Tag Archives: Philosophy

Put the stray curator in the parlor for now….

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Ffolkes,
Rational thought, being skittish, and reluctant to come out to play at this time of the morning, has easily escaped my feeble effort to pin it down, in spite of the reservation I made. While the foregone conclusion may well be obvious, that doesn’t alleviate the frustration. Having, however, given a solemn promise, this won’t stop me, but may, due to circumstances completely within my control, adversely affect the quality of the content of today’s Pearl. I’ve a pile of stuff to take care of today out in the BBR, so this missive must needs be done smartly; I only hope I can do so with some style…..

Legal requirements for blog intro material require me to notify any potential readers of the above, little as it has to do with anything at all. Regulations are like that, especially when they only exist in my imagination, but, I prefer to cover all the bases, having experienced the wrath of bureaucrats previously. Not that imaginary bureaucrats have anywhere near the power as actual, live zombies, but, one must do what one believes to be correct, even if not entirely sure of what that may be…. In spite of what you might have heard, the Universe does give points for effort; you just can’t use those points for any of the prizes….

Right…. now that we have conjured up a sufficient quantity of absolute twaddle, it is imperative we not lose momentum, lest we lose track of what has been done, and what remains to do. Of course, I can’t honestly say that I ever actually KEEP track of any of that, but, it sounds good, and does fill in more space. Moreover, we have honorably adhered to my determination to avoid anything resembling cheese, thereby keeping under control one’s consumption of cheese’s favorite beverage companion, dry, white whine…. Hey, it can’t be any other color; I’m Caucasian, and haven’t been out in the sun without a shirt for years…..

Now that I have completely gone ’round the bend, we’ll get on with today’s conflagration (I don’t know what else to call it at this point…..). I will point out that, despite any such rumors to the contrary, none of what is included in this blog has any nutritional value…. intrinsic philosophical value, yes, but, don’t bother trying to live on it, as you’ll end up with a severe case of scurvy to go along with the hair loss….

“It is human nature to think wisely & act foolishly.” — Anatole France
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As mentioned above, I have a lot to do today out in the real world, so fresh material will have to wait until tomorrow…. Here is a relatively short rant, sort of a combined political and religious rant, from the first day of the year we are currently surviving…. It came out pretty good, and is still quite valid today, so…. enjoy!….
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“If the obstacles of bigotry and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do everything else.” — Thomas Jefferson

Oh well, so much for THAT hope! From all I can see in today’s society, what Tom J was afraid of has come to pass. If one takes almost any of the articles in the news that talk about the activities of government, religion, or society at large, it is obvious that bigotry and priestcraft have corrupted every level of those entities, and influence just about every human interaction that we see. Common sense is nowhere present, in any of those same activities under discussion. Of course, he forgot, in this instance, to include the bankers, but perhaps that is where the bigotry comes in…..

By its precise meaning, bigotry doesn’t include the idea of cheating, lying, and stealing from whomever one encounters; those activities, for a bigot, are only appropriate when done to those outside the personal group, to “foreigners, niggers, and chinks,” or some likely other group they’ve chosen to bless with their ignorance…… But, in a sense, bankers can be said to be universally bigoted, for they have no qualms about lying, cheating, or stealing from anyone, in any group, even their own. I guess that would qualify them as Ultimate Bigots…..

“As an ox goeth to the slaughter.” — Old Testament — Proverbs vii, 22; Jeremiah xi, 19

I would imagine this is how the bankers and preachers (either of which is capable of turning into a politician, at the drop of a hint….) view the masses of humanity who do not subscribe to their venality. In this view, they may be at least partially justified, by the apparent willingness of those masses to submit to whatever is done to them. Why should the politicians stop lying, when their lies secure for them the keys to the treasury? Why should the preachers not spread their delusions, when the masses are so willing to accept them, because it saves them the effort of either thinking about morality, or even better, saving them from having to BE moral….. The bankers, of course, need no excuses to carry on their despicable acts of calumny upon the remainder of society; their sole motivation is based on profit for them, and nothing else concerns them at all…

“I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” — Thomas Jefferson

Back to Tom…. He was a bit over the top sometimes, in the force of his expression, but never, to my mind, in his sincere commitment to Truth, and his sincere love for Mankind. I would like to think I join him in this sentiment, especially today, when we are so besieged  by attempts to tyrannize our minds by our own beloved ruling classes. The war against immorality continues unabated, and too many folks in the world have withdrawn from the battle, accepting the lies and delusions that are foisted upon them.

It is important, in my opinion, that the rest of us, who can see the depredations assaulting the common man every day, keep on shouting from the rooftops to the rest of our compatriots, if only to save our own sanity….. and, before the strain of the conflict brings us to our knees, and we enter Zippy’s domain, doomed to extinction…..

“I just forgot my whole philosophy of life!!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
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Here is another piece from the archives, to save time, our most precious commodity, after the contents of our bag o’love….
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It has been awhile since I read the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam, and a small piece of it in Smart Bee gave me a hankering to run through it again. It’s a long piece, though, and can take a while to get through. In addition, it takes up a lot of space…. so, to avoid both those problems, today I’m providing a simple link to the poem, on PoemHunter.com, where I find a lot of what goes into this section…. A very large amount of the world’s best poetry and poets are to be found there, and I enjoy the simplicity of their interface… Any who, here, for your reading pleasure….

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-rubaiyat-of-omar-khayyam/

Enjoy!…..
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Well, I’ve gone and done it…. I’m going for the hat trick today, with all three sections pulled from the archives…. I decided that, if there are over a million words of material in the archives, why should I not utilize a bit of it to my own advantage? It IS my own material, after all…. Any who, here is another rant, this one fairly straightforward, again taking aim at organized religion, which I consider to bear a large degree of responsibility for the state of society….
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“Life is a great surprise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one.” — Vladimir Nabokov, quoted in “Time”, 1981

Well, Vladimir certainly nailed it in one! This fits right in with what I believe, which, though it has little if anything in common with popular religious views of the afterlife, is nonetheless just as optimistic in outlook as any of those rather exceedingly ornate, highly unlikely scenarios. In my world view, the mind, and consciousness, whatever it may be, is equivalent to energy in our universe, and as such, should logically have the same characteristic as all other forms of energy we have thus far discovered, to wit: it cannot be destroyed, only changed in form.

Each of the world’s religions has their own version of what happens after we die, and all of them are made with the assumption of the presence of their idea of God as the underlying reason for all that occurs. This, while logical, to a small degree (one has to accept some rather specious assumptions in order to follow a logical path to the concept of a God….), mostly reminds me of a small boy walking past a graveyard, whistling loudly to scare off his own fears…. It’s mostly wishful thinking, as far as I can see, according to all the physical evidence available. The proponents of these religious philosophies all make the same basic error in their logical constructs, one that is so basic, they can’t even see it….

That error lies in assuming that Man, or a man, being a mortal being, limited in perception and understanding by their own physical envelope, is capable of either understanding, or describing, what is a God. If one assumes that an entity is capable of creating an entire universe, I don’t think it is logical to assume that we, as part of that creation, would have the capability of comprehending either the process involved, or the being that carried it out. The mere fact that, in order to try to comprehend God at all, we need to try to give him first, a sex, then a visual identity, is the first and most telling clue that we are wrong, right from the start…..

The next clue as to our inability to know God is the behaviors that Man ascribes to Him. In just about every religious book I’ve read, the actions of most of the Gods therein reminded me more of a surly, selfish teenager than of a God. I don’t know, it just seems a bit illogical to have the creator of the entire universe behave worse than a cranky two year old that needs a nap, if He doesn’t get the fawning worship he so desperately needs. It sounds more like Benito Mussolini, or Madonna, to me, than it does like God….

This doesn’t mean, though, that there is no hope of redemption (though I’m not sure from what I’m being redeemed… the idea of original sin is pretty much a hoax, you know, put in the Christian dogma to help manipulate and control people….), or of life after death. The universe is actually a quite beautiful place without the concept of God hanging about, getting in the way…. And this viewpoint allows one to appreciate life much more fully, knowing that we bear sole responsibility for making our lives worth living…

Everybody dies, and everyone lives after death, as far as I can see from a logical standpoint. I think that what Vladimir says is a good way to look at things, as it acknowledges that responsibility for our own happiness, and does so without implying the existence of a need to do so in hope of a reward for good behavior, as is the case in those religious institutions who wish to control people here in this life, using the threat of punishment or reward in the next. We can assume control of our own lives, including our own happiness, or, we can allow others to think for us, and accept the chains and limitations of living according to someone else’s ideas of what is real….

The saddest part of all this? Most folks never even realize they have a choice in the matter. From infancy, they’ve been brainwashed to believe what they’re told, and all-too-few of us manage to escape the bonds of slavery that are placed on our minds early in life. Most folks just accept what they are told by anyone in authority, and get very comfortable in their chains, since they don’t have to think for themselves at all….. They never realize just how large and beautiful the universe really is, because they’ve accepted the blinders they wear, and refuse to even acknowledge that they wear them at all….

It sure makes me glad for whatever happened to keep me from falling for that whole scam; I can’t say exactly what first clued me in to the facts, but, I’m very, very happy that it did. I can’t see going through my life filled with fear of what might happen afterward; it’s too much fun enjoying all the beauty and grandeur that exists on our planet to spend more than a second considering such nonsense……  🙂   Thank God for small favors, eh?   🙂  Sorry, couldn’t resist….

‘Deem not life a thing of consequence. For look at the yawning void of the future, and at that other limitless space, the past.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 50
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Mission accomplished, and with some style, by all appearances…. Let’s take a look…. Well, it all worked once, why not again? Plus, all of it remains valid, so, it works for me….. As a bonus, I’m still on schedule for the day’s activities, so I’ll take it, and run…..  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

Have the mango smoothies been certified yet?….

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Ffolkes,
Dark, out-of-focus images of lava filled volcanoes, steaming rivers flowing down their sides, against a backdrop of a smoky sunset of unimaginable color and beauty, float around in my mind’s eye, with no concomitant tales of interest attached, making me wonder yet again just what it is that makes me want to do this again. Each morning, I stare at the blank page before me, and let my mind assume a trance-like state, while it searches through the inner realm for yet another fresh way to begin, only to find mere remnants of ideas once fully formed, or abandoned phrases that have no connection to anything real.

Somewhere inside me is a lake of material, waiting to be written; I can feel it, and often catch glimpses out of the corner of my eye, before it flashes off into the vast, unknown reaches of my mind, where I never willingly go, knowing it will be safe there until ready to flow out onto a page…. A lot of what I write is spontaneous, at least in the sense that I don’t decide beforehand what subject is to be explored. Instead, I let Smart Bee, or some random thought, dictate the choice of material, having found long ago that I am more likely to come up with something interesting that way. When I decide beforehand, I feel like I’m back in school, writing a paper on a given subject, with the length and style pretty well fixed, and not amenable to alteration. It’s probably not a particularly efficient method, but it works for me, most of the time….

“If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.” — The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, 1951

But, it does make it hard each day to come up with an intro, (especially when J.D. has already written the ultimate version of this kind of opening, one that denies normalcy)…. and it just occurred to me that y’all are probably getting tired of hearing that. I wish I didn’t whine about it so often…. a statement that occurs to me to be just about as dumb as anything I’ve ever come up with…. If I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t have to whine about it… If I didn’t whine about it, I probably wouldn’t do it as often… Any way one looks at it, whining about it just exacerbates the issue, and makes it into something significant, instead of the minor issue it ought to be…..

Hmm…. it also occurs to me that I am approaching this in a manner that guarantees the issue won’t die, an event which is anathema to me…. Why am I doing this to myself? I am forced to admit, I believe my sub-, or un-, conscious mind seems to have set up a situation here where I am continually set up to fail, at least in my own eyes, and THAT is unacceptable! The world, and the assholes who have set themselves up as the BRC, fuck me in the ass on a daily basis, just like they do everyone, and doing it to myself is NOT what I’d call intelligent…. So, it stops here….

No more whining about intros… no more angst about blank pages…. no more bullshit cop-outs relating how hard it is to come up with ideas on a daily basis, and make them interesting, to boot. It’s the same issue every day, and all this repetitive fooferaw is getting on my nerves, so, I’m done with it…. I know it doesn’t help this particular Pearl, but, in the future, you can look forward to an intro section that doesn’t complain, that doesn’t serve cheese, with or without whine, one that doesn’t drag on forever before getting on with the show…. In deference to that glorious future…. Shall we Pearl?…..

“The character of human life, like the character of the human condition, like the character of all life, is “ambiguity”: the inseparable mixture of good and evil, the true and false, the creative and destructive forces — both individual and social.” — Paul Tillich

Having discovered within myself exactly how much such ambiguity can affect our lives, I feel compelled to add that one must learn to use that ambiguity, to balance its overall effect on us, with competence, confidence, and steadfast aplomb, else it will use us, instead….
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“Truth needs no flowers of speech.” — Alexander Pope

What immediately comes to mind when I look at this, is an image of a politician, mouth open, spewing out lie after lie, couched in flowery terms designed to draw in the listener with sweet, colorful little statements of intent, that have no relation at all to what is real, or what they will actually do. The more flowery a speech one hears from one of these pundits, the more you can be assured that all of it is lies. It is a time tested method of fooling the public…. tell them what they WANT to hear, and they will fall right into line…. Tell them what they don’t wish to hear, and they will mill around in confusion, and go through immense contortions to keep from using their minds, or making their own decisions, and, most importantly to them, it will make them uncomfortable, and fractious…..

My mind is almost automatically inclined to rant when I see a line such as this, and I’m always willing to take a few shots at the BRC, politicians, AND/OR any of their myrmidons and/or supporters, comprised of the mass of humanity that prefers to NOT use their brains for anything other than figuring out how to use the remote control, or sitting on. But, I slept a bit late today, and I’m feeling a bit lazy, at the moment, anyway, so I’m going to depend on SB to come up with an old-school pearl that will poke a stick or two into the eyes of the assholes who most deserve it….. SB is usually pretty good at that, so, let’s see what’s what….

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

“History is always written wrong, and so always needs to be rewritten. …What is interesting is brought forward as if it had been central and efficacious in the march of events, and harmonies are turned into causes. Kings and generals are endowed with motives appropriate to what the historian values in their actions; plans are imputed to them prophetic of their actual achievements, while the thoughts that really preoccupied them remain buried in absolute oblivion.” — George Santayana, The Life of Reason:  Reason in Science, 1918

BIBLE  A bible is a book which one or more religions consider to be holy, and to be something that they should follow. It is of course generally rather impractical to follow books, not just because they don’t often go anywhere, but also because they are not very good at public speaking, decision making, problem solving, or any of the other qualities recognized as being an advantage for leadership. A religion based around the teachings of any compilation of Toxic Custard would be very strange indeed. To subscribe to this new cult following, send $15 now. — Daniel Bowen’s TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA

“A tough lesson in life that one has to learn is that not everybody wishes you well.” — Dan Rather

“Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects?” — James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance

“And unextinguish’d laughter shakes the skies.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — The Iliad of Homer, Book i, Line 771

Ffolkes, I just can’t make it any plainer than that…..
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This is a reprint of a poem I used some time ago…. It’s being reused because, a) it’s bloody brilliant, and b) it kind of fits in with the mood for today…. and those are all I need to justify it to myself, as I know the poetry buffs out there will enjoy it, for the genius it is….

Witch Burning

In the marketplace they are piling the dry sticks.
A thicket of shadows is a poor coat. I inhabit
The wax image of myself, a doll’s body.
Sickness begins here: I am the dartboard for witches.
Only the devil can eat the devil out.
In the month of red leaves I climb to a bed of fire.

It is easy to blame the dark: the mouth of a door,
The cellar’s belly. They’ve blown my sparkler out.
A black-sharded lady keeps me in parrot cage.
What large eyes the dead have!
I am intimate with a hairy spirit.
Smoke wheels from the beak of this empty jar.

If I am a little one, I can do no harm.
If I don’t move about, I’ll knock nothing over. So I said,
Sitting under a potlid, tiny and inert as a rice grain.
They are turning the burners up, ring after ring.
We are full of starch, my small white fellows. We grow.
It hurts at first. The red tongues will teach the truth.

Mother of beetles, only unclench your hand:
I’ll fly through the candle’s mouth like a singeless moth.
Give me back my shape. I am ready to construe the days
I coupled with dust in the shadow of a stone.
My ankles brighten. Brightness ascends my thighs.
I am lost, I am lost, in the robes of all this light.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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In keeping with today’s themes, which are, respectively, Truth, and Madness…. (what else?), I submit the following, an excerpt from the archives, from early 2012, comprised of two short pearls, one a short indictment re: the spread of religious dogma, and one short but telling list of woes currently present in Reality…. If nothing else, they’re in color…. Oh, right, that’s only if you have the correct software… never mind, just read on, you’ll understand….
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“God is more interested in your future and your relationships than you are.” — Billy Graham

Now, if that isn’t a scary thought, I know nothing of fear; I assure you, however, fear is an old friend, with whom I am quite familiar, in all its guises. Now, to give credit where it is due, I suppose it must be noted that, from the standpoint of someone of Mr. Graham’s ilk, this is a very powerful statement of belief; it has all the proper elements for that particular delusional thought process (if one may stretch the definition of ‘thought process’ just a bit).

It is based purely on assumption, with no hint of anything resembling direct evidence. It implies omnipotence, displays deified arrogance, identifies a source for guilt, and encourages a fear of death. It vagueness allows the moral ambiguity necessary for the complete abrogation of personal responsibility for one’s actions. And, like all such proclamations of this nature, its very words indicate a complete and utter dislike for humans, both individually, and as a species.

My immediate and forceful response to this was “Then you, and God, need to get a Life! If y’all have nothing better to do in your copious free time than to try to shove this kind of crap into people’s minds, then you need to find a new activities director for the imaginary cruise you are on…. or find some better drugs.”  But, that’s just me…..

(Oops…. I think I just heresied on several important religions…..)
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Conscious is when you are aware of something and conscience is when you wish you weren’t. — Smart Bee (Anonymous, by any other name, smells as sweet…)

Insane politicians (is there another kind?). Human trafficking. Racism. Bigotry. Child abuse. Spousal abuse. Slavery. Crack cocaine, heroin, morphine, or other drug abuse. War on crime. War on women. Televangelists. Fundamentalist zealots. National Security Agency. FBI. CIA. Untold trillions of dollars of national debt.  Genetically modified food. Military Industrial Complex. The 1%/99% Society. Taxes. Global warming. Air pollution. The oceans are dying. Terrorism. Nuclear accidents. Massive global weather changes. Ozone depletion. Overpopulation. AIDS. Mutating viruses. The Bohemian Club. Reaganomics. Nationalism. Elitism. Illuminati Conspiracy. Women’s reproductive rights. Bill of Rights (or rather, loss of same). War on the US Constitution.  Rampant ignorance. Lawyers. Priests. Rabbis. Imams.  Puppy mills. Wall Street. Corporate personhood. The IRS. Insane politicians. (Did I say that already? Well, it deserves mentioning twice….)  Rising incidence of halitosis.

Except for the last, which is more of a personal foible, I’d say that’s a fairly extensive, and mostly complete, list of stuff I am aware of that I wish I weren’t; and it all came right off the top of my head, no research.  It certainly keeps my sense of outrage in good shape….. which is why we all need to practice the following sentiment at every opportunity…. otherwise, we are all going to be up Shit Creek without a paddle, proverbial or otherwise…..

“Speak out. You’ve got to speak out against the madness.” — Steven Stills
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Well there you go…. This is what happens when I’m allowed to dress myself, I guess…. Let’s see how it looks in the mirror….  Wow… it’s like a vampire, nothing shows at all…. I suppose that’s my usual morning alteration of consciousness kicking in, but, just in case it isn’t, try to ignore any parts that are showing signs of infection, okay…. And that’s all I’m required to say, according to public health regulations, so I’d best draw this to a rapid close, and catch that last train out of town, before the authorities show up for a late breakfast interrogation….  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

Afterward, we’ll dance a merry jig….

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Ffolkes,
Once more, I find myself caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, in more than a merely metaphorical sense. In this particular case, as it presents itself each morning, the Devil is represented by the blank page staring me in the face, and the Deep Blue Sea is a metaphor for well… something.

I guess the metaphor breaks down there a bit, thanks to the rather pathetic lack of any rational thought going through my head at this hour. I really don’t see how one can be expected to shine so early in the day, but, then, I’m the one who set the original paradigm, of posting a fresh Pearl every day, so I have no one else available to blame….

Naturally, I COULD blame Murphy; he certainly puts in his bid for attention and acknowledgment on a daily basis. I am, however, honest enough, and resigned enough, to realize I’m not his only target, and cannot lay ALL of the fault at his feet, no matter how tempting it may seem. I could blame it on the hour, but, I’ve been getting up this early for years, so I should be accustomed to the process. I might even be able to persuade at least a few of y’all to believe it has to do with how hard it is to stay fresh when posting each day, but, once again, that isn’t something that is unique to me, so it won’t wash either….

No, my claim to a metaphorical dilemma is more, or less, accurate than I’d hoped, or counted on, leaving the blame for this mess squarely planted in my own lap, with the responsibility for cleaning it up attached…. SIGH…. It might be time to reexamine this determination of mine to maintain a daily presence on the ‘net, in light of the increasing time I’m spending in the BBR, and in light of the increased time happily spent with milady Patricia. Though it seems not to keep me from producing this blog each day, I’m not certain at this point just how much continuing to do so may, or may not, be contributing to my overall level of satisfaction….

For almost two full years now, I’ve managed to post virtually every day; in that time, I believe I’ve only missed a total of five or six days, mostly due to travel and/or internet connection issues. This has been done for the simple purpose of saving my sanity, or what there is of it. I’ve never cared how many people read it, or “Like” it, as the whole point of the exercise has been to get out of my head all the stuff that otherwise would sit in there and cause trouble for me. In that respect, it has been entirely successful; I am as sane as I’ve ever been (though that may not be saying much….). Now, however, things have changed, mostly for the better, and the necessity to protect my sanity is not as critical as it has been for a while….. Happy days, eh?….

I suppose it really doesn’t matter at all, to any of y’all, anyway, just why, or even how, I do this every day…. It only matters to me, and only as much as I care to think about it. Mostly, I just tell myself to forget about all that crap, and get on with it, and, since this little meandering blurb has reached the legal limit for an intro, I believe I’ll do just that…. It isn’t often I get such a smooth segue into the next section, so I’m going to take the money and run….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“I can do a score of things that can’t be done.  I can find a thing I cannot see, and see a thing I cannot find.  The first is time, and the second is spots before my eyes.  I can touch a thing I cannot feel, and feel a thing I cannot touch. The first is your heart, and the second is sad and sorry.”” — James Thurber (1894-1961), “The Thirteen Clocks”
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Sometimes, the process of collecting pearls, and grouping them according to concepts, becomes a rather mystical event, or, at worst, metaphysical, as the pearls will almost throw themselves at me, clamoring for inclusion, with no obvious connection to any that have gone before…. Then, when I reach one of the key numbers, such as five, or seven, it all becomes clear why they have been vying for attention, and the reason for the group becomes clear…. Or, more accurately, becomes perceivable, if not exactly clear…. In fact, clarity has little to do with it; if it did, I’d never get a group together. This one, for some strange reason, picked itself out in about five minutes; even more strangely, it works….

“Blot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, ix, 7

“It gets you nowhere if the other person’s tail is only just in sight for the second half of the conversation.” — Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

“A duty dodged is like a debt unpaid; it is only deferred, and we must come back and settle the account at last.” — Joseph F. Newton

“I’m going to happydance among the stars and wear my stripes anyway I want to.” — Stripes the Tiger

“And die with decency.” — Thomas Otway (1651-1685) — Venice Preserved, Act v, Sc. 3

See what I meant? No? Oh….. Hmm. Well, think about it, I guess….. It will come to you…. If not, you can find aspirin in the first-aid kit under your seat….. We’ll go on now….
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Two months ago, almost to the day, I apparently wrote a poem, of sorts, during, and for, the National Poetry Month Writing Challenge. I had forgotten about it, dismissing it, I think, because it doesn’t rhyme throughout most of it…. However, I read it again today, and it isn’t bad, for a free verse attempt…. It is actually quite a good statement of my personal religious evolution, so, in lieu of a religirant today, I humbly, if egotistically, offer this instead….

Early Observations

Until I knew there was more,
I wanted to know God.
They said he was a nice guy,
and would let me live forever.

All I had to do, they said,
was live my life for Him,
always living by scripture
cleaving only to his Way.

But, everyone I saw in church,
acted different at home.
Living wild, cussin’ and fussin’,
nobody lived like they said.

Still, I tried to be like Jesus,
he was sort of cool.
He never hurt nobody
and walked on the right path.

‘Course they killed him for that,
they couldn’t stand his example.
Turned him into a martyr,
 hid his real words among their own.

Then I found the Buddha,
and met Lao Tzu at the gate.
They saw things real different,
showed me how to see straight.

Right thought, and right action
replace blind obedience and faith.
Reality becomes manageable,
fear retreats, the universe expands.

Brother John said it pretty well,
“Imagine there’s no heaven,
it’s easy if you try.”
Sounds like he knew why.

Day to day, life is grand,
we walk in eternal beauty.
Open your eyes and hearts,
find yourself already immortal.

~~ gigoid ~~

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“Discourse on virtue and they pass by in droves. Whistle and dance the shimmy, and you’ve got an audience.” — Diogenes

Once again, as I have found innumerable times in the past, one of the ancient scholars has given voice to an observation about human nature that convinces me that, not only did they know, even more so than we do now, just how humanity is flawed, but were aware, as well, of how people are wired for failure by their own lack of courage, and/or integrity. To make such a statement as this, Diogenes seems to have tapped into the modern human mind, and recognized it, as it sits around, watching the pretty lights on the idiot box, where the news anchors, pundits, and talking heads all whistle and dance the shimmy….

“On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks.” — H. Allen Smith, “Let the Crabgrass Grow”

Sadly, I think we can expand this to include the rest of the days of the week, because, as far as I can tell, TV is available 24/7, and, having sampled something from each time period throughout the day and night, at one point or another in my life, I can assure you, the assault on your sensibilities, and the “dumbing down” process that is entailed by watching it, continues through every one of those hours…. Even the shows that are purported to enter the realm of intellectual endeavor are written for people who have a sixth-grade vocabulary, with charts, graphs, and lots of pretty pictures to help in the understanding of simple ideas

There is NO LIMIT to the amount, or the degree, of stupidity that is displayed every minute of every one of those hours….. Hell, one of mankind’s favorite kind of TV shows to watch are “sitcoms”, which, typically, are half-hour plays with plots designed to make fun of the human condition, making it all okay to be stupid, because, hey, that’s what they do on TV, right?…. According to TV, all married women are smarter than their husbands, children are smarter than parents, and government officials all tell the truth…. on alternate leap years…..

The most valued shows are the ones that display the most stupidity; hence the popularity of The Simpsons, Beavis and Butthea, and previously, shows such as All in the Family, Father Knows Best, Happy Days, or Petticoat Junction, for shit’s sake!

Of course, there was also The Munsters, and The Addams Family, too, so there is some balance, but, mostly, American sitcoms show Americans at their worst, and make them ridiculous, not to mention cheap, grasping, greedy, and, often, obese…. all of which, unfortunately, paints an accurate picture of American culture

“I just heard the SEVENTIES were over!!  And I was just getting in touch with my LEISURE SUIT!!” — Zippy the Pinhead

I pat myself on the back often these days, for not having watched any TV at all for over three years now, aside from the random baseball game during the playoff season, and the World Series (some traditions MUST remain, even for us curmudgeons….), so, I’m unaware to any great degree, exactly what current shows are like…. But, from what I read on the ‘net, and what I hear from people, TV hasn’t undergone any philosophical evolution in the meantime, and, in fact, continues to do just about as badly as ever, in terms of living up to its potential as a medium of communication and/or education….

This is a policy, not a mistake, or an evolution, but a deliberate policy, which the BRC (who are the ones who control that particular medium…. who else?…) will continue to employ as long as selfish, unprincipled people own the rights to it, and continue to use it as a means of controlling the information available to the general public, to suit their own ends, just as it has always been utilized…..

I wouldn’t count on TV shows getting any better until it is no longer under ANY sort of regulation; the only regulation really necessary to control TV’s effect on the user is to realize the fact that people always have the ultimate power over a TV set, due to the simple little switch on the side, which turns it on, and off, at the will of that user….. Now all we have to do is teach people to use it to turn it OFF, instead of ON…..

“He who searches for truth must not appease his urge by giving himself up to the narcotic of belief.” — Hans Reichenbach, quoted in _ The Philosophy of Matter in the Atomic Age

TV? TV? Oh, yeah, I remember TV….. This is a phrase I would love to hear more often…..
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“Metaphysics is a dark ocean without shores or lighthouse, strewn with many a philosophic wreck.” — Immanuel Kant

Without even looking, I know that today’s is a special Pearl…. But, I’m going to look, anyway… besides, gotta proof it, y’know?…. Well, it IS special, but, no doubt, this too will pass relatively unnoticed, given the flood of data that streams across the world’s notice every day…. Ah well, at least I know, and that, ultimately, is all that really matters…. We may not be an island in the currents of Time, but we must all face it alone in the final analysis, to sink or swim as our nature dictates…..  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

Parking parallel is de rigeur on Mondays….

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Ffolkes,
Fiddle di dee, fiddle di die, the cow jumped not over, but, onto the moon, bending and breaking it beyond all recognition. The cat wasn’t playing a fiddle, but did have a boom box blasting…. according to the latest reports. Little dogs do more than just laugh at such sport, they usually pee on it. And dishes, well, they’re well known to prefer dark, sharp knives over spoons anyway….

“A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” — Willie Wonka

Especially when it attacks first thing, before coffee, before reason…. It is smart, therefore, to just go with the flow, and let it out as needed, knowing full well the consequences of such actions. One must, however, consider the overall effect, and keeping it inside can cause much more damage than letting it out. As I am fully aware of all this, when it strikes me, I just let it right out, and use the time I didn’t spend agonizing over it to clean up whatever spillage there might be…. saves me time and energy this way, y’know?….

It also allows me to find a way back to reality from the fringes inhabited by all such nonsense; such foolishness cannot spend too much time close to the normal side of reality, lest it turn mundane, so one must go where it resides in order to pluck it up for use. I find it to be a quite relaxing time, those hours spent in pastimes reminiscent of circuses and carnivals, soaking in the happy laughter of fools, and the merry giggles of the clowns. Even the “nyuck, nyuck, nyuck” sounds coming from the Stooges corner bring no annoyance, as they blend right in with the blaring of the bicycle horns and big, red noses worn by so many in that neighborhood…..

Hmm… looks like I wandered a little further away from the mundane than I had realized; that last paragraph slipped over into nonsense again, instead of heading back toward sober reason. I do enjoy my time there, but, I tend to have trouble letting go of it; for a while upon returning, it is difficult to even consider religion or politics, without applying some Carlinesque twists, to soften its gravity.

Needless to say, it also makes it hard to rant about much of anything else, as everything is viewed through a prism of humor and silliness, and doesn’t appear half as bad as it actually is in real time. All in all, this is probably a good thing, as it keeps reality from hurting too much on a daily basis; it merely makes it hard on the political/religious reformer in me, to NOT be able to rant sufficiently….

I suppose that idea makes y’all burgeon with hope for this Pearl, but, that, too, is a foolish thing to do… As yet, this Pearl has no obvious shape or intent, so it’s next to impossible to say what will happen… The first pearl Smart Bee shows me will often set the tone for the whole day, so we’ll see how that goes… I do know that starting with nonsense always makes me happier… I may be a reformer, and a curmudgeon, but I really do enjoy life more when my bozoid side comes out early in the day…. Who knows? We might even end up with something amusing, or elevating, rather than something depressive and dark…. I suppose, though, we’ll never know if we don’t get on with it, so….. Shall we Pearl?…..

“I only wish I may see your head stroked down with a slipper.” — Terence (185-159 BC) — Act v, Sc. 7, 4, (1028.)

Now, see what you’ve done!…..
__________________________________

Okay, so I get it now…. The universe sometimes gives us directions we may not clue into fully…. I see, now, why reality chose to push me toward silliness and bozosity today (Bozosity is the state of being a bozo….). What we have, following this introductory blurb, is a group of aphorisms about religion…. I guess it made more sense to put it like this today, than it did to rant about it, as I normally do… Or, maybe reality is tired of my rants… either way, y’all win today, because this is just as pointed, just as accusatory, and, in its own quiet little way, as much of an indictment as are my most telling, and compelling rants on the subject…. Enjoy!  And be careful, the point it makes is quite sharp, and WILL cut you if you are negligent of care…..

Who sees with equal eye, as God of all,
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,
Atoms or systems into ruin hurl’d,
And now a bubble burst, and now a world.

— Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle i, Line 87

“Religion is the opiate of the masses.” — Karl Marx

“You can’t depend on the man who made the mess to clean it up.” — Richard Milhouse Nixon (1952)

SCRIPTURES, n.  The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

— Bother! said Pooh, after he spoke the Lord’s name backward.

“If God is dead, who will save the Queen?” — Smart Bee

“True myth may serve for thousands of years as an inexhaustible source of intellectual speculation, religious joy, ethical inquiry, and artistic renewal.  The real mystery is not destroyed by reason.  The fake one is.  You look at it and it vanishes.  You look at the Blonde Hero–really look–and he turns into a gerbil.  But you look at Apollo, and he looks back at you.  The poet Rilke looked at a statue of Apollo about fifty years ago, and Apollo spoke to him.  ‘You must change your life,’ he said.  When the true myth rises into consciousness, that is always its message.  You must change your life.” — Ursula K. LeGuin

Whoa! Sorry, that last one slipped in there without telling me… but, it kind of fits, if you look at it with just the right squint to the eye…. I mean, if the first six quotes didn’t give you a clue about how religions are bad for you, the last one drives the point home, with the very last line….. I don’t know about y’all, but I LOVE THIS STUFF….. Oh, and just in case it wasn’t clear already….

“A mind not to be changed by place or time, the mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.” — John Milton
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It’s probably a literary law of some kind, but, when one is given a hint like the one above, one MUST take that hint…. Far be it from me to ignore a slap to the side of the head like this one…. Here, then, is the poem to which Ms. Le Guin refers, above…

Archaic Torso of Apollo

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast’s fur:

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.

~~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~~

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“I don’t want to panic, but my alphabet soup says, “Forget about me … just try to save yourself.” — Tom Wilson (“Ziggy”)

Now you know just how I feel every morning! This is the real reason I gave up on Alpha-Bits cereal, in spite of what was published, and in spite of whatever you may have heard. I got tired of being warned every morning re: approaching Armageddon, and started eating more oatmeal, just so I didn’t have to face that every day. It’s disheartening to be reminded on a daily basis that your breakfast is significantly smarter than the majority of US citizens, at least when it comes to their government, which is completely controlled by corporate interests, as well as when it comes to society at large, about which one may confidently say the same.

We won’t even bother to mention the religious hierarchies’ connections to temporal authority, or to the shadow masters; we took our shots at them above, and wish to be fair, if not merciful. We’ll just say this on that: if you think the churches and preachers are NOT in the pockets of the corporations, well, I suggest you try to obtain for yourself a new mind, because the one you have isn’t working very well….

I mean, think about it… Who are the favorite members of any congregation, no matter what the denomination (clue: it has to do with the word “denomination”….)? Why, the men, and a few women, who contribute the most to the church roof fund, right? The ones who put the most gelt in the collection plate are the ones the church leaders pander, er, cater to, not the ones who reach out with empty hands….

“If this isn’t war, why is CNN massing on the border?” — Smart Bee

Let us also NOT get into the culpability the media holds for its part in the farce that comprises the play put on the world’s stage by society. We could point out the numerous, obvious perpetrations of cluelessness, or lament the lack of courage in modern journalists, either of which is common in the media.

How else can one explain how sheer lies are repeated endlessly, without challenge? How can one explain why certain questions aren’t asked, or certain articles suppressed, at the request, or the legal insistence of governmental authority? It isn’t explainable, unless one remembers that the media relies on government to supply the reason for its existence, and one is reluctant to bite the hand that feeds, eh what?….. Sycophancy is not limited to dweebs, and/or acolytes…

Instead, let us indict the true culprits for today’s worldly mess…. ourselves.  Pogo, by Walt Kelly, said it long ago…. “We have met the enemy, and he is us…..”  We are responsible for all that is wrong with the world, because we, the great unwashed masses, allow the governments and churches, and their puppet masters, the corporations, to determine how the world will be run…. We accept all their lies, and go on with living our lives as slaves, subject to the whims and twists of fate, because we refuse to take the reins of our own lives into our hands, and assume control….

The shadowy rich assholes who are the real power behind all the governments of the world are not going to stop their self-centered, selfish hoarding of the world’s resources, nor will they ever make a decision based on the welfare of society as a whole. They will always make their decisions in relation to what is most beneficial for themselves, and what will allow them to maintain their stranglehold on the rest of the world….

That is their primary concern, and they have guarded that concern for well over three thousand years, without ever letting the rest of humanity realize to any great degree just how much they control…. No other theory holds any water, nor fits the given facts of history, as well as this, and I regard it as gospel truth…. According to the available evidence, this is not a theory, so much as it is a fait accompli….

“In the game of life you get to choose where you keep your brain – heads you win, tails you lose.” — Smart Bee

I guess I had a rant in there after all…. We are all screwed, ffolkes, just as often and as hard as THEY want; moreover, unless we decide, as a group, to do something about it, it isn’t going to change until we are all dead and gone, leaving this planet, and the universe, to go on without our promise, or our participation…. I hate to be a downer, but, I don’t see how we can fix it, without some serious upheaval, for which I am not particularly hopeful, given the general level of “stupid” in much of humanity…. Oh well, as Epictetus said, “Happiness and freedom depend on the realization of one principle. Some things are within your control. And, some things are not.”  So be it….

“UH-OH!!  I think KEN is OVER-DUE on his R.V. PAYMENTS and HE’S having a NERVOUS BREAKDOWN too!!  Ha ha.” — Zippy the Pinhead
__________________________________

I am afraid I have to report that most, if not all, of the above was written while in an altered state of consciousness…. which should make for some interesting reading, you betcha…. Let’s just see….. Well, since it would be overly egotistical to call it brilliant, I’ll merely say, well done, and let it go at that…. For a morning so devoid of original direction, it seems to have found its way into the light fairy well, which bodes well for the rest of the day…. That is, if I were the type to be susceptible to precognitive signs….  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

Mooning over pugilistic dreams….

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Ffolkes,
Salacious, grinning demons haunt the edges of my dreams, claws dripping in the blood of innocence. Hideous screams echo through the dark halls in my mind, as the torturous maze leads me ever deeper into the nightmare of my own mind. No soothing touch is felt on skin numb to all feeling, no mellifluous voice penetrates the foul cacophony ringing in my unwelcoming ears. Time stops, and pain becomes eternal, the focus of all perception, until I awake, groaning in fear, to find myself alive, and whole, shaking, soaked in sweat, and vowing never to sleep again….

Gee, look…. it’s already 0700 in the morning, and I’m just now getting started…. If I didn’t know better, I’d believe I had finally overcome the time distortion suffered when I went to a different time zone for over two weeks…. I knew about jet-lag, but didn’t realize just how powerfully it can affect someone unused to it (or maybe, someone so old…..). It has taken me until this week to feel relatively normal (though, if one is to judge by the first paragraph, normal has a very flexible meaning around here…); I suppose it is only logical, looking at it from the outside, to expect the recovery to take as long as the original change, but it certainly has been enlightening to experience the process from the inside.

I apologize if the first paragraph was too graphic, or negative, for anyone; it just seemed to flow out, as a reaction of some kind to the lack of sleep I’ve known for the past weeks, since leaving for Europe. Due to the absence of normally available substances to assist in getting to sleep, and staying there, during the time I was traveling, my sleep, for the entire time while away, was rather broken up…. Since returning on May 27th, it has taken this long to resume any kind of routine, as my body seemed to resist all attempts to change back to this time zone…. Ah well, persistence has saved the day, and I think from now on, I’ll be able to get back to a more acceptable level of rest at night…. If it keeps me from writing any more horror blurbs, I’ll be happy…. It’s just not my kind of thing, y’know?….

I distinctly remember, at age four, being taken to the movies by my older sister and brother, to see the opening of the (then) new movie, The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Needless to say, at that age, the monster scared the crap out of me, and I spent most of the last hour of the movie in the lobby, waiting for it to end…. While waiting, I remember vowing to myself to never, ever again spend my own money to go see anything that scared me;it seemed to me, even at that tender age, that spending my money on that was silly, or stupid, take your pick, and I wanted nothing more to do with it…. I lived up to that vow, too, and have avoided horror movies ever since….

At about age 25 or 26, some lady talked me into going to see “Jaws” with her, and since she offered to pay, I went along with it, despite my reservations… It was pretty scary, too, right up until that chicken-wire contraption jumped into the boat, coming after the stupid, asshole boat captain…. Since the chicken-wire was fully visible in the movie, when the camera looked straight into the shark’s mouth, in the scene where it grabs the boat captain, it lost a bit of its scariness…. but, it was bad enough that it reinforced my reluctance to watch any other horror flicks…. So, I don’t, which suits me just fine… Life is scary enough; I see no need to pay money to get scared, for any reason….

Now that we’ve taken a trip down memory lane, to no real purpose, it must be time to quit blathering, and get on with the day’s business, such as it is….. I’m really, really late getting started, thanks to Morpheus’ kind attentions, so I may have to dip into the archives for something appropriate, in order to get done, and get on with the rest of today’s planned activities…. So, Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature.  They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.” — Thomas Jefferson

This pearl is a perfect one for a discussion (rant, if you will…) of religion… a religirant, as we call them around here…. Or, it would be, if I had the mental wherewithal to create one today…. Oh, the angst, and the knowledge I need, is all in there, organized to be presented logically…. unfortunately, I don’t have the energy, for some reason. Though I slept well, for me, I’m still tired; probably has to do with smoking, and not getting enough oxygen, or something like that… Regardless of why, I don’t quite have it in me to rant today, so I’m going to sublimate that urge by going with an old school pearl from the archives, which, fortunately for me, is on the same subject, so the above aphorism from TJ fits right in…. Enjoy!….

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

I’m feeling curmudgeonly this morning, but also quite lazy. Therefore, old school pearl…. Here is another one that jabs a pointed stick in the eye of religion, as is fairly common ’round these parts….. All of these historical figures, and modern authors, had something to say on the subject, but all in a slightly different way…. which is what makes life interesting, right? Right…. Enjoy, and pay heed, because otherwise those preachers, they’ll getcha…. and they won’t let go…..

“Human, do you know how interesting it is, this thing you describe? Avata does not have a god. How is it that you have a god? Avata has Self, has the universe. But you have a god. Where did you find this god?” — Frank Herbert

“Strange, because they are so frankly and hysterically insane — like all dreams: a God who could make good children as easily as bad, yet preferred to make bad ones; who could have made every one of them happy, yet never made a single happy one; who made them prize their bitter life, yet stingily cut it short; who gave his angels eternal happiness unearned, yet required his other children to earn it; who gave his angels painless lives, yet cursed his other children with biting miseries and maladies of mind and body; who mouths justice and invented hell — mouths mercy and invented hell — mouths Golden Rules, and forgiveness multiplied by seventy times seven, and invented hell; who frowns upon crimes, yet commits them all; who created man without invitation, then tries to shuffle the responsibility for man’s acts upon man, instead of honorably placing it where it belongs, upon himself; and finally, with altogether divine obtuseness, invites this poor, abused slave to worship him!” — Mark Twain, _The Mysterious Stranger_

“In these matters the only certainty is that nothing is certain.” — Pliny the Elder

“History records no more gallant struggle than that of humanity against the truth.” — whoever Google says it was, if not Smart Bee… (sounds like H. L.  Mencken, or Voltaire..) (Huh…. Google attributes this to Ashleigh Brilliant….)

“I believe that ideas such as absolute certitude, absolute exactness, final truth, etc. are figments of the imagination which should not be admissible in any field of science…This loosening of thinking seems to me to be the greatest blessing which modern science has given us. For the belief in a single truth and in being the possessor thereof is the root cause of all evil in the world.” — Max Born

(As perfect proof of this particular assertion, I offer the following unattributed piece of nonsense, that nevertheless is probably one of the most revered items of dogma in many Christian cults…..)

God didn’t call them the 10 suggestions! — Unknown fundie

(If you can’t see how WRONG this statement is, in so many different ways, I have a great deal of pity for you…. Reality is going to really work you over…..)

Under Alabama law, the wearer of a false mustache in church who causes unseemly laughter is subject to arrest.– Smart Bee

Well, there you go…. It all will make sense….. maybe if you just play it backwards….
__________________________________

For some poetry, no introduction is needed…..

Ancient Air

I climb up high and look on the four seas,
Heaven and earth spreading out so far.
Frost blankets all the stuff of autumn,
The wind blows with the great desert’s cold.
The eastward-flowing water is immense,
All the ten thousand things billow.
The white sun’s passing brightness fades,
Floating clouds seem to have no end.
Swallows and sparrows nest in the wutong tree,
Yuan and luan birds perch among jujube thorns.
Now it’s time to head on back again,
I flick my sword and sing Taking the Hard Road.

Li Po.

__________________________________

Here is a another pearl from the archives, first presented in November of 2012….

I first read a Robert Heinlein novel when I was about 10 years old. Then, when about 11, I read his masterpiece work, Stranger In a Strange Land, and my mind was forever changed. His characters were real to me, and the words they spoke were filled with Meaning and Truth, capitalization required. Over time, he has continued to be my favorite author, and I was saddened beyond measure when he passed on, as was the entire Science Fiction world of readers and authors (I’m sure his editors and publishers were also saddened, but for different reasons, the ghouls…). He was considered, by all of SF fandom, and by all the other SF writers, to be the Grand Master of the genre, deserving every bit of praise he garnered in his lifetime.

His character, Lazarus Long, continues to be my favorite of all his protagonists, though it is a close race with Miss Friday…. Lazarus’ character is one that gave Mr. Heinlein unlimited scope for the wisdom he wished to impart to his readers. At the beginning of the book, Time Enough For Love, Lazarus has just reached the age of approximately 2600 years, having been born in 1912, with that age somewhat skewed by some travel through hyperspace, which does funny stuff to Time.

But, as near as he can remember, Lazarus has survived through all those centuries, and, in the course of the book’s plot, agrees to share some of the wisdom he has collected over the years, in the form of his “Notebooks of Lazarus Long”, a short chapter in the larger book, Time Enough for Love. Here are a few of the most cogent aphorisms in the Notebooks; all of them are used by me on a daily basis, if not more often, and one can do no better than to keep them in the forefront of their mind, to ward off the insanity the world can foist upon us with no notice…..

“Beware of the “Black Swan” fallacy.  Deductive logic is tautological; there is no way to get a new truth out of it, and it manipulates false statements as readily as true ones.  If you fail to remember this, it can trip you – with perfect logic.  The designers of the earliest computers called this the “Gigo Law”, i.e. “garbage in, garbage out”.  Inductive logic is MUCH more difficult – but can produce new truths.” — Lazarus Long

“Place your clothes and weapons where you can find them in the dark.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“The correct way to punctuate a sentence that starts: “Of course it is none of my business, but –” is to place a period after the word “but.” Don’t use excessive force in supplying such a moron with a period. Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about.” — Lazarus Long, from Robert A. Heinlein’s “Time Enough For Love”

“One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh.” — Lazarus Long, Time Enough for Love

“A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.” ~~ from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

“If you don’t like yourself, you can’t like other people.”~~ from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

“Bromidic though it may sound, some questions don’t have answers, which is a terribly difficult lesson to learn.” — Katharine Graham
(Okay, not Lazarus, but, it’s one he might have said, perhaps in the character of Lorelei, or Lapis Lazuli, Lazarus’ cloned twin sisters, had he/she/they thought about it…. )

“Always store beer in a dark place.” ~~ from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ~~ from the Notebooks of Lazarus Long

That’s enough for one day; Heinlein’s ideas are not as simple as they may appear at first read, and should be absorbed only after considerable rumination over their meaning…. like any chocolate for the soul, it needs to be thoroughly mixed into the milk….     🙂
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Such as it may be, here it is, complete…. Let’s see how it floats…..  Okay, I have to admit it… It’s all a cheat, but it ain’t too bad…. and it’s going out the way it is, so there…. I seem to detect a bit of friction building up in my attitudes… I’d best take a break from this now, or suffer the consequences; that would be totally unfair to y’all, as you’d probably get splashed, or dragged down with me…. Instead, I’ll just say this…..  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

Inundated in whole wheat toast points…..

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Ffolkes,
Far be it from me to complain, but…. there’s a fly in my soup, metaphorically speaking. This, in the normal course of events, would be cause for celebration, not complaint, as it isn’t often one actually finds meat, or protein of any kind, in the soup usually served up around here, especially the metaphorical soup….. It’s generally filled with more poisonous materials and/or ingredients, calculated to bring just the right degree of nausea to whomever has the courage to consume it. Yes, we’ve always had a bit of trouble with our Metaphorical Soup of Life, so the addition of a mere fly or two shouldn’t cause too much hullabaloo, regardless of how fat and disgusting the flies may be…..

Okay, I’ll get away from those images now…. even metaphorically, flies in the soup are not the best choice for pre-breakfast imagery, as they tend to put ffolkes off their breakfast, for sure….. The most hardened gourmand is leery of talk of flies, at the best of times, and before breakfast is definitely one to avoid bringing such pictures to mind…. Eggs over easy, or lightly scrambled, don’t mix well with hairy, ugly flying insects who are known to make a habit of hanging around shit…. Tends to put one right off their feed, and with good reason….

Oops, sorry, didn’t mean to do that here…. it’s a delicate line to walk, isn’t it? That line between bringing to mind some image that will turn the stomach, and one that will make the stomach growl in anticipation, is a very thin, hard-to-see line, and often gets crossed over inadvertently, by even the most careful of writers… which would NOT describe me, I’m sure….  I do try to keep from causing anyone to actually boot, but, I guess I missed it that time, eh? C’est la vie, as the Frogs would say…..

Note: to any Frenchmen, or women, who might conceivably read this…. the use of the word Frogs is in no way intended as a slight; I’m just copying my British brethren, who are known to have a large degree of disrespect for the French, dating back centuries, to one or another of the wars y’all fought with each other over whatever nonsensical issues either of you could come up with…. Any who, I just like the way it sounds, and from me you may take it as a form of endearment, okay? Okay….

Well…. I don’t know how, but I seem to have blathered long enough to make this a legal intro section…. In looking back over the above paragraphs, (I know, I could have used the simpler, “in retrospect”, but, we’re trying to fill up space here, so back off….), I see a certain lack of, shall we say, discretion, or perhaps, common sense would describe it better….

Whatever it is, there is too much of it, or not enough, or something…. But, you know what? It’s done, and I’m not going back to start over for anything, not at this point, six or so paragraphs in, even if not a single line of it makes any particular sense…. I told y’all at the beginning this isn’t for wimps, so, buckle up, hang on, and we’ll eventually get to a point where y’all can jump off…. In the meantime…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Part of being sane, is being a little bit crazy.” — Janet Long

I’ve also heard it said that insanity is a sane reaction to an insane world, which, ultimately, comes to the same thing. I’ve spoken before on this, as it is a subject near and dear to my own life, having spent many years working in the mental health field, as a therapist, and as a patient, after I contracted mental illness myself… In spite of what you might hear, it IS contagious, in a certain sense, as the constant exposure to its presence in others tends to cause stress in the therapist over time, stress that eventually brings the issue home to roost in those who either become too immersed in dealing with it, or don’t have the emotional strength to resist the pressure of the work.

“I’m probably crazy.  Either that or its just the hormones.” — Chris Pirillo (chris@lockergnome.com)

In my own case, it was a matter of immersion, combined with long term exposure to the most violent aspects of the business, that eventually broke down my ability to resist the onslaught of depression. What many do not realize about mental illness is that, once present, the condition does not, like traditional, medical conditions or illnesses, get completely cured, and then go away, leaving us with a natural inner defense, as our immune systems learn the characteristics of each disease, and the procedure to eradicate it from the body.

There are parallels, of course, both in the etiology, and in the treatment, of mental and medical illnesses, but, due to the extreme complexity of how the mind functions, and the extreme sparsity of our understanding of how it actually works, we have yet to learn how those parallels can be of use in the treatment of illnesses of the mind, at least, not to any significant degree that guarantees success. Psychiatry, and psychology, remain areas of knowledge still in their infancy, in terms of how much we understand…. or, more accurately, in terms of how little we understand….

“In the struggle for existence, it is only on those who hang on for ten minutes after all is hopeless, that hope begins to dawn.” — G. K. Chesterton, The Speaker 2-2-1901

While not (necessarily) directed at mental illness, this statement describes partially how the struggle against it can be of a particularly grim nature, difficult to avoid, and once met, difficult to be rid of its imprecations. It takes a kind of inner strength, and courage, that is hard for most people to find or develop, in order to apply, and maintain, the effort needed to overcome depression, and the debilitating lethargy, hopelessness, and unreasoning fear that comes with it. It is a special kind of strength, that must be ALWAYS be on tap for use, if not constantly applied; depression, and its hold over us, doesn’t take breaks unless forced, and that force must come from within us; it isn’t to be found in drugs, or anything else outside our own awareness.

Other people cannot GIVE us this strength, but, they can help us to find it within ourselves, sometimes merely by their presence…. Dogs, cats, and other animals also know how to supply whatever it is that helps us find that little place in us where our strength lies. In a certain sense, I suppose, one could say that such interactions, with people, with animals, or with the universe at large, DO supply us with the strength we need to carry on our efforts.

The positive benefits of petting a puppy, or having a purring cat sit on one’s lap, or of a kind word from a stranger, have an effect on our inner selves much greater than would seem the case for such simple acts. I can think of no quicker way to find our way out of a depressive fog than to have a puppy start chewing on our shoelaces, or having a kitten paw at one’s face in affection, or, most effective of all, getting a hug from a loved one. No words need be spoken, no ideas exchanged, and no coins handed over…. but, our fear is soothed, our hurts are healed, and we can find the inner strength to go on resisting the pull of the darker side of existence…..

“Love is all you need….” ~~ John Lennon

Strange, isn’t it? Sometimes, John got it so right, you wondered why you ever thought life was so complicated…. The only problem is, by its nature, and by the nature of the people who inhabit reality with us, the world tends to make it very hard to keep love intact. The ways of the world are so complex, and fast, and confusing, that people lose track of what is real, and what is illusion, and end up chasing those things in life that will leave them cold and alone, instead of concentrating on what is real, and lasting, and will bring them joy for their entire life.

We all end up doing both, being aware of what is real, and what is not, to a certain degree, and to varying degrees, succeed in acquiring joy in our lives; at other times, we suffer the results of our folly, with pain and fear…. The trick, I guess, is to know which is which, and how to bring them about according to our own will, not the will of anyone, or anything, else…. With that knowledge in your pocket, and a couple of dollars, you can get a pretty good cup of coffee…..

“The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.” — Henry Miller
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Somewhere inside me, buried deep in my mind, in some dusty hallway where no one has gone for a long time, there is a poem. I can see it, sitting there on the table inside the room in that hallway, waiting for me to find it, and bring it to light…. I can FEEL it sitting there, calling me, but, at this moment in time, I don’t have any idea in WHICH hallway it might be, much less which room in the hall…. I really do NEED to get a poem out soon; the pressure is getting uncomfortable, but, there’s no forcing it, or it will turn to sludge, so, I’m going to have to deal with it, and so must you….

In defense, though, I’ll put in one of my recent efforts in that arena, one I particularly like, so, if you do, too, that’s great…. If not, well, just remember… Any honest criticism is welcome, any praise is lapped up like cream…. Any less than enthusiastic responses will be cheerfully ignored, and any flaming will be revenged beyond your wildest imaginings… Just so’s you know….

Ah Ain’t Sho, but Mebbe So….

Fried eggs got nuthin’ on me
Ah’m not even sure of mah name,
or how Ah come to be;
no idea from where Ah came.

Ah does like a mystery tho’,
puzzlin’ things out so’s Ah knows,
good from bad fo sho,
Ah sho don’t want no rock pillows.

If’n Ah cain’t figure out what’s best,
Ah just falls back on mah Daddy’s words,
seems he knowed just whut’d stand the test,
‘n how to gentle the scaredest birds.

‘Course, he’d lived a good long time,
‘n had lots of stuff go on by;
Went to a war, n’ lost a piece or two,
never once used it fer an alibi.

He tol’ me once Ah’d best learn to learn,
school’s only cool if ya ain’t already a fool.
Yer own good measure you can earn,
by startin’ yer learnin’ with the Golden Rule.

Always seemed to me as Ah growed up,
he mostly only spoke if it wuz true,
‘n by doin’ that clued me to what’s up,
kept me from stuff that’d a made me blue.

Without ever sayin’ the word itself,
Ah learned ’bout honor, ‘n helpin’ others
not some fake stuff from some shelf,
but, knowin’ whut’s right, ‘n that we’re all brothers.

Ah’ve been around long enough now, Ah think
to get around the block at least two times.
I s’pose long as my head don’t shrink
Ah’ll keep on doin’ right, ‘n makin’ these rhymes…..

~~ gigoid ~~

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This pearl got away from me, somehow…. It started out really well, then Smart Bee took me on a tour of really bad stuff, with a few minorly shiny gems here and there. Then, when it got to the improper number of six pearls, it died out altogether, and I’m about ready to give up…. Except, I KNOW the perfect finishing pearl is out there, somewhere… the pearl that will bring these all into focus, and cure them of their apparent complete lack of relation to each other…. One more try…..

“Nothing makes one so vain as being told that one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all.” — Oscar Wilde

“In the republic of mediocrity genius is dangerous.” — Robert G. Ingersoll

“Do you know Presidents talk to the country the way men talk to women?  They say, Trust me, go all the way with me, and everything will be all right. And what happens?  Nine months later, you’re in trouble!” — Murphy’s Discovery

“How did the great rivers and seas gain dominion over the hundred lesser streams?  By being lower than they.” — Lao Tzu

“If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.” — Isaac Asimov

“A man cannot be wise enough to be a great artist without being wise enough to wish to be a philosopher. A man cannot have the energy to produce good art without having the energy to wish to pass beyond it. A small artist is content with art; a great artist is content with nothing except everything.” — G.K. Chesterton, Heretics

Well, it almost beat me, coach, but, I held my ground, and finally won through to victory…. It took what seemed like forever, but, I guess, at this hour, anything seems longer… and I did find the correct finishing pearl for this group. It was actually quite simple, as most things are eventually….

“If you are out of trouble, watch for danger.” — Sophocles

See? Easy peasy….. Well, simple anyway, and the point it all makes at the end is worth whatever it took, right? Right…. Okay, so all it really does is keep the insurance folks off my back… that’s a good thing, for me….. And, besides, being obscure and/or unfathomable is a big part of what we do around here, so, it fits right in, regardless of the risk of straining something….
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Okay, that tears it…. I have to confess my sins…. None of the above (in section three… the rest is valid….) has any real meaning, beyond its own internal structure, and I lied about the point…. there isn’t one, that I can see…. I’m just so disappointed in Smart Bee for being so…. well, for letting me down today…. I’m sure it won’t happen again, but, it kind of hurts, y’know…. I depend on it so heavily, I don’t know quite how to handle it when it goes limp on me.

I’ll get over it though, and at least there is a small degree of humor than can be wrung out of all this…. If nothing else, you can laugh at yourself, for reading it all the way to the end…. I mean, I HAVE to, since I’m writing it, and, believe me, I will, and am, laughing at myself, but, nothing exists to keep y’all from bailing any time, so I’m surprised to find you still here, reading away….  Just kidding, of course…. sort of….

Now that I’ve completely screwed the pooch, let’s see how it all hangs together…..  Okay, well, I’ve seen, and done, worse…. Besides, I’ve been up and working on this for damn near three hours now, and it’s only 0715, so, I’m not going back and doing it over, nope, not me…. We’ll all just have to deal with it, as is….  Ah, hell, at least nobody died, or took any particularly grievous hits, except maybe, my ego…..   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

Facial reconstruction is gratis only for Federal gargoyles….

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Ffolkes,
At the tone, the time will be…. 0646….. Pretty damn normal, if you ask me, which, I know you didn’t, but, since I’m obsessed with time in the mornings, I told you anyway…. Still, obsessive behavior aside, this is still the latest hour I’ve seen upon awakening in several months, so, I’m sort of jazzed about that. Sleep, or rather, the lack of sleep, has assumed too great a role in my life over the last few years, insidiously creeping up on me, a restless night here, a lost night there, and voilá, full-blown insomnia, with its ever-present gifts, dragging fatigue, and fuzzy head….

When younger, I could chalk it up to the activities of the night before, and throw off the worst of the fuzziness and fatigue, but, now that I’m older, the old reserve fuel tank is never quite full, and one ends up napping during the day like a two-year-old after three hours at a picnic…. Fortunately, I’m retired, and I’m old (well, old enough….), so napping is an acceptable pastime, both to those who might observe, and to me, who appreciates well the opportunity to give in to that particular urge…. I, like most children, fought like hell to grow out of taking naps, but, like most of us, have learned to enjoy the chance to rest and rejuvenate ourselves during the day….

So, sleeping so well that I see a new part of the morning, without having approached it with eyes already open, becomes an event worth celebrating, at least to the extent of acknowledging, and praising, its welcome presence. Of course, none of this really means anything that is worth writing about, but, it does get me a few paragraphs into the day’s effort without having to try to be too creative. Such an effort would, no doubt, be destined to fail, anyway, so it’s just as well…..

All that said, I can chalk it all up as a completed item on the day’s list, and get on with the regularly scheduled program…. Now, all I have to do is figure out what the hell our regularly scheduled program is, and we’re good to go. Since I’m up and relatively clear-headed, we’ll just dive in, and let Smart Bee determine what direction the program will take today…. ranting, joking, profound, or silly, it’s all grist for my mill in the morning, so let’s be off, to find our fates….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Having been lulled into a sense of false security by my late awakening, I should have known that Murphy would stick his nose in somewhere; it’s just too good an opportunity for him to be able to resist. Sure enough, he tried to fool me with some weird little aphorisms that were not merely not profound, but weren’t even pretty, thereby attempting to slow down the process…

Smart Bee, as the loyal software program it is, faithfully resisted Murphy’s ministrations, by slipping in the following group around, and between, the offerings he tried to saddle me with…. For a five-star pearl it isn’t bad, but, with the addition of the final two offerings, it enters another realm of thought altogether, one of great value to the discerning mind, and of great interest to the inquiring mind….. Enjoy! (And, pay attention! It’s all good stuff to know…. separate, or together….)

“The worst fear is the fear of living.” — Theodore Roosevelt

“There is nothing that can be said by mathematical symbols and relations which cannot also be said by words. The converse, however, is false. Much that can be and is said by words cannot successfully be put into equations, because it is nonsense.” — C. Truesdell

“It takes a very long time to become young.” — Pablo Picasso

“It is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.” — Josh Billings

“A platitude is simply a truth repeated until people get tired of hearing it.” — Stanley Baldwin

See? Isn’t that near-perfect? And when you add in these, well…..

“Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds–justification, confirmation–forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To really ask is to open the door to a whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the questions and the questioner.” — Anne Rice

“…just when I had you wriggling in the crushing grip of reason, too…” — Calvin & Hobbes

As I have had occasion to say previously, it’s all in the wrist, as is patently clear…. Oh, and the timing, of course, because, as we all know so well, timing is everything….
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su tung-po    “Born in 1036, Su Tung-p’o was a famous Chinese poet. He was also called Su Shih. Born in present-day Sichuan province, Su was from a literary family. During the Sung Dynasty he wrote very simple poems based on Buddhist Philosophy. Su occupied many official posts, rising to president of the board of rites (which regulated imperial ceremonies and worship). He designed the parks surrounding Lake Si in Hangzhou. Five emperors came to the throne during his lifetime. ” — from Poemhunter.com

Shui Tiao Ko Tou

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

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

~~ Su Tung-p’o ~~

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Y’all don’t really care why, and it really has no bearing on what happens, so I’m going to skip all the explanatory expostulation I normally provide before including something from the archives, and just say this…. I’m putting this here because it is one of my best rants, as it has an actual suggestion for an act, or proposed act, that actually might have a positive effect on the way the world is heading…

It’s a pretty simple idea, too, not terribly hard to institute, should it ever become popular enough to spread over the world, until the powers that be HAVE to respond one way or another to it…. which, I am quite certain, they will be hesitant to do, since it is an idea that holds THEM accountable to the rest of us…. Having thus risked boring you to death with unnecessary verbiage, read on, and think about it…. If you like the idea, share it…. enough said….
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“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

Okay, I know we are all probably sick to death of politics, and the election, and everyone would like to have a break from talking and thinking about it….. I know I am. So, I’ll try to make this fairly short, and make it the last political diatribe for at least a day or two. It may be possible, if nothing in the news jumps up to stimulate my outrage (which may be on a short vacation itself….. I hope. I could do with the emotional space….).

Any who…. here is what I was thinking when I came across this little gem…. What if we devised a test, that in some way would enable us, as voters, to determine the relative status of each of the candidates according to this rule? A way, as it were, to measure their degree of integrity, which is something I think we can all agree would be a good thing to see in a politician, unlikely as it may be. If we could, say, set up a scale of integrity, and make it law that a person had to score in the top 5% of the scale in order to merely be eligible for office, I think we might see a whole new set of politicians, who had never before been seen in public.

In fact, in thinking about the current crop of those in office, it is entirely possible that ALL of those in office now might not be eligible…. I am not excluding the President, out of fairness, though I personally believe he might score in the top 10%…. I still have questions about some of the stuff he has signed that didn’t seem to be very well publicized, as they didn’t exactly fit with his image….. The newest version of the Patriot Act, the NDAA, that he signed last New Year’s Day comes immediately to mind…. (with the authorizations to view mail, view email, review library use, and other data, to use drones, anywhere, to hold and question US citizens without warrant, or any notification or justification, etc… The Act abridges every one of the Bill of Rights in some way…. This comment added post-publication….)

I don’t care if he did try to mitigate some of the deleterious effects of the law, he still signed the damn thing, thereby seriously endangering a number (correction: ALL…) of the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution. Plus, the method he used to keep it from the public awareness was rather suspect, in my mind, and reminiscent of the old days under Nixon, Johnson, Reagan, and the two Shrubs, may they all rot in whatever level of  Hell they are destined to occupy….. (I know, I know…. not being a Christian, that curse has little weight, but, hey, it’s a pretty clear indicator of my opinion of all of them….)

As I suspected it might, this grew to be somewhat more than I intended it to be, so I’ll cut it short here. But, my suggestion above, about the test for integrity that should be a given for political aspirants, is completely serious, and I wanted to get that out. Maybe by the next election, we can get the rest of the country to buy into it…. which should be interesting, and fun. I’ll be looking forward to the expressions on the faces of all the supporters of those now in office, when their people gloriously fail to pass the test…. and to the results it will have on society, should it ever be adopted…. I don’t see any way at all that it could do anything that wouldn’t improve the situation…..

And so I penned
It down, until at last it came to be,
For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.


— John Bunyan (1628-1688) — Pilgrim’s Progress, Apology for his Book

Any thoughts on this?…. Feel free to comment below, or respond on your own blog, or via email
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Late it may be, but, it’s all fresh, or at least freshly commented upon…. “But,” he asked, “how does it read?” Well, let’s see…..  Not too badly at all, that’s how it reads…. So, without judging the content, it meets all necessary regulations and standards, if not all the demands of good taste. That’s never been too great a concern around here, anyway, so… off it goes, and I’m outta here, to go figure out how to spend another Sunday in Paradise, otherwise known as home sweet home…..  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

Priceless moments of shared arrogance…..

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Ffolkes,
That was close…. I almost began today’s missive with a song…. Not just any song, mind you, but a particularly bright, bouncy, tuneful one from a particularly perky musical that shall remain nameless, lest I get sued for intellectual theft, or chastised by my readers for excessive tackiness, either of which is unacceptable to me, especially before I’ve finished my first cuppa….. It also saves you from having to go wash out your ears so early in the day…..

Since my morning routine has returned to some semblance of its former normalcy, or mendacity, depending on your relative point of observation, it seems my initial comments are turning on me as well. Not sure what to think about that, or what I should do, if anything….. It’s not as if what I do here in the intro section is written in stone; in fact, nothing like consistency has ever come into the equation at all. It has been both a stimulant, to be more creative, and a hassle, because I’m not always in a creative frame of mind first thing in the morning. I do prefer to write then, as I seem to have more energy than later in the day, but that preference isn’t based on how creative I can be, just how awake I am, and how long I can sit.

None of this is getting me any closer to an introductory section that will do what I wish it to do, which is pull the reader into what is written, like the siren call of the muses…. Oh, well, it’s probably a good thing I can’t seem to find a template for this; if I did the same thing every day, I’d go stark, raving sane, and lose all my sense of humor, most likely, turning this into merely another mass of poorly written garbage, in spite of how pompous and extensive my vocabulary gets, or how accurate my observations…. A conundrum is what it is, and I don’t like it….

Sadly, or fortunately, depending on your viewpoint, my likes and dislikes have absolutely no effect whatsoever on reality, so I’m going to have to just suck it up, and get on with the business of the day, just as if I knew what I was doing, or where I was going. I suppose that could be seen as another metaphor for life in general, but, I’m not in the mood right now for logical, or practical, metaphors, no matter how close to the truth they may be. I’m currently busy feeling curmudgeonly, grumpy because I can’t have my own way, and things aren’t being amenable to my manipulation today, especially my own attitude…. I can see I need to adjust it, so, pardon me if I spilled any of it on you….

I’m going to bring this section to a rapid close now, before I get into anything that could be construed as illegal, or even immoral, which is more of how I judge things in my life…. Not that I’m such that I could be held up as an example of anything other than how to grow old gracelessly, but, I do try to make my decisions based on morals, and/or ethics, rather than laws…. Always have, always will…. Regardless, I have to go now, or “bad things” could happen….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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Oooh! Did you see that? Oh, no, I guess not, since you’re not here in the room with me…. I just created a new pearl format, completely by accident, courtesy of Smart Bee, and the principle of serendipity….. The following pearl, composed of four parts poetry and three parts prose, is just about as perfect as it can be, in terms of being a clever and useful concept, artfully brought to light by the way the given quotes direct the mind’s eye, to the correct vision implied by the tenor of the presented metaphorical signs…. All a short, confusing way to say, look, look, it’s a plane, it’s a bird, it’s not any of that! It’s virtual wisdom at its best…..

Curse away!
And let me tell thee, Beausant, a wise proverb
The Arabs have,–“Curses are like young chickens,
And still come home to roost.”

— Edward Bulwer Lytton (1805-1873) — The Lady of Lyons, Act v, Sc. 2

“By the streets of “by and by”, one arrives at the house of “never”.” — Cervantes

The charge is prepar’d, the lawyers are met,
The judges all ranged,–a terrible show!

— John Gay (1688-1732) — The Beggar’s Opera, Act iii, Sc. 2

“The most interesting information comes from children, for they tell all they know and then stop.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)

And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray ‘s
In deepest consequence.

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Macbeth — Act i, Sc. 3

“Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.” — Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.

— John Donne (1572-1631), “Death, be not proud”

Sniff…. I couldn’t be prouder, and I’d like to thank the Academy, and my director, and my mum and dad, and…..
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I’m in the mood for obscure genius, so…..

Two Lovers And A Beachcomber By The Real Sea

Cold and final, the imagination
Shuts down its fabled summer house;
Blue views are boarded up; our sweet vacation
Dwindles in the hour-glass.

Thoughts that found a maze of mermaid hair
Tangling in the tide’s green fall
Now fold their wings like bats and disappear
Into the attic of the skull.

We are not what we might be; what we are
Outlaws all extrapolation
Beyond the interval of now and here:
White whales are gone with the white ocean.

A lone beachcomber squats among the wrack
Of kaleidoscope shells
Probing fractured Venus with a stick
Under a tent of taunting gulls.

No sea-change decks the sunken shank of bone
That chucks in backtrack of the wave;
Though the mind like an oyster labors on and on,
A grain of sand is all we have.

Water will run by; the actual sun
Will scrupulously rise and set;
No little man lives in the exacting moon
And that is that, is that, is that.

~~ Sylvia Plath ~~

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I am running late, a bit, since I got up at a completely reasonable hour, and have been dawdling over getting this done, letting my mind wake up at its own pace…. and now, I don’t have the time, or the energy, to rant, not effectively…. Once again, though, the archives will come to the rescue…. Here is a politirant I wrote on 7/14/2012, a little less than a year ago, during the run-up to the Presidential election in November of that year….

I remember the piece quite well, and consider it one of my better rants, especially as it continued through two sections, of what, then, were the longer, five section pearls of the old format…. At that length, it’s a bit long, but it’s all quite accurate, and still pretty relevant, given that the political scenery hasn’t altered significantly since it was written… But, then, political scenery never does really change anything but the faces of the people at the top, does it?….. Enjoy, ffolkes, this one is pretty good, and on the mark…. “And that is that, is that, is that.”……
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“Ignore the man behind the screen.” — The All Seeing, All Powerful, Wonderful Wizard of Oz

As the time passes and we draw ever nearer to the election this year, this becomes increasingly relevant. It is important to remember that ALL the political candidates are guilty of using the art of prestidigitation in their communications with the public. Of course, Mitt the Twitt and the GOP are showing particularly egregious new heights to which they are willing to take the art; they have paraded a series of lies before the public that are not even hidden, or palmed like cards; they’re just out there, proven as lies, but ignored. They don’t seem to care; they just deny, ignore, and issue their next false accusation or made up statistics….

‘Shit Happens’ according to… Denialism:      What shit? — Smart Bee

The Democrats aren’t completely free of this syndrome, either; if you believe they are, then you have entered the Twilight Zone, and may have trouble finding your way back to the real world. I admire Obama, much the same way I did Carter; they are both basically decent men trying to do an impossible job, while constantly having to contend with an entire segment of those who are supposed to support him who, instead, are attempting to thwart his every reform, simply for the sake of divisiveness. In their fight to get ANYTHING done, they have had to resort to chicanery of their own. I figure they, at least, feel a bit of guilt about it, whereas I can see no such reaction from Mitt or any of the GOP spokesbozos…. They just deny and ignore any such suggestions of wrong-doing….

Let’s consider Mitt the Twitt for a moment. Here is a man who admits to being rich as Croesus, yet finds it necessary to hide at least half of his real worth, as if it would tarnish his image of someone who can relate to the common man. I think the common man, to Mitt, is someone who only has $50,000 worth of investments, to go along with the house they own, their three cars, and the vacation home in Maine. In contrast to EVERY OTHER candidates policy of publishing their taxes, he continues to refuse to release any returns beyond the last one; there are inconsistencies and red flag items of interest to the public in that one, too, but he refuses to discuss any of it…

This is the same man who tied his dog to a kennel on the roof of a car, and went off on vacation, without ever thinking of how terrified the dog might be, barreling along at 80 mph, with the wind blowing straight through the kennel. He laughs about it, and turns questions about it to other subjects, refusing to even comment on it. This is the same man who, when asked about a serious incident of bullying and gay bashing during his last year in high school, shrugged it off as “youthful pranks and high spirits”…..

This is the same man who…. well, never mind. I could go on most of the day, and not get to all the little incidents from just the last few months that indicate the Twitt’s complete disregard for the majority of Americans, and show clearly how entrenched he is in the 1%, and how committed he is to solidifying the stranglehold that the banks and corporations have on the rest of American society. His total focus is on the agenda of the rich, to the detriment of the poor, and I am totally astounded at just how many IDIOTS are our there in this country supporting him, in the mistaken belief that he gives a shit about them….

No politician is acting in the best interests of the people they govern. None of them. But people continue to act as if they do, and it is driving me crazy! Normal, intelligent people are backing this asshole, thinking that he isn’t going to screw them over. It is incomprehensible to me how people can blind themselves to the obvious so completely that they would fall for this shit….  I will say it one more time, and I hope they can understand it….

And then shall many be offended,… — Matthew 24:10

You are being lied to, by every politician who is currently seeking office, and by every one currently in office. If you don’t see that, if you don’t believe that, then you are deliberately fucking yourself in the place it will most hurt, and apparently, enjoying it…. The man, the party, and 99% of everyone you see on TV is LYING TO YOU!!!!! They are doing so every day, every hour, every minute, and you are accepting it like you are a starving sheep and what they are saying is manna from heaven.

WAKE UP!…..  I’m stopping here, my blood pressure is spiking. That’s how worked up I get when I think of how deliberately stupid people can be…. I don’t so much mind the stupid part, but the fact that they have to CHOOSE to not see what is right in front of their face just sets me off…. and so much indignation, righteous or not, is giving me indigestion….. stay alert, ffolkes, the politicians are coming, and they’re dangerous when unregulated….
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Certain passages in several laws have always defied interpretation, and the most inexplicable must be a matter of opinion. A judge of the Court of Session of Scotland has sent the editors of this book his candidate which reads, “In the Nuts (unground), (other than ground nuts) Order, the expression nuts shall have reference to such nuts, other than ground nuts, as would but for this amending Order not qualify as nuts (unground)(other than ground nuts) by reason of their being nuts (unground).” — from the Guinness Book of World Records, 1973

I’m almost speechless. (I know, you’ll believe it when you see it…. I did say ‘almost’…. that’s something…) It’s absolutely beautiful! Perfectly priceless absolute nonsense, dressed only in legal briefs…. It is so impenetrable, I can’t tell if it is the law itself, or the judges written opinion on the law, or a passage from Nightmare on Elm Street! Which I’ve never seen, by the way….

How’s that for tangential? Any who, this was included today as a finishing touch to my Twitt-rant above. This goes to show just how the political hacks we are burdened with today work their verbal magic, to distract us from looking at things they don’t want us to see. Bureaucratese is what I’ve heard it called, a language and skill set that society has had practiced on them since the days of ancient Greece. When a document such as the one above reaches a certain level of impenetrability, the majority of people alive will either fall asleep halfway through reading it, or totally ignore it after reading the first 11 words or so. It’s a classic piece of distraction, and is probably used in courses for political science majors in college, and in law schools, as an example of how to carry off the trick.

To me, what this law indicates is that one, or more, of the people involved in writing the law have a monetary interest in being able to obfuscate the definition of “Nuts”, in order for them to achieve some financial reward owing to the indicated distinctions in that definition. In other words, a loophole or three is created, so the “Nut” vendors can make more money, charging more for each kind of Nut than could be accomplished without the legislation. It’s similar to the law in this country that was pushed through the Federal Courts back in the mid-1800’s, when a corrupt Federal judge awarded “personhood” to corporations, after being paid handsomely by those corporations for his verdict…. Same, same, alla same…. Evil is loose in the world….

— Bother! said Pooh, as he had another plate of Piglet sausage. — Smart Bee (Remember Mitt the Twitt at the NAACP?…..)

I suppose all I’m trying to say here is, once again….. Wake up ffolkes…. the beloved ruling class, the priestly hierarchies, and the corporate “persons” in the shape of banks and multi-national corporations, are continuing their campaign to hide from all of us the actual business they are pursuing, which has everything to do with benefiting them, and everything to do with screwing everyone else as much as they will allow…. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m about done with allowing ANY of it….

“I’m not tense, just terribly alert.” — Smart Bee

So, please…. DON’T ignore the man behind the screen…. he’s the one who is killing us all….
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Ollie would be proud, I think… and just in time, too. The store is now open, and I’m done with this, so, all is right with the world, such as it is today. I’m not any more certain than you are what that may mean, or even whether it SHOULD mean anything, but, obscurity is what we’re always shooting for around here, and sometimes, it’s just easier than other times….. Especially when my fingers take over the keyboard like this, and just type away as fast as they can, without any idea of what will come out….. I’d better put a stop to it, before I hurt myself, or y’all….   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

Mostly, it’s just safer not to tango….

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Ffolkes,
    And then, I woke up….. The birds were not chirping, the sun wasn’t awake yet, and I am, thanks to the tender ministrations of that asshole deluxe, Murphy, shall we say, less than the happiest camper in the park….. But, then, what else is new? I can’t complain about the hour I was awakened; at 0538, I can’t call it anything but relatively normal. Nor can I, or will I, complain about the uncomfortable, yet also fairly normal, paroxysms of coughing that greeted me upon awakening; that’s my own damn fault for smoking…..

    But, when the process of bullying me into arising for the day includes polka music at top volume, I draw a thick, indelible line, and it’s best not to cross it….. Who in the world listens to loud polkas before 6 AM? I mean, it’s effective, for sure; I’m as awake as I’ve ever been. But, the price for that isn’t acceptable to me, and that is for certain…. I don’t care who it is, next time I hear that before daylight, I’m buying a gun, a big one….. Of course, it COULD have been a hallucination, but, I have to ask myself, would my own mind do that to me?…. Polkas?…. I don’t think so….

    Due to the mere fact that you are not in the room with me, none of y’all were able to observe the past 35 minutes of my morning, which did NOT include any writing, once the forgoing was on screen… It did, however, include much thinking about what to write, at least during those moments when I wasn’t being seduced into reading more pages of “Gaudy Night”, the Dorothy L. Sayers novel I’m currently devouring. A bit of Dorothy’s most excellent English prose, an extended period of successful worship at the throne, and the day takes on a whole new aspect, one with much more positive features than the one that first greeted me…. Best thing? The polka music went away…. either the radio’s owner got a clue, or my medication kicked in, whichever…. it’s all good, now…

    Good enough that I can consider just getting on with the day’s portion of insanity, which, I’ve always said, is better out than in…. Keeping stuff like this inside my head leads to what we call “bad stuff” happening, and, my lawyers tell me I can’t afford for any more “bad stuff” to happen, at least until I’m off probation for the last time…. You do know that’s a joke, right?….

    I’m not a known name and face to the local constabulary, (that I know of….), nor am I of particular interest to anyone outside the NSA, who are currently busy watching ALL OF US, at the behest of the government, under the authority of Article 215 of the Patriot Act, signed first by Bush in 2001, and re-signed, twice, by President Obama (didn’t know that, did ya?….)…. Yep, the White House, and all the paranoids in the clandestine (sub)intelligence agencies, are accessing your email, right off your internet mail server; your phone records, direct from the phone company; plus, they’re mining and harvesting just about any other data you leave out there for consumption, and they’re not even trying to hide it…. They don’t have to, it’s legal, we let them do it…..

    Okay, I know, this is the intro section, and it’s too early to rant, so I’ll let all that go (although there isn’t a single untrue word in any of the previous paragraph… every word is corroborated by other evidence, available to anyone….)…. for the moment. I’m starting to get a bit pissed off about it, but, right now, I’m still engaged in my own battles with my HMO, which seems to have a problem with communication… and which, I found out, is also accessing my emails….. Yep, the “secure” email system they have, I discovered, isn’t secure at all, as almost anyone can look at the emails in the inbox they provide for me, on their site, as long as they’re part of the HMO…. Needless to say, I’m just a little angry about that, and intend to deal with it later today, when the rest of the world arises….

    With that in mind, I suppose I’d best quit blathering, and get on with today’s effort…. If I don’t get to it soon, I’m going to end up hitting the archives again…. which, all things considered, isn’t a bad thing… It just doesn’t get all that much out of my head, unless I get lucky, and find an old rant that makes it all worthwhile…. For now, we’ll see what Smart Bee has to say this morning, and go from there….  

    Shall we Pearl?…..
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    The intro section went so long on me, I am going old-school, right out of the gate, to give a little balance to this…. The pearls all picked themselves, so I have no clue as to what they mean, taken together…. But, upon looking them over, I can see that, once again, Smart Bee’s sense of whimsy, and irony, are both in full play….. Enjoy!…..

Pressed for rules and verities,
 All I recollect are these:
 Feed a cold and starve a fever.
 Argue with no true believer.
 Think too-long is never-act.
 Scratch a myth and find a fact.

 — Phyllis McGinley

“On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one’s mind. It becomes a pleasure.” — Oscar Wilde (1856-1900), from The Importance of Being Earnest

“Throw strikes. Home plate don’t move.” — Satchel Paige

“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” — Leonardo da Vinci

“Beyond a critical point within a finite space, freedom diminishes as numbers increase. . . . the human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system, but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.” — Frank Herbert, Dune

“A man who can fool chiefs, and even gods, must still face the monsters he himself created.” — Old Maori saying

For a true master,
Sitting on a throne
Is no different than
Sitting on dirt.

 — Deng Ming-Dao

    There you go…. and, I’m sorry, but, if you can’t bring meaning out of THIS group of pearls, there is little hope of it ever happening, not without some serious practice, and learning to use one’s mind for something other than figuring out how to open potato chip packages….   🙂  
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    Some poetry can stand alone, sans embellishment by comment, and should be left to do so…..

The Bait

Come live with me, and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands, and crystal brooks,
With silken lines, and silver hooks.

There will the river whispering run
Warm’d by thy eyes, more than the sun;
And there the ‘enamour’d fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously to thee swim,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

If thou, to be so seen, be’st loth,
By sun or moon, thou dark’nest both,
And if myself have leave to see,
I need not their light having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset,
With strangling snare, or windowy net.

Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest;
Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies,
Bewitch poor fishes’ wand’ring eyes.

For thee, thou need’st no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait:
That fish, that is not catch’d thereby,
Alas, is wiser far than I.

~~ John Donne ~~

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“All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.” — Leonardo da Vinci

    I knew when I included this above that I would be using it another time in the future. It is such a succinct observation, and one that parallels my own thoughts about what happens in our minds, and in truth, about what our minds are…. “What is the mind?” Where is the proof, the hard evidence that our minds, our conscious self-awareness, actually exist in a real sense? We know, because we are inside it, that it exists; but is that existence really a part of the real world? If so, how do we know it, if not only by our own perception? I’m not entirely sure, myself, that this can be answered in any way other than by acknowledging those perceptions as having validity because we perceive them, which is, seemingly, a tautological impossibility….

    Of course, we can use the definition of Reality as proposed by Philip K. Dick, which says that reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away. This accounts for the inconsistency, but does so by transferring the validity from the perception, to the absence of the perception. I know, that’s a bit of a tenuous connection, but, it points out the difficulty of trying to validate reality with perception; first one must validate the perceptions, and to do that, we must assume the mind to be part of reality, and consciousness to be the connecting tissue.

“A reverence for life does not require one to respect nature’s obvious mistakes.” — Robert A. Heinlein

    I realize this subject is not one common to most folks, especially early in the morning. I also will admit to knowing that much of what I’m saying is not particularly of interest to many people, but, I don’t write for many people. I write for me, to get out of my head all the stuff that otherwise would sit in there and cause havoc to my own equilibrium… It’s sort of an aftereffect of the course of my earlier life, admittedly a bit cumbersome, but, with the help of my trusty laptop, and a willingness to use time, given by my situation, to keep from building up so much angst and/or mental frustration that it starts to affect me adversely…. which is a polite, discrete way to say, it keeps me sane….

    I think about stuff like this because, to me, it is important to know our own place in the scheme of things, and we can’t do that without a clear understanding of both ourselves, and the way we perceive, and react to, the universe at large; in other words, our response to our perceptions, and, ultimately, our response to Life. We determine our own happiness according to what we do with what we perceive, and I believe it is critical to stay aware of that process, and how we are utilizing what we perceive. It’s good to take out our attitudes now and again, to examine them for necessary updating, dusting off any acquired prejudices, and giving them a good shake to let them fall into the proper shape to pick up the clearest perceptions, in order to use them efficiently, and compassionately…..

“‘T is strange, but true; for truth is always strange,– Stranger than fiction.” — Lord Byron (1788-1824) — Don Juan, Canto xiv, Stanza 101

    And so am I, for I live for the truth. I accept that as the proper price for the understanding I have of reality, and for my own always increasing ability to deal with it on my own terms. It does make me a bit conspicuous at times; probably why I don’t go out in public all that often. It gets chancy sometimes, trying to maintain a cloak of normalcy when I’m out in the Big Blue Room, so I tend to avoid most public venues, just to avoid controversy…. I’m social, but not sociable, if you catch my drift…..

    Well, I see I’ve blathered on about this until it petered out…. Not much left to say, really, about Reality, and our perceptions, that I haven’t said before…. In life, “true power is control of the routes of perception.” — gigoid   This is a universal truth, my own deduction, based on observation and historical fact. The BRC and the churches know this, and do everything they can to control what people perceive, and what they are allowed to believe. I have no illusions about the degree of their control over society… This knowledge gives me a certain degree of defense against such control, as knowing it is there is the first step to resisting its influence, or to making it appear as if I am allowing it to control me, while maintaining my own reality….

    And THAT is quite enough of that…. I don’t wish to pull ALL my covers, not at once anyway, and it makes little sense to give away my best defense… I don’t think I’ve gone too far today; after all, it’s just a little bit of truth…. What harm can that cause?….

“I don’t think they could put him in a mental hospital.   On the other hand, if he were already in, I don’t think they’d let him out.” — Smart Bee
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    The last line above might just be the most coherent of the lot….. Let’s see if the rest of it lives up to the advance reviews….  Well, it isn’t the worst to ever come down the pike… whatever that’s supposed to mean. It will do. Rather than saddling y’all with more of my lack of wit, I’ll call it a day, and hope for the best…..  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

Use the lug nuts we softened yesterday….

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Ffolkes,
Celebration is called for, if not demanded…. I woke up, again (an event that becomes more significant each day….), but this time, I looked over at the clock to find that I had actually slept longer than I had thought, not less. It was actually past five in the morning, by a goodly number of minutes, and even my making it past 9:30 pm last night for the first time in ages doesn’t account for it…. But, I don’t care why, it just feels good, so I’m going to spend the day celebrating my return to near-normalcy, and try to figure out how it happened, so I can make it happen again tonight, and from now on….

Probably wishful thinking, but everyone needs a goal, right? For the nonce, it will have to do, as it also presents me with a blank page again, and no idea what to do about it, other than my usual blather. That seems to be working just fine, but, I can’t depend on it to produce an entire pearl, not if I still want any readers at the end of it. Of course, the number of readers I’m attracting is again on the decline, so I’m not sure if anything will work, other than sheer nonsense and/or sheer brilliance…. This morning, I’m pretty certain the former is within reach; the latter may be too much to expect right now….

Not that I’d necessarily even recognize brilliance, even if it walked up and slapped me, but it would be nice to see some of it around here now and again, just to give me a reason to come back and do it again. Writing this way seems to be a bit like the game of golf…. It’s harder than it looks, it takes more time than one would expect to learn how to do it right, and the payoff isn’t very exciting. Still, like golf, one good poem, or one good rant, or one great group of pearls is enough to get me back out here again each day, just like one good fairway drive, or, one long putt that drops in for a birdie, will bring us back out to the links next week….. It doesn’t take much….

There is an old piece of wisdom somewhere that talks about how the longest journey begins with one step (it’s actually from the Tao Teh Ching, by Lao Tzu….), and it applies about as universally as anything can…. so, naturally, it applies here. This Pearl isn’t going to get done until I quit screwing around, and start writing, or at least cruising for pearls to include, or to stimulate, so I once again have to put aside my fantasies and get down to the actual work involved with creating a Daily Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, such as it is….. which isn’t going to happen, until now….. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“I believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the measures of the Government are directed to the purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.” — William Henry Harrison

Well, duh….. As I get older, this principle, or, this observation of a principle, becomes more obvious, and less surprising. I first began to question government back around 1957 or so, the first time I ever got a look at Dicky Nixon, when he was running for VP behind Eisenhower. Even at that tender age, I couldn’t figure out why this man was so famous and admired; he looked like he wore too much Brylcream (a brand name hair grease in 1957…) in his hair, and he smiled way too much…. Any kid under 10 is leery of adults who smile like that; they know it’s false bonhomie (though generally without knowing the word ‘bonhomie’ itself….), and generally avoid such adults at any cost, even to the point of speaking out, to say something like “Don’t touch me with that!”, when asked to shake their hand….. because we saw them run it over their slicked back hair, and didn’t want the grease all over our own hands….

It’s been a while since I wrote a politirant… This isn’t because the politicians have been idle, far from it. They are busily carrying on the agendas of their corporate masters and the BRC, weakening social programs, giving money to the rich and powerful, distracting the public with miscellaneous bullshit while they transfer more money to their own pockets, and go about their true business of making money off the rest of humanity. No, I’ve just been too satisfied with my own lot to work up sufficient outrage, since my own actions right now are feeding into that whole trained consumer scenario, while I make up for the poverty of my existence over the last three years….

I know, it’s a little hypocritical of me, but, I don’t really care much what others think about it. All my life I’ve worked hard to get to where I am today, even if I’m a bit less capable, physically, than I had planned to be at this stage, and I don’t really give a shit if other folks don’t approve of how I’m living my life. I’m doing just exactly what I want to do, much as I always have done, and will continue to do so as long as I can. Some of what I want to do requires that I engage in dealings with the BRC, politicians, and corporate slaves, and do so without biting off their appendages, because they are such gits….. Sociopathic gits, but gits nonetheless….

“Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage.  But if we don’t practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us — and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along.” — Carl Sagan, “The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,” Parade, February 1, 1987

In another sense, I’ve about given up…. Over the last three years or so, or just over two years of writing daily in this blog, I’ve ranted and raged against the machine on a regular basis, sometimes with a lot of vitriol and energy, which is completely justified, when one considers just how much the ruling classes act like vicious animals more than people…..

But, no matter how often, or how much, or how well I write, none of it makes a dent in the facade of respectability that cloaks those in positions of elected authority in this country. These politicians have been getting away with criminal acts for so long, by the old “make the laws ourselves” method, which makes their thievery legal, that they now believe it is their God-given right to plunder the public treasury, looking upon the structure of income in government like their own bank….

I’ve managed to acquire a comfortable retirement income, between my almost 30 years working for the State of California, and putting money into their retirement system, and by putting money into Social Security for over 50 years. Together, it gives me enough room to breathe, financially, for one of the first times in my life, and to be honest, I’m enjoying it, little as I like money, or its demands on our psyches.

Or, I guess it would be more accurate to say, I’m enjoying what money can do, when one has enough of it to be able to think beyond necessity. Unfortunately for my angst, or perhaps, fortunately, this leaves me without the depth of feeling needed to rant successfully… It’s like Voldemort told Harry, in HP 5:TOOTP, “You’ve got to MEAN it, Harry!”, referring to using the Cruciatus Curse correctly…..

So, I’ll just say this…. Politics is poopadoodle, and politicians are all assholes…. I can’t put it more simply, or more effectively than that. Anyone who WANTS to be in an elected position of authority in this world is, in my mind, insane, by definition. It takes a strong degree of insanity to WANT that kind of power over others, and it takes a sociopathic, rationalizing sort of mind to be able to steal from the rest of mankind without suffering a single pang of conscience… The same goes for the bankers, and the preachers, and the police, mostly, and for anyone else who makes a habit of fucking over other people….

Sadly, that’s a large percentage of mankind that preys on the rest, and they’ve been practicing for oh, about twenty-thousand years now, ever since people started to hang together in groups, and came up with the concept of barter, and/or money…. Ever since then, people have been trying to figure out new and improved methods of getting an advantage over their peers, using these concepts….. the rest we call History…..

“You have the right to remain an idiot.” — Smart Bee
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I suppose that a mild rant such as the above is sufficient reason to feel as befuddled and bemused as I do…. Enough so I am picking today’s poem from that position, going with what appeals to that sense of bemusement….. and this is perfect for that…. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did….

I dreaded that first robin so,
But he is mastered now,
And I’m accustomed to him grown,–
He hurts a little, though.

I thought if I could only live
Till that first shout got by,
Not all pianos in the woods
Had power to mangle me.

I dared not meet the daffodils,
For fear their yellow gown
Would pierce me with a fashion
So foreign to my own.

I wished the grass would hurry,
So when ‘t was time to see,
He’d be too tall, the tallest one
Could stretch to look at me.

I could not bear the bees should come,
I wished they’d stay away
In those dim countries where they go:
What word had they for me?

They’re here, though; not a creature failed,
No blossom stayed away
In gentle deference to me,
The Queen of Calvary.

Each one salutes me as he goes,
And I my childish plumes
Lift, in bereaved acknowledgment
Of their unthinking drums.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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Well, here’s the deal…. One last old-school pearl to finish out the day, and we’ll call it a draw, okay? I know I’ve been a bit scattered and discombobulated, but, just getting to use that word is enough of a reward for me, so, back off…. I’m kidding, of course….. But, not about this group…. They picked themselves again, so the underlying message, whatever it may be, can be blamed on my subconscious…. I’m pretty sure there is a message, which, of course, is left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader…. besides, I’m on a deadline here, so, again, back off…..     😉

“Death tugs at my ear and says: “Live, I am coming.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

“It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth — and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up–that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it were the only one we had.” — Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

“The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of.” — Blaise Pascal

“Ask a toad what is beauty?…a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head, a large flat mouth, a yellow belly and a brown back.” — Voltaire (1694-1778)

“To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one’s own in the midst of abundance.” — Buddha

He ‘s gone, and who knows how he may report
Thy words by adding fuel to the flame?

— John Milton (1608-1674) — Samson Agonistes, Line 1350

“Do I have a lifestyle yet?” — Zippy the Pinhead
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“That he is mad, ‘t is true: ‘t is true ‘t is pity; And pity ‘t is ‘t is true.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act ii, Sc. 2

Hmm… even Will gets one right now and then…. and this shoe sure fits well!  Let’s see if it floats…..  Okay, it will have to do…. It’s really not too shabby, all in all, so, since I’ve posted worse, we’ll fly with it……  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