I’ll take that last glazed pineal gland, please….

Posted on February 3, 2015 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Admission of ignorance is often the first step in our education.”

~~ Stephen Covey ~~

Chacalacascape — Gregory Basco

Mr. Covey, in his opening line, makes a valiant attempt here; sadly, he comes up slightly short of creating a truism. While what he notes IS true, he apparently lacked full confidence in his convictions, causing him to hedge his bet a little in his statement. A more correct word, with much more scope and perspective, is available to use to increase the accuracy of the concept; that word, which fills the lack in his original quote, would more accurately be as follows:

“Admission of ignorance is ALWAYS the first step in our education.”

Socrates, perhaps mankind’s most revered sage, knew this quite well, making the admission of his own ignorance freely, and frequently….. Perhaps the most famous story we have demonstrating his sagacity, out of many examples of his wisdom preserved throughout history, is the story of his lesson to a potential student, wherein he pushed the lad into deep water, telling him to come back to learn, when he wanted knowledge as much as he wanted air to breathe…. Simple, yet, effective lesson, wouldn’t you say?

I’ve always thought so, since first hearing it, in elementary school, but, then, I suppose one could say I started out a bit strange, a pink monkey, don’t y’know? Ah well, I’m good with it; I never could understand wanting to be like everybody else. It always puzzled me why anyone would want to be someone else; if I was, who the hell would I be? And, why am I asking you? You probably don’t have any more idea than do I, which puts both of us up that proverbial creek, sans a paddle, wouldn’t you say? I think, given the number of question marks in this paragraph, we’d best get on with something of a different nature, or color, or, well, anything at all but more of this silliness…

Can’t think of what I was trying to do there. Oh, wait….. Okay, I know what’s happening now. It’s my subconscious again, fussing around with the routine, probably has an issue to work out. It always does this to me when it’s trying to get my attention somehow….. I guess it does make communication difficult, when the two parties involved are separated by the veil of consciousness…. Every time it wants something, it has to work out some metaphorical code, to grab my conscious mind’s attention, directing it toward whatever has been chosen as a means of getting its point across…. It even SOUNDS complicated…..

Today, though, I think we’ll just wait until after we’re done, then I’ll figure out what it wants…. For now, I think I’ve blathered uselessly for long enough. Other than the initial short discussion of the classic lesson from Socrates, we’ve managed to make our way to a legal cut-off point, without having paid the slightest attention; no bridge tolls paid, either. Of course, we didn’t cross any bridges, but, you know those stat monkeys; they want us to keep track of EVERYTHING…. Bozos, every one of ’em…

Okay, I’m done. We’ll go on to the rest of today’s effort, leaving this right here, in this lonely, deserted area, with the nearest phone two miles away at a strip mall. I hope y’all brought your survival kits; we may need them, if we can’t find our way back here to the vehicle…. Besides, it’s questionable whether we’d be able to find it anyway, as the automatic camouflage utility will cover it in a holographic image of the surrounding trees, making it virtually impossible to find, anyway. If that happens, we’ll be late getting back, for sure, as Luigi will then have to fire up the swamp buggy to come get us…. Oh well…. such is life….

Shall we Pearl?

Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, August, 2011 to February, 2015 = Slightly less than 2.5 million words (Precisely, 2,478,983, according to Open Source Software’s Word Count utility….). — gigoid, showing off his addition skills, thus, clearly demonstrating the keen appreciation of the trivial which characterizes the prototypical bozoid personality….

To a Bozo, trivial statistics are not merely food for thought; they are Meat, Potatoes, AND, a Vegetable!…. Note the number of words used to talk about one simple stat…. Now, we can spend an inordinate number of otherwise fruitful hours, trying to calculate if the number of words written, as shown above, to wit: 2,278,983, is a Prime Number! It sure looks like one…. What fun we’re going to have!

Oh, heck…. Never mind. It’s a complicated calculation, which I’m not prepared to pursue just now. I guess we can just go on to the rest of today’s post, which, if the intro section is any indication, could prove to be an experience none of us have experienced in our lives…. I’m a little nervous, but, let’s go on, shall we?…..

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Each year, the Grateful Dead web site organizes what they call the Dead Covers Project. Fans are encouraged to make a video wherein they play and/or sing a version of one of the Dead’s songs. They then upload the videos to a You Tube page dedicated to the “covers”, so all the fans can enjoy them, with prizes awarded to those voted the best by the viewers…. It’s a great way to get new music from America’s most dedicated fans, by some very good musical artists…. The link below will take you to the page where one of the fans has compiled 114 of the videos from 2014, for your listening and viewing pleasure…. and mine…. Enjoy, ffolkes, there’s some good shit here…..

Dead Covers Project 2014

***********

http://youtu.be/gGZUSrj3dko?list=PLAxT_DkSwQLsxDqEgOm-dAigF13pEy2n8

***********

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“The rights you have are the rights given you by this Committee [the House Un-American Activities Committee]. We will determine what rights you have and what rights you have not got.” — J. Parnell Thomas

Hmm…. I’m not entirely certain of exactly when this statement went into the Congressional Record; the HU-AAC operated in the early 1950’s, during the era of McCarthyism, that black period of US history when the number of insane Senators elected to seats in Congress approached numbers paralleled only by the numbers we see today, when the world, and this country, have been inundated in the effects of long-term insanity, now being displayed so prominently in legislative and governmental facilities all over the world. But, I do know the statement fits in perfectly with the obvious sense of entitlement the current crop of pundits displays toward the public…

The infestation of vermin in Washington D. C. has reached epidemic level; soon the only solution will be to fumigate the whole town, moving the government to Topeka, or somewhere, until the smell is gone. Then we can send everybody left back to their jobs, minus the most egregiously stupid that were eliminated in the pogrom…. It shouldn’t take more than a week or two to treat the infestation; we’ve got some pretty good pest control chemicals available to us these days…. I’ve seen some even cockroaches don’t like….

Almost any the current products on the market should take care of a hundred Senators, a pack of Representatives, and a building or two filled with bureaucrats such as the Supreme Court and the President, etc…. They’re nastier looking than cockroaches, & definitely make a bigger mess, but, generally, they’re not as tough, or efficient at resisting chemical attacks…. Well, those obese pigs who walk around with basketballs under their suits, who eat a lot at McDonald’s, might be more poison-resistant than a cockroach, due to their diet, but, a bit of old-fashioned strychnine should deal with them just fine….

Hmm…. I detect some vitriol and resentment in my tone; I wonder where that came from? No telling, really; the number of different ways these assholes annoy me every day is something I gave up trying to count, or keep track of, long ago. It happens so often, I’ll make myself crazier than I already am if I keep counting them, & reacting every time. They fuck someone over so often, it gets hard to fit any more resentment in my craw, every time I hear of their latest act of infamy. They’re like the frigging Energizer bunny; when it comes to dirty tricks, lies, theft, massive stupidity, and greed, they just keep going, and going, and going…. You’d think they’d at least take a break to change batteries once in a while, but, it never seems as if the shit stops flowing, ever….

Have you heard the latest BS they’re lying to the public about? Check out the picture below, noting the highlighted text….

Yep. That’s right. The words you read are not an illusion. They are printed on the drug information sheet included in the box with each vial of vaccine, as required by law…. Of course, the big pharmacy and HMO corporations aren’t allowing patients receiving the vaccine to SEE this, or to read it before receiving the shot; in fact, they will mostly refuse to show it at all, disposing of them before allowing the vaccine near a patient. The copy you see was stolen by an activist…. And, yes, it DOES say exactly what it means…. NO clinical trials performed, IF any actually occurred, showed ANY effectiveness AT ALL in preventing the disease. NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. In short, it’s useless, and probably dangerous….

This means, of course there are millions and millions of Americans receiving vaccinations, which contain trace amounts of mercury, and other harmful substances not commonly known to the public, that do not serve any purpose at all…. Or, at least, no purpose that bodes well for the public. They are deliberately selling this lie for unknown purposes, that obviously have nothing to do with any sort of benefit to those being vaccinated. Who KNOWS what crap they’re injecting along with the vaccines?

They’re not telling us much, that’s for sure; their silence on this issue indicates to me there is a lot more they’re not telling the public…. That, ffolkes, is simple logic…. Paranoia is justified when it becomes clear one is being persecuted and oppressed; the need for change then becomes clear, as does the need for clarity of mind, which will create in us a real thirst for justice.

I’ve made a tactical error in this rant…. I began with a good premise, & ran with it a good long way; the direction took a bit of a side-trip into a related subject, then turned again; now, I’m not sure how to connect it all back together. I think I’ll just bail for today, & let an old-school do the work to bring it to a close…. Here s a group that comments on, well, stuff…. you’ll see… It’s all related, if a bit tenuously in spots…

“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

“RIP: The U.S. Constitution–one amendment at a time.” — Smart Bee

“Food will be scarce; you will have to scavenge. Learn to recognize foods that will be available after the bomb: mashed potatoes, shredded wheat, tossed salad, ground beef, etc.” — Safety Tips for the Post-Nuclear Existence

“We need excellence in public education and if the teachers can’t do it, we’ll send in a couple of policemen.” — Frank Rizzo, Philadelphia Bulletin, Oct 19, 1973

“They are cold-blooded. They are completely ruthless about protecting what they have. The only thing they connect to is the money aspect of life. Let’s face it: That’s the American way.” — Jeffery M. Johnson, regional chairman of the District of Columbia United Way, speaking of drug dealers.

“Whenever you hear a man speak of his love for his country, it is a sure sign he expects to be paid for it.” — H. L. Mencken

“I’ve been vaccinated against rabies. *snarl*” — Random flu vaccination recipient

“Annual drug deaths: tobacco: 395,000, alcohol: 125,000, ‘legal’ drugs: 38,000, illegal drug overdoses: 5,200, marijuana: 0. Considering government subsidies of tobacco, just what is our government protecting us from in the drug war?” — William A. Turnbow

“A guilty conscience never feels secure.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 617

Well…. If we consider the last pearl to be true, there are a great many uncomfortable people in our nation’s capital…. Evidence of it’s truth can be found in one simple fact of note: it is still being used in everyday conversation, still considered as wisdom, more than 2000 years after Citizen Syrus made the original observation….

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I’ve shared poems from this young lady previously; in my opinion, humble or not, she will someday be considered one of the world’s greatest. Perhaps it is the powerful obscurity of her metaphor, highlighted by the stark realism of the images she creates, often violently graphic, yet never offensive, that attracts me; I do love my metaphorse.

It could also be just the way it feels to read her work, as if she is speaking a deeper truth, from a connection to the universe she alone feels so strongly, in a language that is just on the edge of comprehension, though completely unknown…. Though you may not understand exactly what she is saying, you will know how it feels to see what she sees…. Read this, then follow the link, which will take you to her web site; besides this poem, you can find links to much of her past work, including her book, recently published…. Pay attention, ffolkes, THIS is genius at work/play….

Pecan

Of all the parts I could choose of you, I need only two;
The round, full seed inside and
the strong bulge that protects you.
I know your shell, hard as a pecan, hanging on ripe roots underground,
sipping on the end of the season.
You rip fingerprints from the
skin of the persistent, leaving your mark for the rest of winter.
I am careless, like you. A vulture
hovering overhead. Unease grows soft inside you; brown fruit meant for the ambitious.
I wait for destruction, for decay, for the cycle to recycle, again and again.
But during the wave of high desert winds, in the middle of
God and all of his plans,
I perch on a branch where your life begins and pray for your pain to dissolve with the land.

~~ Maggie Mae ~~

https://maggiemaeijustsaythis.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/pecan-2/#comment-47186

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Life at Large. We all spend time here on Earth, born to a life of physical and spiritual challenges, all of which are made more complex by the intricate patterns of atoms and molecules which, when touched by the spark of life, speak in DNA, the code of effectively infinite variety which determines the configuration of the life for which it forms the pattern. We humans are ONE of the more complex forms on this planet, rivaled, perhaps, only by the dolphins and whales, whose DNA is, in some ways, related to our own; the dolphins, it is clear, have the most complex brains of all the creatures here on Earth.

This is shown clearly in research, and by simple observation and deduction…. For example, I observe that dolphins pay no taxes, nor do they suffer the pains of commuting to work through a fog of air cluttered with particulate matter; that seems pretty intelligent to me. I also deduce their advanced intelligence, from the simple fact they can learn our languages easily (so far, any of them we’ve attempted to teach them, they can learn….); we have only learned a small part of their language, not even enough to know yet if they possess & use more than one…. Their brains, when compared to ours, are larger on average, in sheer size, and in relation to body size.

So, since I can’t tell you how dolphins talk, or share with you any of the wisdom their greater intelligence must have given them, I’ll have to settle for some of humanity’s finest pieces of advice, to those who wish to lead a life filled with dignity, purpose, and peace…. Well, we try, anyway. A lot of ffolkes in history seem to have worked out some pretty good stuff to help us learn to cope with life; it isn’t their fault if not enough people have paid enough attention to them…. Below you find a nine-star pearl full of that wisdom; Smart Bee and I both think these are some of the finest lessons of all we’ve learned….

“If you don’t know, say so.”

~~ Mom’s Hint #012 ~~

“The wailing of the newborn infant is mingled with the dirge for the dead.” — Lucretius

“…to emphasize the afterlife is to deny life. To concentrate on Heaven is to create hell. In their desperate longing to transcend the disorderliness, friction, and unpredictability that pesters life; in their desire for a fresh start in a tidy habitat, germ-free and secured by angels, religious multitudes are gambling the only life they may ever have on a dark horse in a race that has no finish line.” — Tom Robbins, _Skinny Legs and All_, 1990, p. 305.

“Honor is the reward of virtue.” — Cicero (B.C. 106-43)

“Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly.” — Plutarch

“I like that moment central to danger… when you become so thoroughly concerned with acting deftly, in order to be safe, that only reaction is possible, not analysis. You shed the centuries, and feel creatural. Of course you do have to scan, assess, and make constant minute decisions. But there is nothing like thinking in the usual methodical way. What takes place is more akin to informed instinct. For a compulsively pensive person, to be fully alert but free of thought is a form of ecstasy.” — Diane Ackerman

“Anyone who imagines that all fruits ripen at the same time as the strawberries, knows nothing about grapes.” — Philippus Paracelsus

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

“What a man has, so much he is sure of.” — Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) — Don Quixote, Part ii, Book iv, Chap. xliii

“Don’t take life too serious. It ain’t no ways permanent.”

~~ Pogo, by Walt Kelly ~~

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Well, it’s done. Again. What a let down…. No, not a let down, a bummer. No, wait. That’s not right, either. Oh, hell, I don’t know, and, what’s more, don’t care any longer, simply because we ARE done. Go figure…. Gosh, ffolkes, I have no idea what happened here, but, it does LOOK done, so, I’m going to trust my instincts, such as they are, and let if fly without even going over it for typos…. Today, in that respect, y’all are on your own. I think I’m going to go look for my mind, which seems to have taken a powder….. I’ll let y’all know tomorrow where I had to haul it home from…. See ya, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

“SCRAM!!!!!!!!!!”- Oscar the Grouch

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Sleeveless jumpers won’t be warm enough….

Posted on December 15, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

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

~~ Seneca, Epistles ~~

It’s raining again here in NorCal; this makes typing somewhat impractical, as it probably bothers the neighbors to hear me screaming in pain as I type…. It’s a bit bothersome for me, as well; I don’t particularly enjoy the noise, either, even though it is MY noise…. Ah well, it’ll all be cut & paste today, ffolkes, you can take that to the bank…. Of course, the bank would tell you to take it home again, but, hey, you get the picture…. (The picture above, of the lucky grizzly bear, by the way, came from the Animal Pictures of the Week in the London Daily Telegraph…)

In spite of the now-expected relative agony of the arthritic pain in my joints, I don’t feel too badly today…. Of course, that will pass, as do all things. If only there were some way to stop the clock, just at that point when I’m feeling relatively normal, (or, as close as I get to that these days….), so I could actually spend some little period of time without the sensation of having my own skeleton screaming at me to MAKE IT STOP! If only I could…. but, I can’t, so, it must be endured…

I like the opening line today, from Seneca. It is my best answer to all the crap that gets thrown at us by our beloved leaders, when they want us to stop thinking, and just be afraid…. Myself, I refuse to be terrified, of anything…. Terror is merely another name for fear, and fear can always be overcome, if faced, and dealt with in a rational fashion…. If we let it rule our lives, as Seneca points out, it takes over, and life becomes a burden, rather than a joy…. Terrible indeed, especially when one considers it is all a manufactured issue in the first place….

Since, however, we are IN the first place (i.e., the intro section), we shan’t rant about that now… In fact, I won’t be ranting at all today, as this little bit of typing here at the front is already causing problems…. My hands keep falling asleep at the wheel, so to speak, and I have to stop, shake them out, and regain the feeling before carrying on…. Not the easiest technique I’ve come up with, to be sure… In fact, it isn’t working for me at all today, and I’m done with it…. Hold on, ffolkes, this will be a sharp turn….

Shall we Pearl?

“Ignorance can be cured. Stupid is forever.” — Smart Bee

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Whenever I have an hour to spare, nothing provides me with more entertainment than one of these episodes from the old BBC series…. Jeremy Brett was born to play Sherlock, and, to my mind, appears to be having the time of his life whenever he is portraying the great detective…. He plays the part with such enthusiasm, it MUST have been great fun…. In turn, he makes it fun to watch…. Enjoy….

The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes – S07E02 – The Dying Detective

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe2lkHh5Bn8

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Yesterday, I ranted against the Dogma Dogs…. Today, it’s raining; this precludes a fresh rant, as my hands are currently revolting, in more than merely one sense…. Here then, is an older rant, with the other major category of Asininnies as the primary target…. It’s as true today as it was almost two years ago, when it was fresh and new….

From 2/18/2013:

PRESIDENCY, n. The greased pig in the field game of American politics. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

You can’t see me, but I have this big smile on my face…. It has been there since I first read this, this morning, and has flashed on each time I see it…. I had forgotten just how funny, and how eerily accurate, as well as wonderfully sarcastic, the Devil’s Dictionary could be….. In either case, this is some funny stuff, and is a perfect example of how Ambrose somehow obtained a direct line to the future of this country, in order to be able to so exactly describe how our modern system has evolved, and demonstrate how it has become, rather than high comedy, an example of low farce….

Of late, you’ve seen me put out a lot of words on the Beloved Ruling Class (BRC), and the priestly hierarchies, those two entities I hold responsible for the miserable conditions that most of our society is forced to endure, and whom I also hold responsible for the danger of species extinction that we face… It is their narcissistic insistence on having it all for themselves that has put our entire species at risk, along with a large number of other species, who will also be affected by the mess we’ve created in the environment. I keep on shouting, even though it mostly feels as if I’m shouting into the wind, because, in all honesty, I don’t want to die…. I’d like my kids to have a chance to live their entire lives, too, and perhaps even have some hope of a future for their own children…. Currently, there isn’t much hope of that…..

Yes, ffolkes, there isn’t much time left to get this done…. Every second, more and more tons of particulate matter are being poured into the air, and the cumulative effects have actually, finally, reached the critical flash point that ecologists have predicted for years…. Soon, plants that provide oxygen to the air will begin to die, (actually, they are dying as I write this…. as I said, it is late in the game….) and the balance of oxygen and carbon monoxide in the air will start to rapidly change, until it is unbreathable for us, and for all the other mammals, sea creatures, and plant life-forms that are dependent on the levels of those substances as they are now…. This process isn’t unknown….. we have been warned about it, now, for going on 50 years, or more, since the effects were first noted….

But, nobody who cared to do anything about it was listening, and still today, there aren’t anywhere near enough of our BRC who are convinced of the risk, so virtually NOTHING has, or is being done to resolve the issue…. Instead, it is subjected to massive denial on the part of almost every government in the world. They, and most people, have no idea that the bill for our idiocy is about to be presented, and we left our wallet in our other pants….. I think it’s obvious the Universe doesn’t take checks, or give credit…..

I wish I knew the proper sequence of words to use, the words that would inflame the masses, that would inspire the world to rise up, and throw off the yoke of oppression that the 1% has fitted us with, to finally give them their just desserts, and save our own asses in the process…. Alas, I don’t seem to have them in me…. not yet, anyway…. There are probably a few ffolkes out there who agree with me, and would help, if they also knew what to do, or say, to get things started…. But, mostly, I think I’m either shouting into the wind, or preaching to the choir….

In either case, it doesn’t seem to be helping much, other than keeping me from losing my sense of perspective, and actively going out hunting, to try to at least thin the ranks of the ones who are causing the problems…. That would make me feel better, for sure, but, I’m not ready to live the rest of my life on the run, so, I’ll save that option for when things are even worse than they are now….

I’ll also keep shouting, even if it’s into the wind, because I’m also not ready to give in to despair, and loss of hope. Call me stubborn, call me irresponsible (you’d be wrong in that, but, hey, it’s a free country…. mostly….), but don’t call me late for dinner. Also, don’t call me to help you further any of the agenda items that I see on the part of those in power, because I can guarantee that would put me over the edge, and you would be right there, in the explosive field of destruction when I went off…. If you want help to work against anything they’ve started, I’m there…. In the meantime, keep your powder dry, and your field of fire clear…. This final pearl explains why….

“If we don’t survive, we don’t do anything else.” — John Sinclair

And one more, just because there must always be hope, or life isn’t worth living…

“In a just cause the weak o’ercome the strong.” — Sophocles (496-406 BC) — Oedipus Coloneus, 880

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The poem in my head isn’t being cooperative about coming out, so, here is one from a few months ago, that seems to fit in well with the theme from today’s rant…. I know that when I wrote this, I felt MUCH better afterward…..

A Few Words of Note

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ gigoid ~~

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Today’s final pearl is one that created itself, in a manner of speaking…. It is a truly old-fashioned pearl, comprised of five brilliant pearls of virtual wisdom which, together, lead one’s thoughts to a particular idea or concept worthy of contemplation…. Well, that’s the theory, anyway…. This one, brilliant as it is, is somewhat obscure, but, with the proper flexibility of mind, is well worth the effort to decode…. Enjoy, and, be aware… This one WILL be on the Quiz, which we all will be given, at the end of Time….

“As Caesar was at supper the discourse was of death,–which sort was the best. “That,” said he, “which is unexpected.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Caesar

“The world has taken on a thickness of vulgarity that raises a spiritual man’s contempt to the violence of a passion.” — Charles Baudelaire

“It is important that man dreams, but it is perhaps equally important that he can laugh at his own dreams.” — Lin Yutang

“For himself doth a man work evil in working evils for another.” — Hesiod (c. 700 BC) — Works and Days, Line 265

“Anaxagoras said to a man who was grieving because he was dying in a foreign land, “The descent to Hades is the same from every place.” — Diogenes Laertius (c. 200 AD) — Anaxagoras, vi

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Well, there you have it…. “A drunkard’s dream, if I ever did see one!” Since we seem to be somewhere up near Cripple Creek, without the proverbial paddle in hand, we’d no doubt be wise to take our leave, while we may…. This rain has to stop some time, doesn’t it? We ARE supposedly in the midst of a drought here in California… but, you couldn’t tell by the last week or so of weather. Ah well, Life goes on, until it doesn’t. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if’n we can find our way back here….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Patagonian cricket league posters on sale….

Posted on December 13, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Don’t get hit.”

~~ First rule of fighting ~~

There is no doubt the world in which we live is in a sorry state; there is too much evidence of that to deny, even for one of my dubious nature…. Yet, we each go on, blithely behaving as if tomorrow never comes, just as we have for our entire history, without any acknowledgment, or even awareness, of our own impending doom as a species. In spite of the mountains of evidence to indicate how serious is the situation we find ourselves in today, no governing body, no major world leaders, and nobody of any societal significance is doing anything about it, other than some little noise-making in the news now and again, and a constant parade of lesser personages, such as yours truly, who keep trying to get everyone else to FUCKING PAY ATTENTION!

Alas, our noise, true and attractive as it may be, is drowned out, in the cacophony of complaints and bullshit that the political pundits keep laying out; they have the control of the media, having trained them to react just the way they planned to every new piece of insanity, to wit, with hyperbole, outrage, focus on the negative and/or insignificant, and misdirection, always trumpeting who is to blame, rather than calling for real answers….

Instead, they are trained to focus on completely irrelevant issues, having little to do with the core of the problems, which are never discussed, at all…. Any actual discussion of problems is discouraged, as being counter-productive…. What is never stated is this; all that information we are not hearing IS counterproductive, but, not to us, but, to those who are in positions of leadership… If the news was actually reported correctly, the pundits would be running for the border, trying to escape the mobs….

But, that would be an ideal world, and the one in which we spend our time is NOT one of those, by any stretch of the imagination…. Ah well, we’ve made our bed, we must now lie in it…. Sadly, the house, in which the bed might be found, is right in the path of flowing lava…..

I see now that the metaphorical structure I’ve built up with such enthusiasm just fell apart, into small pieces…. I can see it lying there, on the ground at my feet, mocking me with bitter laughter…. Silly things…. But, having it all fall apart like that does make it clear, at least to me, that I’ve gone completely off the rails here this morning, haring off down a rantable path, without ever checking to see if my brain was on…. which, I’m pretty sure, it wasn’t…. At least, I can’t find any evidence anywhere in any of the above paragraphs that would indicate power to the lobes…. Hell, I’m almost positive I wasn’t even awake yet when I started; I’m barely awake now….

Ah well, it’s done what, apparently, it was designed to do, which is get me to this point, far enough down the page to feel as if we’ve actually done something worthwhile…. We HAVE gone far enough to make this legal, which, as y’all know, is all we really care about…. As it now meets all state and federal regulations, nonexistent though they may be, we can use the opportunity that presents itself to make our escape…. Besides, I believe I may have just used up ALL of my ability to type for the day, just getting this done…. Oh, well…. I’m taking us down, ffolkes, so, you’d best hang on…..

Shall we Pearl?

“A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.” — Oscar Wilde

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

One of the saving graces of humankind is our ability to make music…. classical, blues, jazz, it all expresses our nature, in one facet or another…. Here is the an example of the best of the blues, the one musical genre most likely to be of use to us in the coming years, as we learn how our own nature has been our undoing….

This Is The Blues – Volume 1

http://youtu.be/f_9zy9ZYEkA

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

As noted, my hands are done typing for the day, so, here is a discussion from the past, with all our favorite targets in attendance….

From 9/19/2013:

“A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt as dangerous.” — Alfred Alder

So, I was going to forgo a rant today, giving my back, and your brains, a bit of a break, but, when I went to peruse the news, I saw the latest discussion of what is happening in the House of Idiots in Washington, D.C., regarding the budget resolutions being discussed, wherein the possibility of a shutdown is threatened, if the Retardicans and Demobutts can’t come to some kind of compromise.

It seems the Retardicans are still upset about Obamacare, and the notion of helping the middle class, as well as the lower classes (gasp!), to obtain medical insurance coverage at a reasonable cost. This idea, of being fair and ethical, seems to have struck them in the wrong place, and they have been whining and complaining ever since it became law, frantically searching for ways to undermine the whole program, with the ultimate goal being to stop it altogether….

The entire issue, of course, is just smoke, to cover up the simple racism that these assholes won’t cop to…. It is STILL stuck in their craw that they somehow allowed a BLACK MAN to get elected to the highest public office. They have looked for, and desperately latched onto, every possible way they could find to block every piece of legislation the White House has espoused, no matter how much such legislation would help the public, ever since Obama was first elected.

The publicly stated goal of the Retardican Party in 2008, right after the election, was to make Obama a one-term President; having failed at that, their new goal became the eradication of ANY laws, or any beneficial reforms, that were accomplished during his administration…. Hence, the campaign against healthcare reform, which, ultimately, is not in their best interests, but, hey, who needs common sense?….

I’m almost too disgusted with the entire bunch of them, Retardicans and Demobutts both, to even continue this rant….The right wing continues to shoot itself, and the public, in the foot with their intransigent inflexibility, and their unreasoning paranoia about the POTUS, while the left side continues to wander around letting whatever the administration says or does go without question or review, as if somehow a man who was politician enough to get elected to the Senate, then the Presidency, all of a sudden became the world’s most truthful man…. Sorry, folks, it just doesn’t follow….. such trust in ANYONE who is an elected official in this country is plain silly, and doesn’t show much real common sense….

I see NO ONE in the public venue whom I would trust to make decisions for me, on ANY subject, much less those that can affect my life, and the quality of same…. Sorry, I just don’t see ANYONE who seems to be honestly interested in anything beyond their own agenda, and those agendas have nothing to do with mine, or what I see as beneficial for everyone…. They just don’t…..

I also, unfortunately, don’t have any viable solutions, which is why my rants often are short…. I mean, I do know what would help, and that is for everyone in the world who does have common sense to get together, join forces, and tell the assholes to stop…. But, they have guns, which they are practiced in using to get their way, whereas, most of US aren’t willing to contest matters on that level, so, that probably isn’t ever going to happen…. Not until more of our side are willing to use force to get our way, just as they have always done….

Since I don’t see it happening, we may as well just kiss our asses goodbye, because the eventual outcome of such idiocy is death, and I don’t mean individually, but rather, as a species…. Stupid is as stupid does, as somebody once said, and when I look around the world these days, stupid is pretty much all I see…..

Hell is the place of those who have denied;
They find there what they planted and what dug,
A Lake of Spaces, and a Wood of Nothing,
And wander there and drift, and never cease
Wailing for substance.

~~ William Butler Yeats ~~

~~ Responsibilities and Other Poems (1916).The Hour-Glass ~~

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

It has been said that intelligence is both a blessing, and a curse…. I’m here to testify….

Intelligent Crimes

The value of wit is often said to cause harm,
for those who think, such is its greatest charm.
The new and the bold cannot be fulfilled
if innovation and change is left unwilled.

Society behaves at its base as a mob
conformity and submission its primary job.
Any sign of rebellion against the mob’s rule
is met with resentment, naming such rebel the fool.

Intellect and talent are looked at askance,
expressing artistry stands nary a chance.
To stand out from the rest of mankind
is fraught with danger, for body and mind.

Often I stand to watch in solemn dismay
as beauty and joy are left by the way,
ignored and reviled by the unwashed masses
who prefer darkness, and acting like asses.

With shouts of derision the normals make known
their fear of intelligence, greater than their own.
They hope to stop all semblance of progress;
for thoughts and ideas, they couldn’t care less.

The world struggles on in spite of all opposition,
managing to maintain its advanced position.
Pulling the foolish along in spite of reluctance,
helping each to learn the survival dance.

Hard though it may be to keep up with the future
genius manages its plans to develop and nurture.
In the final analysis, those who live by reason
enjoy life the most, season to season.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Thankfully, I had a few moments yesterday, (very few, in retrospect, but, enough….) when the pain was in abeyance sufficiently for me to spend some time perusing Smart Bee for some appropriate pearls…. Here is what we were able to come up with…. It’s all pretty good advice, or, at minimum, viewpoints worthy of examining as helpful; taken together, they all show us how to live as well as we can, from an ethical/moral standpoint….

“There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds with the state of things around us. Hence it is that people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to preserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change. The tendency to look for all causes outside ourselves persists even when it is clear that our state of being is the product of personal qualities such as ability, character, appearance, health and so on.” — Eric Hoffer

“Let us treat men and women well; Treat them as if they were real; Perhaps they are.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

CALLOUS, adj. Gifted with great fortitude to bear the evils afflicting another. “When Zeno was told that one of his enemies was no more he was observed to be deeply moved. “What!” said one of his disciples, “you weep at the death of an enemy?” “Ah, ’tis true,” replied the great Stoic, “but you should see me smile at the death of a friend.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings unintentionally.” — Oscar Wilde

“It is impossible for a man to love his wife whole-heartedly without loving all women somewhat. I suppose that the converse must be true of women.” — Lazarus Long

“Loneliness is the poverty of the self. Solitude is the richness of the self.” — May Sarton

“He preferred an honest man that wooed his daughter, before a rich man. “I would rather,” said Themistocles, “have a man that wants money than money that wants a man.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Themistocles

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

My normal (hah!) routine is shot to shit…. It is now 0330 in the AM, and this Pearl is done…. I’ve been up too long already, and may just go back to bed, in the forlorn hope of actually getting comfortable enough to sleep, with my hips, hands and shoulders all singing to me, a song of misery played on the strings of my nervous system…. Ah well, so much for another day in Hell…. No worries, I’ve got my ticket to Oblivion, right here in my pipe…. See y’all later, ffolkes…. maybe even tomorrow…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

The prospect of failure is unacceptable….

Posted on November 28, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Freedom begins between the ears.”

~~ Edward Abbey ~~

Today’s quote, when taken in conjunction with the evocative, albeit ordinary, picture of a London public house, assumes a more rarefied meaning than it would, were it standing alone…. Having been to the pub in the picture, I can take myself out of the present, slipping quietly into my imagination, any time I wish, just by looking at it…. This, to me, is freedom, and it all starts between my ears…. See? I may be half-asleep, but, I can see that…. Not that my ability to verify makes it a better pearl; it does, to some small degree, add some weight to the proof, so, my paragraph can’t be considered a total failure, if a failure at all….

Given the paragraph you see was written, technically, under duress, defining it as a failure would not have been particularly surprising; we give ourselves a LOT of leeway when considering events that occur pre-coffee. Since my first, wonderful, life-giving sip of the magic brew just passed my lips a moment ago (and, as you see, is already visible in the words I write…), it also isn’t surprising to feel compelled to share such an intimate detail with y’all. That first sip has an effect on the drinker which is much magnified; some might say it has an effect that defies all reason…. yet, there ’tis, in its simple glory, saving my ass again….

Without its beneficent presence in my life, these morning Pearls would be quite different, and, I, for one, would NOT wish to know how…. I’m quite happy with how coffee brings me back into focus each morning, and the near-miraculous effect it has on me is MORE than merely welcome; it is treasured, as one of my finest moments each day…. There’s nothing like those first few sips of coffee to bring the world into a more acceptable framework, one we can look upon with favor, and anticipation, instead of trepidation, and a reluctance to face the day…. I’m not sure that I’d be the same person, without coffee….

I know, that’s a bit over the top, but, hey, it’s my top, so, back off…. Coffee, as is patently obvious to anyone with two or more neurons, is not something I take lightly, or would ever consider removing from my life…. and, I don’t care a whit whether a doctor tells me to stop, or not…. I’d cut back, or drink it less strong, maybe…. but, give it up? Never…. there are certain things in life for which there can be no compromise, and, trivial as this one may be, it is one of my issues of stubbornness, one I’ll never consider changing, or ever consider leaving out of my life…. So be it….

Well, that may be the oddest little intro I’ve ever done, but, the key word here is “done”…. so, I’m going to take advantage of that, and get us down the pike…. right here, right now….

Shall we Pearl?

“Arguments derived from probabilities are idle.” — Plato

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

Here is another episode of Sherlock Holmes’ adventures…. This is one of my favorites, simply for the expression on Holmes’ face, at the end of the story, when he is hugged by a woman he has helped…. priceless! And, an example of most excellent acting…..

Sherlock Holmes Season 3 episode 2 The Abbey Grange

http://youtu.be/asjcjRC7ixI

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

It is apparently going to rain for a while around here; my hands and shoulder seem to be a fairly reliable barometer of such weather these days, since they begin to ache a good day before the rain actually arrives…. Whatever the cause, it would be nearly impossible to type fast enough, or long enough to be able to put together anything like a rant…. and, I’m not really in the mood today, being still in a good space from yesterday’s fine foods, brought to me by my friend after her Thanksgiving at Mom’s…. Hence, this little discussion from the past…. It’s a good one, so, please, enjoy, and TRY to pay attention, okay?…. It’s all worth thinking about….

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” — Abraham Lincoln

From 3/7/2013:

“It is useless for sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism while wolves remain of a different opinion.” — William Ralph Inge, D. D. 1860 – 1954

I’ve seen this little statement before, and like it a lot, for its honesty in describing our Beloved Ruling Class in relation to the flock of sheep that comprises most of mankind. And, yes, this is the beginning of another politirant….. This one is prompted by the most recent activities that our leaders, if such word applies, have been shown to be engaged in by the news outlets I watch…. to wit: the legislation under review and up for vote in the House of Reps that is concerned with the economy, to wit: the “sequester”, and the recent comments by the POTUS re: global warming and climate change…. Let’s see what we can note about these issues, shall we?….

I have noticed that the Congress, and the POTUS, are currently at odds, as usual, over the economy, and arguing over how to address an issue over which they have absolutely no control…. I just don’t get it, actually…. There is no evidence whatsoever that anything the government does, or has ever done, about the economy has any effect at all on it…. none. Zero. Zilch. Nada damn thing…. The economy of the world, or even just this nation, is not subject to any manipulation by us; it’s too big, too amorphous…. It’s like trying to herd cats…. a lot of effort for small results, and you end up with a bunch of pissed off felines… If you know anything about cats, you will realize that this is never a good thing….

Yet, because the public demands that something be done, the politicians start their idiotic posturing, pontificating, and, otherwise polluting the airwaves with nonsensical suggestions as to what should be done to fix the problems. NONE of those ever work, nor will they ever work; the economy does not move according to any rules that we can control, or even know, and any action we take is just as liable to have a bad effect as a good one….. But, the public wants the government to fix it, so they try to make noises as if they actually could do something helpful, when in fact, anything they do is as liable to hurt as to help….. Sad, but, true as the day is long….

It’s actually kind of fun watching the contortions they go through for issues such as this; since I know for a fact that none of it will have any real effect on the issue, I can enjoy the parade without worrying about whether it will actually do anything useful…. It is a bit depressing to watch, since I am aware of just how little can be done, but, the show can be entertaining, and it does pass the time… The depressing part is knowing that the public is actually buying all of what they are saying, and really do expect something to change for the better… But, then, I am always amazed at the depth of human stupidity. I don’t know why, as I KNOW how dumb people can be… I am one, you know…. but, it always is a surprise to see just how deeply that stupidity is ingrained in the human condition…

Of course, this stupidity is part and parcel of why we are experiencing the second issue I mentioned above… global warming and overpopulation. I will be very interested to see exactly how the POTUS intends to address the issue, as he has promised to do, several times now since his inauguration. Since the issue is well advanced beyond the point that most people think it is, it will be a telling factor in deciding how seriously the issue is being taken, and whether or not it will have any chance at all of being either enough, or soon enough… Both of these are critical factors, as the point of no-return for the ecological balance of this planet is so near, it may have already been passed some months ago…..

I’m not sure how scientifically minded many of y’all are, but, I am… scientifically minded, that is, and I can tell you without fear of contradiction (from anyone with any reliable scientific knowledge, anyway….) that the atmosphere of this planet is, without doubt, and without evidence to the contrary, on the very edge of becoming unbreathable for humans…. The millions of tons of carbon monoxide and other toxic substances that are being pumped into the air EVERY SECOND, and that has been pumped in now for over a hundred years, has reached the point where it will begin a process of leaching oxygen from the air, and the balance of gases we need to survive will change, hell, IS changing, and fairly rapidly, until it is no longer of a balance that we can safely breathe… This is scientific FACT, not speculation, not a guess.. the process has already begun, the only question remaining is, how quickly will it happen?

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

So, we’ll see where the POTUS keeps his brain, as he speaks in the next few days about this issue… Whatever he decides to do, you can bet that it won’t be enough, and it won’t make a damn bit of difference, other than in a few Presidential approval polls, perhaps. After all, even though he is a fairly reform oriented politician, he is still a politician, and you can lay good money, without fear of losing, on the fact that whatever he does is designed to benefit him and his Presidency, and any benefit for the public is a secondary concern….

He IS a politician, after all, and his primary concern is for his own success; it’s NOT the welfare of the people… He has merely discovered that being the “People’s Champion” is currently a good political stance to take…. if it ever becomes too itchy a coat to wear, he will take it off in a heartbeat…. Count on it…. You don’t get to that level of the game without being a complete asshole in some respects, and I don’t think anyone who WANTS to be President can be accused of not being ambitious, and, in the process, sociopathic….

“No people in the world ever did achieve their freedom by goody-goody talk and moral suasion: it being immutable law that all revolutions that will succeed, must begin in blood, whatever the answer afterward. If history teaches anything, it teaches that.” — Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)

In this case, we aren’t talking about freedom, unless by that one means, freedom to stay alive…. and the BRC isn’t going to do anything about it, I don’t believe…. Or, rather, I’ll believe it when I see it, and, so far, no dice in that respect. I’m enough of a cynic to believe, sadly, that it isn’t GOING to happen, either… because I don’t believe that the POTUS, or the rest of the BRC, gives a damn about the rest of us, as long as they have their own….. This much is obvious from history, but, when did mankind at large ever pay any attention to history?….

If you have some evidence that contradicts that belief, I would dearly love to see it…. Truly, I would, because, quite frankly, my own intelligence, and the evidence I have now, forces me to conclude that we humans are shortly about to come to a bad end…. not with a bang, not with a whimper, but, choking to death in our own planet’s toxic air, victims to our own stupidity, and cupidity….

Daniel: “We’re damned if we do, we’re damned if we don’t; we need other options…” — from Stargate

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

In the past, I’ve written some rather cogent poems about pain…. Since it seems to be “too much with me” these days, here is one of them….

Gauges of Pain

Consciousness devolves in pools of gripping fears
holding hostage any hope of serenity,
sharp stabbing motions and greedy tears
nary a moment passes without common calamity.

Always a surprise, nothing soothing ever found,
leaving only breathless clinging pain,
salvation seemingly absent, it muffles all sound,
bringing ever more sadness and rain.

Solitude is ever present to claim my time,
lonely hours and relentlessly long days,
no radio plays such music in secular rhyme
happy, vibrant voices belong to elder ways.

Life can be justified it seems to say,
by hopeful favored moments of pleasure,
seemingly friendly, pointing out the only way,
to bring back happiness in minimal measure.

Days of horror and embarrassing tears
serve ever to drive wretched hours to withhold
promising naught but sorrow in coming years,
black, bitter memories that never grow old.

Cold, cold the days fly by,
can it really be our only token?
Never to say, or know just why
the pain never stops, even when spoken…

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Today’s final section will be the freshest of the day…. That is, if SB decides to help out…. If not, it could make things somewhat sticky…. Let’s see what we have today, shall we?…..

“Become what you are.” — Buddha

“Some of my ancestors fought in the American Revolution. A few more wore red coats, a few wore blue coats, and the rest wore no coats at all. We never did figure out who won that war.” — Edward Abbey

“To blow and swallow at the same moment is not easy.” — Plautus (254-184 BC) — Mostellaria, Act iii, Sc. 2, 104, (791.)

“Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe? The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the question of why there should be a universe for the model to describe.” — Stephen Hawking

“Stupidity cannot be cured with money, or through education, or by legislation. Stupidity is not a sin; the victim can’t help being stupid. But stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.” — Robert A. Heinlein — Lazarus Long

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

“In writing, fidelity to fact leads eventually to the poetry of truth.” — Abbey

Having thus created what is, perhaps, the most inscrutable pearl ever, I shall quit the field, knowing I’ve done my best, if not my best…. if you know what I mean… I don’t, and probably should, but, hey, I always get a little giddy after a pearl such as this one, from the effort to understand, or, at minimum, stay in the same ballpark….

I think it would be best if I just stop now, and tempt fate no further….

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

It’s disheartening to realize the most cogent thought expressed today is the last line in the previous section…. SIGH…. Oh well, it’s done now, so I may as well get on with it…. I’ll see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes, if I have any neurons to spare….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

À bientôt, mon cherí….

Sir! Curb your cellulite!….

Posted on September 12, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic.”

— Muad’dib, from Dune, by Frank Herbert

It was a tough choice, but, I’m sticking with the mouse…. This wee beastie is a Kangaroo mouse. Some photographer captured the image & sent it to the London Daily Yell (Telegraph), where it was included in their series of Weekly Animal Pictures. There are, no doubt, a number of people who, at this point, are thinking to themselves, “Why is he prattling on about a mouse, cute though it may be?” Pay them no mind; they are impatient, and deserve to wait. Instead, listen up….

The quote above, from Dune, was uttered by the character Muad’dib, which, in Fremen, the language of the people who gave him the name, means, approximately “Little old man of the desert” or “Teacher of boys”; it was the Fremen word/name for the type of mouse you see here, a co-denizen of the desert planet, Dune…. They called him that because the creatures were considered by them to be the ultimate survivors, able to thrive on the surface of Dune, in an environment that challenged the adaptability of every creature who lived there…. To survive, Fremen children were taught to emulate the habits of the mice, and to respect them as the teachers they were…

Why am I going with the mouse, rather than the brilliant quote, which would, obviously, make a perfect opening for a sober philosophical discussion of reality, and our manner of regarding it, or any number of related subjects? Easy….. which would YOU rather read? Yet another rant in the intro section, detailing one of the many horribly depressing issues we face as humans in a sick society, or a fluff piece about a terminally cute mouse? See, no-brainer, right? Right….

Now, the only question that remains is how to turn this fluff piece into an intro…. I had a few ideas originally, but, as usual with my planning ahead, it is now useless, as I can’t remember a single one of them…. Plus, the newest issue with my hands is surfacing, causing my left hand to go numb as I type… Oh, thrilling…

Oh, well, another little reminder from my abused body, of my poor decision at age 8, to become skilled at sports, at least as much as learning in classes, thus determining the course of my athletic involvement, which eventually led me into the martial arts…. and, a lifetime of physical activity, much of which stressed my body to its personal limits on a daily basis…. Which is what I am now paying for, in early onset of age-related conditions, and, quite simply, a world of hurt….

Ah well, I have drugs, and more drugs, and a long-time habit of being able to ignore much of the pain, by focusing intensely on whatever my mind is chewing on at the moment….There are times, of course, when the pain is stronger than my focus and will, but, fortunately, they are, thus far, not too frequent….. and, it passes off, eventually… As long as that remains true, I’ll be content to go on as I am, in pain, but, not debilitated to the point it interferes with my wants and desires…. It IS causing a bit of adjustment, and flexibility of planning, but, hey, that’s a piece of cake for a retired executive assistant….

I see now I’ve managed to whine, and meander in my head to a point where we can jump off this bandwagon, and get on with the rest of this mess… I am thinking, as well, it’s probably a good thing, because I can’t see me winding my way to anything particularly gripping by continuing in this vein…. So, I think it’s time to boogie on down…. whatever that means these days…

Shall we Pearl?…..

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”

— The Litany Against Fear, a Bene-Gesserit lesson, from Dune, by Frank Herbert

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

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

Yesterday, I found quite a lot of material about which I would normally rant; in keeping with my new policy, instead, I’ve gathered some of the links to the articles that stimulated either my outrage, my sorrow, my pity, or whatever rantable material was found… Think of this as, sort of, a RSS feed, without having to set up any connections…. and with parameters that are only known to my subconscious mind…. Trust me, it’ll be better than a rant, even IF I end up having to throw in a comment or two, as is my wont with this type of pearl…. I’m also working on avoiding typos, which have been annoying me no end of late….

For now, forget all that, just read, and think, and, if necessary, or just desired, feel free to comment on any of them… I’ll get to a response within a few hours or so, hopefully; and, always, eventually…. Enjoy!….

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/09/towards-internet-nation

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/09/senators-and-other-experts-appeals-court-nsas-phone-records-program-massive

At the time of the inclusion of the following list in this pearl, these were the most popular stories being read by the SFGATE readers on 8/11/2014 at their home page, at http://www.sfgate.com/….. where, if you like, you can find all of the links to the stories in the list…. It’s just a bit pathetic, wouldn’t you agree, in re: what the subject matter, as the headlines denote, implies about the taste, and the intelligence, of the average readers on the site? I’d say that is patently obvious, without my usual dose of doubt, but, then, we all know I’m a cynic…. This list, though, is pretty compelling evidence, to my mind….

    49ers suspend announcer Ted Robinson two games for…
    ‘Scarf Guy’ steals show at Apple keynote
    Bay Area boasts top counties in California
    What was that mystery mega-yacht in San Francisco Bay?
    Frank Gore and Bruce Miller believe running game can improve
    Best and worst of New York Fashion Week
    La Taqueria in San Francisco named America’s Best Burrito

Below, I’ve placed a trio of the more “serious” pieces of journalism than those on the list, from the same site, which show well the prejudices and flaws in the media moguls who run the site; they always take a very obvious company line when talking about any political or foreign policy subjects, parroting and supporting whatever the administration is trying to get the public to believe….

This site also tends to get into the old “yellow journalism” sensationalism crap, with headlines screaming of danger from this, that, or the other, labeling them with hyperbolic adjectives, screaming of extreme dangers, only to read the actual statements made, and learn it’s no big deal at all, and is unlikely to cause any real problems… Apparently, though, the SFGATE news director felt that wouldn’t draw any readers, so they “pumped it up” so it could create feelings of panic in the gullible…. The link to which I refer is the first one; check it out, and realize, if you will, this sort of thing happens all the time, everywhere, whenever they feel they can get away with it….

www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Scientists-Extreme-solar-storm-heading-to-Earth-5746629.php

There…. Do you see what it says on the link? “Scientists: Extreme solar storm heading to Earth” Once you’ve clicked over to the article, the following excerpt is what you will find, after a couple of paragraphs of basic information stretching….

“New calculations from satellite data show that the worst of the energetic particles streaming from the sun likely will go north or above Earth this time, Berger said late Wednesday…..So while the power grid may see fluctuations because the storm will cause changes in Earth’s magnetic field, it won’t knock power systems off line, Berger said. It may cause slight disturbances in satellites and radio transmissions but nothing major…..”We’re not scared of this one,” Berger said.”

Did you catch that? Headline: reason for panic trumpeted… and, the supporting quote? “We’re not scared of this one,” Berger said. ‘

Brilliant, eh?

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Ferguson-reforms-met-with-rancor-at-city-meeting-5745305.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Changes-surround-9-11-anniversary-commemoration-5747443.php?cmpid=hp-hc-nationworld

I often find it instructive to compare the news coverage by the media from different countries; my favorite site to visit overseas is the UK Guardian, which is the agency responsible for publishing the revelations regarding spying by the NSA, leaked to them by the patriot, Edward Snowden, to bring the illegal activities out into the public arena…. Below are two links, which cover two of the subjects from above…

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/10/nipplegate-dethroned-net-neutrality-fcc-public-comments

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/ferguson-courts-system-fines-residents-council

Differences found? Yes, a few, just on the surface… In the Guardian, there were four links on the front page to stories connected to the Net Neutrality issue, of which this link was one. There were two other articles, and one op/ed piece on that one subject IN A FOREIGN NEWSPAPER!…. On SFGATE, there was one fluff piece on it…. EFF is one of the organizations leading the legal battle against the corporations in that battle, so, they are very involved in that, and many other areas involving computers and the internet….

Another difference is in the 911 coverage; the American article is emotionally manipulative, and attempts to re-establish the fear generated by the original act, by, in the same sentence, the first one in the article, by reporting the celebration in NYC, then, at once, adding in a mention of the newest terrorist threats, from the newest acronym for a terrorist group, ISIL, and our president’s intention to intensify the illegal bombing in Syria, ostensibly as part of his stated campaign to, well, essentially, kill them all…. thereby, as noted, parroting the administration’s talking points and lies…. The Guardian’s article takes an entirely different tone and approach to the very same subject….

Also, the front page story on SFGATE, about the non-existent solar flare danger, was nowhere to be found on the UK site; apparently, it wasn’t important enough to print, as there wasn’t any danger involved, or, anything out of the ordinary to report….

Okay, so it turned into a rant anyway…. I won’t say, sue me, because, damn it, somebody would take that personally, and try to do so…. but, otherwise, all I can say is too bad, so sad. You’re all done now, anyway, so quit complaining, and just go read the poem, okay?

“And don’t think any more. I do the thinking around here.” — Sark

One last word, that came to me… well, later… but, in spite of what some may think, it fits with the overall conclusions to be made from the above diatribe…. plus, it’s such an appropriate indictment of today’s culture, of cruelly, and dangerously, asinine inanity that characterizes modern life in this country, from a historical sense, if no other, I had to throw it out here… I’m just crazy that way, I suppose…

“The late rebellion in Massachusetts has given more alarm than I think it should have done. Calculate that one rebellion in 13 states in the course of 11 years, is but one for each state in a century and a half. No country should be so long without one.” — Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), in letter to James Madison, 20 December 1787

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

It’s a day….. I’m not sure, at this point, that I would like to commit myself further than that…. Such being the case, it is clearly best if I use a poem of my own, to keep from having anyone else’s reputation tarnished by association…. I’ll see if I can find one that either fits, or will give a break to your sensibilities, which are doubtlessly being given a workout today…. Enjoy, please…. Oh, technical note: reading this in a Missouri accent helps the comprehension level, as well as making it sound more genuine, more true-to-life…. Well, I think so…. and, I wrote it, so, you might show a bit of respect for my feelings on my own blog…. Now, I’m hurt…. just kidding, enjoy the poem…

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 ~~

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

SATAN, n. One of the Creator’s lamentable mistakes, repented in sashcloth and axes. Being instated as an archangel, Satan made himself multifariously objectionable and was finally expelled from Heaven. Halfway in his descent he paused, bent his head in thought a moment and at last went back.

“There is one favor that I should like to ask,” said he.
“Name it.”
“Man, I understand, is about to be created. He will need laws.”
“What, wretch! you his appointed adversary, charged from the dawn of eternity with hatred of his soul — you ask for the right to make his laws?”
“Pardon; what I have to ask is that he be permitted to make them himself.”

It was so ordered.

— Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

While lamenting the necessity, I must acknowledge, and, take advantage of this opportunity to state the obvious, in light of the above entry from Bierce’s masterpiece, to wit:

And, the rest is history…..

Sorry, couldn’t resist…. it isn’t often such a perfect opening for a pun…. Since this section is now useless for anything else, I’ll just throw together a pearl, with the key word, with qualifier, “*fun*”, which should give us the results I’m seeking, after such a shameful start…. Besides, count your blessings; with that opening, I COULD have easily fallen into a religirant, but, refrained, to, no doubt, your immense relief… Mine, too, if you want to know the truth, and, since you’re here at ECR, I’m assuming you do, or, if not, can take it anyway….

Basta! Abondanza! Have fun, in any and/or all its conjugations, definitions, adjectival or adverbial status changes, stages, and permutations….. Y’all should be able to find something to enjoy from that list….

“When choosing between two evils I always like to take the one I’ve never tried before.” — Mae West, in “Klondike Annie” 1936

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of the dreams” — Willy Wonka, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”

“I do not know myself, and God forbid that I should.’ — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Each generation has its sages. Ancient Greece had Socrates. We have bumper stickers.” — Smart Bee, chiming right in….

“Immorality: The morality of those who are having a better time.” — H. L. Mencken

“This is the Nineties, Bubba, and there is no such thing as Paranoia. It’s all true.” — Hunter S Thompson

“If nothing went wrong today, you’re probably dead.” — Murphy’s Last Law

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

I am, patently, a Bozo. This we know. I am, also, done. Go figure…. And, in the interests of practicing the promised brevity, I’ll now bid thee adieu for another day, with the caveat, warning, and disclaimer, as required by law, to wit: see y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

Okay, but, who takes the hindmost?….

Posted on September 10, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“A good listener is not only popular everywhere, but after a while he gets to know something.” — Wilson Mizner

Since there can be no doubt as to exactly WHEN this was taken, (as long as we can trust digital appliances not to lie to us….) allow me to just say, it is one of mine, shot a few days ago, in a relatively futile attempt to get one good shot of the Super Moon,which took place at the date and time on the picture, as calculated by scientists at the Naval Observatory, & reported on Space.com. I intended to go out earlier, to find a spot to get a really good one, but, Murphy had other plans for my evening, as it turned out….

Approximately a half-hour before the moonrise was calculated to take place, I grabbed my phone, my stick, and the bagged garbage & recycling, to take it outside, downstairs, to the bins, which, I would then take out to the curb, for pick-up the next morning. Since I was still in quite a bit of pain, with some stiffness, too, it took me a few minutes, as I was moving, and, apparently, thinking slowly….

When done, I walked back up the stairs, with some difficulty, only to find the back door had blown itself shut in the breeze, while still locked…. Naturally, I didn’t have my keys on me, so, there I was, outside, no key, tired, in pain, and about two minutes away from A) biting myself, or, preferably, and, much more likely, the nearest human being I could find, and/or B) requiring the immediate use of articles only to be found indoors…. No, not what you’re thinking, but, well, ’nuff said… I had reasons to need to get in long before anyone would be able to bring m the means to do so….

Needless to say, I was NOT happy, first, with my bozoid failure to unlock the door, the first time I opened it that morning, as I almost ALWAYS do; nor was I happy with my bozoid failure to realize it would blow shut while outside, even though I am the one who opened the other door, the windows, & turned on the fan, so the very breeze that shut the door would be blowing, to cool off the house…. In short, my own bozoid nature gave Murphy the perfect opportunity to BURY ME in stress, in the course of a few short moments, a window of time into which I strode boldly, with full confidence that everything was fine…. the frame of mind that bloody Irish asshole LOOKS for…. I imagine he had a hard time containing his glee when he saw me go outside….

Since I had only moments to figure out how to get back inside, (remember, I had very GOOD reasons to HAVE to get in….), I tried to call one of the handymen my landlord employs, whereupon, of course, I found one out to dinner, and the other not answering… So, I made the only decision my executive nature was capable of under that sort of stress, proceeding to use my multi-purpose stick to break in the damn window on the back door, thus creating a HUGE FUCKING MESS inside my house, ten feet out into the middle of the kitchen floor, now COVERED with tiny pieces of breakaway glass, thus, necessitating a complete cleaning of the kitchen, and laundry room, which is where the back door is situated….

So, yesterday morning, (or, today, as I write this…. remember, I have a Tardis….), as well as overnight, I was completely unable to use about a quarter of my house, as it was covered in glass I had no way to pick up…. I have to wait until I can ask someone to come over, bring a real broom, (which has somehow disappeared….), and help me clean up, as doing it right is well beyond my current capabilities….

Now, is there anyone out there with any more questions about WHY I hate Murphy, even more so than your average Bozo? I am completely depressed now, because, in one swell foop, he has put me in a hole it will take days to climb out of…. the only thing that is currently serendipitous, as far as I can see, is the fortunate arrival in the bank of my monthly SS allotment. At least I’ll have enough to pay for repairing all the damages incurred in this episode, and, be able to obtain enough cannabinoids to knock down some of the severe pain that has been haunting me the last couple of weeks….

Plus, as you see, it provided enough material to complete another introductory section, with the ease of long habit in reporting the machinations of our planet’s least appreciated, most reviled icon, Jester to the Courts of Chaos, The Murphy, Most Puissant Asshole Supreme, He Who Has No Peer, Nor Ever Shall (because no other force of nature will have anyfuckingthing to do with him….)….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Hey Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!”
“But that trick NEVER works!”
“This time fer sure!”

— Rocky & Bullwinkle, playing verbal ping-pong, with Metaphoric Balls, using Euphemystic Brand paddles, Hand-Crafted with ONLY the finest of Time Tested Cliches….

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

“Aim at the sun, any you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly far higher than if aimed at an object on a level with yourself.” — Joel Hawes

“Beginnings are such delicate times.” — Princess Irulan, from Dune, by Frank Herbert

Of late, the posts here at ECR have been, shall we say, epic in proportion. I know I talk a lot; a certain percentage of responsibility for that can be laid at the feet of my writing style. Spare, it is not…. (Though that sentence isn’t bad, in that respect…. but, you’ll note this parenthetical comment has added approximately 15-20 extra words. See how that works?….) SIGH….

‘Tis a conundrum, for much of my sense of humor requires the long build-up to the punch line so easily displayed by using the more formal approach I’ve chosen; I guess I’ve always loved a long, involved story that ends with a pun, or something so unexpected, the usual reaction is multiplied by the surprise factor….. (Now that I’ve pointed it out, the convoluted grammatical structure of my style seems to be part of the issue; a sentence such as the one previous to this could have been written in half the words…. See? It’s almost as if I can’t help it; it’s a sickness, I guess… Verbalitis maximus, or some such Latin perversion….)

Once, on a bus trip in high school, one of the other students told a story to the entire bus… He took about 30 or more minutes to tell the entire story, giving background, and describing the characters, dragging it out with repetitive actions by the characters that lent themselves to long, drawn out dialogue, and slow speech…. At the end of the 30 minutes, when the story wound around toward a resolution, the question being asked by the protagonist, which is the quest in the story, to find out WHY this person did something, is about to be answered… The entire bus was hanging on this student’s every word; even the driver was engrossed. At the crucial point, the father asks his son, who is dying, the question, “WHY, my son? Why did you…..?” The dying young man, struggling to speak, chokes out, “Dad, I did it because….”

Then he died…. The student telling the story, at the word, “because”, dropped his head, shut his eyes, and fell over, as if dead….

For about15 seconds, there wasn’t a word, not a sound, as everyone on the bus sat in complete shock…. Then, the entire bus erupted, with shouts of anger, groans of dismay (the loudest and largest number of responses were the groans….), and some actual animated growls directed at him, right before half the objects on the bus started flying in his general direction, as each victim grabbed the first item at hand & let fly, intending serious harm….

I’ve never, in my entire life, seen a joke better told, unless by a pro, such as George Carlin, or Bob Newhart, who loved that sort of joke… nor have I ever seen such a loud, universal reaction to a pun, up to this day…. It was, quite simply, the best joke I’ve ever heard, even though it isn’t even a joke, except on the audience listening to it…. Nor, for that matter, is it a particularly GOOD joke; stupidly thick is the best one can say about all the parties in the story…. The value is in the telling, with it a critical factor to have the audience on the edge of their seats at the crucial point in the story….

Y’all are probably wondering where I’m going with this, since I’ve wandered so far afield in my mind…. Easy…. I’m giving y’all a break from the usual sober, involved, ranting that is generally my choice for this section…. I figured out, reading my blog isn’t easy…. it takes time, involves no little amount of cogitation, (a habit many Americans don’t possess), all of which probably asks more of the reader than I am entitled to ask in a blog…. Most blogs out there are much shorter, in terms of content, unless they post less often…. But, not ME, no sirree, Bob, I must write and post about 2000- 4000 words EVERY DAMN DAY….. I suppose I’ve come to realize it may be a bit much to ask of ffolkes, even those who enjoy my writing…

So, this little personal reminiscence is to let y’all know, I will be attempting, to some degree at least, to shorten the Pearls of Virtual Wisdom, to make them a little more palatable, and easy to swallow…. Perhaps, this will bring a bit more traffic to the site, because, even though I don’t write for the purpose of increasing my readership, as much as I do to stay sane, to try to hold off the mental calcification that may tend to settle in with us as we get older, decreasing our awareness, our cognitive abilities, and, ultimately, shortening our lives, by removing the pleasure of using our minds the way they were designed to be used…. which is hard, and often….

So, here is a single pearl, hopefully as cogent as I can make it, to seal the deal…. I can’t promise to succeed at this, but, I’ll promise to try, so, hopefully, you’ll see some less bulky Pearls, and a bit more dialogue in the comments, from increased traffic…. If nothing else, I’ll know I’ve lived up to the following aphorism, from one of history’s most prolific, and most accurately insightful moralists… Even if I don’t succeed, this tells me it’s the right thing to do….

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

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

Today I will, once more, assume the ethical stance, to include a poem of mine in this section; you already know why…. This way, nobody else can catch any of the grief or blame for any of today’s missive…. Which, in at least one respect, makes it safer for me, as well; no fear of litigation is necessary…. Here is one written this year, in February, that fits in perfectly with the discussion in section one…..

Blithely Untitled

A poem came to me today, willy, nilly,
along with a sharp blow to the head.
Since it left me feeling just a bit silly,
anything that rhymes should lessen the dread.

Manifesting destiny into a small, insidious group
we push on toward sanity, concentrating hard.
Full engaging moments spent navigating the loop
shall ever make a difference to victims found in the yard.

Still corpses of creatures, straight out of nightmare
fill up the corners of our tortured minds.
While ever saddened, the iconic male, most debonair,
gazes softly, ironically, at all the mutual interest he finds.

Moronic public statutes compel outbreaks of sanity,
responding to momentary impulses toward inducing peace.
Still, the motions get completed, in fertile stages of inanity
while the bulk of our inmates can find no surcease.

Reluctant motivation to continue is unbound,
striving to ascertain how far there yet remains to go.
No precognitive guesswork will make any less of a sound
to soften the final strains, or teach us to truly know.

~~ gigoid ~~

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

In order to assuage my own needs and desires, as well as to subdue, or at minimum, sublimate my urge to rant, today’s section three will assume its typical format, of an old-school pearl, but, with specific parameters, set to find ideas, quotes, and/or poems to show our disdain for the Asininnies, and our anger at the shadowy corporate slavers who have held society in thrall for our entire written history….

“Search men’s governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to.” — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 AD) — Meditations, iv, 38

“Boldness is a mask for fear, however great.” — Lucan

“It is hard to let old beliefs go. They are familiar. We are comfortable with them and have spent years building systems and developing habits that depend on them. Like a man who has worn eyeglasses so long that he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses. Today, however, we need new lenses. And we need to throw the old ones away.” — Kenich Ohmae, The Borderless World

“Food is an important part of a balanced diet.” — Fran Lebowitz

(The above, on food, should be tattooed on the forehead of every one of the 455 men & women in Congress, the White House, and sitting on the SCOTUS; it’s something they tend to ignore, or forget, especially when forced to think about the ‘little people’….)

“People come o Washington believing it is the center of power. I know I did. It was only much later that I learned that Washington is a steering wheel that’s not connected to an engine.” — Richard Goodwin

“Our virtues are most frequently but vices disguised.” — Francis, Duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) — Maxims, Head

“And what is a good citizen? Simply one who never says, does or thinks anything that is unusual. Schools are maintained in order to bring this uniformity up to the highest possible point. A school is a hopper into which children are heaved while they are still young and tender; therein they are pressed into certain standard shapes and covered from head to heels with official rubber-stamps.” — H.L. Mencken

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

Well, there you go…. a reasonably fresh Pearl of Virtual Wisdom, (Required disclaimer: These are ‘virtual’ wisdom; any attempt to use them as real wisdom is the responsibility of the Gentle Reader; the author takes no part in that, for damn good reason….) with only the intro section written prior to this morning’s effort, and it needed to be edited, so, it’s all pretty up-to-date…. Not that freshness will make it taste better, but, hey, with Pearls, you never know…. time improves some of them, others are gems from the start, and, sadly, some cannot be saved by any power known to Mankind…. so be it. gigoid has spoken….

For today, it’s done, which will allow me to go on into the day with no lingering dross or drivel left in my head, just the way I like it…. I’ll need it today, as I go forth to contend with the bureaucratic forces of government…. with a buffering shield of drug-induced emotional space, in lieu of a force-field, (still can’t find one on the open market….), but, still, my hands and ears will require serious cleansing later on…. See ya tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

All those attending the apocalypse, board here….

Posted on September 5, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“It is a waste of energy to be angry with a man who behaves badly, just as it is to be angry with a car that won’t go.”

~~ Bertrand Russell ~~

What vivid, beautiful morning glories! (Well, I THINK they’re morning glories; if not, can a gardener tell me what they are? I’m clueless about plant ID’s….) I’m happy with this shot, simple as it is, because of the colors that came through in the final result…. gorgeous plant, it was, and the only pictures I managed to get on that walk, were of it, and its flowers…. Out of the four or six shots I took, (shaky hands, couldn’t get one centered…. I was on my way to the magic cream shop, in dire need of their products….), this one, and a study of the whole plant, which was in a yard next to a store, were lovely enough to use for today, and tomorrow’s Pearl…. sufficient reward for the misery I had to endure to get to the store….

And, you are NOT going to believe this one…. Last night, I slept (yes, slept… Me, gigoid, sleeping…. quite a concept, eh?) for ten hours, straight and solid, with only two awakenings, to take the scheduled opiate…. I feel GREAT! (Well, I’m discounting the hips and shoulder, which are in their standard state, but, a bit of the ol’ magical topical cream, and I’m good to go…. You may have already noticed how my mood is at a level of, oh, I’d say, a good three steps from usual…. I really don’t know what to do with it; I haven’t suffered this much ‘good will toward men’ in ages…. Maybe I should go out tonight, & try my luck at meeting somebody new…. Nah, I’ll just enjoy the glow….

Besides, by 10 AM, if the world’s routine hasn’t altered significantly, my arthritis should be kicking in, and I’ll be back to the steeplechase, running as slowly as I can, chasing after the pain, trying to knock it down far enough to stop, if nothing else, the whimpering, which tend to embarrass me, even though nobody can hear me when I cry out…. SIGH…. It’s been a tough week, if you couldn’t tell….

Enough whining, though, I feel too good to be pessimistic about how long it will last… I’ll just take advantage of the moment, and enjoy feeling relatively normal, at least for a while…. Plus, look, it gave me enough to fill in this space, which means we can use one of the emergency release mechanisms we have in place, to get us out of here, and onward into the rest of today’s mess, er, missive… Whattyathink, eh? Shall we use #4? It IS sitting right there, ready…. Okay, we’ll do that….

Shall we Pearl?

” — I’d love to, but… I have to study for a blood test.” — 79 of 101 Easy Ways To Say NO

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

“Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful.” — Nietzsche, “Thus Spake Zarathustra”

I’ve been writing a lot recently on this subject; one reason makes itself obvious today, or, more accurately, was demonstrated yesterday, as several stories in the news caught my attention, stories that demonstrate the ubiquitous seriousness of the issue, that of the militarization of the police, with the concomitant result, and motivating factor, of the elimination of the basic rights as covered in the original US Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the US Constitution…. If you think, even for a moment, that you have all those rights by law, in today’s world, then, ffolkes, and, folks….. y’all just aren’t paying close enough attention to what is happening, right in front of you….

In support of that obviously arguable contention, I offer the following discussion, with two appropriate expressions as a preface:

“No sheath shall hold what finds its home in flesh.” — Proverb

“The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Measure for Measure — Act ii, Sc. 2

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Fast-food-protests-expected-in-push-for-higher-pay-5732532.php

Oh…. I get it now…. We, the citizens, are now allowed to protest, without fear of arrest by overzealous police forces, UNLESS we are “disruptive to traffic”, or refrain from “blocking streets”, as a way to express our grievances, to petition the government for redress of those grievances… Sounds to me like the same line of reasoning used by the large communication companies, such as Verizon, or AT&T, (as well as just about ALL companies these days…. they all saw how well it worked for the big guys, & jumped right on that wagon…), who make it impossible to even SPEAK to an actual live person, to try to address any issues of customer service….

They all say their primary goal is customer satisfaction, or, in the case of the police, the protection of the rights of the public, but, have arranged matters (i.e., passed laws…) that enable them to refuse to speak, or listen to anyone who wishes to obtain any such thing…. Same same attitude, in my book…. They don’t want to talk to us, and they don’t want to listen to any complaints about that, or about anything else…. so, they’ve made it damn near impossible to exercise the right we were allegedly guaranteed by the sacrifices of our ancestors….

“The simple rights, the civil liberties from generations of struggle must not be just fine words for patriotic holidays, words we subvert on weekdays, but living, honored rules of conduct amongst us…I’m glad the American Civil Liberties Union gets indignant, and I hope this will always be so.” — Senator Adlai E. Stevenson

(Obviously, by the evidence of this, and other quotes from the good Senator, and, because I was around to watch the rest of the established incumbent politicians of the era, who were, ostensibly, his peers, deliberately and ruthlessly destroy his credibility, and his reputation, with lies, innuendo, and political skulduggery, thus effectively shutting him up, and preventing him from causing any real harm to them, or their incumbency, it’s clear, to me, and to many others, Adlai was one of the rare exceptions to the established rule….)

http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2014/09/03/black-oakland-firefighter-says-white-cop-held-him-at-gunpoint/?cmpid=hp-hc-bayarea

According to this one, the officer involved was acting “within policy”…. So, by that standard, it’s okay, policy-wise, to profile, to NOT call for backup, to use intimidation as a method of controlling a situation, and to assume that the officer saying, “Sorry” for being a total asshole, is sufficient reason to ‘overlook’ his behavior from the police’s obviously expert, objective viewpoint….. Right…..

“If our behavior is strict, we do not need fun!” — Zippy the Pinhead

Doesn’t this bother anyone else, but me? Why is it okay for the police to act like this, without any consequences at all for the officer involved, and the department that encourages this sort of asininity? Can ANYONE explain this to me, any way at all? I’m pretty smart, and will be able to understand just about anything that makes any sense, from any objective standpoint, based on a full understanding of the intent of the founders of the Constitution when they created that document, and a pretty extensive knowledge of human nature, so, any sort of evidence will do….

“Pluck out the heart of my mystery.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Hamlet — Act iii, Sc. 2

I’m willing to bet, some serious money, that there is no one who will, or can, respond to those questions, at least, not in any way that will lessen the responsibility for immoral, unethical, and illegal actions of the policeman, and the department that echoes the WRONG attitudes of almost every other force in this country, and all over the world…. I say this because I’ve looked for any such evidence, already, many times, and have yet to find anything to alter the way I look at it, not by the analysis of the available FACTUAL evidence….

Ever since the middle of the nineteenth century, the government of this country, (and, by that, I am including all three branches, which are supposed to balance each other’s powers, thereby protecting us, the People….) has been under the influence and control of corporate interests, which translates as the monied elite, who have, and will protect viciously, all the “legal” rights they now possess, rights to the control of almost ALL the resources available to society…. With this influence, hard-won by the bribing of a major Federal Court judge in the mid-1800’s, some legal rulings were made, rulings that defined corporations as “persons”, with the legal rights of a person, and, more, providing a legal precedent for future flunkies, er, judges to fall back on….

PRECEDENT, n. In Law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, in the absence of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority a Judge may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task of doing as he pleases. As there are precedents for everything, he has only to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuate those in the line of his desire. Invention of the precedent elevates the trial-at-law from the low estate of a fortuitous ordeal to the noble attitude of a dirigible arbitrament.” — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

This opened the door to other rulings, all of which, over the years, based on the original decision, and, all of which, essentially, give more and more of the rights we flesh and blood citizens have to those “corporate persons”, such that, now, corporations not only have MORE rights than any single citizen, composed of mere flesh and blood, but, have extended their control, using the same basic method of bribery, to the other two branches….. They did so in Congress, by convincing that august body to vote itself the right to make laws that were separate from those that were Constitutional, thereby making them not subject to the same restrictions that now define that document…. In other words, they voted themselves the keys to the treasury….

(Some time, if you get a chance, check out the health plan that the members of Congress, and other Federal government elected officials, are set up with when they get elected, along with their retirement plans…. You will be shocked at what they have given themselves over the years, all without even notifying any of the public what was going on…. Most of the American public is not even AWARE that a member of Congress, when they leave that august body, get to keep their health plan (much better than any available to the public, more extensive coverage, and free of any out of pocket cost to them….), AND their congressional salary, now in the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS range….. FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES….. even if only elected to one term…. Pretty good deal they’ve handed themselves, eh, what?….. If you are ANYTHING like me, it will convince you to go buy a gun, and to use it…..)

The Executive Branch, while attempting to maintain the appearance of independence and proper assumption of its Constitutional duty, fell in with those same shadowy corporate snakeheads on Wall Street, and came up with the simple concept of “Executive privilege”, giving themselves the power to make laws, bypassing Congress, and, thus, the people, altogether…. Cute, eh? And, clever, too, for making it all seem as if the White House, Congress, and the Courts, were, and are, all doing their jobs, providing balance to the powers of government…. when, in fact, the people of this country have NO ONE representing their interests, in any level, in any branch of our government….

There are 455 very rich, white men, (with a very few exceptions to that particular description….) who determine the course of life in this country…. add it up yourself. Their average income is over a million dollars…. the average, mind you… Many of them are multi-millionaires, many times over…. What do they know of the lives of the common man? How can anyone believe they would have the same set of interests to pursue, or that the agendas they hold are, in ANY way, concerned with making things better for anyone but themselves….

“Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” — Mark Twain

As I said, there are a very few exceptions, who, basically, are powerless to change any part of the big picture…. too much money, power, and inertia working against them… Plus, every one of those at that level, who accidentally make it to the national stage, and are those who would work for the people, sincerely and honestly, are always isolated by the rest, to make them completely ineffective…. witness the only moral president of the last century, Jimmy Carter…. from the current crop of Congressmen with any honor at all, I’d say Al Franken comes closest, and he is under massive political assault, by the Republican Party, the Tea Party, AND the Koch Brother’s Super PAC, Citizens United….)

Ah yes, Citizens United…. that famous Supreme Court decision, which makes my contention, about the bought-and-paid for servile indenturing of the Supreme Court, not so very hard to believe, giving, as it did, the very clear message the Court’s belief in the sacred status of corporate personhood, and the inviolability of corporations to do whatever they must to protect and preserve their bottom line, which is the profit they make on all the predatory hoarding of resources, and the control that gives them over society and culture at large…. Anything at all that interferes with smooth flow of money into their coffers is not to be allowed….

There is a bill now in the Senate, awaiting a vote, that, if passed, will do away with the decision by the Court re: corporate donations to political campaigns; it is a Constitutional Amendment, which was the ONLY way to stop the decision from becoming the law of the land. It will prevent the corporations from having completely unlimited power to influence elections, by removing the restrictions they, as corporate persons, to political campaigns, effectively halting the formation and continued existence of Super-PAC’s, such as Citizens United….

You know, the one owned by the Koch brothers, ultra-conservative billionaires, with a sense of entitlement you have to see to believe…. incredible assholes, both of them…. Sorry, just can’t stand people like that, who have no compassion or “fellow-feeling”; in my estimation, they do not deserve to be called human, and, to be honest, I consider them to be a total waste of sperm….

This government, as it now exists, has NOTHING to do with the Constitution that allegedly forms the basis for its existence…. Almost every statement in the Constitution, especially in the amendments that make up the Bill of Rights, is no longer in force, essentially, and we can no longer count those rights as anything but a memory….

The experiment in government started by our founding fathers, who wanted a government that would protect and support the people, not oppress them, as every other government in history has done to its citizenry; once in power, every human being alive seems to fall prey to the urge to put aside all of their compassion, all of their integrity, and all their altruism, whereupon, they begin to make changes, that will ultimately server their ends, which are ONLY concerned with meeting their own needs, not those of the people…. It has happened EVERY TIME….

I challenge ANYONE to find an example, anywhere in the past 5000 years, of a government that demonstrated any appreciable degree of care for the people, ahead of what was important to the ruling class…. Just one will do, because even that will provide hope that it can be done…. but, I’m a pretty well-read guy, and I can’t think, or remember, any government in history who were considered to be any such thing as “compassionate” or that actually made life better for its citizenry….

As one of the Shrubs said one time, “Bring it on….”

I think that’s all…. I cant, at this point, think of anything more to add to this discussion, so, why don’t we give it up now, and move on….

“Sorry, my mind was on edible underwear today.” — Smart Bee, providing gigoid with an excuse for the above….

Whoops! How’d that get in here? Oh, I remember…. After the somber sobriety of the above politirant, I went to look for an appropriate pearl to close with, whereupon I found this, & couldn’t resist…. Okay, here is a proper thought with which to end this piece….

“May you have eyes like a hawk and a spouse with warts.” — Smart Bee, being a smart ass….

Sorry, I’m not taking the rap for that one; it’s on SB…. It just showed up when I pasted the right pearl, I THOUGHT…. THIS is the proper ending I was looking for, when I was so rudely interrupted, by a bloody database!……

“A conqueror is always a lover of peace.” — Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)

~~ from “On war”; copied by Lenin in his notebook, with notation, “Ah, Ah, witty”. ~~

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

Whew! Good thing the first half of that rant was already done, or I’d have been there forever this morning…. After that, I need something to cheer me up a little bit…. no, make that a LOT…. I know…. In this mood, some pure, cold, clean, powerful brilliance is just the ticket…. Since none of mine quite fit that bill, this one will do just fine….

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 ~~

“Poetry is the eloquence of truth.” — Joseph Campbell

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

Boy…. reading Sylvia is certainly a roller-coaster of an experience, isn’t it? I feel lots better now; all the lingering dregs of angst and resentment at the shenanigans of the BRC, and the rest of the asininnies, have departed, forthwith, leaving me relatively normal, in re: all-around feelings of contentment with life…. Since I’m 63 years old, I know that won’t last forever, or even very long, so, I’m intent on enjoying every minute of it….

Do be, do be, doo….

Okay, that’s enough normal for me…. I’m going to do what I do, which is put together a fresh, random harlequin style pearl, with parameters set at the extreme end of SILLY, right smack up against the backside of INSANITY…. Should be fun!…. Let’s go annoy Smart Bee for a while, okay? Okay! Let’s go!….

“It is a mistake to think of all demons as being exactly alike. Some are short while others are tall; some are yellow, others are blue; some are nasty and others are extremely nasty. Some of the nastiest are quite fast as well. Should you encounter one of these, it is a mistake to think at all. Much more appropriate are such responses as running, screaming, and the very rapid formation of a last will and testament.” — The Teachings of Ebenezum, Vol. IX

“Reality does not exist – yet.” — Smart Bee

“If I kiss you, that is a psychological interaction. On the other hand, if I hit you over the head with a brick, that is also a psychological interaction. The difference is that one is friendly and the other is not so friendly. The crucial point is if you can tell which is which.” — Dolph Sharp, I’m O.K., You’re Not So Hot

“Being normal is driving me crazy.” — Smart Bee (who obviously was listening all those times gigoid was talking to himself…. he thought….)

“The mind is everything,” wrote Proust. No doubt true, when you’re dead from the neck down.” — Edward Abbey

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

“For I never have seen, and never shall see, that the cessation of the evidence of existence is necessarily evidence of the cessation of existence.” — De Morgan (1839-1917)

— Bother! said Pooh,as he rolled over into the wet spot.

(Oops, sorry, that was supposed to go somewhere else…. oh, well, we’re on fun mode, so, I’ll let it stay….)

“The only very marked difference between the average civilized man and the average savage is that the one is gilded and the other is painted.” — Mark Twain

“Before you criticize people, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you’ve got a mile-long head start. And you have their shoes.” — The Lion

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

“As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” — Henry David Thoreau

When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit,
‘Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet;
Nor ever ever shall, until that I die,
For the longer I live the more fool am I.

— “Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy” (1684)

Okay…. I know, I went a bit overboard, again; chalk it up to having so much energy, after my marathon sleep last night…. Bonus: You have, and I have, without realizing it, witnessed the creation of the very first 13-star pearl…. I have no clue as to how it happened, other than forgetting where I was while collecting…. The clipboard appends each quote, but, doesn’t allow me to look at it, to count, before pasting… It doesn’t matter, at all, really, because, in this case, it worked, just fine, which is a word we could easily use to describe this pearl… Without getting overly wordy, or overly long, these 13 ideas present us with some fine entertainment, and a few pokes in the conscience, as well as a good portion of silliness… I like it….

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

So much for serendipity and planning…. In spite of the sleep, and, in spite of the plan my unseasonably clear mind came up with this morning, I’m running a little late…. this, even though over half the rant was already done… But, when I sat to go over it, it just got me going again…. Then, the long pearl in section three got going…. Happily, it’s done, and I’m not going to fuss with it…. I will see y’all tomorrow, with who knows what new and exciting ideas, given an entire day of relative clear-mindedness? Not me, certainly, though I’ve got as much chance as anyone of guessing…. But, where would be the fun in that?…. Bye, for now….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

Offer them a pastille, and be done with it….

Posted on August 26, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

“Do not speak of what men deserve. For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead Kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward. Free your mind of the idea of *deserving*, of *earning*, and you will begin to be able to think.”

— Odo, The Prison Letters —

~~ Ursula LeGuin ~~

The Dispossessed

In the recent past, these introductory sections have relied upon either the quote at the top of the page, or the picture just below it, to help me find a direction in which to set out for the day’s journey into the labyrinth I call my mind, to anywhere in the vast unknown territory in which the day’s Pearl may be hiding…. As a result, I have experienced what might be called an ambiguous reaction, to the reduction of stressful indecision over this process. One side of that reaction is pleasure, a feeling of contentment and relief, at not having to work so hard at it; the other side has been an unfortunate tendency to rant, massively, if not magnificently, here in the opening comments….

Now, while that may be advantageous from one standpoint, it does, in what echoes the casually cruel way of much of the Universe, ignore my routine, as it blithely destroys it…..

Hmm…. we interrupt this introduction to bring you this mildly important bulletin….. Here where I live, in the Bay Area at the top of the Bay, we just had another small earthquake…. most likely an aftershock of the good-sized shaker that occurred day before yesterday, which registered 6.0 on the Richter scale, and knocked down some good-sized pieces of the downtown area…. This one didn’t knock anything off my shelves, though the house did a little dance for about 5 or 10 seconds; it never reached the intensity of the one the other day…. Oh, well, I guess we’re done for now…. back to whatever it was I was talking about before mother Gaia interrupted with her latest little shocker….

Now, where were we? Oh, right, obliterated routine…. This daily alteration of the routine has also seemed to stimulate me, and Smart Bee, which has been coming up with some excellent pearls for ranting…. So, the rants have not only been, often, earlier in the day’s post than is usual, but, longer than is probably wise, or effective…. Hence, I think, the recent drop in the number of readers stopping by…. I have to admit, my blog is probably more work than most, what with the seriousness of much of the subject matter, and my tendency to become pedantic, pompous, & long-winded….

All of this, while, no doubt, interesting to me, is also, no doubt, boring most of you to tears…. So, I’m going to make an executive decision, to bring this to a close at this point, using one of the more efficient emergency methods I’ve acquired over time to help to overcome the seriousness and pomposity that is now threatening to get out of control…. You might recognize it, if you’ve been here before…. it’s number 4, and it works fast. Watch this….

Shall we Pearl?…..

And through the spaces of the dark
Midnight shakes the memory
As a madman shakes a dead geranium

~~ T.S. Eliot ~~

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

And who (in time) knows whither we may vent
The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores
This gain of our best glory shall be sent
T’ enrich unknowing nations with our stores?
What worlds in the yet unformed Occident
May come refin’d with th’ accents that are ours?

~~ Samuel Daniel ~~

(1562-1619)

— Musophilus, Stanza 163 —

I’m afraid I’ve gotten a little out of hand, again…. I have yet to see how long this section has grown to be; it isn’t done as I write this. I’m doing so as a warning to my Gentle Readers, to give them the option of skipping to the poetry section…. Those unfamiliar with the extent of my ramblings at times are advised to read on, to gain a clearer picture…. of what, is, as always, up to you. You are the one who is learning whatever lesson there is to be learned, aren’t you? I can merely offer my own thoughts; you must do with them what you will…. as long as you don’t try to hurt anyone with them…

This pearl has meandered, though originally, it had a specific design that didn’t include such a lack of focus…. But, as I read the news yesterday, I saw so many disturbing stories, I kept adding them to the end of what I’d already finished, several times, before even beginning to collect the pearls to make the old-school pearl at the end, which I intended to use in lieu of formal ranting….

In other words, there is so much crap going on in the world, I had to collect a bunch of it in order to get it out of my head, before it sat in there & rotted…. There will still be an old-school pearl, comprised of five, or seven pearls of virtual wisdom, that will provide, hopefully, some order, and some insight, into possible ways to deal with such an incredibly humongous pile of dross and drivel…. Wish me luck….

“In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life. It goes on.” — Robert Frost

When Robert Frost made this statement, it was made, naturally, in light of the knowledge of his own life experience, which, at the point in history when it was uttered, had led him to believe this, with good reason…. I am sorry to say, however, that conditions in the world have drastically changed in the intervening years, and this belief is in danger of being made irrelevant, as no longer supported by the evidence…. When he lived, the world had not yet come to the crisis point which we now face, in which our history, quite conceivably, may come to a final ending…. with no more chapters to follow.

There is a specific reason for my pessimism when it comes to the subject of climate change, and Mankind’s responsibility for the pollution which has been PROVEN to be the cause of our danger…. Scientifically speaking, there is no longer any room for doubt about that; the evidence is just too overwhelming to either ignore, or minimize, or, as some still do, deny….. We, as a species, and as a member of the circle of Life on this planet, are in significant and imminent danger of dying off, the same as the dinosaurs did, millions of years ago….

The difference here and now, between what is happening to us, and what happened to the reptiles who once roamed the Earth, is that they had no choice in the matter…. The large asteroid/comet/big rock, that slammed into the Earth in the past, created an instant climactic catalyst, so powerful it caused the entire world’s balanced climate to change overnight…. This eventually led to the demise of most of the life then present on the surface of the globe, in a cosmically short time, over a couple thousand years or so….. until the diversity of life here reestablished itself, and the mammalian age began….

What is happening today is not a huge world-wide explosion, or cosmically significant instant impact, by a swiftly moving boulder the size of, oh, say, Texas?, that is causing the changes…. It has been conclusively proven that the millions upon millions of tons of chemicals, specifically carbon monoxide, along with a host of others (none of which are helpful to the air….), that are unceremoniously dumped, every day, into the atmosphere we all breathe, are responsible, in a direct-line, logical, evidential progression, for the changes we are now witnessing on a world-wide scale….

All the strange weather patterns, the melting of the polar ice, at both poles, causing the level of the oceans to rise, the rise in the overall temperature of the planet, and all the other cataclysmic events we are seeing now, are OUR OWN FUCKING FAULT, for refusing to halt the idiocy, even though our culpability has been relatively common knowledge, now, for over 50 years…..

Yet, according to the article below, after all this time, and all the evidence, there is still so much resistance to the issue in the ranks of the ignorant, fundamentalist assholes who control the House of Representatives in this country, any piece of legislation that acknowledges that danger, or tries in any way to put a stop to the idiocy, is blocked automatically in the GOP controlled Congressional House of Representatives, by these same fundamentalists who categorically refuse to even LOOK at the evidence that is killing them, and their entire families, without them even knowing it….. It makes me sick, to realize these fucking idiots are in a position to block any attempts to rectify the situation, thus, unwittingly (as they do EVERYTHING in their life….), strengthening my impulsive urge to buy a gun, almost immeasurably….

Read the article, and after you’ve calmed down, (Okay, so that’s just me….), you can do what I did…. Look through the old-school pearl(s) I’ve collected & placed below the link, shrug phlegmatically, then, start practicing the unpalatable act of resigning yourself to the most likely outcome, to wit: In about a hundred years, or possibly less, unless we make immediate drastic changes to society, and the way we approach LIFE on this planet…. well, if we don’t, we are all, most surely, going to die, painfully, and without hope of any deus ex machina, from a imaginary supernatural force that, reportedly loves our undeserving, sorry asses, so much, they will change reality to allow us to live….

Sorry, ffolkes, that just ain’t going to happen…..

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/08/19/valley-dems-take-issue-on-climate-change/

I don’t know about y’all, but, I’m really impressed at the depth of ignorance in our Beloved Ruling Class that is implied by this article…. simply massive stupidity at work here, ffolkes….

Oh, yeah, and then there’s this…. Below is another link, to an article about Señor Rick Perry, who is one of the “fundies” mentioned above (He is on record, as believing the idea of Man being the primary cause behind climate change is a “question that hasn’t been answered to his satisfaction”…), Consider this, ffolkes…. This man, for the moment, at least, is one of the top contenders for the GOP presidential candidate at the next election, in 2016…. Well, one of the most visible, anyway…

Don’t worry, though, he is confident the suit against him for abuse of his office’s power, )brought against him by people in his own state bureaucracy, for threatening to refuse to sign a bill, that provided funding for corruption investigations in his state), will be dismissed as baseless…. He is confident of this, in spite of having publicly stated, beforehand, he would veto the bill, if he didn’t get something he wanted from a Democratic opponent…. When it was refused, he vetoed the funding bill, thus firmly allying himself on the side of those who are corrupted, and those who believe their lies…. and, in the process, making it harder to investigate HIM…. Hmm, what do you think?

I think Mr. Perry is very slick (this is after I get control of the nausea prompted by having to think about him at all….); his whole attitude is one of skillful denial, and Alfred E. Neumann-like obliviousness (In recent months, he has adopted the wearing of some studious looking, nerdy black frame glasses, to give him a more intellectual look… In reality, he doesn’t realize that it gives him a striking resemblance to Alfred, the iconic image of Mad Magazine, and a logo for all that is crazy in life…)…. I can just hear him, talking to reporters outside the courthouse, “What, me worry?…. No corruption here, ffolkes, keep moving, no need to even look….” Remember now, this is a man who wants to be president of this country….

(No capital for “president of the United States”? What’s up with that? Oh… I stopped capitalizing it when I lost all respect for the office, back about the time of Nixon, followed by Johnson, then the sheer hell of the Reagan years, and Shrub the First, and the vacuum of time that was Jerry Ford…. Oh, yeah, and that other guy…. what was his name…. oh, right, the Junior Shrub, George the Blithering Idiot….)

So, maybe Perry is what the GOP, and all the fools and idiots who bought into the lies that have inundated the public’s consciousness now for most of the time since World War II, (that’s when the worst of the reliance on clandestine activity in the government became habitual, and the almost automatic denial and lying to the public sector has its root…. and, in many cases, is used as the justification for all of it…. Falsely, of course. but what has ever stopped a politician from lying when it suits their purpose? Nothing known to man or science, that’s for sure…), has been looking for all this time…. Maybe he will get the GOP nomination, & we’ll have him as a daily target for our barbs in the 2016 election…. One is allowed to hope, anyway….

Any who, here’s the latest on Ricky Bob…. THEN, we’ll get to the pearls….

http://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Defiant-Texas-Gov-Perry-coming-to-New-Hampshire-5699362.php

Okay, so, these articles just keep jumping up at me, barking and howling until I let them get on board this train wreck…. But, this one may help…. Over the last couple of days, I’ve written several pieces on the militarization of the police all over the world, and especially in the United States…. One of my favorite columnists, Mark Morford, who writes for the SF Chronicle, and SFGATE, an online outlet connected to the Chronicle, has written his piece for this week on the same subject; he has produced his usual brilliant take on the matter for us to share….

He gives a complete and accurate summation, of the background, and the roots of the current situation in Ferguson, Missouri…. He also analyzes a lot of what is NOT generally considered, with some actual positive points of hope for a creative solution it may be possible to find…. sort of…. It’s a great read, and will, perhaps, add to your comprehension of the issues at hand…. I know I enjoyed, anyway, and, it adds to the overall picture that shows the damage to our culture, so prevalent today….

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/08/18/tear-gas-for-the-huddled-masses/#26011101=0

Okay….. Now, the pearls…. centered for visual balance, which encourages the same in one’s thoughts….

“American elect Democrats to Congress so they’ll be given what they want and Republicans to the White House so they won’t have to pay for it–neither one works.” — Smart Bee

“As long as people will accept crap, it will be financially profitable to dispense it.” — Dick Cavett, in “Playboy”, 1971

“And the people bowed and prayed, to the neon Gods they’d made.” — Paul Simon

“In any country there must be people who have to die. They are the sacrifices any nation has to make to achieve law and order.” — Idi Amin Dada

“The fascination of shooting as a sport depends on whether you are at the right or the wrong end of the gun.” — P. G. Wodehouse

“Nothing is too high for the daring of mortals: we storm heaven itself in our folly.” — Horace (65-8 B.C.)

“A candidate is a person who gets money from the rich and votes from the poor to protect them from each other.” — Smart Bee

Well, that was pleasant…. I guess. Perhaps if so many of them weren’t so true to life, the overall effect wouldn’t make me so uncomfortably nauseous…. This is one strange pearl, but, for a rant like this, it works, I’m thinking…. I wonder, though, maybe I should go eat some worms…. At least I’d have a reasonable reason for the nausea…. I need a little something to take the edge off before we go on…. Ah, this will do…. A little reminder the politicians, etc., aren’t the ONLY f___-ups who bear the responsibility for this whole mess…. You and I have played our parts, remember….

“In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility
then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”

— Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 29

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To try to make up a bit for the extreme length of the previous section we’ll go with something short, and classic….. How about this one?….

Adventures Of Isabel

Isabel met an enormous bear,
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t care;
The bear was hungry, the bear was ravenous,
The bear’s big mouth was cruel and cavernous.
The bear said, Isabel, glad to meet you,
How do, Isabel, now I’ll eat you!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry.
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She washed her hands and she straightened her hair up,
Then Isabel quietly ate the bear up.
Once in a night as black as pitch
Isabel met a wicked old witch.
the witch’s face was cross and wrinkled,
The witch’s gums with teeth were sprinkled.
Ho, ho, Isabel! the old witch crowed,
I’ll turn you into an ugly toad!
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry,
She showed no rage and she showed no rancor,
But she turned the witch into milk and drank her.
Isabel met a hideous giant,
Isabel continued self reliant.
The giant was hairy, the giant was horrid,
He had one eye in the middle of his forehead.
Good morning, Isabel, the giant said,
I’ll grind your bones to make my bread.
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She nibbled the zwieback that she always fed off,
And when it was gone, she cut the giant’s head off.
Isabel met a troublesome doctor,
He punched and he poked till he really shocked her.
The doctor’s talk was of coughs and chills
And the doctor’s satchel bulged with pills.
The doctor said unto Isabel,
Swallow this, it will make you well.
Isabel, Isabel, didn’t worry,
Isabel didn’t scream or scurry.
She took those pills from the pill concocter,
And Isabel calmly cured the doctor.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

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

Second in a series of very old Pearls to grace the third section, here is one from a couple of months after I began posting on WordPress… In those days, an entire Pearl was the size of what is now considered one section, which in most cases ends up here, in section three. I’m bringing back these old pearls to give a feeling of continuity, if only in my own mind…. It also gives me, and y’all, a picture of how things around here have both progressed, and stayed the same…. By the “look and feel” of this group of pearls, a five-star pearl is still the most compelling sort, when it works…. this one works…

From 10/5/2011:

Ffolkes,

A great confusion arose in my mind yesterday; a confusion so great, I could not find a way out, and several things that should have been done were not. This missive is one of those things…..I actually had most of it done, but my ever-present extremely high level of anxiety had me out doing other things that seemed more important at the time. Turns out it wasn’t but, hey, Murphy knows me by first name, so it doesn’t surprise anymore when stuff goes wrong. Hence, today, I must play clean-up on yesterday’s unfinished tasks, thus keeping me from what I’d like to do, which is to get some writing done. No hope there today, not when it takes almost all I’ve got to write a Pearl.

Speaking of which, I finally found the little poem that explains about the Pearls, at least from a minimalist standpoint. I merely take it as proof that I am not alone, that others have walked this path before me, seeking out the finest oysters, and bringing their Pearls of Virtual Wisdom into the light of day……

Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls must dive below.

— John Dryden —

(1631-1700) — All for Love, Prologue

“Nothing is rubbish if you’ve got an inquiring mind.” — Doctor Who

:sagan: /say’gn/ n. [from Carl Sagan’s TV series “Cosmos”; think “billions and billions”] A large quantity of anything. “There’s a sagan different ways to tweak EMACS.” “The U.S. Government spends sagans on bombs and welfare — hard to say which is more destructive.” — from The on-line Hacker Jargon File V423

How charming is divine philosophy!
Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical as is Apollo’s lute,
And a perpetual feast of nectar’d sweets
Where no crude surfeit reigns.

— John Milton —

(1608-1674) — Comus, Line 476

Order is heaven’s first law; and this confest,
Some are, and must be, greater than the rest,
More rich, more wise; but who infers from hence
That such are happier, shocks all common sense.

— Alexander Pope —

(1688-1744) — Essay on Man, Epistle iv, Line 49

“As the tempest and the thunder affect not the sun or the stars, but spend their fury on stones and trees below; so injuries ascend not to the Soul of the great, but waste themselves on such as are those who offer them.” — Akhenaton? (c. B.C. 1375)

Lotta poetry today, yes? It’s good for the mind to stretch in different ways sometimes; keeps it flexible….y’all take care out there…..

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

All things considered, not bad…. we’ll take it. Not only that, but, we won’t make any further big deal about it….. I’ve done all I can do; since all you can do is all you can do, I’m done…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid, the dubious

PLEASE STOP READING THIS MESSAGE NOW.

We’ll need more coffee for this…..

Posted on June 18, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

I don’t know about y’all, but, I’m tired of staring at this blank screen…. Since that’s all I’ve done for the last 20 minutes or more, I’m guessing my creative juices have yet to become unblocked this morning…. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb, and guess that not only am I blocked, I’m impacted, in its truest sense…. In fact, the only blockage consistent with my mind’s right now is one I should be hesitant to discuss in public…

(Hmm…. I just noticed that word, ‘discuss’…. it’s very close, one letter off, of being the word ‘discus’, which is also something that gets tossed around…. sorry, got distracted…. t’was the only shiny object to be seen, in the vast featureless plain that is my mind in its current bloated state….)

Okay, I’d best take a vote here…. Do you think that paragraph is too much? I mean, is it too, too fractured, too flipped? I need to know, before I go much further in this direction…. Any voters out there? Well, it seems nobody wishes to give me any help yet (It IS early yet, not yet 5 AM….), so I’m on my own, as per usual…. I’m at a handicap here today, I think, between my foggy brain, my lack of preparation, and the usual degree of incipient terror I’m experiencing in the back of my mind, as my subconscious does it’s terrified child routine ahead of my dental visit later this morning….

I am an adult, and have learned to endure my visits to the dentist, as, intellectually, I know it is best for me; I have experienced the worst pain possible, an impacted molar, infected and throbbing just inches away from the brain….and know that visits to the dentist only help prevent that….

But, that knowledge has never been enough to completely overcome my experience as a six year old, when some gigantic Army dentist about scared me out of my skin, on a visit to have a tooth pulled…. The dentist, back in 1956 or so, was a huge, surly man, not pleased to be looking into the mouths of Army brats and soldiers, instead of his private rich folks, and his callousness and indifference to my fear managed to frighten me out of my wits…

To make a long story short, here it is, 58 years later, and I still get the serious yips before a visit…. even though my dentist now is a very talented, beautiful young woman, who has the gentlest hands I’ve ever known…. She has this trick she learned in dental school, where she does this little manipulation of the cheek while giving a shot, that, somehow, completely negates the pain of getting the needle inserted, which brings down the anxiety level like a charm…. But, no matter how often I tell myself it will be fine, I still get this rush of adrenaline, starting about six hours prior to whatever time I must be there for my torture session….

I had hoped the process of Pearling would alleviate some of my anxiety, but, it doesn’t seem to be working very well…. It’s a hard thing, to be this age, and still be suffering unreasonable fears rooted in childhood… but, it’s like those damn bees….

“YES! Living in today’s complex world of the future IS much like having a hive of bees live in your head! But…. there they are!” — Firesign Theater, “I think we’re all Bozos on this bus!”….

Since there isn’t anything I can do to remove the bees just now, I guess I’ll just ignore them, or put out some flowers as a distraction, and get on with the rest of this mess….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Remember what Simonides said,–that he never repented that he had held his tongue, but often that he had spoken.” — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Rules for the Preservation of Health, 7

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

“… so long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men.” — Voltarine de Cleyre

The Wise Old Pine Cone is off somewhere today with his Paduan, doing whatever they do at these times…. This, of course, means I’m supposed to rant here, if I’m going to stick with what we usually do…. I can do that; there is plenty of stuff to get worked up over in the news, although most would say its rather a slow news time, in some respects…. At least, nothing is going on domestically at the moment; we seem to be in a limbo between random shootings….

Oh, there is plenty of other stuff going on I could talk about, if I was so inclined…. For example, because of the latest round of violence in Iraq, the potUS, Barry the Obama, is sending some of our military personnel back there, although I’m not sure exactly what 275 soldiers, even Special Forces, and a contingent of the ever-so-powerful ‘consultants’, can do in the face of the extent of the insurgency going on there…. But, then, we aren’t expected to be able to count, I guess, or be allowed to know exactly what is going on…… We’re supposed to accept whatever they tell us, no matter how suspiciously dumb, or egregiously immoral/unethical….

I think what frightens and annoys me the most is what is NOT being written or talked about much… The NSA, and all the other agencies that get data from them, continue to carry out their illegal, unethical, obscenely paranoid surveillance of the world’s population, ( I don’t think they are limiting themselves to just us….), without any sort of oversight, and without any restraint by any outside regulatory agencies…. much less Congressional, judicial or (gasp!) public oversight…. They haven’t stopped, or slowed their vacuuming up of every bit of data they can access; if you think they have, or have any evidence thereof, please, tell me…. I’d LOVE to hear of ANYTHING anyone might be doing to try to curb their insanity…. but, I don’t think you can, because they haven’t stopped at all….

They just keep coming up with new, outrageous justifications for doing what they plan to do anyway, in court, and in the public eye…. For example, the link below, from the UK Guardian (the same news outlet that first published the Eric Snowden revelations….), tells us about the latest bit of justifying bullshit being put out by the British spy agencies, to try to convince the public that a) they aren’t doing anything wrong, and b) they’re legally allowed to do wrong anyway…. For me, the most telling point is the sheer bold effrontery that gives them the chutzpah to even SAY this stuff… It’s all so outrageously DUMB, not to mention self-serving, reeking of false entitlement, and, essentially, giving the finger to the public….

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/17/mass-surveillance-social-media-permitted-uk-law-charles-farr

Another part of this that bothers me is the lack of any coverage at all in the US news media; to find this kind of stuff, I have to go to overseas web sites, like the Guardian, to find out what my own government is up to, even if it’s only what they’re up to in England, by handing over all kinds of British metadata to their spy compatriots, and egging them on in their war against their own citizens….

A week or two ago, here in the USA, there were one or two articles, about some piece of legislation that passed the Senate, that was SUPPOSED to be the law designed to put the reins on the NSA…. Of course, the actual wording of the bill they passed does nothing of the sort; it didn’t even address about HALF the issues involved, and did NOTHING to halt any of the data collection… Mostly, it just dealt with what is to be done with the data once collected, none of which was actually restrictive to their activities….

Bah! Humbug! It all pisses me off, and what with the adrenaline already coursing through my system, I’ll be jacked up for hours now…. I’m going to halt this rant here… Y’all know it pisses me off, so I won’t dwell on it any more today…. I will, however, find a pearl or two to finish off what I’m trying to say, which essentially boils down to this….

Ffolkes, the government is lying to us, you know it, I know it, and so do they…. The only question remaining is, what are we going to do about it? I’ll leave that question hanging for the moment, to see if it garners any responses… and, in the meantime, go find a pearl or three to close the issue for the day….

“A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.” — Georges Pompidou

“Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines everywhere.” — William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Twelfth Night — Act iii, Sc.

“A Lie is still a Lie, even if you believe it.” — Smart Bee

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

When I’m in this mood, only one poem will do, and it’s mine…

Geezer to Congress, with Love

Politicos don’t care much ’bout seniors and their ilk,
except for their money, I thinks;
Though they talk as if they’d cozen them in silk,
what they actually do, it stinks.

“The banks are failing, we can’t allow that!”,
steal from the aged, that’s their plan.
“Their life’s ending, that’s plainly where they’re at,”
lie shamelessly, because they can.

Maybe just once, if we all act together,
it couldn’t miss.
Right on their shoes, no matter the weather,
take careful aim, and piss.

Why the hell not?
It’s worth a shot!

~~ gigoid ~~

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

Y’all know what comes now….. I’m in a hurry now; my adrenaline level is rising, and I need to get up and going, to work some of it off…. If I don’t, I’m going to have to take the option at the dentist to have them put me completely under, if I hope to get anything done in my mouth…. At the moment, sitting still is NOT an option…. So, here’s the quickest, random pearl I can put together…. Wish me luck….

“Wit that can creep, and pride that licks the dust.” — Alexander Pope (1688-1744) — Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, Prologue to the Satires, Line 333

“One who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.” — Lao-tzu, _Tao Te Ching_

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” — Marcus Aurelius

“If you are a host to your guest, be a host to his dog also.” — Russian Proverb

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

“Never be boastful; someone may come along who knew you as a child.” — Chinese Proverb

“For after all what is man in nature? A nothing in relation to infinity, all in relation to nothing, a central point between nothing and all and infinitely far from understanding either. The ends of things and their beginnings are impregnably concealed from him in an impenetrable secret. He is equally incapable of seeing the nothingness out of which he was drawn and the infinite in which he is engulfed.” — Blaise Pascal

Well!…. That went extremely well; quick, with an elegant, sturdy result…. I like it…..

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

“Heisenberg was wrong, I know exactly where I am and where I’m going.” — Einstein

Sadly, me, too…. and, it’s somewhere I DON’T want to go…. But, I’m a big boy, and I can’t afford another cancellation fee, like the last three times I bailed at the last minute…. Star, unreasoning feelings of panic, when rooted in events over 50 years old, make for a fearsome challenge, which I tend to fail to meet as often as not…. SIGH…. But, I’ll make it today, and, hopefully, be back tomorrow, in less of an internal mess….. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

Further remonstrances should be unnecessary….

Posted on May 19, 2014 by gigoid

Ffolkes,

Realizing such an overreaction would draw attention, I put away my weapon, and proceeded to thrash the idiot with my bare hands….. Having thus protected the next poor slob who tried to buy one of the asshole’s fake watches, (The fool didn’t even bother to put works in them, or set them to the right time….. just tried to foist off a fake Rolex on me, without any real idea of what a watch like that would cost, or look like…. What an idiot….), I walked out of the alley where I left his groaning carcass, giving him the opportunity for a leisurely introspection, wherein he could contemplate the error of his ways…. I turned south, toward the waterfront, where the ship that would carry me on the next leg of my journey only waited for me to board….

As I strolled down the Avenida del Revolucion, other, more honest vendors hawked their wares, to the early tourists and locals who crowded the narrow sidewalks, jostling each other in the crowded spaces between the shops and the street-side displays for each….. All the stalls were colorfully crammed with hundreds of items for sale, handy to the cars that crawled past, filled with other tourist groups and possible buyers…. The street vendors, each hawking the wares of the shop in front of which they stood, joined their cries to each other’s, almost a sing-song of prices and salutations, a commercial music that blended with and through the noise of the cars, and the blaring mariachi music from the speakers every fifty feet….

Then, of course, I woke up, and lost all sense of proportion, staring into the darkened room, wondering whether I was still in Mexico, shivering slightly in the cold air from the open window, behind me…. Pulling on a t-shirt, I arose, grabbed the essentials, and came out to try to start this Pearl….. The above two paragraphs are the best I can do, ffolkes; on looking it over, it’s not bad, but, it isn’t the best I’ve ever done, either….. Given the handicap under which I’m operating, I’m fairly content, as it is better than I’d hoped, given the level of spasming and pain I’m currently ignoring….. well, as best as I can….

Regardless of that, I’m not going to whine…. What I WILL do is try to put out a complete Pearl, fresh, (other than poetically…. I’m afraid I don’t have THAT in me right now…. but, I’ll pick something worthwhile to make up for any lack of freshness or originality on MY part….), and as compelling as I can make it…. It may not be quite up to snuff, but, it will have to do, because, well, it will….

On that note, I’m going to forgo any further folderol, or nonsense from my darker side, & jump into the rest of today’s effort….. which, as I can already tell y’all, is an effort, indeed….

Shall we Pearl?….

Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not.

It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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

“Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions are all based upon that large defect in your race — the individual’s distrust of his neighbor, and his desire, for safety’s or comfort’s sake, to stand well in his neighbor’s eye. These institutions will always remain, and always flourish, and always oppress you, affront you, and degrade you, because you will always be and remain slaves of minorities. There was never a country where the majority of people were in their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910), “The Mysterious Stranger”

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/17/government-lies-nsa-justice-department-supreme-court

Is there any more question? Can it be laid out any clearer? It’s pretty clear to me….. Our world has been usurped, pirated by the myrmidons of the paranoid übermensch, the sociopathic monied elite, who seek to control every aspect of life on this planet, to further their own pathetic need to control and manipulate the rest of mankind for their insane personal ends….

Now, some might think that’s a long stretch of the imagination, to extrapolate such dire accusations from the shenanigans of one federal agency, or even two, apparently turning it all around into blaming the poor, faceless gazillionaires who control the resources of the planet; after all, most people now are inured to being lied to, stolen from, and getting their fannies reamed by those in charge of society, having endured that sort of treatment their entire lives.

Given that sort of background, what could be LESS surprising than to hear that someone in the government had lied, to protect someone else in another governmental branch?…. (Please note: both the liars, and those they lie about, are UN-elected officials, having been appointed to their positions….) Or that the Justice (?) Department was no longer bound by the Constitution, or, apparently, any other laws that are contrary to their purpose, thus giving them the legal right to lie, to the public, and to the SUPREME FUCKING COURT?….

Sadly, I’m not sure they needed to lie to the Supremes; that particular batch of lawyers, who, after first indicating which path to glory they preferred, mutated into judges, of such obvious degrees of corruption they became worthy of the attention of one or more of the Shrubs, those blatant corporate/spook soldiers who appointed them…. (Notice again how voting doesn’t come into this picture?…)…..

This particular current batch of Supremes seems to be more than ready to fuck things up all by themselves, casually casting aside numerous laws set, over time, as legal precedents by previous Supremes, laws designed to guard against societal discrimination, as being “no longer an issue of law”…. meaning, they are changing the law themselves, sans any need to ask for, or receive, approval from anyone else, such as Congress, the Executive Branch, or god forbid, the people of this country….

It’s pretty clear in this case, it all connects at a deeper level, where the inner workings of a clandestine organization are merely the tip of the iceberg, compared to how the ice is being used….. which is, begad, a terrible metaphor. But, I think it’s clear that ALL of the branches of our government are now corrupted by this attitude, of entitlement and the absolute belief that whatever rights we, the people, may have had, are not relevant to their goals…. all of which, in their eyes, makes those ‘rights’ immaterial, pathetic obstacles to be brushed aside, in the interests of expediency and paranoia….

Ffolkes, I don’t like to join hands with the ranks of those who believe in all sorts of conspiracies; most of the time the evil that we see is not a matter of conspiring to take over the world…. there’s no need for that, because it has already happened. It actually happened thousands of years ago; the problem has always been that not many people are willing to look directly at the evidence, or able to accept the FACTS…. which are, to me, relatively clear.

“By all means, let’s not confuse the issue with facts.”– Smart Bee

The 1% (which, actually, is a misnomer; 1% of the total number of humans alive is actually a rather large number, in relation to the small number of people who actually have real control of the resources of the entire planet…. 1% of 7 Billion is actually 70 Million people; there are many times many fewer people than that who are the actual masters of this society…. Planet wide, the true figure of people who are in the true ruling elite is probably closer to 7000, or perhaps, 70,000, not millions…. Sorry, ffolkes, but, numbers CAN’T lie…. and, remember, these people DON’T share…..), are perfectly aware they don’t NEED a conspiracy, when the controls they require have been in place for centuries…. As long as people are susceptible to money, or power over others, as long as they are subject to their own fear and ignorance, no real planning is required, as people will, all-too-often, freely give their freedom away, to those who promise to remove their fear…..

This has always been true, ffolkes…. The weak and ignorant, of which there are so many, spend their lives in fear of not being able to succeed, of being confronted with the harsh realities of life without the means to deal with any of it. The unprincipled rulers of mankind, with the willing and able assistance of the religious fanatics who support them, don’t actually conspire against the rest of humanity….

They merely live up to their own standards, which are based on expediency and self-promotion, and the ignorant masses fall right into line, giving their allegiance and obedience to temporal authority, while both the church and the rulers steadily, and thoroughly, empty their pockets of all they don’t require for basic living…. and more, if they feel they can get away with it….

I don’t profess to have any special knowledge of what is going on behind the scenes; all of my opinions are based on what can be seen right out in the public arena, based on what I read, what I see, and what I can deduce from that data. Everyone alive has the same opportunity as I do to see what is going on….

Sadly, most people don’t seem to have, or, to use if they do have, the simple intelligence required to put the pieces together, into a picture they can understand…. which, in turn, means they cannot control their own destiny…. Nor will they ever be able to do so, as long as they continue to give up the right to control their own minds, to the Beloved Ruling Classes, including the priestly hierarchies, and all the faceless myrmidons (police and military…), who do the bidding of the powered elite, the corporate snakes/monied assholes, (sorry, I decided elegant doesn’t work when describing these pricks, but, short, pithy Anglo-Saxon slang works just fine….), who prey on the rest of mankind….

I think, personally, it’s time for me to buy a gun…. and lots and lots of ammunition…. As an American citizen, I can only say that, I’m tired of my ass being continuously threatened with impalement, on the shaft of government indifference, or corporate immorality, and, I don’t intend to have it go on that way forever…. I’m sure we can find something that will work better, and won’t constantly be a pain in our collective ass….

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.” — Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) — Churchill’s Commentary on Man

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There are times when the mere act of reading a poem, if done honestly, paying attention & trying to put oneself into the author’s mind, to fully understand the metaphor of life being portrayed, is a worthy experience in and of itself, with no more justification needed, or required, by either the universe, or the monitors of this blog, who are, as we know, non-existent…. Well, I know it; if y’all still have doubts, just submit another claim….

In the meantime, here is a poem, which long-time prisoners, er, readers, will probably recognize as having been seen here previously…. That’s just because it’s a good one, and, because I can…. Enjoy, please, as millions of history’s readers have done for a long time…..

A Dialogue of Self and Soul

{My Soul} I summon to the winding ancient stair;
Set all your mind upon the steep ascent,
Upon the broken, crumbling battlement,
Upon the breathless starlit air,
‘Upon the star that marks the hidden pole;
Fix every wandering thought upon
That quarter where all thought is done:
Who can distinguish darkness from the soul
i{My Self}. The consecretes blade upon my knees
Is Sato’s ancient blade, still as it was,
Still razor-keen, still like a looking-glass
Unspotted by the centuries;
That flowering, silken, old embroidery, torn
From some court-lady’s dress and round
The wodden scabbard bound and wound
Can, tattered, still protect, faded adorn
i{My Soul.} Why should the imagination of a man
Long past his prime remember things that are
Emblematical of love and war?
Think of ancestral night that can,
If but imagination scorn the earth
And interllect is wandering
To this and that and t’other thing,
Deliver from the crime of death and birth.
i{My self.} Montashigi, third of his family, fashioned it
Five hundred years ago, about it lie
Flowers from I know not what embroidery —
Heart’s purple — and all these I set
For emblems of the day against the tower
Emblematical of the night,
And claim as by a soldier’s right
A charter to commit the crime once more.
i{My Soul.} Such fullness in that quarter overflows
And falls into the basin of the mind
That man is stricken deaf and dumb and blind,
For intellect no longer knows
i{Is} from the i{Ought,} or i{knower} from the i{Known — }
That is to say, ascends to Heaven;
Only the dead can be forgiven;
But when I think of that my tongue’s a stone.
i{My Self.} A living man is blind and drinks his drop.
What matter if the ditches are impure?
What matter if I live it all once more?
Endure that toil of growing up;
The ignominy of boyhood; the distress
Of boyhood changing into man;
The unfinished man and his pain
Brought face to face with his own clumsiness;
The finished man among his enemies? —
How in the name of Heaven can he escape
That defiling and disfigured shape
The mirror of malicious eyes
Casts upon his eyes until at last
He thinks that shape must be his shape?
And what’s the good of an escape
If honour find him in the wintry blast?
I am content to live it all again
And yet again, if it be life to pitch
Into the frog-spawn of a blind man’s ditch,
A blind man battering blind men;
Or into that most fecund ditch of all,
The folly that man does
Or must suffer, if he woos
A proud woman not kindred of his soul.
I am content to follow to its source
Every event in action or in thought;
Measure the lot; forgive myself the lot!
When such as I cast out remorse
So great a sweetness flows into the breast
We must laugh and we must sing,
We are blest by everything,
Everything we look upon is blest.

~ William Butler Yeats ~~

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

Okay, finally, a bit of fun for us all…. I’ve been working hard to get this done before the pain gets to the point where someone has to die, and it’s going fairly well, all things considered…. Let’s see if Smart Bee is up to a bit of cooperation this morning, shall we? I’ve got my wet suit on, and my scuba tank is full…. Let’s dive, ffolkes…. Oh, yeah, take your knife; no parameters today….

Hug O’ War

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

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Madison, 1787

“To think contrary to one’s era is heroism. But to speak against it is madness.” — Eugene Ionesco

“One must never precede any maneuver by a comment more predictive than, “Watch this!” (Keep ’em guessing.) — The Third Commandment of Frisbee — Dan Roddick

“Fear is the lock and laughter the key to your heart.” — Steven Stills

“That which leads us to the performance of duty by offering pleasure as its reward, is not virtue, but a deceptive copy and imitation of virtue.” — Cicero (B.C. 106-43)

“What sane person could live in this world and not be crazy?” — Ursula K. LeGuin

I really love this job….. too bad nobody will pay me to do it…..

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

Well, ffolkes, (and that’s a deep subject….) (Sorry, really…. I’m an incorrigible punster, so, don’t incorrige me…) (Okay, sorry, I’m done….), here we are again…. I’m still uncertain as to whether or not I’ll continue to try to keep myself unblooded today; I suppose it will depend on how much pain I’m fighting when some idiot tests my resolve. But, at my age, I don’t really give much of a shit whether it does, or not, and if things get out of hand, I’ll just blame Murphy…. it’s about time he took some of the heat he dishes out…. See y’all tomorrow, ffolkes….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid the dubious

gigoid

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

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gigoid

Exploring Consensual Reality

Tag Archives: POTUS

Sir! Curb your cellulite!….

Okay, but, who takes the hindmost?….

All those attending the apocalypse, board here….

Offer them a pastille, and be done with it….

We’ll need more coffee for this…..

Further remonstrances should be unnecessary….

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