Tag Archives: POTUS

Alarms, and sirens, and gunshots, oh my!….

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Ffolkes,

In spite of massive outpourings of attempted distraction, perpetrated by my own unconscious mind, I made it here, only to find myself confronted once again by the specter of a blank mind…. Vague, terrifying echoes of past Pearls, wherein I spent hours, nay, days, it seems, searching and searching, desperate and panicked, yet always managing to, somehow, find enough blather within to fulfill the minimum required standards…. It’s a gift, though not one most ffolkes will acknowledge… I, on the other hand, lost all pride years ago, and realize that there is nothing shameful at all in admitting one’s faults…. In fact, with the right spin, those faults can be turned into assets, of a sort….

Of course, one must never try to profit from using personal faults as tools; that borders not only on the immoral, but on creepy, and I’m not going there, no sir…. Naturally, you will never mention in public that I ever admitted to that, right? I could get in a lot of trouble with the morals police…. not to mention a harsh word or two from Stephen King, the master of creepy…. Tell you what, you keep my confidence, and I’ll do my best to avoid a rant in the intro today, how’s that? Seems like a fair trade to me….

Now we’ve settled that, we can go on… Of course, I have absolutely no idea where we’re going today, as is no doubt crystal clear by now. I started this Pearl without a clue, and haven’t discovered any since beginning, so, it’s looking like one of THOSE days…. a day of pulling rabbits from hats, and flowers from the sleeve…. A day of acting like a politician/preacher, spouting off nonsensical and/or simply untrue grandiosities to distract y’all from what I’m doing with my other hand…. You know, the one with all the hair growing out of the palm….

SIGH…. I hate days like this…. It’s really hard on my honest nature to pull the same tricks as our beloved rulers are accustomed to pulling…. I mean, I can tell a story with the best of them, but, I usually remember to tell ffolkes when they aren’t reality-based, but, rather, come from my imagination…. The pundits will NEVER show that courtesy…. I remember the last time one of them tried to tell the truth in public; it made a compelling video, watching this veteran talking head blushing, blustering, stuttering, fumbling, and basically undergoing a personal meltdown, all because he was cornered into telling the reporter an actual piece of truth…. very satisfying for one of my ilk….

Now that I’ve gone completely bonkers, by trying to pass off this large pile of shit as prosaic prose, or as entertainment, it would probably be a good thing for me to find a way to bring this to a close, and get on with something a bit less, well, pointless…. though, to be truthful, I’m not sure at this point whether or not I’ve got anything remotely truthful in me today….. I’m feeling rather political, and am experiencing a very strong urge to lie to people, just because I can…. Wait, is this a rant?…. Oops…

I’m going to have to exert some real effort today just to keep this from going completely off the rails…. and yet, it sure is attractive to think about letting myself be political for a day….. I mean, it must be really liberating to be able to lie whenever you feel like it. Even more liberating must be the feeling that one is entitled to lie in order to achieve one’s ends….

Ah well, that’s a state of mind that I would NOT be capable of assuming, anyway…. I’m afraid I have a tape in my memory, left there by my father, that would start playing if I ever lied for no justifiable purpose….. For me, it’s a foregone conclusion that, if I ever tried to lie like that, this tape, playing in my father’s voice, would leave me no peace at all until I had given up any such notion….

Now that I’ve completely lost my way…. Shall we Pearl?….

“A person of honor regrets a discreditable act even when it worked.” — Smart Bee

(I rest my case….)
_____________________________

Now that the budget crisis in Washington has reached some kind of near-resolution, and the country’s credit rating remains up in the fantasy level, while the imaginary numbers used for calculating our debt ceiling are once again considered as real numbers, I guess we can assume that things will return to relative normal, for the time being, until the NEXT crisis that develops to take our eyes off the more important stuff they don’t want us to think about….

For example, I found this article yesterday, from Mark Fiore, the Pulitzer-winning video artist and political commentator, whose brilliant political cartoon videos have punched countless politicians right where it hurts the most…. in their non-functioning moral sense…. This one is, as usual, perfectly timed to bring the awareness of new revelations about the spying being done by the NSA, at our POTUS’s insistence….

http://blog.sfgate.com/fiore/2013/10/16/new-from-the-nsa-internal-patriot-discovery/

“To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; study the art of science. Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” — Leonardo da Vinci

The talking heads in Washington don’t want us to know this little piece of wisdom from Leo…. If too many normal folks became aware of this, and started to use their heads for something other than a hat rack, politicians would go the way of the dodo bird, and in short order….. But, that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, would it? Well, I don’t think so….. I think we, as a nation, could use a break from these idiots, and their posturing…. It’s been really hard the last few weeks, watching the news as those Tea Party assholes paraded their ignorance for all the world to see….

This time, their rhetoric has backfired on them; public confidence in politicians in general, and Republicans specifically, has NEVER been lower, which makes me happy as a, well, a clam, which, if you stop to think about it, is usually pretty happy, by all the available evidence…. I’ve added a link below to some of the more pointed political cartoons that were published during this mess we’ve just witnessed…. Some of them are pretty sharp, and all of them indicate pretty well how LITTLE respect for politicians remains, in the public’s perception, of the responsible parties specifically, and government as a whole….

http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/editorials/slideshow/Shutdown-madness-Recap-of-cartoons-on-the-fight-71244.php

There…. I feel better, and didn’t have to rant. I’m sure, in the final analysis, you will appreciate that, too….
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Tomorrow begins another cruise for me, meaning this blog will go travelogue, but, one more Pearl will be posted before I take off for the boat…. The reason I note this now is because the anticipation is distracting me somewhat from getting this Pearl done with any dispatch…. I’m gazing off into space too much, thinking about stuff left to do today, and tomorrow, before we leave, at about 1 PM…. Thus, today’s poetry selection is one that you can trust, as I had to concentrate really hard just to get it done, so I went with what I know to be a winner…. I hope you enjoy today’s selections, both by the same author, as well as two of my favorite poems of all time….

A Caution To Everybody

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

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

Bankers Are Just Like Anybody Else, Except Richer

This is a song to celebrate banks,
Because they are full of money and you go into them and all
you hear is clinks and clanks,
Or maybe a sound like the wind in the trees on the hills,
Which is the rustling of the thousand dollar bills.
Most bankers dwell in marble halls,
Which they get to dwell in because they encourage deposits
and discourage withdrawals,
And particularly because they all observe one rule which woe
betides the banker who fails to heed it,
Which is you must never lend any money to anybody unless
they don’t need it.
I know you, you cautious conservative banks!
If people are worried about their rent it is your duty to deny
them the loan of one nickel, yes, even one copper engraving
of the martyred son of the late Nancy Hanks;
Yes, if they request fifty dollars to pay for a baby you must
look at them like Tarzan looking at an uppity ape in the
jungle,
And tell them what do they think a bank is, anyhow, they had
better go get the money from their wife’s aunt or ungle.
But suppose people come in and they have a million and they
want another million to pile on top of it,
Why, you brim with the milk of human kindness and you
urge them to accept every drop of it,
And you lend them the million so then they have two million
and this gives them the idea that they would be better off
with four,
So they already have two million as security so you have no
hesitation in lending them two more,
And all the vice-presidents nod their heads in rhythm,
And the only question asked is do the borrowers want the
money sent or do they want to take it withm.
Because I think they deserve our appreciation and thanks,
the jackasses who go around saying that health and happi-
ness are everything and money isn’t essential,
Because as soon as they have to borrow some unimportant
money to maintain their health and happiness they starve
to death so they can’t go around any more sneering at good
old money, which is nothing short of providential.

~~ Ogden Nash ~~

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At last! I’ve finally reached the third section, and, having fulfilled the required degree of thoughtful composition, using rantable material, grade three or higher, I am allowed to stop trying to think, and let Smart Bee pick out some pearls, sans my direction, which, at this point, would be detrimental, anyway…. Best I keep my hands out of it, for now…. Let’s see what kind of mood Smart Bee is in today, shall we?…..

“If you’re a preacher, you talk for a living, so even if you don’t make sense, you learn to make nonsense eloquently.” — Andrew Young
(Unusual candor from one of his species….)

“If a person with multiple personalities threatens suicide…. is that considered a hostage situation?” — Smart Bee

“When an elephant is in trouble even a frog will kick him.” — Hindu Proverb

“It isn’t so astonishing the number of things I can remember, as the number of things I can remember that aren’t so.” — Mark Twain

“I didn’t understand this at first, but YOUR CONVINCING USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS HAS MADE IT ALL CLEAR TO ME.” — J. Nairn

“Wherever I go, there I am, Pooh mused.” — A.A. Milne

Try it, you’ll like it.  Trust me.

I have no explanation…. I also have no excuse, but, I don’t think I really need one, do you?…. It’s all just a mirage, you know, and, reality is only that which we all agree on, or, as Phil said, that which, when we stop believing in it, doesn’t go away…. unlike me, who will now do so…. go away, that is….
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Having been there when it was written, I have some serious qualms about having to go back over it to proof for typos and/or grammar; it could cause some serious Windows-like brain-freeze…. Oh well, life is a risk, n’est pas?…

I knew I should have stayed in bed longer…. That was an ordeal of some magnitude, and, I still am not sure that it’s all perfectly sane… I guess that makes it a perfect Pearl, and I should just shut up now, and accept the inevitable…. See ya….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Can we charge Congress and the POTUS with treason?….

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Ffolkes,

Here at Exploring Consensual Reality, the blog, titles are always fictional, whereas the main body of the blog is not…. or, not always. The titles are composed prior to beginning to write, and almost never have anything to do with WHAT I’ve chosen to write. Today’s title is the exception, as it asks a question that has been running through my mind for some time now, even prior to the most current reason the idiot BRC supplied to give me cause to feel this way. The shutdown of the government, is, to my way of thinking, all in all, a good thing, since, when they’re NOT working, at least they’re not making things worse, which is pretty much always the scenario when they ARE working….

Now, some may feel that accusing them of treason is a bit harsh, but, not me, not even a little bit…. Perhaps we’re not technically at war, but, then, for the last 60+ years, since the Vietnam “conflict”, Congress has not seen fit, or had the honesty, or courage, to declare war on anything but the American public, with their wars on drugs, on poverty, on diseases, or whatever other problem they have no idea of what to do about. (Of course, none of these “wars” on crime or whatever, ever look at the root causes of the issues… they just throw money at them….)

Despite having never declared actual war, since 1940 or 1941, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, our military forces have been fighting in other countries without respite since 1954, when Eisenhower sent the first “training observers” to Vietnam, without even telling the public he was going to do so…. That doesn’t count the “Korean conflict”, which was ostensibly authorized by our United Nations involvement…

Ever since that time, every President of this country has involved us in a “conflict” of one type or another, using different justifications, (read: different lies…) each time to try to rationalize our involvement in issues that were, essentially, not our business…. Well, other than the fact that our business moguls had money invested there, and we needed to “protect our investments”…. Not because we were attacked, or were about to be overwhelmed with an invasion, but, to protect our business interests…. Sounds a bit fishy to me, but, hey, the public keeps falling for it, and no President has been indicted for waging war without Congressional declaration, even though that is a direct violation of the intent, and the wording, of the US Constitution…..  Above, I spoke about Vietnam; remember this one?….

“If we fail to draw the line in Vietnam we may find ourselves compelled to draw a defense line as far back as Seattle and Alaska, with Hawaii as a  solitary outpost in mid-Pacific.” — Senator Thomas J. Dodd, February 23, 1965

I therefore accuse the POTUS’s, ALL of them, of treason, for deliberately abusing their power as the Chief of Armed Forces to circumvent the Constitution, to pursue the ends of their corporate masters. I also accuse all of Congress, both House and Senate, of the same treason, for NOT doing their job in the face of this violation, and failing to remove the President from office. One may as well add in the Federal Court system, but their treason goes back further, to the mid-nineteenth century, when they gave those corporate masters the legal rights they required to maintain their stranglehold on government, and on the American people….. The courts aren’t as involved in the current issues as are Congress and the POTUS, but, they’re also not objecting very hard, are they?….

So, there you have my main rant for today…. I accuse the American government, in all three branches, of high treason, for acts of war directed against the American people in direct violation of the US Constitution…. Hell, I may even start a petition, to see how many others are out there like me, who are sick and tired of watching this country, and the world, go to hell because of the antics of the supposed leaders, who are not merely abrogating the duties of their offices, but are actively screwing the rest of us, with apparent glee…. Of course, if I do that, it will be giving them a convenient listing of those who are opposed to what they’re doing, but, it would be nice to see if there are as many of us as I believe there are….

I’m tired of being lied to…. I’m tired of paying outrageous taxes for nothing much… I’m tired of the politicians trying to take away my Social Security, which is NOT A FUCKING ENTITLEMENT!!! I paid money into SS for 49 years before being disabled so far as to not be able to work anymore; that money is MINE, not theirs…. I’m tired of watching the American people get screwed over by their own elected officials, partly because of their own ignorance, but mostly because those politicians are lying to the public at every turn…. It’s difficult to make an informed decision, when the data one is given to use is severely suspect….

The constant attempts by conservatives, AND liberals, to raid SS for money is a big part of the problem…. Politicians think that the money that is raised by the government is THEIRS, for them to do with is as they please, no matter how badly that screws the public…. and it isn’t just conservatives that do so…. In my mind, everyone who gets elected these days to a federal position (Congress, or POTUS… ), or to a State position (Assembly, Senate, Governor, etc….) is not going into public service because of any altruistic motives… Oh, they’ll SAY they are, but, when was the last time a politician told you anything but what they thought you wanted to hear?  Never, that’s when…

Okay, that’s enough for now… The NSA certainly has enough to chew on for now, and I think I’d best cool my jets a bit, or they’ll come take me away before I get to go on this last cruise next Saturday…. I hope not, because I really don’t want to have to pull my covers, or leave any comatose special agents on my back trail… But, if they do, you will now know why…. I’m done with wearing gloves, ffolkes… I’m going to say exactly what I think, and the hell with the fallout…. On that note….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” — Oscar Wilde, “Oscariana”
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Gosh! I hardly know what to do with myself, now that I’ve already put out close to a thousand-word-rant, right there in the intro section… It doesn’t leave me much room for that in this one, so, naturally, I’ll go old-school, and put together a five- or seven-star pearl for your edification and illumination…. I hope… I’ll look for pearls that support the above rant, but, one never knows what will happen with Smart Bee, do one?…..

(Side note: I use the term “old-school” to indicate a pearl of virtual wisdom that is of the same format as my original Pearls, first sent out to my email readers in the year 2000, or so, when I first got an email address….. That address was gigoid@inet.com, in case you wondered…. I first chose that user name, gigoid, when I went to a computer school in 1998, or so….Those first Pearls consisted of a short intro, then a pearl, or a short group of pearls, with a short, pithy point… so, now, when I do that, it’s “old-school”…. See?…. Okay, on with the program….)

— Bother! said Pooh, as he launched the nuclear warheads.

“Without civic morality communities perish; without personal morality their survival has no value.” — Bertrand Russell

ISMISM : Belief in any distinctive doctrine, theory or practice. Ismism was started up in the mid-1980s by a splinter group from “Atheists For Christ”. Ismism meetings gained quick popularity, and Ismism leader Ralph Snider traveled the world promoting his paper “Why I Argue A Lot”. The followers of Ismism are generally agreed to be very confused people.” — Daniel Bowen’s TOXIC CUSTARPEDIA

“Every one wishes to have truth on his side, but it is not every one that sincerely wishes to be on the side of truth.’ — Whately

“All revolutions have failed? Perhaps. But rebellion for good cause is self- justifying–a good in itself. Rebellion transforms slaves into human beings, if only for an hour.” — Edward Abbey

“Antagoras the poet was boiling a conger, and Antigonus, coming behind him as he was stirring his skillet, said, “Do you think, Antagoras, that Homer boiled congers when he wrote the deeds of Agamemnon?” Antagoras replied, “Do you think, O king, that Agamemnon, when he did such exploits, was a peeping in his army to see who boiled congers?”  — Plutarch (46-120 AD) — Antigonus I

“The people always have some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness…. This and no other is the root from which tyranny springs.” — Plato (428-348? B.C.), “The Republic”
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I love the internet!…. I just googled a site to find political poetry, and found a great one, with all sorts of new poems to use, all free of charge, or anything other than correct attribution…. Serendipity strikes again!…. I hope you enjoy this little poetic restatement of my rant from above….

Lest there be lingering doubt, let me assure you

Lest there be lingering doubt, let me assure you,
I don’t believe the half of what I say.
The point, after all, is winning, so I tell you
What you want to hear from me today.
Oh, yes, I have a point of view, and visions
To push for once in office, if and when.
But if I lose, then all my vain ambitions
And dreams will go the way of mice and men.
So I promise this and promise that
I’ll spend and cut your taxes and the debt,
And pay for it by cutting just the fat.
You’ll have your cake and eat it, too, I’ll bet.
And yet and yet and yet and yet and yet …
This is how the world is, isn’t it?

~~ Nicholas Gordon ~~

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I’m getting a little suspicious of how easily today’s Pearl is coming together…. I managed to get back on my usual time schedule, arising at 0500 to begin, but, it’s going much faster than usual…. I guess having the rant in the intro flow out as it did, practically full-formed, seems to have influenced the process enough to keep it moving along swiftly… Nothing wrong with that, I say, so, let’s get on with our final pearl for today…. Here is my favorite kind, a random harlequin pearl, with no parameters used to choose, other than whimsy, a condition in which I dearly love to indulge….

“Everything has been said before, but since nobody listens we have to keep going back and beginning all over again.” — Andre Gide, Le traite du Narcisse (1891)

“There is a case for telling the truth; there is a case for avoiding the scandal; but there is no possible defense for the man who tells the scandal, but does not tell the truth.” — G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 7/18/08

“It matters not how long you live, but how well.” — Publius Syrus (42 BC) — Maxim 829

“I am going to seek a great perhaps.” — Francois Rabelais (1494-1553)

“It’s not that we don’t have enough scoundrels to curse; it’s that we don’t have enough good men to curse them.” — G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 3/14/08

“We are never deceived; we deceive ourselves.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

“Good generally conquers evil. Unless, of course, good is stupid.” — Smart Bee
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I should have known better than to comment on how quickly this was going; SB immediately went into “coy” mode, and made me go through about a thousand or more quotes to find the right ones…. SIGH. I am SUCH a Bozo, sometimes…. Let’s go see how it came out…. Well, it’s per usual, that is to say, it’s done… I leave you today with this beautiful short piece from Mssr. E.A. Poe, to give just the proper tone to our ending…. See ya….

Take this kiss upon the brow! And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow–
You are not wrong who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

— Edgar Allan Poe, A Dream Within A Dream

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Consistently exceeding the limits of surreality….

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Ffolkes,

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

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

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

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

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

Shall we Pearl?…..

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

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

— Lord Byron (1788-1824) — The Giaour, Line 68
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“I have short-term memory loss, though I like to think of it as Presidential eligibility.” — Paula Poundstone

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“There is hopeful symbolism in the fact that flags do not wave in a vacuum.” — Arthur C. Clarke
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I can’t think of a better way to provide contrast to the above rant, than with a bit of Shel Silverstein….

Hug O’ War

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

~~ Shel Silverstein ~~

_____________________________

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

~~ John Cleese ~~

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

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

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

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Sensitive displays of magnificent malevolence….

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Ffolkes,

I’m tired…. I just got up, after 8 hours in bed, and I’m tired. So much so, I am making the executive decision to NOT post a Pearl today. I just don’t have the wherewithal, physically, or mentally, (as if I can separate them…. but, figures of speech do get us where we need to be, verbally….), to get it done. I have several things I need to get done today, to continue to finish the moving process (p/u plumber’s tape for the new shower head, more contact paper, that sort of thing…), and then return a car I rented to get it all done…. which gives me a deadline for this Pearl that I don’t believe I can meet, without an effort that would end any other plans for the day..

So, y’all get a reprieve today, from my usual outburst of nonsense and/or ranting, and I get a day to organize the stuff I have to say…. This whole mess in Syria demands a response, and NOT the one the politicos think it should be…. Any who, I’m cutting all this short today, and giving y’all a break to recover from any lingering confusion left from former posts you’ve read. Take a day, and enjoy it, please….

“Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.” — Rabindranath Tagore
_____________________________

For anyone interested in what I’m talking of in the statement above, read this, and ask yourself, are we now a country whose most important task is to maintain credibility, or do we have any integrity left to offer?….. End of rant…. See you tomorrow…

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Obama-Congress-world-credibility-on-line-4785002.php

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Piles and piles of possum pops….

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Ffolkes,

This getting old stuff is bull… which is a polite way of showing defiance to Father Time for the crap he puts us through, as we get past the age where our bodies will do anything, into the age where we will do anything to NOT have to do anything. I’m discovering all the disadvantages that losing physical acumen presents, as I continue to try to act as if I were still 25 years old, and indestructible. SIGH….

But, I’m getting a little better at recognizing the limitations I now face, most of the time. Events like this move into a new place are the learning curves, as I find out more of the limits to what I can now do. I thought ahead somewhat, and thus, hired movers, but, SOMEBODY had to unpack the stuff, as I’m not affluent enough to have them stay the extra hours to do so. The activities involved in that aren’t beyond my capabilities, if I’m careful not to twist or bend wrong, but, I pay a heavy price for a couple of days, including poor sleep, extra pain, fatigue, and exhaustion. The price is not unbearable, but, isn’t one I care to pay too often….

Okay, since I’m out of snacks, or other appropriate foods to go with this whine, I’ll quit now, and get on with the rest of this Pearl. I’m going to try a new intro today, sort of…. This will be it; the sum total, the whole banana, the whole ball of wax…. No meandering (beyond what has already taken place….), no fiction, no rant, just a few paragraphs, where I will gently urge y’all toward the roof’s edge, to best enjoy the view. Once everyone is in place, I’ll fire off the siren, and cause everyone to fall over the roof’s edge…. Fun, eh?

Shall we Pearl?….

Oh, yeah, that was the siren…

“To practice five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of soul, sincerity, earnestness, and kindness.” — Confucius (B.C. 551-479)

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” — Carl Sagan
_____________________________

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

Have you ever noticed the code that politicians use when they lie to us? There are key phrases one hears all the time that, to me, are a dead giveaway that the speaker is NOT showing complete candor, and, in fact, is probably either making it up, or claiming the complete opposite of what is actually true…. “allegedly”, “have evidence of”, “reports say”,  all are phrases that are generally connected to an untruth.

They use these phrases and arguments a lot, when they are trying to fan the flames of fear amongst the populace. In this case, in Syria, our leaders want us to vilify and express our hatred for a leader who uses weapons on his own people (completely ignoring, or denying, the use of drones in America to spy on the public…. There  is documented proof of this, but they still deny it) …. Any who, I’m not up to a rant today; instead I will present two articles from the news, which give some of the latest reports, as of Monday the 2nd of September. Note the phrases in each that tell us we are being lied to, and you’ll see what I mean….

“now has evidence that the toxic gas allegedly used in strikes ”

“Neither the U.S. nor the Syrian regime, which blames rebels for the attacks, has publicly presented proof.”

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Kerry-says-case-for-US-attack-on-Syria-building-4779017.php

“new physical evidence shows the Syrian government used sarin gas”

“With its credibility on the line, the United States must respond, the country’s top diplomat said.”

http://www.sfgate.com/news/politics/article/Kerry-US-has-evidence-sarin-gas-was-used-in-Syria-4779327.php

So, let me get this straight…. Because the POTUS made a statement that we would respond a certain way (a completely unproductive, misguided way, let me add…. “Gee, he’s a bad guy, using gas and bombs on his own people… let’s go drop some bombs on the citizenry that he’s already been gassing, and that will make them love us, and want to hear what we have to say” …), then, we HAVE to respond that way, or our “credibility” will suffer? Well, it isn’t the WORST excuse I’ve heard, but, it’s very close to what they said about Saddam Hussein, before heading off to Iraq to play with all the new techno-toys, and get rid of the bad guy…. Y’all remember how well THAT turned out, right?….

Enough for now…. this situation could conceivably lead the entire world into war again, and the BRC continues to act as if it is invulnerable, and that we have the right, or obligation, to police the entire world, whether or not they want our help. It would make more sense to me to hold back a bit, because they already hate us, and giving them more reasons to do so is NOT going to improve the situation…. Whether or not this asshole is killing his own people is NOT necessarily our business, and even if we make it so, it doesn’t give us a valid reason to start bombing them, either indiscriminately, or, with precision…

‘Nuff said, for now….

“My father was a minister. I had to make up for the lack of sin.” — Milwaukee mayor, on why he became a politician
_____________________________

I’m tired, and up late, so, Emily it is…. Here is one of her best, which I find to be good advice for our present administration….

I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.

Nor had I time to love, but since
Some industry must be,
The little toil of love, I thought,
Was large enough for me.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

_____________________________

I had intended to put an old-school pearl here, but, I found this old rant, first posted in late 2012, on a subject which I have tried to bring some awareness to my readers… It is a hard subject, but one that NEEDS to be made even more public, until the issue is eliminated altogether…. Please read, and do what you can to spread the knowledge around….

Miss, n.: A title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they are in the market. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

While this quote is intended to be funny, it actually perpetuates the discriminatory,  proprietary labeling of women in our society, exactly the way this says it does. By using such terms, we “brand” women according to their eligibility to be possessed by a man, to serve as his property, and think nothing of it. Indeed, a person is considered polite and well-mannered when he or she uses these societal forms of address, never even considering the implications of what they are saying.

Men are either Mister, or, as boys, Master. That’s pretty indicative of the mind-set that using these terms puts the speaker in; men are assumed superior, merely for being male. Women are either Miss, Mistress, or Missus (Mrs., probably a shortened form of Master’s Mistress… or some such….. ), automatically placing them in the subordinate position to the males.

In the last part of the 20th century, society began to use the term Ms., pronounce mizz, to indicate a woman not married, and not to be automatically considered as a candidate for marriage, in an attempt to mitigate somewhat the restrictive mental attitudes that accompany such terminology, and it has had a fairly positive effect, though in no way complete or enough.

This small change is merely one step in the direction society needs to go, and the journey is not a short one; these attitudes have been part of society for thousands of years. It will take a concerted, sustained effort to change the way people think, even partially. But none of us, men or women, can consider ourselves truly free , free to be, and free to become who we CAN be…. which makes the effort the only rational choice…..

All of this does not even touch upon how these attitudes open the way for the trafficking in human beings that continues to take place all over the world. Because of the assumed male superiority, it becomes a very short step to assuming that men may do whatever they please with women. This includes the rape and abduction of young girls and women, taking them to far away cities where they are forced to work as sex slaves by unprincipled men, who hide behind the laws that protect them; laws also written by men.

This has been going on for centuries, and continues right here in this supposedly advanced country. The public does not pay any attention to the sex trade, as long as it isn’t right in their faces; the unscrupulous, misogynistic men, and women, who run these businesses talk of “victimless crimes” as if the women involved were willing participants, while in reality, most of the women are trapped there by abusive, terrorist men who rape them repeatedly until their will to live is gone, thus making them pliable and docile.

These men, and the women who sometimes join them in their depredations, are sick, disgusting scum, and society needs to excise them from the tree of life. To my way of thinking, a long, drawn out period of torture and pain before death is what they deserve, but I am willing to settle just for death. This trade in sex and the slavery that supports it are a scourge upon society, and should be dealt with just as if it were any other type of threat against the species, with swift and complete justice, and no mercy…..

Free our sisters, free ourselves….
_____________________________

I’m very late now, with way too much to do, so, this closing will be another cliff-hanger…. See?… We’re done, bye bye….

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Happy, carefree moments in subliminal advertising….

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Ffolkes,

Lovely, simply lovely…. It’s always a joy to find myself in the throes of an emotional storm first thing upon arising, but, I’ll tell ya, it’s a joy I could do without, for, oh, say, the rest of my life….. I should know better than to do battle with an HMO bureaucracy before I’ve consumed at least two cups of coffee, but, nooooo, I had to call Kaiser right off this morning, to find out a piece of information about a medication I ordered…..

Little did I know when I dialed the number for the automatic system that I’d be getting into a fifteen minute quest to find a human voice…. Murphy must have been grinning maniacally, dancing in place and rubbing his hands together in glee, to see me trying to find a person to talk to so early in the day, on a system where the most you can hope for is to get out without more psychiatric damage….. SIGH….

Today’s Pearl may end up somewhat abbreviated, and, possibly, more than just a little strange, for a number of reasons, which I refuse to relate, they being none of your business…. No, honest, I didn’t mean that; just fooling around. But, it will be a bit less copious than usual, as my sleep seems to have become erratic again; I was up very late, getting up quite late as a consequence, and I just can’t seem to pull my head together enough to get going here…. It might surprise you to know that getting this far into today’s post, a mere one and a half paragraphs, has taken me over 50 minutes, of struggle and confusion, as I try to cudgel my brain into doing what I tell it to do…

Of course, I could go off into a discussion of why I think it’s necessary to post at all…. I mean, my sanity is intact, (technically), and the need for this kind of blather has become less critical in order for me to stay in a state of relative normality, or, as close to that state as I ever get….. This is giving me some minor motivational fits, as I try to talk myself into the mind-set needed to compose Pearls, which, though not far away, is rather subtle and complex, and doesn’t lend itself to “simple”, or “easy” in regards to ANYTHING to do with writing, or thinking…. I’m not sure, exactly, where this mind-set resides inside me, nor do I always know the right way to get it moving when I find it…. Today is a perfect example of that…..

I’m wandering around the intro section, saying absolutely nothing that has any real meaning, or relevance, for anyone but myself, and trying to make it look as if I am a writer, performing the actions that make up the process of writing…. How am I doin’? No? I didn’t think so…. Well, regardless of how it’s turning out, it’s how it’s going to be today, so, we’ll all just have to learn to deal with it, n’est pas? Oui….

Oh, and not only abbreviated (well, sort of….), but, probably, also pulled from the archives…. I’m not up to ranting, obviously, and I’m not sure if I can even get a normal, old-school pearl done….. we’ll see, I guess. But, if it doesn’t go well, I’m going straight to the archives, because I don’t have any patience at all today….

Any who, just wanted to let y’all know how it is today, and give you an opportunity to either bail, or buckle up…. Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to keep us out of any of the places where our survival becomes a question, at least for the first half of the trip…. Once the poem is in there, though, you’ll have to take your chances with the rest of us, because, by then, we’ll have gone too far to turn back….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“Normal is boring.” — Fido Dido
_____________________________

Okay, so, not surprisingly, I was wrong…. It didn’t take long at all to put together an old-school pearl, so, that’s what you get…. The primary focus of this one should be pretty obvious, and if not, well, join the ranks of those about whom the pearl speaks…. This one is pretty straightforward, ffolkes…. don’t over think it, or it just slips away…. like trying to squeeze a fistful of sand…. And, yes, bracketing the five main pearls with two from Lazarus WAS intentional, and, yes, you can take that however you like….

“All men are created unequal.” — Lazarus Long

But evil is wrought by want of thought,
As well as want of heart.

— Thomas Hood (1798-1845) — The Lady’s Dream

“After enlightenment, do the laundry.” — Zen proverb

“Every man I meet is in some way my superior.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

How various his employments whom the world
Calls idle, and who justly in return
Esteems that busy world an idler too!

— William Cowper (1731-1800) — The Task, Book iii, The Garden, Line 352

“Baby, after considerable thought I’ve reached the conclusion that the only conceivable legitimate answer to the Universe as constituted is a peal of hysterical laughter.” — Keith Laumer, _Night of Delusions_

Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.” — Lazarus Long
_____________________________

When I’m in a mood such as this one, only one poet will do for me….

I felt a funeral in my brain,
   And mourners, to and fro,
Kept treading, treading, till it seemed
   That sense was breaking through.

And when they all were seated,
   A service like a drum
Kept beating, beating, till I thought
   My mind was going numb

And then I heard them lift a box,
   And creak across my soul
With those same boots of lead, again.
   Then space began to toll

As all the heavens were a bell,
   And being, but an ear,
And I and Silence some strange Race
   Wrecked, solitary, here.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

_____________________________

Hard as it may be to believe, my mood is deteriorating, rapidly, and I can see that soon I’ll be unfit for human interaction…. So, in the interests of getting done, here is an old rant on gun control issues, just for fun…. The fact I can use the word ‘fun’ in the same sentence as the words ‘gun control’ goes to show just how far down in the dumps my mood has sunk….

“Gun control is not about guns. It is about control.” — Smart Bee

You had to know I couldn’t let this one go….. Yesterday, the POTUS signed several “Executive Orders” regarding the subject of gun control, addressing the issues that much of the American public is focused on directed to be focused on, by the BRC and the media….. Putting aside for the moment the issue of gun control itself, I wish to make it clear that the “Executive Orders” that were used to create the new regulations are a clear and obvious circumvention of the Constitution, and a direct attempt to bypass the checks and balances that our three-pronged government is supposed to be subject to thereby. It seems to be escaping everyone’s notice that the Executive Branch of the government is now MAKING LAWS, not just enforcing them.

The whole system that has grown up around the concept of Executive Orders is, as far as I can see, completely illegal, according to Constitutional law. The President does NOT have the right to make laws, no matter how much urgency is seen to be present, or how much expediency is needed to address a situation. Congress is the body that is supposed to make laws, and the enforcement of those laws is the responsibility of the Executive Branch, with the oversight of both to be accomplished by the Federal Courts….

That is the way it was designed, and that is the way it has worked, to protect our rights as citizens for over 200 years….Now, because of public fear, due mostly to the media frenzy at the behest of the BRC, and the manipulative dishonesty of the corporate masters of that same BRC, the rights we have enjoyed as Americans are now just about all gone.

The assholes who run this country, the corporate masters who pull all the strings from behind the curtains, have successfully created a climate of fear amongst the general populace, and have neatly manipulated events so that it is the public itself clamoring for protection….. from itself. The media have so effectively spread the fear and horror, that the people on the streets are actually asking to have their rights curtailed, “for the good of society”…… What a load of bilge!

I am amazed at times at how naive people can be. The world is a dangerous place, and always has been, as human nature is anything but civilized. Yet people expect the government to be able to eliminate all danger from the public venue. They expect there to never be people who go crazy, and start shooting at everything they see, or attacking their delusional enemies. They expect there to never be an instance where police shoot unarmed citizens, just because they can. They actually expect members of the Beloved Ruling Class to have concern for what is important to them, instead of blithely pursuing their own agendas….. Such naivete is sadly all too common, and is the reason the rest of us will be forced to go along with the repressive regulations that are surely coming….

Yesterday, in discussing the gun control issue with a neighbor, it became clear just how naive, and unwilling to think, the general populace is…. This person is, I’d say, a pretty average citizen, perhaps less educated than some, but with more innate intelligence than many I know of. She actually said “yes” when I asked her if she trusted the police to be more ethical than the average citizen….

When I pointed out the multitude of incidents that occur every day that show police officers to be much less moral than the average joe, she acknowledged the point, but still would not voice mistrust of the police over the citizenry. She actually believes that policemen and women are more capable of carrying a gun, and not using it unethically, than are average folks…. A very, very foolish assumption, to my way of thinking, based on faith, not facts…..

So, what we have now is a dual issue…

First, the government wants to limit the citizenry’s access to certain types of guns, a direct abrogation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution. (Read it…. it says the right to bear arms will “not be abridged.” Period.)

Second, the executive branch of government is being allowed to make law, another direct abrogation of the Constitution, which assigns that function to Congress. If nothing else, these two subjects are going to provide the impetus for a shit-load of public discussion, for sure (Well, I can hope… I guess that’s my own form of naivete)….

The trickiest part of all this is to be able to winnow out the wheat from the chaff, for there will be a LOT of chaff thrown up, much of it by the BRC, as they do all they can to obfuscate the issues, and hide their own manipulative interactions.

You will, I’m sure, see and hear more on this, both here on this blog, and out there in the Big Blue Room. I’m not done ranting on either of these issues, you can count on that. For the moment, I’m going to go search out some pearls to use in the discussions, and leave you to chew on what I’ve already brought up. Don’t worry, I’ll be back, to chew on these bones some more…..

“I have the power to HALT PRODUCTION on all TEENAGE SEX COMEDIES!!” — Zippy the Pinhead
_____________________________

Well, so I was wrong about the length, too… oh, well. Breaks my heart, it does, to be wrong, but, in this case, it works out okay, so, I’ll try not to let it ruin the day…  🙂   

Actually, given my state of mind and body when beginning this morning, this came out pretty well. I’m pretty sure nobody will suggest waking up the Pulitzer Committee to let them know it’s done, but, it makes me feel good to have gotten this far without any major blood loss, which is just as good, right? Right…. Before I say something I’ll regret, I’ll bid the adieu, until tomorrow…..

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

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Did that demon just ovulate?….

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Ffolkes,

For over two years now, every day, I’ve arisen early to write this blog, missing only a handful of days, due to either physical issues, or technical glitches of some kind. The routine I’ve developed in that time works for me, in that I’ve so far been able to keep up the creative process, such as it is, to a level that filled up my Pearls to the brim every day, and sometimes, overfilling it until it spilled out all over the carpet, or your shoes….. Messy, but, effective…. I’m not going to be presumptuously silly, and claim to have written the world’s greatest novel, or even the world’s greatest blog, but, it has fulfilled the purpose for which I intended it, which was to maintain a certain degree of sanity in the face of changes in my life that were overwhelming me, coming as they did as a surprise, which, in itself, is no surprise….

Now, two and a half years later, I find myself in the morning, ready to write, but with the purpose for which I write becoming diluted. Much of that which I fought to overcome, has been overcome; I’m no longer in danger of living the rest of my life in pain and poverty, as it looked like for a while I would. I’m no longer completely alone, having found a partner who is good for my head, and for my heart, and for whom I can be a rock in their universe, when needed. My physical condition, while slowly deteriorating, is under control, and merely serves to challenge me to find new ways to perform old tricks, something us old dogs are good at, despite anecdotal and cultural wisdom to the contrary…..

What this means is that my motivation to write is blunted. I am not building up angst as rapidly, nor am I as concerned over the shenanigans of our beloved leaders, as I’m almost to the point where their idiocy no longer affects me directly. As long as they don’t mess with my retirement structure, they’re safe from my overt hostility, so I’ve reached the point of “don’t fuck with me and I won’t fuck with you…” with them, and we’re both content with that, for the time being. Without the angst, ranting is difficult; there are plenty and more subjects to rant about, as is evident every day in the news, but, the outrage isn’t as strong as it has been in the past, and bringing myself to the level of anger and outrage necessary to do the job correctly is getting harder as time goes on….

I can still use old-school pearls, but, I’m sure that most folks find them a bit obscure, as they do make one think more than most folks are accustomed to doing. Of course, the thinking required is easily done, if one learns how to disengage belief, and follow thoughts without the drag of that chain on our imagination, but, that is a technique not commonly held, so the effectiveness of old-school pearls is reduced thereby. The poetry, of course, never gets old, to me, and I don’t care what others think about that; it stays, no matter what…..

I’m not sure where I’m going with this lament, or discussion, or clusterfuck, whichever it may be. It’s actually all just another exercise in writing without cause or purpose, meandering through the fields of English to put together words in such a way that the Pearls can begin, with dignity, or with fanfare, or with nothing at all but your kind attention. In other words, another intro section filled with NOTHING, other than some self-styled prose, some dubious assertions, and a shit-load of nonsense, otherwise known as just plain crap. The discussion itself is one that really HAS no ending point; it’s a pretty moot point, anyway, because I will write, come what may….

But, it got us this far, which makes it legal, if not compelling literature; I’m not sure if that is even possible, at this point. I’m not going to worry about it now, though, as it is getting late (it’s already after 0700), and I do have other stuff to do today. Instead, I’ll do what I do every morning, and just drop this where it is, mucking up the landscape, but, getting us down the road….

Shall we Pearl?…..

“A wide-eyed, innocent UNICORN, poised delicately in a MEADOW filled with LILACS, LOLLIPOPS & small CHILDREN at the HUSH of twilight??” — Zippy the Pinhead

Yes…. yes, it is…..
_____________________________

On Monday, 8/12/13, Elon Musk, the young genius behind Tesla Motors and the SpaceX commercial space flight company, revealed his response to the need for high speed transportation from city to city, such as SF to LA. He developed his idea when he saw the proposed cost of the current high speed rail system under production by the state of California, of over 60 billion dollars. He felt he could come up with a design for much less cost, that would serve the same purpose, and at much higher speeds…. Once again, he has presented the world with an idea that is cheap, practical, and would work like a charm, using standard technologies we already possess…. A full description of his idea can be found at the provided link, which is his complete proposal……

http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf

Of course, the critics are already pooh-poohing the idea, but, not very loudly, as this young man made his first million at the age of 12, and everything he has turned his attention to has thrived, despite all disbelief. He has made the first practical, and fun, electric car, and made it affordable to the average person. He has developed the technology, and the business model, to successfully offer space flight to the public, though it is still very expensive. Now, he has turned his genius to a problem that society desperately needs to be solved, and has once again come up with something that is completely workable….

So, this is not a rant, nor is it an old-school pearl… if anything, it is just a news article, passing on some rather excellent news for society, even though I know his idea will be put through the wringer of the nay-sayers, who will try to deride it as new and unworthy…. But, I don’t think there will be much of it, and it won’t last, as this is quite simply, an idea whose time has come, and will eventually be adopted as reality by society at large….

Read the article, think about it, and, a few years from now, we’ll meet in LA for lunch, and be home before the game starts a 4:05 PM….
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I’m late, and lazy today, so Emily wins…. Given the above article, it seems appropriate somehow….

A thought went up my mind to-day

A thought went up my mind to-day
That I have had before,
But did not finish,–some way back,
I could not fix the year,

Nor where it went, nor why it came
The second time to me,
Nor definitely what it was,
Have I the art to say.

But somewhere in my soul, I know
I’ve met the thing before;
It just reminded me–‘t was all–
And came my way no more.

~~ Emily Dickinson ~~

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Today’s format has gotten somewhat disrupted, due to the first section’s departure from normal activity…. Well, as normal as it ever gets around here…. Any who, in this space, fashion would dictate I rant, and I actually have the proper subject for same in hand. Actually, it’s a subject that isn’t going to go away, and will continue to remain in the forefront of the news for some time to come, as the solution is one the BRC is unwilling to permit.
I’m speaking of the current flap over the surveillance of the phone records and other data being compiled by the NSA and other clandestine spying agencies….. I would have said “intelligence agencies”, but, I’m not in the habit of using oxymorons, as a rule….

I COULD rant, as I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on the issue, but, yesterday, I read one of the most complete, perfectly written and researched articles on the subject that I’ve seen thus far. It is written by Jennifer Hoelzer, who was formerly the chief of staff for Oregon Congressman R. Wyden, the most outspoken critic in Congress of the spying by the administration. In responding to the President’s formation of an independent committee to examine the surveillance guidelines, in order to address “public concerns”, she outlines her part, and the parts played by all the participants, in a clear, effective manner, calling all the responsible parties to task for creating the issue in the first place.

It’s a great piece, and a must-read for anyone who wishes to have a thorough understanding of all the important major points, including an accurate timeline of the significant events….. I offer these two articles, one reporting on the President’s announcement, and the piece by Ms. Hoelzer herself. Please read them, and you’ll see what I am saying is truth….

http://news.yahoo.com/-obama-orders-panel-to-review-possible-spying-abuses–185415834.html

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130810/09240524136/jennifer-hoelzers-insiders-view-administrations-response-to-nsa-surveillance-leaks.shtml

As compensation, to me, for not ranting about this today, I offer these pearls, to speak to the issue in my own unique manner….

“Nationalism is an infantile sickness.  It is the measles of the human race.” — Albert Einstein

“A state which seeks to subordinate the citizen wholly to itself and merges the person into an impersonal mass, commits a collective murder.” — C. C. Martindale, _The Catholic Bedside Book_, 1953

“A Sept 13 1987 Boston Globe story indicated polls show almost half of Americans think the phrase ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his need’ comes from the US Constitution.” — Chomsky’s Necessary Illusions

“Say what will convince, not what you believe.” — Bureaucrat’s Law #2

DIPLOMACY, n.  The patriotic art of lying for one’s country. — Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil’s Dictionary”

“Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other, and scarcely in that; for it is true, we may give advice, but we cannot give conduct. Remember this: They that will not be counseled cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you over the knuckles.” — Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790)– Maxims prefixed to Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1757

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one.” — Rom 3:10

Yes, the last one was used recently in another pearl, but, I do that sometimes, when it is a perfect fit…. If all this doesn’t convince you of how serious the situation here on Earth is becoming, well, all I can say is, either you didn’t read it all, or you have more resistance to the truth than is good for you…. Any comments are welcome, even encouraged, and will be answered ASAP, back pain permitting….
_____________________________

Well, it’s been real, even if a bit odd in structure…. Let’s take a gander…. Well, I was pleasantly surprised to find it more consistent than I thought it to be as I wrote it… I felt a bit fractured, during, but, in the end, it seems to have come out alright…. Happy daze…. Since I lucked out like that, I’m outta here, before I lose my courage…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you….

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Facial reconstruction is gratis only for Federal gargoyles….

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shui Tiao Ko Tou

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

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

~~ Su Tung-p’o ~~

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Any thoughts on this?…. Feel free to comment below, or respond on your own blog, or via email
__________________________________

Late it may be, but, it’s all fresh, or at least freshly commented upon…. “But,” he asked, “how does it read?” Well, let’s see…..  Not too badly at all, that’s how it reads…. So, without judging the content, it meets all necessary regulations and standards, if not all the demands of good taste. That’s never been too great a concern around here, anyway, so… off it goes, and I’m outta here, to go figure out how to spend another Sunday in Paradise, otherwise known as home sweet home…..  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

Which is Why….

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

gigoid

dozer3

Don’t laugh; Americans are often ludicrous…

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Ffolkes,
Well, crap….. What a way to start the day…… I suppose there’s no getting around this one, so, you’ll have to excuse me for a bit, while I deal with the oh-so-damned-important issue that Murphy has thought up for my delectation this morning…. I’ll be right back, hopefully…. Bloody ass….

What a PITA…. No, you don’t really want to know….. Murphy has been conspicuously absent for a couple of days, and I should have known, given his proclivity for mischief, that he was cooking up something special for me, and, sure enough, this morning I awoke to this, this,…. hell, I’m not sure how to even describe the scene that greeted me on awakening today. So, rather than put everyone else reading this into the state I’m in, we’ll just ignore what happened, and take it as a good omen that it didn’t cost me any money, only time and angst, of which I, sadly, have in plentiful supply….. Well, okay, it also took an entire roll of paper towels and some vigorous scrubbing, to get rid of the obscene graffiti, but that comes with the territory, I guess….

None of that, however, is of any help with this intro, or in getting this Pearl started, and it has distracted me so much that I’m close to using emergency procedure #7, which, given its nature, I try to use only once in a decade; its effect on the nature of space and time is somewhat unpredictable, and I’m not sure we can afford any wobbles just now in the space-time continuum. It’s suffering enough right now from global warming and overpopulation, and doesn’t need further stress that could lead to a breakdown of unimaginable proportions. Planets careening out of orbit, suns exploding, lions mating with sheep, it would be a universe gone mad…. You can see why I hesitate to use #7 very often….

Or, I suppose I could go with procedure #5…. I haven’t used that in ages. Of course, it’s an expensive one to use, being constructed of platinum as it is, and only able to withstand a single use before melting down…. Platinum is hard to find, and not cheap, so I think I’ll wait on that one, too… I reckon, since all the others don’t seem to be quite the right procedure to get this done, we’ll have to fall back on emergency procedure #1, with which, I’m sure, you thought you were familiar…. and, you’d be right, as I use it often, more often than any other….

What is procedure #1, you ask? Well, you are smack dab in the middle of it…. that’s the one where I sort of ramble around a conversation, drifting from one nonsensical paragraph to the next, all without ever saying a damn thing that could be considered to be literary, or even relatively intelligent…. You will note, please, at this point, we have now reached the required five paragraph minimum for an intro, and, as is plain to see, not a damn thing said that could be construed as “writing”…. more like babbling, I would say….

Having thus fulfilled the minimum requirements, I’m going to go with the flow, as it were, and head off to dive…. It seems like the best idea for all the concerned parties…. I can get out of this ridiculous situation, and you can cease having to keep from getting the splashes on your clothing…. What a deal!  Shall we Pearl?…..
__________________________________

“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 the politicos in the BRC try to make noises as if they actually could do something helpful, when in fact, anything they do is as liable to hurt, as it is 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 most 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, what he does, or proposes to do, 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 to help, or soon enough to make a difference… 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, it IS changing, and fairly rapidly, until it is no longer of a balance that we can safely breathe; moreover, once begun, the process is irreversible. The process is beyond our capability of stopping… 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, I would be willing to 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 the 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
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The verses you see below are from the poem, The Waste Land, by T.S. Eliot…. which I thought would be the perfect poem to accompany my little politirant above…. but, it’s too long, so I’m including the most famous, and, most relevant, verses from the poem, and furnishing you with a link, should you wish to peruse the entire work; it’s pretty long, but well worth the time and effort to get all the way through…. But, I understand the limitations we all have on time, so, I give you this abbreviated version, and hope you enjoy it as much as I do…..

Excerpted from The Waste Land

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

~~ T.S. Eliot

Link to entire poem: The Waste Land
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Having ranted above, arguably, sufficiently unto the day, we will, of course, go old-school for the last pearl today…. I really like the harlequin style pearls that have been resulting of late from choosing pearls without any preconceived notions, so we’ll go with that technique again today…. after a short break to feed my remaining vice…. Enjoy!….

“In the beginning was the word. But by the time the second word was added to it, there was trouble. For with it came syntax…” — John Simon

“Those who have virtue always in their mouths, and neglect it in practice, are like a harp, which emits a sound pleasing to others, while itself is insensible of the music.” — Diogenes (B.C. 412-323)

“Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile!” — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.  It is it’s natural manure.” — Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William S. Smith, Paris, Nov.  13, 1787

“Every sensible man, every honest man, must hold the Christian sect in horror. But what shall we substitute in its place? you say. What? A ferocious animal has sucked the blood of my relatives. I tell you to rid yourselves of this beast and you ask me what you shall put in its place?” — Voltaire

The soul’s dark cottage, batter’d and decay’d,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made.
Stronger by weakness, wiser men become
As they draw near to their eternal home:
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view
That stand upon the threshold of the new.

— Edmund Waller (1605-1687) — On the Divine Poems

“Reality?   Nope, not for me, …It makes me laugh.” — Smart Bee

As far as I can tell, this is just about a perfect seven star pearl…. The conclusion, of course, is left as an exercise for the Gentle Reader…..  🙂
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All in all, this didn’t come out too badly…. I’ll take it. It isn’t often it’s so clearly acceptable, but, hey, even this blog has to get it right occasionally, right? Right…. Hence, I send it on its way, to stand alone, just as if it was important, or even sane… We know better, though, don’t we? Fear not, I’ll never tell…. and, before I get fully into piffle mode, I will bid thee adieu until tomorrow….  Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3

Exercising your legal option to forage….

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Ffolkes,
I remember what happened just recently when I tried to write pre-coffee, and since I promised not to allow it to happen again, hang on a second….. Oh, bless me, that’s good….. Okay, we’re good to go now…. Having consumed that first, life-giving sip, of “dark brown morning nectar”, (thanks, Doc….), I can now turn my mind to more productive matters…. Damn, that first sip is just so…… good! And the next few ain’t too shabby, either, as the world continues to come into sharper focus…..

Okay, now what? We are firmly ensconced in front of the keyboard, and the morning is bursting with promise…. Of course, we don’t necessarily know if that promise will be something we want, but, hey, you take what you can get, right? It’s always best to face the world with a touch of fatalism, especially when one’s subconscious mind wakes one up at 0533, with tears flowing down one’s cheeks, and no clue as to what the tears are for….. Most upsetting, without even going into the embarrassment factor….. I mean, how humiliating can it get? I’m 62 years old, a full-grown man, and my emotions are SUPPOSED to be under my control, not laying out there on my sleeve for the world to pluck at…..

Now, 20 minutes later, the tears are gone, but the fragility remains, along with the excessive amount of fluids in the head, that the body creates just to make things messier….. and that damn asshole Murphy KNOWS that I have that unreasonable fear of Kleenex, from that incident as a child, that I still can’t talk about much…. I think I told you about it….. You know, that time with the clown, the priest, the pony, and the convention of county sheriffs from around the US. It was a mess……  So, any who,  I’m stuck using TP to wipe my nose, which is really hard on it, as TP is NOT as soft as it claims…. Sometimes, this whole circus doesn’t seem worth getting out of bed for, you know?…..

But then I think about Pearls…. and I realize they are what make my life worthwhile…. The process of creating them each day has kept me sane now for going on two (or was it twelve?…) years, and I’m hoping it will stretch to include the next few months, until my SS comes through, so I don’t end up in a locked facility somewhere, babbling to myself and smiling at the butterflies only I can see…. They’re quite beautiful, you know…. Since most ffolkes, or folks, either, can’t see them, I tend to keep them to myself, though…. It’s just easier that way…. People can be so harsh…..

Now that I’ve reached the point of nearly pulling my covers completely off, I think it would be best if I just gave up trying to make any sense out of this intro, and get on with today’s dive…… Oh, look, over there!…. it’s Madonna! Oh, no, wait….. never mind, false alarm…. it was only Lady Gaga….. Oh well, I’ve got their autographs already, anyway…. Shall we Pearl?…..
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“Disco oil bussing will create a throbbing Naugahyde pipeline running  straight to the tropics from the rug producing regions and devalue the dollar!” — Zippy the Pinhead

So, a few days ago, the POTUS said that one of his priorities for his final term would be the issues surrounding climate change and global warming, to try to make an effort to halt the greenhouse effect, caused by the particulate emissions from billions of motor vehicles, that is threatening our very existence. He then proceeded to make it clear that he was just kidding, as he also indicated that he will most likely approve the new, massively-destructive-to-the-environment XP Pipeline, that is proposed to be built from the Arctic to the US, because it will help the economy by producing, get this, about 6000 jobs for Americans.

6000….. That’s it…. There are over 20,000,000 (twenty MILLION) people out of work in this country, so we’re talking about a percentage increase of…. hold on, gotta find a pencil & paper….. okay, that’s .0003%….. In English, three ten-thousandth of a percent. So, basically, we’re talking about giving in to the fat cats, who want the billions of dollars of profits they will make, at the expense of the environment, out of our pockets, by the completion of this project, for an increase that barely registers on the scale at all…. What I am wondering is just how many of those billions of dollars made their covert way into the POTUS’s re-election campaign treasury…..

The XP Pipeline project has been labeled as a disastrous idea by almost every environmental agency in the country, and the world; there is no doubt whatsoever that building it will adversely affect hundreds of species of animals, reducing their habitat, and will further add to the already massive amounts of pollution going into the air every moment. It will only provide a minuscule number of jobs, jobs that could easily be created by the enhancement of the alternative energy industry, or by instituting programs that would repair our national infrastructure of roads, dams, and other public facilities, all of which are in need of renovation.

No, instead, the POTUS, in a move that gives away his real agenda in office, has agreed to allow the fat cats to have their pipeline, in exchange for a reduction in the amount of static they give him on other issues, of less vital interest to the rest of us, but have a greater PR value. I am disappointed, to say the least, but not particularly surprised…. I do believe that Barry has a higher degree of morality than the average politician…. but, it MUST be remembered that he shares one important characteristic with every other politician…. he WANTED the job…. That kind of ambition is, in and of itself, an indication of a type of insanity common to our leadership, all the more dangerous because he APPEARS to be concerned for the people….. And, if he believes his own hype, that makes him the most dangerous of politicians…. remember what is said about the Road to Hell, and what it is paved with….

Regardless of that, how can anyone claim to be concerned about the rights of the little man, and still approve the Patriot Act, or whatever they’re calling it now, large parts of which are in direct opposition to the Bill of Rights….. He signed that off on his first day of office, in his FIRST term…. That act, to me, was a dead giveaway that all was not as it seemed, in his case…. Subsequent events have proven that my initial unease was, and is, well-deserved, as he continues to smile and play to the people’s desires on one hand, his left, while covertly screwing them by signing them into slavery with his right hand…..

“The only guarantee of the Bill of Rights which continues to have any force and effect is the one prohibiting quartering troops on citizens in time of peace.” — H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), 1951

Ah well, I don’t suppose I’m surprised by these revelations; there have been hints and clues to be found since his first term as POTUS, and probably before…. I am, however, pretty disappointed, because I had held out some hope that he was different, and that the changes he would try to get done would be of help to the common man, i.e., me, and the rest of us here in the trenches of reality….. I had hoped that he would NOT compromise with the !%, standing up for the people instead….

I should have known better….

“If doctors ever tell you that you’ve “flipped out,” don’t believe them, and just keep on doing what you were doing, because something tells me “the Man” is behind this.” — Deep Thoughts, by Jack Handey

“If I’ve offended anyone, my efforts have been rewarded.” — Smart Bee

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

Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.

Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.

I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.

~~ Langston Hughes
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” — I’d love to, but… there’s a disturbance in the Force.” — 13 of 101 Easy Ways To Say NO

I’m going to remember this one…. We all have times when we need an excuse to say no to someone who asks for our time, especially as once you give in to them, they won’t stop asking…. I would say “that’s human nature” but you might think I meant it as an excuse. Let me assure you, I don’t…. or rather, I do…. or,…. hell, I don’t know what I meant…. but, it ain’t no excuse….

People will take advantage of others at every opportunity, it seems, and I don’t regard that as an acceptable characteristic, and hate to encourage it by giving in to the emotional blackmail that almost everyone resorts to to try to motivate people into doing their will….

Robert Heinlein made what I consider to be the best summary of this issue when he wrote:

“Do not confuse “duty” with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.”


“But there is no reward at all for doing what other people expect of you, and to do so is not merely difficult, but impossible. It is easier to deal with a footpad than it is with the leech who wants “just a few minutes of your time, please — this won’t take long.” Time is your total capital, and the minutes of your life are painfully few. If you allow yourself to fall into the vice of agreeing to such requests, they quickly snowball to the point where these parasites will use up 100 percent of your time — and squawk for more!”


“So learn to say No – and to be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you. (This rule does not mean that you must not do a favor for a friend, or even a stranger. But let the choice be yours. Don’t do it because it is “expected” of you.)”

None of us likes to refuse what others ask of us, but you must learn to differentiate between altruism, which is an indulgence we can little afford, or exercising our personal choice, which may, or may not, meet the other person’s needs…. But, then, their needs aren’t really your problem, are they?…. Nope, they aren’t…. no matter how much, or how often, those others may try to get you to buy into it….. Or, in other words, you have to CHOOSE to feel guilty, ffolkes…. nobody can do that for you, no matter what they tell you….

So be it…. gigoid has spoken…..   🙂
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Well, it’s done, but that may be the best I can say about it…. In fact, I’m taking a chance here, and letting it go, in full appreciation of the risk I’m taking in doing so…. I could seriously damage whatever credibility I may have created with this one…. Oh well…. It’s a good thing I don’t do it for profit, or for fame…. sanity is good enough for me, and that’s all I hope for at the end of each Pearl….. Currently, I have to admit, the jury is still out…..   🙂

Y’all take care out there, and May the Metaphorse be with you…..

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

gigoid

dozer3