrowed from an author named Joel Rosenberg, who uses it in two of his novels set in a fictional world. It is intended to denote ALL of the elected officials in this country, the hereditary ones who run the countries who are still in the feudal era of history, and those shadowy corporate entities who control them; it also includes their myrmidons, the armed forces, and the paramilitary police forces now so ubiquitous in our cities. All of these people are insane, in my estimation, just for WANTING to take the reins of power over society. Moreover, I believe they are not only susceptible to the principle of power’s corruptive qualities, but actually revel in it….

Hitler’s statement above is included as an example of how that particular group of society reasons; it is indicative to me that there is plainly not a microgram of respect for other people in this statement, an attitude that I believe…. No, an attitude I KNOW, is prevalent among every one of the people in this country who occupy an elected office. I know this because every action they take, and everything that comes out of their mouths, provides me with evidence of that disdain….. How else can one explain how often they lie to the public? How else can one explain their constant denial of what the general public wants, and their insistence that only their own agenda is worthy of being promoted.

“It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.” — C. W. Leadbeater

This mistake, all-too-common among the great unwashed masses of humanity who live from hand to mouth, gratefully consuming everything they can latch onto, as they’ve been taught, and wondering why nothing ever seems to make them feel good, is part of why it is so easy for the BRC to manipulate the rest of humanity.

People get so busy dealing with what they see in their lives (what they’ve been taught to believe is important, whether it actually is so, or not….) they forget that there can be much more to it than just what is in their vicinity, and their sphere of awareness. Because they don’t have, or take, the time to think, or to imagine, they are easy prey for anyone who gains their trust, for those who do can tell them ANYTHING, and nobody will question it, because they can’t imagine being lied to by someone they’ve chosen to trust…..

Then, there is the rampant stupidity that is repeatedly displayed by some members of the BRC, who are also victims of this frame of mind….. Unfortunately, these particular idiots are in a position where their misconceived attempts at reasoning can actually hurt ALL of us… For example, take the recent hullabaloo over the current budget.

The Retardican Party, which holds the numerical advantage in the House of Representatives, is forcing the viewpoint of a minority of the public onto the rest of that body, by threatening to send the government into a shutdown, in order to defund laws they still can’t believe got passed in 2009, known commonly as Obamacare, (the healthcare reform laws that expanded and altered the health insurance landscape, to allow a lot of people, who heretofore were unable to do so, to get care and/or treatment for their illnesses, at a rate they could actually afford).

These laws, which the House Retardicans have tried to vote down 42 times, unsuccessfully, and regarding which they have made numerous appeals to the court system, also unsuccessfully, have actually HELPED the American public…. and these IDIOTS won’t let go of their racism and anger at being irrelevant long enough to admit even that the law is working. So, they threaten and bluster and keep losing voters, who are getting very tired of watching them display their ignorance and selfishness….

These assholes are so focused on their own fears, of a world that includes Blacks, Gays, Latinos, Asians,strong, independent women, children who think, and adults who take responsibility for the actions, they are willing to bring the entire government to a standstill, harming incalculable numbers of people who cannot afford to foot the bill for their foolishness.

“On the other hand, it takes real moral fiber to remain a Republican when there’s no money in it. And things *are* looking grim on the financial front. Even worse for the President, they’re getting confusing.” — A. Whitney Brown

Now, of course, they won’t be able to force their legislation completely onto others, thanks to the veto powers of the Senate, and the White House…. but, the whole issue creates ill will, and further gaps between people, at a point in the history of our planet where the impetus demands we come together, and learn to live together, or we all will surely perish together…. Stupidity, selfishness, greed, the thirst for power, all will eventually lead to our demise as a species, if we don’t make major changes in the way society is structured, and the way it works.

Below you will find two links, to news articles, each of which contributed to the formation of some of the outrage I am experiencing whenever I let myself consider this issue. It’s all such a pathetic pile of crap, an issue that completely demonstrates every wrong thing about the modern American version of democracy, on BOTH sides of the political spectrum…..

The Demobutt Party is no better than the Retardican Party, when it comes to lying to the public; at the current time there happens to be a significant number of them who have seen the profit for them in backing certain ideas that actually help the middle class (look closely, though, and you’ll see the dead giveaway…. nobody admits there is a ‘lower class’…. ), so, they are in favor with the public right now, as their agendas seem to match more closely with what society’s momentum dictates…..

Nonetheless, it is necessary to remember that there are still a LOT of people in this country who actually believe what these people are telling them, without ever questioning whether it is right, wrong, or unreal…. They just nod their heads and send in money… I mean, think about the fact that the subject of the second article, Ron Paul, has the support of a great many….. well, I hesitate to actually call them people, because they exhibit not nearly enough intelligence to warrant that title….

Any who, a lot of folks believe whatever this idiot says…. and the assholes under discussion in the other article aren’t much better, in my view…. They’re more interested in how they look on camera than they are about the people who elected them…. ALL OF THEM, sorry to say, are elected officials in the highest offices in this country, and THIS is their best stuff…. I don’t even need to look for what is wrong in our society, because it shoves itself in my face on a daily basis…..

This is the state of things, ffolkes…. I wish I knew what the hell to do about it, other than write… but, that’s all I have so, there you go….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/Cruz-Lee-plan-on-Obamacare-unnerves-some-in-GOP-4832241.php

http://blog.sfgate.com/hottopics/2013/09/19/ron-paul-more-women-should-sacrifice-career-to-homeschool-kids/

I feel bad…. I don’t want to bum ffolkes out, or depress anyone, or in any way cause anyone’s day to turn dark on my account… So, I’ll leave you with a bit of hope, and advice, at once…. Remember, ffolkes, as long as we can keep our health, and our sense of humor, it will all turn out okay… It’s a load of BS, but, it sounds good, and, the wisdom of the ages really does support me in this, as there are a lot of very wise ffolkes who have said the same…. to wit:

Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand.” — Mark Twain

If nothing else, we could laugh them out of town, couldn’t we?…. Worth a try, I think….
_____________________________

All I can say is, I didn’t have anything better to do, so this is what I did…. so be it. I’d better go proof it, if I’m going to sign it at the end…. Be back in a few…..

Well, it’s long, and involved, and I’m sure I got it all out, for now…. It’s already caused a discussion with someone, so, I’m hopeful for the written version… Think about it, ffolkes, that’s all I ask…. Be real….

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

Penitent barbers are strangely silent on Wednesdays….

Posted on by
3

Ffolkes,

This period of my life is turning out to be quite interesting, in the classical, positive sense, not the oriental, dangerous sense. Since moving into a larger house with Patricia, I find myself having to make adjustments again, in order to establish routines that are acceptable to someone else, as well as learning tot live with the idiosyncrasies someone else possesses .

Both of us have lived alone for years, and it seems natural there might be some areas of friction that will surface to disturb the generally placid waters of our relationship. I have expected them, but, for the most part, the entire issue seems to not be the problem that I anticipated. Pat, bless her, is an unusual women in many ways, for which I thank my lucky stars….

Any who, long story short, it’s been easier than I had thought it would be, and I can only be thankful, as I ….. well, both of us are too old to put up with a lot of struggle and hardship, so, it’s a good thing that everything has gone fairly smoothly with the move. It is now one week since we moved in, and we have all but two boxes unpacked, a washer and dryer are installed, the new bed is in place, and the cat is in heat ( oh, joy….). We have established the rules in the kitchen and bath room, and are learning to put up with each other being in the other’s pocket all day; in general, I’d say we’re doing it pretty well…. I’m content, and she says she is happy, so, I’m happy…..

Now that I am becoming so settled, I don’t know how it will affect my curmudgeon status. Pat seems to not mind it sometimes, but, other times it seems not to go over so well, so, that may be a factor in the future…. we’ll see. I have certain rules that MUST be obeyed when it comes to my membership in that group, else the codicils and amendments will kick in, and nobody wants to see that. It’s supposed to be quite a bloody process, and best avoided, if at all possible.

So, we’ll see…. It would be a shame to have to balance that kind of issue for long, so, I’m hoping it fizzles out, and causes no further problems….. I’m a grump, but, she doesn’t seem to mind, as she is as close to a female curmudgeon, naturally, without any training, as anyone I’ve ever met…. It’s kind of cute, actually….

(Just in case it isn’t clear, all of the above two paragraphs are fictional material, included for the purpose of mild hilarity, and nothing else…. I know, it didn’t quite get there, but, hey, the effort counts, right?…..)

Such issues aside, the move went well, if a bit expensively, which was purely by choice, due to age related conditions that made me not want to actually DO any of the move myself. In addition, it was turning into a stressful issue for Patricia, and I wanted to eliminate that from our lives, so, I threw some money I had laying around at it, which solved the issue nicely. Neither of us had to work hard at all, until it came to unpacking and putting it away, so all is good, and I am content in our new place…. Maybe that will also have an effect on what I write…. one never knows, do one?….. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see…. But, we won’t wait long, for it begins…. now…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“When you want to test the depths of a stream, don’t use both feet.” — Chinese Proverb
_____________________________

I love mornings like this, when the words are flowing easily, and Smart Bee is actively helping me in what I’m doing, rather than going off on its own little excursions through the space and time, as it sometimes will do. Today, I started collecting these pearls, with the intended direction being a bit unclear…. but, within moments, SB had supplied me with the following seven gems, which, together, make a nice little critical description of modern society, and the human condition at large…. Well, that’s what I see, anyway…. Y’all can make your own decisions on that…..

“Think of doubt as an invitation to think.’ — Smart Bee

“A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.” — Robert Heinlein, The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

“Independence? That’s middle class blasphemy. We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth.” — George Bernard Shaw

Between those who use their neighbors, and those who use a cane.
Between those in constant power, and those in constant pain.
Between those who run to evil, and those who cannot run.
Tell me which ones are the cripples, and which ones touch the sun.

— Ceili’s Muse “What you do with what you’ve got”

“A kind of excellent dumb discourse.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), The Tempest — Act iii, Sc. 3

“Integrity is when what you say, what you do,what you think, and who you ARE all come from the same place.” — Madelyn Griffith-Haynie

“I had a lease on an OEDIPUS COMPLEX back in ’81…” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

It has been quite a while since I perused Walt Whitman’s work…. and, as with every time I do, I wonder why it took me so long…. Here is a good one, one of many by this true paragon of American poetry….

A Noiseless Patient Spider

A noiseless, patient spider,     
I mark’d, where, on a little promontory, it stood, isolated;     
Mark’d how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,     
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;     
Ever unreeling them — ever tirelessly speeding them.     

And you, O my Soul, where you stand,     
Surrounded, surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,     
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,— seeking the spheres, to connect them;     
Till the bridge you will need, be form’d — till the ductile anchor hold;     
Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my Soul.

~~ Walt Whitman ~~

_____________________________

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Feinstein-Boxer-buck-constituents-on-Syria-strike-4793945.php

“Failure to respond would give license to Syrian President Bashar Assad to use chemical weapons again, encourage nuclear-armed North Korea and make it more likely that chemical weapons might be used against the United States or its allies, including Israel,” she said.

“How many of us have been … where we see thousands of our troops standing … just a stone’s throw away from North Korea?” Boxer said. “Iran will view us as a paper tiger, when it comes to their nuclear program, and that is dangerous not only for us and our friends but for the world.”

I find these statements to be reprehensible, though they do serve as perfect examples of how the BRC typically distracts and lies to the public in order to do exactly what they want, in spite of what the public may want. For example, we are talking about the Middle East, and Syria, yet she is compelled to add in the specter of the public’s most dangerous nightmare leader of North Korea, and then mention nuclear weapons, though that, too, is an entirely different subject….. They true purpose is to have the public connect those words in their minds, so that whenever they are mentioned, the proper emotional response is created….

Then, she throws in the “Iran will view us as a paper tiger” nonsense….. So fucking what? Are we children, that calling us names will make us respond to such childishness with lethal weaponry? First, who gives a fuck WHAT the Iranians think about us? My ego is strong enough to withstand the meaningless mouthings of ignorant people….. Second, if we end up bombing Syria over this, for the stated purpose of not appearing weak in the eyes of people who already view us with suspicion, if not outright hostility, then the rest of the world will know for sure that we cannot be trusted to do anything other than bomb the fuck out of whomever crosses our path….. They won’t CARE whether or not we are a paper tiger, or an out-of-control behemoth that is killing everyone else because of the sickness in our own society….

Obama, the Senate, and the Congress, all are aware of the overwhelming public opinion that we have no business acting unilaterally in Syria; the public has made this perfectly clear in the weeks since the issue arose. Current polls are showing about 60%, or more, of those polled as being against any unilateral response, though everyone feels that an international response is called for, by the UN, or NATO.

But, the general run of American has no wish to get involved in yet another illegal war, just to keep the politicians in Washington from losing face…. To my mind, they have no face left, anyway, and anything they do to act in Syria, as being planned, is NOT going to improve that; it will only make the situation worse, and cause yet another mass of people to hate us, with good reason….

Yes,  Bashar Assad is an asshole, and, if, as it appears, he is guilty of gassing his own people, he deserves to be removed from his position, taken into the streets, and shot. End of story. But, the people he orders to do his evil deeds will still be there, along with, most likely, tens of thousands of dead innocents, the notorious “acceptable numbers” of “collateral damage”, (otherwise known as “dead people”, mind you…), of our bombings to come, all of whose surviving relatives will now consider the US to be even more of an enemy than previously, and certainly more of a threat than their own idiots.

If nothing else, they will see us as the same kind of threat they endure from their own leaders, or worse, because they don’t know us at all; we are just the white devils who bomb them to hell and gone, and don’t even speak their language…. There is no sane response to this issue, other than for the entire world community to act in concert, to deliver the message that this kind of thing won’t be tolerated in society….

But, until our politicians can tell me, with a straight face, and truthfully, that there are no drones sitting on American airfields, ready and able to deliver the SAME substance to OUR population, or that they are NOT spying on their own people in their insane rush to gather ALL the information in the world, I don’t think I’ll be trusting them with much of anything to do with ME or my safety and well-being… Those two issues are not in their interests, and they don’t even consider them in making their plans.  I can see no evidence that they have they ever considered the safety and well-being of the public of any great importance, in relation to whatever they wish to do themselves. It just doesn’t figure into their calculations, ffolkes, and if y’all are entertaining any notion that it does, well, you are wearing blinders, and refusing to see what is staring you in the face…..

The politicians in charge of this country make a lot of noise, telling us they are working hard on our behalf, but, everything I see them actually DO has nothing at all to do with me, or what I want. It only serves their own purposes, and the hell with the constituency….

Boxer, and Pelosi, and Feinstein talk a good game, most of the time, and have always been considered to be representative of the liberal agenda, but, as is now clear, when push comes to shove, they are on the side of the politicians, not the people, and will do whatever they have to do to maintain their own position, no matter what the consequences are for the rest of us….

I could rant all day about this one, but, I don’t want to bore anyone further than I probably already have done…. So, I’ll end this here, with my usual warning…. The BRC is lying to you, to me, to all of us, ffolkes, on a daily basis, about just about everything. Unless WE change it, it ain’t gonna change…..

So, it seems clear to me that we all may as well bend over and kiss our asses goodbye in the relatively near future, because the chances of people acting in concert in a rational way doesn’t have a very good track record…. For that matter, I can’t recall it EVER happening…. Ah well, that’s the breaks, I guess…

“I once wanted to save the world. Now I just want to leave the room with dignity.” — Lotus Weinstock
_____________________________

Sometimes, SB is just better than other times; today is one of those better days…. The ending pearl for the rant in part 3 is perfect; it couldn’t have expressed my feelings and thoughts any better at all…. Okay, let’s see what the damage comes to….

If I’d been fully awake and aware, this might be better, but, it’s not, (worse, that is….), and I’m not, (fully awake and aware…), so, I am persuaded to let it go out as is….. Though I don’t actually care from an ego standpoint, I do hope more than just a few ffolkes read today’s rant, and pass it along, and discuss it to death with their friends…. That is the only way we have a chance to affect what happens, minuscule though that chance may be….

This issue in Syria is a very volatile one, with the potential to become much larger than the arena it occupies, pulling in the whole world. I can only hope that it doesn’t lead to the FINAL confrontation that is surely not far away…. As much as I am prepared for that eventuality, I’m not ready to deal with an endgame scenario right now…. I just got moved, and would like at least a short time of contentment with my lady before it all goes to hell….

Ah well, such is life… All we can do is all we can do, and, for the moment, I’ve done all I can…. See ya…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Consistently exceeding the limits of surreality….

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,

Into each of our lives, there comes a time when the frightening face of our own mortality confronts us, whether we are ready or not. Depending on our individual beliefs on that subject, our reaction to this confrontation can vary quite a lot. Some of us turn to the comfort of religious beliefs, to provide the comfort those may give; others turn to whiskey, or gambling, or some other outbreak of youthful defiance in the face of it. Some ignore it, preferring to postpone any such confrontations to the last moment. Some of us may turn to philosophy, of a non-religious nature, to find an answer that will assuage the fear of the unknown that such encounters will inevitably produce…..

No matter what our own reaction may be, there remains the question in everyone’s mind, as to what happens AFTER we die….. Those with religious beliefs have such answers spelled out for them by the dogmatic representations of whatever church, or synagogue, or temple, or whatever, that they choose to believe has the correct view. Others choose to avoid entangling themselves in organizations based on a delusion, and try to find some other way to deal with whatever fear they may feel about death, and what may, or may not, happen afterward….. But, no matter which method one chooses, there is no avoiding the issue, since there is, to date, no way to avoid dying…..

I’m not really going anywhere specific with this discussion; I already know how I believe, and, just now, I don’t really much care what other folks believe… A friend of mine, Carole, a high-school classmate, has been fighting cancer for almost two years now, and her battle is about to end. Her doctors have done all they could, but the cancer is winning, and she will not last much longer. She will be entering hospice care, if not already there, and only receiving pain management therapy. It is a difficult time for her family, and for all of us who care for her, as she is one of the finest human beings I’ve ever known, whose passing will affect the spirits of the many, many people whose lives she touched….

Later, I will be writing a memorial of her, to tell the world what a fine woman it has lost…. I visited her last April for a short time, and promised her I would come to see her again, to celebrate her victory over the Big C, or, if not, to say goodbye before she passed on. So, on Monday, I’ll be zipping down to Houston again for a couple days, to try to see her one last time, and wish her a happy trip to wherever the afterlife may take her…. Since she has been a devout Christian for all her life, in addition to the benevolence of her spirit, I don’t doubt she’ll have a straight shot to the Pearly Gates, and a pass inside by St. Peter, without any delays…..

Any who, I just wanted to get that off my chest, so I’m not blubbering all over the keyboard while trying to write this morning….. I’ll be writing more on this subject in the next few days, as it will be foremost in my sphere of attention much of the time…. In the meantime, I believe this little outburst has completed the intro requirements, so we can get on with the rest of today’s effort….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Be cheerful while you are alive.” — Phathotep (24th Century B.C.)

He who hath bent him o’er the dead
Ere the first day of death is fled,–
The first dark day of nothingness,
The last of danger and distress,
Before decay’s effacing fingers
Have swept the lines where beauty lingers.

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — The Giaour, Line 68
_____________________________

“I have short-term memory loss, though I like to think of it as Presidential eligibility.” — Paula Poundstone

Back in 2008, I was encouraged by the election of a black man to the office of POTUS; it seemed, at the time, to be a positive note for our society, and a good omen for the future….. Blinded temporarily by my hope, I had forgotten that the BRC, (if you’ve forgotten, that’s the Beloved Ruling Class….), and the corporate masters who control them, would not have allowed anyone in that office whom they could not control, or did not trust to serve their interests. Since first entering office, the President has gone on to prove his allegiance, which, in spite of how it may appear, remains with those who pay his salary, and I’m not talking about the citizenry at large…..

Obama’s reaction to this whole issue of spying on the public, that has come about since Eric Snowden sacrificed himself for the American people, by telling the truth, has clearly shown just how much he has been hiding from the public with all his talk about helping the middle class…. It turns out that, as always, that talk is a smoke screen, to obfuscate the issues they (the administration…) don’t want to be discussed, replacing them with other issues,  that make them look like they actually DO care about the middle class, or the lower class, or, wait…. I thought we were supposed to be a ‘classless’ society? Oh, they must have meant that our society has no class, not that is lacks classes…. Makes more sense to me….

The administration is pissed, not because they are breaking the law ( which they are, to wit: the Constitution….), but because they got caught at it. They are trying to discredit, vilify, and bury Eric Snowden, all because his actions have caused them to run around like idiots, scrambling on a daily basis to come up with rational, or even reasonable explanations for all the crap they’ve been doing to the public for years on the sly. It makes them look exactly like what they really are, which is a bunch of criminal assholes, caught red-handed trying to burn the Bill of Rights, unable to explain what they intended to do with that book of matches, or the lit match they were caught holding….

So, instead of admitting their chicanery, they are trying to get Snowden back so they can make an example of him, for others who may wish to expose their machinations and illegal actions. This is typical of the political mind, to ignore all criticism, and act as if you have the right to do whatever you want…. I am appalled by the statements that Obama is now making, about his belief that he needs no approval from anyone, not Congress, not the courts, and certainly not the public, to wage war on another country…. which, as I happen to know (because I READ it!….) is NOT what it says in the Constitution of THIS country….

Yesterday, I found an article tucked into the back pages of the news, with yet another revelation about the spying that the NSA and the government at large has been perpetrating on an unsuspecting public…. This particular little revelation makes it clear that the NSA, and other agencies, have been gathering data about the general public to a much greater degree than previously thought, and certainly more than they are willing to admit….. Read the following article, to get an idea of just how little your privacy means to the BRC’s political hacks, and just how little concern they have for protecting your rights…. This is some eye-opening, and ultimately frightening, information, ffolkes, and you need to know how much your rights are being stepped on…..

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Report-US-military-cracked-most-online-encryption-4790443.php

Okay, I’m done ranting for now, though there will be more later, I’m sure…. The civil war in Syria isn’t going away because we wish it, nor will our intervention solve any problems there, other than to eliminate one of the players, who will immediately be replaced by someone else, who may or may not be crazier than the one being removed….. That, or we’ll be supporting the rebels, who are connected to Al Qaida, our sworn enemy….

Oh well, I don’t expect it to make any sense, so I’m not disappointed…. It does, however, make me sad, and mad, and once again, disappointed in the BRC, and its constant war on society, which, if you will recall, consists of you, and me, and all the other ffolkes, and folks, out there in reality, just trying to get by……

“When the bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves.” — Dilbert, Scott Adams

“There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.” — Arthur C. Clarke
_____________________________

I can’t think of a better way to provide contrast to the above rant, than with a bit of Shel Silverstein….

Hug O’ War

I will not play at tug o’ war.
I’d rather play at hug o’ war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

_____________________________

When I was perusing the news yesterday, I also found the following, published by John Cleese, of Monty Python fame…. I don’t know about y’all, but, IMNSHO, he’s a funny guy…. and right on the mark… It’s only too bad he didn’t try to define the position of the USA along with those of Europe….

“The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Syria and have therefore raised their security level from ‘Miffed’ to ‘Peeved.’ Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to ‘Irritated’ or even ‘A Bit Cross.’ The English have not been ‘A Bit Cross’ since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from ‘Tiresome’ to ‘A Bloody Nuisance.’ The last time the British issued a ‘Bloody Nuisance’ warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

“The Scots have raised their threat level from ‘Pissed Off’ to ‘Let’s Get the Bastards.’ They don’t have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front lines of the British army for the last 300 years.

“The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from ‘Run’ to ‘Hide.’ The only two higher levels in France are ‘Collaborate’ and ‘Surrender’ …

“Italy has increased the alert level from ‘Shout Loudly and Excitedly’  ‘Elaborate Military Posturing.’ Two more levels remain: ‘Ineffective Combat Operations’ and ‘Change Sides.’

“The Germans have increased their alert state from ‘Disdainful Arrogance’ to ‘Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.’ They also have two higher levels: ‘Invade a Neighbor’ and ‘Lose.’

“Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

“The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.”

~~ John Cleese ~~

If I were to take a shot at creating one of these for the USA, it would have to be along the lines of “The US raised it’s security threat level today, to its next to highest rating, Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type, characterized by deliberately planted delusions, technologically produced hallucinations, extreme rigidity of thought, and a constant state of diffuse anxiety……” I firmly believe that this is exactly how the BRC wants the public to feel; they’re much more manipulable in this state than in any other….
_____________________________

Well, that was over all too quickly; I’m almost embarrassed…. I haven’t had that problem in years; premature ejaculation, whether of words, or sperm, has been under my reasonable control now for many years, and having it happen right out in public is a bit of a facer…. But, this all came out so fast, I must have been percolating it for longer than I imagined…. So be it. Let’s see how it came out….

Okay, so, I’m a little concerned about the world political scene; that comes through pretty clearly…. In my mind, there is good reason to be on alert; these fools don’t seem to realize how close to the edge the world is right now….. Stay alert, ffolkes, the balloon could go up any time….. See ya, tomorrow, hopefully….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Painfully shy, the marmoset left the lobby…

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,

In life, there are a number of events that occur that cause a great deal of stress to the human psyche. The death of a loved one, major surgery, divorce, losing a job, foreclosure, being falsely arrested, seminal events of many types….. all are guaranteed to put pressure on the mind and spirit…. There  is one I didn’t mention yet, but, is just as hard on people as those mentioned…. I refer, of course, to moving…. whether by choice, or force, having to transplant one’s self and property in a new place puts a great deal of negative pressure on us….

Packing, address change notifications, money worries, all contribute to making a move between two houses one of the more difficult propositions to accomplish with any degree of ease. In about two and a half hours from this moment, I have four professional movers coming here, to make the move from this studio to the new one-bedroom duplex a lot easier on Patricia and I, and I am not regretting a single penny of what it will cost, as it removes almost all of the stress from our part of the move…..

They will pack us up, move everything to the new place, and put it in for us…. All we have to do is stay out of their way, then, unpack and figure out where to put everything….. I’m hoping for a stress-reduced day, if not completely stress-free, because, quite frankly, I don’t have it in me anymore….. This also means this Pearl needs to get done in a timely fashion, so I can gear my head up for the big event…. Even though I don’t have to do the actual work, I still have to oversee all of it, and I have absolutely no doubt Murphy is hanging about somewhere, just waiting for his chance to fuck with me with some insidious, insane-making foul-up…..

Ah well, as I’ve said before, ain’t life grand? I’m going to go get this done, so….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“I’m EMOTIONAL now because I have MERCHANDISING CLOUT!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

No harm, no foul, right? That’s what I always thought was the rule….What do you do, though, when the foul is vicious, the harm is real, and the referee is corrupt? Such is the case we have here in Amurrica, land of the fee…. and that’s not a typo…. I have a lot to do today, and, thus, have not enough time to rant, but, I have some thoughts on the developing problems in Syria, one of a long line of Middle Eastern situations rife with potentially disastrous consequences for all of us…. Not just the military, or the government, or them, or us….. I mean ALL of us…. If this one gets out of hand, the whole ball of wax could melt in the ensuing fracas….

Jon Carroll has been one of my favorite columnists for a long time now….. He is erudite, intelligent, compassionate, and generally seems to have the same view of events that I do, in the sense that we tend to disapprove of the same habits shown by the BRC….. His take on things often points out parts of the issue that other people may gloss over, or miss completely; he is able to pinpoint those issues with great accuracy, and excellent common sense…. This article meets all those standards…. enjoy this, if you will, in place of my rant on this subject, which will come in a few days, after I’ve gotten settled in the new place, and further developments have occurred overseas…

http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/carroll/article/The-upcoming-unfortunate-war-with-Syria-4772410.php
_____________________________

Today’s poem has no meaning, beyond the fact that I liked it… it isn’t here because of any deeper meaning, or because it fits in…. I just like it….

An Old Man’s Winter Night

All out of doors looked darkly in at him
Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars,
That gathers on the pane in empty rooms.
What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze
Was the lamp tilted near them in his hand.
What kept him from remembering what it was
That brought him to that creaking room was age.
He stood with barrels round him — at a loss.
And having scared the cellar under him
In clomping there, he scared it once again
In clomping off; — and scared the outer night,
Which has its sounds, familiar, like the roar
Of trees and crack of branches, common things,
But nothing so like beating on a box.
A light he was to no one but himself
Where now he sat, concerned with he knew what,
A quiet light, and then not even that.
He consigned to the moon, such as she was,
So late-arising, to the broken moon
As better than the sun in any case
For such a charge, his snow upon the roof,
His icicles along the wall to keep;
And slept. The log that shifted with a jolt
Once in the stove, disturbed him and he shifted,
And eased his heavy breathing, but still slept.
One aged man — one man — can’t keep a house,
A farm, a countryside, or if he can,
It’s thus he does it of a winter night.

~~ Robert Frost ~~

_____________________________

As time is of the essence, I have to go into the archives today, to pull out something appropriate for this section… I found a good pearl, from early this year, and it will do just fine…. enjoy!….
———————————————————————–

“Can I leave now?  My brain is full.” — Smart Bee

I’m not sure exactly why, but this appeals to me; I’ve felt this way often, and can empathize strongly with whoever wrote it….. In its quiet little way, it also points at my own current state of mind, in that I seem to be out of outrage…. There are so many examples in my perception, of the evil being done every day, by the government, by churches, by random assholes with more testosterone than brains, I’m finding it hard to pick out just one or two to rant about…. For me, that is a disastrous state to be caught in, since much of what I do here involves ranting about stuff that tickles my outrage….

I suppose y’all might just be laughing at me just now, as this may seem like a minor complaint…. and, in a cosmic sense, it really is. But, lest we forget, MY cosmos is the one being affected, which will affect what I write about, and when, and how much, and y’all will be the ones that have to deal with the fallout….. You’ll be singing a different song, then, I’ll wager…. Ripples in the pond, don’t’cha know?….

This isn’t to say that’s what I WANT to happen; I’ve given my opinion previously on how much I dislike being unable to write something, whether it’s a rant, or an old-school pearl, or a poem…. Writing has become for me as important as reading, and I’ll consider writing ANYTHING, if it seems even the slightest bit intriguing, just like I’ll read just about ANYTHING, including milk cartons and cereal boxes, if that’s all there is to read…. Now, writing has assumed an equal importance in my scheme, and any glitches in the process can stimulate worry…. mankind’s true nemesis….

“More people have died of worry, than ever bled to death.” — Lazarus Long…..

Rather than spending any significant amount of time worrying, I decided to seize on what I had, and just jump in & start writing…. So far, it isn’t too shabby, but needs…. something…. aha! A hook…. I need a hook…. okay, let’s see what we have laying about….. Nope, nada damn thing to be seen anywhere in the vicinity, which kicks the worrying up a notch or two, for sure…. Calliope has deserted me for other parts, the headlines are too bland to get worked up about, and the Westboro Baptist Church of Fools has been strangely silent of late…. All I have here, as I gaze around the room in pathetic hope, are the same old items I’ve been looking at for seven months now, since moving here…. most of which has either been already explored, or isn’t worth mentioning….

I see now I should have perhaps prepared for this a bit better; research is always useful, and it would be nice to not have to get all antsy just because my imagination is coming up empty. Whining about it isn’t going to help, or solve the issue, so we’ll skip right by that, and go into strategic planning mode, followed by a dip into tactical operations mode, and we’re home free…. Let’s see now, first, a small diversion… I can do that…. Look, over there! It’s a pearl!….

“Why can’t we ever attempt to solve a problem in this country without having a ‘War’ on it?” — Rich Thomson

Now, THERE’s a question for the BRC, but I’m afraid it wouldn’t get as much response as we’d like…. Good strategy demands, after a diversion, a foray out into enemy territory, to gather intelligence…. so….

“All power rests on hierarchy: An army is nothing but a well-organized lynch mob.” — Edward Abbey

Okay, that’s intelligent…. now, we shoot back…..

“If a million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” — Anatole France

Yep, that had to hurt…. Okay, so now, all we have to do to have achieved our strategic goal is to finish them off with unassailable logic, combined with a bit of humor…. no worries…

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” — Albert Einstein

“It’s not the pace of life that bothers me, it’s the sudden stop at the end.” — Hobbes

See? It’s all in the wrist…. Using two pearls for the last thought was deliberate, though it helped that both of them came up one after the other, as if pre-ordained…. But it just fit, as the first supplies the unassailable logic, and the second the humor…. and, as we all know by now, timing is everything……
_____________________________

This has gone more smoothly than I hoped, so, rather than press my luck, I’ll confess to my duck, and leave it at that…. No, I have no idea what that means… do you? Oh well, no time to worry about it now, gotta go start packing what little there is for my part of today’s effort…. there’s always a few things one MUST handle personally, y’know?…. No way I’m going to trust my collection of prized paper clips to anyone else!…. So, I’ll just go find the velvet-lined manila folder, and get on with it…. This, while not completely cool, or even radical, is, nonetheless, done…. See ya tomorrow, I hope, from a new perspective point…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Ecstasy mode has been added as an accessory….

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,

“Do not settle for less than the best your own excellence can command.” — Anne McCaffrey

Excellence has always been the goal, for almost my entire life…. In school, on the playing field, at work, every activity I have engaged in has been given my best effort at performing the given tasks as well as they could be done, whether physical or mental in nature. Without tootling my horn too loudly, I’ve done pretty well at it…. I was valedictorian of my high school class, played three varsity sports, achieving All League status in both football and baseball, and have gotten consistently excellent work ratings at whatever job I held…. My personal philosophy, Peruaosophy, acknowledges the importance of excellence in my life, with axiom # 4 stating, “Excellence is its own reward.”…..

This morning, I am reaching a milestone in blogging…. This will be my 800th post, in just over two years of blogging, not all of which met my standards of excellence, other than in their consistency of publication, and their technical characteristics, such as grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. As for the literary aspects, I will be the first to admit that what I’ve created doesn’t always tip the scale all the way to ‘excellent’ in every post, but, I made an excellent effort at it, and would imagine about half of it could be considered quite good….. Some of it is pretty funny, anyway….

So, anyway, I am not sure how I should react to this milestone…. I’m well past the time in my life where I’d use this as an excuse to go celebrate, abusing my liver by an outrageous consumption of adult beverages, but, I guess I won’t mind feeling a small glow of satisfaction for the day…. Well, I can do that, once this actually gets posted, and this 800th version of the Pearls of Daily Wisdom on WordPress joins its fellows…. Since I am trying to rest, and gather my resources and energy for the upcoming move I have to make, in two days, it will be nice to contemplate the satisfaction of my achievement while I am doing so…

This event has also had the serendipitous side-effect of giving me enough material for a legal intro section, without having to go through my normal contortions…. I’m sure everyone will appreciate that, given that, according to the stats, whatever I’ve been doing seems to be driving all but three or four hardy souls away…. No matter, Maya is everywhere, and nothing we perceive is real, unless it is……

Now that I’ve written four paragraphs, my brain is starting to wake up, bringing me a bit closer to real cogitation, and I see by the above that once again, I’ve wasted a perfectly good opportunity for some serious humor with a semi-serious, and all-too-sincere discussion of reality’s current configuration settings. I hate to miss a good chance for a joke or two, but, what’s done is done, and it’s too much to expect me to write, and, at the same time, monitor the direction and quality of what I write, so, as is the standard policy here, we’ll leave it in place, and get on with the rest of today’s concourse d’elegance, which, if I am translating correctly, is at least in the vicinity of where we wish to end up…..

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Even as a great fish swims along the two banks of a river, first along the eastern bank and then the western bank, in the same way the Spirit of man moves along beside his two dwellings: this waking world and the land of sleep and dreams.” — Upanishads
_____________________________

In order to have any chance of understanding anything in this section, it is recommended that you first engage your most perceptive, flexible attitude, and read the article found at the end of the link below….. please?…..

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2013/08/27/doom-gloom-smile/

In the last few weeks, Mr. Morford has written a couple of excellent essays that parallel my own thinking; this is one that gives a good idea of what goes through my head every day, or whenever I think about the sad situation we are in, as a species, in relation to our planet’s health, and its threatened ability to provide us with an environment that is conducive to our survival…. (Hmm… a little pompously phrased, but, hey, it’s a serious subject….) Those thoughts invariably end up in a scary place, and it is hard at times to maintain the illusion of my own happiness, in the face of the future…. How can I enjoy my own time on earth, when I know that my children’s children will be faced with some very hard times, and choices, as the situation worsens?…

I’m not in the mood to rant, even with the anger and outrage that thinking about the BRC’s complicity in bringing the world to this point gives me; sleep was not to be found last night, and my brain feels as if it is packed in cotton…. safe, warm, and comfortable, but not terribly interested in being sharp…. So, to go along with Mark’s mindful insights, I offer this pearl, to give some color and contrast to a situation that resists any beautification efforts….

“History is a nightmare from which we are trying to awaken.” — James Joyce

How sad and bad and mad it was!
But then, how it was sweet!

— Robert Browning (1812-1890) — Confessions, ix

“Although war is cruel and brutal, it is also dangerous and stupid.” — Yakko Warner

“Anyone who isn’t confused really doesn’t understand the situation.” — Edward R. Murrow

“It is not good to try to lead people by hitting them over the head, but for some few, having a bat handy is helpful, just in case.” — Smart Bee

“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” — Mark Twain  Following the Equator (1897)

“YOW!!  I’m in a very clever and adorable INSANE ASYLUM!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

Since today is a milestone Pearl, it seems appropriate to use one of my own poems. Here is one of the first I wrote after beginning to write poems again, after a 35 year hiatus…..

Playing by the Rules

All my days I looked for love,
And found it everywhere I looked.
The years were joyous and fully booked
Seemingly by command from Above.

In return for all of the beauty in Life I found
I played life by the Rules that we all know,
It was from my father I learned the how,
Honest love, given freely, hand-fasted, gladly bound.

It seemed a while as if it were all real,
that fulfillment and contentment could be
as real as the children given us to oversee,
to teach them of Life and Love, and how to feel.

Then storm clouds of grievous change arrived, unbidden
Insidious, deceitful, three steps forward, then one back.
Tearing holes in our beautiful cloth, a heart heard to crack,
Gleeful demons eating life’s bounty, fangs dirty, and hidden.

Pain and sorrow grew, in defiance of all I tried,
Sanctuary turned into a reluctant scene of ritual battle,
Love still lives, but is herded like doomed and pitiful cattle,
While the keening of my soul sounds as if I’d died.

Betrayal in love is, allow me to assure, no small pain to take.
Time has no power to reduce its place in my heart or soul.
My truest love became a stranger, a powerfully sharp toll,
Solitude has become my lot, no killing time for necessity’s sake.

Love yet surrounds me, everywhere; I’m not one of those fools…
Children are forgiving, I’m glad to be able to say,
They show me life’s solid purpose, the old, right way,
I guess  don’t know any other way, than to Play it by the Rules.

~~ gigoid ~~
_____________________________

I had a whole slew of excuses and/or justifications for using an archived pearl in this section, all of which seemed lame once I had written them down, so, I’m not going to give one…. Here is a section three discussion from the Pearl on 1/2/13; I will only say that it seems appropriate for what has happened here today….

“But my dear man, reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.” — Alan Watts

I enjoy the words of Alan Watts, and have done so since first reading one of his books in college, many years ago. His command of English is so deep and wide that he is somewhat hard to read, due to the weight and depth of both the material under discussion, and of the words he chooses to use. But, working one’s way through to the end of what he writes is well worth all the effort, for he explains the complex, and yet simple, wisdom of the Eastern religions and philosophies, in Western terms, so they are comprehensible to those same Western thinkers, with a clarity heretofore unseen. This particular line is one of his most simply written, yet is still deep and insightful…..

With one swift phrase, Reality is laid bare for all to understand, showing its flexibility, it’s malleable nature able to become whatever we perceive it to be. Each of us has our own interpretation of what we perceive as reality, and it is often very different than what others may believe it to be. Sometimes, I am absolutely amazed at the variety of perceptions that people describe, and feel a lot of satisfaction, on one level at least. That is the level of interaction…. I think it is just wonderful, that people from so many different backgrounds, and so many different ways of looking at the same thing, can still live together on one planet in relative harmony.

It would seem apparent that so many differing viewpoints would cause a lot of trouble, and to some extent that’s true…. There is a lot of trouble on this world, and Reality is not a place for the weak or timid to hang out safely. But, mostly, all the various attitudes and outlooks on life seem to shuffle along without much conflict, at the personal level, compared to what might be expected. One of those little unexplained miracles in life that we often don’t see, or appreciate….. The phenomenon is even more pronounced in institutions such as mental hospitals, where the visions of reality are of such a nature as to seem limitless in their variety. I was always impressed at how people from so many different parts of the galaxy were able to live together in peace….   🙂

For me, the best part about the nature of Reality is this chameleon-like quality: it can be anything we want it to be. We can accept the perceptions it sends us, and even see, and understand, what those are describing to others, thus making it convenient for us to communicate about it. Or, we can choose to alter those perceptions, either in the way we receive them, or in the way we interpret them; either method gives us control over exactly how we view what is now a somewhat questionable form of Reality.

(It occurs to me that maybe I should use the capitalization technique, as with the words ‘pearl’, and ‘Pearl’…. Yeah, that’s the ticket… Okay, so ‘Reality’, capitalized, is what we all agree to see, and ‘reality’ is what each of us sees personally, with the word ‘see’ used to indicate ‘perceive’ because it’s a shorter word, took less time to type, and allowed me to further obfuscate matters in order to create the need to clear them up….. That should help clarify where we are in a sentence, even if it doesn’t actually simplify things at all…..)

Speaking of knowing where we are, this discussion seems to have reached a point where the next destination may be out of reach. Oh, not that the reality of it is too abstruse, or complicated, or even merely disgusting. No, it’s just too esoteric for me at 0815 in the morning, after already composing a couple thousand words on human nature and and the nature of Reality. It is almost a depressing come-down to have to consider ending this, since it was flowing so well, but, the perfect closing pearl showed itself, and I’m not one to argue with Smart Bee, or Zippy….. Stay alert, ffolkes, Reality can suck, and it can bite, when it’s not being nice…..

“I guess it was all a DREAM..  or an episode of HAWAII FIVE-O…” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

I’m struck at how typical this Pearl has turned out…. It’s over the top, length-wise, but that’s nothing new. It’s all over the map, intellectually, also nothing we haven’t seen before. It’s a little bit egotistical, but, hey, it’s my blog, right? I’m a little nervous about just how it will appear, in the big picture…. I guess I’ll go see now, and get that over with…..

Serendipity has struck again, hard…. I like it, and though I tend to be somewhat biased, I try to maintain some small degree of objectivity, and that part of me says, it ain’t bad…. and, it’s done, making it perfect…. now, with this final word from Zippy, I bid thee adieu, until next time….

“GOOD-NIGHT, everybody..  Now I have to go administer FIRST-AID to my pet LEISURE SUIT!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

All that? Over a few stale maraschinos?….

Posted on by
7

Ffolkes,

….. And, then, I woke up…. only to find the same white screen staring me in the face, with, again, absolutely no idea what to put on it, to relieve the vast, frightening, vacant blankness….. I am faced with what is becoming my signature struggle, to come up with something catchy, or startling, or any other adjective that would lend itself to getting people to read this, and to providing some sort of incentive for them to come back for more….

It seems that much of the traffic I end up with are folks who are attracted by the title, which as y’all know, has nothing at all to do with what is in these Pearls…. It also seems likely that those who haven’t been here before, and drop in because of what the title promises, might be disappointed to find that, for example, Papal edicts do offer wholesale, not merely retail…. or, that paradoxes don’t burn….

Naturally, I know one cannot depend on statistics to show a true picture of reality, unless one has ALL the data possible, and knows how to analyze it…. requirements that are never true. Data is seldom complete, and people have a tendency to pick out the parts of it that support what they wish to say, usually ignoring the rest….. The implication is clear, to wit: relying on statistics is not conducive to finding the truth of any given matter. So, I keep writing, never knowing if what I’m saying is reaching anyone at all…. Good thing I’m not the nervous type…..  Wait, I AM the nervous type!…. Doh!….

So be it, as I’ve been forced to admit previously…. I can’t change the universe, and worrying about it is unproductive, to say the least. Change will happen whether I worry, or not, and I’m not going to sit around, moaning in despair, just because nobody is out there listening to me when I start shouting into the wind again…. It isn’t as if I am the only voice delivering this message to humanity….

A lot of very talented people have been shouting at the human race for some time now, all through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, into the twenty-first, and nothing of note has happened, nor is happening, to put a stop to those practices that will eventually kill us all…. We, as a species, have received a multitude of warnings in these last few hundred years, all of which point to our overweening avarice, arising from selfishness, and hubris, as the culprits responsible for our unresponsiveness to these exhortations…..

None of the warnings, no matter how elevated the reputations of those giving the alarms, have made the slightest degree of change in how the BRC and the corporate masters who control all the money and resources approach life; the results are being made more obvious as time passes, as the polar ice continues to melt….

I hadn’t intended to rant in this intro section; hell, I had no idea of where I started, much less where I would end up…. But, it’s all six of one, and also a half-dozen of another, so, what the heck, I’m going with it….. If nothing else, it got me this far into today’s effort, which, when I started, looked to be a losing proposition….  I suppose we’ll only know the whole truth when it’s all done, so, let’s get to that….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Evacuate?  In our moment of triumph?” — Governor Tarkin
_____________________________

“There should be more in American liberty than the privilege we enjoy of insulting the President with impunity.” — Austin O’Malley

Yes, yes there should…. Even though I don’t like using that word (should), this is a true statement, one that could only be true for our American society, as one of the most untruthful and corrupt ever seen in history. This form of government, as practiced by those professional liars who infest the system here in America, lies to the public at every turn, and, in general, uses the public platform of their offices to pursue their own agendas, no matter how little those have to do with the public good….

Don’t fret, I’m not going to rant again, though there is much in today’s world about which to be concerned….. I’m just commenting on the first of the group today, to kind of point the way, and let y’all know ahead of time where we’ll be heading…. This is new and different, I know, and there’s no telling whether such kindness and tact will ever be shown again…. but, hey, it’s here today, so, enjoy…. and, please enjoy the following group of pearls, all picked to use as a stone, or a sharp stick, to poke at the BRC, and the people in our world who care only about their own damn selves…..

“A great deal of information we consider to be highly personal, and of interest to ourselves and the town gossip our names, telephone numbers, marital status, educational accomplishments, job and credit histories, even medical, dental, and psychiatric records is now being sold on the open market to anyone who believes he or she might be able to use such information to turn a profit. These transactions usually take place without our knowledge or consent.” — Anne Wells Branscomb, _Who_Owns_Information?_,1994

“Any priest or shaman must be presumed guilty until proved innocent.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“It is not lack of polling data or campaign contributions that keep many women from ascending higher on the political ladder. It is fear and loathing for the political system itself.” — Madeline Kunin

“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” — Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), Sign of Four

“Things are going to get a lot worse before they get worse.” — Lily Tomlin

“Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them!” — Albert Einstein

“I’ve got an IDEA!!  Why don’t I STARE at you so HARD, you forget your SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Hmm…. well, it’s only 94% impenetrable…. I do like a challenge, don’t y’all?….
_____________________________

To go along with my confusion and presumptuousness, I think it would be timely, and reasonably suitable at this juncture, to throw in a small dose of egotism…. I don’t have a new poem yet; it’s still percolating…. but, here is one of my better old ones, though, actually, not so old, as it was written just a couple of months ago…. I like it, and it sort of fits in with the theme so far, so, we’ll all just have to deal….

Dubiously, Soft Morning

Idiosyncratic images, clamoring for regard,
fill up the white, white screen on which I view
my life, never seeing, nor invited to sup
ambrosial remnants of anything new.

Still, but almost in motion, allegory sails away
bobbing gently, quick and easy to find,
signs of one happy child, seriously at play,
blissfully immersed, focused joy in mind.

Formidable cries of outraged simple justice
echo plaintive relevance, in half the time.
Maladaptive infants, destined for hospice
salvage an only child, daring to sing in rhyme.

Creativity equals unquestioning farce,
often reaching for absurdity, brazenly afire.
Instead, a blow is felt that no joy will soften,
accepting the price, added to the cost of desire.

~~ gigoid ~~

_____________________________

I’ve ranted all I am going to rant today, even if what is already done isn’t in a formal costume, so, that leaves either an old-school pearl for this section, or, one of the new type I came up with yesterday…. Well, hell, I’m in no frame of mind to decide something like that, so we’ll leave it up to SB to pick out whatever we are going to use…. If it is only three, well, that will tell me to go with the new format; five or seven will push us into the old…. As I’ve been forced to say several times already today, so be it….

“It was a saying of the ancients, “Truth lies in a well;” and to carry on this metaphor, we may justly say that logic does supply us with steps, whereby we may go down to reach the water.” — Dr. I. Watts

“Murphy was an optimist.” — O’Toole’s Commentary on Murphy’s Laws

“One must be partially insane to remain sane.” — J. Bothwell Avison

“A person who lacks the means, within himself, to live a good and happy life will find any period of his existence wearisome.” — Cicero – On Old Age

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

Perfect…. At first, it seemed as if this was destined to be a seven-star pearl, but, it turned out to be the most powerful type, a five-star pearl, with a point so sharp, it could slice sushi…..

I have read and understood the above.   X  ___________________
_____________________________

For once, it all got done, and, somehow, without any real stress…. I can only wish I had noted down whatever it was I did to make that happen, so I could do it again…. Oh, well, such is life, and it’s done, so I will forgo any bemoaning of my fate, in favor of making a clean getaway…. This went so smoothly, it’s done, and, with moments to spare…. Amazing…. Well, like it or not, I’ll be back, ffolkes…. See ya tomorrow, long as the creek don’t rise….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Save those false pretenses for the coffee cake….

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,

Okay, so what’s the deal here? I get up, all sleepy and grumpy, hoping to find that all is well, and I can get on with the day, only to find that nothing has changed….

There were supposed  to be dancing girls! Yes! Right there in the parlor. And, they were supposed to be wearing matching caftans! But, no, what do I find upon arising? A parlor full of dancing engineering students, wearing togas! Boy! You just can’t depend on anybody these days!…. Since we’re having to forgo the dancing girls, we may as well get started on today’s Pearl….. I suppose I also should come back into a more realistic voice, to make sure everyone ends up on the same page, so to speak….

Hi there! Good morning, sort of… We’re here in gigoid’s parlor, dodging the guys in horn rims dancing around, and waiting for inspiration to show up…. The muses are a bit edgy when they come here, due to Murphy’s uncomfortable habit of including them in his machinations, so I like to have them met at the door, and made welcome…. I had word that they, or, at least, one of them, would be showing up here about now to deliver what I left with them some time ago….

Oh, don’t worry, it’s not anything dangerous… at least, not any more so than the usual stuff we handle here. No, it’s merely some subject lines, a matched set of aphorisms, some platitudes, and a few choice phrases I left in their office when I was there a few days ago; I’ve got others, but, they were out this way today for deliveries anyway, so… I’m almost certain that there was definitely one item they’re bringing that I can use today, but, I don’t remember exactly which stuff got left there, so I have to wait to see it before I can go any further with today’s post…..

Does this mean we’re going to be forced to listen to more of my blathering here in the intro section?…. Well, yes, sad to say, it does mean that…. State law and internet etiquette requires me to provide you with some form of mental stimulation during these episodes, so, let’s see what kind of nonsense I can come up with today…. I mean, it’s not like we’ve already wandered around with our thumbs up our….. oh, wait, yes we have. In fact, that is what we seem to be doing right this very moment, if I’m not mistaken…

No, by heavens, I’m not! We HAVE been wandering around with SOMETHING up our…. well, somewhere, anyway. And, look! We’ve done it again! If you will note, there are five legal sized paragraphs above, all of which are pointing in the same direction, if not with any clarity of purpose. The law governing such things says this is enough for an intro, and around here, we pay close attention to that law…. we have to, due to gigoid’s lack of talent in this section…. Now that my covers are completely on the floor, we’d best get on with it…

Shall we Pearl?…..

Delivers in such apt and gracious words
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished;
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Love’s Labour’s Lost — Act ii, Sc. 1

(I know, terrible rhyme, but, it fits, sort of….) (Now you know why you don’t see Will’s work here very often….)
_____________________________

Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man’s erring judgment, and misguide the mind;
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,–
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Criticism, Part ii, Line 1

Now, THAT’S a poem!….

Yesterday, I had a bit of time with reduced pain, so I went to cruise the net, heading off to a few WP sites to catch up with some of my favorites, and check out a couple of new ones… I ended up going to quite a few blogs, compared to my normal inability to get anywhere. In my cruise, though, I noted something I hadn’t previously been aware of, regarding the demographics of the ‘Net, in terms of the stand that people take in political matters…

What I noticed is that there is a fairly wide array of opinions, wider than I had known, and certainly wider than anticipated…. But, I also noted that there are way too few of them who seem to be aware of just how badly they are being fooled by those whom they are following in their political pursuits…

On both the right wing, and the left, there seems to be a common ignorance of just how often the BRC lies to the public, and of how little they really care about the people who are behind them on the wagon they are driving…. Not only is this the case, but, there are a LOT of people out there who either don’t care, or don’t have the moral courage to express an opinion about any of what is happening out in the real world. In fact, this latter group, those who choose to ignore the world as much as they can, is the largest group by far…..

“Stupidity may be masked by sincerity, but it is still stupidity.” — Smart Bee

This means, not only are those who are involved in the issues ignorant of the actual truth, but nobody else, aside from a few curmudgeons like me, who hate EVERYBODY, (joke… we just don’t discriminate against anyone when it comes to being critical…. in my mind, they’re ALL fuck-tards….), has any idea of how little integrity, or real knowledge of what is truth, or, for that matter, common sense, there is loose in the world today…. All three of those items, essential to a healthy society, are lacking in our current world culture…. In point of fact, all three of those ideas are not only not loose, they seem to be totally absent from our reality…. much to our chagrin….

SIGH…. This is a rather amorphous rant, isn’t it? I’m railing against human nature again, which is such a huge, slippery concept, it’s difficult to confine it to one or two simple ideas for discussion…. Suffice it to say, my picture of humanity, even that part of it that is tech-savvy enough, and independently-minded enough, to have their own blogs on the ‘Net, fails to show me any of the qualities that will ensure our survival for much longer, and, actually, shows a lot of evidence that supports our extinction within the next 100-200 years….

Once the atmospheric levels of oxygen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and the other elements that make up what we breathe, have been altered to the point of no return, (which happened two years ago….)  it will not take long for us to succumb, as the process of degradation acts in a parabolic fashion, faster and faster the longer it goes on…. The ice will continue to melt, the seas will continue to rise, the air to get dirty, the weather to get stranger, and the people will continue to hide their heads in the sand….

It’s a sad commentary on our race, to my mind, when we, as a species, can’t even seem to pull it together long enough to make a concerted effort to stop those who have destroyed the environment we inhabit, as they have for millennia, and continue to do today, all out of their insatiable greed and utter inhumanity, aided and abetted by the ignorance embraced by most of the rest of humanity .

Hell, most of humanity isn’t even aware there is a problem, or any danger…. How does one overcome that level of ignorance?….. The BRC is a lot better at the carrot and stick routine than are the more honorable people in our world, and aren’t going to allow anyone to take away their privileges and perks; they’ve been at it for centuries, and are so good at it, most people never even realize they are slaves….

Okay, so I’ve ranted…. now I’m gonna go old-school… just because I can….

“A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.” — G.C. Lichtenberg

“What the hell, go ahead and put all your eggs in one basket.” — Smart Bee

“You cannot believe in honor unless you have achieved it. Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.” — George Bernard Shaw

Assume a virtue, if you have it not.
That monster, custom, who all sense doth eat,
Of habits devil, is angel yet in this.
— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet
— Act iii, Sc. 4

[A small difference of opinion on the U.S. Supreme Court in ‘Texas v. Johnson’ 491 U.S. 397 (1989)

“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the Government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.” — Justice William J. Brennan, writing for the majority

“Surely one of the purposes of a democratic society is to legislate against conduct that is regarded as evil and profoundly offensive to the majority of people; whether it be murder, embezzlement, pollution or flag burning.” — Chief Justice William Rehnquist, dissenting

(The question that occurs to me on reading this is this: how can a supposedly intelligent person, with a law degree and everything, have misunderstood the Constitution so badly?….. Astounding, not to even mention how stupid it is, to even TRY to rationalize the legislation of morality, which, in Mr. Rehnquist’s mind, or what passes for one, is confused with custom…. In spite of what many religious fundamentalists, and both right and left wing politicians, would have us believe, morality cannot be legislated, or, for that matter, influenced in any way at all by anything outside the person whose morality is under question…. Nor should morality be confused with custom; they are not the same thing…. nor should they be….)

(The second thing that occurred to me upon reading this was: Does it physically hurt to be that stupid?….)

😆

“Late in the night, we realize that the acts of our lives have not been shadow-free, that we are shadowed by curses and sins –not because we are cursed and sinful by nature, but because with the very origins of the world, one half of which belongs to night, come fearful figures who demand we know them.” — James Hillman

“What GOOD is a CARDBOARD suitcase ANYWAY?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Oops…. sorry, went a little off the rails there at the end; Zippy’s lines can do that, usually without conscious effort on my part…. But, it does rather fit, don’t you think?…. Just think of morality as the suitcase…. go ahead, it’s really not hard, and doesn’t hurt much, once you’re past the initial shock….
_____________________________

Having awakened in a “mood”, I’m trying not to let that spill over into this…. how’m I doin’?…. Oh…. Well, I’m trying, and will continue to do so, so, that’s worth something, right? Right…. Maybe this will make up for it…..

Apollo And The Graces

APOLLO

WHICH of the fairest three
To-day will ride with me?
My steeds are all pawing at the threshold of the morn:
Which of the fairest three
To-day will ride with me
Across the gold Autumn’s whole Kingdom of corn?

THE GRACES all answer

I will, I – I – I
young Apollo let me fly
Along with thee,
I will- I, I, I,
The many wonders see
I – I – I – I
And thy lyre shall never have a slackened string:
I, I, I, I,
Thro’ the golden day will sing.

~~ John Keats ~~

_____________________________

Well, gosh…. I’m not sure what to do now…. I’ve already supplied a fresh, newly minted rant, put together an old-school pearl with some great pearls, and found a great poem…. It’s not often I’m a tough act to follow, but I seem to have put myself in that position, so, we’ll apply some cosmic judo to the issue…. Here are pearls in a bunch…. not grouped, not chosen, just bunched up, into sort of a bouquet… Let’s see what happens….

“Fleas can be taught nearly everything a lawyer can.”” — Smart Bee

The Three Stooges, the sinking ship, and the lone lifeboat:

Ronald Reagan: “Maybe we should save the women and children.”
Richard Nixon: “F**k the women and children!”
Bob Packwood: “Gee, do you really think we have time?”

— the Stilt Man

“Ever notice that ‘what the hell?’ is always the right decision?” — Marilyn Monroe

Q: “How many lawyer jokes are there? A: 3, the rest are true stories.” — Smart Bee

“Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away; they are egotistic, secretive, dry as old bones. To be smart enough to get all that money you must be dull enough to want it.” — G. K. Chesterton, A Miscellany of Men

“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” — Aesop (620-560 B.C.)

LIFE, n.  A spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay.  We live in daily apprehension of its loss; yet when lost it is not missed. The question, “Is life worth living?” has been much discussed; particularly by those who think it is not, many of whom have written at great length in support of their view and by careful observance of the laws of health enjoyed for long terms of years the honors of successful controversy.

“Life’s not worth living, and that’s the truth,”
Carelessly caroled the golden youth.
In manhood still he maintained that view
And held it more strongly the older he grew.
When kicked by a jackass at eighty-three,
“Go fetch me a surgeon at once!” cried he.
Han Soper

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”
_____________________________

“The sixties were good to you, weren’t they?” — George Carlin

Why, yes, George, yes, they were…. which should be moderately obvious to even the most casual observer…. Now you’ve done it… You’ve uncovered my secret plan, to confuse everyone with so many words, that make such little sense, you don’t know which ones to pick for use, and the little easter eggs I’ve strewn throughout the pages can work their clandestine, subliminal magic….

Oh, well, it couldn’t last forever…. I’ll just go back to the old way of doing things, and bore everyone to tears, but, get just as much done…. For now, though, this will have to do, so I’d best see if it’s worthy…. Be right back….

I must say, after going through it, THIS is a Pearl!…. Somehow, in spite of all Murphy and his myrmidons have conspired to foist upon me, the poor lad will be forced to consider today a major fail…. This ain’t bad at all…. It’s good enough to post, anyway, so, I’m going with that….. In fact, I’m going to get out of here, while the getting is good…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Platitudes are on sale every third decade….

Posted on by
2

Ffolkes,

Hello, ffolkes, I’m back…. It seems Ernie H-II, the writing ‘bot I found, filled in yesterday with distinction, if not perfection…. I appreciate his help in a tight spot; I didn’t feel well, and left myself short of time to get it figured out, so, his willingness to pitch in on short notice saved the day…. It isn’t often you get that kind of cooperation from a ‘bot, especially an AI ‘bot, but, he is a VERY well-programmed machine, and it shows in his demeanor….

I’m still not feeling like busting out in song, but, I think I can pull it together long enough to put out a Pearl… with a bit of help from whatever impulsive absurdity I can come up with on the spur of the moment to keep it moving, or to supply the proper stimulus at the proper moment to keep it from flagging…. That last sentence could be considered a metaphor for this entire process, but, it’s a weekday, so we’ll leave the metaphors alone until they’re ripe, which only happens on weekends…

As you can see, taking a day off hasn’t reduced the size of my nose, or dulled its shiny red color; whatever comes out today is liable to be a bit caustic, or toxic, or at minimum, confusing, so, if I were y’all, I’d keep my hands inside the rails, and refrain from teasing any of the animals we may encounter, just to improve the odds of survival…. Oh, don’t fret too much, we have yet to lose an entire group; in fact, we’ve only lost a total of three individuals in all this time, and two of those were self-induced catastrophes, for which we were cleared of all charges…. The third guy was found to be an ex-Mouseketeer who had an obsession about oysters, and ate too many in the wrong season, so no charges were ever filed….

I mean, is it my fault if they snapped their cookies while reading my blog? No, it isn’t, even if what is written isn’t terribly helpful to those without the inner strength to use it; what gets written here doesn’t actually CAUSE insanity, it just skirts the edge of feeling it…. Besides, all we can do is all we can do, right? Right….

As is apparent, I’m not at my best today; chalk it up to whatever physical issues are still plaguing me, (about which I refuse to whine, or even comment on….) and we’ll get on with this…. I apologize in advance for any decrease in quality or relevance, and can only hope that any lack will be counter-balanced by increased humor, as I find my own debilities to be good reason to laugh at myself, for hubris, if for nothing else….

Life is pain, ffolkes… I’ve known this for a long time…. all my life, in fact. As such, it is well to learn how to deal with pain in an efficient manner, because, one way or another, we, as humans, will always have at least a little of it present in our lives, always there, to keep us aware of our mortality…. To me, that is both funny, and ironic, not to mention written in stone….

So, I’m gonna take my pain, and roll it into a little ball, so I can stick it under the table until I’m done…. That’s better than letting it have its way, and losing another whole day to weakness, and the concomitant misery…. If it works, great…. If it doesn’t, well, let’s hope I can find the humor in it, and put it down to share…..

Shall we Pearl?….

“Breaks balance out. The sun don’t shine on the same ol’ dog’s ass every day.” — Darrell Royal
_____________________________

In an attempt to return balance to the Metaphorse, I’m going on a quest…. I’m going to gather a group of pearls together, whose subtlety, depth, and, perspicacity will bring tears to your eyes…. in response to the headache you’ll get from trying to figure out what the hell I’m talking about…. This one will be so obscure, you won’t be able to penetrate to the meaning without major weaponry, of nuclear capability. So, please remember to read this in the privacy of your own mind, and don’t let any of it spill over onto your neighbors…. It’s a good one….

“If possible, try to find a way to come downstairs that doesn’t involve going bump, bump, bump, on the back of your head. ” — Pooh in Winnie the Pooh A.A. Milne

“Do you have exactly what I want in a plaid poindexter bar bat??” — Zippy the Pinhead

“Ignorance of death is destroying us. Death is the dark backing a mirror needs if we are to see anything.” — Saul Bellow

“I love my country too much to be a nationalist.” — Albert Camus

“I may be a self-made man, but then, when I get to thinking about it, if I had it to do over again, I think I would call in someone else.” — Roland Young

“One of your most ancient writers, a historian named Herodotus, tells of a thief who was to be executed.  As he was taken away he made a bargain with the king: in one year he would teach the king’s favorite horse to sing hymns. The other prisoners watched the thief singing to the horse and laughed. “You will not succeed,” they told him.  “No one can.”  To which the thief replied, “I have a year, and who knows what might happen in that time. The king might die. The horse might die.  I might die. And perhaps the horse will learn to sing.” — The Mote in God’s Eye (Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven)

“Give me a lever and place to stand and I will move the world.” — Archimedes (c. 287-212 B.C.), Pappus, Synagogue, VIII, 10, xi

See? Plain as a black cat in a windowless room at midnight, with the lights off….. As recompense, should you find your way to the right place, it’s a very friendly cat….
_____________________________

Some days, I’m in the mood for poetry that challenges the mind, as well as the spirit…. this woman’s words always do that….

A Winter Ship

At this wharf there are no grand landings to speak of.
Red and orange barges list and blister
Shackled to the dock, outmoded, gaudy,
And apparently indestructible.
The sea pulses under a skin of oil.

A gull holds his pose on a shanty ridgepole,
Riding the tide of the wind, steady
As wood and formal, in a jacket of ashes,
The whole flat harbor anchored in
The round of his yellow eye-button.

A blimp swims up like a day-moon or tin
Cigar over his rink of fishes.
The prospect is dull as an old etching.
They are unloading three barrels of little crabs.
The pier pilings seem about to collapse

And with them that rickety edifice
Of warehouses, derricks, smokestacks and bridges
In the distance. All around us the water slips
And gossips in its loose vernacular,
Ferrying the smells of cod and tar.

Farther out, the waves will be mouthing icecakes —-
A poor month for park-sleepers and lovers.
Even our shadows are blue with cold.
We wanted to see the sun come up
And are met, instead, by this iceribbed ship,

Bearded and blown, an albatross of frost,
Relic of tough weather, every winch and stay
Encased in a glassy pellicle.
The sun will diminish it soon enough:
Each wave-tip glitters like a knife.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

_____________________________

Jacob: “You know sometimes I get a little worried that you’re gonna get my favorite planet blown up.”
Jack: “Yes. Which planet is that?”

— from Stargate

I’m always feeling a small bite of anxiety, in the back of my mind, as time passes, and we approach the End of Days for Mankind…. I’m not speaking about any predictions of doom related by supposed prophets, such as Rasputin, who predicted that today would be the beginning of the Apocalypse, or some such catastrophe, back in the day when he was known as the Mad Monk of Moscow…. No, I’m talking about the very real end of our stay on this planet, brought about by our own foolish belief that we are immortal, a belief that will find no basis in reality when we are all gone, victims of the physical laws we chose to ignore, laws we broke with what we believed was impunity….

What I worry about is that the end won’t come as I hope it will, in slow stages; that would at least give us a small chance of survival, on another planet, if not this one…. I’m afraid, though, it will come more quickly than I hope, fueled by the death throes of the ruling classes, who won’t want to believe that they are included in the sentence of death that we have passed upon ourselves…. They could conceivably make things even worse for the rest of us by their insane insistence on continuing the very actions that are killing us, and using force to keep on doing so…. I can envision such actions leading to a very ugly situation, as the declining resources of our planet, such as air to breathe, or water to drink, are fought over by the few remaining humans, with all the formidable ferocity of which we are capable…..

Forget about food, or shelter, ffolkes, the physics of these issues, global warming, and the pollution of the atmosphere, are a mathematical certainty, if the addition of CO and CO2 in massive quantities into the air continue at the current rate. Those figures, which cannot lie, show us a very ugly picture of ANY future that may result; ugly, in the fact that humans are NOT in the picture at all….. The oceans are getting warmer, as is the whole planet, and this leads to climate change; this is eminently clear from the geological and fossil history we already have proven to be true, and once the process starts, on a global scale, it takes time to stop it, or to restrict the changes that have been induced, time we no longer have….

But, this process is at least capable  of solution, physically…. It is the intransigence of the people who run things in our society, and the ignorance, avarice, and fear that controls them, that is keeping any possible solutions from being instituted, or even begun. This intransigence is not only holding things up, it could conceivably make it go faster, by creating upheavals in society that could cause the pressure cooker in which we live to explode into violence, even more so than it does now…

Such deal breaking events are already being seen in the news, as that area of our culture becomes ever more insane, right along with the rest of society…. For example, the current flap over the surveillance of email and phone conversations by the government is one that may eventually lead to more outrageous events, and be the cause of further increase in the rate we speed toward oblivion….. I’ve been watching the story unfold in the news, and become more flabbergasted as time passes.

The reaction of the government, in my mind, ever since this became public knowledge, has been characterized by disdain (by first denying, then admitting with a sheepish grin….), dishonesty (even in the face of their own documentation, they lie about the extent of the programs, and continue to do so…. see below….), and arrogant entitlement (they have neither admitted they were acting illegally, nor stopped or limited those illegal actions….).  In all of the public statements, I have seen no apology to the public, nor any real admission of wrong-doing; instead, the President talks about “having the trust of the public”, and issues a flurry of information that appears to show their commitment to controlling the surveillance, when all it really shows is that they aren’t doing much of anything to oversee the process….

Here are three articles that show exactly how much obfuscation and distraction are used as a technique for diverting the public’s attention away from the actual programs themselves, and focusing it on extraneous issues, that have no real effect on stopping, or limiting the surveillance. It just makes it LOOK like they are doing something….

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Obama-defends-government-surveillance-programs-4755098.php

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/NSA-says-it-was-told-to-stop-collecting-some-data-4754364.php

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/NSA-collected-thousands-of-US-communications-4749853.php

Incredible amount of shadowy details, with no clear purpose in reporting them, other than distraction? Yep…. Plus, they admit right up front that their own attempts to restrict the collection have been relatively non-existent…. They speak of 56,000 emails that were “inadvertently” gathered up with some emails that “might” have come from terrorists…. What a crock! That number isn’t a fraction of a percentage point of the number of emails that go out daily, and doesn’t mention the fact that this collection was one of MILLIONS of times they mined such emails, or the BILLIONS of emails and phone calls that are monitored…. And, those 56,000 emails are the ones they’re saying they DIDN’T read….. as if they believe we’ll believe that….

Note also, if you will, the repetitive language used in the articles… showing clearly how the media fosters and maintains the lies that are being spread by those in charge, using words and phrases designed to encourage belief and trust in the BRC, as well as in the honesty and impartiality of the reporters…. However, to my mind, it just tells me that the media is supporting the agenda being promulgated by the government, and whether they are doing so unconsciously, or deliberately, they continue to be as much a part of the problem as those on whom they are reporting…..

Now, if some reporter would just ask the right questions, and report the answers accurately, maybe, just maybe we’d be able to shame them enough to actually make a change…. I don’t think I’ll be holding my breath, waiting for THAT to happen, though….

It is Maya!
Dost thou not know her?
Illusion — dreams — phantoms.
But, to the wise, Maya is more.
——————
But, to the wise, Maya is more.
Look around:
All that thou see’st,
Trees and shrubs, The grass at thy feet,
All that walks or creeps,
All that flies from tree to tree,
All is unreal: All is Maya.
Our bodies, our limbs, our very thoughts.
We ourselves are slaves to Maya.
What remaineth?  Who can say?
Love to the lover,
The child to the mother,
The song to the singer,
God to the worshipper;
These, wandering thro’ the world of Maya,
Are perchance shadows of that which is.

— Holst, Savitri (based upon the Sanskrit Mahabharata)
_____________________________

“I’m in my own little world, but everybody knows me there.” — Smart Bee

Since SB came up with a perfect closing line, I’ll just see how the rest went…. Considering everything that has gone into creating this, it’s not half bad… As such, I’m going to go post it, before collapsing for the balance of the morning…. So be it, gigoid has spoken….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Democracy has become a joke in poor taste…..

Posted on by
Reply

Ffolkes,

Bah, humbug! None of it makes any sense, and it certainly isn’t designed for comfort; hence, crankiness rules now apply…. No insults are too cheap, no bad names too vile for us to use, with gusto. Today, come what may, a spade will be called a spade, and outright roguery will be called to task. I don’t care a whit who the target is, or how dignified the office they hold, or how sacred they are considered by worshipful millions, if they piss me off, they’re gonna hear about it, in plain talk, without a single moment’s hesitation, and every effort will be expended to fry them unmercifully on the hot seat of my scrutiny, until their skin crackles,they start to resemble a mutilated raisin, and their screams for mercy are ringing in my ears, making beautiful music….

In order to rant effectively, the above attitude is necessary; without it, one cannot achieve the proper state of curmudgeonry, nor can one possibly reach the depth of vindictiveness that is required to poke at public figures and make it worthwhile…. In other words, one must get in direct touch with their sense of outrage, and allow it to direct, if not control, the feelings of anger, frustration, and betrayal that are so common when the BRC carries out some new, or old, method of screwing us, an event that they tend to consider as their privilege, if not their vocation….

Seriously, those who hold office in the USA, whether it is in the executive, judicial, or legislative branch of the government, think that stealing from us, lying to us, and generally bending us over and fucking us in the ass on a regular basis, are their rights as elected officials of this country, and, to be frank, I’m more than just a little tired of it…. They don’t even bother to use any K-Y Jelly, or even Vaseline…

Of course, it would help if we didn’t invite them to do so, every election…. I mean, we keep on voting the assholes into office, so we really don’t have a lot of stable ground to stand on in that respect…. Of course, we also don’t have any way to tell which ones are lying the most, but, hey, that’s on us, not on them…. We KNOW they’re going to lie, so, it becomes OUR problem when we keep letting them do it….

SIGH…. There I go again, ranting before I’ve even had any coffee, to speak of…. I drank enough to swallow my morning meds, but, then, started typing; once begun, it just ran away with me…. I guess I was dreaming about this, or something, so it was right there on the top for me to use this morning when I booted up. I hope it doesn’t mean I’ll be in crank mode all day… I’ve got stuff to do out in the BBR that will require me to speak to other people without chewing on them, which is hard to do, when all I feel like doing is slapping them silly….. I’ll have to be careful not to let it out on anyone who doesn’t deserve it (though, in general, they do….).

BIG, CHEST-HEAVING, PATHETICALLY DRAMATIC SIGH…. 😳  People are so gullible. It’s a big part of our nature, to believe what we hear, if it is presented in a certain way, from someone who, previously, has garnered our trust, generally by prior statements. Unfortunately, we never seem to learn, at least, not well enough to be consistent about it, to verify those original statements before giving the trust, or attempt to ascertain in some other way whether or not the person’s words are worthy of our trust. This goes for elected officials especially, but, as I just demonstrated, it is true for blogs, as well….

Most of the above rant is Pure Grade A 100% BS, government certified, and if anybody knows their shit, it’s the government. Oh, all the stuff about them, and their unfortunate tendency to lie, cheat, and steal, as an avocation, is true as the day is long. But the stuff about waking up cranky, being a curmudgeon, etc., that’s all BS again today…. Please note that I spoke one piece of truth, to wit: I did drink my coffee before actually typing, and therein lies the critical difference, that should have clued you in to my use of untruth as a literary device, to hook you in, and lead you logically into the ranting portion of the piece.

In short, this has been an experiment, in human psychology, and YOU are part of it! Doesn’t that just make you all tingly with excitement and joy?

Oh…. No?

Well, heck, I thought y’all would like something new and different, but, I guess it should be something that actually engages your interest, rather than tricking you into the same sort of manipulative situation that the BRC is wont to do to you (us), such as lying, and tricking you into believing things that aren’t actually real, or as dangerous and frightening as they are made out to be…… I would suppose, had I not gone so far off-script, we might have called what just happened a morality play, but…. I guess this means we should just call it a minor clusterfuck, and get on with the rest of the day….

Shall we Pearl?….

“I couldn’t remember when I had been so disappointed.   Except perhaps the time I found out that M&Ms really *do* melt in your hand …” — Peter Oakley
_____________________________

“Abstain from beans; that is, keep out of public offices, for anciently the choice of the officers of state was made by beans.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of the Training of Children

It always amazes me when I read stuff like this…. Statements like this show me that in the past one thousand, eight hundred, and ninety-three years since Plutarch reportedly died, the human race has made virtually no progress at all in learning how to govern ourselves well. By “well” I mean we have not learned, any better than they did back then, how to govern so that the people are fed, clothed, protected from their less scrupulous peers, made well when sick or injured, and generally operated with the best interests of ALL the people as primary motivation, using all resources equally and fairly, in such a way that the Earth, our only home, is also nurtured and protected, so that we will always have it….

Of course, I have to admit, to be fair, that we had not made any real progress in that when Plutarch lived, either, so, it isn’t as if we had the best examples by which we could practice our lessons to be learned in new ways. But, one would think, after all this time of watching things go wrong, we would have learned at least one or two things we could use to save our asses, now that we’re getting close to losing them…. But, it is obvious, to me, and to many, that we haven’t learned much in all these centuries, because we are still facing the same issues that were plaguing society in the days of Christ, and have continued in all the years thereafter.

I’m ranting again, and I didn’t really want to do that; this is supposed to be an old-school pearl, the first of which is the above quote from Mr. Oakley, which was intended to set the tone…. But, as is common, I couldn’t shut myself up, and had to sing another refrain in my ongoing song of lamentation regarding the state of the BRC, and the world we live in, for now…. Now, however, I’ve caught myself before getting too far into it, and will go search out the proper quotes to bring home the concept that is in my head…. Hopefully, it will be less ponderous, and less pompous, than another rant….. I’m also hoping for it to be a bit more entertaining….    😉

“Do you think sheep know when you’re pulling the wool over their eyes?” — Smart Bee

“Turning and turning the widening gyre,
the falcon cannot hear the falconer,
things fall apart, the center cannot hold,
mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

— W.B. Yeats

“The right of the citizens to bear arms is just one more guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against a tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible.” — Senator Hubert Humphrey

“Those who fear death most are those who enjoy life least.” — Edward Abbey

“Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.” — Epictetus (c. 60 AD) — Discourses, Book i, Chap. xii

“Antiphanes said merrily, that in a certain city the cold was so intense that words were congealed as soon as spoken, but that after some time they thawed and became audible; so that the words spoken in winter were articulated next summer.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Of Man’s Progress in Virtue

“Uh-oh —  WHY am I suddenly thinking of a VENERABLE religious leader frolicking on a FORT LAUDERDALE weekend?” — Zippy the Pinhead

Okay, so it came out a bit obfuscated…. it’s what happens when I give SB its head…. But, it’s still marginally better than a rant, and does get where it needs to go, so, it will do…. Did I mention you should have your seat belts fastened?….
_____________________________

Yesterday, I spent the day dealing with an age-related physical issue, to wit: agonizing pain, due to a spasming muscle in my neck. The pain, which lasted most of the day, and into the night, was, at times, excruciating, and forced me into bed for most of the day, starting at about 10 AM. It finally eased up, thanks to extreme rest, and extra medication, and is, thus far, not the same issue today…. I hate those days, as they force me to accept the passage of time in terms of what I can no longer do, or count on my body being able to do. But, it does give me a lot of time to spend in my head, a place where I refuse to be uncomfortable, or bored, or anything but happy to spend time, doing what I like doing best, just letting my mind wander through the vast spaces of the Universe as I perceive it….

Hence, Yeats….. with no apologies, and no regrets…..

A Prayer For Old Age

GOD guard me from those thoughts men think
In the mind alone;
He that sings a lasting song
Thinks in a marrow-bone;
From all that makes a wise old man
That can be praised of all;
O what am I that I should not seem
For the song’s sake a fool?
I pray — for word is out
And prayer comes round again —
That I may seem, though I die old,
A foolish, passionate man.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

_____________________________

So, here we are, knee deep in this muddy expanse I like to call my mind’s playground, to wit: consensual reality, and I was thinking to myself, “now what?” Having no good answer, I will once again fall back to my default position, and put together a pearl of the old-school variety, strictly for fun…. What I mean by that is, I intend to have fun putting it together, and I intend it to be fun for y’all to read….

However, we all know about good intentions, and where we can end up by having them, or, more critically, by using them, so, I’ll be careful not to let that get us into trouble…. Not in section three, it’s not allowed that late in this venue…. Bad things can happen to the space-time continuum, so, there are safeguards built in that should keep us relatively safe…. as long as we remember to wear the helmets provided…. Remember, anything that splashes on you should be immediately cleansed away, or…. well, just clean it up quickly, so we never need to see what it does….

“Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.” — La Fontaine

“Holy Hand Grenades, Batman!” — Robin

“Go on, EMOTE!  I was RAISED on thought balloons!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

“If it isn’t Scottish…it’s CRRRRRAP!” — Smart MacBee

(Side joke: An American tourist was in a shop in Scotland, with one of those new wallets that uses Velcro to stay closed. When he opened it to pay for his selection, the shopkeeper exclaimed, “Och, now that’s a proper Scottish wallet! It scrreams when you open it!”) (I read that joke in Reader’s Digest, over 25 years ago….)

“No harm can come to a good man in life or death.” — Socrates

“A mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought, alone.” — William Wordsworth

“I … reject the argument put forth by many fundamentalists that science has nothing to do with religion because God is not among the things making up the  universe in which we live.   Surely if a necessity for a god-concept in the universe ever turns up, that necessity will become evident to the scientist.” — physicist Ralph Alpher, Theology of the Big Bang, Religious Humanism,       Vol. XVII, No. 1 (Winter 1983), pg. 12

You may have noted that there is no point to this pearl; it’s all about fun, for me, anyway….. and, I’m not done having fun yet, so here, to follow up this wonderful seven-star pearl, is another, a five-star pearl gathered using the same operational motivation…. i.e., none to speak of….

“What’s another word for Thesaurus?” — Steven Wright

“Beware of the young doctor and the old barber.” — Benjamin Franklin

“We should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.” — Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (1844-1900)
(I use this one a lot…. It’s a big part of what I consider my basic attitude toward life at large….)

“We can do noble acts without ruling earth and sea.” — Aristotle

“If called by a panther…don’t anther.” — Ogden Nash (1902-1971), “Parents Keep Out!”

I rest my case…. and a good thing, too! This may be a new record, for the number of pearls, in the most pearls, in any one Pearl, ever…. If you followed that, you’ve been reading this blog for a long time, and good for you…. For the rest of y’all, just note, please, I’ve once again completely lost my mind prior to the end of this missive….
_____________________________

Well, that was fun! For me, anyway…. Let’s take a peek at what others will see…. Wow! Now, THAT is an epic Pearl, and just chock full of virtual wisdom and humor, or an irrational facsimile thereof….. I can feel myself getting more and more out of control in my head; if I don’t stop typing soon, two things will happen….

First, my back will turn into a mass of muscles in spasm, intent on achieving the same relative hardness as a two-by-four piece of ironwood, and I’ll turn into a whiny, pathetic mess; and, second, I will probably end up saying, or writing something that will get me arrested, or, flamed in vile, misspelled language by some fundie, or other silly shit-for-brains, instead of hearing applause, or intelligently critical, but polite, comments from my esteemed Gentle Readers…. and I’m blathering now, so I’ll stop….

It will do, and it’s certainly enough for one day…. Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…. Blessed Be…

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Save those last few multicolored polynomials….

Posted on by
1

Ffolkes,

Reeling from an overabundance of hyper-oxygenated brain cells, I awoke, in severe confusion. Since quitting the consumption of nicotine via the avenue of cigarette smoking, (I’m wearing the patch to titrate myself off the bloody things….), I’ve been sleeping better, due, in part, to the decrease in my coughing, and, in part, from increased oxygenation while sleeping. It has, however, presented a different conundrum for me to deal with, which consists of a period of confusion and concomitant mild fear when I wake…. I can’t say as yet just why I wake up confused, but, I do, and the mild fear is a reaction to having to face the world in that state…..

Actually, that’s all a load of BS, and I’m just talking through my hat, which is marginally better than talking through my ass…. I did  start wearing the patch, and have stopped smoking the cigarettes; it has also lessened my coughing, and increased my oxygen, thus improving the quality of my sleep…. The rest of it is all made up, just to practice two writing skills, one being sentence construction (major fail there…), and, sounding sincere and reasonable…. I think it came out alright on that part, even though it’s all just crap, in terms of facts and reality…… The sentence structure, such as it is, needs work to sound less pompous, and more ‘user-friendly’, to borrow some tech-speak….

So, how’re y’all doin’? For me, it’s been a quiet time of late, just learning the ins and outs of this new relationship, and dealing with the difficulties and issues that life and reality brings us all to deal with… For us retirees, thankfully, there is less of it, and the time limits aren’t usually so critical as when we were younger…. which is a good thing, because we move slower now, and need longer to get things done…. We have the advantage of a greater degree of foresight, and usually, a greater degree of organization and time management, though, so it all evens out for the most part….. I wasn’t sure if I would, but, I’m really enjoying being retired, now that I am more financially comfortable. The perks and advantages to being older seem to be greater, thus far, than the disadvantages, which are mostly due to the physical issues involved in the aging process we all go through…..

There, that’s done… I’m counting the above paragraph as my daily portion of bitching and whining about getting old, even though it’s more positive than not…. Consider it a gift….    🙂   Now that is out of the way, there’s nothing holding us back from getting on with today’s post, which, given the disruptions to routine that have already occurred, and the alterations already made in the background, where you wouldn’t notice, promises to be, shall we say, unique? Well, different, anyway, and, hopefully, entertaining, if nothing else….. I see that we’ve again reached the proper amount of vacuous nonsense for stimulation, (or is that simulation?…) of the cortical processes we pursue each day….

Shall we Pearl?…..
_____________________________

Isaac Asimov    The headlines I read every day show me absolute proof of Mr. Asimov’s assertion, as the power of stupidity in human affairs continues to direct, no, drag us, ever closer to our own self-destruction as a species. Ignorance, and the resulting fear of the unknown, is the single most powerful issue, in my estimation, in the struggle for existence in which we are now engaged. Moreover, by its very nature, that issue, and its power, is working against  our continued presence on this planet in a way that almost guarantees its success (though, in fact, if properly channeled, it could, instead, be a powerful motivational tool for survival….). It (stupidity/ignorance) does that by appealing to what every human alive has, and will give in to every time it is invoked, to wit: our own personal self-interest…..

No matter how ethical, or moral, one considers themselves, they are still making their decisions in life, about everything, based on their own self-interest. This colors every aspect of what we perceive, for it determines, in advance, how we will employ those perceptions to act. Our self-interest considers, first, what WE want to make ourselves happy, and it is only those with the will and the intelligence to subdue this impulse who can bring themselves to act out of true charity, or selflessness, thinking first of what will benefit all, rather than just themselves. Any other acts of that nature are, when examined closely for motive, performed because they somehow improve the person’s own position, either in the real world, or in the world in our minds…. Remember, ffolkes, those are two separate things, entirely, and should not be confused as being the same thing (though that is what everyone tries to do…. make the outer world conform to their inner image of that world….)

Now, I realize that it’s a bit early for philosophical discussions of such a subtle, and deep, subject…. But, this issue is what I consider to be the primary operational factor in how the world is, quite frankly, going to hell in a handbasket…. Human nature is the very thing that is killing us, and will continue to do so as long as the most fearful and ignorant among us are allowed, and even encouraged, to continually act in their own self-interests, because those little indulgences are going to end up killing us all, all because the greedy and avaricious assholes who are in charge of the world’s resources are immoral and unethical enough to feel no moral dilemma, at keeping the rest of the ignorant masses under their control, for the benefit of THEIR own self-interests….

They, the BRC, the corporate masters, and their myrmidons, the churches, the police, and the armed forces, are the ones who have no ethical compunctions against making people afraid, so they can fan those fears, promising deliverance, if only they will give up their independence, and allow others to think for them. This system gives them everything they want…. power over others, power over money and resources, and control over everything they see, so that it all is working in a way that fulfills and enhances their self-interests…. It matters not at all to these monsters that the rest of mankind suffers, or that eventually the path they have chosen will kill ALL of us; it matters not, because their sense of entitlement does not stretch to include the concept of their own demise; they don’t think they are subject to the same laws as the rest of us, and tend to forget that they, too, are subject to the laws of physics…. laws from which there IS NO APPEAL…..

I’m a smart guy, and I’ve seen this building up through all of my life, due to events that have taken place throughout mankind’s relatively short (cosmically speaking) history on this planet…. I also am smart enough to realize that it’s all coming to a head, because physics cannot be ignored, and the physics of the situation here on Earth says that drastic changes are coming, in terms of planetary weather, and atmospheric, and oceanic chemistry, and those changes are going to be more than we are (currently…) able to cope with, either in a physical sense, or a cultural sense…. In other words, she’s a gonna blow, so we’d best be ready to jump….

I’m personally hoping that a Martian colony can be established before I, or my children and grandchildren, get swept up in the maelstrom to come…. If so, and they would take someone of my age, I would grab my grown kids, my grandson, and Patricia, and her kids, and be off to Mars, in a heartbeat….. Otherwise, I need to figure out another way to get the world to make the inner changes needed to alter the path we are on, or, quite simply, we are all going to die…. Maybe not today, and maybe not in the next 50-100 years…. But, the physics says that it WILL happen, ffolkes, so, I’d advise y’all to at least think about what you might do when it does…..

Okay, I’m done being a doom sayer for today…. Today is a good day, or will be, if I have anything to say about it…. Oh, you say you need proof of all I’m asserting here? Okay, this should make it pretty clear…. This is a real law, I checked….

“In Lexington, Kentucky, it’s illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your pocket.” — Smart Bee

(Okay, so I didn’t really check, but, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to find this to be true in fact…. We’ve all seen sillier examples that ARE true….)
_____________________________

After such a somber rant, I feel the need for something soothing to my spirit; it’s hard to be serious for so long…. Well, it is for me…. Besides, if we take the view of a solipsist, all of this. (Life, the Universe, and Everything….), is perfectly under our control, and we can change it anytime we wish, right?….. Right….

Soliloquy Of The Solipsist

I?
I walk alone;
The midnight street
Spins itself from under my feet;
When my eyes shut
These dreaming houses all snuff out;
Through a whim of mine
Over gables the moon’s celestial onion
Hangs high.

I
Make houses shrink
And trees diminish
By going far; my look’s leash
Dangles the puppet-people
Who, unaware how they dwindle,
Laugh, kiss, get drunk,
Nor guess that if I choose to blink
They die.

I
When in good humor,
Give grass its green
Blazon sky blue, and endow the sun
With gold;
Yet, in my wintriest moods, I hold
Absolute power
To boycott any color and forbid any flower
To be.

I
Know you appear
Vivid at my side,
Denying you sprang out of my head,
Claiming you feel
Love fiery enough to prove flesh real,
Though it’s quite clear
All you beauty, all your wit, is a gift, my dear,
From me.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

_____________________________

I’m not sure what stimulated the rant above, but, it felt good to get all that out, if nothing else…. So, I’ll indulge my own self-interest at this point, (as if that isn’t what I’ve been doing now for over a million words, a couple thousand of them daily for over two years….), and go to an old-school pearl, that is, at the very least, fresh, if not excitingly unique and perfect…. Hell, it may end up being perfect; that’s the nice thing about going in cold, you never know…. This one will be as random as I can make it, as I’m not setting any parameters, except that I like it, and it goes somewhere…. I don’t care where….  Enjoy!

“Nothing’s so weird that no one’s done it.” — Smart Bee

“I’m sorry. I’m not allowed to argue any more.” — Smart Bee, speaking for gigoid…

“It is a terrible thing for a man to find out suddenly that all his life he has been speaking nothing but the truth.” — Oscar Wilde

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” — Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)

“You can play with my mind if you let me play with yours..”– Smart Bee, speaking for gigoid, again.

“A good place to start is where you are.” — Charles Wolf, Jr.

It is the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance.
It is the dream afraid of waking
that never takes a chance.
It is the one who won’t be taken
who cannot seem to give.
And the soul afraid of dying
that never learns to live.

— Bette Midler, The Rose
_____________________________

One of my strongest skills is rationalization; as someone who posts every day, when possible, I have to be flexible in what I allow to go out, because, believe it or not, I do have some pride in what I do here…. Very little, as I’m a pretty good judge of literature, as opposed to litterature, and my own efforts goes back and forth between the two…. Let’s see what has been wrought today, shall we…. I can’t be sure, but, it’s pretty close to good, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, so, I’m taking it, and I’m gonna run with it…. Like I’ve said before, a number of times, I’ve done worse….  😆   Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3